29th Aug: Actress @ St Johns Sessions / 30th Aug: Plex @ The Waiting Rooms / 31st Aug Colony @ Corsica Studio

Welcome. You can follow adventures on twitter here and Soundcloud here but not on FB coz that is for the inner circle of initialled ones only. There is also a Google calendar on the top right of this blog detailing events worth taking a look at.

Well I was going to review Actress @ St. Johns Sessions but it's not even worth my time. The music was actually fine but the rest of it was poorly executed and I can't be bothered to discuss the most boring 2hrs of my life that I will never claw back.

And so swiftly we move on to Plex Basement Sessions, a small night with a secret line up held at The Waiting Room, Stoke Newington - a timber clad basement bar with cheery promoter and resident Luke Handsfree on the door. I keep missing Plex, much to my own detriment and disappointment. Twice I have planned to go and twice I have fallen asleep at home and missed it after a hard week at work. The last time we missed Rrose and I was mortified. So this time, we had mates over beforehand to ensure no sleepytimes and we drove there so when I got sleepy we could just zip home. That's how us grown ups roll.

We arrived to see that the line up was the Clairvoyants and Cristian Vogel. Me, the uneducated among us, had no idea who either of these names were, but I was assured that Vogel was going to be special and, from what I was hearing when I walked in, Clairvoyants are also rather good.

There was a delightful bounce in the airwaves when we hit the dance floor. It was the kind of techno you could take your non-techno loving mates to and they would love it and ask you "what's this?" and you'd say "techno" and they would look stunned. Lotts and NH were dancing about like crazy little animated Duracell bunnies at the front with the rest of us trying to keep up. The tunes got deeper and more banging and finished with a track full of carnival drums. And I was in a happy clappy cheery mood and off to the bar to await Vogel. 

PA had a quick word with Cristian Vogel before he went on and was told that the man would be treating is too a 20yr retrospective of all the tunes he loves from then to now. A journey through time and techno. Lovely. 

I found the tunes at the start a bit all over the show but NH said she loved it, that it was playful and she made gestures of squashing and squelching things with her hands as she danced. This made me think of how to explain the tunes... The music was like watching balloon modelling. Squeaks and twists and random big breaths and colourful things expanding and being twisted into fun stuff. It was exciting but it made no sense.

Barely noticeable but a frequent occurrence - it sounded like tunes did keep skipping a beat here and there. I imagine very old damaged vinyl if it's from 20 years ago! Tempos changed up and down with ease. It was all quite disjointed but not without focus, sounding to me like something robots would break dance too - superfast, frenetic and unpredictable. When everything did sound like it was about to train crash at full speed Vogel styled it out with ultra coolness like that was exactly what he was going for. Who knows, maybe he was.

Suddenly TIR, Lotts, NH and PA all vanished upstairs for smokes and air, most of them a bit put off by the very niche line in techno hitting our ears. Bearing in mind the crowd was small to start off with, we half emptied the dance floor in one fell swoop. My triple esspresso started wearing off and our ears next to the speakers were in danger of getting temporary tinnitus near the front and so we went to the back and I had a sit down. 1:30am and I was tired. Observing the dance floor, it really wasn't very busy. The advance tickets had all sold out so I was expecting it to be a heaving sweat box but there was only about 50 people in the room. It was by no means empty and the dance floor was still kinda busy. I expect that many people were taking a break after the Bank Holiday weekend before.

The set gradually got more cohesive and began to make sense and truck along in a nice direction through time and tunes. Not without its jarring mixes but all in Vogel style... Nothing was an accident. Moving into the era of 909s and synths Vogel hit the acid tracks at full on high BPMs. TIR popped back down from upstairs to tell me it was bad techno and he hates acid. Then he vanished. He and all the others all left with no goodbye! Bastards. Not so much as an air kiss. Humphf.

