Club: Hi Ku presents Luke Vibert / Funkineven / Romare

6th December

1 Primrose Street

8/10

For their second birthday, well-regarded club night Hi Ku visited 1 Primrose Street. Formerly known as Underland, and before that an abattoir, the venue is relaxed and has a DIY aesthetic to it. Though down the road from Sankeys, it thankfully feels a world away.

Funkineven was first up in the basement. The Londoner’s tunes have a serious Detroit bent to them, sitting well with Hi Ku’s previous bookings from the motor city. Bopping in the booth for two hours, he was clearly having fun. Moving quickly between soulful disco and gritty techno, his set was fast-paced and thrilling. Classics were drawn for –  Jeff Mills’s ‘The Bells’ and Ron Trent’s ‘Altered States’- along the way. Whilst his own work ‘Igno’, a Funkineven and Kyle Hall track, sounded huge, particularly at the speed it was played at.

Upstairs, in what was less ‘Room 2’ and more ‘cold barn’, the genre-crossing and African-influenced Romare did a fine job in less-than-ideal circumstances. The speakers were small, the room freezing and the dancefloor an awkward podium. Yet this didn’t stop him drawing a sizeable crowd who lapped up his fine selections which worked as a breather from the intensity downstairs.

Back to the basement, now packed and sweaty, for headliner Luke Vibert. This veteran and master-of-monikers gave the crowd a brilliant display of his trademark acid sound. The basement space now really came into its own, made all the better by the punchy and crisp Void sound-system. Unsurprisingly, Luke’s choices going back to the 90s got the best responses: LFO’s classic ‘LFO’ was met with wild cheers. Bringing Vibert, a name rarely seen in Manchester, paid off for Hi Ku and was a great way to round off their birthday bash.