- The excitement was palpable outside the LA stop of Tama Sumo's four-date US tour, as partygoers followed a distant thump to the door of a nondescript industrial building. Billed alongside Lakuti, this was the kind of lineup that shows just how far the city's techno and house scene has come in a few years. Hosted by Spotlight—a private gay club with a devoted following—the party took place after hours and drew a strong crowd of several hundred.
A spacious main room with a high ceiling gave the soundsystem plenty of room to breathe as resident DJ Chris Cruse handled the warmup. Cruse established a sound early on that held for much of the night, working through dark, chugging house tracks like Reese's "Rock To The Beat." Though many of the usual suspects from LA's underground scene were absent, the crowd seemed to nevertheless appreciate the deep selections, and Cruse had no trouble building a dedicated dance floor early on.
When Lakuti took the reins around 1 AM, some tracks veered into more soulful, uptempo house, but most of her set stayed within the realm of moody and functional dance music, well suited to the industrial backdrop. Though I would have welcomed a detour into the kind of broken beat or disco that sometimes features in her mixes, the South African's four-to-the-floor persistence felt like a smart reading of a crowd primarily focused on dancing rather than listening.
When Sumo dropped Galaxy 2 Galaxy's "First Galactic Baptist Church" at the top of her set, the funky, uplifting vibe brought new energy to the crowd. It felt like a release of sonic tension that had been building through the night. Following up with Pellegrino's "In Deriva" and Deep Sensation's "Somehow, Somewhere (There's A Soul Heaven)," she kept the dance floor looking alive and liberated.
Both Lakuti and Sumo played primarily (if not exclusively) vinyl, and both took a no-frills attitude to mixing. There was no dramatic EQing, no flashy transitions and no reason to stop dancing. Behind the booth, the pair seemed at ease, commenting on selections during each other's sets and juggling flashlights as they dug through bags of records. Ultimately, their hands-off approach made me realize how often DJs get in the way of the tracks they play. Sumo and Lakuti, by contrast, let the music speak.