The dance floor thinned out a bit more. It was hard to get into any kind of groove and exhausting to keep up with the changes and pace. Although the overall pace gradually slowed, a few dancers were really going for it but many were just standing about undecided as the tracks got more intricate and atmospheric, sounding like a race of space age F1 engines. Then things turned to the kind of techno that I hate. That people who hate techno imagine it all sounds like. Almost hard house. Relentless drums at high speed  almost tripping 

Cristian Vogel

over themselves, with sweeping elongated mid range noises and the odd staccato synthy break. No charisma here. The kind of stuff best coped with on drugs - so you have the energy to keep up with it and the happiness to believe it sounds great.

Then fast thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud with tinny high hats over the top. Proper mid 90s stuff. At that time I was at still at school and listening to Blur and Boyzone in my bedroom. And right at that moment all I wanted was peanut butter on toast and my PJs. At 2am the place suddenly filled up and dance floor was banging but I had switched off and needed my bed. 10 minute drive home. Amazeballs.

After a darn good nights sleep and a most excellent lasagna cooked by DSL came round 2 of the weekend. Colony Vs Scand at Corsica Studios. The last one of these I reviewed was a totally awesome night out and I was really looking forward to it - not least because our mate Simon Heartfield was on the line up with a live AV set. We arrived to no queue, polite security and a virtually empty club at 11:45pm. Simon was on at midnight. 

Now Simon may be a mate so you may see me as bias, but I don't know him that well at all. Trust me that if I can badmouth legends of techno on here, then I have no qualms telling my mates when they are crap. Let's face it - if I big them up for a bad job I am helping no one, least of all them. So I hope that you see that I really mean it when I say I was gutted for the techno community of London that they did not haul their arses out for this set as it was immense.

We've heard Simon play before and seen his AV sets but this was Simon Heartfield on an unusually angry day it seems! There was a march of bass drumming. Rhythms led by the lower end of octavial spectrum, which made for warm, tribal, strong, purposeful beats that got you marching, with lots of mid range riffs and very feint high end warm smooth rippling melody just on the fringes.

The visuals were interesting. I saw cabbages at one point, a london bus, hazard signage, led panels, binary

Simon Heartfield

code, buildings, machinery, numbers, more codes, it all felt like the music was telling a story and the visuals were a manila folder for a crime case being emptied out on the desk and pinned up on boards for us to string together all the clues. As each track became a new one we were getting ever closer to solving the case and the tension and energy built. I was on tenterhooks wondering who dunnit! That was the first half. I went for a loo break. It was a bit calmer and less angry when I got back, like whatever had happened had blown over and there was time for contemplation. The visuals slowed in pace too and I was more wobbling about on the spot than dancing to this bit.

15mins from the end the big purposeful march began again and pushed on and surged you forward. Kaboom. Home stretch. Mad dash to catch the culprit and solve the crime. A military operation. March! Bouncy bass lines, marching mid range this time with the odd vocal sample and a slightly more euphoric edge than at the start of the set. Layer built on layer upon layer til you felt like you were spinning, feeling totally focused but spinning in slow mo with the world blurring around you as you just... let... go. Music to get lost and immersed in. I loved it. It was like being in Inception rushing through story after story and then suddenly it ends and you just... wake up.

At this point The Wife (my bezzie mate who had come out with us) left for half an hour to go and eat. This brings me to an important whinge... Why is there no food in clubs? For those of us staying sober and eating our dinner at about 8pm, dancing is hungry work. And for those people drinking until they fall over, a plate of chips at 1am might save them. The psy trance nights I used to go to in my teens and early twenties always had hot drinks and some kind of hippie organic cake and snack stall. They were always packed and it is SO nice to have a tea and a munch then carry on dancing til the sun comes up. I can't think of one club in London that serves so much as a packet of crisps.

Venturing in to Scand's room 2 for Morphology live it was a definite breakbeat tip. The two of them were

Morphology Electronic

set up on a table in front of the DJ booth and the volume was pretty low for the earth shattering subs that we usually hear in there. It was weird being in there and hearing chatter and the walls not shaking.

The tunes were nice but a bit lackluster. The set kind of just pootled along with no real builds or breaks for ages. When a break did come, there was one the girl in front of me who totally went for it but she had more energy than the break required. Good to see some enthusiasm though as the tracks just glided onto the next thing. The production was nice & crisp. The room filled up a little more, with both people and smoke from the over exuberant smoke machine. Towards the end of the set things ramped up and we finally got some massive bass and the DJs looked like they were having a great time.

