Demon Days: An Official Planet E Selection is an ongoing series of club nights that have taken place in New York, Chicago, Toronto, Detroit, Boston, Dallas, San Francisco, Montreal, Silver Spring (DC)and Los Angeles.
The series was launched in September 2005 by respected Detroit-based musical innovator Carl Craig and NYC-based partner DJ Gamall who come together to form the musical core of the events.
Connected artwork for Demon Days from 2005-2007 was supplied by the much respected Amsterdam based graphic / visual artist Parra. In summer 2008 respected Kyoto based graphic duo Collect Apply took over as resident artists creating a special series of flyers (starting with December 2008 events) that take their concept from traditional Japanese Tengui patterns.
The series is also linked to / promotes Carl Craig's independent electronic music record label Planet E which has been running successfully since 1991. In February 2008, Demon Days started a new quarterly residency at Cielo in New York.
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Upcoming 2008 Demon Days events:
Thursday November 6th: Demon Days Special with Spacetime Continuum LIVE - @ APT, New York
December Tour
Thursday December 11th: Demon Days with Spacetime Continuum LIVE - @ Mezzanine, San Francisco
Friday December 12th: Demon Days Special (Mexico debut) - @ Aurra, Monterrey, Mexico
Saturday December 13th: Demon Days @ Footworks, Toronto
Sunday December 14th: Demon Days @ Cielo, New York
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Demon Days Revisited
It is the oldest story in the land, the one that conflates apocalypse and salvation, demons and saviors. When the world is overrun by the former, it teaches us, a smattering of the latter is never far behind. Thing is, in the modern era, demons keep multiplying and saviors keep getting harder to find.
When Carl Craig and Gamall kicked off a traveling party called Demon Days in 2005, they talked about this dynamic a lot. The dark specters were everywhere at the time: the common, political and social ones in need of confrontation, and the personal, unmanageable ones, best put away and forgotten. As a momentary solution, Carl and Gamall proposed “the dance” -- a quaint new-age fix for many of today’s over-intellectual psyches, but one that has worked for thousands of years. (So there must be something to it, right?)
For those who thought the pair was just half-stepping through such ancient notions, there was the Tarot-like art-work from Parra, the Amsterdam-based graphic artist whose ensuing rise to stardom has been documented on a thousand blogs and t-shirts! “An Official Planet E Selection” screamed the subhead on the flyers and posters, invoking Craig’s Detroit-based label that’s beloved by fans and cognoscenti alike. Here, then, was a mission both global and close to the heart. Honestly, how many electronic music parties in this day and age strive this hard?
Ever since, Demon Days has been traveling the soundsystems of North America, participating in a struggle as laudatory as it is Sisyphean. There have been minor miracles – cold nights in Brooklyn, the Bay and Toronto that have since reached mythical status. There have been historic co-conspirators – Rhythm & Sound dropping dub bombs through a typhoon in the backyard of a Queens museum, and a gathering with Detroit’s finest (S2, Recloose, KDJ, the Tribe) for a sun-splashed July 4th hometown block party. Mostly though, the small victories have been simple, club-bound, almost anonymous: Gamall starting the evening’s festivities and then Carl setting off the rhythm into the deep night, saving a few hundred new and old friends from the hard rain outside. The darkness kept at bay for a little longer.
It’s not rocket science why three years later, such a party still works. Saviors and solutions are hard to come by, while soul-quenching reprieves are holy. The demon days are eternal; holding out hope for heroes is too.
Writen for Demon Days third year anniversary (September 2008) Piotr Orlov, New York
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Press Links
Resident Advisor Live Review
SF Weekly Feature
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PAST EVENTS
September 29 2005: APT - New York
September 30 2005: Smart Bar - Chicago
December 1 2005: APT - New York
December 2 2005: Smart Bar - Chicago
March 16 2006: APT - New York
March 17 2006: Oslo - Detroit with Santiago Salazar (Ican)
June 16 2006: Smart Bar - Chicago
September 2 2006: PS1 - New York with Rhythm & Sound
Jan 19 2007: Studio B - New York with Tim Sweeney
Feb 9 2007: Mezzanine - San Francisco with Lindstrom Live
April 20 2007: Rise - Boston
April 21 2007: Footwork - Toronto
June 1 2007: Stereo - Montreal
June 22 2007: Mezzanine - San Francisco with Mirko Loko
June 23 2007: Studio B - Brooklyn with Mirko Loko
July 4 2007: CoAmerica Festival - Detroit with Moodyman, Recloose, Santiago Salazar (Ican)
and Detroit Live (Carl Craig, Marcus Belgrave, Wendell Harrison and Kelvin Sholar)
October 12 2007: Minc - Dallas
October 13 2007: Warehouse - Los Angeles with Santiago Salazar (Ican)
Feb 14 2008: Cielo - New York - launch of new quarterly residency
May 15 2008: Cielo - New York
September 25 2008: Cielo - New York - Third Year Anniversary
September 26 2008: The Gallery - Silver Spring / DC
Contact Demon Days