Overall, the SAMC was quite an experience being in a massive hangar like space with 10,000-20,000 (I could not tell the difference), they were all going crazy for the terrible trancey-progressive music of Anthony Pappa. Though it was not my favorite music, there were a few good moments and sets defying a narrow minded conception of what is to be techno and electronic music. In particular the brazilian tornado Mary Zander (1st video below), who made me think a lot about Damian Lazarus‘ djing, then there also was the sick sick back to back between Franco Cinelli and Nico Purman where they dropped some classic stuff from ‘97 – ‘99 so dope. We missed Seph’s live-set because the organizers put him on before anyone was there! Guy Gerber was scheduled and finally didn’t make it to the event, he was replaced by Sharam Jey. And Matthew Dear (2nd video below) was there, very fine but not too groovy.
In a nutshell, many disappointments for an event that claims to be a conference. There weren’t any collaborations between the main production company and outside events, quite on the contrary many of the potential projects were jeopardized by evil forces. Even the promotion of the day events and the “official” parties happening during the week was terrible. It was just a shame to see such big budget mishandled.
