In 1990 a teenager in Montreal named Ryan Lair had begun his days of partying in the gay house music scene. At the time the only place you could go to hear this type of music was at a club called Crisco. Within a year Ryan found himself promoting for the first rave in Montreal, titled Solstice. In 1991 the Montreal rave scene was made up of parties in warehouses. The early rave scene was a combination of the gay house music clubbers and a new breed of young party people. The vibe of Montreal throughout this time was centered primarily around house music. Ryan had soon entered the dj circuit as RC Lair and had developed a following in Montreal. In 1994 he moved to Phoenix, AZ to experience a completely different scene.
The rave scene is Arizona was mostly into speedier tempos. Soulful house music was not widely accepted and genres like hardcore, trance and drum & bass dominated the scene. This would continue to be the pace for the Arizona scene for years to come.
In 1994 an annual party had come into being, hosted by Swell/Basshead Productions, called Musik. Swell was the name of a clothing/record store that was owned by Alyssa & Russ Ramirez, however the production company also included Scotty Mckenzie. The annual Musik event had become a much respected event throughout Arizona, hosted on the last Saturday of every month. It was considered blatant disrespect for any other local promoters to host parties on the same night. However Wise Guy Productions, led by Darren Blatt, took on the challenge by hosting Tranceformation on the same annual date.
In 1998, Musik was held at the Hyster Building which was a warehouse near the intersection of Ninth Ave & Madison. The party featured Superstar DJ Keoki, Mike Dearborne, Kelly Reverb as well as RC Lair and was also hosted by Z-Trip. Unfortunately the party was eventually busted by the Phoenix police. The bust allegedly took place after Ramirez had shown all of the party permits to the police officer when a kid lost control of an acid trip, took off his clothes and ran outside naked.
Another popular event in Arizona is the annual Earthdance. The idea was conceived in 1996 by an artist/musician named Chris Deckker as a vision to unite the whole world through the universal platform of dance & music. Earthdance has become the largest globally synchronized event in the world. What began in 1997 with 22 cities in 18 countries has grown exponentially each year. The 1998 Earthdance was hosted on Saturday October 10th in a giant airplane hanger Mesa, Arizona and drew a crowd of 1500+ people. However it was busted by 1am and moved to the Nile Theater which was the alternative location. The lineup featured dj's like Pete Salaz, Hipp-E, Lego, and Kevin Brown. At 12 midnight GMT every dj around the world played the same track for world peace and at the same time unified dancefloors and all the dancers.
1998 also saw the continued pursuit of desert raves, which had always been popular in Arizona. One special event during this year was the Emerald Forest parties. The venue was nestled in the foothills of Tonto National Park in a tiny valley that was known as "The Emerald Forest." Emerald Forest 2 which was hosted on May 9, 1998 featured a lineup of Adam Case, CL McSpadden, and Mitch Mills. The follow-up to this event was hosted later in the year on October 3, 1998 featuring 9 dj's playing mainly trance, hard acid and drum & bass.
During the same year a popular house music & garage night had open up called Red Monkey at the Riverbottom Lounge. The event was hosted by Pete Salaz who, like RC Lair, had a deep passion for house music and soulful melodies. Overall the crowd was mature but there was a definitely mix of ravers and non-ravers.
This mix is a session of deep house and tech house from 1998. The reason I chose to host this along with this chapter is because I can relate to the way that RC Lair felt when moving to Arizona, expecting crowds to love the house music he was playing but he had to develop himself and transform his sound, tailoring it to the crowd and the venue. This is something that I have to do on a weekly basis when I travel from city to city or from venue to venue.
David Alvarado - T.O.
Two Right Wrongans - Straight Ahead Then Take The Next Wrong
Adam X - Deepest Memory
Omega Man - Imaginary Trip
Vincenzo - King's Last Ride
Solomonic Sound - Seeing Clear
Kenny Hawkes - Sleaze Dubbing
Mannequin Lung - City Lights
Freestyle Man & Morris Brown - Remedy
