- The third of February saw the long running Italian punk party and record label Tenax launch in London at The Cross. Tenax started with ‘punk ideals’ in the eighties, bringing acts such as New Order and Iggy Pop over to Florence, in the end establishing themselves as a bit of an Italian clubbing institution. Much touted these days as that country’s answer to Fabric, the club’s London debut promised to bring Italian flair, Italian dreads and a bit of Italian over-excitement to the capital’s regular schedule.
We got to The Cross late, as is the done thing these days I guess, and the club was in a seductive mood: there were real (not Ikea) plants on the outside terrace, and inside the club was pleasantly full and music varied. Throughout the night the two smaller rooms took a softer approach: under the third arch Machine’s Bones spun electro, which sounded a tad retro compared to the main room, while the second arch was slightly low on bums featuring local DJs.
When we arrived, the main room was underway with resident Luca Bacchetti spinning driving and deep minimal; throughout the night this room would draw the most cosmopolitan crowd – the Tenax brand had obviously lured out the Italians and Spanish. And the local Pete Doherty lookalikes. Or with three M_nus artists on the bill - JPLS, Jon Gaiser and Marc Houle – could it have been the lineup? Well, no. As 3 a.m. approached, still no M_nus artists had appeared, so I had a quick scout around and noticed a small A4 note pinned on the wall: “Sorry, all M_nus artists will not be appearing due to circumstances beyond our control”. Here it is:
Seriously unprofessional stuff, but with Cocoon’s Andre Galluzzi spinning and bodies filling the air with sex and shenanigans, I think most people didn’t even realize, let alone care, that the main acts hadn’t touched down on these shores. It was that kind of party – more about tits and skinny ties than the deepness of ‘Berghain 01’. Accordingly, Galluzzi’s set was techno hit after hit (Guy Gerber, Mathew Jonson etc) – serviceable stuff that delighted the cheap and chic crowd, but purist techno heaven this was not.
All in all, a shaky start bookings-wise, but I don’t think many people felt they were missing anything. Tenax might have to raise the bar music-wise to compete with rivals such as the T-Bar, The End and the mother ship Fabric – but let’s hope their next effort delivers the goods. That said, the residents did an amazing job considering, and the boys and girls in there ‘I LUV’ T-shirts were left wanting more - get your freak frozen till the next installment.