Monday, September 11, 2006

Your name's on the door... you're not coming in

So the weekend's finally over, and believe me it's been a tiring albeit enjoyable one. Friday saw me and his royal Softness descend on Kings Cross for Phonica's 3rd birthday party at The Key. The night didn't get off to a great start with myself going from the position of being guestlisted to the bouncer making me to give him £20 to let me in (go figure - though I was luckier than one member of the Phonica staff who was turned away due to his enthusiastic protestation even after the Rigg's intervention), but once we'd made it inside the club everything was rosy from then on. We started things off upstairs with one of the Phonica DJs (any ideas?) playing super slow disco sounds (though Metro Area at -10 was a little too sloth-like for my ears), until Phonica and Music For Freaks' Jonny Rock (pictured below) stepped up to the plate with his super fun mix of boompty and hip house that was just what the doctor ordered.
I also really enjoyed the first part of Pete Herbert from Reverso 68's higher tempo dance-til-you-drop disco set, but a visit to the toilet downstairs revealed that someone was playing Mathew Jonson's epic remix of Hiem's 'She's The One' in the main room. Further inspection showed that the dancefloor destroying DJ was none other than honorary TAPEr and Phonica manager Simon Rigg, so I felt more than a little indebted to stick around for the rest of his set. The only disappointing thing about it was the fact that I missed the start, as he whipped the crowd up a right treat (or was that just mine and Soft's mandatory whooping?), finishing on Gui Boratto's recent remix of Guy J & Sahar Z on Electribe. This super slice of knarly, foreboding techno with it's accompanying plink-plonk melody line set the scene perfectly for Konrad Black's deliciously dark yet uplifting techno workout that for me, was the set of the night.
I can't say that I recognised anything that Mr Black (pictured above) played, but it really didn't matter as myself and Soft cheered and danced the night away whilst he played a coherent but always interesting mix of tracks that focused on the dark side of the dancefloor. At this point I feel that I have to mention the general vibe of The Key and the widespread lack of respect on the dancefloor that I've experienced on both of my visits to the club. Whether it's the fact that people are crowded in, their inability to balance, or just that they have as much respect for another human as the average Londoner that means that they have to shove and fall into others as much as possible I just don't know. There also didn't seem to be that feeling of release and euphoria in the air that I seem to take for granted at most of the places that I usually go out to. The crowd were very subdued, and it just shouldn't be like that in a packed main room.

After a brief chat with the ever friendly Heidi (her fantastic debut 12 with beau Riton is out now), and a rather more worrying meeting with Ben Fat Trucker (who as you probably guessed, actually does look like a fat trucker, albeit a mad drunken serial killing fat trucker) we made our way upstairs to check out Henrik Schwarz's live laptop set. The problems that I had with the vibe of the night were all but apparent during it, and I can safely say that the crowd were loving his jazzed up 4/4 stylings as much as I was. It was good to see Henrik reciprocating and giving the crowd as much movement as he could, rocking and bobbing through his constantly invigorating performance. Highlights were his remix of Coldcut's 'Walk A Mile In My Shoes' (which sounded miles better than the record) and his own 'Imagination Limitation', both of which feature on his upcoming DJ Kicks mix CD. I haven't heard the mix yet, but from the tracklisting it looks like it's going to be an absolute belter with tracks from Robert Hood, Arthur Russell, Double, and Womack & Womack sitting amongst his own productions.

Loco Dice finished off proceedings in the main room, and I was expecting a lot from the DC10 main man. Unfortunately I was left feeling a little uninspired by the first hour of his dull but workmanlike performance, and we departed from the club shortly after 5am. There wasn't anything particularly bad about his set, but the tunes hardly set the club alight (even though quite a few people were sticking around to see what was a rare UK appearance) and his minimal mixing style of dropping the kick in odd places made me reminisce back to when we saw Luciano at the T-Bar and how he did the same thing so much better. There was enough time before we left, however, to give Konrad Black a hug and a hair rub (what was I thinking?) for his excellent set earlier in the evening, before stepping out into the cool autumn air to give our ears some respite.

Thanks to Simon and all the Phonica lot for putting on a great birthday party - let's hope that the next one's as good as this!

4 Comments:

Blogger mnsr said...

know of any places to get the mixes?

2:06 AM  
Blogger Richard Carnage said...

As far as I'm aware, they weren't recorded. If they were, I'm guessing that it would be just for the artists' reference. Sorry!

9:47 AM  
Blogger Ben Fat Trucker said...

Ill take the visual comparisons and the fact I was drunk out of my mind, and admit I may have worried you slightly, but serial killers a bit harsh innit?

4:29 PM  
Blogger Richard Carnage said...

Sorry about that Ben... but seriously - you had some right mad eyes that night!

3:23 PM  

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