London Xpress - Echo Festival
- 00:03:10
- YouTube
London Xpress - Echo Festival
A promotional video for the 2003 ECHO Festival on Big War Island in Belgrade, Serbia. "Mired in what, from the outside, looked like true Balkan chaos," wrote a visiting BBC reporter, "the festival always looked as if it was on the brink of falling apart." For TV adverts, see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPN_KE... And: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFRTjh-RI2c Other promotional videos are here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDZ7Q8sdxP8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58J-mWmAaKQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWqCYXF4QY4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWoCZkMS_58 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=En2KsyuhcN0 -- TRANSCRIPT: Ever since electronic music became mainstream more than 10 years ago, club culture has been trying to reinvent itself. The search for innovation in dance music is what keeps it alive. Without new influences and advances in technology, it would quickly stagnate into a continuous loop of repetitive beats. Trends come and go all the time, but the ingredients for a good club remain the same: fresh music and a heavyweight soundsystem. In the 1990's, clubs seemed to get bigger every year, spilling over into music festivals and, in Berlin, a free party for one million people known as the Love Parade. A backlash was inevitable. Clubbers in cities like London and New York started to search out smaller venues. Instead of big-name DJs, they wanted to hear more sophisticated music. The London Xpress Stage at the Echo Festival features DJs who've been innovating for years, fusing different styles to create new sounds. They're not all from London. Some are from Scandinavia, others are French and a few come from America. What they have in common is a pioneering spirit and a love of good music. London Xpress started as a radio show, offering DJs a chance to experiment with different sounds. Before long it had evolved into a London club night with the same groundbreaking spirit. PETE Z (Block 16): "I think there's definitely more of a soulful feeling based on songs, melody and funk, all of those things combined" The ECHO festival gives them the chance to transport the atmosphere of an intimate urban venue to a huge open-air club. As a DJ, that can be quite a challenge. EWAN PEARSON: "I played in Barcelona once to about 10,000 people and I got really scared and kind of hid behind the table. I'd never seen so many people in my life" DJs are excited to play in Serbia because they've heard about how well the crowd responds to good music. And that's what the London Xpress Stage is all about.
YouTube | March 2, 2008
