Alright, here we go.
I arrived in London at about 2pm on Saturday, meeting one of my best Glastonbury mates who had travelled down from Rossendale in Lancashire. We set off into the city and went to 5 or 6 small art galleries (he's an artist, and so responsible for my cultural education) which were pretty fab. After something to eat (Franco Manca sourdough pizza right next to St Paul's), we walked up to the Barbican Hall. The concert was Alessandro Cortini (keyboards and electronics wizard from Nine Inch Nails, for anyone unfamiliar), supported by Joseph Kamaru (aka KMRU), the Nairobi-born, Berlin-based current Golden Child of ambient and drone.
Firstly, the sound in the Barbican Hall is off the scale good - almost as/as good as the Symphony Hall in Birmingham, which is breathtaking. The seats are comfortable and the banking of all levels means that there are only good views of the stage. They dim the lights to almost nothing and so KMRU played his set in near darkness most of the time (perfect for this kind of enveloping, immersive music), the only light into the entire auditorium coming from the big screen projections, which were ever changing., swirling black and gold abstract patterns, controlled by another guy stood next to him, on a designated laptop. It was really nice to know that the visuals were being manipulated and chosen in real time to complement the tracks. I have to confess that KMRU is one of my 2-3 most favourite artists over the last few years. As I've bored you with so, so many times, my firm belief is that in any/all musical genre, 95% of what is produced is average at best and downright rubbish at worst. Our mission is to seek out the 5%. For me, pretty much everything KMRU touches musically turns to gold. His quality ratio is unbelievably high. So, it'll be no surprise to hear that I was as excited to see him as I was il signor Cortini. Joseph's 40 minute set was just phenomenal. It flew by, with the standout track being the title track of his recent record Dissolution Grip, a track he'd promised me he would play when I tweeted him a week or two ago 😆. I was enraptured. He got a fantastic response at the end and seemed very touched by the appreciation. For anyone who fancies giving him a go, I'd recommend starting with Dissolution Grip, then progressing to Peel, an album of droning ambient loops that is, IMO, his finest moment to date. What a start.
Alessandro came on after a very civilised 20 minute interval and he too played a continuous 40 minute set, again with very nice screen visuals. His set was superb as well, tho this biased fan just gave the win to KMRU by a whisker. Such a great gig and a brilliant start to the musical aspect of our 24h in London. We had a little mooch around the Barbican building (really interesting, architecturally and historically...though I lived in London on and off for ten years, I really didn't know much about it - consequence of being sarf of the river, maybe...) and then headed off. My pal got a message from a friend (on who is really rather keen...) and so we decided to head up to Camden to meet her and her friend in the Old Eagle pub. We had a drink and a chat and then it really was time to be dancing.
And so to FOLD. Firstly, it is a bit of a bastard to get to, depending on where you starting! If you're starting close to a tube that gets you onto the Jubilee or DLR, all good. If you're not...
This dancer was getting itchy feet by this point, and with TfL journey planner offering us FOUR buses as the best route from Camden, I thought bugger that and ordered an Uber. 40 minutes later and we were walking up from Canning Town station towards the club. First impression? That's a bloody long line at 1.15am! Got chatting to a couple of inordinately tall Finns in the queue, which passed the time nicely (the height thing was to become a theme - I don't think I've ever been in a 'taller' club! It was the Land of the Giants!). We got through security with no bother and headed up the steps and in.
What to say? Is that the best club I've ever been to? It very well might be. It's probably between that and The White Hotel in Salford. IT. WAS. f**kING. INCREDIBLE.
Phone cameras - how bloody refreshing to have camera stickers mandated (and at fabric). May this become the rule, rather than the exception in UK venues... Staff - really friendly and chatty, not at all intrusive, just lovely. Lockers - good, quick way of sorting your stuff, and nice to be able to popo and get something during the night if you want it, compared to traditional cloakrooms). Bars - quick enough, not ridiculously priced (comparatively). System (Main room - I only drifted through the Steam Room once just to have a wee look) - FLAWLESS. Perfect volume, perfectly balanced, clean and crisp. The ceiling-hanging speakers dotted throughout the main room give real body and depth and the percussion coming out of them was like listening to a high-end hi-fi system. Incredible. Layout of the main room is excellent - door at the back to come in, through way on the right to go outside etc. So never any traffic coming into/through the crowd on their way elsewhere, which is a real beef of. one in some venues. Lights - just perfect. Not fancy, but really well configured and controlled, creating really good atmosphere. Crowd - without question as nice as anywhere I've been. There was one guy who was slightly annoying early on as I think he was mashed, but he wasn't aggy. Everyone else was polite, friendly, keen to make friends on the floor, respectful and courteous of each others' space. Just LOVELY. We caught the last hour of Call Super's set, which was nice enough. But then...Courtesy. OMG. One of the best sets I've heard in a long time, and that true genius of creating a narrative to suck you in, even if some of the selections are not in your typical wheelhouse. She played 'everything' - jackin' house, some piano house (!), old school rave bangers with vocals that everyone but I knew 😂, trance, techno and at least one electro track. Flawless. Incredible mixing and transitions, and her track running order was sublime. I would love to see her again (Farm, anyone...?). We left there about 15 minutes before the end, as we wanted to get to fabric and it was a bit of a trek. But, thank you, Courtesy - you are one talented DJ.
Again, transport was not easy! We got the Jubilee line to Southwark and then, again conscious that any moment traveling is a moment's dancing wasted, we got a quick Uber to Farringdon. Getting into fabric was fine, though it does feel weird having your photo taken with your ID check twice in one night. That's some personal data capturing...
The lovely security lady asked me "have you got anything with her that you shouldn't have?", to which I replied "what, at my age?!" and it was cheeky grins all round. Dumped stuff in the cloakroom and headed down to Room 1 for about 7am. First impression? The whole place is enormous. So easy to get disorientated until you've walked around it a few times. Main Room was RAMMO. Craig Richard and Villalobos had two hours left of their monster set (after which Ricardo was doing another 3h on his own!).
Room - big, slightly cavernous for me, but yeah, a nice environment. I like the bleachers at the back. Like in the Temple, that gives a good feeling of all being in there together. Sound - pretty spectacular, so I was not disappointed. I would say though, as excellent as it is, I don't rate it any higher than FOLD. Crowd - hmmmm. There may be lots of factors influencing this, but it was only 'OK'. Some perfectly nice people there, and no-one being a d*ck, but just not especially friendly. I wonder how much that is influenced by: end of a long night...many people would have been well over the peak of their refreshments by then and were maybe topping up trying to chase something that ain't gonna be available for a couple of weeks at least...? Type of set - it is something of a niche experience, and I wonder if there were lots of people there delighted to be at fabric (dare I say it, some so that they can tell people that they were at fabric 😬...sorry if that's w*nky), but not really into the 'challenge' of seven hours of Villalobos? I really enjoyed the two hours there, though it really was so rammed the whole time, that it made dancing 'properly' a bit difficult at times. But to get fist-bumped at just before 9am by some young guy saying "nice dance moves, mate" (no, he wasn't taking the piss, before you ask...) gave this old raver a nice little buzz at the end of what was an extraordinary day and night.
I shuffled my arse up to Euston to get the 10 o'clock train, with nothing but visions and sounds of a phenomenal time swirling round a somewhat addled brain. Magnificent.
Obviously I've rambled on in time-honoured tradition, so thanks for reading if you've stayed the distance!
I could really have done the whole thing with one sentence:
FOLD is one of the best clubs you'll ever go to.
Ben
x
