– THE WAREHOUSE PROJECT, MANCHESTER –
This is the second weekend of Manchester’s pop-up club nights which span September to New Year’s Day. Having outgrown the cavernous car park under Piccadilly station, The Warehouse Project has now relocated to an actual warehouse in Trafford Park. Its growing popularity since its opening in 2006 is no surprise. The organisers have consistently lined up an impressive array of international vintage DJs and musicians including Sven Väth, Aphex Twin, Pete Tong and De La Soul, as well as current and emerging artists like Jamie XX, John Talabot, Nicholas Jarr and Caribou. The list really is endless.
However, success and a larger venue bring with it inevitable challenges. I would take a punt at a five thousand strong crowd, when really 500 less would have made it more bearable. Three rooms, each one hotter and more rammed than the next. Navigating between them is a stifling bun fight. With no seating or chill out area of note, the only respite is outside with the smokers. To appease us though there is a bar around every corner.
As the backdrop for six hours of exquisite beats and frantic melodies it is totally worth it. Stage one hosted the top billed artists: TNGHT, Four Tet and finally SBTRKT as the evening’s curator. This is pretty much where my attention is secured for the whole evening.
First on is TNGHT, the collaborative project between DJs Hudson Mowhawke and Lunice. TNGHT’s self-titled EP was created for nights like this one. They call it ‘instrumental hip-hop’ made up of ‘neon-coloured aggression’. After five second of hearing them, I can only remark: “If I don’t dance I’m going to burst”. Their set is very playful with a relentless unapologetic bass which makes your internal organs vibrate. Tunes like ‘Easy Easy’ and ‘Goooo’ have you frantically jumping on the toes of those around you, whilst ‘Buggin’ , a slightly slower tempo, dials down the frenetic intensity to slow motion.
Throughout the set we are teased with snippets from easily the stand out track, ‘Higher Ground’, before it finally kicks in for the finale. A combination of handclaps, sirens, horns and high pitched repetitive vocals that make the night for me.
Four Tet attracts a surge of spectators and moving out of the crowd is uncomfortable. I confess that I am rather a Four Tet super fan. Kieran Hebden as Four Tet has to be one of the hardest working DJs on the circuit. This is his second appearance at WHP 2012 as well as releasing a plethora of remixes and his own recent compilation album, Pink. This evening we are treated to his live mixes, a melodic selection of percussion sounds from his 2010 album There Is Love In You. Whilst less crazy than TNGHTs set, it still provides plenty of beats to move to.
He opens with ‘Love Cry’ which is gloriously hypnotic, gently acquiring sounds until the final outpouring of bass. Hebden specialises in instrumentally rich textures of melodies which, for the sake of this evening, has the bass ramped right up. We get a fired up version of Plastic People which draws you into a trance, again building gently with layers of percussion and keyboards.
His tracks don’t erupt entirely but they don’t really need to, they are not cathartic, just utterly mesmerising.
And so to our host for the evening, SBTRKT, an undercover project by Aaron Jerome, his identity sealed by a ‘modern ceremonial mask’. I’ve loved this debut album and am interested to see how it is going to fare on the WHP stage. It’s a good mix of electronica, hints of House music and dub step, finished off with cracking guest vocals (Little Dragon, Jessie Ware, Sampha). It’s refreshing to hear live vocals from Jerome’s collaborator Sampha whose soft, soulful tones cover the beats in honey-like melodies for ‘Hold On’ and ‘Something Goes Right’. His vocals share centre stage with the instrumentals, but are occasionally overpowered by the beat. For tracks like ‘Living Like I do’, we lose the vocal sound quality a little. I expect this is down to the tendency to create the right kind of atmosphere for the room. He ends the set by thanking the clubbers for their attention which is a nice touch for the evening. Definitely worth buying a ticket for his next live.
Overall it was a great night for dancing and moving to irrepressible beats. A veritable banquet for the ears. Not an easy space to enjoy live music in but still worth the energy if you had your wits about you. My shoes may never recover. Don’t take a coat.
