25th January
UoMSU
8/10
As an event fuelled by post exams celebratory spirit, Pangaea was always going to be an enjoyable affair. Yet this January’s The Lost City edition displayed the event’s worth beyond being just a place to get wrecked before starting work and lectures again on Monday.
The music spun throughout the night enthralled the present revellers. Despite the aqueous theme, Paul Woolford managed to ignite Academy 2 with the fire that is his remix of ‘Renegade Master’, whilst Manchester legend Zed Bias caused the outdoor tent to erupt with a slick edit of ‘Get Get Down’ and ‘Hackney Parrot’. Artwork impressively MC’d much of his own set, declaring “I like Manchester, they know how to dance”, whilst throwing down disco classics such as Donna Summer’s ‘I Feel Love’ and Todd Terje’s utterly ecstatic ‘Inspector Norse’.
The smaller rooms in the Union were overtaken by a number of Manchester’s dance music promoters and they superbly showcased the city’s musical diversity. Bank and Mekka kept their room raw and dark with bass heavy techno; Hi Ku proved their eclecticism by mixing the likes of Marvin Gaye’s soulful ‘I Heard It Through The Grapevine’ and Lone’s erratic ‘Airglow Fires’; the M20 Collective room went on a journey from funk and hip hop, through electro swing, to Breakbeat and DnB.
Being in the Union makes Pangaea particularly novel, the site of exams and rushed pre-lecture coffees is transformed into a hedonistic setting filled with elaborate costumes and music that isn’t someone murdering Fur Elise on that piano. In terms of University sponsored events, it can’t be beat.
