Carl Cox and Friends at Heaven
Carl Cox at Heaven. The union of two of the most seminal brands in London clubbing. Tensions are running appropriately high. Coxy’s PR machine have been making sure that this event is massively on the radar and it’s looking like one of those epic nights which has shivers of excitement passing through the collected rave team. Except it’s Thursday so most people will most likely be reigning it in rather than going all out Friday-hard. Sensible raving, being home before sunrise and all that jazz.
Tonight is Coxy’s first set in the motherland for 3 years and, as you would expect, the place is rammed. His name is such that he attracts people who don’t even like dance music. He is one of the most enduring icons in electronic music – his popularity has not really waned since he exploded onto the late 80s rave scene with a third deck and an acid house grin. Tonight, expectations are high. The fans in the main room are all doing the usual of facing the elevated, pulpit-like DJ booth, paying deference to the protagonist – instead of looking at each other. What is it about massive main room clubbing and that slightly cattle-like feel? Oops, trod on your foot, ‘scuse me, coming through, no, don’t dance right in my face... you have to lead with your elbows to get enough clearance to throw your favoured shapes.
Carl has hand-picked the troop of electronic legends backing him up tonight for their efficacy at throwing down high grade beats. Many of them are joining him for his season on the White Isle this Summer. To fly the flag for breaks we have Meat Katie, the Breakfastaz and crowd-pulling DnB heavy weight Pendulum. The main room is devoted to house and techno with Dutch superstar Michel de Hey and Yousef preceding Coxy’s 3 hour marathon.
The crowd are surprisingly young, not many old ravers from the first time round in evidence – when Carl was in his heyday most of these whippersnappers were (like this correspondent) probably still watching Heartbreak High and wearing those weird, neon shoelace type bracelets with their global hypercolour t-shirt. Tonight, Coxy plays a house and techno set that could have been from 10 years ago (maybe that’s the idea…) starting off on a heavy tribal slant and progressing through to classic house and finally, relatively dull techno. Undeniably, people are loving it – the presence of the man who made his name by playing on 3 decks is almost enough of a hypnotic suggestion to make people dance – and in a way he could be playing anything. He has finally succumbed to the pull of the CDJ and there are no signs of the turntable wizardry which made him famous.
Heaven is a brilliant club. The tunnels which allow you to get piped in to the front of the main room are a godsend for ease of access straight into the steam of the jumping front row. Walking from the main room – where the music is a simple, flat, banging, dare I say it, pedestrian house, into the Star Bar, where Meat Katie is laying down some history – highlight the latter’s superior tunes. (As usual) everyone is having it so much more in the breaks room – the floor is sparkling. The young, international breaks crew are bouncing around, turning themselves inside out, completely enraptured. The Island is open, and poor old Ashley Beedle is playing funky house to an empty room. He doesn’t look all that bothered. The Star Bar is where the party is. Cooler, smaller, better sound quality and infinitely better music. The DJs are forward thinking breaks maestros and keep the heat high. The Breakfastaz play their upfront, bouncy breaks before Meat Katie steps up – much to the delight of the 300 or so dancing their asses off. Everyone is grinning – not in a drug-fucked way (it’s a Thursday night) – but from being hammered by decent tunes.
Meat Katie plays subtle, heavy, stripped back breaks. His music has the underlying, driving swing you get with a break, which injects a crucial funk to his trademark tech. No sign of the obvious thunder-clapping nu-skool breaks raining down from this man, just classy, heavy, danceable technology. It sounds like the kind of noises made by a machine. Technological heaven.
Pendulum follow him up; they have attracted a different brand of big-name, DnB hungry kids, and get the infamous Freestylers collaborative smasher ‘Fasten Your Seatbelts’ out the way pretty early, then get right on with the business of throwing down heavy, jump-up, pumping drum n bass with a seasoning of nu skool breaks.
Fucking. Awesome.
