Personally, I wouldn’t recommend attending CRS as a paying guest if you’re older than 23 and really into reggae. The majority of the people there is as much into dancehall and reggae as it is into techno-acts like Deichkind, last years headliner. The whole event takes place in bavaria and thus the place is filled with undercover cops (on their website CRS prides itself for its good cooperation with the local police) eager to catch you with a joint to add to their career. I’m not much into weed myself but I still find the idea of reggae without smoking rastas estranging. So actually the whole thing reminded me of some kind of 25000-people-highschool-senior-party. Not bad, but much too young for me and not my vibe.

Apart from that I have to aknowledge that the surroundings where just great. The whole Alps scenery and the fresh water of the river running through the festival area are really special. And beer was cheap, too ;-)

Anyway, it’s about the music. So here’s what I saw: Junior Kelly sucked massive. Max Romeo was simply boring. Third World did their thing quite professionally and where good at it. Hans Söllner of course had a home game and Peter Fox did quite a show, despite seeming not quite healthy. But, after all, I am not much into big stages and thus I had most of the fun at the tent.

There I saw Phenomden, a Swiss based reggae singer/mc. He actually sings in his native laguage, which gives his vocals a strange groove and tone I really like. The performance with the Scrucialists was absolutely tight and got me dancing all the way through.

Paprika Korps, a Polish dub band had the misfortune of being one of the first acts to play on sundy. Nontheless they did their best, playing a mixture of laydback dub tunes and really forward electric guitar tunes. I believe they are quite known in Poland and I had heard tracks of them before that didn’t impress me much. But after this concert I’ll have a second look. For sure, I recommend seeing them live!

I had only a short glimpse at Oceana, but was quite imressed with her presence on stage. There was some serious soul funk going on :-)

But the reason why I am writing this is the b-side. Ska Train is an absolute must for people who like the dancing side of dub! It sounds like the not so old father of Yamaha vs. Eletricos “Phoenix City”. A mixture of house and ska that  should have been on one of those “Serious Dropout” compilations released by DJ Reverend in the mid-nineties. I actually find the combination of these two songs remarkable. It explains where musicians like the Freestylers have their roots, combining electro sounds with reggea and ska elements.

I wish I could have heard this stuff back when it was produced. I was only 12 years old back then, long hairs and listening to heavy metal, but this sure would have inspired me. Anyway, it will enter my set now, 20 years after its first release. Call it sustainable rockwellopement :-)

It turned out that Eva Be was reduced to play as an opener in the foyer of the theatre and in between acts. What a total waste of fluffy music! A nice mixture of all kinds of styles, some I knew from my own record collection or sets played by DJ Vadim, others completely unknown to me. Hip-Hop, Reggea, Funk, whatever, but all with a certain style that put a smile on my face and had me bobbing up and down constantly. Next time she’s in town I’ll be there!

Clara Hill was first to play. I’ll keep it short: Not my kind of stuff. She shure can sing but I think she is too loud and lacks subtlety. The music didn’t convince me either. Jazz fans might enjoy some twists in harmonies and all that nerdy stuff, but thats not mine.

The Sonar Kollektiv Orchestra was impressive, to say the least. A brass and string section, drums and percussions,  bass, guitar and 3 singers together with Volker Meintz as mastermind performed songs released on the Jazzanova label. Unforgettable their performance of Âme’’s “Rej”! Most songs appeared to be older releases, rather souly and acid-jazzy stuff. The sound of the band reminded me of early Pressure Drop. A friend of mine who was with me pointed out that that was mostly due to the combination of bass and trombone, producing a sub-bass that enters stomach and gonards without hesitation :-) I personally would have preferred to hear more live implementations of instrumental tracks like “Rej”. I’m not all that into soul and acid jazz and, most of all, Clara Hill didn’t fit into the arrangement. She’s too much lead singer and didn’t have the sensitivity to be a complementary part of the vocal section. Instead, she took over, which obviously pissed of the other two singer, from whom I would’ve liked to hear more.

Even though the dancefloor behind the stage is a promising party location, the party afterwards didn’t quite rock. Jazzanova DJs couldn’t convince me and I think the location hasn’t established itsself for parties yet.

Soweit ist es bestätigt:

DJ Le Frog Sportif spielt im E-Werk, Weimar!

So far it has been confirmed:

see DJ Le Frog Sportif at the E-Werk, Weimar!

After the concert there wasn’t much energy in the room to set up a dancing crowd, but in the end I got the remaining people dancing.

And earned my next date for Walpurgisnacht at the E-Werk which is bound to be a party in the real sense of the word :-)

I SIMPLY DON’T GET IT!!!!
What the hell is it with these people? Theres two DJs, a sound engineer and one MC. Sounds promising if you ask me. The music they play is mostly nice, actually I’d like to know the names of some tunes I heard tonight. I’ve seen the MC on other occaasions and I know he can sing (and is a nice guy by the way).

!!!BUT!!!

What the fuck? Why the hell can’t I get rid of the feeling that somebody is zapping through channels here? As if they took a dancehall jukebox and gave the remote to some kid with a serious case of attention deficit disorder.
The djs can’t keep a song longer than 45 seconds. That takes us maybe 10 seconds past the intro, which has to be played at least twice (REEWIIIIND!). AT WHAT POINT SHOULD I ACTUALLY START DANCING???
All this accompanied by the continuous comments of the MC, whose eloquence is as limited as the content of his speech. 99% of his statements are requests for boody-shaking or lighter-showing, spoken fast but without rhythm or rhyme. Major turnoff…

Somehow it seems to be about Jamaican tradition, but honestly: I don’t care. I just don’t get what’s so fun about this constantly interrupted medley-playing. Theres no flow in it!
It’s just frustrating, because I like the music, but I can’t dance. I just don’t get it.  Maybe I’m just too old…

Good night.

• 01) moloko “familiar feeling” (timo maas rmx)
• 02) just banks feat. blaktronix “360 degrees” (makossa & megablast rmx)
• 03) chemical brothers “believe”
• 04) timo maas feat. mc chickaboo “shifter”
• 05) chemical brothers “battle scars” (beyond the wizards sleeve re-animation)
• 06) dublex inc. “the game”
• 07) tiki taane “favourite target”
• 08) freestylers “boom blast”
• 09) secta chameleon “push along”
• 10) dreadzone “elevate” (roxiller mix)
• 11) aquasky and ragga twins “everybody hype”
• 12) freestylers “blowin ya brainz”
• 13) arkarna “house on fire” (arkarna break mix)
• 14) prodigy “smack my bitch up”
• 15) aquasky “what can we do”