This gallery in the MNNN print series is dedicated to Despacio, which I have been documenting since its inception in 2013. In my opinion and each and every one of its legions of fans I have met on its dance floor over the years, it is the greatest sound system and the greatest disco dance party in the world. It is also an extraordinary sensory experience like no other.
The jaw dropping sound being projected from the decks upon which its creators James Murphy & 2manydjs deliver their joy generating vinyl selections, which is then pumped through no less than 40 Mcintosh powerhouse amps, is accompanied by an ecstasy inducing light show channeled through one of the biggest and baddass disco balls you will ever see as its centre point of gravity. It kinda makes you feel like you are being sucked up in a tractor beam into a vortex of wonder and then propelled straight into a celestial spaceship fuelled by pure happiness which is then launched into the stratosphere of bliss and beyond…I might have got a bit carried away there but that’s how it feels..well to me at any rate.
To order a print or for any more info please email info@babycakesromero.com
(offer ends 15th Dec so there is time to get it to you b4 Xmas)
I always felt Despacio was born to be in New York as it is a city who’s clubbing history and heritage are somehow encapsulated in the spirit of the sound system. Larry Levan’s Paradise Garage, Studio 54 and Mancuso’s Loft Party to name a few of The Big Apple’s disco royalty are all woven into the strands of the DNA of this updated augmented version. What they all have in common is a relentless dedication to analogue sound quality perfection and good time vibes. And what a good fit Despacio in New York (DNY) turned out to be. It was the perfect combo I always imagined it would be. The scariest thing to me is that I almost didn’t go and only decided I had to at the last minute simply because it was just not something I could ever live with missing. Despacio in New York? Hello? Are you crazy? How could I not be there?
The event was taking place at the Knockdown Centre in Queens which is a long way out from the centre of the city, and we drove to what seemed like the outskirts of town and then further and further still into an industrial district of NY I had never seen. The area looked liked when you’ve got totally lost in Grand Theft Auto and you have no idea where the fuck you are. The longer the journey went on the more my anticipation grew and the remote destination somehow added to the sense of occasion. It really reminded me of, driving around country lanes, back in the day, in the middle of cocking nowhere, looking for an old school rave in a field somewhere in the back of beyond.
We walked into the giant warehouse space and were lured through the venue by the ambient sounds emanating from the darkness. We turned a corner and there it was, Despacio was back in all its glory, alive again. All the hairs on the back of my neck stood up as I gazed at it. It was 8:01pm and therefore the first minute of the first of three 8 hour sets which would take place over the next 72 hours in disco heaven.
It was quiet for the first couple of hours and it was great to see these unsuspecting punters walk in without really knowing what they were walking into or what was ahead of them. A handful of people stood scattered around the checkered dancefloor, bathed in blue light, waiting for something to happen. It felt more like an art installation than a disco. Slowly but surely more arrived and the lights dimmed down further and people started to sway and shuffle to the chilled out tunes, still waiting for it to start, not quite realising that it is really them who are the event. They dictate what goes down. Despacio is very reactive and transforms according to how each crowd shapes and responds to it, and once it dawns on them that they are the party, that is when Despacio starts. And just as it has done on all previous Despacio outings I look around and everyone is grooving away, grinning from ear to ear, swaying together as one, basking in the warmth of the sound, which enveloped them in a warm glow and you could actually feel the happiness all around you – it was happening again!
As I was in New York I was half expecting the sort of wild disco dancers I had seen in Saturday Night Fever, Boogie Nights and Bill Bernstein’s “Disco” photography book but looking around at the casual fairly conservatively dressed crowd I realised that I was thinking of the inhabitants of Old New York and 70s movies and those people were in fact long gone. This was New New York and an altogether different beast from the city it once was. The crowd, although maybe not as flamboyant as their predecessors, had a very cool laid back vibe which along with the downtempo tunes created a super chilled atmosphere and a perfect reflection of why Despacio is the ultimate antidote to the hectic hit you on the head approach to modern clubbing.
