With the season well under way, and with years of success and strong reputation under its belt, it was no surprise that Carl Cox's Tuesday night party at Space was rammed. The queue stretched across the car park, an excitable crowd all clamouring to get in and catch as many of the acts as possible.
The line-up last night was a particularly interesting one. From the Sunset Terrace hosted by Futuredisco with Ben Pearce, to Joris Delacroix's French melodic tech house, Just Be and Carl Cox in the Discoteca, to the particularly eclectic transition from Kyle Hall to Disclosure and Julio Bashmore... The line up was a virtual smorgasbord of acts with something to satisfy all tastes, and I was intrigued to see how the whole night would pan out.
I was glad to catch Kyle Hall's set on the Terraza. His weird, heavy, off-beat Detroit techno style has been significantly influenced and also heavily applauded by Detroit veterans such as Omar S and Theo Parrish. He didn't let me down, filling his set with galloping beats, tumbling bass lines and hi-hats galore. Aside from a great sound, he was really enjoyable to watch, displaying an effortless coolness but also avid concentration as he merged a remix of Fatboy Slim's Song For Shelter with a bongo percussion track, finger clicking and body popping to the beat.
The atmosphere shifted significantly as Hall finished and Disclosure took over. Although their set differed hugely from their predecessor's (no surprises there), they managed the transition from techno to the electronic sound that has put them on the map over this last year. Their set included a great mix of their own hits, such as White Noise, feel good tracks like Todd Terje's Inspector Norse, and lesser-known forthcoming releases such as New York Transit Authority's Nine Five.
Mathew Benjamin, playing under his guise Just Be, commanded the Discoteca, managing to create an intimate vibe even in this vast space. Ice cannons blasted a hungry crowd, a nice icy relief from the incredible heat that filled the packed room. With his headband, vest and boyish charm, smiling along with the crowd as they cheered at every drop, he was reminiscent of that boy at school your parents wouldn't let you date. His set was filled with infectious pounding bass, and had a similar vibe to that of Marco Carola's when he played in this same space only a few weeks earlier.
The little space there had been around me was now completely gone as everyone piled in to catch Coxy himself. Appearing in front of the crowd, he thanked Just Be for his set, before the music stopped, in preparation for what everyone had been eagerly waiting for. The screens behind him displayed a fake news report, announcing that ‘Cox has now taken control. This is the revolution.' The screaming and cheering started as he dropped the first track, a girl next to me yelling ‘We love you, Coxy!' at the top of her lungs. His set was not for the faint-hearted, a rumbling raw techno sound that he relentlessly built up before smashing each drop down into the crowd, a sound that could be heard vibrating through the walls and back passageways of all of Space.
With line-ups like this and so many highlights in the night to choose from, it's no wonder Carl Cox and his Revolution continue to conquer.
Photography by James Chapman
