On Friday night we attended The MEOKO Project at Village Underground in Shoreditch, an immersive underground electronic music experience. We got there nice and early to take a look around and the setting was perfect, nice set-up, lighting and atmosphere in one of our favourite east london clubs. The photography exhibition was very cool, featuring some great shots of the underground scene from a couple kissing in a dj booth to strange goings on in bathrooms. There were some pop-up fashion stalls selling really unusual jewellery and clothing and a fancy dress boutique where you could get your make-up/face paints done, try on a glitzy outfit and have your photo taken (these will be appearing on the MEOKO website). The dancefloor was set up with various chairs and floor cushions making up a makeshift cinema for the London premier of documentary Beatz. We found a spot and enjoyed the complimentary Desperado’s, dim-sum (plenty of it yum) and popcorn whilst we waited for the documentary to start.
‘Beatz: Contradictions & Divergences in Electronic Music’ was introduced by its director, Spanish DJ and producer, Eduardo De La Calle, who explained that we were seeing a truly ‘underground’ version, that due to a few technical issues was still not quite finished and smoothed out. It was awesome to watch it in an urban setting and on a proper sound system because as you can imagine there were plenty of good tunes throughout. The documentary features interviews with 150 dj’s who talk about their opinions of the scene, broken up with shots of clubs and cities famous for their club scene. Some of the famous faces included were Carl Cox, Ben Klock, Apparat, Laurent Garnier, Carl Craig, Luciano, Derrick May and Seth Troxler. The main topic of discussion was ‘Where are we now in electronic music and what has changed since it all started 20yrs ago?’ There was lots of debate about vinyl vs digital with most tending to lean towards the vinyl side, and thoughts on ‘What is dj-ing and what makes a good dj?’. There were plenty of strong opinions and it was really interesting to get more of an insight into the artist’s personalities and the variety of opinions out there. There was also a fair bit of negativity from some artists about the scene today and it was a shame to see they felt that way. It’s a thoroughly enjoyable and informative watch which poses the question ‘Where do we go from here…?’. After the screening there was a Q&A with Eduardo who was super friendly and has promised those who attended a dvd of the documentary once it’s finished to make up for it not being ready…very sweet. Watch the trailer below.
Find out more about Beatz here.
Unfortunately we had to get going shortly after, whilst the seating was already being whisked away to make space for the dancefloor and the party was kicking off. We had a great time and it was a really different experience to one usually have in Village Underground!! Nice one MEOKO…we look forward to the next event.
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