Despacio means ‘slow’ and James Murphy and 2manydjs builds up the pace very very gradually which allows the crowd to ease into the night at their own pace and then everyone is also in sync with each other. When it does eventually kicks off they are totally ready rather than in a normal club where you have to play catch up on arrival to banging beats. It means it all happens naturally rather than being forced and the payoff is so much greater as a result. You all grow together along with the music and when it finally erupts you are joined as one big ball of bliss. Every sense is stimulated to levels beyond normal reach in everyday life and the sensation of this extended state of heightened sensory overload leaves you with a permanently warm glow of euphoria that does not dissipate throughout the night.
There was almost no lights for the first few hours and although I normally like to see the happy faces of the Despacio crowd the darkness somehow suited the laid back New New Yorkers. And then out of nowhere, angelic vocal harmonies of a track (who’s name I don’t know but goes Ahhhh, aaaah, aaaah, Aaaaaaaah – do you know the one I mean?) burst forth out of the speaker stacks and suddenly the entire floor was bathed in brightness as the giant disco ball spun beams of white light around the crowd for the first time. Everyone went suitably bananas and from that moment on Despacio was a runaway train of blissful barnstormin brilliance as every track built on the last, catapulting us further and further into disco dancing heaven.
James Murphy and 2manydjs have a perfect understanding on how to take a crowd on a journey, they know how when to build it up and drop it down better than anyone, teasing out tunes, creating anticipation, detonating the floor, making people go apeshit, letting the tempo subside, luring them in, building it back, knocking ’em dead, and they can do this over and over again. Gears are shifted, genres exchanged, bpms raised and lowered and all shunted into an 8 hour marathon where they never let the crowd go. And it is never the same twice. Each night is totally different, the selections shifting and morphing according to the feel of the crowd and the night. There is maybe 25% of the set which makes it into each event with what have become Despacio stand out spine tingling moments like “fly like an eagle”, “plastic dreams”, “safety dance” and “another one bites the dust” to name a few but the rest is whatever they feel like playing at any given moment. No pre-programmed set like so many big name djs sadly do these days, just the immediacy of vinyl records being selected in the now, driven by the vibe and what the previous dj played. As the Sith Lord would say, impressive, most impressive.
Everyone was now clearly over the moon they had made it and were now all deliriously happy and totally g0bsmacked by what they were experiencing. The sound quality was off the chart, so crisp and sharp yet so warm and lush it enveloped you in pure joy. This is down to the staggering output of the Mcintosh amps which deliver powerhouse performance and are the driving force of the system that sets it apart from the rest. I couldn’t remember a time when it ever sounded better, even from the very first night when they often need to do a bit fine tuning and tinkering to get to optimum. The crowd looked utterly bowled over by what they were experiencing. As the night goes on you smile and connect with more and more people and as you catch each other eye’s with the same blissed out expression on your face you can’t help but want to share it. I spoke to lots of dancers on the floor as I cruised around taking photographs and they were all pretty Despacio delirious and exclaimed they had never encountered anything like it. A lot of them said that it felt like the spirit of Old New York returning which I think is the ultimate compliment.
You could almost see the light of those parties that gave the city its reputation being rekindled and a new wave of old school vibes beginning, which in some ways is already underway in NY with events such as the Mr Sunday/Nowadays parties put on by Eamon Harkin who was actually there on the Friday to check it out. It really does feel there is a growing clubbing movement who are spearheading this return to hi-end analogue systems combined with chilled friendly folk. A winning combo in my book. In London it is also happening with venues such as Spiritland & Brilliant Corners who have made sound excellence a priority and focal point and, for me, Despacio and all these other like-minded enterprises signal the continued counter revolution against digital compression which sacrificed quality for convenience.
