early compared to the years when the possibility of the festival happening was completely in doubt. not early compared to when competing festivals worldwide such as Sonar and Mutek start announcing their lineups. and with the unprecedented continuity in promotion team as well as the obvious strong organization, there is NO EXCUSE FOR WAITING SO LONG TO ANNOUNCE IT. the earlier they announce the lineup (even if they just toss up 1/2-3/4 of what will be the final lineup), the more international presence there will be. end of story.

“second, there was PLENTY of crap music wise this year but there was also PLENTY of REALLY good stuff. i don’t know how you can say that ghetto tech and booty house is any less crap then say cassy or zip or cobblestone jazz (which are FAR from crap by the way).”

i am not sure what review you read where i said that Cobblestone Jazz or Zip were crap. in fact, if you go back and look i mentioned that Zip played some nice stuff perfect for warming up for DBX and that i straight up missed CJ even though i wanted to check them out.

“cassy & zip are 2 of the best most in demand and most underground house/minimal house dj’s in the world. cassy is the resident DJ at one of the biggest and most well known clubs in europe and zip runs one of the biggest labels in electronic music. and both ROCKED it this year. lee burridge is a resident at THE biggest most reputable club in europe (ie. fabric) and is one of he best DJ’s in the world!”

i want you to guess how much the phrases “most in demand”, “one of the biggest and most well known clubs in europe”, “runs one of the biggest labels in electronic music”, and “a resident at THE biggest most reputable club in europe” mean to me. i’ll give you a second to meditate on that.

“godfather on the other hand is one of the cheesiest most watered down and mainstream detroit dj’s there is!”

he is only one of the people behind the invention of a whole style of muisc.

“matthew hawtin played one of the most amazing oldschool ambient sets i’ve ever heard and tycho played some of the most stunning IDM i’ve ever heard!”

good for them!

“and thats all on top of carl craig, deepchord, egyption lover, DBX etc…”

4 artists that i care about. whoopty dee. that would have made up one afternoon of music at the 03 festival.

“maybe you need to open your mind a bit musicaly and try looking around the festival for good music rather then just going to see who you know and then making rediculous generalazations about everyone else!”

open MY mind musically? hahahahahaha.

“there wasn’t as big of an international presence this year as there has been in the past that is true. but that is not only at the festival. WMC was the same. and i don’t think it is the festival or WMC’s fault either. it’s because A LOT of international people don’t want to deal with all the crap of GOV. gives people as far as passports, visa’s etc… are concerned and it’s also because a lot of people don’t want to come to this country because of GWB. and to add to that the econemy SUCKS and people just don’t have the money to spend of long trips to the US like they used to. the festival has very little to do with it.”

i’m not sure how much you understand currency exchange, but after reading this comment i am going to guess the answer is nothing at all. the dollar is EXTREMELY weak against the pound and euro right now. aside from paying for the plane ticket in their own currency, a european or british traveller can have up to twice the buying power here that they can in their own country. it is the cheapest it has ever been for them to do anything in america. none of my friends from out of the country had anything to say about the airport nonsense, in fact that has been a problem the entire festival except for the first two that happened before 9/11 and yet there was always a much higher number of intercontinental heads at the festival. the problem was the continued lateness of the lineup, the lack of talent that they can’t already see in europe or the UK much more easily, and a good bit of resignation that the lineup just wasn’t very good compared to other years.

“as for paying for the festival goes why don’t you just shut it! it’s $40 for 3 days! you pay $20 or $25 + to get into a club on any give saturday night to hear a dj (most of the time a local dj at that) play for 2 or 3 hours while at the festival you pay $40 for 36 hours of music from some of the biggest names in music that anywhere else would cost you an arm and a lag to go see individually. yeah, you’re not going to want to see EVERYONE that is playing but even if you only want to see 5 artists all weekend it’s worth the $40! you’d have to pay 2 or 3 or maybe even 4 times that much to see ANY of those 5 artists individually in a normal club on a normal weekend night so quit complaining about the $40 fee and the preceaved lack of talent that you seem to have.”

you must be retarded, because i dont see where i mentioned having a problem with myself paying for the festival. what i did say was that the ever increasing price is limiting the local inner city Detroit crowd who isn’t interested in paying $25 a day for an outdoor rave but who always came down when the festival was free to check it out and had a good time. that crowd was a large part of what made the festival so much more than just a rave. now, it is just a rave. i would gladly pay double or triple if it meant that Detroit city residents could get in for free or for a very small (~$5 or so) fee. it would help combat the diversity that is being sucked out of the festival year by year.

