[Deep intake of breath]. Here we go...
Date: Friday 23 September 1995
Venue: Brixton Academy, London, UK.
Event: Decadog (Megadog 10th Anniversary)
LIVE: Plastikman, Autechre, Speedy J, Kenny Larkin, Ege Bam Yasi, Drum Club.
DJs: Carl Cox, LTJ Bukem, Richie & Matthew Hawtin, David Holmes, Andy
Weatherall, Roni Size, DJ Rap, Michael Dog...
The last Megadog at the Brixton academy I went to (and reviewed) was many
years ago now; and very special. A combination of the likes of Orbital and
Aphex Twin live, in front of 4000 people was always likely to be memorable.
Each big event I go to has to measure up to this previous Brixton outing, my
best nights at the Orbit and *that* Tribal Gathering. For 50 minutes Decadog
surpassed them all and set a new benchmark.
Decadog celebrate's 10 years of Megadoggyness around the UK. Spread over two
days at 25 quid a head per day, it should certainly buy the Dog brothers
some nice birthday prezzies. The second day (Sat) was for die hard Doggers
only (read Crusty), but the first was an 'IDM' delight to which yours truely
was invited (Thanks C.)
So I arrive at about 9pm, and have a heart attack as I convince myself that
I can hear Autechre playing from outside the venue. This of course is
untrue, it's just some DJ. I wander in and around and take in the sights and
sounds.
The main stage area is even bigger than I remember it, and already
moderately full, a few people are already dancing at 9:20 in London! (This
is a Megadog remember.) I begin to worry that the sound system is shit.
Outside the main room things are a bit warmer (and louder). DJ Rap (Yum!) is
blasting out jungle to a minicrowd in the foyer. Upstairs I find another
female DJ playing jungle to herself near the cloak room. Well it was early.
Back in the main arena Carl Cox has every one on their feet and bouncing. It
was the first time I'd ever seen Carl Cox DJ live and to be honest it was
disappointing, fairly bland hard techno mixed adequately. I got the feeling
his heart wasn't really in it, as he was on before most people get out of
bed, and he was playing at the Final Frontier later that night anyway. So
after 20 mins I gave up on him and wandered back to the foyer. And a good
job too.
Richie Hawtin has received quite a bit of stick lately from various bodies
after 'poor' sets. Well, this was the night he set the record straight. He
probably only played 15 tracks or so and wasn't on for long at all, but this
was more like it, almost straight in with the acid biz, he banged from the
word go, slowing things down later. And no OTT EQ tweaking!
And then on came the jungle. I think it was Roni Size, not sure, but fuck,
this was some of the most exciting stuff I had heard for a very long time.
I've obviously heard lot's of jungle before, but this was the first time I'd
been to a big event with more than a few token jungle tracks. This little
rig in the foyer was shaking the place to bits with sub bass. The crowd out
there were cool too, all night. After being blown away by 45 mins of full on
jungle I had fun with bouncers, endless stairwells and corridors for 30
mins, trying to find the VIP room with a friend. Found the VIP room. It took
a full 5 mins to conclusively confirm my
"VIP-rooms-are-full-of-boring-disappearing-up-own- arsehole-journo-types"
theory. Exit.
Whilst on my travels I managed to get up to the auditorium bit, rows and
rows of seats high up over-looking the main stage. This was open to the
public when I was last there, but I think security cottoned on to the fact
that it was in fact a 'Smokers Delight' and it was out of bounds to the
general public. But it provided me with a good view for most of Speedy Js
performance. I'd missed most of his act, what I caught was good, but not
amazing, a few tracks of G Spot stood out, but the set sounded overwarm and
samey. The crowd seemed to enjoy it.
Things get a bit vague, but ah, yes. I catch some more searing jungle
courtesy of DJ Rap and have to leave David Holmes, to get ready for
Plastikman. Unfortunately so did everybody else. Don't think poor Dave had
much of an audience, which was a shame.
I secretly hoped Hawtin would blow everyone away as Plastikman, at the same
time afraid that it might go all experimentally wrong. Naw!
He came at about 01:10. The lights went down. The music went up. To another
plane. This was the perfect set. Flawless in every detail. Eyewateringly
awesome. It was hard. It got harder. It got funky, and funkier. It was pure
measured acidic bliss. As with the Tribal Gathering Plastikman set you were
able to recognise elements, little snatchs of Plastique say, and (wow the
place erupted) Spastik, but everything was new, twisted, mutated. I can't
honestly remember specifics, but I do remember my head coming off, when it
all slowed down, about half way through, and *that* incredible mournful acid
cry/wail thing built up. And I do remember the finale, a hard as nails track
that got harder by the minute and then faster and faster until everyone was
fit to explode.