I reckon I clocked up about 18 hours a night on the dancefloor each night and there was no drop off, no dip, just back to back dancing heaven. Thursday might have been my favourite just because there was more room to get around. Friday and saturday were completely sold out and as a result it was jam packed on the dancefloor which I have to say was the only downside as it was difficult to bust out your best moves with limited space and much harder to cruise around and interact. On the first night I was taking people on tours of the sweet spots as I showed them how there are certain points which are marked out by John Klett, the designer of Despacio, to show where the speakers converge revealing the different shades of sound that are created by the system. For example the sweet spot directly under the giant glitter ball is bass heavy, filling your body with deep vibrations whilst the one at the front and back have a cleaner sharper sound and highlight different layers of the track. I still can’t get over the fact that there are alternate sound experiences on the same dancefloor depending on where you are and I still can’t get over the fact that you can chat easily without shouting when you are directly in front of one of the speaker stacks, which miraculously almost seems a little quieter as you walk towards them, the air around them somehow creating a vacuum making the soundwaves glide over you in perfect harmony.
Despacio is still relatively under the radar and a lot of people have not heard about it and that also makes it something very special as you feel privileged to be there but the word is definitely spreading and for those in the know, for those who have felt its glory, they will do anything they can to be there. I spoke to a couple who had flown over from Mexico City, others I chatted with had come as far afield as Chicago and Atlanta. There were also West coasters there who had seen it at Coachella and I even ran into a few I had met there and it was like having a reunion with old friends. Even spotted Jennifer Lawrence in the crowd rockin out right next to us having an absolute ball. And then there was Gabriel who flew all the way from Peru to be there. I had met him in London through a friend and who I had raved to him relentlessly about how incredible Despacio was and I must have done a number on him because he had believed me and come all the way from Peru to check it out. Fortunately he was deliriously happy he had made it. He was there for two nights and exclaimed with a permanent grin on his face that it was the best decision he had ever made and the best musical experience he had ever had in his life. My Uncle who lives in NY came on the Saturday with his wife and they were beyond blown away by it all and he said it was the greatest thing he had been to in all of his 72 years on this planet and yes he is still out clubbing at 72, what a legend!
And then Despacio said, let there be light. And there was light. One of the show stopping moments is when, out of nowhere, the venue is suddenly awash with sunshine, pouring out of the disco ball above, as their own exclusive edit of the Beatles “Here comes the Sun” emanates from the speakers. They did this each night and its one of the most extraordinary and uplifting moments as you feel you are literally being bathed in sun rays. You actually feel the warmth although this must be a sensory illusion. They finished the last night with this mesmerising moment and as the crowd looked up to the heavens, basking in this solar sensation it truly summed up the positivity and joy of the entire weekend.
I have come to the conclusion that my favourite thing in the world is to dance to great music with a friendly crowd and amazing sound and Despacio is the best version of that experience. That is really all there is to say. I went non-stop for 3 consecutive nights and it never dropped off. It just keeps on delivering and as each night went on I spent more and more time on the dancefloor as I just didn’t want to waste a second of it elsewhere. As the last night headed ever closer to the 4am finish I was already getting DWS (despacio withdrawal symptoms) and thinking about when I would next be enraptured in this disco bubble universe. Its next outing is at Sonar’s 25th anniversary in Barcelona in June and I cannot friggin wait. When I am in Despacio everything makes sense. Music, people, existence. It is all exactly as it should be when I am rocking out on the floor, connecting with the tunes, the djs, the people around me and the overwhelming feeling of the event. I lose myself completely. I escape the confines of reality and I never want to come back…
I was only at Lost Village for one night but also thought it was a great lil festival, great crowd, perfect size, good vibes. Like Houghton, it was a small boutiquey event with a focus on delivering an enjoyable hassle free experience. Had been a bit gutted about not making Glasto this year but having been to a few smaller festivals this summer instead rather than one big monster event I have come to realise that you get most of the fun you woulda and not that much aggro. Whenever I go to Glastonbury I generally miss most of the bands on the line-up anyway so its not like being at a smaller event is much different. Generally speaking you get wasted and dance in a field to amplified music with like-minded people. All components need to be of top quality for maximum enjoyment but there is not necessarily an increase in pleasure the bigger the festival. Often the opposite…
Why smaller festivals work is that it is much easier to mingle and interact with the other punters which is half the fun and if you lose the people you are with, it isn’t insanely hard to find them again. This is a big bonus. The people at Lost Village were great and very friendly and laid back and definitely up for the craic. (irish speak for ‘avin it large). Not that I am done with big festivals completely, I just really enjoyed all the little ‘uns I did this year…and weirdly I did not miss hiking in the mud for an hour only to arrive for the last song of the act I had traipsed halfway across site to see…
All the photographs above are of crowds joyfully rocking out to the Dewaele brothers, first as Soulwax and then as 2manydjs.
