London and NYC Club and Concert Listings
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Club Night: François Kevorkian’s Deep Space - Cielo, NYC - Monday 12 May 2003
Reviewer: Andy Newcombe
Whilst walking around New York’s Meat Packing District trying to locate the venue for this evening’s musical
installment, you get the sensation of it being an area with a lot to offer. Every so often the street
buzzes as a group dashes from taxi to dimly lit door. A snippet of music is heard. A door shuts. The street
returns to normal.
François Kevorkian’s latest club project, Deep Space, is about dub in all of its musical iterations - from
Jamaican vintage grooves to spacey and abstract new electronic sounds, and just about anything in between. As
soon as you step into Cielo, the setting for Deep Space (and a recent addition to New York’s clubland), you
feel like you’ve just boarded the Starship Enterprise, albeit with a very different captain in control.
After being greeted by various members of the Deep Space crew, we sit ourselves down in some suitably
comfortable couches and watch the club slowly fill. Checking out my surroundings, I begin to sense that
perhaps Mr. Kevorkian has been waiting for the right platform to launch his new project; at Cielo no detail
has been overlooked, from the amazing sound system (installed by UK audio experts, Funktion 1), to the
incredible interior. And as for you smokers (red, gold or green), don’t worry - there’s a garden out back
with a vast adjoining window into the club, ensuring you don’t miss out on any of the action.
FK’s musical selection is spot-on, delving deep into his thirty years of music experience, and taking us on an
aural expedition in the process. Successively dropping tracks from Alice Coltrane, Carl Craig, Bob Marley,
Augustus Pablo, and the Dubtribe Sound System may, on paper, look like a haphazard musical trail. But the
way FK brings it all together – with bass-shaking mixes soaked with trademark dub style effects – gives it all
great purpose.
The musical depth (and breadth) of the night becomes even more apparent as the evening’s guest, Mutabaruka,
takes to the edge of the dance floor for his performance. The crowd eases from dub disco to attentive
audience as this legendary Jamaican poet punctuates his socio-political poetry with jovial conversation,
making you feel like you’re hanging out chez Mutabaruka. And he continues to humor ‘his’ guests whilst
dropping classic prose like his 'The Monkey and Dis Poem', all the while never letting you forget his message
of justice, freedom, and equality.
Following another set from FK, we get to witness the first public performance of a collaboration between the
two legends. The thing is, having been treated to Mutabaruka’s solo (with a message so loud and so clear), I
can’t help but feel that this is a token gesture of sorts - that what, in reality, is just an afro-house
backing track is somewhat redundant. Perhaps, with time, something more special can be developed.
But it’s safe to say that a good night has been had by all; the crowd of dub heads, white dreads, some Body &
Soul faithful, and the odd designer thread (possibly Cielo regulars), have been positively vibed. And it’s
clear that François K, with Deep Space and its respectful nods back to the roots of dub music and everything
that has been inspired by it, has once again created something exceptional.
Peeling ourselves out of our couches (with which we had most definitely become ‘one’), the desire for a quick
fix of rice and peas dissipates as the realization sets in that the chances of locating such an eatery in
the West Village is somewhere in the region of zero. So, feeling particularly righteous, we jump on the next
zion train (okay, taxi) home.
Deep space takes place every Monday.
DIRECTIONS:
Cielo - 18 Little West 12th Street between Ninth Ave and Washington St. 212 645 5799.
Subway: A, C, E to 14th st; L to Eighth Avenue.
EARLY WARNING:
Look out for Deep Space touching down in London at Plastic People on August 2 2003,
and in Tokyo towards the end of August. Also keep an ear out for the first Deep Space compilation which is
scheduled for release in the Fall of 2003.
RELATED LINKS:
Deep Space
Mutabaruka Biography
Cielo
Wave Music
PUBLISHED: Friday 23 May 2003
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::: RELATED LINKS
Deep Space
Mutabaruka Biography
Cielo
Wave Music
More Reviews
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