On Saturday night, I went to see Lawrence, aka Sten, aka Peter Karsten, play at House N Home in Brooklyn. House N Home was celebrating its first anniversary as one of the city's premiere House music events, led by the excruciatingly popular underground DJs Jus-Ed and Anthony Parasole.
Let me just say that the guys throwing House N Home are doing a great job. A very hospitable, low stress environment made the excellent music and vibe that much more enjoyable. The sound system was tweaked to perfection (the venue is a second-floor walk-up space called 12 Turn 13 in Clinton Hill), with lots of sub and bass tones to fill up your chest cavities and make your ass wiggle. Both Jus-Ed and Anthony Parasole put on nice, seamless sets, and then Lawrence took to the decks around 1am (earlier than I expected).
I was surprised to see him spinning sans laptop, using two CDJs and two turntables, with a big book of CDs at his disposal and a crate full of records. I guess it all depends on how you learned to do it - records, cds, laptops, Abelton, Traktor, Serator...whatever. Anyway, Lawrence continued the vibe started by Jus-Ed and Anthony Parasole - low impact, dubby house, lots of nice breaks and peaks, just the kind of thing to get the uber-hip DIY House crowd moving. I noticed very few people standing around - even the brave, solo party-goers were up and moving, bouncing along contentedly to the beats being served by Mr. Karsten. A really nice event, all around.
The next day I went to Other Music and picked up his latest disc on Mule Electronic, called 'Until Then Goodbye.' While I was expecting (and hoping for) some of the same vibe to which I'd been treated the previous night at House N Home, instead the new record is more of an experimental, ambient, slow-moving affair. Not that it's not good - I'm enjoying it quite a bit. It's just that coming off the buzz of Saturday's show, I was hoping to have a bit more of the dubby, deep house flavor that made me so happy. I actually would say I prefer Karsten's last album as Sten, called 'The Essence,' which is more of a minimal techno affair.
But whatever - I'm not bitching. House N Home, Lawrence, Mule Electronic: good stuff.
jD
