Party: Cymatic Sessions w/ Oscar G

Party: Cymatic Sessions w/ Oscar G

Cymatic Sessions is a weekly gathering place for fans of underground House Music in the heart of downtown Las Vegas. Deep, Progressive, & Tech House grooves are played by local and international DJs every Tuesday night at the intimate setting of the Downtown Cocktail Room a.k.a. DCR.

OSCAR G

If you were to get out a map and track the history of house music – with endless lines sprouting from New York, Chicago and Detroit to points all over the world – you’d have to make a big, red circle around Miami, Florida, and start drawing.
Miami was never ground zero to a full-fledged subcultural movement. But it is where Oscar Gaetan, better known as Oscar G, has lived every day of his life. And that fact alone makes it a hub on the global underground.

An award-winning songwriter, producer, and DJ, Oscar is one of dance music’s brightest and most enduring stars. As part of seminal production teams Liberty City, Murk, and Funky Green Dogs, he boasts hits – Billboard chart-toppers as well as underground smashes – in every decade, every trend, and every market. “Some Lovin’,” “Fired Up,” and “Dark Beat” are more than just tracks: They are moments, shared by clubbers worldwide. They’re the kind of moments Oscar still creates at Space Miami, his hometown superclub, where he’s been a resident DJ for a staggering eight years – coming full circle after a globetrotting career.
Oscar and longtime friend and production partner Ralph Falcon grew up in a Miami enlivened by the fresh spirit of hip-hop. “Break dancing, graffiti and the music that went along with it: That’s really what got me into DJ-ing in the first place,” he says. By the age of 12, he was already spinning at school dances.

Oscar and Ralph started working together at the end of high school, blending the sounds of their youth with the beginnings of house, like Ten City and Blaze; and the darker Euro bands of the time, like Depeche Mode and New Order. “We were always big on doing our own sound, with our own feeling and vibe in every aspect of it; from the way we mixed things to the sounds we chose,” says Oscar. “I remember being obsessed with that for years, and then people started to listen.”
The early years bore some of the work for which they’re still best known, like often imitated, never duplicated vocals “Some Lovin’,” “If You Really Love Someone,” and “Reach For Me” (Tribal). Upon their release in 1993, the pair became instant superstars. “Europe kind of grabbed us,” says Oscar, so they spent a good amount of time touring overseas, eventually visiting every major and minor outpost of the global dance scene, including Zouk Singapore, Ministry Of Sound London, and Stereo Montreal.

“Fired Up!” (Twisted), their biggest hit ever, followed in 1996. It topped the Billboard Dance chart, and even cracked the Top 100, peaking at No. 80. They would go on to remix countless major pop artists, from Madonna to Cher to Donna Summer; and appear on mainstream outlets like MTV and Top Of The Pops. The boys also cut two complete Funky Green Dogs albums for major label MCA, “Star” (1999) and “Super California” (2001). But their own measures of success were still decidedly underground: “Once Junior Vasquez played our records at Sound Factory [in New York], we felt like we could retire, and at that point we were like 20,” says Oscar.
In March 2000, Space opened in downtown Miami with Oscar as the Saturday night resident, just as the world was paying its annual visit for Winter Music Conference. The club – with its cavernous main room, pummeling German sound system and nitrogen blasts – was the talk of dance world, and the legend of Oscar’s residency began to grow.

The year 2003 was a big one. Oscar released the “Live @ Space” (Star 69) compilation, and won the Club World Award for “Best Resident DJ” (which he won again in 2007). Murk set a new Billboard Dance chart record, with five No. 1’s in a single year: Four singles from their self-titled artist album on Tommy Boy Records, and “Dark Beat” (Twisted), tribal house’s first real vocal anthem, which found its way from dance floors onto mainstream radio. “We came up with ‘Dark Beat’ in about 15 minutes. Whenever things come that quickly, you know there’s something to them,” says Oscar. “But we didn’t think radio or anthem; we were thinking more like, ‘Oh man, Danny Tenaglia’s gonna be all over this!’”

