The above picture is of Different World, the Tokyo-based duo featuring Detroit’s Claude Young and Takasi Nakajima. This year was Claude Young’s first official stop at the DEMF, and so far this act has made the entire trip worth it. Their festival appearance was good, but the afterparty they played is some of the best music I’ve heard all weekend. Things were opened up by FBK from Columbus, a laptopper who plays with all the enthusiasm you see from jocks like Donald Glaude. His tracks were both harder and faster than the overall feel of Archetype vs. XTrak, two producers from NYC who created a moving, constantly shifting set, danceable as all hell, detailed yet avoiding the micro-sound trap. Closing it out was Different World, who killed harder than they did at the festival. It’s a hard set to describe, but it reminded me of mashup in some ways, but with all the hipster irony replaced by stellar track selection. It was a trip through Detroit techno, with some non-techno tossed in there as well (Nitzer Ebb, N.E.R.D.). I long for a recording, but alas I don’t think one exists.

More on Day Two after the jump.

The festival itself was another day of go go go. Started the day with a Detroit techno lesson from Kenny Larkin. Wandered about for a bit to hear Christian Smith keeping it incredibly minimal for the main stage, Misstress Barbara putting all her years on the rave-circuit to work, using those skills to craft a bangin' minimal set (yes, that's an oxymoron - I'm keeping it anyway). While Magda gets a lot of techno credit as a female playing quality techno, I think this less-ravey Misstress Barbara is pretty slept on. Maybe not so much after a few more of these festival stops. Abe Duque & Blake Baxter brought out the acid, while Baby Ford kept it house-y (tech-housey of course) setting the stage for Gui Boratto, who drove people wild although I found myself pretty bored. It was too much "think about this detail," not enough "shake that ass." Model 500 kept things a bit mellow to close out the main stage, but they were smart enough to have a dance troupe perform through their show, their jitting (a dance specific to Detroit) breaking up the monotony of three dudes in hoodies behind gear. They livened up toward the end of their set, bringing out the electro, setting the crowd up for their afterparty shenanigans.

Today's agenda includes Jeff Mills. I'm prepared to completely lose my fucking mind. I said after Day 1 that techno fatigue was setting in. I was so very very wrong - I was just getting warmed up.