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Day: 23 December 2015

Live: Warehouse Project – Kaluki

Written by Charlie Chipchase on . Posted in Music.

28th November

Store Street

8/10

Saturday night at Store Street welcomed one of tech-house’s greatest heroes, Luciano, to the Warehouse Project. Following a busy summer season in Ibiza with his party known as ‘Vagabundos’, he showed every sign of continuing it here. The clouds over rain-sodden Manchester were temporarily lifted (if only figuratively).

Originating from the Chilean club circuit, where he has played a large part in assisting the electronic scene’s growth, Luciano’s sets often have a Latin American influence. It was definitely hinted at tonight, alongside the more minimal techno that he has developed over the years. The set is awash with glitchy blips, robotic stutters, and layered with various synthesizers. Occasionally Luciano gets into even more experimental psychedelia. At one point he plays with organic, shimmery tribal percussion and fuzzy harmonics. Moments like this are a reminder of his well-earned position as one of dance music’s most world-influenced and inventive musicians.

The equally excellent back-to-back performance from Eats Everything and Richy Ahmed should not be forgotten. After being blown over seeing Eats Everything about a year ago, I knew we were in for a treat. Yet the complementation of Richy Ahmed’s talent turned it into something even more powerful.

Both DJs understand a crowd. They know how to build them up and bring them crashing down again, effectively using crowd-pleasers in the appropriate places to get everyone moving. Of course, ‘Dancing! (Again!)’ was a highlight with its nasty stabbing bass that bounces between glitchy vocal samples. The contrasts between Ahmed’s disco/funk/hip-hop influences work particularly well with the R&B high-end and bass-heavy low-end moments of Eats Everything. The seamlessness makes it impossible to tell they are playing back-to-back, and that is surely a good thing.

The only times where I felt slightly let down by tonight is to do with some issues of the venue itself. By 11pm, there’s not much of a queue outside, but it is completely rammed inside. This makes it much more difficult to navigate than usual. It’s a little more manageable in the second room, although the intensity of the lights in here was off the scale tonight. Unlike most other nights, we all had to cover our eyes or look at the floor.

That said, the quality of musicianship made tonight a success. Once again, the Warehouse Project demonstrates its ability to put on some of the best parties in the North West.

Live: Warehouse Project – Leftfield

Written by Kayleigh Brook on . Posted in Music.

12th December

Store Street

5/10

Not content with just showcasing modern titans of dance music, Warehouse Project gives a nod to British house and electronica’s formative years in the form of Leftfield, following the release of their first album in sixteen years, Alternative Light Source. The 90’s pioneers summoned a swathe of veteran ravers out from the woodwork: a little worn out and certainly older, but visibly ready to have a great time. The sheer number of survivors from the first time round had the side effect of rendering many of Warehouse Project’s usual trendy young things in the vast minority, leaving them looking a little lost for themselves.

With Leftfield’s cult following and critical success in the 90s, they certainly did not shy away from hammering out the greatest hits in favour of new material, although highlights of their 2015 outing got a see-in too: the classic ‘Phat Planet’ contrasted with the fantastically shrill ‘Shaker Obsession’. The incessant churning of hits, one after the other, felt a little like a greatest hits compilation. In particular, the songs seemed remarkably close to the studio version, and none seemed to fade into one another, killing off any accumulated excitement between songs. The show was left feeling insincere, sadly short of the magic that such an act could have brought to the room.

The house anthems were interspersed with heavy reggae breakdowns; instead of jarring the vibe in the room, the change of pace transformed the atmosphere, making the warehouse sway loosely in unison before the heavy assault returned. Alongside the underwhelming audio experience, the visual aspect left much to be desired. The graphics playing alongside the performance seemed to match up so perfectly with the stop-and-start sound, giving the impression that this is the sort of show Leftfield put on each time, and erasing any feeling of spontaneity from the act.

Overall, the performance let Leftfield’s reputation precede them, feeling like only just enough effort was put in to get by: all bark, little bite.

Live: Warehouse Project – Feel My Bicep

Written by Robert Firth on . Posted in Music.

19th December

Store Street

6/10

As a house and techno focused night, it might have been one of the broadest of this year’s Warehouse Projects. Although, the moment you entered Store Street’s arches and saw the three bicep logo, lit up in pink neon and descending from Room One’s roof, there was no question as to whom this night was all about.

Ben UFO and Jackmaster warmed up the crowd nicely in Room One. Across in Room Two, Daniel Avery abruptly crushed anyone’s assumptions by opening with a ten minute long chant. Everyone who wasn’t ready for one of his typically disillusioning sets dispersed, freeing up nice space in the boiling room. After dropping the gurgling ‘Drone Logic’ soon after, Avery’s set turned towards more digestible techno rhythms. Strangely though, it was this turn in the set’s mood that prevented Avery’s hour and a half from reaching the freaky psychedelic depths that make his usual sets so enthralling.

The less taxing beats Avery opted for meant that it wasn’t difficult to return to Room One for what should have been the night’s highlight, Bicep. With a packed out room, Bicep had the opportunity to rip apart Warehouse Project.

At first it seemed like they would, playing ‘Just’ early on, playfully extending the overlapping of the intro’s pounding bass into the analogue twists and shakes of the chorus. However, after ‘Just’ the set tailed off into pretty generic pounding house beats for way too long. It partially recovered later on, with a ferocious remix of First Choice’s ‘Let No Man Put Asunder’. The track restored much of the rapturous energy of the set’s beginning, but by that point a sizeable amount of restless people had wandered off into Room Two and not returned.

It was Madchester descendent and techno producer Andrew Weatherall who had the delicate task of covering Room Two during the majority of Bicep’s set. He excelled in the position, knitting together an immersive blanket of upbeat funky house rhythms, cross threaded through with creeping sizzling techno. It was the one time during the night where the crowd seem drawn into an all-consuming trance and a belated precursor of what the rest of this expansive night could have been.