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A
computer-generated “movie” produced
by digital/video artist Stacey Sotosky flashes
on the
big screen at the Abbey Theater. The patterns pulse
and change in time with the music being
spun by the DJs. Sotosky, who chooses from dozens
of video clips, says no two shows are
alike./Photo by Todd Thompson
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When Brian Ess was exposed to Denver's rave culture
in 1997, he was more interested in why the DJs did
what they did than in their technique or choice of
music.
 “I entered into it philosophically, and for me, it's
still mostly about the ideals and ideas of progressive
house music,” he said. “I grew up in punk rock culture,
and I got tired of listening to music that fostered negative
feelings and bitterness. Progressive house is forward
thinking from all angles. It's a way of bringing people
together and creating a unity.”
Talking to Ess about house music may be like listening
to a preacher preach, but he does practice what he believes.
When I met Ess at the Abbey Theatre last month, he was
putting together the final touches for his monthly Down
show. His staff had already rearranged the tables to
make room for dancing and decorated the theater with
calla lilies and candles. The turntables and mixing board
were set up on the balcony, and an engineer was jacking
into the sound system. The lighting system was coming
online and the digital projectionist was starting to
mix her footage into the uplink. It had the feeling of
a stage production on opening night.
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| DJ Brian Ess mixes it up recently
in the Abbey
sound booth./Photo by Todd Thomspon |
At 10:30 p.m. the doors opened. DJ A-Bell was on the
perch spinning the first “song” while DJ Brian Ess was
welcoming the crowd members, as if they were entering
his living room. It didn't feel like the “show” had started,
but it had. People came and went, upstairs, downstairs,
inside, outside, mingling, meeting, sitting, dancing.
Then, more people came, kind of like a party where everyone
knows each other and if they don't, they're glad to meet
you.
At first, the music served as a backdrop, until the
dance floor started to fill up. Then, a lyric entered
the mix: “Forget the world. Forget the day. Forget the
people. Just close your eyes.” The music pulsed gently
in melodic filigrees above rotational bass surges. Gradually,
the partygoers, too, forgot the world and got up to dance.
It sort of just happened.
The repetitive short loops in the music morphed against
a series of themes in the long loops. The variations
were random yet inevitable. It had a sort of mathematical
fugue sound to it, with drums and bass firmly keeping
the relentless beat. The place was soon packed.
“I want to create an environment where people can come
in and feel like they're anywhere in the world doing
anything,” says Ess. “You're in the most plush setting
with the most intense ambience. There are no windows.
You come in here, and you're not in Durango anymore.
Also, the Abbey has the dopest sound system in Colorado.”
The project expands
The August event was the seventh monthly Down that Ess
has produced. Ess, who is also a body piercer at Your
Flesh Tattoo, does the graphic design, pays for the printing,
rents the hall, hauls the gear in and out, and arranges
the ambience, a different flower every month. And of
course, he spins his music. “I play progressive house
music the way I think it should be played,” he says. “There
are a lot of different styles I respect. But there is
also an organic connection besides the music. If you
study the philosophy of house music you'll find terms
like ‘Temporary Autonomous Zone.' I want to show the
people of Durango some real fun.”
Chris Stanton, one of the partners of Abbey Music Productions
and the Abbey's bar manager, has nothing but praise for
Ess' show. “It's a great event that a lot of people really
enjoy,” he said. “We have about 195 people here tonight.
We've asked Brian to move to Friday nights and do Down
twice a month. We're also thinking about adding a hip
hop DJ night and bringing back a real disco night.”
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DJ Jeremy Moody cues up his next
mix at Steamworks./Photo by
Todd Thomspon |
For Anne Rinehart, a Durango insurance agent, Down is
a night like no other, worth coming out for.
“One night a month they create a real big-city ambience
and I'd come out more often for that,” she says. “It
takes me back to my youth in the city and makes me feel
young again.”
Kelly Rogers, a technology specialist and sound engineer
who helped re-design the sound and lights during the
Abbey's remodel, said Down turned the corner in July.
“It was the convergence of everyone who wants this scene
being ready together: the system, the decorations, and
adding digital video,” he says. “Plus Brian busted out
the best show that anyone's ever heard. All the artists
are escalating this into a real creation that you can
melt into. It's not a spectator sport.”