Szare was next up in Room 1. The crowd levels were low all over the club - again down to the big weekend before I expect. The place was a third full and needed a hefty injection of pizzazz. I went back into Room 2 Sync 24 & Innume. This wasn't grabbing me either but had more uplifting energy in its acid breaks than room 1. Al, DSL & RSK were stood about like the three stooges against the side wall looking shady. Personally I was in there not for the tunes but because it was mildly more party like and entertaining than room 1 with Szare. We went outside for chat and smokes, talking about beach holidays and how all holidays turn into rave ups for us lot. I am hankering after an actual beach and some quality cocktail and sunbathing time!

Oliver Ho

The only other set I was looking forward to was Raudive: aka Oliver Ho. Simon had tweeted earlier that his sound check had been amazing. I was excited.

He was good. Lots of different ideas and sounds and moved well from one to the other. Definite feel good energy. The girl from room 2 was in here. The one who had been dancing to the beat of her own drum and going mental at mediocre break downs earlier. Blue hair and blue all in one holographic outfit... Looked ready for taking to the stage at Cirque du Soleil. I was part gobsmacked and part mesmerised. She was full on body thrusting dancing at the drop of anything vaguely exciting. I was jealous of her enthusiasm. Wish I had a bit more. I was getting there. The set was moving me into a party mood and was overall highly enjoyable. DSL had his eyes shut shuffling about for ages. And that was how I felt, it sounded great and I just wanted to listen. Not dance really. Like a Boiler Room set in my living room - for appreciating but not participating.

Truss

The final DJ we saw was Truss. We went to get our coats and came back to full on machine gun techno. Quite often I can be found loving such sounds, but I need to a) build up to that and b) be surrounded by a crowd full of as much energy as the music. The room was empty, the crowd was hollow. And that is how I felt.

Overall I think this night just suffered from being the weekend after most people had been out two or three nights in a row and spent most of their wages already. And it's rare these days to find a DJ that caters their set to the crowd that is there and not what they pre-planned. More's the pity.

The Wife gave us a lovely lift home. I was starving. Time for more of DSL's lasagne!

Sat 3rd August: Colony @ Corsica Studios / Sunday 4th August: VOID @ Cafe 1001

I had a self imposed techno month off after Barcelona. Epic workload for a while meant no social life whatsoever for a while. I even missed DSL's birthday celebration trip to Machine at Corsica (brief review: Oscar Mulero - great tunes but overcrowded main room). Back in full swing for August...

First stop Colony Summer Rave at Corsica Studios. We arrived, queued, took my rucksack stuffed with everyone else's belongings to the cloakroom (one day I will not take a bag and then WHAT WILL THEY DOOOO!?!?!?) and stood about in the smoking area whilst I watched everyone else pumping their lungs full of crap. This was not a Colony of techno and only techno. In the promoters own words "we've assembled what, we reckon, is about the most balls-out destructive Colony line-up to date, spanning house, techno, electro, acid, 'ardcore, jungle, D&B and all kinds of mutant in-betweenness primed to set the dancefloor ablaze - or at least bits of it." This was an eclectic night of genres during which I had a fine old time in the main. For one, I remembered to charge my phone so had no need to scribble notes in the dark this time - a fact checked by CB on the door on my way in.

Finally we got into Room One to watch Kawn's live set. Who the fuck are Kawn? Mates of the promoters according to the line up. I went to look up Kawn and found the dictionary definition is the Turkish word for "an inn". However the urban dictionary says this:

(verb) To trick a retarded person into thinking he's not retarded. Possibly a relative of the much hated "pwned". http://www.urbandictionary.com

Kawn were using modular synths (and a load of other analogue kit we couldn't quite see from floor level) to deliver a set of very not off the shelf funky breaks, steady melodies, cheeky high hats, booty bass, tribal rhythms, acid touches and a bit of everything flung in. It worked well - sounded like a different genre every ten mins and yet the same signature all over it throughout. They best get themselves a Soundcloud account and a facebook page "tout de suite" as I am quite sure that I  - and indeed The World - would enjoy much more of this.

