Benjamin Goode heads down to East Village for some liquid TLC.
Hospital Records drum 'n' bass party at East Village celebrates the launch of the Hospital Mix 8; the annual winter warmer currently on sale in the shops and available for download. This edition superbly compiled by Logistics, showcases all the best and most exciting things forthcoming in 2010 on the drum and bass super label. To this effect the line-up is a 'five aside dream team' of old and new, Hospital stalwarts Logistics and London Electricity are joined by princes elect Netsky, Blokh4d and the aptly named MRSA (Hospital records, MRSA get it get it?).
Boris 'Netsky' Daenen, the Belgian wünderkind producer whose uplifting releases, championed across the airwaves, are a blend of bass and beats rolling under a melancholic melody as sublime as a long lost returning echo, have been generating an unprecedented amount of excitement among the drum and bass faithful. Basically the man is on fire.
The air is heavy with expectation which, considering that due to immigration and naturalization issues he has not been as prominent as someone of his promise would ordinarily be, is pretty extraordinary. Rarely have I been to see a 'promising up and coming producer' (his debut release was as recent as Spring 2009) play out and when, midway through his set, he drops one of his own tunes, the whole place bursts into song. There is no greater indictment of your production prowess when 250 boys crammed into a basement put their arms around each other's shoulders and with one voice give up 'I know you wanna leave me but I refuse to let you go'.
At which point one wonders why I thought that wearing long-johns to an overheated sweat-box was a good idea. Betraying ones grandad tendencies aside, East Village is always a friendly venue with very reasonably priced drinks and an excellent programming policy. Netsky, the whole night for that matter, was utterly brilliant. Following him, Logistics had the dance floor well in his sights leaving us with no option but to dance like agnostic monkeys, I left dancing in fact.
Amid the constantly shifting boundaries of the trends, sub genres, and niches that we now inhabit with varying degrees of success, it is a night of undeniable quality which reminded me why I love this music. To quote the everyman philosopher and social revolutionary Aristotle, 'There are some things in this world, captain Niobe, that will never change... Some things do'. This future, I like.
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