Crack

For better or worse, after a few years of pretty relentless futurism, dance music currently seems to be turning once again to its history.

Youthful selectors such as Hessle Audio’s Ben UFO, a man jointly responsible for putting out some of the most forward-looking releases of recent times, have been reaching not only for the UKG bombs of 10 years ago, but for New York, Chicago and Detroit classics issued when they were still in nappies.

The sweaty and wasted boys of South Wales, and a small clutch of girls, have turned out in force to catch another master DJ with one ear turned in the direction of the 80s and 90s. Jackmaster’s rise to notoriety as part of Glasgow’s Numbers crew has been fired by effortlessly wide-ranging, party-ready sets like his recent Fabriclive mix, which are leaning more and more on tracks he absorbed working at the Rubadub record shop as a teenager.

So it’s intriguing to see him lining up for a night of back-to-back deck action with Joy Orbison, much better known for producing the series of box-fresh 12’s kicked off by 2009’s ubiquitous Hyph Mngo.

For the first few hours, a steadily building four-to-the-floor beat rules, and appropriately enough it’s vintage bangers such as DJ Pierre’s Mystery Girl (Set Me Free), due for reissue on Numbers, that light the place up. In fact, there are times when you could be listening to a Laurent Garnier set from 15 years ago – at least until Jackmaster cheekily segues the raw ghetto bump of Work That Big Booty by DJ Funk into a rerub of Brandy and Monica’s The Boy Is Mine.

But if it’s Jackmaster’s skills that whip Clwb into a gurning frenzy, predictably it’s Joy Orbison’s anthems that end up bringing the place down. With limbs starting to tire, The Shrew Would Have Cushioned The Blow and, inevitably, Hyph Mngo ease things in a more spacious, euphoric direction to keep the floor busy to the end. A score draw for old and new.



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Words: Alex Turner

http://www.myspace.com/joyorbison

http://nmbrs.net/crew/jackmaster/

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