Soulwax are back after a hiatus of 12 years no less & they have returned all guns & drums blazing with both a magnificent album and a jaw-dropping live show. It is very rare for a band to come back after such a long period and not be remerging into the limelight for either the cash and/or to take a trip on the nostalgia train. It is even rarer for them to arrive back with new material this good. You know when you go back to see a fav band live after they’ve been away a long time, you normally have to ‘endure’ the underwhelming new tunes and wait for the old classics to be performed? This is most definitely not one of those occasions. Not even close.
But the reason Soulwax’s latest incarnation is so spot on is probably because the reality is that the Dewaele brothers have never really been away. They have instead been continuously evolving through a variety of different mediums. In the last decade or so they’ve been producing & presenting incredibly innovative and amazing sound & vision experiences in a variety of different guises and formats. Whether it was as the sound system Despacio, the 24hr audio/visual app Radio Soulwax, creating 15 fictional bands for the soundtrack Belgica, launching their own Deewee label and studio or jetting round the world playing to thousands of fans as 2manydjs they have been pretty flat out. And now they are back with a new version of their band Soulwax, featuring themselves, original band member Stefaan Van Leuven, Laima layton (mixhell) and no less than three drummers, Blake Davies, Victoria Smith and Iggor Cavilera from Sepultura.
The album ‘From Deewee’ is an epic voyage with a beautiful arc taking you on the most satisfying and mesmeric journey through a world of plush analogue synths and pounding beats, guided by the velvet vocals of Stephen Dewaele who draws you in and brings a human touch to this machine world. This is not cold electronic music. It is warm and emotional and wraps around you like a disco duvet. This is primarily because it is performed by people on instruments together in a room not on a computer with the flick of a mouse. In some ways it has a retro feel because of the instruments used and the way it was recorded but it has a very modern sound and sensibility and makes every system it plays on sound better than it should.
The album was in fact recorded in a single take in their Deewee studio in Gent and you can feel and hear the combined energy captured on the record. We live in a world of presets where we are essentially listening to the same drum beats over and over again and when we hear, as in this instant, something different, something real and organic and original and live, your ears naturally prick up. To hear non-computer generated electronic dance music is a rare and unusual beast in this day and age and Soulwax deliver this unique experience with extreme skill and also love. It is truly joyful. Musicians and instruments in a room together – who’d have thought it? (to get a glimpse into the making of the album check out this great trailer shot by Kurt Augustyns here )
For the live show they pretty much took the whole set-up from their studio and re-created it in entirety on tour. The amount of equipment on stage is quite staggering and not only looks highly impressive (resembling more a set from a 50s sci-fi b movie than a gig set-up) it creates a depth and quality of sound far superior to anything you would normally hear at a music show. As a live sonic experience it is breathtaking and you are utterly transported from start to finish. The crowd at all the gigs I attended veered from mesmerised to joyous to bat shit crazy and back again. Older tunes such as Miserable Girl, E talking and NY excuse got ’em going wild yet delivered due to the pulsating build up of the new tracks. In fact, its the seamless blend of the old and new that works quite so well as they enhance each other rather than clash, no mean feat considering the time gap between them. Yet for me, it is really the incendary performance of the new songs that lift you up and into the stratosphere. They just blow you away and have an even greater impact than on the record.
