- North London venue Five Miles is exactly five miles from the city centre. Owner Deano, who also runs Dalston spot The Alibi, said in an interview with Hyponik that it's away from the centre, "in the pockets of London," that the real clubbing magic happens. Fittingly, the venue's music programming has been decidedly leftfield since it opened in May. It takes chances with its lineups, and as a result joins The Yard and The Waiting Room as one of the top spots to hear forward-thinking club music north of the river.
It was bitterly cold on Saturday night when South London promoter Cotch, which specialises in UK dance, hip-hop and global beats, debuted at the club. Maybe the weather was partly to blame for the night's slow start—neither of the first two acts drew more than ten people. This was especially unfortunate for Flora Yin-Wong, who spun tricky rhythms under gleaming melodies, dropping a run of brutal drum-tracks that would have done serious damage with a bigger crowd. She was followed by a brief live set from hip-hop trio New Age Muzik, whose enthusiastic MCs rapped over glossy beats that riffed on the UK Afrobeats sound.
Night Slugs producer Sheen then stepped up for a whirlwind tour of hip-hop, trap and UK club sounds, though by 1 AM the room still felt too empty for such intense music (especially the bassline edit of Shaggy's "It Wasn't Me"). Even so, Sheen proved an accomplished fusionist, briskly skipping across genres and tempos without missing a beat. At one point he sped up a ballroom track to jungle tempo, its breaks cycling into a demonic blur.
It was only when Florentino came on that things achieved lift-off. Known for infusing UK dance styles with reggaeton rhythms, the Swing Ting DJ gets how to play a peak-time slot. His pace was explosive, with frantic melodies and vocals scattered like shrapnel across dembow rhythms. Príncipe's DJ Lycox, fresh from the release of his debut album, followed with a mesmerising performance, his stark selection of snare-heavy cuts coloured by trippy melodies and deoxygenated vocal clips.
Even if London's network of parties pushing experimental club music doesn't always draw the biggest crowds, the diversity of sounds, styles and punters is always a unique thrill. On Saturday, in the space of four hours I heard live hip-hop, ambient, Syrian dabke, Rihanna, reggaeton and speed garage. The scene represents the cultural abundance of the internet generation, a world where all sounds are created equal—whether they're from Sheffield or Bogota, from the Top 40 or a basement rave. DJ Lycox seemed the epitome of this: a Paris-based producer who came to London to play kuduro, a style of music rooted in Angolan rhythms that acquired a frantic electronic edge in Lisbon's poorer neighbourhoods. As I left the club, head spinning at the invisible currents of digital culture, it started to snow.
Photo credit /
Cleo Carmen