Inside 43215: Downtown Draw
Revelers strapped on their dancing shoes for the Beatscape party al fresco this past summer. Held in Pearl Alley between Broad and Gay Streets, the Beatscape free concert series featured influential talent from the national and international electronic dance music scene. It was hosted by Blubuni, an event production company started by Danielle Brodowski and Eric Lyons.
“We are trying to invent something different for downtown Columbus to attract the hip, young, creative generation,” said Brodowski.
Beatscape launched in June with big names in “wonky”-style techno from London and Toronto. In July, the heavy-hitter trend continued with Derrick May and his protege DJ Bone, both from Detroit. Their style: “hi-tek soul,” a new name that May, one of the three original creators of techno, invented to overcome the genre’s misleading bad-boy image. The July show also reatured Columbus’ own Midislut.
”Around the world, people think ‘techno’ is drug-driven and all about staying up all night long,” Brodowski said. “That’s why we wanted to take it out of the club. It’s not about staying up all night; it’s about quality music, and these musicians play their heart out.”
In August, NYC-based former Columbusite Todd Sines and current Columbusite Doughboy performed, and the summer series concluded September 8 with a rare five-hour, all-vinyl original dub set by Detroit’s Stacey Pullen. The September show ran in conjunction with a Streetspace event, where several urban artists contributed to the rotating mural at Pearl and Gay.
September 18th, 2007 at 3:12 pm
It would have been nice to see a posting on this before the series had ended. D’oh!
Evidently there were advertising posters but they must not have made their way to the parts of downtown that I have been frequenting. Why was this series over on Sept 8th? It seems like it could run at least another month with the continued warm weather we are having. Maybe next time the What’s Happening Downtown story can be done in advance instead of it being more like a “What Happened Downtown All Summer Long that I am Kicking Myself for not Hearing About In Time To Enjoy It?”
I appreciate electronic beat sliced and diced / D&B / techno / jazz mix sample music and I am not in it for anything other than the pure enjoyment of the music. Columbus needs more of this kind of event.