The new Soulwax feel like they are very much just getting started and it looks like there is a lot more to come. It will also be fascinating to see where they take this and it will definitely be a journey worth going on. Electronic music always needs a kick up the arse every now and again to stop it drifting into repetitive behaviour and somehow the Dewaele brothers are always there to do the kicking.
These photographs were taken in Paris, Brixton and Brussels and each time I saw them perform they got better and better. By the last gig of the tour on their home turf in Belgium they took the proverbial roof off. All the human members had synched up to become a machine in their own right, locked in to each other and meticulously jamming the shit out of every number. It is deeply satisfying to watch the 3 drummers in action as you seem them work seamlessly together yet with their own inimitable style and delivery. Going back to seeing bands with one drummer will probably now seem a bit lame by comparison and in fact gigs as a whole are going to seem a tad dull in contrast to this captivating creation.
You can listen to ‘From Deewee’ here on Spotify and Soulwax have just announced they are performing at Meltdown on June 10th in London. If you can get a ticket, get one.
Me and my camera at Coachella, my U.S festival, my Despacio in the desert
Pictures:
Despaciolimbo anyone?
one devoted fan was so enraptured she made her own despacio badges and handed them out on the final day.
Words:
I just got back from Despacio at Coachella Pt 1 . I am still reeling. Before this one there have only been 7 other Despacios – Manchester Int Festival, Hammersmith Town Hall, The Roundhouse x 2, Glastonbury, Sonar, Electric Picnic and now Coachella. It is going to be rolling out again this weekend for Part 2 of the festival and I am already gutted I am not going to be there. Out of the ones listed above I have been to them all bar one (Electric Picnic) and despite personally clocking up over a hundred hours on the Despacio dance floor (maybe more than anyone else on the planet) there is no drop off. Its impact has not diminished on me. I still cannot get enough. My love has not faded, it js still continuing to grow. I am basically now addicted to this ultimate dance experience and everything it delivers. When I am on the floor there is nowhere else I want to be. When I am somewhere else all I want to do is be back on the floor. Not only is it as good as it has ever been but it is actually getting better.
This was the first time it had come to America and for the young Californian crowd at Coachella, the largely mp3 generation who have been raised in a world of compressed music were literally jaw-dropped walking into the Despacio tent. It is impossible not to be. Despacio is there to show you how it can be, how it should be. It makes you feel that you are being hugged & caressed by the music rather than being repeatedly hit over the head. I watched their faces light up. It was clear from their reaction they had not even come close to hearing music sound this good before. And how could they? There is nothing on earth quite like it. Most stumbled upon it by accident which made its discovery all the more incredible for those that found it.
It was tucked away in a corner of the festival with no great signage so it was often only the adventurous & the inquisitive that were rewarded. I was standing next to this guy beaming from ear to ear at the end of day 2 and he turned to me and simply said “tell no-one!” It was so good he didn’t even want to share it with the hoards on site. But as everyone started to talk about it, it quickly became known as the best kept secret of the festival. By the Sunday, I am in the queue going through security to get into the festival (which is a little on the extreme side to understate it severely) and the people behind and in front of me were talking about Despacio so I knew the word was out.
The gloriousness & uniqueness of Despacio is that you don’t really care who else is there. It is joyful to look up as you are dancing your socks off and see the same level of exhilaration in the eyes of those you are surrounded by & you intrinsically know you feel identical without even exchanging a single word but even if you were there on your own it would still be off the chart incredible. You are at one with the music being played, you get lost in the groove, in your own moves& come to the zen like realisation, everything about it is better than you have ever witnessed. The sound, the lights, the music, the crowd, the vibe, you…everything is superior by comparison to what you have already been to. This is as good as it gets.
