OTAD#79 - Point Blank 1

This article is the second in the series commemorating Point Blank, the party Edouard and I organized for close to 5 years which came to an end abruptly recently due to losing the location, which we called le Skuat. In my first article I touched upon the very first party we held in the skuat, which was not called Point Blank yet. So today we actually talk about the very first Point Blank event, held on Saturday 11th of August 2015, close to 6 years ago…

I have started an archival work of retrieving all photos and videos who were posted on the facebook page of the events. I would first like to extend my sincere fuck you to facebook for making it this hard to download videos from their website, in addition to being a creepy website so focused on engagement it became an absolute hellscape (some say it always has been, I am starting to see it). Now that this is out of the way, back to our story!

The first Point Blank was held in the middle of summer, at a time were most people were away from Normandy (believe it or not Saint-Lô is not a super popular holiday destination…), so it was probably one of the least attended. With a total of 15 participants on the counter, this almost feels like a COVID-friendly version of what the party soon became afterward. Since there were very little people, it also meant only 2 DJ’s were present: Edouard and me. We had to keep it up for the entire night, I probably played all the tunes I had on my laptop that night ahah.

There were already quite a few videos posted, 12 in total. A few are from the early hours, when I was warming up with tracks like Revoke, an amazing techno track from S100. If you remember my autobiographical long-form which ended in 2015, you can definitely understand where I was at at that time: the deep and moody kind of techno, edging on ambient techno. I remember that from day one I always loved being the warmup DJ. Not gonna lie, knowing not many people were actively listening was comforting as I was doing my first baby steps in the DJ’ing world, but not only that, it allowed me to play genres that I digged which were slower in nature like deep house and slow techno, and hence not so fitting to peak time.

Edouard is the peak time guy (and always has been lel). There is only one video of him playing that night, spinning a track I could not ID. Edouard had to go out of his comfort zone that night as he of course could not prepare a 4h set in advance, we went many times back and forth, usually playing sessions of 2h. He loved playing the 1-3am slot, playing dank industrial techno at the time, just before he made a decisive switch to acidcore a couple years later. It’s a shame I do not have more content showcasing Edouard’s performance that night, I swear I am not trying to make this article about me but most videos are of me playing so here is that.

Near 3am, I would take over again, drunk as fuck and playing banging fast-paced techno and entrancing acid tracks. The above video from Manu shows me playing one of my anthem track from Alien Rain, I think I must have played this one at almost every editions of Point Blank ahah. I love this video because it is brighter than most and you can really see and feel the dancefloor, and imagine the cozy chill area on the right with the neon lights shining through the shades.

Out of the 12 videos; 4 of them are from the same track I played after this hostile takeover of the booth; the hardtrance track from ASYS called Storm & Thunder. I have to say I have this moment literally engraved in the back of my mind, what a piece of life. Everybody shouting at me “fils de puuuuute!!” while the acid part comes back in an upwards vortex near 02:45, god damn it I live for these moments. Thank you Alexis for capturing this moment and being part of the journey for literally all editions, probably one of our most loyal guest.

This concludes the article of today on Point Blank #1. It may have been the smallest edition; but people who came there clearly advertised it to their friends as you will quickly see in tomorrow’s article. Can’t wait to write it and share all of these beautiful moments with you. I will leave you on the first photo posted on the event, posted by Edouard to give an idea of the place to our guests. Peace out.

PS: mom if you read me I swear they didn’t mean it…