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Its easy to take things for granted when everthing’s
available to you. On a rainy afternoon in late
August thousands of pleasure seekers found their way
to Lydd, Kent to enjoy World Dance. Our entrance
wasn’t easy. No
disrespect to the promoters who were afraid of the
usual blaggers: “names not down, you’re not coming
in”. One of us was on the list, the other wasn’t - I
hope we can now show WD crew that it was all a big
misunderstanding.
Maximum respect for a massive line-up and 6 tents of
sound. As we said before, much was taken for granted
because so much was in one place at one time. If I
heard some of these sets coming from a radio in
October whilst isolated from the world in the
caravan which I’m now writing in I’d probably
appreciate them more - if you know what I mean. At
World Dance it’s a matter of exploring and working
out who’s going to be where, and where you want to
go for a chill-out. We were treated to a good
variety of Djs in the Africana arena: LTJ Bukem
soothed the ears of those sitting and at the same
time moved the dancing feet of those standing. He
lived up to his reputation with the assistance, as
usual, of MC Conrad I wonder who decided to put the
cage feathery dancing girls in here.
From this mellowness we went to the blunted beats of
James Lavelle in the Oceania tent. The visuals here
were very impressive (lots of crazed animations and
psychedelic patterns). This was the place to hear
and sample some of the more experimental music on
offer. Apparently it didn’t open until 6 or 7.oo in
the evening while World Dance began at midday -
strange! When it did though, Andrea Parker showed
her colours with a set taking in old Detroit Techno
Electro. Transmat Metroplex etc….wicked. Later on
there were those who wanted to dance to the likes of
Derrick Dehlarge and the ever-excellent Psychonauts
but found snoozing bodies in the way of the vibe
(and indeed their feet0. There was even a tent for
Djs playing old tunes where we saw Kenny Ken mixing
a few old favourites. Later in the night we heard
Hoey Beltra’s “Energy Flash” kicking out of this
tent - why aren’t there more tunes like this one?
The best in today’s techno was to be found in a
relatively small room of the main hanger where Djs
like Daza Saund and Charlie Hall provided a London
club vibe. Colin Dale’s set here was fluid, pumping
and all that it should be.
Another big top (Europa) played host to a number of
housey/trancy DJ’s (Seb Fontaine, Peter Wardman,
John “00” Fleming etc) but we didn’t really spend
much time in it. The atmosphere was undoubtedly
electric in there even if it never got really busy,
but we had faster beats to attend to. These were to
be found in the main hangar (Solarus) and it was in
here that we found the heart of the rave. It was
big, very big, so big in fact that they were still
having problems with the sound during DJ Dazee’s set
at about 9 o’clock. Undeterred the crowd gave it all
they had. The sound even cut out complete for 5 - 10
minutes around midnight - some said this was just so
when it came back on again the horn and whistle
posse went even more mental. By 1.00 am the call of
“Junglists are you ready?” was greeted with a huge
“Boom!!” from the World Dance massive. Roni Size
played with a style which might have suited a more
intimate venue but it went down a storm. He was
followed by DJ Hype who is quite at home in a huge
arena. He played the crowd with surefire killers
like Andy C’s “Quest” and “Bonanza by Fire Fox” and
his relaxed style of scratching and mixing took the
crowd a step higher. As MC Fearless said “Hype, you
are a livewire”.
Claire Hughson & William Green
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