What Despacio makes you want to do more than anything is bust some serious moves. You are not just dancing. You are rocking out with everything you’ve got. Maybe because the sound is so much fuller, cleaner, stronger, more complete you feel it better, better than you ever have felt it before and as a result you are a better dancer than you ever have been before. You pull off moves with confidence. You bullseye the beat. You surf the rhythm. You tiptoe along the tempo. You’re John Travolta, Jacko & Gene Kelly all rolled into one. But you look up and everyone else is doing the same. And you are dancing together in circles. Strangers together busting full on moves and loving each other for it. When does that ever happen?
A lot of the people coming into it at Coachella might have only previously known the dancing experience that is the EDM face the front in rows dj worship bullshit but Despacio shows there is another way. A better way. It shows you can dance with each other and connect completely. How can you do that when you are always staring at someone’s back? It shows you that crescendo is nothing without the build up. You are taken on a journey, an undulating wave that guides you, lifts you and then lays you gently down before scooping you up again and firing you off into the stratosphere. Despacio is the dance antidote to the techno foot shuffle. You cannot just foot tap & head nod your way through it, it has control of your limbs, it will do what it wishes with you.
I keep using ‘it’ as if it is the machine doing all this and maybe that is because you are surrounded by these 7 speaker stacks and that is all you can see. But it is the ‘they’ behind the ‘it’ that are making you feel this way. Tucked away from sight are the 3 people driving this overwhelmingly positive feeling: James Murphy (LCD) and Stephen and David Dewaele (2manydjs). They are the creators and curators of this perfect analogue experience. They dj together for over 7 hours each day and every choice they make feels like the right one. It is a seamless stream of killer tune after killer tune. Some tracks you know, songs that you love inside out but which sound better than you have ever and will ever hear them and then there is so much you haven’t heard before but which you love instantly. Epic tracks that land for the first time. It is mind-blowing how good the sets are. Although there are now tunes which are full on Despacio moments that you long for and which detonate like joy grenades (Jungle Boogie, fly like an eagle, plastic dreams to name but a few) at least 50% is always new. Obscure moments of magnificence delivered one piece of vinyl at at time by the expert hands of the djs who you cannot see but who you feel at all times.
One of the greatest thing about Despacio and possibly the reason why it is not getting boring is that it is always different. It always somehow manages to morph into something else depending on where it is and who is inside it. The largely L.A crowd at Coachella turned it into a full on house party, the best house party in the world..ok, its not in a house, its in a tent but that was the vibe so sue me. They were also the first crowd to ever do a conga in despacio and also the first to have a limbo competition. It makes me people be silly. This is a good thing. If you wanna look cool go elsewhere. This is for anyone who don’t give a shit.
Not everyone that comes through the doors gets it. For some it is too far from familiar, too different to what they know, they don’t have a point of reference and for some that is too much. But I feel, rather than them choosing, it is Despacio who decides who goes and who stays. The machine filters out those who won’t be able to lose themselves in it and keeps the ones who will. It has its own natural selection process and keeps the ones who connect with it will give their all to it. And they stay for the duration. And then they come back the next day. By day 3 I know a good chunk of the people on the floor and we are start to interact and become friends and dance together. We know we feel the same. We see it in each other’s eyes.
I have made friends on the floor at every Despacio. And at each new one I always run into people from previous events. A guy came up to me at one point who I met at Sonar and we hug like 0ld mates. By day 3 I am hugging people I met on day 1. We are all now together as one.
In some ways it is a little bit pointless talking about Despacio unless you have experienced it first hand. If you were there at the weekend you will know what I am talking about. You have probably been banging on about it to everyone ever since just like me. It is very easy to become a Despacio bore because you want people to know how spectacular it is but until you actually go you will never really know what we are talking about. If you are at Coachella this weekend do whatever you can to get there and drag everyone you know to it, they will definitely not be disappointed. The only downside is that it will make everything seem shit by comparison. You have been warned.
To read my review of the very first Despacio please click here
Me and my camera in the greatest party on earth, my Despacio, my happiness
Despacio returned to The Roundhouse at the weekend for three more nights of magnificence. I have probably banged on about how amazing it is enough already on this blog but if you were there, you will not need to hear my words. For those of you who weren’t I really can’t begin to describe or do justice to the incredible atmosphere of positivity, happiness and love it generates in everyone who experiences it so I will just shut up and you can just look at the pretty pictures.
Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london
To see the full Despacio gallery please click here.
Despacio returns!!
(For those who don’t know: Despacio is a sound system created & curated by James Murphy (LCD sound system) & 2manydjs (Soulwax). It is the best in the world
On the first day it began at Lovebox I was hesitant about going in and wondered if maybe it was finally losing its magnetic hold on me but as soon as I hit the dancefloor I remembered why I had been avoiding it..once I am there I do not want to leave. Everything else can wait. Some of my happiest moments on earth have been at Despacio and that is not an exaggeration of any sorts. It is a complete and fulfilling experience which generates happiness and well-being amongst those fortunate enough to witness it. It is a Love Machine. It was built with love and it produces love. We live in dark times. The world needs Despacio. It is a beacon of hope for how humanity can be: together as one, in harmony with each other, connected by the music, bonded by emotion. Sound over the top? I’m sure, but what can I say? That’s how it makes you feel.
When you are in Despacio you dance with strangers. You form a circle. You muck about, have a dance off, embrace. When you make eye contact you do not look away, you smile, from ear to ear, you know how each other is feeling. It makes you include one another. It makes you be a good human being. It makes you appreciate the beauty of existence. You don’t want it to end. Life makes sense inside Despacio. And the music is phenomenal. The 6hour set driven by the inspired vinyl selections of 2manydjs and james murphy takes you on the most incredible journey, building and building to the ultimate crescendo. And the sound will blow you away. It is unlike anything else that exists anywhere else on the planet. And the only way you can experience this is to see it and hear it in person.
Its coming to the Roundhouse in September. Tickets went on sale this morning, if you can get one, get one. http://gigst.rs/despacio
Me and my camera in someone else’s home town, my weekend xmas jolly up, my Barcelona
Incredible city (barcelona) Incredible club (Razzmattazz), Incredible line-up (#lode2manydjs) = Incredible night x loads.
loadsJarvis ( or “Ccharbis” as the spanish say) gets his inner skeleton on as Relaxed Muscle in the Pop Bar
Mixhell go apeshit in their live set on friday night…one cool couple who can rock the shit out of any crowd..
Nancy Whang (lcd sound system) kicked it off big time in the lo-lita room with some seriously groovy tunes.
Agent K from Double Agent 7 after their rocking set in the pop bar.
Errol Alkan & 2manydjs went back to back on the Saturday night…
…to the roaring approval of the crowd whose Christmases all came at once.
And here are some random shots of Razzamattazz, has one of the best outdoor smoking areas (above) and all these pathways to a myriad of different rooms all housing cool areas with kickin music.
Yes, that is a leg of ham…
…and probably the best part of the weekend was the Mescal Jam session in the early hours of sunday morning. Mescal and musical talent fused together in perfect spontaneous mayhem as half the line-up, led by Dave & Steph (2manydjs/soulwax), rocked out with a bunch of instruments fuelled by the aforementioned Mexican fire liquid (glowing bottle above)
World Record store day used to be vinyl geeks shuffling around in shops buying up limited edition releases but this year, for some reason, it spontaneously become a party “event”…it does seem that young londoners will find any excuse to “large it up” and this was no exception. Soho became an instant inner city dance festival with street parties springing up all over the place.
It even kicked off outside a clothing store on D’arblay street where they were playing some pumpin tunes causing an impromptu mini street rave…this is why I love london.
And then it kicked off again in Phonica records when 2manydjs did a blistering in-store set. It was rammed to the brim and as hot as a sauna. The crowd went suitably nuts and turned a shop into a full-blown niteclub. Some of the punters were handing them their purchases and they were throwing them into their set as they went along…it was kinda wild.
This is from a series of photographs I took at Soulwaxmas at Brixton Academy on Dec 21st. I was down in the pit and it was mental! To see full gallery click on picture.
