For starters, Ewer Street car park as a venue is absolutely spot-on. The golden days of rave still hold spirit in here and definitely accommodate ideally towards the techno aficionados, as well as the newer audience who missed it the first time around. Something about the night made it seem that everyone there was on the same wave length and who knows if it would’ve worked without the dope set up. Not only were the vibes amazing, but the systems and sound were keyed to perfection.

Still not sure who was holding it down for the opening sets, but it was proper on point in both rooms well before any headliners came on. Straight in to it with some original-sounding-techno mixed with house, and twisted up for massive drops straight from the get go.The crowd was plenty appreciative and all on decks responded by giving something extra.

As to be expected Francois K and Paul Woolford managed to push it up notch further. Getting carried away on one stage meant I’m gutted I missed Psycatron doing their thing live, but by all second-hand accounts they delivered nicely. For many the lead up to the peak probably came with Mr Kevorkian dropping ‘Desire’ as his last tune of the night, and it was time for Carl Craig to step up to his 20 year celebrations in the main room.

Cool as ever, it’s always about the calculated drops and perfection of selection for Carl to express himself purely through the music. Weaving in and out of some unnamed pieces, classic Planet E catalogue and signature workings such as his remix of ‘In The Trees‘ (which sounded amazing on that system), it was an education in electronic music and how to headline a massive party. More experienced heads are already calling C2’s set on the night the best they’ve seen him play, and I don’t think there’s much more I can add to it than that.

Fortunately we had Timmy K in affect snapping shots for us, saying more than we could trying to train-spot the tracks. We’ll get the tweet on once he drops the full galleries but in the meantime here’s a few favorites.

Out of Okinawa, Japan:

Iori – Galaxy / Urge (info)

Listen in full via myspace.com/ioriasano

Detroit’s latest luminary:

Jason Fine – Future Thought (info and audio)

myspace.com/jfinemusic

And representing London and the UK:

Fourtet – Love Cry / My Bells (info and audio)

myspace.com/fourtetkieranhebden

Featured in DJ sets by Dixon, it’s not chance that has led Innervisions, to plan a 12″ of his later in the year, placing the South African’s name in a catalogue alongside Henrik Schwarz, ÂME and Château Flight. ‘The Bright Forest’ gets me as stoked as the first song of his I heard: ‘The African Subway’, dropped by Tony Nwachukwu at Plastic People. Both songs build and romp with exceptionally well-tuned sonics.

Time spent at the Red Bull Music Academy seems to have added even more excellence to his already remarkably developed skills. Definitely an artist to keep a distant eye on. RA have some words with him, plus the immenseness of his material can be heard on his MySpace and in an exemplary DJ mix for RBMA.

myspace.com/culoedsong

Culoe De Song – Catalunya Calling (on RBMA)

Catalunya Calling tracklist:

Cei Bei – I need you lord (Chicago Groove Mix)
Siji – Irijano
Blackcoffee ft Bucie – Turn Me On (Blackcoffee Remix)
David Harness – The Rythmn
Goyumo – Ojo
Chris Perez – Singularity
Raw Artistic Soul ft Ursula Rucker – The Light (Dub)
Rhythmic Elements – Spirit of a warrior
Culoe De Song – Super Afro
Blackcoffee – 100 Zulu Warriors (Culoe De Song Remix)

For more info visit soulisticmusic.com. MP3s of Culoe’s can be purchased via AFROdesia.

More on Culoe in SHOOK 005!