Orion Hall reported by Gary

Orion Hall is a name which stands out for a number of reasons.  For a lot of people it stands out as the Brno rave which people know and love.  For me, it takes looking back into history and finding some of the best line-ups this country has ever seen.

Last year, when I heard Robert Hood was playing at OH, I was desperate to go.  Hood in my books, and in the books of most ravers into techno, is one of the best DJs and producers in the world today.  However, due to illness I missed the gig.  When I saw the line-up for the latest Orion Hall, I knew I’d be there with bells on! 

All-Stars was too soft a title for that line-up, and my British colleagues on the Little Detroit forum were filled with jealousy.  Initial talk on the Czech forums however, disappointed me.  Talk of a weak line-up was just crazy.  It was obvious that a few people had chosen not to bother doing any research into these names.  As a promoter, I often get asked to bring over names which in the Czech Republic have never been heard.  I try to do that, as did the promoters of OH.  But when it happens, critics then criticise for bringing over ‘unknown’ names (little knowing that the names at OH are the types of DJs who get supported by the likes of Carl Cox, rather than them supporting him!!)

All this is by the by, and for our foreign audience, this is how the Line-up looked:
Hardfloor Live, Carl Craig, Steve Rachmad, Fumiya Tanaka, Nika77, KaiserSoze.  Claude Young was scheduled to come, but due to immigration problems in the UK he was unable to travel.  This meant a second stage was introduced, giving us some minimal to listen to.

I arrived at around 8:30pm, before opening, and immediately sensed this was not going to be a sell-out event.  I immediately felt pretty bad, and hoped that enough people would turn up for a good atmosphere.  I was not disappointed.  The attendance was strong enough to make for a wicked time.  Finally the gates opened, and in we went.

The Pavilion was extremely modern, and extremely cold.  However the first thing which hit me was the massive waste of space.  I was under the impression that there would be a massive space for the mainstage, and a massive space for the second stage.  Instead, I was greeted by a load of stalls, and a (for once well-organised) cloakroom.  First impression?  “Where the hell is the second stage??”  I’d find it later of course.

For me, Kaisersoze warmed up the crowd nicely on the mainstage.  He opened with some pretty tame old school techno, and moved up to some harder stuff before Nika77 came on.  Amongst my friends, Kaiser either has a really good reputation or a really bad one…my view on that is, he knows how to play a good techno set when he wants to!  One question I may have for him is this though; “Did you open with Papua New Guinea? Because I’m sure I heard it, but was in the toilet at the time!”

Nika77 notched up the bpms very slightly when she came on, and straight away it was obvious she belonged at Orion Hall.  An old school, all star set; for an old school, all star line-up.  The highlight of my night was hearing some classic Planetary Assault Systems, and Dave Clarke’s Red 2 (which I would hear one more time during the night). 

12am, the headliners began.  Seeing Hardfloor for me is almost as important as seeing Kraftwerk…almost.  They didn’t disappoint.  Massive lasers signalled something very special was about to happen, and immediately half the crowd were disappointed to find that Hard doesn’t always mean 155bpm!  Melodic, acid riffs sent a wave of arms in the air from those in the know, and all around me I was hearing a mix of either “this is amazing!”, “this is real music!” or “what the hell is this shit?”  I didn’t care.  I was lost in my world of Hardfloor, it was a journey through sound, and everyone near me loved it.  The fact that it was slow didn’t bother me, because it was so full of music that I just had to dance.  Right then, it didn’t bother me if there were 5000 people, or just one; me.  Out came the phone, and straight away I was calling friends in the UK.  “You have to hear this!” 

One hour of Hardfloor was nowhere near enough.  It was like hearing Shawn Rudiman Live in Slovakia this year, after an hour, I was desperate for more, but it wasn’t to be.

Before Orion Hall, I was sat with a group of UK DJs, who know the Czech scene well, who said to me, “I’d like to see the Czech reaction to Carl Craig…who blatantly doesn’t play much techno anymore.”  Carl Craig is a DJ who is always going to be a headliner…at the same time, he is always going to be called a techno DJ, just like Stacey Pullen.  So he’s not going to be booked for any house events anytime soon.  At the same time, he’s going to piss off a lot of tech-heads.  Put him on first?  You do not put Carl Craig on first.  What to do with him?

I went to Orion Hall, knowing that things were going to get funky at around 1am.  Carl opened up with some very nice acid house, then started jacking out the booty Chicago beats, before moving on to some wicked Detroit old school around the high point of his set.  I was standing talking to my colleague Pav at the time (who didn’t seem too impressed…could be wrong though J) when I heard Rolando’s Jaguar.  Carl had obviously mixed in the original to the Mills release, but the output of what could have been some great mixing work, was a messed up humm of over the top bass, and missing middles… Once again, headline DJs fell victim to bad sound; something nearly everyone I spoke to complained about all night.

Steve Rachmad hovered behind Carl all night, and come 3am, on he came.  Steve’s set was interesting, but failed to keep my attention.  He was a little 4x4 for me, and all a much of a muchness.  Maybe I was spoiled by the funk of Craig’s set, or maybe it was a few personal matters going on at the time…

4am meant cloakroom closing time.  I couldn’t really understand that.  The reasoning was obvious, to stop cloakroom raiding at the end of the night, but surely there were better ways to handle this.  I personally didn’t feel like carrying my coat around for another hour or so!

Tanaka is often referred to as the Japanese Mills.  I only caught about 20 minutes of his set as I had to catch a bus, but what I heard seriously made me want to stay.  Technically perfect, with a seriously cool sound made my tired eyes wake right up! 

During the night I eventually found the Second stage.  A slap on the back of the head would have cured my sight problem, as I must have looked right at the stage at least five times without realising it…the fact there was a DJ playing to a group of people dancing should have been a dead give away!

I arrived in time to see Kaiser swap hats to become Aleph.  It’s actually the first time I’d seen him play minimal, and was delighted by what I heard.  His Aleph guise has a lot of potential.  It also gave me time to get introduced to Subsist, and to have a chat with the fella.  A very nice guy, who I look forward to speaking to again soon!

I never spent longer than ten minutes at a time on the second stage, due to my friends on the mainstage, but I liked most of what I heard…all except for Oliver Hacke, who seemed to be playing some sort of cheesy electroclash when I arrived; but apparently that’s minimal in Germany…???

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed Orion Hall. It was my third, and definitely not my last.  I have a lot of respect for Kaiser and Gabo for putting on a party of this kind for a crowd which is not really in the know.  I also know how hard it is to hear the criticism of a small group of people after who only want hard fast beats.  My reply to that is…we can’t all be young.  One thing OH needs to work on though, is the quality of the sound.  The complaint has been there before, I believe the problem was at the Carl Cox gig too, but I was busy analysing the bad sound at the Saunderson & Mills gig at Lost in London at that time J. 

For travellers from abroad who wish to learn more about Orion Hall and the Brno dance scene in general.  Please email me on Gary@techno.cz and I will send as much information to you as I can about events, accommodation, and transport from Prague.