Carl Cox - "Black Rock Desert"

Carl Cox - "Black Rock Desert"

I’m 23 and I still struggle to tell the difference between the spellings of desert and dessert… and I wouldn’t really want to eat a black rock dessert that’s for sure… anyway, that’s completely off topic, what isn’t off topic, is Global Underground presenting Carl Cox’s latest tasty dessert, Black Rock Desert, a version of his desert doof at which around eight thousand boot and bikini wearing foot stompers rocked up to see Carl doing what he does best, in a red Mohican Indian headdress inside a giant metal egg suspended above the Black Rock Desert in Nevada, America.

….. What??

Don’t worry, Global Underground wouldn’t produce it if it wasn’t good – as one of the most well respected labels around today, GU was launched in 1996 and is responsible for releasing some of the most cutting edge dance music like James Lavelle’s UNKLE, made soundtracks for some of the world’s most popular TV shows such as CSI, and some of PlayStation’s biggest selling games, and, staged fantastic parties in some of the world’s most exotic locations. So Carl’s silver egg stint may sound a bit whacky, but it’s taken from his two hour set that was part of a week long festival known as the Opulent Temple, a community funded arts and music project that attracts around 48,000 people per year who pack their campervans full of raver pants, and any strange head gear they can find and head out into the blistering sun to pay homage to some of the most amazing artists of our time, giving up their own time for free. Carl himself even admits it cost him a lot of money to be able to be there to play for the masses, but he knew the vibe would be well worth it.

If you haven’t heard of Carl Cox then it may be best you leave your computer screen now and get thee to a music store for a culture injection. He came to fame in the late 80’s when he was dubbed the ‘Three Deck Wizard’ for playing three turntables at once as a hardcore and acid house DJ. He went on to tour almost everywhere and head two large record labels, Intec Records and 23rd Century Records. He went on to be the first person to be named number one DJ in the world on DJ Magazine's Top 100 DJ poll in 1997.

The live bush festival vibe of the Opulent Temple festival means several things for this set when converted to the Carl Cox Black Rock Desert album. One, this week long American desert dance crazed stint may be hard to emulate in your own home, no matter how loud your neighbours let you play it before they call the police. However on the other hand, you can get a taste of what made the occasion so special, and if you’ve ever been lucky enough to be at a doof like this one before, you can keep the memories fresh in your mind with this CD. But these aren’t songs by Carl Cox, his Black Rock desert set list included a variety of amazing artists as Hijacker, Skylark, Onionz, Robbie Rivera, Abi Bah, Umek and Politeca. Haven’t heard of them? Good, prepare to have your mind blown.

Most tracks on this double disk set have a distinct Carl Cox flavour, like each of the artists is somewhat a protégé of his. It took me a couple of listens for it to grow on me, I couldn’t decide if I wanted it to just be backing music to my night in, or whether I wanted to rock out to it – it sort of sits in a crack between the two. The similarities between the songs meant that sometimes I was confused as to which I was listening to, and became distracted, waiting for the beat to change up a bit, but I imagine one would think differently when dancing up a storm in a desert. If you’ve ever seen pictures of what went on while Carl was playing this live, you’ll notice the great lengths everybody went to in order to dress up in the craziest attire they could think of; pigs face masks, tin heads, riding on rockets, faces covered in green paint, baubles of light hanging off heads, laser guns, feathers coming off faces in all directions, all of which must have given it a strangely tribal Mayan masquerade vibe. The music mimics this exactly with tribal beats, different drums and more chanting rather than singing – of which there is very little anyway. The songs are earthy, with simple melodies laid on top of each other until they build a wall of sound. The lack of lyrics gives more of a bush festival vibe to the first CD, whereas in the second CD the sounds build up with minor chords and islander style beats in songs such as Alex Dias’s ‘Scientific (Nato Medrado Remix)’, making this my favourite to shake limbs to.

This mix is quite profound, and you have to tip your hat to Carl’s ingenuity in finding these cutting edge, fresh songs and making them work in the strange barren setting that would have been the Black Rock Desert. It’s powerful in its simplicity, and helped a city kid like myself understand how location changes music. Play it next time you feel like dancing with your clan, or busting out the U-Haul and hauling it into the desert (after you hear this you just might be inspired to go!).

- Alinta Krauth