- Continuing their efforts to highlight innovative and experimental electronic music, BleeD, the new night from Blogger's Delight/High Horse's Casper C brought a line-up of oddly dark and ambient artists including Dial's John Roberts, Demdike Stare and Raime to XOYO earlier this month.
Taking a leftfield approach, their aim to "transport the crowd to an alien world" succeeded from the off with a live set from Raime. Their sound was heavy with industrial influences, and the music remained slow and abstract throughout. Further in, Manchester duo Demdike Stare's pulsing ambient drones were set to a terrifying backdrop of visuals that featured screaming lesbians, eerie woodlands and dark corridors. It went perfectly with the deep, rumbling bass and off-kilter sounds. Despite the banal chatter in the back, most in attendance seemed enraptured by the sensory onslaught.
Perhaps surprising for XOYO on a Friday night, the crowd were rather receptive of the less dance floor-orientated stuff. Nonetheless, there was stuff to get down to: Support from a reunited High Horse line-up of Skull Juice's Benedict Bull and Alex Egan to Casper C filled their DJ sets with darker Berlin techno and house-influenced numbers to what at times almost crossed over into breaks. John Roberts closed the night, receiving cheers to the opening piano chords of "Navy Blue." It was a welcome change to the usual clubbing experience to hear such melancholic house music. But that seemed to be the point of the evening as a whole.