With the Winter Music Conference being over, I'm relaxing in the sun in Miami for a couple of days before returning home to Switzerland. There was wonderful weather down here the whole week (with the exception of wednesday when there were some rainfalls) that guaranteed some great poolside parties to enjoy - and with free drinks at some of the parties you can be assured we've all had fun (I'm still feeeling last night as I'm tired and I'm having a little headache...).

As in previous years, there were too many parties to be checked out, with Tuesday and especially Wednesday being the crazy days where it was impossible to make it to every party I wanted to go. Magic Sessions is always a moment not to be missed, and this year it truly
stand up to the history this party is having. It certainly was one of the best ones for recent years with both Tony Humphries and Louie Vega (no Tedd Patterson this year) rocking the dancefloor to the max with their sets.

Other great events where the Clubshelter Party with oustanding live performances by both Tortured Soul and the Yoruba People Band – this was real live music to be enjoyed in the sun. Also the DeepaGrooves party was a great event with Mina turning out a wonderful live
perfornance. Not to forget to mention the An Evening at the Delano WMC05 Closing Party that was the perfect way to close down this year’s conference. The DJ's (Tommy Bones, Osunlade and DJ Spinna) attracted the crowd with their wonderful sets at this poolside event.

Lets talk about the music for a minute before I'm out to the beach... Louie Vega played one of my favorite tracks of the Conference, "Esteban" by DJ Oji, currently unsigned and therefore no release date set. But there are many other great tracks that debuted at the conference, many of them you'll be able to check out on my upcoming WMC 2005 Mixes (expect them by Sunday Apr. 3rd). Too many to mention, so I don't even start and keep you curious... I'll still have to sort the music out I've got, with some treasures already found.

I need to mention that this year proved the move from vinyl to CD is imminent as the top DJ’s only played from CDs and didn't play any vinyls at all. Compared to previous years, I got much less vinyls than CD’s.

Michael Fossati (Spirit of House) spiritofhouse.com