FLUX LONDON LAUNCH
The Sidings Warehouse | December 14th
Flux is a Leeds-based night that have recently decided to start hosting parties in London. There are already several well-established nights in Leeds that offer vaguely-similar strands of house and techno, so it’s impressive that a relatively new player such as Flux has managed to survive the competition and expand into the even more crowded ‘London scene’.
They hosted their London launch at The Sidings Warehouse near London Bridge. It used to be called The Arches when ‘electro’ was still a thing, and we remember seeing A1 Bassline and Foamo play there in 2008, surrounded by lots of too-wasted middle-class people with New Era caps and backpacks (we include ourselves in this). Fashions might have changed (a bit), but the venue’s now a lot better organised than it was: queueing and cloakroom-ing were straightforward, security were reasonable, and the bar staff seemed to know what they were doing.
We arrived just as Michelle Owen started. It was an assured and composed performance: she began with fairly downtempo, Dirt Crew-ish melodic deep house, and worked her way up to faster, more pounding Moodmusic material, preferring bass- and drum-heavy tracks as she went on.
Philip Lauer then took to the stage, armed with a laptop and a few flashy midi-controllers. Lauer operates under a number of pseudonyms and has released a broad range of music in the past, but stuck to ‘neo-Chicago house’ for this set: lots of 707 kicks and snares, cascading melodies and, obviously, loads of clapping. He’s an exuberant presence behind the decks, getting just as worked up as the crowd as he punched in another Live Set on his computer.
That venerable Dutchman, Gerd, closed out proceedings, and drew on his years of experience to draw the best out of this crowd. He played a more varied set than either of those before him, with some disco mixed in with the 90s house he’s best-known for. San Soda’s remix of FCL’s It’s You was a particular highlight, though, and those of us who knew the words sang along unguardedly (and tunelessly) with the smug satisfaction of People Who Know About Music.
Leeds has been a good training-ground for nights like Flux and Louche, who have begun to take on (arguably) riskier projects in London. Flux programmed the night with savvy, made an impressive effort with visuals, and seem to have a garnered a pretty devoted following. Based on this night, it’s easy to see why.
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Words: Robert Bates
Photo: Justin Gardner
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