NEWS
EVENTS
Awakening X Drumcode Joint Aural Assault at London's Tobacco Docks
House | Sunday 2nd November 2014 | Arren
Halloween is one of the busiest weekends in the Capital's clubbing calendar, but this year the event that topped the pile had to be Drumcode’s infamous Halloween event. In the previous 4 years Adam Beyer and his Drumcode cohorts have sold out the Great Suffolk Street warehouse in what is one of London’s biggest techno events. This year Drumcode went up another level by teaming up with Awakenings, the Dutch techno event heavyweights. Together they brought London the maddest techno party this year with three spaces; each offered a varied diet of techno to an all-too eager crowd. The venue was the Tobacco Docks in Wapping, London. This grade-1 listed building provided a great venue for this an event of this scale featuring the likes of Len Faki, Denise & Pika and Scuba to name a few.
The event was a day time party that shook the walls until 11pm; for those still not satisfied the afterparty was a full scale event in itself with a stellar line up. Awakenings, well known for the effort they put into their parties didn’t let us down, transforming the place into an unforgettable venue. The main room featured a full scale light wall along with the classic smoke machines and lasers, well why wouldn’t you? Room 2 saw the car park downstairs transformed into a crazy place to get into your groove and Room 3 was a nice secluded space. The only issue in the venue was the flow of people in room 1. It didn’t seem to matter where you were, there were always people trying to get past, but this wasn’t the end of the world.
The line up offered a variety of new upcoming acts alongside Drumcode regulars and some techno royalty. Harvey McKay warmed up the growing crowd with his brilliant blend of house and techno, his recent track, Lost released on Drumcode being a particular highlight of his set. Following McKay were the relentless duo Dense & Pika. They took room 1 on an intense rush of heavy warehouse techno. Dense & Pika finished at 4, by which time it began to get dark. Even though they had done a good job of keeping room 1 as dark as possible in the day time hours, you can never beat the complete darkness that night brings which meant that the lights really began to wow the crowd.
Once Dense & Pika had finished it was time to check out room 2, down in the so called vault. It was in the car park underneath the docks. So you could say that this really was an underground party, and who better to greet there than the Dense & Pika’s Hotflush ally, Paul Woolford. The British DJ, producer shook the floor with his mixture of garage influence techno and upfront bangers, before the legend that is Scuba stepped up onto the decks. Playing a lot more like SCB (his upfront techno alias) he kept people moving all through the set, before you knew it Scuba had ended what was a brilliant set.
Moving back into room 1 it became clear very quickly that more people had turned up. It was packed, everywhere you looked bug eyed geezers making awkward eye contact with you before looking at the floor, and groups of confused girls tried to make their way across the floor until they found a suitable space. Expecting that it would get to this stage at some point is a given, especially at events of this scale, but the contrast between the last time I had been in this room was ridiculous. Who was meant to be Alan Fitzpatrick turned out to be Joris Voorn, having their set times swapped apparently due to a zombie bite.The Dutchman kept things funky building up to the Italian Drumcode ambassador, Joseph Capriati. By now the light show in room 1 was really taking off; and just in time for the Drumcode master mind, a perhaps techno’s biggest DJ right now, Adam Beyer to begin his onslaught. An hour into Beyer’s aural assault Len Faki was starting off in room 2, and he did a fine job of tearing through the underground car park with his relentless pounding of warming techno. Come 11 and Faki concluded the final chapter in the Drumcode, Awakenings Halloween party.
For some the night was just beginning with the after party kicking off pretty much as soon as the main event had finished, however for most it was the end to a mental day of unadulterated techno. We were promised at the end that Awakenings will be returning next year, and I certainly hope that they do, London was given a flavour of Holland’s biggest techno event’s organizers, and at a time when the techno scene in the UK is at a high. Only good things can come from this!
