What’s most striking about the show isn’t the huge Angus-style skull caps which are perched on top of the roof of the stage that come complete with wiggling devil horns – it’s the crowd.
Following a potentially fatal bout of auto-immune deficiency, Airborne Toxic Event’s Mikel Jollett gave up a damned promising writing career to play music.
Despite a mix that virtually eliminated keyboards and favoured bass and drums over vocals that needed all the help they could get, the hits came thick and fast.
Clone impresses with this split release. Orgue Electronique’s ‘On A String’ is pure Chicago hedonism, the tight, doubling up claps setting the scene for a vicious 303 bass, while Legowelt’s subtle percussive twists and moody chords import the spirit of Nu Groove to Rotterdam.
It’s become fshionable to slag off Minus, but it’s hard not to be seduced by Pierce’s latest mushy, non-linear release. This doublepack ambles along unhurriedly, but Pierce is busy throughout, catching the listener off guard with visceral percussion, lurching bass licks and frazzled acid freakouts.
Detroit house producer Dixon returns with a release that takes inspiration from his techno contemporaries’ fixation with outer space sounds and, on the droning ‘Links’ a booming bass that makes Saunderson’s Resse project seem tame.
Tensnake’s original is a slamming, filtered house track, but it’s not a patch on Cosmic Sandwich’s remix, which plunges the bass to fathomic depths, laying down heavy acid lines and infectious bleeps.
