Masters of the Universe

The short version:


The long version:

After some initial trouble I finally made it to Masters of the Universe at Studio B around 12:45. I immediately understood the emphasis placed on "I'll Bass You". Personally bass and dance music have always been associated in my head, so the whole "I'll Bass You" thing the Trouble & Bass crew have going seemed a bit obvious at first...like, no shit...there's bass. But really it's THERE'S BASS. A lot of it. They are not fucking around and it was wonderful.

When I first arrived I was still kind of buggin about my difficulty getting there...and I arrived mid-set and the tempo was soooo fast, so it took me a while to get into it. As soon as I started to get with it they announced that Curses! was going to do his set. It was dooooope. Just banging, bassy, funky, crunchy, good stuff. I honestly did not want it to end. Curses and the Cut/Trouble&Bass dj's were my main reasons for going to Masters of the Universe. I was never a big Moby fan really and was kind of just ignoring the fact that he was going to be there. Nevertheless Curses! set ended (but only after a refix of "Put You Hands up for Detroit" what?! and some guesting from Alan Astor on the Sax).

Moby went on immediately after and much to my chagrin I was hooked from the beginning of his "old school rave set". I can neither confirm nor deny if it lived up to that. I was too busy listening to much lamer music when the rave scene was breaking to actually know what an old school rave set would consist of. I have an idea, but I am no expert. All I know is Moby started spinning and I couldn't stop moving. Everything had a kind of older, nostalgic feel (even though, as I said I never went to a rave)...you could tell it was older dance music...no Ed Banger or Institubes in sight (though there were 3 occasions when I found myself thinking "the Soulwax remix of Gravity's Rainbow would go great here"). It was nice to hear something different that could still get ya movin'. I gather it must have been semi-authentic though because there were certain songs where the crowd went completely bananas. Speaking of the crowd...it was such a weird little mix...there was the typical Studio B Brookylny rock/dance crowd...then there were a few isolated "club ibiza!!! house!!! techno!!! omg!!!!" kids...and for every 15 or 20 people there was some nearly 40 year old guy with his wife/girlfriend having a rave flashback.

Somewhere a little after 3 Moby finished his set and the Trouble & Bass crew hit the decks immediately and blew the roof off the place. The people who stayed after Moby was done really wanted to be there and it was showing on the dance floor. It was an excellent night of heavy bass music that ended (reluctantly on the crew's part...they kept going and going even though you could tell they were supposed to have stopped a while ago...the light's were on, haha) around 4:15. An excellent way to spend a Saturday night...or any other night really. Don't sleep on that crew. They play New York a lot and are probably better than whatever you were planning on doing anyway :P Seriously though...they're good.

You can catch Curses! this coming Friday at People Don't Dance No More at Element...which I am now even more excited about.

ps- Thank god it is Saturday and I don't have work tomorrow!