{"id":2553,"date":"2013-06-16T15:44:56","date_gmt":"2013-06-16T15:44:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ajdancelegacy.com\/~ajdance\/?p=2553"},"modified":"2013-06-25T21:29:33","modified_gmt":"2013-06-25T21:29:33","slug":"lars-behrenroth-15-06-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ajdancelegacy.com\/~ajdance\/lars-behrenroth-15-06-13\/","title":{"rendered":"LARS BEHRENROTH 15.06.13"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

LARS BEHRENROTH<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Happy Father\u2019s Day<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

You\u2019ve got to love the event pages on social media websites.\u00a0 The best is the website, yada-yada-yada, that tracks who is going<\/em> to attend an event.\u00a0 Read the dozens of posts to hype the event.\u00a0 Check out the several comments to hype the posts.\u00a0 Thumb up.\u00a0 Over one hundred people click, \u201cgoing.\u201d\u00a0 Nowhere near one-hundred people attend the actual event, not even ninety or eighty\u2026.the drastic drop grows depressing.\u00a0 There goes the digital age\u2019s accuracy of tracking and surveillance.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0This ain\u2019t no stairway to heaven<\/em> but a stairway to a hole-in-the-wall.<\/em>\u00a0 The thought references the steps that lead to the entrance of the venue\u2019s smaller room.\u00a0 Even sadder, is the missing accessible ramp for the disabled.\u00a0 Walk-if you can-through the open door, greet the Tambor Party\u2019s awesome twosome.\u00a0 Purchase a Tambor tee, members: ten bucks, nonmembers: fifteen bucks, in the tiny foyer adjacent the men\u2019s and women\u2019s rest areas.\u00a0 Enter the main room.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

-Witness the makeshift DJ stage.\u00a0 Listen to the sound system pieced together by the hands of manual labor and view the neon strobe lights playing a game of cat chase mouse, without succumbing to a seizure, underneath a Pro lighting setup. Tambor<\/a> deserves an A for effort.\u00a0\u00a0 The party is a DIY initiative.-<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

There is still something off kilter about the smaller space.\u00a0 The vibe is off.\u00a0 The room is dark, too dark, for a Tambor party.\u00a0 And the room is too small.\u00a0 Whiff.\u00a0 The air smells stale.\u00a0 A chill hangs overhead.\u00a0 And, no, this chill does not blast from the AC or industrial fans.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Where is the love?\u00a0 Is the love at the bar?\u00a0 Can the love be found upstairs in the VIP area?\u00a0 Perhaps, is the love at the merchandise table in the hall that separates the larger room from the smaller room?\u00a0 Where the larger room is Tambor\u2019s home, the smaller room is Tambor\u2019s gloom.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

23:15<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Several months ago, one post on yada-yada-yada asked, \u201cWhat is the house music song you never want to hear played at a party?\u00a0 One female dancer commented, \u201cMy Name Is<\/a>\u201d by DJ Zinhile.\u00a0 DJ BE, hard at work, plays the Alpha & Omega Drum Arena Remix.\u00a0 Where BE fails, he trumps with Atlantans ChiProfess and Kwi B\u2019s, who have yet to arrive at the party, \u201cWe Are Black Love<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0 The Tambor Party\u2019s number two keeps the music Afro for the remainder of his set.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a023:30<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Several family faces are absent.\u00a0 Where are the people who complain they want to hear different music played?\u00a0 Where are the virgin ears that have yet to experience this month\u2019s guest DJ?\u00a0 Furthermore, where are the 80% other folk who attended last month\u2019s Tambor Party?\u00a0 \u201cThe night is young,\u201d Optimism answers. \u201cSurely they are on their way.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>00:00<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

