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AS a skinny college kid making my way in the muck
that was the mid-nineties, the concept of raves was something I only
heard about in after-class conversations over fishballs and buko
juice. There were whispers about these mysterious events that were
held at the unlikeliest of places, where people supposedly danced
until their legs and lungs gave out and they had to drag their
sweat-soaked bodies to the sides for some much needed aqua or
cerveza break. These roving dance-parties that went by the name
“Consortium” were always a source of wonder to me, mainly
because I never got to go to any of them. By the time the early
2000’s rolled around, I hardly ever heard the name again.
Fast forward to today. The text
message from Toti Dalmacion confirmed what was being buzzed about
for weeks since his one-off return to the turntables at Warehouse
135 earlier this year: Consortium was back. That he chose to send
out the announcement during Easter was appropriate. It’s a rebirth
of sorts for the pioneer of the underground rave scene in the
country.
For the uninitiated, Dalmacion is
widely regarded as the godfather of house and techno music in these
parts. Cynics and naysayers might raise their carefully tweezered
eyebrows and insist otherwise, but nobody can deny what Toti, who
now also runs the independent label Terno Recordings, has done for
the local electronic music scene. Through Groove Nation, his record
store-turned-collective of DJs, musicians and music lovers, he
introduced to the country a movement in electronic dance music that
was sweeping the globe. Disappointed and uncomfortable with the
local club scene, where venues required guests to dress up in
long-sleeved, collared shirts and leather shoes, the music mirroring
just about every other local club and the crowd mostly to see and be
seen, Toti was bent on overhauling the landscape with the kind of
music and unbridled, unhinged clubbing experience he was exposed to
when he DJ’d and lived abroad.
And so Groove Nation’s roving
dance club Consortium was born. The first major Consortium event was
held at the National Library in October 1995. From the get-go, Toti
and his cohorts’ ideals were simple: discriminate against no one
and showcase the truest essence of techno and house music. Whether
you were from Dasmariñas Village or Dasmariñas, Cavite, as long as
you were looking to groove to some serious underground, quality
dance tunes, you were in.
And the music really was
underground. You wouldn’t hear radio or local club staples like
Haddaway, Robert Miles or Alice Deejay in Consortium . Instead you
got the real deal – they flew in credible and highly respected DJs
and producers like Derrick May, Laurent Garnier, Josh Wink, Derrick
Carter and many others for their one-of-a-kind meets. It could be at
an abandoned car showroom in Makati or the unfinished basement of a
mall in Pasig. Wherever it was, it was pure, unrelenting,
head-shaking, feet-tapping, arm-twisting, soul-shaking dance music.
The Consortium turntable stopped
spinning in 2002, partly because more and more entities were getting
in on the action and setting up their own parties with a very
commercial direction, and partly due to some internal issues within
Groove Nation. But now, after a six-year hiatus and at the prodding
of the guys from Musiklokal.com and Warehouse 135, Toti is bringing
Consortium back, ready to dazzle the house and techno purists, music
freaks, partygoers and scenesters with some genuinely spasm-inducing
beats. The man himself is spinning, along with special guest,
tech-house pioneer, Nathan Coles of Fabric//Wiggle UK and
co-Consortium resident Benjie Lopez. It promises to be one hell of a
“welcome back” party and, as a Consortium virgin, I can’t
wait.
Those looking for the likes of
Moony, Bonnie Bailey and similar lightweight dance pop ditties to be
dropped in the set might do well to steer clear of Warehouse 135
this coming Saturday. Doors open at 9 p.m.
E-mail the author at pjcana@gmail.com
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