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 shuffling at in the last week… This time he spent his jaunt at ‘Cocoon Heroes’ at Electric Brixton, ‘Spilt Milk’ at The Dairy, ‘Cartuli’s Day’ at Crucifix Lane, and of course his weekly trip to afterhours Jaded at Cable.
Hey and welcome to Jammy’s Jaunts! A weekly round-up of my weekend’s proceedings! This weekend was a considerably long one and consisted of 4 events at 4 different locations, one party debut also was included and the start of London’s best daytime summer party! To start off proceedings was on Friday with the Cocoon party at ‘Electric Brixton’. This has been a regular nightspot for a few weeks now after its refurbishment and overhaul since its early days as The Fridge’. Headlining in the main room was none other than Papa himself band warming up before him was Sascha Dive. In room 2, warming up were good friends of mine, head of EarToGround Chris Stanford and Spilt Milk and Don’t Techno Sh!t boss Tred Benedict with Geddes closing the room. The set times were as follows in room 2 – 22:00 – 2:00 Chris Stanford and Tred Benedict, 02:00 – 05:00 Geddes. In room 1: 22:00 – 01:30 Sascha Dive, 01:30 – 07:00 Sven Vath. I arrived around 23:30 and Electric Brixton was steadily starting to fill up. Usually events there usually start till fill around 1am and by then the place was pretty busy. During the duration of the night, I didn’t feel as it was as busy as other nights that I have been to there at the Electric. Good support came from Chris and Tred and they kept the groove alive in the smaller second room. I feel that the second room certainly needs more work done on it as it was relatively still quiet in there. But I couldn’t fault the effort of the boys! Sascha Dive did a good job of warming up for Sven and by the time he started the crowd were at its peak and certainly Sven was the one that everybody came out to see. Sven played his usual eclectic set of Techno, old skool classics and certainly some very eccentric tracks towards the end, which made for a very epic 5.5hr set! Some of the techno that Sven was hammering out was truly something I was looking forward to and he didn’t disappoint! I did feel that some of what he also played was not for me, but this didn’t ruin in the night. As the night progressed, I did manage to find time to show support for the music that was coming from room 2 had as it might have been due to the amount of people in that room. I eventually bowed out just before 7am after a great night
Next stop which I have been waiting for all summer and so have many people that I have speaking to was the return of the infamous summer daytime party ‘Spilt Milk’ run by Tred Benedict (who had earlier played for Cocoon). Last year it had its home at ‘The Papermill’ in Shoreditch but after the area being turned in flats/office space, the new home this year has been the very cool space called ‘The Dairy’ in Hackney Wick. Arriving at around 5pm, I found myself weaving through to the location, tucked away in the middle of an industrial site, approximately 10 minute walk from Hackney Wick overground. As I got to the place, the crowd had already started to build and the vibe and atmosphere was typical Spilt Milk ‘esque’! The only missing ingredient was the sun and this surely would have made more people come out! No matter however, as there was a good number of people to make this opening party even special! The main guests from Highgrade records were Tom Clark and Daniel Dreier who rocked the Spilt Milk crowd to a frenzy and they definitely looked like they enjoyed every single second of it! The new addition to the party this year was the big milk crates on both sides of the DJ booth as well as making them a feature of the DJ booth too. They had lights inside them and were controlled to change colour and flicker at the same time. A cool new idea for this year and especially later on in the evening when it started it get dark. In all a great opening to what I’m sure will be a very successful summer for the Spilt Milk crew!
As the night continued, I ventured south of the river to the Crucifix Lane to a party that I have wanted to go to for a long time. It was the very successful Cartuli’s Day run by good friends and Jaded residents Unai Trotti and Alex Cliche. Night started off well and their parties usually get busy around the 2am mark and their special guests were Tom Clark (who had earlier played at Spilt Milk) and Anthony Collins, both DJs who I saw for the first time this weekend and which I thoroughly enjoyed. Warming up proceedings was Tred Benedict who also came down from Spilt Milk. Tom Clark came on after him, then Anthony Collins. Clark and Collins had some B2B action and closing was Unai and Alex who also went B2B. The music was really good and I was pleasantly surprised! A real good vibe with great talent. Another one off my list and I will definitely be heading back for some Cartulis action soon. Great party guys!
Finally to make things extremely easy in terms of travelling, the marathon weekender ended with the ever impressive Jaded round the corner at Cable! This morning featured the Krankbrothers afterparty with special guest DJ T: head of the Get Physical record label. By the time I got to Jaded, resident Raymundo Rodriguez was laying down the beats that always get the Jaded faithful going! After that, the Cartulis duo of Unai Trotti and Alex Cliche closed the bar room. Krankbrothers ruled the main room from 730am onwards and perfectly set up the crowd for the arrival of DJ T. By then I was completely shattered from my amazing weekend and was time to go home! What a journey! Same time next week..?