Speaking of
all things James Cathcart, his monthly event at The Stone Fox,
Space is The Place, has become a dance-floor homebase for a surprisingly diverse group of folk — first and foremost forward-thinking and retro-minded gays, fashionistas looking for historic coke jams, old-school electro/hip-hop heads, people looking to recreate the sound of European vacations both concrete and abstract, and people who just want to experience something different. Those looking for a nonironic dance party that eschews drama and attitude — as well as a more intimate venue that remembers the Dionysian revel and pays homage, keeps the scale a bit more managed, and provides comfy seating, libations a-plenty, and dining options if need be — are directed this Valentine's Day evening to Cathcart's little cosmos of Italo disco.
If you truly love the sound of electronic music, it can be hard to find the perfect way to experience it in a public context. The big dance clubs can be overwhelming on the senses, not particularly conducive to conversation, anecdotes, or having that kind of existential moment in the flash of colored lights that gives you true perspective as to exactly who you are as a human being. You know the feeling — that instant your heart keeps time with the programmed boom-boom that for all intents and purposes powers the whole universe.
So if you want to have that disco moment — if you want a post-dubbed John Hughes environment — if you need that momentary oblivion of Thee Infinite Beat — then Space is The Place.
Drawing from psychedelic musics from all over the world, including (but not limited to) Krautrock, Belgian EBM (electronic body music), the Screwed sound of Houston, Chicago step, and Swedish worksongs, filmmaker, programmer, and occasional Scene contributor Cathcart creates a global context for Italo, the not-specifically Italian subgenre of European dance music that defined dancefloors throughout Europe, Asia, Scandinavia, and the Middle East in the period following the undergrounding of disco. Taking a cue from the DJs who created the New Beat phenomenon in the late ‘80s, Cathcart slows things down, keeping the floor consistently moving rather than exhausting his throng with constant, step-sapping fusillades of beats. Always the melody holds forth, with strange sounds that skew embracing rather than abrasive.
Think the inverse of dubstep.
Working in conjunction with VJ Zack Hall (and, if you’re lucky, a smoke machine), Cathcart helps create a space that may never have physically existed; it’s said that memory is a filter that polishes some grain of the past til it shines like something unearthly, leaving the rest to fall away. For now, with its 111 BPM groove welcoming like the womb, Space is The Place makes new disco memories that gleam. And what better a place to find your own strobelit romance this Valentine’s Day?
