Major Lazer at Carnival 09

Major Lazer at Carnival 09

01 September, 2009
by: Rose

It's bank holiday Monday of the 2009 Notting Hill Carnival, and I'm on my way to the Major Lazer Soundsystem under the Westway.

Major Lazer is an imaginary one-armed ex-commando: the cartoon persona of Diplo and Switch's electro-dancehall collaboration. The two producers have combined elements of fidget house, Miami bass, baile funk and electro with traditional dancehall rhythms, drafted in some hugely influential Jamaican vocalists, and repackaged the genre for the club kids. Today Major Lazer is teaming up with the Red Bull Music Academy to throw a no-expense-spared dance party.

I arrive at the cavernous recess under the London Westway: it's an amazing space. The concrete underside of the road forms an impressively high roof, the walls are covered in graffiti and the floor is gravelly and pot holed. This raw industrial glamour is offset by the massive gold cushions, poofs, and multi coloured plastic flamingos which cover the floor. It feels somewhat decadent lying here underneath a concrete sky, with a complimentary Sailor Jerry's punch in hand. Through a supportive arch I can see the stage, framed with ten-foot high speakers and pole dancing robots.

The first act we stand for is Rusko. I'm not a dubstep fan, but the eye watering bass is irresistible, and here I am in the fray, jumping around like a primate. He plays enough crowd pleasers to keep dubskeptics like me entertained, and we all have a sisterhood moment to The Streets ‘Blinded by the Lights', followed by a frankly ridiculous garage mosh to DJ Luck and MC Neat, 'A Little Bit of Luck'.

I go outside to bathe in the now-searing sunshine, grabbing myself some corn bread and southern fried chicken from the free BBQ, and I miss Buraka Som Sistema's J-Wow. But I'm feeling pretty smug in the sun.

Much anticipatory fanfare surrounds the ascent of Diplo and Switch to the decks, and when they finally drop the beat they electrify the crowd with some fast paced twitchy electro disco. They tease us with snippets from their current album 'Guns Don't Kill People, Lazers Do', before dropping the irresistible 'Pon De Floor', causing a frenzy of comedy frottaging in the audience.

Just as the haunting refrain of Santogold's 'Creator' sounds for the first time, two dancers clad in streamers ascend 20-ft high platforms, the audience invades the stage, MCs crowd-surf, and someone passes round some poppers. This feels like an 'I was there' moment of years to come; a triumphant moment espousing excellent electronic dancehall with a lavish promotional coup.

And that artistic-corporate marriage is also played out on stage, as the artists frequently name-drop the sponsers, 'show us your Red Bulls... put your Red Bulls in the air'. I look around and realise that the Major Lazer Soundsystem is probably the most white middle class carnival party in London today, a schmaltzy love-in between promoters and media;  a vast commercial exercise tucked away from the grit and diversity of carnival proper.

But it's also one of the best parties I've ever been to, so I swallow my shallow cynicism with another complimentary vodka Red Bull and dance till the sun goes down.

Click here for more dancehall events in London
Click here for more events in Notting Hill

Rose