- Detroit native Carl Craig was in London to celebrate 20 years of his label, accompanied by fellow veteran Francois K, Radio Slave, Paul Woolford and many more. The event was to be held at Ewer Street car park, a vast space not dissimilar to the venue used for Manchester's Warehouse Project, its high arched ceilings, graffiti splattered walls and uneven stone floors guaranteed to cause slightly inebriated party goers to stumble into the scattered puddles after one too many champagnes.
The car park was busy well before midnight, perhaps due to publicized early set times, or maybe as many punters had been warmed up nicely by Carl Craig's impromptu set at Phonica Records earlier that evening. As the crowd settled in, Francois K was playing synth-based tunes under Arch One, gradually building up to more solid 4/4 beats, peaking with Hardfloor's "Acperience 1," a record that is almost as old as Planet E itself. Meanwhile, in Arch Two, Psycatron was performing a live set and bashing out tech house to a lively audience, most still dancing in their coats due to the cold night air.
As Carl Craig appeared on stage, Arch One was completely crammed with bodies, which meant that any dancing was resigned to a limited on the spot shuffle. Starting off fairly tentatively, Craig's signature spacey synths plodded on for some time before he stepped it up a gear and treated the crowd to 90 minutes of pure, unadulterated techno. Prime cuts from Craig's vast back catalogue were selected, from his growling bass-heavy remix of Theo Parrish's "Falling Up" which reverberated off the stone ceilings, through to his reworking of Faze Action's "In the Trees." Once he threw in Inner City's "Good Life," you could have chucked a grenade onto the dance floor and it was doubtful that anyone would have noticed. As the time came for Radio Slave to take over, the audience was well past the point of slowing down, and those in attendance were keen for him to hammer out large chunks of his relentless techno to the finish, to which he dutifully obliged.
Paul Woolford had meanwhile been in charge of Arch Two, and was followed by the relatively unheard of duo Sound As. Tripping into the second arch at a late hour—which was inhabited by a mere 20 or 30 people—was a welcome relief from the crush of Arch One. Despite it being late and the area being nearly empty, the duo were on good form, and it seemed almost a shame that their house tinged techno was wasted on so few people, some of whom were past the point of appreciating anything at all.