WMC 09: Karu & Y No Bass?

WMC 09 – March 28

The OM Records party at Karu & Y was an electronic music lovers dream and a music technicians nightmare all wrapped into one.

With five different rooms featuring different DJ sets of all sorts of genres, there was something for everyone. Mark Farina put people in a trance out in the Buddha Gardens. Chuck Love had listeners mesmerized at his one-man band efforts, as he would sing a little, play the flute, play the guitar all while keeping the beats going. (Like a human jukebox.) Kruder and Dorfmeister rocked the Buddha Lounge with a set that had the room jumping and beats and bass so strong that you could feel your inside body parts feeling the groove.

But there were some lowlights for the multi-million dollar venue on 14th St. Why did you decide to erect a tent in the middle of the outdoor gardens? All it did was create a sauna effect for the hundreds of people dancing and grooving underneath it. Perhaps the tent was up because there was a threat of rain, but the forecasts all said Sunday afternoon. It was totally unnecessary.

The schedule of who was performing in which room was no bigger than a 8 x 10 piece of paper printed out on an ink jet from a home computer and pasted on random doors. C’mon! Print some large posters with the schedule and smack them all over the place. (Go see what Café Bustello did with their sked on their windows!).

Video is an integral part of the DJ scene, and in only one room – the Buddha Lounge – did the video experience match the sounds. Disappointing was the Y Lounge, which played nothing but advertising for the venue, its restaurant and its WMC sked over and over and over and over. Even when Chuck Love asked for his video to come onto the screen, it didn’t.

And finally, the kicker. In the Y Gardens, DJs would start their set and then security and venue officials would tell them to crank down the bass. Way down. Like shut it off. Are you kidding me? Apparently the police were enforcing noise complaints and the DJs were basically playing with their arms cut off. San Francisco’s J-Boogie played at a volume level softer than friendly conversation. Vikter Duplaix opened his set, but once he was told to turn it down, he just turned everything off, backed away from the tables and put his hands up, as if to surrender.

The crowd booed, and Vikter took the microphone. He told everyone that he couldn’t work without the bass, that the club was doing its job, but he didn’t want to spin on what amounted to a transistor radio. The crowd cheered. He finally did play – perhaps due to contract obligations – but just plenty of hip hop hits at low volumes with distinct messages in the songs directed at authority (nice touch).

Karu & Y and OM – you both have to do better next year.

-- FRED GONZALEZ