Radioactive Man

Obviously you expect DJ's at decent clubs to have some skills but when it comes to changing between sets, often the set is cut completely for a round of applause or the two sets are mixed one into the other but they don't mesh well - a stubborn DJ will sometimes have a planned set and especially the first track and damn it if they will change their minds to suit the current situation. However, not only did the next DJ mix seamlessly, he did it from a set of decks the other side of the room. Not a big deal really but noticed by all of us as most people don't bother. It's been a while since I last danced about at Haywire at The Fortress to electro veteran Radioactive Man. For those of you not in the know, Radioactive Man is Keith Tenniswood and he also makes up one half of Two Lone Swordsman with Andrew Weatherall. A slow paced start to the set had our mate IT getting impatient and wanting to go check out Room 2 but I told her to give it 20 mins and she was glad she stayed. A solid beginning ramped up and things got bassier, more urgent, the breaks got funkier with some menacing bass lines ripping up the dance floor. He's certainly not lost his touch in ten years. I used to go to Cambridge breaks night Boomslang on a regular basis a few years back and always loved the super tension freeing awesome joyful feel of breakbeat. Somehow Radioactive Man gave it a more mature grown up edge this evening. I had almost forgotten how much I love dancing to breaks. The beats fly off in different syncopated directions and my limbs wanna just follow suit. The sounds got gradually more frenetic as the set went on and techno  influences pulsed through it all in clean waves. Whereas Plump DJs are happy hands in air, this is more layered, more serious, intelligent, hints of dnb and techno with a snippet of Samba beats thrown in for a few bars too. Not that anyone was paying attention to the screen on the opposite wall but there were some nice graphics on show as well. 

At this point I should also point out that the general sound in Room 1 was much cleaner and crisper than it has been the past few times I've gone to Corsica. Whatever or whoever has sorted that system out a bit BRAVO! I am also loving that Corsica's smoke machines do not point down, just across the ceiling for atmosphere. Nothing invasive that blinds you for 2 mins and gets up your nose. The simple gobo lighting effect on the bar area wall also always draws my attention. Simple but effective.

No return to techno would be complete without TIR and he unexpectedly graced us with his presence at

Untold

2am after a last minute drive down from afar. It was almost time for Untold in Room 2 so we all went off to bars and toilets and smoking areas and had a chat and chilled for a mo. I was looking forward to Untold. We'd seen him in November according to IT but I had forgotten. He had however cropped up in conversation recently with my non-techno friend who had no idea about his techno career standing, but asked if I had ever heard of him as they are old mates. We entered Room 2 and were introduced to a soundscape of bass lines and distant police sirens, after which were immediately assaulted by the subs. My oesophagus was shaking so much in my throat I kept coughing. It was not comfortable. Untold basically took ten mins to scare the living shit out of my ears and I left the room.

I went to the loo to recover only to have my arse shaken to hell by the vibrating toilet seats above Room 2.
Everything in the loos shakes and vibrates from the bass downstairs. I returned to witness a techno DJ do a rewind. For real. That happened. He may be an ex DnB producer but there are limits. The set was not something I wanted to dance to but I was interested to stay and listen if it had been possible. Earplugs would not have worked. The man needed to turn shit down. The speakers could not cope with the levels and the results were a bit scratchy and not pleasant. But its just not cool to go tell a DJ that his sound levels are whack so, we exited to Room 1 where some other kinda abuse to my ears was also playing and so we hung out in the garden for a few mins until something more palatable to my fragile little mind came along. 

Anodyne

Anodyne's Live AV set came next. Another interesting name choice it means "inoffensive" but also is also a painkilling drug. Ha. Crazy, super fast fat bass & machine gunning mid range were complimented by cool hexagonal patterns, graphic equalisers and aerial shots on the screen mixing much slower than the music, which made your mind feel calm as your ears and feet were anything but. This set felt like DnB, Gabba and techno all rolled into one machine. A rare treat.

