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Rating: When I received the email announcing this night in London, I was over the moon with excitement.
The two experiences at the summer editions of the festival held in Croatia were so enjoyable that I thought it was the perfect opportunity to take a trip to London and finally visit the city where dubstep sounds were codified. I found the city covered in a light layer of snow, making the urban landscape even more enchanting. After a quick shower and a bite to eat (of course, fish & chips), I headed to the Coronet Theatre where the event would take place. There was no queue at the entrance yet, and given the cold temperature of the evening, I hurried inside. Nobody I was particularly interested in was playing, so I wandered around the venue, housed in an Art-Deco building from the '20s. On the ground floor, there is the main hall with a capacity of about 1,500 people, featuring a massive stage and a sizable balcony. On the two upper floors, there are two smaller rooms and a little room I dubbed "the excommunicated room" since it wasn’t mentioned in the program and hosted less established DJs.
Let's talk about the music. In the main hall, Mungo's Hi-Fi is performing, but I only listen for a few minutes as it's a bit too dub for my taste. So, I head to the second floor where Adsassin and Moriatti, aka Fused Forces, are playing. They alternate at the CDJs, offering a rather varied and at times powerful set, and the crowd, although not large, is enjoying it. Still feeling cold and wanting to conserve some energy as the night is long, I resume my wandering. I stop by the Gentleman's Dub Club, but their old-school dub with brass, keyboards, bass, and live drums doesn’t do much for me. I go back up to the first floor while Kromestar is playing. He's not among my favorites either, although the set flows smoothly and the now numerous young Londoners seem to appreciate it a lot. I make a quick visit to the excommunicated. The little room is semi-empty, but the doleful DJ is playing "Night Vision" by Distance, remixed by Skream. I also own a copy of that picture-disc and feel compelled to stay close to him. He plays it with the pitch almost at +8%, giving it a bit more zest, and it seems to work well.
I return to the second floor and find Sukh Knight starting with almost reggae-like tracks before moving to the more techno side of dubstep, enhanced with tablas, sitars, and other Asian instruments, as a nod to one of their origins, who I believe is the owner of the SK brand. The last quarter hour, they intensify the selection, leaving the audience more than satisfied.
Meanwhile, the moment for one of the sets I was most looking forward to has arrived. Youngsta. Our young hero was already hanging around London’s pirate radios at the tender age of 13, and today, at 25, he is considered one of the best dubstep DJs in the world, so much so that Tempa entrusted him with volumes 2 and 4 (with Hatcha) of the Dubstep Allstars series. It's a pity he hasn’t dedicated himself with the same passion to producing his own tracks since when he did (once in collaboration with Kryptic Minds and another with Seven), the results were excellent. The first 10 minutes see our hero fussing behind the mixer and turntables, dissatisfied with the sound in the room. Indeed, it sounds a bit off, and the volume is low. When the sound engineer fixes things, his selection of 10" dubplates leaves no escape. The heavy bass rolls slowly and aggressively, dragging you into a trance state from which you don’t want to emerge. As mentioned elsewhere, if he had been born 15 years earlier, in New Orleans, he probably would have played the axe with the Eye Hate God.
Unfortunately, to attend his set, I had to give up most of The Bug's set, catching only the last quarter hour and kicking myself for it. Behind a console about three meters long, Kevin Martin stood hidden in his hoodie pulled down to his nose, switching from the laptop to other unidentified gadgets, producing solid bases over which an MC (?) delivered his rhymes with a very ragga flow. The finale is delirious, reminiscent of his Techno Animal jamming with (his) God. Absolutely to be seen again.
In the middle room, it’s E-Malkay's turn and I’m very curious to hear him. After a few minutes, I can’t handle him anymore. What a disappointment. From someone who released the probable anthem most played in dubstep parties worldwide: "When I Look At You," I expected a lot more, so I decide to go upstairs and chill on the couches waiting for better times. In the background, I have Kutz's set, which I find fairly enjoyable until the volume drops, and I see most of the kids crowded around the console. I immediately realize that the masked man has arrived: Mr.Stenchman, who at the controls, launches into a nursery rhyme that makes me think of something traditional, very English. Immediately afterwards, madness ensues, with wobble bass galore. The big man wriggles behind the decks, inciting the crowd, which responds enthusiastically. More than being in a dance club, it feels like being at CBGB, all that's missing is someone stage diving and being swept away by a furious circle pit. When his remix of "When I Look.." kicks in, I want to go behind the console and give him a pat on the, broad, back, but it’s not the case, so I just enjoy his set. The next day, I asked around record stores if this remix had been released by someone, but they told me it’s a dubplate probably used only by him in his sets.
Reluctantly, I decide to leave Stenchman to go downstairs, as it should be Hatcha's turn, and he’s worth it too. Arriving in the main hall, Plastician presents himself at the console. For some reason, which I didn’t understand, Hatcha had to cancel, so Plastician will do a longer set. I’m a bit disappointed, but I say to myself, two hours of Plastician aren’t to be disregarded and I make my way to the front of the stage. The volume and sound quality are impressive. The subwoofers emit basses of unheard depth and length, with half-time kicks and snares, in short, great dubstep. Meanwhile, as the minutes pass, the number of MCs on stage increases, from the initial two it goes to four, six, eight! And simultaneously the beats have become increasingly sparse, Plastician has transformed into Plasticman, dissolving into an unidentified entity producing beats serving the rhymes of this army of rappers. As you might have guessed, I didn’t enjoy it much, indeed, I almost resorted to blaspheming in Aramaic to claim my right to a greater dose of solid dubstep, but of course, it didn’t go that way, and I passively endured the unfolding of events. When a little man surfaced, throwing CDs into the crowd, I thought, there he goes, even a souvenir is out of the question amidst this chaos. Instead, thanks to my guardian angel, who had already helped me grab a couple in Croatia, I spotted one amidst a tangle of legs and quickly snagged it.
At this point, considering the time and exhausted from travel and dancing, I declare the night over and go to sleep.
I think I’ll make another trip to Croatia this year.
Make more noise!
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