- Friday evenings at Glasgow's world-renowned Sub Club can be a tough shift at times, with a weirdly lairy atmosphere sometimes tainting even the most tempting-looking of nights. The bi-monthly Sensu, however, has always seemed pretty much immune to this phenomenon, due in part to its mid-month slot being a safe distance from payday, as well as its considered, fad-free booking policy.
Having begun life in the smaller Q Club and Liquid Lounge spaces before graduating to the 500-capacity Sub, Sensu's promoters have slowly built their reputation over the past five years with a grace and subtlety that mirrors the music of their favoured DJs and producers—past guests such as Trentemoller, Wighnomy Brothers, Octave One, Marc Houle and Tobi Neumann being representative of the kind of thoughtful, classy electronics typically on offer.
It was a characteristically likable crowd, then, who gathered on Friday for part one of the night's birthday celebrations, for which the guys had booked Kompakt co-founder Michael Mayer, one of the granddaddies of the louche, refined Sensu sound. Mayer isn't one to wrong-foot you with an unannounced gabber set, and he stuck faithfully to the script here, treating a pleasantly busy club to various recent Speicher releases, along with the odd vocal eye-opener along the lines of St. Germain's "Rose Rouge." That was about as eccentric as it got (no casually dropped-in tracks by Sade or The Streets, as friends report hearing him play recently) but the crowd came for slinky 4x4 Euro-seduction and got it by the barrow-load.
Near the end, Mayer gave an obligatory but welcome run-out to the Supermayer club hit "Two of Us." It was greeted rapturously by everyone but the guy next to me, whose superbly withering response—"so they used a glockenspiel—big fuckin' deal, that's like Slam using bagpipes"—ensured I'll be seeking him out again in future, for comedic value if not musical guidance.