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 event he was partying at in the last week… We welcome him back after the mid season break and this time he spent his jaunts at Boiler Room and Fabric.
Hello and welcome to the return of ‘Jammy’s Jaunts’. The Jaunts took a summer mid season break and now I’m back to bring you, your weekly clubbing review of events in London over the past weekend. Thank you for your patience over the break and I’m sure you all had a great summer of partying, festivals and general feel good vibes over the long summer days. Over the summer there were so many good parties each weekend in London. Each weekend was mouth-wateringly good and the choice was pretty decent depending on what genre of music you listen to.
So let’s cut to the chase and begin this review. This week consisted of 2 events. The first being on Thursday for the very special Boiler Room and on Saturday for Fabric. The line-up for Boiler Room this time round was Russell Haswell, Conor Thomas, Cut Hands and Vatican Shadow from 8pm-11pm. This was my first party after coming back from holiday and I was eagerly anticipating this. I arrived early at the secret East London Boiler Room location and it was good to catch up with a lot of familiar faces. As I got there, the room was just starting to fill up nicely.
The first act up was Russell Haswell and he had all his modular equipment all set up and he was making some very interesting experimental sounds. The majority of the crowd were stood watching and some ‘chin scratchers’ too were taking on the sounds that he was creating. It wasn’t really music you could dance too and it was interesting to hear something like this, as it wasn’t anything I had ever listened to before. He played for roughly 30-40 minutes and it was good to see many people appreciating the sound he brought to Boiler Room. Next up was Conor Thomas. A relatively new name to me and he began with his own interpretation of abstract and experimental/industrial sound that built up from what Haswell had started earlier on. It was again, very interesting to hear and in some ways quite hard to interpret or put down on paper. You really needed to be there to fully understand what they wanted to achieve during their performance. Next up was Cut Hands (aka William Bennett). He is a true veteran from the UK underground scene and a true legend of the experimental and noise scene for over 25 years. He brought his own flair and take on things in the Boiler Room and I really enjoyed his set there. It was more dancefloor orientated and he really got the vibe going. I had never seen him play before Boiler Room and I have to say his take on the rawness and feel of the music was something special. His latest release on the formidable label ‘Blackest Ever Black’ named Damballah 58 is out late October so definitely check it out. Last but not least, the very special Vatican Shadow.
Seeing Vatican Shadow play for the first time back in the summer at Electrowerkz in London, he completely blew me away with his live set. Dark, ominous, industrial, experimental. You name it, it happened. Back at Boiler Room he was up to his old tricks again, playing from what you could best describe as a ‘tool box’ with his gadgets and technical wizardry! Standard arm flailing and manic dancing ensued and it was incredible to watch his performance. Such energy, power, enthusiasm and sheer passion for the music. Totally what we all wanted to see and I was again impressed, even though after his performance he said that he wasn’t happy with his set. But at the end of the day, the crowd loved it and it made for a truly great ending to the Boiler Room show! (Thanks Emma for the VS pic)
Next up on the Saturday was the jaunt to Fabric. This event was part of the 10 year Ricardo Villalobos special at Fabric and joining him in Room 1 this time around was Sylphe warming up from 23:00 – 01:00, Raresh 01:00 – 03:30, Craig Richards 03:30 – 06:00, Ricardo Villalobos 06:00 – 10:00, Ricardo and Raresh (b2b) 10:00 – 11:00 +. Room 2 lined up with Brinsley Kazak 23:00 – 00:00, Untold 00:00 – 03:00, Vatican Shadow (live) 03:00 – 04:00, Regis 04:00 – 06:30. Room 3 was taken over by Louche with Wbeeza (live) and Soulphiction. So arriving Fabric around 00:30, I went to check out room 2 first, with Untold laying some deep hypnotic bass patterns. Room 2 was filling up, but was still not busy yet, so went to check out Raresh in Room 2 and he was really working the crowd. He was producing real dark, pulsating breakdowns and throwing in some really bassy tracks. I have always been a fan of Raresh and he really set things up well in that room. I was to-ing and fro-ing between that room and room 2 as Untold was really picking things up. By around 02:30 the room was full and the hype was building for Vatican Shadow to tear things apart and if you have seen him play before, he really went for it! The crowd loved it and every now and then he would come to the front of the stage and thrash his head, legs, body, everything! You really got to love that connection with the audience he made! The hour live set flew by and next up was the legendary and one half of the now defunct Sandwell District: Regis.
From the word go, his Techno was incredible and relentless. You always know what you get when Regis plays and I have seen him so many times now, he never disappoints! Time after time, his tracks and drops were devastating. By watching him, he just made it look so easy and effortless whilst still pounding the dancefloor to the adoring techno fans! I could have easily listened to more than 3hrs + of the stuff he was playing. It was a real treat to hear him play and a MUST if you have never heard him play before and if you really love your Techno. As room 2 shut, everyone piled into room 1 where Ricardo was taking control and with Ricardo, what you see is what you get with him. He divides opinion and fair play to him he is an incredible DJ and have massive respect for him and what he has done. The last time he played at Fabric back in June/July he played really tough and hard and that was what I was more into, but this time around it wasn’t really my thing in my opinion. In some parts it was good, but it was too haphazard and random. I totally get what people see in his music, and when he went b2b with Raresh it was pretty decent. A lot of Raresh’s tracks I was really impressed with and on the room 1 soundsystem, he really excelled ahead of Ricardo. I stayed for a while and of course it was very enjoyable and a great first jaunt after my holidays! Hope you enjoyed the read! Same time, next weekend? J
