Spundae @ Vision

March 2, 2004 5:25 PM
by

An unlikely combination of musical styles turned out perfectly for Spundae, as Holland’s Lucien Foort and Britain’s DJ Hyper put together an amazing five hours of music at Vision in Chicago.

Walking into Vision for the first time, the size of the place is what stands out immediately.

The massive main room, which goes up four floors, has an elevated DJ booth that looks down onto the crowd in the main room.

It was from the main room that Hyper’s opening breakbeat laced set worked its magic over the crowd.

Banging out of the club’s fantastic sound system the Bedrock resident started out with some funkier tunes before progressing into the harder stuff.

People slowly filtered out to the dance floor, drawn by the pounding beats that were steadily being worked into a frenzy by a flawlessly mixing Hyper.

About a half hour into his set Hyper finally let go and unleashed a massive breakdown that left the crowd jumping up and down.

This scenario was repeated several more times over the next two plus hours.

In each instance though, Hyper somehow managed to crank things up a little more.

By this point the packed dance floor was going nuts and the stage was set for Lucien Foort to take the decks.

Foort’s slowly building progressive / tech house set was an immediate change of pace from Hyper’s furious combination of breaks and house.

Yet somehow the two styles seemed to flow together and the crowd began reacting enthusiastically to the highly energetic Foort.

“The energy I get from a room is one of my favorite things about being a DJ,” said Foort in an interview with Hyper earlier that evening.

“You actually feel the energy go up in the room.”

“I love it,” added Hyper about that special connection that occurs between the crowd and a DJ. “It’s crazy, I love the chaos of it all.”

Although Foort slowed things down a bit, his control of the crowd was evident immediately. “You try to get them in your hand as soon as possible,” said Foort.

“I’m aggressive. I get into a zone”

By 3 a m. the Dutch DJ was through teasing the crowd and the club was rocking again.

Foort, clearly now in that zone that he spoke about earlier, laid down an intricate mixture of techy, tribal and progressive house that flowed together beautifully.

Foort proceeded to pound away at the dance floor for the next two hours, driving the crowd in a mad frenzy.

As the night closed out, a weary but energetic crowd bid farewell to the two fantastic DJs who had treated them to five hours of amazing, and diverse music.

Since coming to Chicago, Spundae has added a much-needed element to the Chicago nightclub scene.

By bringing in superstar DJs such as Tiesto, Armin Van Buuren and Mauro Picotto, and pairing them with equally talented, although less recognized DJs such as Three and Steve Porter, Spundae offers clubbers a variety of musical styles every week.

Both DJs talked about how much they enjoy playing in Chicago before the show.

“I think it’s a bit more liberated here,” said Foort, who has played in the city five times. “The people come out for the music.”

Aside from playing out at events like this, both Foort and Hyper have been extremely busy in the studio.

Foort’s newest compilation, “Slice,” and Hyper’s “Bedrock Breaks: Fractured,” a follow up to his last stunning Bedrock album, will both be released on April 29.

Some lighter moments from the evening that have to be mentioned included our interview being interrupted by an older woman who wanted to take a picture of Foort’s dreadlocks, and Hyper’s dramatic slip and fall after completing his set.

Not to worry though, he was up and moving again shortly after the incident, and there was no lasting damage.

He quickly recovered, and joined the rest of the club in grooving to Foort’s.