An impressive montage of pounding drums, hissing snares and hi-hats abruptly fade.\u00a0 The event\u2019s guest DJ, dressed in a blue V neck that exposes his chest fur, stands center stage. Cue the music.\u00a0 A Spanish guitar plucks strings over Balearic beats.\u00a0 The song is the perfect nod to summer nights in Ibiza.\u00a0 It\u2019s a rather soft-opening statement.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWhomp.\u00a0 Whomp\u2026.Chomp.\u201d The sound is bass heavy.\u00a0 A weight reserved much more for trap & dubstep\u2019s aggression than deep house\u2019s spiritualism.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cCan you hear the Tambor bass?\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Stanzeff.\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 Not only do the people hear the bass, they feel the bass.\u00a0 Apparently, Lars interprets Stan\u2019s inquiry as an opportunity to pound the shit out of the bass.\u00a0 He drops the bass, filters the bass and explodes the bass on several songs to come.\u00a0 Lars is that eight year old child mistakenly left in a music studio, playing with the controls, sliding crossfaders, turning knobs, and pushing buttons that light up bright colors while he grins mischievously.\u00a0 Behind the decks, he is a mad scientist.\u00a0 Lars concocts further antidotes of claptrap rarely heard in these parts.\u00a0 Voiceovers and sampled vocals float haphazardly over the loudest percussions imaginable.\u00a0 Lyrics collide into digital beeps and pongs.\u00a0 The faint of ears need protection.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Several standees-wearing the color white, the party\u2019s unofficial shade, stand glowing underneath a black light,-wonder where the music marches towards.\u00a0 Several dancers, too busy dancing can care less.\u00a0 The music must be trusted.\u00a0 The DJ must be trusted.\u00a0 The medium must be trusted.\u00a0\u00a0 The west coast maestro understands.\u00a0 He silences all doubts.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe Are Sons of Yoruba of West Africa\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe Are Sons of the Great Divinity\u201d speaks the South African producer and vocalist, Bluelle on \u201cWe Are Africa<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0 The crowd agrees.\u00a0 Lars has their attention.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Sonic jolts of bass shake the ground.\u00a0 A synthesizer chords slices the air.\u00a0 The voice of string instruments stutter.\u00a0 Electronic bleeps burp on ones and threes.\u00a0 Heavy percussions thump, tick tock.\u00a0 Seismic shifts of sound evoke a melodious flow. A sample of Common Sense’s \u201cVoices Inside My Head\u201d pits the lyrics to the drum.\u00a0 Viewing the surroundings suggests common sense lacks as several people appear to hear voices inside their head.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Vrooom.\u00a0 <\/em>A white Panama hat blows by.\u00a0 Actually it\u2019s a female, all smiles and entirely too happy, skipping by.\u00a0 An unknown lady dressed in all black molests a male dancer, without permission, and proceeds to tango.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThere is too much going on.\u201d\u00a0 Natalie Cole comments.\u00a0 Oops, that\u2019s not Natalie Cole.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Look.\u00a0 There onstage.\u00a0 Have you seen a DJ on bended knees play music?\u00a0 If anyone else isn\u2019t having the time of their life, then Lars is having the time of your life for you.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cHappy Father\u2019s Day!\u201d DJ Stanzeff shouts out.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>Lars, the graying father and loving husband plays his mad scientist\u2019s bravado.\u00a0 The bass disappears.\u00a0 He teases the crowd. He throws out the bass and snatches it back. Finally, he fully drops the bass over a tribal thumper of soft handclaps and a tambourine shrilling against stark minimalism.\u00a0 A male\u2019s falsetto flutters into ears.\u00a0 His heavenly voice commands \u201cThe Only Way<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0 The anthem rings loud and clear.\u00a0 The Ralf Gum featuring Kenny Bobien single (Artistic Soul Spiritual Touch Mix) inaugurates Tambor\u2019s policy that this event is for all races, creeds, colors or origins.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Kudos to the different<\/em> shades of faces, who rarely attend a Tambor Party, that show up and represent.\u00a0 Right stage, B-boys crop a circle for dance offs.\u00a0 Rear room a dance duo performs syncopated choreographed steps.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

