camouflage at the leopard lounge -- every tuesday

dominic

Beast of Burden
this should probably be in the music section

but since i have particular djs and a particular venue in mind, i thought i'd be better to post it here

just got back from the camouflage party, which was held at guernica (ex-save the robots) until recently

now the party is at the leopard lounge/sin sin -- 5th street and 2nd avenue -- every tuesday

i'll begin by saying that i've been living in nyc for a little over 4 years now (first two years being a reasonably good boy and studying, last two years back to my evil ways that lead me nowhere in life), and didn't seek out jungle/d'n'b here until going to the old skool rave several weeks back

(got decidedly burnt out on the whole dark aggressive testerone thing before leaving st louis, not that i was ever a d'n'b scenester, just that the stuff was popular there at the time)

then i went to the old skool rave in greenpoint, where i was seriously impressed by kech, but also thought dj camouflage (aka christian bruna) quite good -- but at the old skool rave, kech played a jungle set, whereas camouflage played breakbeat hardcore

anyway, camouflage is the resident at the party (i.e., it's his club night!), and he takes over at 3:00 and plays til 4:30 (yes, some refreshing defiance of the 4 am curfew, if only token defiance -- but hey, i'm all for token gestures)

camouflage and kech are both big names on the nyc jungle scene, so i'm not going to pretend that i'm trying to turn people on to obscure djs

but these two seriously know how to rock it, though only camouflage played tonight

(i think kech used to be part of a 5-dj camouflage roster, but now it's simply christian bruna)

i cannot for the life of me tell you what he played -- i can tell you only that he's got a great ear for the music, and he knows how to hold it down

(i've never actually collected post-92 jungle or d'n'b music -- any real knowledge of music i may have stops after 1992 -- and from that point onward, i can offer only a punter's or casual consumer's perspective )

very wicked, very psychedelic

good mix of sounds and beats -- kept it interesting

he doesn't do bland jazzy stuff, and he doesn't do dara-style testerone stuff

rather, he's on the psychedelic demon vibe

and this place had serious VIBE tonight -- yeah, i know people sometimes think "vibe" is a bad word, but whatever . . . . i always look for vibe

the room works with the music too -- dark, drapes drawn closed, low ceiling, good floor plan

fairly interesting mix of people, and people were smoking freely, etc

so i strongly suggest that people in nyc check out camouflage on tuesdays at 3:00 am

again, i cannot speak to the current state of d'n'b, and i have no idea what records or labels camouflage was playing -- but he was seriously good

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED -- five stars out of five stars
 
Last edited:

dominic

Beast of Burden
now that my good friend alexander zaitchik is no longer editor of ny press, i ain't got an inside track for publishing "blurbs" into the paper

plus, they seem to have switched up their format again -- such that they only devote 4 or 5 lines to each music act that gets previewed for the week

and i used to think that 250 words was ridiculously short!!

anyway, here's what i submitted on xian bruna's 30th b-day party -- they didn't publish it

but if nyc people here on dissensus like jungle -- and believe me, xian plays a lot of top mid-90s material alongside new stuff -- and he knows how to rock it -- then they need to get themselves over to sin sin on tuesdays

here's what i said =

Christian Bruna’s 30th Birthday Party
September 20, 10 pm

Tuesdays are without question the night to go out in the East Village, thanks to Kudu’s weekly residency at Nublu and the Camouflage jungle party at Sin Sin. The usual recommended itinerary is to hit Nublu first for Kudu, then as the clock nears 3 am travel four blocks west to Sin Sin for Christian Bruna’s dj set. This week represents a departure from the norm, because Christian is celebrating his entry into the fourth decade of life, said to be the best years for those wise enough to avoid the humdrum institution of marriage, same sex or otherwise.

The Camouflage party, which began in 1997, used to be held at Guernica (ex-Save the Robots, now Scenic), but was moved to Sin Sin in early August, and the party seems to have profited from the move. The bar is dark, curtains are drawn, people dance and smoke freely, and the 4 am curfew gets defied.

A couple facts to know. First, this is the real-deal jungle scene in New York, very mixed crowd, très heavy on vibe, call it creole culture. Second, the Camouflage djs know how to hold things down, Christian especially. He’s a jungle dj, not a drum’n’bass dj. He doesn’t do pseudo-sophisticated, 70s fusion-feel, oceanic tedium, and he doesn’t do metallic bashing music for testosterone freaks. He’s into the psychedelic demon vibe, and his sets are seriously dynamic, the roller coaster principle, thrills and pills, queasy rhythms. New music mixed with 94/95/96/97 music. Lots of jungle diva tracks.

For his birthday party this Tuesday, Christian will play a special 2-hour set. Stateside jungle pioneer Soul Slinger is the guest. Upstairs in the Leopard Lounge, Glenn Garcia and Kech play house music. Open bar from 10 pm to 12 am, $3 beers, $4 vodka drinks.

Sin Sin/The Leopard Lounge, 248 East 5th St (Second Ave), 212-253-2222; 10 pm, $5.
 
Top