{"id":552,"date":"2012-01-13T15:39:46","date_gmt":"2012-01-13T15:39:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ajdancelegacy.com\/~ajdance\/?p=552"},"modified":"2019-06-11T22:06:15","modified_gmt":"2019-06-11T22:06:15","slug":"ben-westbeech-12-01-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ajdancelegacy.com\/~ajdance\/ben-westbeech-12-01-12\/","title":{"rendered":"BEN WESTBEECH 12.01.12"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

BEN WESTBEECH<\/a><\/strong>
\nPrologue<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Winter kissed the stiff dark air with the breath of icy condensation on perhaps one of the coldest nights of the year thus far. Within the heated warmth of a cozy bar in the heart of midtown a deep conversation ensued about the lack of qualified dance venues in town and how this misfortune contributes to the want of souls on the dance floor. Eerily, not an hour or so had passed when the two conversationalists had found themselves at a hipster hang-out sinisterly disguised as a restaurant by night and a dance club by late night.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

CALLING ALL HOUSE HEADS TO THE DANCE FLOOR.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a rhythm to the space. People must respect the dance floor. One cannot step on shoes, fling elbows and bump into people restricting the flow of the dancer\u2019s movements. This is the dancer\u2019s space. Their sanctuary. As much as it delights to see a diverse crowd partying like rock stars, sometimes ire lingers that screams for those wannabes to go and crawl back into the holes from which they came. If you\u2019re holding conversations on the dance floor, please move outside. If you\u2019re too preoccupied with the alcoholic beverage you\u2019re holding in hand, please move outdoors. If you\u2019re busy trying to score narcotics on the floor, then move it outside. If you\u2019re taking up too much space on the dance floor freaking your erected partner then move it aside. If you\u2019re too busy having a faux lesbian encounter licking face and swapping saliva, definitely move it outdoors where it\u2019s cold and cool off.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Evidently, everyone and their momma received the e-vite to this party as the confined shoebox was packed wall to wall. All kinds of people from all walks of life showed up and showed out. The old heads domed in hats to cover ski slopes danced with skinny leg hipsters crowned with baseball caps; the party girls with bleached platinum blond threads mixed with the city\u2019s soul heirs wrapped in winter scarves over green graphic tees; the free spirited bohemians with head ornaments shook hands with the music purveyors analyzing every song played as a vampire actor cruised the room. The club\u2019s (oops restaurant\u2019s) vibe was fair, but made for all show, as a culinary frozen meal delivered from a microwave served in an exclusive restaurant to the lacking of tastes. The esoteric couldn\u2019t help but debate if this was real. Of course, having a local neo-soul singer and the cast of a vampire network show lounge upstairs only made the situation at hand more complex.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

As the seconds marched towards minutes the atmosphere revealed a frenzy of happenings; a whirlwind of haze as smash-up memories were blurred into mush. What was this place where people seemed stoned and others overly intoxicated? There was a rush to make sense of the mad chatter, dark displays and subterranean beats. But then it all made since, the event\u2019s rare appearance from a headliner via the pond en route from London appeared in the DJ booth with the neon green painted wall.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The \u201cSomething For The Weekend\u201d vocalist<\/span> <\/strong>Ben Westbeech<\/a> seems to be one of those wicked mates. American translation: A Good Time Charlie. All one has to do is just click on the<\/span><\/strong> \u201cSomething For The Weekend<\/a>\u201d video to find the handsome chap frolicking through high thread count cotton sheets and spilling champagne with not one but TWO lingerie clad models. It\u2019s this persona Ben enjoys the most that oozes into his laptop centered DJ sets. So don\u2019t take the trained cellist too seriously but then again you can\u2019t but take his craft seriously. It\u2019s this contradiction that baffles the mind like a kid with ADHD but provides the reason for the singer\u2019s unstable duo- persona. The respected average height and average build DJ\/singer\/songwriter\/producer\u2019s ambience transformed the building with a split-image horse painted mural and an expired museum ad exhibit that replaced the once orthodox Dr. Martin Luther King Junior close-up into a hotbed of beats, sex and decadence.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The jack of all trades straddled the room with a triad contraction; playing Masters of Ceremony, crooning with a sultry voice and dropping heavy hitting beats. The songster dropped the original music to,<\/span><\/strong> \u201cSo Good Today<\/a>\u201d his huge hit which garnered acclaim on the serious level by singing live vocals with the crass and soul of a blue-eyed Billy Dee Williams. Later, followed perhaps the night\u2019s most ambitious undertaking the crowd singing\/yelling,<\/span><\/strong> \u201cCan I Get A Little Something For The Weekend<\/a>\u201d with Ben muting the music to allow the crowd\u2019s praise to assume forefront duties. And it worked. The spectacular moment solidified the crowd\u2019s knowledge of what was going on and who was getting down. At times the songster\/DJ became so worked up, throwing up his arms in the air and jumping up and down and around in the DJ booth that he could have easily been mistaken for a god-plex DJ hero. Even so, Ben continued having so much fun with the audience that he slammed the breaks on the music and abruptly killed, Crystal Water\u2019s,<\/span> <\/strong>\u201cGypsy Woman (She\u2019s Homeless)<\/a>\u201d and yelled into the microphone, \u201dI\u2019m not going to play the song unless you sing along.\u201d Having rivaled nerves the owner of the venue ran into the DJ booth to offer cautionary advice. It\u2019s all good because the people sang, \u201cLa da dee, La dee da\u201d at the top of their lungs as the impeccable sound system pumped a heavy bassline that made the head wobble with whimsical joy. Then the British accent resounded, \u201cWe\u2019re going old school house\u201d as the audience cheered ever more.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

