Planet Notion - Miami WMC

23/08/2007

Miami WMC

James Zabiela is ripping it up on the decks, fruity new Thai tipple Sabai is flowing copiously and the bold and the beautiful are here. All we need now is the sun. So that it can set, this being a sunset cruise and all.

Braving the threat of rocky waters and a sky the colour of doom, the boat is let loose and some serious drinking ensues. Before the official Miami launch later that week of Zabiela’s One + One project, which sees him undertake a breakneck 75 date global tour sharing the wheels of steel with longtime mixing partner Nic Fanciulli, the duo are here to play for the first time under the alias to a private party of hand-picked movers and shakers. Pioneer have kitted the beat brothers out with a fully digital Pro DJ set-up: Zabiela opens the cruise with a stomping mix seething somewhere in the future, paving the way for Fanciulli’s acidic onslaught before the two flex some impressive styles back-to-back.

Steering clear of vinyl and potential needle slippages by bringing out the CDRs, it appears that One + One have come

prepared to weather a storm. Offer the men a bottle for their thirsty work and each politely refuses. Forget, ask them slightly more enthusiastically a couple of hours later, and the answer is still the same: ‘I don’t drink when I’m DJing, sorry.’ Fair enough, spinning psychedelic house wobblers to a vessel of inebriated industry types would be challenging enough for even the sturdiest of tunesmiths. ‘I love playing on water, although it wasn’t as choppy as it can get back in the UK!’ James later discloses once the boat party has morphed into a Miami bar crawl. ‘It’s especially funny seeing all of the drunk people swaying in front of the decks, sometimes they get it right to be in time with the music!’

And some suitably stylised swaying there is this time around. Just because someone forgot to invite the sun doesn’t mean Miami dress codes can be broken, dahling! Set clinchers from One + One are some exclusive original remixes in the form of Zabiela’s ‘Human’ and Fanciulli’s ‘Scratch n Sniff.’ Equally effective at orchestrating our rhythmical sways are JZ’s edit of Crazy Penis’ ‘The Way We Swing,’ the trailblazing ‘Pinhole Of Light’ from Phil Kieran and Nick DK’s edited ‘Wiggin’ by Mayday. Selecta!

Three hours of alternately rowdy and blissed-out revelling pass in Sabai-soaked obscurity and somehow we’re back where

we started. The One + One boys are off to enjoy some well deserved alcoholic refreshment, while the rest of us make a sea-legged stumble back to solid terrain. A generous moon hangs over the Miami skyline to pick out the odd star, and you can almost see them throb along to the lasting echo of laughter, beats and toasted bottles – now that’s what we call a cruise, quality!

THE ONE + ONE DOUBLE CD ALBUM IS OUT NOW (MINISTRY) – FANS CAN THEN DOWNLOAD A FREE THIRD MIX OF THE PAIR’S POST-PARTY FAVOURITES