Re-re-re-gig reviews!

Sunil Sharpe and DJ Kalif + Americhord + Dave Prior at The Cavern, 10th of Feb

This was the first Junction gig I’ve made it down to in a while and I think one of their first ones since they left The Life Bar a while ago. I missed Dave Prior’s opening set but managed to catch most of Americhord who was rocking (technoing?) out with a heap of new material being played live on her Akai MPC200XL with some help from Ableton Live and a rather beefy looking Mackie mixing desk. As always Maura didn’t fail to impress, what I want to know is when this new stuff is making it out on vinyl. Well Maura? You can tell Uncle skkatter!

I tried to get a few photos but because it was so sweaty and packed the lens on my camera actually started to fog up (I think it was because I’d cycled in and it was cold outside). With its low ceiling and sweaty rambunctious crowd, that night in The Cavern reminded me of some of my earlier (fonder) clubbing memories in The Funnel. It’s been a while since I saw such an enthusiastic crowd, and the cavernous venue definitely added something to the old school rave atmosphere.

Pretty soon it was the main fight of the night, I found it hard to get to the front to trainspot but the guys started off with a stark percussive track I didn’t recognise with Monolake’s “Alaska” being quickly mixed in. Each of the guys had a pair of decks and a mixer and were quickly (and rather deftly) mixing something new in practically every 40 seconds or so. I was surprised and relieved by how they went for a weirder deeper sound than I’d expected. There was very little “lashin’”, “bangin’” or “horsein’” it out in this set, but guys still maintained a very high energy level, people were going pretty mad for it. I’m pretty sure I heard bits of Maurizio, Oliver Ho, the Sleeparchive remix of Regis amongst other things. There was even a sprinkle of electro in places, and near the end things were taken up a notch with some drum and bass and hardcore stuff (which I didn’t enjoy that much myself but most of the dancers in the top half of the room seemed well into it). They finished off with Aphex Twin’s “XMD 5a” (from the Analord 10 release on Rephlex), a favourite of Sunil’s, I remember when a few of us were drunk at my place before and he demanded I dig it out and play it.

So yeah, a great night! I was really pleased with how much interesting techno got mixed in without the floor being cleared. It all depends on the crowd I suppose, hopefully they’ll all come back for Junction’s next show in The Cavern with Mark Broom on the 2nd of March.