- Much has been made of Donato Dozzy's almost mythical sets from Labyrinth Festival in Japan. Call it what you will—headfuck, psychedelic or cerebral techno—the Italian has been a key artist in bringing this kind of leftfield music to a broader audience and helping to expose other like-minded artists and labels in the process.
Guildwerks was the site chosen for Dozzy's recent Denver appearance, a unique vast warehouse with winding, meandering hallways set amongst high ceilings and always mutating into differently shaped rooms. As usual, the party was fitted with a full bar, a solid albeit slightly muddy Turbo Sound system and, on this night, the talents of the local AudioPixel lighting crew were in place. By coincidence, there was an alternate party taking place behind random closed doors throughout the warehouse, put on by members of the vast Burning Man community in town. Set-up-wise, the venue was structured differently from the recent show of Justin Sloe and Derek Plaslaiko, opting for a more open main room, which came with mixed feedback from attendees.
All of the opening sets by the locals went down well. Maya Amack played a chugging set of dubby techno to a growing room. MESS DJs and co-promoters on the night Scott Everitt and Trip Coffin then tagged in their usual stellar fashion. Weaving in and out of darker tech house and techno, they stepped up the pace nicely as the scene started to become more visible and a bit messy. With the combination of all in attendance, the adjacent party and the anticipation of the coming set, things became quite ravey in the best of ways.
Photo credit: Michelle Maciel
Dozzy started playing music around 2:00 AM and ended spinning until around 8:30 AM. The time in between this start and end point seemed to be a wormhole in space. His command over the crowd present was, at times, breathtaking. Throw all the clichés out there to describe what he does—tribal is a good descriptor, which makes sense as to why he is such an obvious fit at Labyrinth. It is very much a shared group experience, where he facilitates which direction the group goes in, with a subtle dominance.
On this night, his selections were extremely psychedelic and focused, with 500-plus people freaking out to them. Most were dancing, others were standing in a trance, some even taking their clothes off, a good portion seemingly on enhancers, all together in an interpretation of a shared mental state. At one point around 5:00 AM, Dozzy went without a snare or hit for what seemed like ages. The room felt like it was swelling and was about to implode, before the next arpeggiated line melted in and everyone is led in another direction. The LED backdrop morphed and twisted with him like an old companion. The vibe was thick and generally positive, but it almost felt like things were on the brink of unraveling. Believe the hype.