Numbers + Warp in Glasgow

  • Published
    Dec 27, 2017
  • Words
    Resident Advisor
  • Share
  • In 2018 it will have been 15 years since a group of likeminded friends started putting on Numbers nights in Glasgow, and a decade will have passed since one of its oldest collaborators, Ross Birchard, AKA Hudson Mohawke, first let us hear "Polyfolk Dance," his debut EP for Warp. Since then both camps have often found themselves intertwined. Numbers' glowing reputation is in some ways linked to the acclaim that has greeted Birchard and Russell "Rustie" Whyte's five artist albums on Warp. The bill at this huge pre-Christmas event, held on Friday the 15th at The Art School, was a celebration of what both labels have done together and apart. Just before midnight on a freezing evening, the queue wound its way around Glasgow School Of Art's student union building, which was already packed inside, upstairs and down. On the chequered dance floor of the downstairs Vic bar there was a relentless soundtrack of groovy techno and dense electro beats, thanks to a lineup that would have been worth a night out on its own. Numbers' cofounder Calum "Spencer" Morton opened and closed downstairs, with Minor Science, DEBONAIR and New York's Complete Walkthru (AKA Max McFerren) all keeping the crowd sweaty and on their toes throughout the night. The place was full and in the mood for a party, and none of the artists were in a hurry to go off-piste. Upstairs in the main hall, the atmosphere was more like a festival, with the audience surging in and out for each act. One of Glasgow's finest young DJs, So Low co-promoter Ribeka, filled in the gaps. The enigmatic Yves Tumor followed in the least compromising fashion, prowling the stage shirtless, obscured by smoke and a wash of satanic red light as he barked to the control desk for "no strobes, just a steady beam of light." Against a scything squall of electronic noise, his eyeball-wobbling sound upheld his purred claim that "a little bit of darkness never hurt anyone." SOPHIE—Numbers' other big breakthrough, having appeared on the label before producing for Madonna and Charli XCX—is another artist who deserves the term "enigmatic," yet hers is an altogether more joyful aesthetic. Set up onstage amid a striking light show, her set would have worked in an arena, a stew of odd beats and glistening synth squeals delivered at thunderous volume. On "Vyzee," she literally instructed the crowd to "go crazy in the pub." As she left the stage, Errorsmith took over, playing among the audience on a floor-level trestle table. His music manages a stunning alchemy, with beats of icy, raw techno manipulated with such a mastery of emotion that they flow like soul music. With an evening of headliners behind us, the really big one arrived at the end: a special back-to-back from Hudson Mohawke and Rustie. Riding in on Tiga's "Woke," their set captured the Numbers sound—that hard-to-define, itchy-footed mix of techno, house, hip-hop and trap—that defined a scene by redefining the old-school Scottish rave for the next generation.
RA