Fun, frolics and a melted amp; good night then!
DISCLAIMER: I DJ’d at this event, so my perceptions of it may be biased. As such I will write more from a personal perspective with less emphasis on the pros and cons as an attendee.
It was Scottish’s birthday and all through the house, young people were gathering, foam at the mouth, to share in his ageing and celebrate life, to dance and to prance and to laugh with delight. That being the case, I decided to bring my new M-Audio Xponent (MIDI controller) and laptop to provide some in-house tuneage. Scottish has had decks on the pool table before, and I thought I should take advantage of how convenient a laptop/controller set up is- a bag and slung under one arm and you have a full set up that would require 2 decks, a mixer and either cds or records. I think it’s…worth making note of the fact- I think the convenience factor will see a greater proliferation of DJing at smaller events, because the effort beforehand is a lot less.
Anyways, my friend John had told me he was playing at the Cowley Club that night, which turned out to be just around the corner, and had asked me for some new tunes, and then suggested we do a joint set. Since I’m just starting out (this would be my second club performance), I was of course, well up for, as the more exposure, practice and experience I get, the better I’ll play, more I’ll be booked and so on.
The Cowley Club is “a collectively run libertarian social centre.” It has the look of a pub but with a door that’s locked and it’s for members only in general. When events are on, donations can be asked for at the door and I assume non-members can enter then, but not otherwise.
As you can see, the hangings were top class, and that goblin head just made me want to dance!
I arrived as John was finishing setting up the rig and the organisers were putting the finishing touches on their visuals. I have to say that I was genuinely impressed- as an event organiser myself, I appreciate the depth of experience you can add to a music event with some really well worked visuals, and they definitely scored highly in that department. A wall hanging of a massive driver and a projection onto the ceiling rounded out the hangings and lighting effects. I liked the Entrobang goblin head as well- a great touch.
As you can see from the photos, it’s a relatively small venue, so the rig sounded more than ample to fill the sonic space. It then proceeded to do so during our soundchecks 
. The first DJs up for the night were the dubstep duo “Cult.” Now, as I’ve said before, I’m not dubstep’s greatest advocate, but the music was well (if not seamlessly) mixed, and it opened the night in good style. The dance floor’s nucleus of wompers slowly germinated into a burgeoning happy atmosphere of ravers. Unfortunately this was not to last. I’ve decided to call what happened a “red-out;” and in this context I mean the DJ(s) redlined the mixer to the point where they caused one of the amps to ignite and melt itself, and the other to overheat. At this point I volunteered to do a car run for a backup amp, generously provided by Erisian’s own Si Fucknose. We returned to a fairly busy club, smelling faintly of burnt wiring. After a couple of false starts the music was kicked off again.
Unfortunately, this meltastrophe meant that John, who was playing first of the two of us had to do a set with only the top speakers, and I was on as the system started to thump. I won’t comment on the set, except to say that it seemed to go down well and I only made one (noticeable) mistake and that was very minor. If you’re interested in hearing it, it’s here. Due to the shorter set and the delay from the meltage, I finished with DTA‘s “The Descent;” which is a piece of absolute filth! Great kudos to that man!
Lapis appreciating "The Descent." If you join the Entrobang facebook group you can see me reciprocating as I try to make an exit only to be caught in the breakdown awesomeness.
After me was the massively ace, waistcoat sporting DJ Lapis. Starting at 140-150bpm old-school/acid tekno, the tempo accelerated smoothly from tune to tune until it was slamming hardtek. The highlight of the set, if not the night, was womping my little chimpy heart out to a hardtek take on the 60s Batman TV Theme (sounds like this remember?) Now just imagine that loop with rolling hardtek drums. Fucking BATMAN! After this, given I had a birthday to be at, I made a staggered exit. In the sense that I’d get a few feet before stopping to dance- it was that kind of set. I’m told that Mindgrind’s speedcore set was a solid finish and all-in-all the music and event was (or seemed) well received by the crowd. Hopefully we’ll see many of them again for the repeat.
Personally, I had a really good night- I had a little dance, played a solid set, had a thorough womp and then got to hang out with loads of my best mates until the wee hours. On the other hand, I hope that the 2nd amp is now working and that suitable restitutions have been offered by the rub-a-dub-whoops-was-that-your-amp?-steppers. I’d strongly recommend Bass Therapy- the crowd was cheerful and in the mood to enjoy themselves, the venue, while not large, was comfortable and the visuals were a nice addition. The music was good and the price was spot on- only £2 on the door. I think the event hits a sweet spot- doesn’t go on too long, doesn’t cost too much, lets you just kick back and have some good old fashioned fun. Now if I can only find a way to raise my dosage…
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.
