Crack

Motion is a strange work in progress. Having seen a bit less action during the Spring and Winter than during prime In:Motion season throughout the Autumn, it was back in action to remind folk exactly what a potent night out it can be.

The advantage of a complex as sizeable and dynamic as Motion is that the scale of each party that can be tailored to suit the demographic of the crowd. Tonight was a big crowd, and the size of the party line-up on offer ensured it was a night with big potential.

Spread across the main warehouse, The Tunnel room and a new third room sized somewhere between the two, you had three wholly different venues and musical experiences to digest, adding an element of exploration to the clubbing adventure. It’s great to have options, and they were provided in abundance.

The main room played to its strengths with a brilliantly wonky house warm-up set from rising star of Bristol’s house music scene, Bowski and Tom Maddicott, who drew an encouragingly large crowd.

Herein followed a double act of electro music’s two brightest lights. Despite the genre falling from the dizzy, Justice-inspired heights of circa-2007, Boys Noize and Erol Alkan are two of the genre’s sure-fires, not least due to the eclecticism that has roughly defined the two – particularly Alkan. The twisted disco, rock, electro and techno textures were all present in a set which saw his latest remix of The Bay by Metronomy stand out as a real highlight. Following this, Boys Noize delivered the ball-crushing electro grind that has seen him become the standout DJ in his field. The main room of Motion hasn’t been this busy for some time, but this only tells half the story …

The plethora of talent on display meant frequent dashes around the venue were essential, allowing us to take in the menacing house of Art Department in the newly moved Just Jack room. Now in a bigger, brilliantly-lit warehouse, the silhouetted figures of both members perfectly completed the groove-laden, paranoid house drama on show. A bold move from their established home of The Tunnel, booking Art Department showcased a departure from the established roster and a real coup. Having released one of the albums of the year in The Drawing Board, this perfectly-balanced set maneuvered through slow-groove jam to full-throttle house in an outstanding climax.

After checking out Roska and parts of Untold in the Tunnel Room, and having experienced another half hour of Boys Noize’s ear-bleeding electronics in a main room that has truly resolved its previous sound problems, the final hour and a half of the night was spent in the company of Visionquest’s Lee Curtiss, who gave us something to groove and jack to while the sun came up.

Bolstered by the recent success of the Visionquest collective, Curtiss’s stock as an independent producer continues to rise, with recent release, Candy, with Leftroom boss Matt Tolfrey, truly one of the house bangers of the year.

While the increase in size meant the new Just Jack room was harder to fill than The Tunnel, this can wholly be attributed to the heavyweights packing out the main room. But that was no substitute tonight, with a committed party crowd that bounced and unwaveringly grooved into the night courtesy of Curtiss’s blend of house - this was the place to be. Dark lighting, minimal stage aesthetics and great music all contributed to one of the best ‘Jacks’ Crack has had at our favourite skatepark warehouse in a while. If this is a taster for the quality the In:Motion season is set to bring to Bristol in the Autumn, then Motion is set to truly become one of the biggest names on the UK’s clubbing map.

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Photos: Benjamin Price

http://benjaminprice.carbonmade.com/

http://motionbristol.com/

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