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Last Friday Kerry (my partner in crime) and I, travelled up to London to the Splatterblast techno event at Club Hidden in Vauxhall. As you can see from the flyer above, the lineup was well worth the cost of travel (Brighton to London can be had from as little as £15, although due to my ineptitude we ended up paying quite a lot more).
The Sets:
The Teknoist plays excellent fast-pace break-filled techno; similar to Hellfish, he manages to fill the room with energetic beats without devolving into speedcore or losing the structure of the set. Unfortunately, due to club issues that I’ll explain later, I missed his set (essentially they had him down as playing in one room then played him in another without announcing it! Alas.)
Ladyscraper certainly belongs on the Wrong Music label- watching his hair flail with the brutal techno rhythm was a highlight of the evening. I can only say the drunken (EDIT- shall we say “inebriated”) idiots detracted from what was aurally some fantastic techno. Personally I think that high-tempo techno, particularly as part of a “breakcore” style set (by which I mean in this case, rapidly changing the style of the techno beat, introducing breaks and so on) is very challenging to produce and mix- if not done right it becomes a mess. Ladyscraper’s mess was all in the right place- a brutal, energy filled wompfest.
I hadn’t heard Sonnotek before, but her brilliant hardcore techno set may well have been the best of the evening (at least for me). Brutal, resonant gabber beats in perfect 4/4 time, nice effects but ultimately well structured. One of the negatives of this night was the sense that too many techno djs have forgotten the “build up,” the “structure” of a set. By that I mean, too many of the sets I heard just went from one techno beat to another without any sense of gathering energy. Every time Sonnotek brought in a new bassline it was not only grimey and pleasing to my chimpy ears, it also seemed to fall at the right time, continuing to energise the dance floor.
The other DJ that was a pleasant surprise to discover was Krafty_PK. The club was fairly empty on arrival, with most of the early ar-rave-ls making their way into the (best sounding) gabber room. After some fairly uninteresting introductory techno, he came on and thoroughly warmed me up with a fantastically mixed combination of hardcore techno, dark and emotive samples and some well placed humour- his set was a great contrast of well-formed structure compared to the techno-babble I mentioned earlier. I only wish the club owners had bothered to turn the volume up for this highly enjoyable hour of wompage.
Kinsheeva rocking it out at the beginning of their set
Some of the first criticism I have is this- the venue splits itself into two main rooms with a conjoining bar, which doubles as a third room. The two main rooms played speedcore (including splitter) and gabber respectively. This left breakcore in what was, in a nutshell, the bar. TECHDIFF, Kinsheeva and Ghost were all signed to play in a room which was half bar and half thoroughfare, with speakers you could order a drink while standing in front of. I’ve had it louder in my car (by SPL at least). What’s more, the theme of that room was breakcore/psykore and while I can’t say this for certain, I believe those artists, particularly Ghost and Kinsheeva, were asked to play sets appropriately. I’ve heard Kinsheeva play techno, and I’ve heard Ghost play, and both were energetic sets with breaks and effects adding spice and energy. As part of a psykore set, it felt experimental and ambient. Still technically impressive (and Kinsheeva are visually impressive), but I thought it was a shame not to have given breakcore, as a contrasting music style, a larger stage- I’m all for an infinity of 4/4, but I became tired of the consistency of the two main rooms (I don’t particularly like speedcore for the reasons given above about what I think makes good techno).
I’ve seen Junkie Kut before also, and was looking forward to his performance, which didn’t disappoint. As with Krafty_PK, the main criticism was the volume, but more of that in the club section.
So musically, the night was greatly enjoyable. Thus looking back on it, I’m glad I went and I had a good time. There were two major things (beyond the break-bar disappointment) that, at least for me, really put a damper on the event.
The Club:
Club Hidden had nice decor, but an unimpressive audiovisual system
One of the advantages of going to a club compared to a free party, is often the quality of the audiovisual systems in place. Certainly I’ve been at free parties where the sound quality was (apparently) optimal, but nonetheless- the times I’ve been most vibrated, and certainly when I’ve been most visually wowed, have been in clubs. The Club Hidden soundsystem barely rates the name. It wasn’t until gone 3am that the volume, even in front of the main speakers, was impossible to hold conversation over, and never approached what I see as the optimum threshold- where it hurts if you get too close. Now I’m not pro-deafening (this would, clearly, be tragic), but nonetheless, hardcore dance music isn’t supposed to be put out of only mid-tops because the bassbins “are just there for storage.” Equally, I dont see the point in hiring a top UK DJ to play background music in a bar, even if it’s “the” bar.
The card for the night talked about “Live VJs,” but the visuals were sub-standard at best, while I mainly used the bar for water, I understand the drink prices were very high, and the toilet attendants were pushy and heard to sing creepily- not what you want while tripping to techno. Hardcore + creepy singing? Dead babies ahoy!
On the up side, the club had a pleasant outdoor smoking area which included a hot food & drink van- a nice pick me up as the night went on.
However the final point is negative- the club closed early, screwing over the organisers who had paid for the venue, earning them a definite black star (if their shoddy sound system hadn’t already done so).
The Crowd:
While I made some new friends and was impressed by some of what I (with thorough bias) like to call the Brighton spirit of some of the ravers (despite their coming from Newbury and up north)- i.e. they were friendly, accepting and easy going- the general vibe was less respectful than I like. I’m not one for over-eager security, but there was too much pushing and shoving, stupid kids ruining a good night. Maybe I’m just becoming cynical, but I don’t really understand why some people need to push and shove and spoil it for others- if you want to mosh, go do it with the other moshers, and leave people to enjoy the music, who enjoy the music, capiche? To paraphrase- too many nobs can spoil even the sickest techno-broth.
Ultimately- a good night with a few detractors. I’d have the same music, in a nicer venue, with a bit more restraint over the idiots, and more of the bass loving happy ravers. Set of the night? I can’t decide so I’m going to call it a split between Sonnotek and Krafty_PK. Big it up.
Let me start by saying, Krank 2 was a really good night. A short disclaimer is that I know the organisers of this event personally, and we’re good friends. That said, I think it’s unfortunate that, when it became clear that the numbers weren’t quite enough to fill the two rooms they didn’t respond by quickly moving the remaining crowd into one room to keep what I like to call “critical mass.” That is, the minimum number of people in a club/room to encourage people to stay and newcomers to remain.
