Trouble Vision and Simple Records join forces for a night of deep house at Corsica Studios with Move D, Will Saul and rising UK star Maya Jane Coles.
After a brief walking tour of Elephant and Castle (South London geography has never been my strong point) we finally spot the entrance to Corsica Studios. The venue, which seems to find just the right balance between club and grimy warehouse, is playing host to another of its resident Trouble Vision parties, this time inviting Move D to headline with a mouthwatering line-up of support acts.
Clubbing for me is about spending as much time on the dancefloor as possible, so I'm glad to see Will Saul dropping some early bombs by the time we arrive. Even the bar-lurkers can't help taking to the floor as the vocal to Azari & III's achingly sexy 'Hungry For the Power' echoes around the room. It's rare to see a dancefloor take shape so early in a night, but the Simple Records label owner has got the warm up set down to a tee, jumping from house so deep you can barely see the surface to nu-disco without missing a beat. Worryingly he drops a couple of garage tracks that almost lose the floor. The UK garage revival is threatening to emerge from under the clubbing surface like a zit on the face of house music, and as you can tell I'm looking forward to it about as much as nuclear war. But thankfully after a few minutes it's business as usual.
Although Move D is headlining the main room, there's only one person I'm here to see – Maya Jane Coles, and it's no surprise that most people I speak to who seem to know their stuff feel the same. There's been a whirlwind of hype surrounding the 23 year-old Londoner and this is the first chance I've had to see her play, so after counting down the minutes to 2:30 we make our way to Room 2. I've seen plenty of producers over the years who make good music but just can't DJ, so understandably I'm slightly nervous that making cracking tunes might be the only string to her bow. Before long I realise my worries are unfounded, as she mixes together a sequence of beats so powerful and hypnotic the room just can't dance hard enough. Her set is threaded together with the deep, organ-driven sound which I'm pretty sure will become known to this generation as the 'Maya Jane Coles' sound. The high point comes with Julio Bashmore's 'Battle for Middle You', a tune that will probably still be ahead of its time when my grandchildren are listening to it. It's mixed in with pinpoint precision, and the crystal-clear soundsystem amplifies the futuristic blips to full punchy effect.
I manage to pull myself away after ninety minutes, not because I want to, but because I feel guilty about missing too much of the main room headliner. Move D is recognised for taking his dancers on a musical journey as well as making them move. Sometimes this works, as his live mixes from Frankfurt's Robert Johnson club show, but tonight I'm left feeling slightly travel sick. The beats crash all too often, the tempo doesn't flow, the right songs are played at the wrong times – it's just not working. Maybe I need to hear the full three hours to really appreciate the peaks and dips, but the whole time I'm here I can't help thinking about what I'm missing in Room 2. As daylight starts to creep in through the cracks in the door there are a few redeeming moments, but come closing time there's only one name on everybody's lips, take a bow Miss Maya Jane Coles.
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