Hyperdub 10th Birthday

fabric | 23 May

It’s a rarity to attend an event steeped in laurels and melancholy in equal measure.

Steve Goodman, aka Kode9’s Hyperdub label is celebrating its tenth year of surviving in a decade fraught with both growth and devolution in dance music. A congregation of the label’s most esteemed artists including Cooly G, Laurel Halo, Scratcha DVA and, expectedly, Kode9 monopolise London fabric’s poky platforms and darkened stages. Yet one major figure is missing. DJ Spinn championed a set sans DJ Rashad. Following the premature death of the Teklife architect and pioneer of the footwork genre, tonight is solely in remembrance of Rashad.

Renay and Stimpy’s Funkystepz open Room 3 with a simple yet intuitive melange of UK funky, house, bashment and garage. While notably tenuous, the duo act as a solid foundation to Kode9’s exhaustive eight-hour compilation of Hyperdub’s time-honoured classics.

The glitchy, in-out experimentalism of Laurel Halo beguiles Room 1. Tip-toeing around progressive, hybrid rhythms with the occasional big bass push, Halo assumes the role of Hyperdub’s interest in reformism. Yet as alluring and dynamically avant-garde Halo undoubtedly is, her live performance is the most contentious of the night. Undeniably appealing yet convincingly futile.

While Terror Danjah and Riko manage the label’s heavier grime output in Room 2, Rinse FM regular Scratcha DVA and butterfly bassline, Cooly G, provide the more transient grades of 2-step and abstract riddims. The hectic cannonades of Lady Lykez’ Eurgh! blitz a room of face-screwers. Prolific and unyielding, every producer harnesses choice cuts from the Hyperdub back-catalogue.

Performances tonight extend from the typical 4/4 house grooves to the atypical dancefloor experimentalism. And, as Kode9 dictates, ‘Rhythm is something that joins things together.’ Come the turn of the man himself to spin, the building has already pooled together to laud over Hyperdub’s creative cadences. The label’s creator acts humbled and blithely calm. His set is ironically bossy. Yet, the label director is visually aware that the night is not purely about his roster.

As DJ Spinn takes control of Room 1, the homage to the footwork sound officially begins. Smooth blends of Don’t Drop It, Chicago and Double Cup play as heartfelt epitaphs to DJ Rashad; a true master of juke music and an innovator of Chicago’s dance scene. It’s an ultimately euphoric yet sobering moment for the audience and Hyperdub combined. However, what remains a constant is the label’s boundless potential to evolve. Expect another decade of inspiration from Kode9’s radically ambitious collective.

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Words: Tom Watson

Photography: Jasper Brown