Club: Dixon and Âme

Albert Hall

25th March

7.5/10

The 25th of March saw the two co-founders of Innervisions play a six-hour set at Albert Hall. With no supports before and after them, the set really gave them the duo ample time to craft an atmosphere and delve deep into their music collections. Now in its eleventh year Innervisions continues to churn out exciting releases, so it’s fair to say we were really looking forward to this set.

As expected with such a long night ahead, the set started off quite slow. 11.30 saw a cheeky steel-drum infused number, but until midnight it was nothing special. It would have been nice if they had used the opportunity to play some more interesting slower cuts, but oh well. A slow start wouldn’t normally have been a problem, but the Albert Hall suffered from being surprisingly empty. With the balcony completely barren in some patches, it felt like we were rattling around a bit.

Following a move to the much more atmospheric downstairs, the night really got going soon after midnight, and got really exciting at 1am. Piercing beams of light set the scene for Darlyn Vlys’ extremely eerie ‘Colours’ (Ruede Hagelstein Remix) and the assembled crowd really got into their groove.

The pair played stretched out compositions, which meant each song would be about 10 minutes long, really giving it time to grow and expand. The Drifter remix of ZK Bucket’s ‘Let Your Body Control The Beat’ was perfectly suited to this and had us hooked on every beat, as did the equally luscious Ewan Pearson remix of Glenn Morrison’s ‘Into The Deep’.

Around 2 o’clock things got really hot. Dixon dropped the absolutely gorgeous ‘Moorthon II’ Frank Wiedemann (Innervisions release 63). Âme followed it with the stomping unreleased track Trikk ‘Proto-Rhyt’, whose cascading thunderous drums sent us into a collective euphoria and cutting through the melodic techno that thus far had kept us entranced.

While the music was definitely heavier than what I would normally go for, it sounded great live. The masterful selection and blending by Dixon and Âme meant that it was impossible not to get caught up in the atmosphere of it all. Once again the Albert Hall was amazing clubbing venue; the breath-taking surroundings of the balcony, organ and stained glass windows giving the event a vibe that perfectly suiting the intense atmosphere of the crowd. As we left around 3.30 a drop of Bicep’s recently released remix of Isaac Tichauer’s ‘Higher Level’ sent the crowd into a such a frenzy that we nearly decided to stay. Not wanting to outstay our welcome however, the track’s name was telling of what was an apt point to leave.