In 2006, Oscar became one of Pacha New York’s only non-NY-based monthly residents, strengthening his bond with his home-away-from-home, and its rich dance history. He released a second installment in the Space series in 2007, starting new relationships with Nervous Records in the U.S. and CR2 in the U.K. CR2 also snapped up the Murk catalog, and commissioned new remixes of the classic tracks, including Paul Woolford’s takes on “If You Really Love Someone” and “Reach For Me.” And in 2008, after nearly two decades making music, Oscar released out his first solo album, “Innov8” (Nervous).

Even though his passion for music creation is undeniable, it’s in his DJ booth where Oscar feels most at home. “On the music side, I’ve felt pretty energized lately, because the changes in the industry really enable you to be a lot more experimental and take more chances,” he says. “But DJ-ing to me always comes first: I really believe in it as an art form. Having a residency like Space, with a regular crowd, it’s the ultimate.”

Opening Residents:
Laguerre

Rafael Laguerre was born on May 25th 1980 in The Bronx, NY. He got his first taste for a Technique 1200 at age 12 and began mixing Hip Hop music as if it were second nature. Growing up around a wide variety of music. he took to a style called House. At age 15, he was taken to his first night club, Cafe Con Leche at Club Expo. Laguerre fell in love with the vibe and the music and became a NYC night club promoter for places like The Tunnel, Limelight, Roxy and of course, Expo.

Wanting more out of the scene, he graduated from Full Sail University in 2004 with an Associate Degree Of Science In The Recording Arts. Now an Audio Engineer, a Lighting Operator at Club Love and the right hand man of Gary Stewart of GSA, he installed the sound system for Danny Tenaglia’s Long Island City loft. Further influenced by his mentor, Laguerre took his talents to the next level and began playing festivals like Burning Man and night clubs around the NYC, Miami and Las Vegas areas.

Spinning along side talents like Lee Burridge, Dubfire, Pig & Dan, Saeed Younan, Oscar L, Quivver, PH Plus, Miguel Bastida and Danny Krivit just to name a few, Laguerre has steadily remained an asset to the night life and is now owner at Laguerre Musique and Cymatic Sessions, resident dj at Downtown Cocktail Room and Technical Manager of Wet Republic Ultra Pool in Las Vegas. On a steady rise, he is an artist to keep watching out for.

Roy Evans

Roy Evans has been in the game for a quite some time, to say the least. Born and raised in Harlem, NY in the early 70's in not only a musical household, as well as a musical background from 3rd grade thru his first semester of college. Although baptized by House Music at the Paradise Garage in the late 80's, Roy was already behind the decks way before then. Influenced initially by Steve Dee (originator of "The Funk" aka Beat Juggling), and other Dj friends he grew up with. Roy eventually worked his way up to doing Block Parties in Brooklyn and eventually putting out Hip Hop Mix Tapes.

Fast forward to 9/11, Roy immediately moved his family from NYC to Honolulu, Hawaii where he put music on the back burner until the uncontrollable itch returned. Playing one off parties here and there... Until Vegas. Since moving to Las Vegas, Roy has blessed the decks alongside underground heavy hitters like Oscar P, Jose Marquez, Danny Krivit, Mark Farina and Doc Martin to name a few. With a monthly co-residency at The Downtown Cocktail for Cymatic Sessions, Roy also plays various other venues in Vegas as well as making his mark in the festival scene at events like The Firefly Gathering and Saguaro Man. Other ventures include being the owner/operator of In The House Las Vegas promoting the Las Vegas Underground House scene, as well as starting his own edibles company called Monkey Bizzness.

Roy's ability to rock dance floors nation wide comes predominantly from his passion for the music and insatiable desire to make people dance. A hunger that persists after all these years in the game. Any venue Roy is booked for would require all who participate to have a healthy appetite for beats that move their feet. You can expect nothing less.