Tech:nology = an events promotion established in 2005, created to address the apparent lack of dark drum and bass nights in London.
Soundclash = a musical competition where DJs pit their skills/tunes against each other.
With this in mind and the massive line-up for this event, I knew we were in for a proper beat fest!! Let’s do this…….
After gathering the crew consisting of myself, Steve, DJ Ashatack and DJ Real Deal, we made our way to Hidden in Vauxhall. On arriving at the club around 12.45 we quickly made our way to the entrance. There were quite a few people in the queue eagerly waiting to get in. I introduced myself to Oscar (1 of the promoters, the other being Michael) and arranged to catch up with him at some point in the night.
With 2 rooms of beats to discover we made our way through the busy 2nd room, people were jumping around to the sounds of G.H.O.S.T . The vibe was good in and the tunes were heavy. I was in need of some bass so we headed to the main room and walked into the last couple of tunes of the back to back special of Maldini & Cause4concern. (Maldidni was 1 of the 4 producers/DJs who made up Bad Company who formed in 1998 but are no longer together. C4C was founded in 1999 and consists of Stu, Mark, Ed a.k.a. Optiv and Tobie. Stu played and Mark was there partying hard!!)
The system was thumping and the room was jammed with happy bouncing ravers. I’d forgotten how hot it gets in there though!! My night had started off with a bang.
Next up was a set I was really looking forward to – Raiden B2B Meth. (Raiden was first signed to Renegade Hardware and after establishing his reputation worldwide formed his own label – Offkey. Meth began his journey about 13 years ago and has had many collaborations) the host with the most was MC AD who MCs for Hospitality, Metalheadz, Renegade Hardware, to name a few. Myself and the crowd were definitely not disappointed, every tune showed why these guys are big in their game; it was going off in there!!
I ventured to the 2nd room and caught a couple of tunes being thrown down by Kyrist (a female DJ/producer) BIG UP the girls repping in the scene!! But my love for the bass on a system took me back to the main room.
The ‘missing dubplates set’ was next brought to us by 2 legends in DnB – Optical B2B Bailey with the lyrical talents of MC Blackeye. (Optical is best known for his work with Ed Rush and is co-owner of virus recordings – which has a string of names signed to them. Bailey, now where to start! Multi award winning presenter for MoS radio, former BBC radio1 and 1xtra presenter, Metalheadz resident, worldwide renowned DJ, I could go on! I’d bumped into Bailey just before his set and told him I was reviewing so best pull some tunes out the bag especially next to Optical. From start to finish the set was on point, from some classics to darker bits too. I have to say Optical did it for me, he smashed it! The crowd were loving it, calling for the rewinds!!
All night the vibes were good and there was a real friendly party atmosphere. Everyone that I spoke to were loving the tunes and enjoying the bass.
The last set I listened to was Prolix B2B Insideinfo. WOW! I thought I was tall but Prolix towers above me! His selection along with Insideinfo was next level too. (Prolix is label boss of Trendkill records and a worldwide known DJ/producer – with many signings to a lot of big labels. Insideinfo is a massive DJ/producer with many collaborations under many labels) their set shows you why these guys are so big in their production, wicked stuff!
All night long the system boomed out the sets, no messing. I was really impressed with that as some setups can kinda give up when they are witness to these types of beats. Top night, top people and a proper fix of some dark drum and bass. I found out that the sound engineer is Threshold who also DJs so you can see why it was loud and having it all night, he knows his stuff!!
After a great night meeting old and new friends it was time to hit the road home. I’d been to Ram in Portsmouth the night before and it was catching up on me. It’s a shame I missed other sets, I wanted to hear Stealth as I know he’s one to watch right now with what he’s got up his sleeve….oh well bring on the next!!
Keep ‘em peeled for Tech:nologys next event. Oxford are you ready and don’t forget their 9th birthday bash in Jan/Feb – see you there!!
Thanks to everyone that made the night possible, the promoters done a top job, and I thank them for their hospitality and time. Until the next one….bye for now.
*Dawn Taylor – UK Review Team