- Nic Fanciulli is a new kid on the block. He’s a fresh young talent from Maidstone UK who’s causing hysteria wherever he goes with a unique sound that reflects his youth and also groups him in with other new globetrotters such as Luke Fair, James Holden and James Zabiela. And like his contemporaries he plays music that stretches across all genres of house music; music that pushes the envelope of conformity and categorization. His recent Renaissance compilation was a testament to this ‘genre crossing’ sound and having having rocked my stereo solidly for the last few months I decided, without much hesitation, to go along and pay my respect to Nic and watch him play his first headlining slot at Soundbar.
The much anticipated evening came around and I arrived at Soundbar a few moments before 11pm. I wandered around the nightclub with my girlfriend and sat down, had a few drinks, and basically killed time until Nic Fanciulli began. Soundbar is the type of club that is decked out with all the glitz and décor, superbly designed and fitted out with lush comfortable couches and expansive seating areas – a perfect place to sit and wait for the main DJ to arrive.
Fanciulli opened to a fairly empty dance floor. People were gathered around in groups, drinking and socializing and basically showing no interest in the music that was being played, and to be honest neither was I. The local warmup DJ, Dino G, had not really done his job as a warmup. He opened with a thumping progressive sound that lacked substance and only seemed to push the crowd further away from the dancefloor. This gave Fanciulli a challenge because the flow of music had already been thrown in the wrong direction and he had to bring it all back, along with the strayed crowd. It didn’t take long. Fanciulli opened with a groove that was deep, glitchy, techy and percussive. He stayed on this level for quite some time until the dance floor began to take some shape and form. One thing that I noticed from very early on was the way that Nic demanded respect and attention, not just for his infectious grooves but also for his intensity and energy that was demanded from such technical mixing skills. He was constantly jumping from turntables to cd’s, back and forth, layering and looping tracks on top of one another. I have never seen anyone hold loops as long as Fanciulli did. He would draw out a track and lengthen it to a point where it was almost impossible to decipher where the beginning of a new track was mixed in.
As the evening progressed so too did the music. It evolved into a bigger more progressive sound that encompassed acid b-lines, techy stabs and sharper edgier sounds. I was impressed with the depth of his record box. Nic kept jumping from strength to strength, building perfectly and throwing down heavy basslines at the right moments. He was playing his latest freshest records, unique music, stuff that stamps authority on the dance floor and makes all the true punters leave at the end of the night with smiles on their faces and a desire to throw out all their old records.
My overall synopsis on the evening was that Fanciulli rocked it. The only downfall was that there weren’t all that many people to make the night electrifying and create atmosphere. The dance floor never truly filled up, and by around 3am it seemed as though people were starting to clear out and leave. It was strange, because, the music was superb, the sound and lighting also top notch, but for some reason Soundbar was unable to fill. I guess when a club like this is able to afford a string of weekly guests like Howells, Cattaneo, Hawtin, Digweed, and Deep Dish they can also afford the loss of booking someone like Nic Fanciulli to play to an empty dancefloor.