Visionquest's Shaun Reeves & Ryan Crosson Debut At Music On: In Review

While Visionquest and its members certainly have incredible range and diversity within the musical spectrum, the raw, stripped back techno styling’s of Marco Carola aren’t necessarily something the Detroit boys are known for, and definitely not the sound one would immediately associate with Ryan Crosson and Shaun Reeves. So when we heard these two would be going back-to-back, getting the terrace ready for one of today’s biggest minimal and techno artists, curiosity pulled us straight over to Amnesia nice and early to see what might happen.



Heading in at around quarter to one, Ryan was playing winding, deep grooves, keeping it slow, heavy and pulsing for the early crowd in the terrace. Picking up the pace 10 min later with more bass driven fair, Crosson let filtered melodies creep through, pumping up the steadily filling room with minimal funk. I can say this, the Visionquest member sure does know how to warm things up like a true professional. Each drop kicked the energy just a tad higher, moving even the shyest wallflowers to the floor, eliciting a few shouts from the somewhat scarce crowd, unleashing the bass fully before his friend and label mate, Shaun Reeves took the reigns at 1am, keeping his tunes flowing with haunting atmospherics on top of shuffling rhythms, a slightly more tripped out departure from Crosson, as the terrace became covered in a spindly web of red and green lasers.

Over in the main room, Silvie Loto was contrasting the terrace nicely with quickly paced minimal, its murky subs rumbling low enough to test even the main room’s legendary system. Dark, rolling basslines were pushed along by shuffling rhythms, punctuated by the occasional spaced out break where cold atmospherics combined with teasing hats wafted out over us, sometimes rolling gently back into the beat, other times, kicking back unexpectedly, causing the crowd to spasm simultaneously with joy.

Back over in the terrace, Crosson was back on doing his thing, the pace nice and lively with jumping yet casual beats. Dropping bass-heavy hip shakers like Feline 9’s 'Right About Now,' Ryan kept the ever-filling floor bobbing in time. From there, Reeves headed over to Cab Drivers’ 'Dropped Eye,' a sneaky little number that sucked everyone deep into the groove, allowing the duo to really unleash with one of the summer’s biggest hits, Tiga & Audion’s ‘Let's Go Dancing,’ its cutting hi-hats pumping the crowd up, Crosson waving his arms to the drop, singing along to the sex fueled lyrics as Reeves took over for his go, hitting us with the shuffling rhythms and whispering lyrics of ‘Slowly’ by Jssst. Suddenly, the duo surprised everyone, breaking out Pirupa’s 2012 anthem, ‘Party Non Stop,’ though the unexpectedness definitely played to their advantage, as everyone cheered with a slightly confused, albeit carefree demeanor, the duo heading into hypnotic, bass heavy territory with Seasons End’s 'Wasscass' before the Pirupa’s infamous lyrics could even drop.

Though the Visionquest sound might not be the norm for a party like Carola’s, it was an all around grand departure, giving both the crowd something new to feast their ears on, and a new vibe for Carola to weave his magic from, which of course he did in full. Once again the Music On master took the crowd on another incredible ride from start to stop, heading in a much more melodic direction than most other Fridays, quite possibly feeding heavily off of his warm up pair. Though by the time it was over, Carola was once again guilty of leaving all the dedicated masses who remained till the last beat standing elated, yet confused. Much like reading the last sentence in one of your favorite books, when Carola’s story time is over for the evening, all you can ask yourself is, ‘what am I supposed to do now?’ Luckily one only needs to wait a mere six more days until we get to sit around the Carola camp fire once again, but with mixed emotions this time around, as once the music stops next Friday, it will be six more months before we can gather round the Italian techno god once again for another tale from Music On. In other words, you don’t want to miss it, so grab your tickets below.