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When I was preparing in the weeks leading up to Por Detroit in LA I had a mental image of a huge and rather intimidating warehouse filled with 700 or so gays, performers and high-production lights and decorations, falling somewhere between Cocktail d’Amore and circuit party. Not that I’ve ever been to a proper circuit party, but I’ve been to gay parties that felt on the spectrum. The vibe would be hedonistic and probably pretty dark, so the music might have to match. While I didn’t anticipate having to play Berghain techno or they/themcore (a concept I’m sure will be expanded on in future Remix Roundtables), I did figure that this might not be the time for the more sunshiney music I was planning to play in NOLA the weekend before.
I also thought that the other DJ on the night would be Por Detroit’s co-founder in Mexico City, Kodemul, who plays a whole range of music (check this mix for a good idea) but at these parties seems to focus on the heavier side of things. So I put together a playlist leaning in that direction, trying to hit that sweet spot between what I thought people would want (heavier, simpler, more immediate), and what I thought they might not want but would nonetheless appreciate (more ambiguous, potentially even some sad bangers).
Then, less than a week before the party, almost all of this thinking went out of the window. First I found out that this particular instalment of Por Detroit would be a smaller than usual affair - 300 people - with minimum spectacle and ‘intimate’ vibes. It would be held in the same warehouse as their larger parties but in the room that usually acts as the bar. Lights would be limited to a laser, there would be hosts but no performers, tickets were limited. And Kodemul couldn’t make it, so I would be joined by the other PD co-founder Perfect Lovers and Victor Rodriguez, who runs the legendary gay LA disco/house institution Bears In Space, among other things.
On first glance this looked to be much more my beach (as the Portuguese say), but I couldn’t help a little disappointment at the missed opportunity of playing the big intimidating party. I wanted to see if I could face it head on and succeed, but now that test of courage would have to wait for another time. It also threw a bit of spanner in the works of my music preparation. Of course I could have stuck to my original plan, but this felt like a different party proposition and the professional thing to do was to change tack. It was still going to be a hedonistic sex party, sure, but without the pressure to fill a big warehouse with sufficient energy it now felt like extra space had opened up for more of the deeper and ambiguous selections I had been toying with.
And so it proved to be.