Jaunt (jônt, jänt)
n. A short trip or excursion, usually for pleasure; an outing
Hey and welcome to Jammy’s Jaunts! A weekly round-up of my weekend’s proceedings. This week consisted of only being in at 2 nights this weekend. Quality is better than quantity sometimes!
My first stop was the Blueprint Records night at Cable. Amongst CLR and Electric Deluxe, this night was one of the ones I have been most looking forward to this year and it certainly did not disappoint! Blueprint Records is run by James Ruskin and he put on an incredible main room line-up which consisted of Silent Servant, Surgeon, Sigha and of course himself. In the Bar Room, music came from Tengui, Russell Haswell, MB and CB.
The set times are as follows. Main room: Warmup 22:00 – 22:30, 23:30 – 01:30 Silent Servant, 01:30 – 03:00 James Ruskin, 03:00 – 05:00 Surgeon, 05:00 – close Sigha. Bar room: 22:00 – 00:30 Tengui, 12:30 – 02:30 Russell Haswell, 02:30 – close. As I entered the main room at around midnight, it was perfectly clear that this would be a night to remember! Silent Servant was doing a good job of warming the crowd up and his thunderous basslines shook Cable’s soundsystem to the core! Don’t you just love it when you hear music that you like and a grin appears on your face! No one was dancing as I entered around midnight. It was a typical techno crowd. People standing and watching in admiration as Silent Servant destroyed the main room. However as the night continued, there was an undesirable element to the crowd. It seemed that people had come for a normal night at Cable on a Saturday (DnB/Dubstep usually) and didn’t know that it was a techno night at Cable. They looked like they had been in the park all day soaking the sun and simply walked into Cable with their flip-flops and shorts! But this didn’t matter because as Silent Servant ended, the true techno crowd emerged.
As the night progressed, the music kept building and building and in all honesty, James Ruskin played an amazing set! I have seen him play a few times and he never really blew me away. This time around he really excelled, plus the fact that he played the peak time slot just before Surgeon, meant that he really had to go for it! I popped into the bar room just for drinks, but the music didn’t really appeal to me and it seemed like a mixture of experimental and Drum and Bass, but in all honesty, it sounded like they had problems and the music in that room was very disjointed. So time had nearly arrived for the main reason why everyone was at Blueprint: Surgeon.
Ruskin had done an amazing job of whipping the crowd into a frenzy and the second Surgeon started, his sound completely blew away. He played on Ableton and didn’t use headphones and his performance was class for the whole 2 hours. A real treat in London to have a true techno great playing. One of the main highlights in his set was this incredible remix/re-edit (whatever you want to call it) of ‘Window Licker’ by Aphex Twin. Something that really stood out for me, and the rest of the LTC (London Techno Community) who were out in force. Those two hours were unreal and were really not enough, but we had our share of Surgeon and the whole crowd felt thoroughly satisfied. Quoting a good friend of mine ‘Techno, they way it should be!’
The night was ended by Sigha, again a great name emerging in the techno scene. I have seen him many times and his sound is definitely something I can relate to. He played on vinyl and CDs and he had a tough job keeping the energy and pace of Surgeon but he did a good job. Bassline after thundering bassline coursed through system and the room was still packed and the crowd were still really up for it. It makes such a nice feeling to hear great techno in Cable’s main room as that system is totally made for it. Last time I was treated to true techno in that room was Sandwell District at Jaded, and God that something really special! If you read my previous Jaunts, you will have read how incredible that morning was. As Sigha closed Blueprint at 7am, I had one of those grins that I mentioned before. A great Saturday night/Sunday morning and I was thoroughly pleased. As Blueprint continued, the bar room opened up again as Jaded begun! A very short trip for me, from one room to the other which was very handy! Rejam played the bar room from beginning to end which was a first for them and they kept the crowd going. Canary Fontaine and Zippy controlled things in the main room which was a delight to hear. A great change from Blueprint, straight to the sound of Jaded! As the morning progressed I managed to maintain the balance and found my jaded groove! I will always know in my heart where my true music tastes lie! A great weekend of music and friends. What else do you need? What a journey!
Same time next week..? J