Perc

The DJ the boys had all come down to see was Perc who got straight in there with some banging wowowowowow sawtooth sound waves and started ripping the floor to pieces. A couple of Planetary Assault Systems tracks dropped in much to our delight. Every time I felt like Perc was slacking off ever so slightly I'd have just enough time to catch my breath and he'd pick it right back up again. A constant onslaught of techno with acid twangs and some beautiful flurry of pianos towards the end of the set. 

Perc was followed by Double O, a friend of ITs who has told me beforehand that he'd be delivering us some Detroit techno. JOY! ... We missed the first 20 mins because when a group of 6 people goes for a smoke, inevitably they chat and have another smoke and then one of them that looks like me will get bored of watching them all smoke and eventually coerce them back indoors to dance about. We returned to Room 1 to see Double O playing to a thinning crowd at about 5am. Great as there was more space for us to enjoy the sounds of wicked claps and synthy melodies. Some gems that can be found in my own collection were played and it's been a while since I heard them in a club. Papa New Guinea was just awesome, shortly followed by LFO's LFO. Then the set started getting old school, veered into hardcore and then residents CB and MB took over the last set for an all out hardcore session - at which point my fuel tank was empty and we headed home. 

A six hour sleep, a vat of coffee and some scrambled eggs on toast later we ventured to VOID at Cafe 1001. Took us bloody hours to get there due to Ride London taking over the roads and an Arsenal match causing jams on Holloway Rd, so we actually only just made it for the end of Simon Brandreth's stonking set before headliner Ashley Borg came on. I read a friends comment on FB today that he was out enjoying "Ashley Borg Techno, a genre all of it's own." True dat. Once again the floor was packed at 10pm on a Sunday night whilst sensible folks are off to bed. I question the vest but commend the set. Ashley always provides a heady educational mix of classics and totally new unknown tracks from up and coming producers. 

Ashley Borg aka The Mr Motivator of Techno

The Mr Motivator of Techno gave us all a damn good techno workout. A highly animated crowd were hyped up to the max not just by the sounds, but by the overall performance. Ashley was all big grins and air punches and the more he loved it the more we loved it. Lots of whooping, chanting, clapping etc. and an overall great atmosphere. This video shows Mr Borg getting his moves on:

I was feeling a little jaded and snuck off for ten mins to the front lounge at to eat home made cookies from the cafe and listen to the wonderful sounds of the usual resident DJ playing nice chilled house which was more where by brain was at. I am clearly out of practice! Best I fix that... 

The next Colony vs Scand (go and check out Simon Heartfield) is on 31st August with a cheaper combined ticket available to Plex on the 30th here. Determined to get to Plex this month as I missed the last 2 including a set from Rrose :( 

The next VOID is also that weekend. 

Other dates this month to look out for are:

Black Atlantic x Marcel Dettman / Lucy at Village Underground Sat 10th August

The Hydra: Blueprint Feat. Underground Resistance, Jeff Mills, Robert Hood & James Ruskin at Electric Brixton (I have a spare ticket to this so comment if you want it!). 

Sunday 5th May: Void @ Cafe 1001 / Colony vs Scand Bank Holiday Special @ Corsica Studios

Grab a cuppa. This is a long one - good to be thorough...

And so here it comes... that moment when you return to a club you went to before and had the best time ever... will it live up to it's own expectation???

Yes and no is the answer. Me and DSL saved ourselves for a Sunday marathon techno session. We stayed in Friday and Saturday and did DIY and ate like kings. Void was hotly anticipated after the last one we went to. Since writing that last review I've had a lot more views on the blog and made facebook friends with some of the VOID crew so I thought it only fair to return for the whole thing this time, not just one set. However, DSL and I are crap at being anywhere on time and then a couple of my mates from Cambridge decided to drive down and come with us and didn't arrive until mid afternoon, then I forgot about engineering works so we spent ages in transit. In the end, as per usual, we were late. I totally missed Randolph's set (sorry!). At least we tried... unlike TIR and Jammy who buggered off to see Richie Hawtin's Red Bull Music Academy pop up in Dalston (20 techno points lost to each of them by order of Ashley Borg). It wouldn't be so bad but TIR didn't even get in and has only a photo of a crowded alleyway to show for his efforts. TECHNO FAIL.