Jaunt (jônt, jänt) n. A short trip or excursion, usually for pleasure; an outing
Plain and Simple’s roving reporter/man about town and clubbing addict Jammy brings you his eye view of the events he was partying at in the last week… This time he spent his jaunts at The Rhythmatic Pre/Main Party, RPR at Fabric and Fuse.
Hello and welcome to Jammy’s Jaunts! Your weekly clubbing review of London! Last weekend consisted of the Pre/Main Rhythmatic party, Fabric and a bit of Fuse. So my jaunt began on early Saturday evening at Hoxton Gallery where the preparty for Rhythmatic. Situated in the heart of Shoreditch this was not far from Basing House. Getting there was a bit of a problem as we seemed to get lost, going round in circles for a while finding the place! So much for maps on smart phones nowadays! Once we finally got there, the space was really cool. Originally used as an art gallery, the arched spaced was home to groovy tech-house to start off the night. Literally on the doorstep of Shoreditch, it was nice to see a near space being used. It would probably not be used for a club night but definitely a venue to possibly use in the summer for a daytime free party, bar any sound restrictions. So any budding promoters out there, look out for this venue if you think it’s right for you! With a bar on the side as you enter the gallery and the DJ at the far end it was an interesting set-up It was also nice to see good friend Ceri warm things up and cool to bring 2 work colleagues out to see what I get up to over the weekend and they really enjoyed it, as it was something different to see. The main party was a short walk over to Hoxton Basement which was literally round the corner and I always enjoy when a party is thrown there.
Starting things off in the basement was Rhythmatic resident Wesley Razzy who last played the week before at Cocoon Heroes, which I wrote about and now here on Rhythmatic duty. A really nice warm-up to get things going, groovy and deep. The basement has a reputation for getting quite hot, so the massive fans were all ready to go. It started to fill up quite nicely and around midnight there was a pretty decent amount of people. Stacked in all 4 corners with Funktion one, the music sounded crystal clear and everyone loved it. The last time I came here was when Bruno Pronsato was playing a few months ago and he played really well! Definitely one to check out if you haven’t already done so. So as it got to around 1am, the headliners came on: Perlon legends, the very talented Thomas Melchior and Fumiya Tanaka. They played back to back which was very interesting and it worked surprisingly well. At first I thought they were going to play individually. It was also the first time I have heard them play too and a big fan of the stuff coming from Perlon at the moment; run by Zip and Markus Nikolai. They really built an exciting groove to the night and as they settled into their set the place was packed. The rolling beats wanted the crowd to cheer for more, but I had to leave and the next stop waiting for me was the very special RPR soundsystem at Fabric.
The favourite of the Romanians for me has to be RPR (Rhadoo, Raresh and Pedro). There has been talk of London recently being too over run with talented Romanians playing the same boring, deep, dull stuff and everything sounding the same, but not from these guys! The last time I heard them play at Fabric, it was pretty incredible as they played the hardest rolling Techno in room 1 which I loved! But not this time, it was much deeper and rolling and the drops that they gave the crowd to move to, were pretty amazing. They were in rapture and waiting on every moment that would send them into a frenzy! All my friends who I was with absolutely loved it. I have been a great follower of them and their music for many years now and it’s always a pleasure to see them play out.
There was no one else in room 1, just them for the whole night taking the Fabric faithful on a truly spectacular journey. For an occasion like RPR, it’s one of those very few events where you had to be there to really experience the music. Describing it here is ok, but you really needed to be there to fully appreciate it for what it was. It also seemed like every time a track was dropped, you could instinctively tell who was playing it, just by the way they track was and how it was played too. They all have their own very distinctive sound and it was all clear to see, for the people who really know their music. I was even lucky to actually recognise a few that were being played which is always a good sign! (Always check the Facebook jaunt page for any tracks that I post, that I have heard over the weekend.) Another great jaunt to Fabric! Fabric always does the business!
The final jaunt of the weekend was Fuse at 93 Feet East. Not really a party I go to, but thought I’d try it out this weekend. Only 2 days before on the Friday, I’m sure you have all seen, was the police raid on the premises. This was due to licensing laws/catching drug dealers or whatever the real reason was, I really don’t really know. But it did cause major uproar among the clubbing community in London. Queuing was a long process, people being on the guest list being turned away and also people wearing the wrong type of clothing! Crazy! So before I got in, I had to take off my shoes as well as getting searched! Felt like being at an airport! Bit OTT, but I guess after the raid, they are all on tenterhooks there and feeling the strain a bit. So I finally got inside and it was the same old Fuse that I had left many months ago. Same faces and the music was ok. I wasn’t really feeling it and I was quite tired too. It was interesting to see what it was like now after not going to it for so long. But I know I had my fun this weekend and it was a great one. So I wasn’t going to let anything spoil it! Great Jaunts! Same time, next weekend? 🙂
