Following successful events with Derrick Carter and Francois K, A Private Party With… welcomed house legend Kerri Chandler to London. Chandler has returned to the spotlight following his successful appearances at DC-10 over the summer. His appearance in London was held in a disused building in a grotty corner of East London, coincidentally sharing the building with Gilles Peterson who was holding his own party in another corner, as were Art Department. None of the parties ever collided, but it meant that there were plenty of confused punters milling around outside the disused space and deciding which queue to jump into.
After finding the correct entrance, Chandler attendees were greeted with a headliner, surrounded by equipment and pushing a selection of vocal house. The first few hours of Chandler's set were heavily textured, taking revellers from sing-a-long classics such as Cassius' "Sound of Violence" down to the grimy bass of the Jamie Jones rework of Azari & III's "Hungry for the Power," right up again to the soulful chords of "Track 1" from his 1993 Atmosphere EP Vol. 1.
In places, the sound in the room was questionable, but it was just a case of finding a decent spot near a speaker as Chandler played records from the straightforward to the obscure—older records like Basement Jaxx's "Fly Life" lead into newer loopy tracks like Butch's "No Worries.'' Chandler was as comfortable playing records that were 20 years old as he was playing hits from the last 12 months, bringing the audience up and down on waves of tech house followed by soul soaked, percussive and bass-heavy tracks. Big room piano house, '90s classics and many of his own releases were interspersed with records that would've well suited to a hazy afternoon on the DC-10 terrace.
At a very hazy 4 AM, Chandler's voice shyly came out from the speakers, asking how the audience was doing and explaining his love for a night at which he could play for a whole seven hours. To a rapturous response, his monologue broke out into the singing of his own track "Rain" to the elation of the audience who cheered their appreciation. Then, as 6 AM rolled around and "Inspiration" from Arnold Jarvis played out to the dishevelled and sweaty crowd, the curtains finally closed on a successful night.
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