Just one example of the many tired-but-true East-meets-West clichés which Istanbul embodies, the Indigo complex is set directly in the beating heart of Istanbul's nightlife district. Its three venues are right around the corner from the bustling Istiklal Caddesi, where you're swept up in a crowd of tourists, punks, headscarves and street hawkers. Walking through the doors, the contrast between the quintessentially Istanbul-like scene only thirty paces away to Indigo's interior could not be more marked. Designed in the tried-and-tested minimalist grey box fashion, Indigo is essentially one big room on three levels. The dance floor is at the centre, with stairs at both ends leading up to raised areas on either side, one with a bar and seating area, and the other comprising of a bar and the DJ booth. The dark and discreet lighting serves only to emphasise the brazen brandishing of the club's corporate sponsor, Carlsberg, across each wall.
Things got off to a thoroughly average start, the long arm of the smoking ban, which now has Turkey in its grasp, rendering Indigo largely empty until In Flagranti got underway. They churned out danceable but unexciting electro disco tracks one after another, with the early rendition of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" seeming to set the tone for the evening. As the room filled up and people started dancing, the atmosphere picked up and moved away from feeling like an awkward school disco. The whole scenario resembled a slightly altered reflection of the western club experience. The music and setting were no different, but the atmosphere—for want of a better word—lacked the decadent let-your-hair-down feel that is so commonplace on nights like these. It wasn't the lack of drugged-up junkies that led to this feeling, but more the absence of anyone letting themselves go.
The civility of the evening was not helped in the slightest by the way in which In Flagranti went about the first half of their set, playing songs seemingly just for the sake of it, without attempting to excite or build beyond the monotony. The crowd in turn responded, giving the impression that everyone was dancing for the sole reason that there was nothing else to do. As the evening wore on, however, the set managed to raise itself from the mediocre disco mire in which it had become entrenched, dropping in hooks, drops and generally raising the tempo. This bit of the night helped make for a pleasant finish, but ultimately In Flagranti were unexciting on the whole. A solid set, eminently danceable, but not much more.
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