In the end, I played for 7 hours, finishing shortly before midday. It gave me an opportunity to play a greater amount of deeper records, more electro, a little house, and of course many shades of techno. I usually bring a big selection with me, but actually getting to play almost everything in my bag was satisfying. The last couple of hours were a mish-mash of many things, from classic Ian Pooley to Baby Ford to 808 State to Union Jack to mid nineties DJ Misjah, and it got quite heavy again at certain points. Finally finished with an old jungle classic, Origin Unknown’s “Valley Of The Shadows”. Its tinkling bells are generally extra effective in the twilight hours I find, and it seemed like a fitting space to play it in.
Stream: Origin Unknown – Valley Of The Shadows
That night I met with Levan, Nika and Tato from Bassiani for dinner. We toasted a great event and time together, while soon I went back to my hotel to try fix up the mess of my main record bag! Leaving to the airport and getting into the taxi, I went to put on my seat belt… except there wasn’t one. The taxi driver’s instant reply was: “it is fine, this is Georgia”, as he sped onto the motorway with the car violently jerking from left to right! We spoke for a while – an interesting thing was that he didn’t speak very highly of Tbilisi, yet gave me a fairly nice tour and overview of some of the magnificent buildings we passed. Although many Georgians seem to be down-spirited about the political and social issues that they face, they do speak of their country with great pride too, a trait that seems to be present in any strong underground scene.
The fact that Georgia is on the outskirts, and perhaps slightly cocooned from the rest of Europe, is a huge part of the charm. Yes, the travel may be a bit longer than a direct flight to Berlin, Paris or Amsterdam, but a trip to Tbilisi is something you won’t regret!