A deep bass line wobbles against synthetic warps plowing over soft pads that crescendo into an orchestrated hotbed of deep tech. \u00a0A voice calls \u201cHey<\/a>\u201d that steadily echoes to a soft whisper.\u00a0 The Russian born, Ghana bred, current Limpopo SA resident, Kojo Akusa track (Posh Mix) has one B-boy spinning around in circles on his head with no hands.\u00a0 The dancer receives a small applause.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0Lars descends not only deeper into the heart of Africa but through time; a fall that finds him almost entirely too entrenched in the sound of shrubbery from yore.\u00a0\u00a0 Instant House\u2019s \u201cAwade<\/a>\u201d (Joe\u2019s Jungle Sounds Dub) hashes stark bongos fused amid a sexy sax with an airplane flying overhead and more yells than a Yeezus<\/em> track.\u00a0 At this point Lars digs deep, a move that might scare the breakers afar. Perhaps the tribal emphasis stems from the Tambor Party\u2019s philosophy of all things the drum.\u00a0 Notably, the sound quickly oscillates to further global influences.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Ceila Cruz\u201dElegua.\u201d\u00a0 The late \u201cQueen of Salsa\u201d or \u201cLa Guarachera de Cuba\u201daward-winning voice soars on the Orisha tribute, remixed by Jose Marquez a former Tambor guest DJ.<\/span><\/strong> Orchestrated viola strings crescendo to a dramatic climax.\u00a0 The music breaks.\u00a0 An all too familiar bass line punches with the ringing of a cowbell.\u00a0 The crowd recognizes one of the most sampled bass lines in popular music.\u00a0 They revel with regard. \u00a0The music time travels back to the Reaganomics era with assisted fuel from Eddie Grant\u2019s, \u201cTime Warp.\u201d<\/span><\/strong> During the party\u2019s peak hour, the DJ\/Deeper Shades producer\/remixer drops the lows, the mids and allows the highs to scream at a pitch reserved for canines for thirty seconds.\u00a0 This is the Lars Behrenroth experience.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Consider Lars Behrenroth hails from Germany, the land where music chemists crafted the industrial sound.\u00a0 Midwest America, Detroit and Chicago especially, go gaga for industrial tech but the South-not so much.\u00a0 The L.A. resident is no stranger to the A, having played in the town eight times in six years, an astronomical accomplishment for any DJ.\u00a0 Like an extended family of cousins never met, so is the ever expansion of the city\u2019s deep\/soulful house community.\u00a0 Many freshmen heads are unfamiliar with Atlanta\u2019s adopted cousin.\u00a0 Salutations must commence.\u00a0 His music is assertive, bash and unrelenting.\u00a0 Yet, his music can be all fluff and full of sex.\u00a0 Take, Botswana, Meropa Park\u2019s \u201cLive A Lil<\/a>\u201d remixed by Canadian Suges, a promo from The Deeper Shades of House imprint.\u00a0 The dancers let loose.\u00a0 Ponytails drop to reveal long manes.\u00a0 Hips swing left to right.\u00a0 Arms stretch into the air.\u00a0 Heads bob.\u00a0 Smiles stretch wider.\u00a0 Dance moves become sexually suggestive techniques of foreplay.\u00a0 This is how sexy house sounds.\u00a0 And the Deeper Shades label owner, no stranger to making love to the music<\/a>, gets down.\u00a0 He dances a little. He drinks a little. \u00a0He gets his groove on.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

What catapults this German turned American citizen above his peers?\u00a0 It\u2019s his WTF moments where the Deeper Shades founder triumphs.\u00a0\u00a0 His ability to dig deep, pull out and drop a piece of music that explodes like combustible gas.\u00a0 The philharmonics run.\u00a0 The people run.\u00a0 They run not from the dance floor but to the dance floor.\u00a0 \u201cI totally forgot that song existed.\u201d and \u201cWhere did he pull that one out from?\u201d\u00a0 People ask.\u00a0 Yes, Lars throws curveballs.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0The crowd never sees coming Georg Levin featuring Clara Hill\u2019s \u201c(I Got) Somebody New<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0 The decade-old classic played on heavy rotation on the city\u2019s HBCU jazz radio station back in the day.\u00a0 Jazz Nouveau.<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Lars loops the mid-tempo track in mid-song.\u00a0 The next track of tribal drums plays.\u00a0 He steadies himself, hands and all.\u00a0 The crowd stares unaware of what takes place.\u00a0 The man of the hour matches the grooves.\u00a0 He clocks his time.\u00a0 He turns the Bozark knobs with an acute acumen of skilled precision.\u00a0 The two tracks slowly consummate.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cTake your time.\u201d One dancer shouts from the crowd.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cTake your time. Work dat\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 With a punch of sound \u201c(I Got) Somebody New\u201d resounds from nowhere.\u00a0 Surprise!\u00a0 Lars creates an Afro infused spontaneous mash-up of the two songs.\u00a0 Eyes and ears are stunned.\u00a0 The room is on fiyah.\u00a0 Thankfully, the two industrial fans positioned at the ends of the DJ stage cool heated bodies.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWho\u2019s got my bass?\u201d\u00a0 The ever gregarious cousin yells.\u00a0 He looks around like he is about to bomb the room.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWhere\u2019s my bass?\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

