American DJ/Producer Morgan Page needs no introduction. For anyone who can call themselves a house or dance music fan, would definitely know who he is. He’s been around for fairly long, and has had a plethora of hits under his belt, including 2 Grammy nominations. On Thursday, the 1st of August, Morgan Page kicked off his India tour, hitting three cities, Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore. We caught the Mumbai leg of the tour and it was much more than what we had expected.
In 2006, Page unleashed Cease and Desist, a self-released, totally unauthorized remix set that took the club scene by storm. He then released a completely diverse electronica-centric album, Elevate, which ranged from club sounds to downtempo tunes. We all know his immensely emotional hits, “Longest Road” featuring Lissie (the deadmau5 edit of which, earned him a Grammy nomination) , “Fight For You” again, featuring Lissie, and his most recent “In The Air” with BT, Sultan & Ned Shepherd (featuring Angela McCluskey). Off late he’s been experimenting with a very electro house sound, as one can see with recent releases like “Where Did You Go” with Andy Caldwell featuring Jonathan Mendelsohn on vocals and “Carry Me” with Nadia Ali.
His sound was mostly characterized as progressive or emotional house, before he switched to his current electro/big-room sound. The only thing that stays constant in each of his productions however, is his belief that music should be emotional. In fact, he had recently mentioned in an interview that if his music doesn’t touch an emotional chord, it does not leave the studio.
Kicking off a wonderful night, with what was a very groovy, bouncy opening set, we had female prodigal DJ Priyanjana, warming up the dancefloor with a brilliantly seamless flow. From deep house to progressive to tech, she upped the tempo with such panache, it had us struck with sheer amazement. Her opening set included The End by Stefano Noferini, When The Dawn Breaks (2012 Edit) by Jason Chance & My Digital Enemy, Fatboy Slim and Reva Starr’s anthemic Eat, Sleep, Rave, Repeat, and of course, a wonderful edit of Daft Punk’s Get Lucky by British producer eSquire.
Then by around half past 12, the man of the hour, Morgan Page walked in to a barrage of screaming fans. He took to the decks after being introduced by none other than Submerge spear-head, Nikhil Chinappa. He started off his set with Alesso’s remix of One Republic’s If I Lose Myself, as if to familiarize himself with the crowd’s vibe, before unleashing a whole battery of humongous mash-ups. He then served up a powerful mash up of Avicii & Nicky Romero’s stellar I Could Be The One” over Henry Fong’s & Toby Greens club smasher Revival.
Already having captured the crowd’s energy by now, he went on to play Hardwell’s remix of Krewella’s Alive, another mash up by Stereotronique, Reload the Body Work, which comprised of Reload by Sebastian Ingrosso and Tommy Trash along with Body Work by Morgan Page. He then slipped in Nicky Romero and NERVO’s Like Home, moving on to a crowd pleasing Sultan & Ned Shephard edit of Bruno Mars’ Locked Out Of Heaven. He then amped the energy even higher by switching it to Nicky Romero’s Se7en, followed by Chuckie, Promised Land & Amanda WIlson’s Breaking Up.
At this point, observing the sheer vibrant energy around him, he switched the vibe from an emotional note to just hardcore club bangers by dropping a mash-up of his hit Fight For You with W&W’s Thunder. He then continued shattering the dancefloor by hitting us with another stupendous mash up of Coldplay’s Paradise with Bonny by Basto!
The pinnacle of the night though was when he dropped the Calvin Harris edit of Fatboy Slim & Reva Starr’s Eat, Sleep, Rave, Repeat. This had the entire crowd mouthing the vocals out loud. This was followed by Sander Van Doorn’s JoyEnergiser. Not wanting to waste a minute of the crowd’s energy, he sneaked in his mash up of his very own Where Did You Go? with Bingo Players’ epic anthem Rattle. Now going for an all out electro-house session he switched to Nicky Romero’s Symphony, Martin Garrix’s Animals, Hard Rock Sofa’s remix of Tom Staar and Style of Eye’s After Dark, then Dyro’s edit of his very own Carry Me ft Nadia Ali, and a cheeky live mash-up of the vocals of Snap’s classic Rhythym Is A Dancer, with Hard Rock Sofa’s Rasputin.
The crowd clearly couldn’t get enough of Mr. Page, one glance around the club and I knew, not a single soul was stationary that night. Even the bartender’s were groovin’ to Morgan Page’s set by now. Before we could even catch our breath’s we could hear the sinister bass-line of Knife Party’s LRAD picking up on the speakers.
After approximately 2 hours of extreme dancefloor destruction, he decided to send love around the room again with his mash up of The Longest Road with Hard Rock Sofa and Squire’s Just Can’t Stay Away. Followed by another ingenious mashup of the Hardwell remix of Avicii’s Levels and the Hard Rock Sofa edit of his collaboration with BT, Sultan & Ned Shephard and Angela McCluskey on In The Air.
Then what felt like Déjà vu was when he dropped the Cedric Gervais remix of Lana Del Rey’s Summertime Sadness. Which was dropped less than a week earlier at the same venue by Cedric Gervais himself. He ended his set with Calvin Harris and Florence Welsh’s Sweet Nothing.
Throughout, you could tell that Morgan Page really loved playing for his fans. Mouthing the lyrics to most of the tracks he played, raising his hands in the air at every drop, gesturing the crowd to rise with every build up, and smiling throughout his entire set.
By the end of it all, everyone could still sense the stupendous conjuring of pure emotion, with a large helping of raw energy dished out by Morgan Page. His set comprised of a mix of both, often tipping itself to either extreme in certain parts, but maintaining a balance overall. Such a skill, though very important, is often lacking in most performers and producers today. Morgan Page, being around as long as he has, could really show most young guns about how a live set should actually be done.
I, for one, thoroughly enjoyed my #RageWithPage. Which is why I agree with most when I hear them say, A Morgan Page show is not a performance. It’s an experience.
Big-Ups to Submerge and Royalty for putting together such a great show.
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Reviewed by Shule Puri.
Edited by Angelica Syiemiong Pereira.
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