- It must be hard being a promoter in London. Last Friday, Kerri Chandler, Motor City Drum Ensemble and Joy Orbison all headlined sold out parties in direct competition with the one I attended. That said, Fred P is a worthy headliner, and the fact that Brixton's Plan B was at best a third full was surprising.
Having built a reputation north of the border for consistently high quality nights, Notsosilent entered London in style this summer, throwing rooftop parties with an impressive array of underground artists, such as The Black Madonna, Rahaan and Maurice Fulton. Their night at Plan B started off disco, with Dinky playing an edit-heavy set suited to her early billing. Barring a lacklustre edit of The B-52s' "Love Shack," it was an enjoyable if unadventurous set (and any DJ who gives Boe & Zak's "Loops For Love" an airing is a friend of mine).
Many live sets can be underwhelming—stationary figures fiddle with equipment in efforts to reinvent their recorded material, or worse still, improvise with little regard for the audience around them. Not so with Session Victim. The German duo's set was very much live. Kicks dropped in and out as the pair bobbed around the stage enthusiastically, providing what is often lacking in live shows: a spectacle. Their rendition of "Never Forget" even caused a mini stage invasion within the modestly filled room.
I've always wondered what it would be like to have a world-class DJ play in my own living room, and this was probably the nearest I'll ever get. Fred P began with pitched-down, sub-120 BPM cuts, nicely working the low end of the system. The downtempo vibe continued for some time before he dropped a few melodic numbers with jazzy keys and droning melodies. From there things got more eclectic, with his selections encompassing psychedelic electric guitar, African rhythms and even free-jazz flute instrumentals.
Fred Peterkin is one of the few DJs who can genuinely take a listener on a journey, and in this he duly delivered, with nuanced selections that nuzzled everyone into their own headspace, despite being cut an hour short. I couldn't help but wonder where Peterkin may have led us given more time. The music was great, even if the party itself failed to ignite.