SCENE REVIEWS

Scene Review - Donald Glaude & Jelo @ WEMF 2007
Review by: Samhouze

"Brother" and "Everything" are powerful words. These were the two respective responses Jelo and Donald Glaude gave me when asked to use one word to describe the other after their set at WEMF 2007.

The answers perfectly summed up everything I had seen till this point that night. From the moment they first stepped up to the decks with grins across their faces, to the destruction they unleashed for three hours on the dancefloor, to the interview itself back in their hotel room; these guys live and breathe music and it came across clear as day.

A partnership like theirs however doesn't come easy. There's a lot of love and trust between them. Neither has to think twice about what direction the other is taking during a set. This allows to them to work together and tell a great story. Jelo talks about how they can sit for hours on the day of a gig and just listen to songs unmixed and how easy it is to lose track of time doing this.

Inspirations include each other, Glaude's children and other artists such as Dedamau5, Freeform Five and Jack Prongo. They feed off the crowd and the music to motivate them. Both are well known for their incredible crowd interaction which comes naturally to them. The goal they say is to educate people on new music in a way they can not only understand but appreciate. Jelo believes people go out of their way, adjust their busy schedules to pay good money to see them perform and it's only right they return the favour.

Events like WEMF push the two to play a little bit harder than usual because this crowd eats it up. However, they always try and bring the same amount of energy to wherever they're playing. Genres have never been a factor for these two and where they might start of playing funky House music, it can easily end in a completely different direction with hard Techno. At an event like WEMF it's quite possible to have a Breakbeat fan dancing right next to a Technohead so diversity is important.

Both men are working hard on the production side of things with Glaude having a new label out called, Donald Glaude's Records. Jelo is helping out as an associate while at the same time also doing A & R for Bugeyed Records. Bugeyed has just released "Jelo Presents" out on beatport.com. Both of them are always working on new material all the time. The goal? To put out an album together.

Being Canadian Jelo loves his homeland and is very passionate about the fact Canadian fans tend to be knowledgeable about music. Together with Glaude he forms a unique relationship that is the very essence of what underground dance music is all about; its infectious energy which overwhelms. And this is all very good. Yes good indeed.