NEWS
EVENTS
Noisia/Par Excellence at Studio Spaces Rocked our World
Drum and Bass | Tuesday 28th October 2014 | Q-GRIND
We'd been anticipating this rave for over six weeks, with friends even coming down all the way from Canterbury to attend. We met up next to the train station, where we could already feel the vibe of drum and bass lovers - replete with super optimimistic smiles and neurofunk banging from their portable speakers. No doubt they were going the same way we were.
After a quick security check, we entered the venue at about thirty minutes to midnight. The main stage was already being smashed by the Hybris mix, while in the Par Excellence area Alix Perez was rolling his deep and subtle liquid tunes.
The real madness started when Phace took to the stage. Starting with psychedelic pink light all around, Phace dropped some crazy breaks and slicing basslines, and in my personal opinion, it was the best set of the night, with fresh and catchy tracks and impeccalbe mixing. By the end of the excellent Phace performance, the area was beginning to fill up with a crowd of anticipatory ravers waiting for the Foreign Beggarz show to begin.
As expected, Foriegn Beggarz put on a remarkable performance at this party. Everyone was shouting the lyrics, jumping to wicked urban beats. By the end of their show they'd started absolute, filthy madness with heavy dubstep drops and remixed Noisia tracks, ending with a huge moshpit which forced security guards to stand at the front to quell the ravers.
Meanwhile at the main stage Noisia were playing their set and I was not the only one who disappointed by the selection and overall performance. Crowd members shouted that they were there for drum and bass, not cheesy dubstep. A bit later ︻ ƱZ ︻ was blowing up the small stage with trapstep and old school rap beats set against a backdrop of stunning visuals. At the same time, the main stage was already overheated and the front of the stage was filled with empty cans, plastic cups and topless, sweaty ravers, jumping and dancing to probably the heaviest mix of this night, supplied by Audio.
His mix was hugely progressive and addictive but for me, as a huge fan of Audio since the early 2000s, it wasn't quite heavy enough. Nevertheless, banger after banger and with no signs of mistakes, he heated up the crowd to a blistering forty degrees!
After the-full tattooed Audio was about to finish his mix, Calyx & Teebee showed up. Personally I wasn't expecting anything even remotely similar to what they disclosed. Calyx & Teebee destroyed the place with rare, deep, heavy, dark and unpredictable futuristic neurofunk. Everyone was screaming, head banging and going nuts with every tune they dropped.
I was amazed by the energy and positive mood of the huge crowd still dancing on their feet after 5am. It was sad to see that meanwhile, in the Par Excellence zone, Kharnage was playing to almost empty stage, as his deep breaks were incredibly hypnotic.
Overall the MCs did a remarkable job, whilst security guards were friendly and attentive as were like the rest of the staff, including all bartenders, cloakroom attendants and the light engineer who made the main stage heaven with his light show. I was thrilled with a small market of unique artist stuff, and got two vinyls, one of them signed by Foreign Beggars for only £5.
Guestlist gives full marks to this event, and looks forward to the next event hosted by Noisia or Par Excellence.
