EITF: Music, Saturday afternoon

Originally published 7.6.16

The DJ was Mike Quickfall, The 2.5 hours I heard of the set was quite good. The tracks were great and good tandas but rather unbalanced.  I was surprised how many good tracks because while I had heard a good set by this DJ when he first started, the next set or two that I heard was or were so alternative or had had just poor music (therefore not what I call traditional, even if it is old) and not what I liked that I did not go again. 

Tangos were in four, vals and milonga in threes, cortinas were pretty short, ~10s. I did not keep track of it all as I danced some but what I heard was roughly like this:

• Good trad vals on arrival. Later on there was an alternative vals.
• OTV - Anoche a las cuatro - Mi taza de cafe - Una vez
• Another Mi taza de cafe, in the next tanda: Malerba. I have heard this DJ repeat tracks and also orchestras before in sets to the detriment of balance. There was another good track or two, my sense was that it was Malerba and José García mixed but I was chatting. I think I heard Qué no sepan las estrellas by García. If I’ve got that right it was a bit of an odd mix. Despite that Malerba is very distinctive it didn’t jar badly with me - but might have if I’d been dancing. 
• Great rhythmic Laurenz including No me extraña and Amurado and I think De Puro Guapo but again I was chatting. 
• There was vals Lagrimas y sonrisas, Biagi I think, then something I didn’t know then Corazón de artista, Malerba but I thought it worked OK at the time. Who would think this vals could be so different from his serious, ponderous, tangos?
• There was great Fresedo, good D’Arienzo with I think El flete about here, good milonga, good rhythmic Lomuto songs, good Donato songs. Then there was nice Rodriguez and I heard a Biagi tanda which I’d seen on the playlist and knew to be great with e.g. La maleva and friends. It was not necessarily in that order.

What I heard then this time was quite an earthy set with OTV, Donato, Rodriguez, Lomuto.   To break up the earthy tandas it would have been nice to have something smoother and more sophisticated - Caló, D’Agostino, De Angelis.  Perhaps a Troilo or Tanturi for a different sort of rhythmic sound - to break up the rhythmic tandas I had already heard. Someone who listens, who stayed later than me and hasn't much time for the earthier music said that later there were missed cortinas and that as well as the two Donato tangos I heard there was also a Donato milonga…

The good music I heard was largely ruined by the volume. The speakers were at one end. Even opposite these by the entrance and DJ spot it was far too loud, sometimes deafening. I have also heard very variable sound from this DJ before at the Counting House - too quiet and too loud, usually dependent on whether he was dancing or not. Once that afternoon during a cortina when I was - madly - for a short time sitting near the speakers chatting, I felt the sound go inside my body and and felt it reverberate right through me more than I actually heard anything. Luckily i had blocked my ears and moved straightaway. Later in the weekend I saw an experienced dancer wearing earplugs and thought her wise.