Carol Clark, of the San Juan Citizens' Alliance, is
here for the first time. “I love house music,” she said. “I
like to dance to it. When I was in Europe, it's all they
played.”
And while the show attracts fans of house music, it
also attracts those who show up just to bask in the scene
of it all.
“The music isn't me,” says Jake Hunter, the assistant
manager of Purgy's, “but the scene is awesome. It's real
quality. Besides all my friends are here.”
Brian Lynagh has come from work at Randy's around the
corner. “Normally this kind of music doesn't impress
me,” he says, “but the setting is fascinating. Brian
Ess is an amazing professional, but it's not just him
spinning records. It's an event.”
The scene also appeals to Richard Houston, of Albuquerque,
who is in Durango on business and glad to have found “live” music. “It's
a great workout for good health,” he said. “It's a place
to dance the toxins out of your body and relieve the
stress with sweat. You can tap into your inner being
and get in touch with the higher power.”
Beth Miller, the assistant manager of Zumiez and long-time
KDUR DJ, added, “It's freedom of the dance and freedom
of the mind. It's all about release.”
The art of the mix
Stacey Sotosky collaborates with Ess to create Down.
She has two computers on the balcony 4 feeding the digital
video projector. The letters on her keyboard have been
linked to video clips, and background patterns and effects.
She plays the keyboard like a piano in time with the
music, cutting in different video moods as the mood of
the music changes. As she works, the big screen explodes
in hypnotically changing patterns, digital effects and
a series of expressive shadow-dancing pantomimes.
The interactive “movie” is an amazing creation. But
it is just as fascinating to watch Sotosky produce the
spectacle.
Sotosky is also a documentary filmmaker and the force
behind Cascade Canyon Productions, a digital video studio. “I
am a video performance artist,” she said. “As in art
in a gallery space, the club scene is a rare opportunity
to perform. Ninety percent of my footage is original,
not stock, and we don't just reuse it. Every show is
unique.”
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| Dancers pack the floor at the Abbey
during DJ Brian Ess’ Thursday night Down
show./Photo by Angela Natzke |
Brian Ess has told me that a DJ is boring to watch no
matter what they do, but as I watch him synch his beats
and mix his fills I start to see that mixing is an art
in its own right. By synchronizing two records at the
same tempo, the DJ can cross-fade between the two or
hard cut back and forth, in effect sampling and mixing
to form an entirely new creation. The audience cannot
readily discern the separate parts, and that's the point.
It's a seamless blending of pieces that progresses for
hours into an enormous unique whole. The song never ends.
Of course, progressive house is just one outpost in
the DJ universe. It is not techno, nor is it drum and
bass, jungle, or trance. “It's not that boom-clap-soulful-funky-diva
stuff,” Ess said.
Ess is not the only DJ spinning for a big house music
scene in Durango. At Steamworks, DJ Essence and DJ Rem-E
put on the longstanding Saturday Ladies Night. During
a recent show, the two take turns at the turntables,
as the show starts with an interesting and progressive
house mix.
The bar fills slowly but the dance floor is always active.
When he's not playing music, DJ Essence is professional
mountain bike racer Nick Gould. I ask him why he's a
DJ. “I'm really into the high energy of the music,” he
says. “The uplifting sounds are motivating. The music
I play doesn't have any words, just feelings. Everyone
makes their own interpretation but they also relate on
the same level.”
DJ Rem-E, a.k.a. Jeremy Swain, has been running the
Saturday show for Steamworks since May. “I mostly play
Chicago house music,” he says. “I go for what gets the
crowd up and jumping.” And the crowd loves it. Rem-E
starts dropping in house-flavored disco remixes and real
songs with words. The dance floor is packed until closing
time.
And while his show may be different from what Ess offers
at Down, Swain says he has nothing but respect for his
peer, adding that the variety only helps with his own
work.
“Down is the most quality production ever done in Durango,” says
Swain. “After going to Brian's show, I really try to
pay attention to detail and set more of an ambience.
The DJs in this town are almost a collective, and we
all support what Brian Ess is doing.”
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