Lot49 at East Village

Lot49 at East Village

17 February, 2009
by: Lowri

Lot49 promoter and resident DJ Kid Blue is pretty nervous when I meet him at the label's new Shoreditch home East Village before their first event of the year. Valentine's night is a hard night for any promoter to fill apparently, what with lovers choosing to worship each other rather than the dancefloor (poor misguided fools) and men making bids for the ladies at trashier 'Traffic Light' parties. But he really needn't have worried.

Downstairs in the clubs the divine basement, Caninesounds are bouncing around behind the decks and slamming out their electro house mash ups to a devoted, early crowd which is rapidly bloating. Lot49 is a widely known, well-loved label co-owned by Meat Katie and Dylan Rhymes. They've been pioneering their heavy, 'tech-funk' sound which fuses breaks, electro and techno to great effect. Tonight is a stunning showcase for where the label is heading.

Kid Blue gets on the decks at midnight and by the time he finishes the room is absolutely ramma-jammed. His set builds gradually from grooving tech house with big techno stabs to a peaking remix of 'I Wear My Sunglasses at Night' which makes everyone's feet leave the floor. It's a brilliant start to the madness.

Meat Katie steps up at 1am and immediately amps it up. He's a DJ at the top of his game and has been sculpting his sound for many years. It's glaringly obvious from tonight's set that he now has the touch of a world-class DJ. It is actually impossible to pigeonhole his sound with mere words. It's simply massive; a hefty, meaty chunk of techy, intelligent, slamming joy. Heads-down, underground, fiendishly dark, night-funk. The crowd are shoulder to shoulder, the room is exploding, and I can't stop thinking of words to describe what I'm hearing. There are distinct elements of techno in his sound but it's much bigger than that. Filthy, with a definite old rave influence. Techy as fukkk and just huge.

Oh the delight of absolutely having it to purely divine electronic music at the hands of a master. It's actually bliss - and while most of the crowd are looking at the DJ booth - my friends and I are all looking at each other, and grinning with utter satisfaction. That's how clubbing should be. He drops a slammer from last year - Zodiac Cartel's remix of Fukkk Off's 'Rave is King'. I've never heard it played out and it's a relentless tune. His set is pretty much perfect and the only real problem is not having the room we need to hit the roof.

Phil Kieran is a techno producer from Belfast – one of the most famous in Northern Ireland - who has a live side project called Alloy Mental. At 2:30am, after Meat Katie, he takes over for the last set. He kicks things off with a really percussive minimal techno tune which sounds like a brass band in hypermode. From there he makes a brave manoeuvre, pushing further into minimal techno, which, after Meat Katie's sizable wedge of hard-tech actually clears a lot of the dancefloor. After such a monumental few hours of music, it sounds like it's tailing off. How wrong I am. Phil Kieran gradually builds it back up again, drags the committed back to the dancefloor, and smashes them to pieces with the absolutely brilliant 'Mind Dimension' by Tiga. It's an awesome finish, and everyone left is dancing as hard as they possibly can.

I would recommend Lot49 to anyone who loves heavy, intelligent beats administered by DJs who know exactly what they're doing. This is without a doubt one of the best new additions to London clubbing, and will take some beating. My friends and I all agree wholeheartedly; it's the best Valentine's day EVER.

Catch the next Lot49 at East Village in April.

Read our interview with Meat Katie and Kid Blue.

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Lowri