“as for the vibe, i though it was ok. was different then in the past. it was most chilled and seemed that everyone there knew each other. it was like one big family this year.”

????

“and it was WAY more musically educated this year then in the past.”

hahahahaha. if you say so, ace.

“i didn’t see any more raverish people this year then in the past. in fact i saw WAY less! the crowd were just way more clued up in general. yeah, you got your mainstream idiots who came to see moby and girl talk and who didn’t have a clue about anything else and you had your ravers who were just there to do drugs and party but in general everyone there knew what was going on musically.”

i am just completely bewildered by this statement.

“i’ll close by saying that for the most part you have NO clue what you are talking about in that review and you shouldn’t be openning your mouth if you don’t know what you’re talking about which obviously you don’t.”

yeah, *i* obviously have no clue what i am talking about. *you* on the other hand, should consider starting your own blog and writing for worldwide publications about Detroit music since you seem to have it all on lock.

second, there was PLENTY of crap music wise this year but there was also PLENTY of REALLY good stuff. i don’t know how you can say that ghetto tech and booty house is any less crap then say cassy or zip or cobblestone jazz (which are FAR from crap by the way). cassy & zip are 2 of the best most in demand and most underground house/minimal house dj’s in the world. cassy is the resident DJ at one of the biggest and most well known clubs in europe and zip runs one of the biggest labels in electronic music. and both ROCKED it this year. lee burridge is a resident at THE biggest most reputable club in europe (ie. fabric) and is one of he best DJ’s in the world! godfather on the other hand is one of the cheesiest most watered down and mainstream detroit dj’s there is! matthew hawtin played one of the most amazing oldschool ambient sets i’ve ever heard and tycho played some of the most stunning IDM i’ve ever heard! and thats all on top of carl craig, deepchord, egyption lover, DBX etc… maybe you need to open your mind a bit musicaly and try looking around the festival for good music rather then just going to see who you know and then making rediculous generalazations about everyone else!

there wasn’t as big of an international presence this year as there has been in the past that is true. but that is not only at the festival. WMC was the same. and i don’t think it is the festival or WMC’s fault either. it’s because A LOT of international people don’t want to deal with all the crap of GOV. gives people as far as passports, visa’s etc… are concerned and it’s also because a lot of people don’t want to come to this country because of GWB. and to add to that the econemy SUCKS and people just don’t have the money to spend of long trips to the US like they used to. the festival has very little to do with it.

as for paying for the festival goes why don’t you just shut it! it’s $40 for 3 days! you pay $20 or $25 + to get into a club on any give saturday night to hear a dj (most of the time a local dj at that) play for 2 or 3 hours while at the festival you pay $40 for 36 hours of music from some of the biggest names in music that anywhere else would cost you an arm and a lag to go see individually. yeah, you’re not going to want to see EVERYONE that is playing but even if you only want to see 5 artists all weekend it’s worth the $40! you’d have to pay 2 or 3 or maybe even 4 times that much to see ANY of those 5 artists individually in a normal club on a normal weekend night so quit complaining about the $40 fee and the preceaved lack of talent that you seem to have.

as for the vibe, i though it was ok. was different then in the past. it was most chilled and seemed that everyone there knew each other. it was like one big family this year. and it was WAY more musically educated this year then in the past. i didn’t see any more raverish people this year then in the past. in fact i saw WAY less! the crowd were just way more clued up in general. yeah, you got your mainstream idiots who came to see moby and girl talk and who didn’t have a clue about anything else and you had your ravers who were just there to do drugs and party but in general everyone there knew what was going on musically.

i’ll close by saying that for the most part you have NO clue what you are talking about in that review and you shouldn’t be openning your mouth if you don’t know what you’re talking about which obviously you don’t.

cheers!

I agree with all the comments made, and was depressed for about 1 week after…The only time I caught a whiff of the D was Kenny Larkin’s mesmerizing set, one of the best I have ever heard (up there with James Pennington 2005 for sure.) Technical difficulties and all I was shaken to the core. It was worth my entire $50 admission and provided a total reprieve from all that weird Roseville gothic candy raver poor excuse for trancy music I heard throughout the weekend. DEMF was so pedestrian and mundane this year, I didn’t even bother with Monday I was so demoralized. Get it together Pax, and restore honor a la 2000-2005 to the DEMF. More LOCALS!!!!, more fringe stuff, More UR! Where were they in the lineup this year anyway?

well?

erm…just like he’s paying attention to them, by signing their records and playing them?

not even the people you praise are as myopic as you are.