Bar Rhumba is an old club in london (15years) that hasn't had a lot going on that I've wanted to go to. I spotted that they were doing a monthly techno night there on the interweb and decided I should go check it out. Its a small place, and reading their website I discovered they seemed to be in full support of the backlash against all the fucking cunt bags that end up in clubs in london. Trying to make their policy aimed more at people who actually know what music is going on in the club, and not letting in the stripped shirt wearing fucktards and gold shimmery dress wearing sluts who are just cruising down the street looking for anywhere to drink thats open so they can get more pissed than they are and go home and fuck each other and then vomit and then shit in the bed then laugh about it with their hugo boss jeans wearing mates later, seems like a good idea to me. Oh yeah did I mention they are aiming to be the home of techno in london? It sounded all too good to be true.
I was also pleased to see it was a Leftroom records night. I like these guys. They have been less caught up in the whole 'Berlin' sound than everybody else, well because....they aren't from Berlin. Which is good. I am slightly sick of hearing the same minimal techno sound over and over again. I also kind of think the whole scene in general is imploding in a weird way, with everybody just following a trend for a few months, then a new one pops up, and everybody follows that. Its really bad at the moment (Trumpets spring to mind...but then I like Trumpets a lot so I'll let that one fly), and the epi-centre seems to be Berlin. I guess a place gets too popular and everybody knows about it and then rapes it in the arse until it screams 'No more!' So they give it some more just to make sure. This is not the city itselfs fault. Just the knowledge spreading to idiots that its the techno capital of the world. And since techno is no longer a dirty word, this knowledge has spread to Wire reading, art magazine cocks and Djmag reading glow, stick cunts and everything in between. Come one, come all.
Berlin is still fortunate though because it still has plenty of the best Techno in the world coming out of it....I think most of the blame needs to fall on all the cunts who couldn't make music without Berlin. The people who just copy the sounds that come from there. And there are plenty of those.
Techno never used to be this way.
Still there is a real talent pool there of labels and people (including good friends of mine) who are not so caught up in the copying for popularity sake, but sometimes I wonder how long the citys number one on the podium spot can last?
Anyway, Leftroom is a tougher sound than is really popular at the moment and I like it.
Anywho. I got down there and there was a bit of a line outside. I wasn't sure that it was the right place, so I wandered up and said 'Is this the place that Matt Tolfrey is playing?' and they let me right in.
On the agenda for the night to play: Matt Tolfrey, Clive Henry and Neil Parkes.
It is a cool little dark bar/club. The PA wasn't really as good as I expected. It was really clear and sounded nice, but not enough bottom end to it. Still, there was only about 50 people in there and it was SO cool, being able to sit down and listen to cool music not surrounded by arseholes and have drinks. I LOVED IT.
Clive Henry was playing really good music too. Basically the kind of tough tough you'd expect from a leftroom night in that the sounds were sharp and clear, and there was less roll to the bassline. Not so warm and wobbley. Slightly sharp. There were warmer tracks in there but fewer than I am used to hearing out these days, at places like Fabric etc. If I had to define the sound using two labels as examples, it seemed like a perfect halfway point between cadenza and m_nus.
Anyway Matt Tolfrey came on and I had a dance , on a dance floor with PLENTY of space to move. Crazy.
He played well, and I spoke to him for a bit and he was a really nice guy.
My only thing I could say that maybe brought the night down a little was the fact that, because there were less people than in a normal club experience in London, the actual DJ'ing itself was kind of a I'll just do enough to get by kind of experience and not really a work the hell out of it type thing. I guess as the night gets a few more people (not too many though) this will change. Either way, its so nice to have a place where you can go, hang out without too much pressure, and listen to and chat about good music. Did I mention its right by my work? Did I also mention the major nights are on Fridays. It all seems a little bit too good to be true.
I'm gonna head down next month for sure.
November gigs I'm going to in the next month. Stockhaussen, (not actually him of course) Gravenhurst, Sun Ra Arkestra and Ricardo Villalobos.
Living in London is rad.
