My friend G, and me arrived about midnight and headed for the D&B room, tucked away in the furthest reaches of the place, and got straight into the jump-up upfront Junglist sound coming from those powerful speakers. The people in there were an assortment of happy individuals; some dancing like crazy, and a lot of them living proof that the much-maligned hoodies can be worn by decent human beings.

The first DJ whose name I remember, A-symetric, began her set playing hip hop back to back with dark D&B, a selection that was a bit too eclectic for me at that time of night. Time to hit the bar. When we returned, her set had settled down into a nice tight mix of dirty, dark-ish tracks with a happy, bouncy edge to them. Result. The guy on after her, JNK (pronounced Jenky), played basslines so filthy, they should have called up Rentokil. There was one track in particular that got me: JB featuring Benny Blanco. He also played a great mix of the theme tune from Pulp Fiction.

All the drum & bass DJ’s played the latest, most upfront stuff – I don’t reckon any track played was more than 5 years old. Even Devious D deviated (sorry!) from his usual old skool style. Also, I don’t know if it was my imagination, but I’m sure the sub bass kicked in progressively deeper and stronger throughout the night.

Got chatting to this couple who’d been for a wander “Go to the acid techno room- it’s fuckin’ excellent in there”

They were right. There was a room full of ravers really going for it. And some brilliant lasers. I got right into the vocal samples and hypnotic tribal rhythms played by Anphibian. After him, Mark Axel really vibed up the crowd mixing Donna Summer’s ‘I Feel Love’ with a twisted techno track. Meanwhile, Grooverider, was playing in the D&B room, and I was seriously torn over whether to watch him or Chris Liberator. Right after Axel had finished, I dashed back to catch the start of Grooverider’s set. He was excellent as usual, but I’ve seen him play a lot of times, and never seen Chris Liberator, so that’s what swung it for me. Hey, what a position to be in-I’ve not been to many parties, where I’ve had to make such hard musical decisions!

So, back in the acid techno arch, it had to be. And that is where I stayed for the rest of the night. DJ and producer, Chris Liberator was on: he lip-synched and mimed like a crazed actor over the vocal bits of his own records, in front of the most surreal and trippy projections. He also mashed up a helluva lot of Jello Biafra’s’ ‘lyrics, from his Spoken Word albums with some acid-tech madness. This guy’s been around for ages on the radical edge of the dance scene, and it was undoubtedly one of the best sets I’ve ever heard or seen in 15 years of raving. Go see him if you get the chance.

That night, there was excellent music, top-notch production, and friendly people. The only negative was that, apart from the acid techno room, there weren’t that many people around. Certainly the awesome set by UK techno pioneer DAVE the Drummer deserved a much bigger audience.
Not that this bothered the manic dancers in the drum & bass room, who actually seemed to appreciate having more space with which to fling their arms and legs around. And not one of the DJ’s in there was too cool to get down and dance to each others’ sets, especially when Grooverider came on.

G and me left after Chris Liberator finished. Tired, but happy, we made our way to the station where a solitary taxi waited to take us home. It had been a good night, and I’m definitely going back there again. For real.

Minnie Mouse