This year seems to be closing with a resurgence of the true school New York City underground in every aspect. It started with Reminisce in September and has continued week after week with either an old school Rave reunion or a hardcore day-long rager in the vien of eary Nineties warehouse outlaws. Whatever your flavor of EDM, the city’s promoters and DJs have been hard at work to provide a scene which has set the pace and established trends since the days of Studio 54, Paradise Garage and Limelight.
House, Techno, Breaks, Bass, Dubstep or Jungle/Drum and Bass all have their place in the New York underground, and each genre has been pushed like a popular street drug by its respective DJs, promoters and fans in order to fill the city’s most appropriate venues with good people and good vibes to dance the night away. There are weeklies, monthlies and one offs on a consistent basis to satisfy the masses from all parts of the tri-state area.
This week, OG New York Juglists gathered Tuesday night for the return of one of the scene’s most successful longest running regular club nights of mostly Jungle/Drum and Bass, 50/50 Production’s Camouflage.
Started in the mid Nineties, by Christian Bruna and DJ Beau, Camo has made the rounds to some of lower Manhattan’s classiest spots, from 205 Club (where Konkrete Jungle got its start) to Guernica (formerly Save The Robots); the crew even made their way to the now defunct legendary Baltimore Rave club, The Black Hole. And with running mates, DJs Nynex and Ketch and Love on The Run, they quickly became a staple weeknight function, not only for the mature Junglsits, but for the finer side of House, Hip Hop and Funk.
After taking a long hiatus to pursue other endeavors, Christain Bruna recently made his way back to home base and procured a sweet venue for the week of Halloween to relaunch Camo at Chelsea Music Hall in the meat-packing district on the west side of Manhattan.
Chelsea Music Hall seems a perfect home for Camo devotees. The square room is spacious enough for dancing and mingling. The sound system is designed and engineered to make you feel the music and goes well with the deep bassline and manic breaks you are likely to hear at any Camo event. The lighting is high tech and colorful complementing the quality sound and layout of the space quite well. The center of the room sounds and feels like a proper dancefloor for bass heavy EDM.
For this comeback party the lineup was star studded. Besides Love on The Run spinning reggae and funk on original 45s and Bruna and Ketch laying down a solid tagteam of DnB tunage, Frankie Bones dropped in and showed us how the man who brought Raves to Brooklyn rinses a set of wicked DnB.
Soul Slinger followed Bones with a soundtrack of manic tearing Jungle music not for the faint-of-heart, commanding numerous rewinds and the audience to yell “boh boh boh!” at the top of their lungs.
The closing set came from none other than the Junglist don, Liondub. A favorite selector and producer among the NY Junglist massive, he never ceases to impress even the top tier of DJs in the local circuit. His mixing is flawless and pleasantly tricky. His tunes are usually hard hitting and often exclusive and new. No die-hard Junglist will ever be disappointed when Liondub takes to the decks.
Photo credit – RockmanOverall, it was a good turnout, great vibes and awesome music. A memorable night to say the least. The official word is that Camo will be back for a monthly run at Chelsea Music Hall for the time being. No one is complaining. In the absence of Konkrete Jungle, the city will once again have a proper night of breakbeats and basslines to soothe our yearning souls.
