Club: Tribal Sessions presents Apollonia

4th October

Sankeys

In the last 14 years, Tribal Sessions has established itself as one of Manchester’s go-to underground house nights. The 14^th birthday weekender did not disappoint. Having not been to Sankeys since our first year, my housemates and I were pretty excited as the days of the week counted down until Saturday night. Once inside the club, the hype amongst the crowd in the minutes before Apollonia were due to take to the decks was evident. I spoke to one guy who had come up from London to see their set as well as to a bunch of Chinese guys who lamented the fact that Beijing doesn’t have such a booming house scene.

The Parisian house trio, made up of Dan Ghenacia, Dyed Soundorom, and Shonky, are known affectionately by fans and critics as ‘the three musketeers’. They dropped a smooth set which didn’t fail to get the whole of Sankeys pumping. Drawing heavily on the work of Prince, their mission statement is, in effect, to blend black and white musical influences to produce house music which is funky and drum-heavy. The group have recently claimed in an interview that their sound and mixing improves when all three are together—greater than the sum of the individual parts they play. Having never heard any of their solo sets live, I can’t confirm or deny this. But it certainly can be said that the three of them together had a commanding presence up on stage.  The Sankeys basement also really lent itself to Apollonia’s sound, whilst also maintaining a relatively intimate feel.

Following their set in Manchester, the trio are currently on the road in North America. In the last two weeks, they have performed in New York, Montreal, Las Vegas, and Washington D.C.

Tribal Sessions has two more shows this month: Friday 24^th and then a Halloween special on the 31^st, which will see all the usual suspects play, such as Darius Syrossian.