Pre Miami Memories w/ Ricky Ryan and Ali Ajami

I could write a book about our adventures at the Winter Music Conference. It’s by far the time of year we cherish most when it comes to music and getting out of our minds. Not that we don’t have incredible times at home with the Toronto crew, but it’s always something special when faces are put to usernames and we’re side by side all of our favs in the industry.

This was written on the plane on our way to this year’s conference… with a couple regrets in mind. The first was that we couldn’t wait to go off after our killer pre Miami party with Luke Fair (ugh… still burnt) and the second is that Ricky Ryan and Ali Ajami wouldn’t be joining us on South Beach this year. One of the most memorable days we ever had at the WMC was with these two maestros as we wound down our trip in 2007.

In search of “something to do” we bailed out of Cafeteria and Luke’s Balance release party to catch a surprise appearance by Lee Burridge at the already legendary ‘˜Sunday School for Degenerates‘ at Pawn Shop. Straight up the name of this event alone creates apprehension inside me and the techno laden line-up is never my thing; but the hype for this day is so massive, and we loved the venue so much, we thought we’d check it out.

Overall it wasn’t a great experience for us. Lee was a no-show and outside a killer set from ‘˜Evil’ Eddie Richards, the music was as expected. However in amongst the insane mess, Ali recognized Ricky in a mad search for anything normal and soon after we all high tailed it out of there for some resemblance of civilization.

Side Note: All the power to everyone who has a great time at this party, and I know there are many that do. But the kind of techno found at ‘˜Sunday School’, combined with the sketchy atmosphere, is not anything I can deal with while winding down the most intense week of the year. Side Note #2: Danny Howells and Lee supposedly rocked some cool deep techno this year… props to the legends.

The day that ensued back in ‘˜07 is best left to the memory bank and is somewhat touched upon in my review of that year’s conference. Let’s just say both Ali and Ricky left lasting impressions on our entire crew and will always occupy space in our hearts because of the outrageous time we shared that day. We all continually stay in touch, of course with the music as the centerpiece of our unwavering friendship and support.

It was only fitting that we set off on our 2010 WMC adventure with tunes coming from these two incredible artists and brothers. Ironic to this piece, Ricky’s rocking some techno, but definitely not of the Sunday School variety. Ali is grooving to the music that saved our day back in 2007, thankfully providing all the funky goodness we still love so much.

Download (left-click and unzip):
Ricky Ryan – www.rickyryan.com – MARCH 2010 – PART1
Ricky Ryan – www.rickyryan.com – MARCH 2010 – PART2

Download (left-click and unzip):
Ali Ajami & Chair – Music Matters – [NRJ Radio Mix - March 5, 2010]