Jacques Greene

Mint Lounge, Manchester | 13th March

With Manchester house promoters Chow Down harnessing the buzz-worthy Canadian producer Jacques Greene to play at their second birthday, a squeezed, fervent scene in the 500-capacity basement of the Northern Quarter’s Mint Lounge ensues. 

Support slots are provided by CD residents and local don Rich Reason, who get things moving with incisions of 70s Anita Ward disco and Ben E. King’s soulful purrs. Judging from the onlooking congregation of Carhartt beanie-clad boys and disco pant-sporting femmes, it’s seems no one here knows exactly what to expect from Greene’s set, and this provides a rousing platform for the main man himself to step up and gratify.

Merging together vivacious cuts of monster piano house, including Detroit Swindle’s Medlar remix which instantaneously had the dancefloor thronging, Greene also flaunts his love of R&B (remember the sample of Ciara’s Deuces on Another Girl?) by utilising his superb abilities to marry deep Rihanna splices into the vibrating sonars of Four Tet, industrial windings of Daphni and a sweat-inducing Frank Ocean drop, assigned successfully to make the crowd of beautiful twenty-somethings grind all over each other. Jacques Greene showcases that a simply labelled electronic bill doesn’t have to be one-dimensional or drastically leftfield to appeal, but instead a smörgåsbord of tremendous production and a guilty pleasure or two make the perfect pickings.

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Words: Leah Connolly