- After warm-up drinks with a few other friends, two of us headed down to Turnmills for Missdemeanours, Lottie's monthly Saturday night at Turnmills, enticed by the prospect of a set by Jacques lu Cont (aka Les Rhythmes Digitales, The Paper Faces, The Thin White Duke, Zoot Woman - but never working under his real name, Stuart Price).
Whilst the rest of the group made tracks for The End to see Laurent Garnier, we reasoned that Laurent would be back next month, as opposed to this outing which had been advertised as one of Jacques Lu Cont's last UK sets for 2005 due to his 'other commitments', namely production for Madonna. If that wasn't good enough logic, a last-minute email informed us that there would be a live P.A. from Juliet Richardson aka "Juliet", who has been riding high recently with a couple of Stuart Price-produced tracks.
We arrived a little before the start of JLC's scheduled set with some decent dance-floor rhythms banging out of the speakers in the main room before JLC himself took to the decks. The change in pace was immediately obvious - JLC, without ado, proceeding to lay down a complex, compulsive set which energised the main room.
I once previously described JLC's live sets to a friend as "quasi-80's retro-styled synths locked down with addictive basslines" and on reflection this proved to be a decent summary of Saturday night's mayhem. Overall JLC kept this set much more focused than his set at Fabric earlier this year which, truth be told, had left many fans a little disappointed. On this occasion he kept a firm grip of the crowd with much more compelling basslines to deliver a set on a par with the one which rocked Fabric to its foundations at the end of last year.
"...the highlight of the set...an extended remix of Sweet Dreams...a much harder-edged set-piece...which mixed out into a drum pattern that sounded similar to the Plastikman track "Spastik"; before mixing out in turn into a monstrous, pounding 4x4 bassline"
Lu Cont swiftly had the dance floor moving to his satisfaction - and the crowd did seem to gravitate to the main room from VIP, T2 and the chill-out areas very quickly, so much so that half an hour earlier than advertised, the spotlights came on focusing on the small raised "balcony area" which was to serve as a stage for Juliet Richardson.
Although I had seen Juliet wandering around earlier upstairs, what hadn't been apparent was the transformation that would occur when she took to the stage. Simply put, she has quite electrifying stage presence - every eye in the room, male and female, was on her - and she responded by delivering superb performances of "Avalon" and "Ride The Pain". It says a lot that I got bored quite a while ago of hearing "Avalon" played out ... but was absolutely mesmerised seeing Juliet perform it live - bravo!
After this early highlight, JLC plunged us back into the set and soon built the tempo back up again, at various points teasing us with Zoot Woman - "Grey Day", giving us a remix of Tom Tom Club - "Wordy Rappinghood", although this didn't sound like the FabricLive 09 mix, and teasing the crowd again with the vocal lick from Steve 'Silk' Hurley - "Jack your Body".
Perhaps the highlight of the set for me was (as at his last Fabric set) an extended remix of Sweet Dreams. This seemed to be a much harder-edged set-piece - possibly mixed up on the fly? - which mixed out into a drum pattern that sounded similar to the Plastikman track "Spastik"; before mixing out in turn into a monstrous, pounding 4x4 bassline - a very, very sweet sequence indeed.
As the set progressed, JLC skilfully wove in crowd-pleasers both as high points (eg The Killers - "Mr Brightside") and 'breathers' like the Scissor Sister's rework of the Pink Floyd classic "Comfortably Numb", amongst deeper, more complex synth and bassline patterns. Another favourite which made an appearance was, of course, Zoot Woman - "Grey Day".
Because of the position of the DJ box it wasn't entirely clear at what point JLC left the decks but the crowd rocked it out to the end with the sounds of New Order's "Blue Monday" and a Blondie track ringing in their ears.
The strange thing about the set - at least towards the end - was that all things considered, the room was really rather empty. I was left asking myself where were all the people that had filled Fabric to bursting point for Lu Cont's previous sets? Granted, Garnier playing at The End is stiff competition I was however, expecting more than 50 people on the dance floor at the end of the night.
In summary, a truly top-notch performance from Jacques Lu Cont and Juliet, let down a little by the small size of the crowd which caused the atmosphere to ebb a little towards the end.