The lads over at Resident Advisor have up a pretty interesting interview with Richie about his upcoming contakt show at London’s Brixton Academy, Hitting 40, the months ahead and obviously a lot of talk about M_nus. Tis a good read, here are some extracts…

“You have one more Contakt show coming up in London. Why did you decide to do it again this year?

Well, we had so many emails from people who didn’t get to see the show. So we decided to do just one more, just to please some of those people. Also, at the same time, it’s just to kind of have another time all together. We had so much fun last year, but in a way it was so crazy and busy putting the event together that we only realized how much we were having after. So we sat back and said why don’t we do one more this year and really enjoy it maybe as much as we should’ve last year.

We’ve also been working on a documentary called Making Contakt, which will be previewed at the ICA in London the day before. We wanted to show everybody how long and how much planning it took to do a show like that. And then do one more show the next night to kind of celebrate that, and then put it to rest.”

I hesitate to mention it, but you’re almost 40. Is there a temptation to sit down and take some time out, think about what’s next? Looking at your DJ schedule over the next few summer months, I’d guess not. It looks pretty ridiculous.

My DJ schedule is always ridiculous in the summer, but honestly the fall schedule is lighter than it has been in years, as I need some time to focus on the upcoming projects for 2010. Am I taking time off to slow down? No, I’m taking time off to actually put some time into some other things that I don’t find time to do right now. And being nearly 40…I actually honestly just can’t wait to get over 39 and get into 40 because I’m really excited about that.

Read the full article here

Wow, where do I begin?  The Serb’s are Mental! The Fortress where Exit has been based for the last 10 years has to be the best naturally designed venue for a festival i’ve ever been to. Each stage is set below in a gigantic mote that runs around the fort, and each stage has to be seen to be believed! Every morning around 5am the sun would come up and the crowd would go mental.  It’s an unbelievable fortress that would make scaling the walls of Helms Deep childsplay stuff!. A man actually died on the 3rd night after falling off one of them! The Serb’s said it was nothing new as someone usually dies once a year ! There are over 20 stages scattered throughout the fortress, with most of them the same size and set amongst the moat. The Main Stage is pretty bland which we didn’t bother visiting once,although we heard The prodigy rocked it! But we came all this way for one thing only… Richie Hawtin and the legendary Exit Dance Stage! It’s a perfect amphitheatre that captures everything, giving off incredible sound. First night we got a bit of Lee Burridge and Steve Lawler who wouldn’t usually be my cup of tea but they were actually quite good. Actually i think even tiesto would ‘ve sounded good to me at that stage such was the pumping sound coming out of the speakers. What you do is you come down these two huge temporary steps on either side of the dance stage, that’s basically scaffolding where you can see down to the bottom, once you get down and turn your looking right down to the dance stage which just looks evil whilst taking your breath away, the place never stops and just goes on and on til 8am in the morning.

Personally i would’ve rather have seen Richie work his magic on his own as he’s one of the most hands on Dj’s out there and with Ali Dubfire still being a bit of a NOOB to the whole minimal sound, that’s not to say i don’t love the guy. There’s photo’s even of richie taking over Dubfire’s rig and showing him what to do!! It was only early last year when Ali was in Dirty Deep Dish, and i remember reading an article where he said how much he idolised Richie all these years, so I’d say it was a special night for him I’m sure. Either way it was special! The heavens opened about halfway through their set and i mean absolutely bucketed down! which started a mass exodus from the place, it became a mudbath with bodies sliding everywhere. Apparently it never rains which was a pity because Loco Dice and Magda were on next. Another pairing that should never have been but together and didn’t work. Just to explain about the pairings, it was Exit’s tenth anniversary so they decide to do all the Dance Artist’s back to back (b2b).Next year i’m bringing jeans and wellies as its not nearly as warm as you’d think! Here are a couple of vids when the rain was coming up, there was no sun that morning!!

(Sorry i’m just gonna cut in here and name drop… The reception Lady in our hotel recommended this restaurant called Salsa 137 for dinner one night and who was sitting beside us?, none other than Richie himself, my personal highlight of the whole week, nice guy. He said have fun!)

I’d Recommend the trip to everyone. Flights were 250 Euro Return, Exit ticket was 80 Euro, we stayed ****star Hotel for 50 euro a night. Taxi’s are never more than 2 Euro and 1 Litre of Vodka is 5 euo and 20 smokes 75cents!

Here is a pretty good quality video of Steve Angello and Sebastien Ingrosso dropping  Billie Jean to the delight of the crowd.

Here are some sets that i haven’t heard yet but i’m dying to as i’m still stuck in Budapest. They were ripped from a National broadcast of the festival so i hope the quality is ok.

Steve Lawler b2b Lee Burridge Live Exit Festival,9.07.2009

Gui Boratto – Live @ Exit Festival (Serbia) (10-07-2009)

Steve Angello b2b Sebastian Ingrosso – Live @ Exit Festival (Novi Sad,Serbia) (11-07-2009)

I also got some great video’s of Surkin and Das Glow that i’ll post up when i get home as i’d like to get a track ID for a few of their tracks!