Sonar Off | Recap/Review 2012

A fun filled four days in Barcelona for the Sonar Off parties has just lead to a Saturday morning session searching some of the tracks. For many years Sonar festival has been gaining widespread recognition and is now a staple part of the Clubbers calender. More recently the city of Barcelona has been filled by club nights, record labels and international DJs across the week, running one of showcase events in a variety of temporary and permanent venue spaces across the city. Beach bars, hotel rooftops, museums, olympic stadium and even a monastery terrace played host to a range of electronic artists across the week. 

Appollonia Vs Visionquest
Mac Arena Beach Bar

Once – Dan Ghenacia & David Duriez
Arriving as the sun was setting the Mac Arena was filled with 600+ beach revellers huddled around the Beach bar with the Appollonia DJs laying down a range of 4×4 beats. This deep driving atmospheric track blared across the crowd lead by the protrusive snares and puckering groove. 

March (Club Tip Mix) Feat. Franklin Fuentes - The Look
Deep bouncing 1993 classic from Brooklyn/Ibiza DJ legend, Danny Tenaglia producing under one of his aliases. No doubt slipping out for years in his marathon sets, this track was worked through by Shonky as the sun pitched to black. A strong mix of old school knacks, hits, ground breaking freq's; the US vocals still keep this tune close to hand for a host DJs who stay harking back to the early years.

Equilibrio (Original Mix) – Tale Of Us & Visionquest
A deep atmospheric techno dub from the Visionquest crew of Seth Troxler, Ryan Crosson, Shaun Reeves and Lee Curtis who have been working wonders across the electronic music scene of late. Laced with escalating piano synths, furturstic melodies and a errie racking high hits this track closed through the tail end of the session as hundreds remained fixed in a spot on by the Mediterranian sea which was complemented the beach side backdrop tampered by a industrial factory looming from behind. 

 

Wolf + Lamb Experience
Boo Beach Club

Boo Beach club, a boat shaped venue which protruded out into the ocean was host to W+L's first Sonar party which was backed by label associates Slow Hands, Tanner Ross, Soul Clap and Voices of Black. Early sets paved through dreamy lounge sounds and deep disco electronica before merging into a crate digging vinyl showcase of trip hop, deep house, rock and hip hop. Tracks such as Womacks classic 'Teardop' were mixed into Larry Heard, Pepe Bradock and Homework with Nicolas Jaar making an appearance to play his edit of Missy Elliot.

Frequent Flyer feat. Jules Born – Tanner Ross
Tanner Ross followed along the same lounge house dreamy hallucination vein, albeit slightly more uptempo. Featuring vocals by Jules Born, one half of the duo Voices of Black, a variety of 70′s/80′s influenced synths, and a heavy, but groovy bass line, “Flyer” is “sun-soaked electro funk” perfect for riding around with the top down and the system up.

Spyro Evo (Slow Hands Remix) – Chromatic Filters
Downbeat, slo-mo biz number from Chromatic Filters which is out on limited release on Rebirth. Deep electronic acid guitar-tinged track with a backbeat groove chant topped off with leading synths, ska jibes and euphoric reverbed vocals, a staple sound emerging out of Slow Hands live set at Boo Beach Club. 

Love Vibe  (Jimpster Remix) – Iz and Diz
Iz and Diz began making music together in Chicago 1994, recording their first track at the legendary KMS studios in Detroit for the Prescription Records offshoot Balance. Revisiting one of their most notable tracks, Jimpster stears back into house territory with a dreamy, carefully build-up and slowly intensifying version that puts a nice twist on the melancholic piano chords.

Secretsundaze
Poblo Espanyol

Marseille Desole (Original Mix) – John Daly
Sunday played host the Secretsundaze party in the incredible Montjuic hills looking over Barcelona. The walk through Poblo Espanyol lead to the outdoor courtyard set amongst towering trees and mystical winding pathways of the Spanish town. After the sun had set the party moved inside to the Terrrazza, a large multi-leveled space with raised dj booth and a central structure which dancers took full advantage of climbing all over.

 

 

No* 19 Showcase | Social Experiment
Almogavers 86

No19. arrived in Barcelona for their first ever sonar showcase and chosen the brand new Almogavers club with a fully fitted function one sound system to ensure it went off. Following the success of the WMC party, Art Department, Deniz Kurtel, Russ Yallop and Tone of Arc ensured the club stayed open to the early hours with Luca C topping off the show with live vocals from Ali Love

Beautiful World  (Deniz Kurtel Remix) - Amirali
Captivating slice of nu-wave wonky electronic melancholic house with Amirali's gothic vocals quickly being compared to Depeche Mode and Underworld. Deniz Kurtel Bringing down the pace on her set, allowing for plenty of spooky spaciousness, her rework is a master class in progression and sonic texture, effortlessly gliding from futuristic bleeps to funky licks and utilising the melody to devastating effect.

Kiss Jesse On The Dick – Jesse Perez
Out on a mix album from Mr.Nice Guy, "Head, Sex, & Welfare Checks" this stomping track has been sneaking out sets from several of the Rebels. With heavy sampling from the Digital Underground's 1980's hip hop tune 'Kiss You Back' this proven blend will always keep the party pumping.

1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (8 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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4 Comments »

  1. Desire Disco said,

    July 7th, 2012 at 7:48 pm

    How do you know where to find all these tracks???
    You have some really great tunes on here, thanks very much for bringing them to my attention.
    Matt

  2. Sonar Off said,

    July 8th, 2012 at 9:25 am

    When I've looked, flights have been mostly in the range of $1400-1600. I'm holding out a bit longer.

  3. Vasil said,

    July 16th, 2012 at 10:50 pm

    Great quantity of quality tracks. I also have an electronic music blog so if you want you could check it. Keep the good work! Sites like these give people like me great moments!

  4. Joseph Bell said,

    April 9th, 2013 at 1:43 am

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