- The recent surge in popularity of "Secret Warehouse Location" events in London has reshaped the city's party calendars much faster than the usual ebb and flow of dedicated club spaces could ever do. Yet despite the obvious draw of exploring new and exciting spaces, I have come to treat such events with more than a mild dose of caution, as there is always a large degree of uncertainty surrounding such parties. Will the sound be up to scratch? Will the space be big enough? Will volcanic temperatures make the whole thing unbearable? Problems like these are all too common in London at the moment, to the extent where I fear that people are starting to accept them as the norm.
Thankfully, within moments of arriving at Hackney Downs Studios, it was immediately clear that there were to be no such logistical headaches here. An eager sense of anticipation hung in the air, as Electric Minds presented their first of many upcoming events in the space. A cavernous main room hosted three acts from the Ostgut Ton roster, while a darker, more intense space upstairs played home to Sub:tance. The contrast in programming between the two rooms was inspired, as it meant there was always an excellent and appreciably different sound available in the other area, addressing what is often a problem in such warehouse parties, where a lull in energy in the main space can be problematic for the overall flow of the night. It was always easy to move between the two rooms, and even at the peak, the crowd levels never reach unbearable density.
Photo credit: Eleonora Cecchini
The visuals in the venue also added a lot to the experience—far from feeling like an unnecessary afterthought, they highlighted and enhanced the raw, industrial, stripped-back concept of the party. A floor-to-ceiling backdrop of small cubes adorned the back wall of the main room, onto which moving geometric shapes were projected. The pulsating effect underpinning the movement of the shapes created a perfect unsettling backdrop for the huge space.
Tama Sumo started things off by providing a focused selection of crisp but bassy techno. Typically, she warmed up the room perfectly, building tension the entire set. Up next was Ryan Elliott, who drew upon a wide range of influences around the core Ostgut sound. He perhaps fell slightly short of Tama Sumo, but nevertheless maintained a solid pace and energy that paved the way towards the peak-time hours.
Back upstairs, Shackleton's live set provided a strong alternative to the main room. Deep and percussive, the division between individual tracks was blurred, as repeating elements from different pieces were layered and woven in and out of an evolving whole.
Photo credit: Eleonora Cecchini
Downstairs, as Ryan Elliott handed over to Ben Klock with Octave One's "Black Water," things perceivably shifted up a gear. Thunderous kick drums rumbled through the air and, as the bass and volume reached ever higher levels, it became even clearer how truly impressive the sound system was. For the next three hours, Ben Klock provided a master class in sparse, reverb-fuelled, big-room techno, using extreme contrasts to propel the mood further and further into the darkness. Although less subtle than one of his marathon-length sets, Klock still built a strong sense of progression with an ever-more-dominant bass-end filling the space.
Rounding things off in the Sub:Stance room was Hotflush Recordings label head Scuba, who mixed his unique sound of tough house among piano classics, throwing in a substantial side order of unpredictable broken beats and melodic variations to contrast the solid 4/4 downstairs. A selection of tracks from recent album Personality kept the enthusiastic crowd attentive until sunrise. As things drew to a close, and only the haunting vocal snippets and broken melodies of the main room rang through the suddenly still air, it was clear that both Berlin institutions had shown London a thing or two.