- Anyone in touch with today's minimal house scene will probably know Praslea, the rising young Romanian DJ best known as one half of Praslesh alongside Raresh. His appearance at Art Of Dark came only a couple of weeks after Praslesh blew minds during a headline set at fabric. Inevitably, many of the same faces were present at this event, with lofty expectations following that impressive display.
Art Of Dark have been supporting this sound in London for a few years now, showing particular attention to Romanian DJs. For dedicated fans of the genre, the party offers a chance to catch these artists in carefully selected venues. Bloc. in Hackney Wick was home to the latest edition. It was a functional and physically adequate venue, but was let down by one crucial element: the soundsystem.
Fans of minimal are particularly obsessed with sound quality. A highly sophisticated system with considered acoustics is required to awaken all the wonderful sonic intricacies that define a great minimal track. This is something Nicolas Lutz, the highly respected resident of Toi Toi, knows as well as anyone, but his warm-up set here didn't quite reach the heights we've come to expect from him.
Praslea took over at 4 AM and delivered a solid set that was ultimately undermined by the same issues Lutz faced. Funky, tripped-out early selections, such as Mannequin Lung's "At The Carwash," should have made the room erupt, but instead they were a little flat. The same can be said of more the intense flavours that came later on, like Vlad Caia's brilliant "Swan Lake." These were all excellent records smartly weaved in at the right times, but without the platform needed to truly work their magic.
I'm reluctant to criticise a party for poor sound. After all, not everyone is an audiophile, and few places can rival the systems found in superclubs like fabric. So if the music and the energy inside were good, was there really a problem? Perhaps not, but as anyone with passion for this style of music would agree, it can be much more fulfilling than it was that night.