It was flawless because everything was worked and timed perfectly, massaging
the crowd into a frenzy. Most acts, even ones you know and love
(Mu-ziq/LFO/Orbital etc) have dull moments (though you might not admit
this). There was nothing dull about Plastikman that night. I want that set
on tape!!! 50 minutes of techno perfection.
Hawtin was his usual stoic self, though he did permit a bit of a head
wriggle/nod when he brought in an exceptionally smart acid line :)
Left in a head shaking state of disbelief, I stayed in the main arena after
Hawtin. Michael Dog played some decent stuff (surprisingly) and Kenny Larkin
followed fairly soon. Didn't quite know what to expect from him live and you
had to feel a bit sorry for the chap, following Hawtin's crowd devastating
performance.
Larkin turned out ok in the end, but didn't seem to play anything original,
he started with a slightly remixed _Funk In Space_ from Azimuth and played
maybe four more tracks from _Azimuth_, his setup wasn't very good though, he
had to pause for far to long between each track to sort out the next track,
which pissed the impatient crowd off. He appeared to cock up with one track
and just played the raw bass line, nothing else, for minutes, before
everything else came in. Turned out to be quite a good effect! Larkin
finished and we wandered off in to the lobby area again.
LTJ Bukem. Seriously good jungle, for what seemed like hours. David Holmes
and a few mates were in the box with him watching the crowd and looking
glum. Probably contemplating a change in musical style. Jungle won me over
that night. But I'm not sure that I could have stuck it for the whole 11
hours. Being able to walk between top quality jungle and techno gave a good
balance. After that it was just about waiting for Autechre. Drum Club came
and went. Pretty dull. They had a jungle DJ (missed who) in the main area
later, and some well cool BMXers who cycled about, flying and twizzling over
the stage for nearly 45mins. They also had the obligatory Megadog
stiltwalkers, who outdid themselves this time with a four legged robot thing
with head lamp, being led by a mad professor with a remote control...
Autechre. 05:20am. Again I was worried about audience reaction. I got the
feeling an hour of Incunabula wouldn't have gone well at that time, not many
people wanted to chillout or use their brains, unfortunately some of the
crowd had begun to drift away by then, but well over a thousand remained.
They played it hard, Anvil Vapre and Tri Repetae style. Alas because Drum
club had over run they were cut short by nearly 20 mins :(
I only recognised two tracks _Eutow_ from Tri Repetae, a complete anthem,
about halfway through and _Second Bad Vilbel_. This was the one that blew
the sound system. It overloaded something somewhere and the sound died for a
few seconds. When you hear the track you'll understand why. Really, really
nasty!
I enjoyed it all and the crowd for the most part did too, but it didn't
really feel right. The crap sound rig cut out and muddied most of the
mid-range, much of the synthy stringy bits were lost underneath the bass. I
think the Autechre sound is more suited to smaller more intimate venues and
sharper rigs. Still it banged though and I was left totally drained by
06:00. A very hard, almost percussive set.
So in all a good night. Hawtin climbed back to the top of the pile.
Untouchably the best live act. (Orbital are good in a different way. Aphex
doesn't play live any more. (Lie ;)) Jungle proved it could work for me,
with a suitable crowd. What was crap, apart from overcharging, was the
apallingly poor sound main sound rig, not having Andy Weatherall on the main
stage and reports of nasty rastas smoking crack and hassling people upstairs...
Amusing(?) anecdote type story thing. I was handing out a few Autechre
stickers to the best most nutty Autechre dancers in the crowd during the
set. The *first* person I go up to...
g3: Hello. So you like Autechre then?
Random guy: Yeah(?) [eyeing me suspiciously]
g3: Correct answer! You've just won yourself an Autechre sticker!
Random guy: 's all right mate, I've already got one.
g3: Oh. [Deflated]. How come?
Random guy: [Dead pan] My best mate's [points to kid in camaflage trousers]
touring with them next month.
His best mate was Simon Pyke aka Freeform. They were well over 2000 people
in the building. I should do the lottery more often.
g3
g The WARP Web Site
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