This was the official birthday, as in strict chronological terms the
birthday fell about four months ago. In the Old Skool above the Music
Factory as usual but this time with jurisdiction over both rooms.
A special addition to the advertised bill was Rob Brown playing for an hour
in the main room. As we arrived he was mixing a nice chunky rap tune with
the second track from Beaumont Hannant's Tastes and Textures Vol 2 - you
know, the good one. Excellent mix. Then there was Abla Eedio, what I
later discovered upon asking him to be the Ae remix of St. Etienne, which
is now top of my purchase priority list, and more good stuff which I can't
remember unfortunately. DJ E.A.S.E. (George of Nightmares on Wax) took
over, spinning more along hip hop lines. Apparently there was a long
stretch of extremely spare punishing bass-heavy tunes.
Chantal in the smaller room suffered from the very dubious PA, particularly
early on in the night, but from Puzl onwards it was a nice
Warp-posse-pleasing set, I think, judging from the pleased
Warp-posse-people grinning and even some would say dancing. Definitely a
bit more uptempo than what I've heard her play before and possibly the
better for it.
Next up in that room was Richard Thair of Red Snapper - an unknown quantity
to me at least. He started off with what I think of as feel-good funky
happy tunes, which the crowd certainly liked. Then it progressed into
jungle of the delicate, tasteful variety which didn't really cause my boat
to float. However, when I came back in later on he was playing some
really fierce tech-step style enforcers. A bit surprising but very
pleasantly so. At the same time Mr. Scruff had taken over in the main
room. Didn't hear much of his set but there was a strong hip-hop element
as you'd expect. Even Sean Booth was caught dancing.
A good night - very different crowd compared to the normal one and a little
larger too.
"Let's hope it carries on"
adam