TEAK: Young Marco, Telephones & Dirtytalk

For the third installment in their autumn/winter series, TEAK drew in an intriguing array of young European maestros, continuing headstrong with their gravitation towards the more experimental bookings seen in Cardiff. Following on from last month’s rare appearance of the enigmatic DJ Sprinkles, tonight saw Amsterdam’s Young Marco, the Berlin-based Telephones and local late-night revellers Dirtytalk decorate the floor.

As we descended into the basement towards the end of the Bristolian collective’s set, we found a hot and heady crowd responding warmly to their upbeat disco-house selections. Shortly after Young Marco took to the helm, his idiosyncrasy and quirk as an artist fittingly reflected in the offbeat, neon-lit collection of house plants and taxidermy. Memorable moments from his eclectic yet smoothly-navigated set came in the rosy form of Evelyn “Champagne” King’s Love Come Down, before a play of his own mix of Tony G’s Simple Dreams brought a rougher edge to the fore.

Alongside various acid-house wanderings and diverse delights from other fields, Marco’s offering left the floor wide open for the Nordic prowess of Telephones. So much so that, seemingly less than an hour into his set, he and Marco entered an impromptu back-to-back session – and let alone this being the first occurrence of the duo playing out together, it was apparently also the first time they’d even met. A vinyl-only closing hour seemed like the sole logical conclusion for the intimacies of such a night.

Experiments are tricky. They take planning, they might go awry, and they may not produce the results you were looking for. But if the crowd, artists, and captivating selections of nights like tonight are anything to go by, it’s that going out a limb can often be the most rewarding way forward.