REVIEW: Roger Sanchez @ The Guvernment 02-03-13 by Monika Sobota

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Saturday March 2nd, 2013 welcomed Grammy Award winning Producer/DJ Roger Sanchez back to Toronto for the second time in three months. I was fortunate enough to see Sanchez for both of his recent shows, and took an entirely different experience away from each show. His last visit to Toronto was December 7th, 2012 at Uniun Nightclub and I must say, the night was different than what I was about to experience at The Guvernment for another successful Spin Saturday Event. Not to take away from how amazing he was at Uniun, but I really think Roger Sanchez’s music is meant to be heard in a setting like the Guv main room. This was Sanchez’s first appearance back at Guvernment in a couple of years and you could tell by all the excitement of the crowd that it was going to be an epic night.

Roger has been producing Funky Tech House and Tribal beats long before almost anyone from our young generation knew what House music was back in 1994. He released his first remixes, and since 1995 has quickly risen to become one of the best Producer/DJ’s in House music. In 2003, he won his first Grammy Award for Best Remixed Recording for his remix of No Doubt‘s Hella Good. He hosts a weekly terrestrial and online radio show called “Release Yourself”, with 15 million listeners worldwide. Along with the radio show, Sanchez hosts a bi-weekly podcast (also known as Release Yourself), distributed internationally. In 2007 the podcast was awarded the first-ever Best Podcast Award at the International Dance Music Awards (IDMA). Roger is also the founder of his own label which came in 2002, Stealth Records. Yearly, Sanchez curates a series of compilation albums called Release Yourself, which are known for their blend of deep house, Latin, tribal and tech sounds.

The atmosphere that we walked into around midnight had a very mature and upbeat vibe, very similar to that of a notorious Resident’s night. Maybe it was a different crowd, or perhaps it was the familiarity of the Guv main room on a Saturday night, I couldn’t exactly pinpoint it, but you could feel the crowd buzzing as soon as you walked in. Based on observations it seemed like a slightly older crowd with no one feeling the need to push their way to get up to the very front of the stage opening up tons of room on the massive dance floor. Everyone was visibly having an amazing time already, dancing away to the funky House beats Resident DJ Mark Oliver started the night out with. Oliver who is an undeniably incredible local DJ, started the night off well preparing us for Sanchez with some gritty tech house, and progressive house beats that made the atmosphere one of the chillest vibes I have ever felt inside the main room for a Spin Saturday Event. Quickly settling into my favourite spot, Roger Sanchez came on at 1:30am and matched the crowd’s vibes perfectly with his music selection. The Dominican/American Producer has a deep, funky sound that is meant to be heard in a big room setting like the main room at Guv, so what we heard was total insanity.

The night was filled with nothing but crazy build ups followed by drops that I can only describe as funky tech house bombs. When I looked around to observe everyone around me in the front left corner of the dance floor, I saw nothing but smiles and people moving their bodies like this was going to be their last show ever. Sanchez had us all completely satisfied and dancing nonstop through the entire set, myself and my friends included. I was pleasantly surprised to hear the variety of tracks Sanchez played including an epic classic dating back to 2008, a remix of 4 My People from rap star Missy Elliot. Near the end of his set, the stage was dropped to floor level where you could really appreciate the talent that is Roger Sanchez. His use of 4 CDJ’s opened up an assortment of opportunity to flawlessly blend his music. There was a lot of great music played over the course of a three and half hour set, ending on a very high note with a remix of a new fan favourite, Summertime Sadness from breakout star Lana Del Rey. If there was one perfect word to describe the vibe of the whole night, it would be: Sexy. Funky Tech House music consuming your whole body making you feel just that; sexy. Much different than most genres, the emotion tied to this music is a little different and not quite as euphoric as something like trance would be, but what you do feel is the need to just freely move your body to the beat. Roger Sanchez brought out the inner sexiness in all of us Saturday night, and created a last impression not soon to be forgotten. All in all, a very successful night for everyone, here’s to hoping that Roger Sanchez will make another appearance at The Guvernment much sooner than later.

 

Monika Sobota EDM TOR

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Adele is the owner of Tranceported. She manages and maintains the social media and the photo and video teams, and has been shooting our event photos since 2011. She has been a fan of Trance music since the mid-90s and started this website (formerly called EDM TOR) in 2012.

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