Masked revellers, a mystery DJ and a strong supporting cast put on a theatrical display at Brixton’s iconic Electric club on Friday night/Saturday morning.
Tough and accessible house music was the order of the evening as Oliver Dollar, Eli & Fur and Mat.Joe warmed up expertly for the masked man Claptone himself.
The incognito German wowed the crowd with a series of belters as pyrotechnics whooshed around him, lighting up his golden Venetian plague doctor mask.
Claptone’s white gloved hands conducting an orchestra of clubbers who whooped and bounced as the tempo was ramped up.
The old theatre provided the perfect location for this macarbre cabaret.
Claptone is currently taking his The Masquerade event to several cities and I can’t recommend it highly enough.
The masked ravers made for a fantastic atmosphere with the Eyes Wide Shut vibe making the evnt a refreshingly new twist on modern nightlife.
The old-style masked ball is now a clubland force to be reckoned with.
And with dance music going increasingly commercial it is great to see DJs who skirt the line between accessible and underground and actually host a party.
Make sure you go and see Claptone if you get the chance – whoever he is!
The uber cool ANTS project mounted a
full-scale invasion of UK clubland, with a thumping event at London's
Electric Brixton,writes TopReviews4U editor Paul Christian.
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Black webbing and a huge see-through
egg sac hung from the ceiling of the former theatre as ant-like
clubbers swayed and bounced below to tough beats enveloped in
monochrome lights and smoke.
The black and white colour scheme was
everywhere and created an otherworldly experience, where you forgot
colours existed and became engrossed in the rhythmic soundtrack.
Such production values have become a
feature of the Ibiza-born ANTS colony and nothing looks capable of
stopping this house music powerhouse from conquering the UK.
Fantastic bleeding-edge tracks rumbled
out of the speakers and enraptured the sell-out crowd at this iconic
venue.
DJs on the bill included US star Lauren
Lane, who played a perfectly-pitched early set, ANTS resident Andrea
Oliva, Noir and Waze & Odyssey, whose peak time performance
whipped up the crowd.
The show was the first ANTS gig in the
UK after successful stints in Ibiza in the summer and shows in Miami
and at Snowbombing.
If you missed it, fear not because on
the strength of this event, something tells me the capital has not
seen the end of the ANTS.
A bill featuring the likes of Paul van
Dyk, John '00' Fleming, Guiseppe Ottaviani and Solarstone is
difficult to avoid for trance fan like me, writes TopReviews4U
editor Paul Christian.
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I'd never seen J00F play before and
really love the driving progressive and psytrance sound he has made
his own for many years at the forefront of cutting edge electronic
music. But, leaving aside his fantastic set, I
must turn to the rather odd venue.
Southwark's Great Suffolk Street
Warehouse, or We Are WHSE as it calls itself by virtue of repeated
lighting effects, was bizarre.
I have been to clubs in disused or repurposed Victorian railway
arches before, but they had always had a door and were actually
inside.
This venue was essentially like The
Arches in EastEnders and I expected at any moment to see Phil
Mitchell sliding out from under a car, brandishing a monkey wrench.
I still haven't decided whether this
was a fantastic or truly terrible place to host events.
What was fantastic was the atmosphere
generated by John '00' Fleming, who provided the highlight, as well
as a certain Mr van Dyk's pulsating peak-time performance, which
began with his own seminal trance banger For An Angel.
Fleming ended his early set with the
incredible RITMO remix of The Prodigy's Smack My Bitch Up,
to a stunning light show.
It was clear that the main 'room' or Arch One as it is literally and
aptly known had been lavished with the greater care.
The second arch suffered from a lack of lighting and low volume, and
the basic mixing desk looked sparse and unprofessional, rather than
stripped back and retro.
Other bugbears were the queueing and toilets.
We waited 30 minutes for a cloakroom berth for one coat, which meant
a large slab of the action was missed entirely.
And the toilets were basically portable cabins and open stand-up
festival urinals.
In fact the entire operation was like a cheap (almost) indoor
festival, complete with infuriating drinks token system – which
meant waiting in line again.
But I can't grumble too much as the music was spectacular and more
than made up for the terrible/awesome/not really sure venue.