He teases the audience with words.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe got it.\u201d One dancer responds.\u00a0 And with that\u2026.<\/span><\/strong> \u201cBOOM!\u201d The bass falls on the dancers with vengeance.<\/span><\/strong> Lars pulls the cowbell to the forefront on Floetry\u2019s, \u201cI Want You\u201d remixed by Tambor\u2019s previous month\u2019s guest DJ, Osunlade.\u00a0 Voices yell, fists air punch and bodies erk and jerk with excitement.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Lars drops acid! That is acid house.\u00a0 For the old-school heads, A Guy Called Gerald\u2019s \u201cVoodoo Ray\u201d stirs memories of the late 80\u2019s nostalgia.\u00a0 A time when Roland 808\u2019s and Roland TR-909s were rad.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Having taken Tambor for a wild and whimsical whirl of tech, the Men of Nile\u2019s \u201cWatch Them Come\u201d brings the guest DJ\u2019s time to a close but not before one last tribal thumper.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

A white Tambor tee and white pants glides onto stage.\u00a0 Tambor\u2019s daddy, DJ Stanzeff guides the sound.\u00a0 He is up to something.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

That eight year old kid is still having too much fun, turning knobs and pressing buttons.\u00a0 To watch him play is both exhilarating and exhausting.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cBop, bop, bop.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cBop, bop, bop.\u201d<\/span> \u00a0The drum pounds louder and louder and louder until, his finger rashly presses the Bozak\u2019s loop function.\u00a0 A belt heavy of drums unleashes its power through out the room.\u00a0 The crowd loses their minds. The force of Marlon D and Boddhi Satva\u2019s \u201cPower of the Drum<\/a> (Marlon D\u2019s Tribal Deep Tribal Mix) is unstoppable. \u00a0<\/span><\/strong>Sadly, Lars is stoppable.\u00a0 DJ Stanzeff stands ready to play.\u00a0 However, Lars won\u2019t let go.\u00a0 He continues starts the drums over from the top and BANG.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cTambor, let\u2019s give it up for Lars.\u00a0 The people give a rousing applause.\u00a0 \u201cWe will have him back soon.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a002:00<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Several months earlier, a Chicago DJ posted on yada,yada,yada, \u201cEven if Jesus remixes this song, I never want to hear this song played again.\u201d\u00a0 The song: Dennis Ferrer\u2019s \u201cHey Hey.\u201d\u00a0 DJ Stanzeff opens his set with the Osunlade Edit.\u00a0 The majority of the crowd is entertained and sings \u201cHey Hey\u201d in return. \u00a0They must be drunk.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Again, why is it that 80% more people attended last month\u2019s Tambor compared to this month\u2019s party?\u00a0 Answer. The DJ.\u00a0 Sadly when an \u201cI haven\u2019t heard of that DJ\u201d who brings a fresh approach and plays a justified sound, people play ghost.\u00a0 Of course, a sizable crowd represented.\u00a0 Yet, this Tambor fell short of its mandate.\u00a0 This was a must attend event.\u00a0 No excuses.\u00a0 Lars deserved better.\u00a0 He deserved an authentic Tambor experience; the larger room, a more engaged audience and eager fans that attended to support.\u00a0 After all, this is Lars freaking<\/em> Behrenroth playing at Tambor.\u00a0 A rarity.\u00a0 And if you didn\u2019t know then you should\u2019ve asked somebody.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\t\t