So the crowd transported back to the 1990\u2019s peak era of house music\u2019s golden years, with the likes of Hardrive\u2019s aka Masters At Work<\/span><\/strong>, \u201cDeep Inside<\/a>\u201d with diva Barbara Tucker\u2019s vocals bringing more heat and Jaydee\u2019s,<\/span><\/strong> \u201cPlastic Dreams<\/a>\u201d from the Dutch\/Italian DJ duo; transitioned from receding hairlines to high-top fades. Running orchestra strings of Carrie Lucas sampled,<\/span><\/strong> \u201cDance with You<\/a>\u201d stirred into the pot as Jaydee\u2019s, Plastic Dreams\u201d drum loop followed behind to welcome warm vocals from Duane Harden singing<\/span><\/strong>, \u201cYou Don\u2019t Know Me<\/a>\u201d by 1990\u2019s powerhouse producer Armand Van Helden. There were a slew of sound bites from the intro of Robin S,<\/span><\/strong> \u201cShow Me Love<\/a>\u201d to The Bucketheads with,<\/span><\/strong> \u201cThe Bomb (These Sounds Fall Into My Mind)<\/a>\u201d that tickled and tempted the crowd\u2019s ears silly with tantalizing expectations. Rounding out the nostalgia, Kings of Tomorrow\u2019s,<\/span> <\/strong>\u201cFinally<\/a>\u201d with Julie McKnight on vocals, ushered the aughties and blazed new trails into the 21st century house scene.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Yet again, the unassuming Ben quickly pulled out another alter ego, Breach from his programmable bag of software; as if transforming from singer turned DJ wasn\u2019t enough. Talk about ADHD. The much welcomed alias delivered a harder edge drop reminiscent of that 1990\u2019s bass-driven house nostalgia from Chicago\u2019s \u201cJuke\u201d to Chicago\u2019s \u201cGhetto House.\u201d There was no stopping this Doctor Jekyll\/Mr. Hyde complex that announced, \u201cI\u2019m going to slow it down for the deep heads\u201d which sat all too well with the crowd. If slowing the music down to sing live the lyrics to Hamburg, Germany\u2019s outfit Lovebirds,<\/span> <\/strong>\u201cWant You In My Soul<\/a>\u201d the number one house track of the year on a certain digital house music website is going deep then so be it because what would follow next would be the night\u2019s real butt kicker. An overexposed rapper whose famous wife had just recently given birth to a famous baby came rapping from the speakers. WTH?!? RME. Hip-hop had reared its head. The Brits can be known for paying homage to hip-hop during the final hour of their music sets. Respectably Ben\u2019s musical palette wavered all over and not just staling the life out of one particular sound and time period. Every genre from UK 2-step to electro to new school vs old school registered on the radar. Certainly not two dimensional this musical set came across three dimensional which challenged the limber notion of predictability.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Epilogue<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Technically speaking, since there was no dance floor or not much dance space in the restaurant due to overcrowding a hasty dash was made to check out the sights and sounds of the party in progress next door at Space 2. Two DJs on a make shift wooden stage bumped out funky house grooves under a bed of R\u2019n\u2019B croons from Brit sensation Estelle\u2019s,<\/span><\/strong> \u201cAmerican Boy<\/a>,\u201d to 1990\u2019s new jackers Blackstreet\u2019s,<\/span> <\/strong>\u201cNo Diggity<\/a>\u201d to Brown & Steve Littlemen\u2019s<\/span> <\/strong>\u201cChangin<\/a>\u201d (Vernon & DaCosta Mix). Talk about some fresh air. This happening was even more dynamic because of the excess space to move about, to walk around and to dance freely from obstructions. What an unexpected closer to a dizzying night.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Fb-Button\"\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>
<\/fb:like><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BEN WESTBEECH Prologue Winter kissed the stiff dark air with the breath of icy condensation on perhaps one of the coldest nights of the year thus far. Within the heated warmth of a cozy bar in the heart of midtown a deep conversation ensued about the lack of qualified dance venues in town and how […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[11,60,8,7,61],"class_list":["post-552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-events","tag-atlanta-georgia","tag-ben-westbeech","tag-deep-house-music","tag-house-music","tag-the-sound-table"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2JDhj-8U","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":571,"url":"https:\/\/www.ajdancelegacy.com\/~ajdance\/julius-the-mad-thinker-23-12-11\/","url_meta":{"origin":552,"position":0},"title":"JULIUS THE MAD THINKER 23.12.11","author":"ajdance","date":"December 24, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"JULIUS THE MAD THINKER The Dharma Lounge sits quietly on the South End of the quaint but bustling Camden district of storefronts and businesses in Queen City, North Carolina. 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