- Kevin Saunderson began creating as Inner City when I was just a wee man in small trousers who was more bothered about dribbling onto my crayons than the floors of clubs to fiery, dance floor electronics. As part of a lesson in techno—without any troubling classroom rules or teachers cracking the whip—he's put together the History Elevate project. It's a noisy and pertinent reminder to today's ravers of how Saunderson is still one of the original Detroit Macdaddies and why the reverence should continue. Even if he has retouched the Lighthouse Family.
Photo credit: Nick Ensing
To mark this splash down, Eastern Electrics hosted what turned out to be a suitably gnarly knees up in the Warehouse-esque environs of a car park in deepest Shoreditch. Hidden down a side street, the semi-secrecy of the location was given away by the pounding techno running through the streets like an angry elephant with digital boots and a stomp on. Saunderson remixer Mike Shannon was manning the decks as we shuffled in past the security guards. Portaloos, rubble, stumbling gurners and grunters were strewn about the venue, which delivered on the hype by being a big apocalyptic rave cave full of bright lights and sweaty hands.
As a starter the Canadian Cynosure boss's set was ugly and unrelenting, leaving a pretty bland taste in the ears. Props for sticking to the Viking techno template of "helmet on, head down and destroy." But for our party the only place to escape was near the plastic bogs. We took refuge among the portaloos, downing a number of Thai Phuket beers before throwing ourselves into the cave for Saunderson's DJ set. Starting with snatches of "Good Life," Saunderson laid down an electronic gauntlet ready to shake you by the hand, then slap you in the face.
Phuture techno bangers from Milton Jackson and Plastikman rained down with plenty of peaks, troughs, bangs and explosions detonating across the car park. He finished his set with the walls dripping, and the dancing mob baying like hounds. It should have been the perfect platform for Inner City to parachute in and knock our sonic socks off. But the godfathers of house and techno didn't quite do it. Paris Grey and Ann Saunderson joined the latter's other half for their first UK fling in yonks—in front of a car park full of ravers practically pregnant with excitement.
Photo credit: Nick Ensing
Disappointingly, it didn't quite live up to the high hopes of the insanely high crowd. Maybe it was the aceness of Saunderson's DJ set, but the live PA slashed the energy levels right down from the rampaging red-lit high we were previously enjoying. Wobbly sound and technical hitches meant that the hype dissipated with only "Big Fun" and "Good Life" really taking off. We didn't last for Claude VonStroke's set, instead opting for the night bus and cheese on toast. However, despite Inner City's live do leaving a vaguely sad nostalgic taste in the ears, Saunderson showed he's still one of the best techno DJs out there. And fingers crossed his little slice of live house history will sort itself out for the rest of their summer dates...