- Motor City Drum Ensemble, AKA Danilo Plessow, recently touched down at London's Corsica Studios for the second time in 2011. His first trip to the Elephant & Castle club was back in January, when Trouble Vision threw a successful winter warmer, playing support for Theo Parrish's headline slot. The lineup for Double Trouble Vision's Third Birthday: Part Two felt like an appealing continuation of that theme, boasting three headliners who have cut their teeth updating vintage sounds for the modern ear—Plessow's and FCL's double bill of rooted house and disco in room one and Kink's twisted take on old school jacking in room two.
FCL provided a diverse selection, kicking things off with Casino Times' "That's the Truth" before moving on to deeper rollers like the Deetron mix of David K and Opium's "Somewhere in My Head," interspersed with a series of '90s anthems whose cheesy vocals may have surprised a few. Their set peaked early, and around halfway the number of dancers dipped, leaving a sparse floor on which classics such as "Intro" from Alan Braxe & Fred Falke felt a little under-appreciated. Heading to room two, I discovered a mass migration had taken place, with Kink's live set drawing in the more energetic of party-goers.
Photo credit: Antony Price
The producer is a captivating performer, enthusiastically brandishing his MIDI controllers above the crowd with a wild-eyed fanaticism, and causing almost unbearable levels of tension with drawn out and aggressive build ups and drops, often accompanied by one of his trademark pitch modulated acid riffs. When he dropped his remix of "Answer," which was played in heavily edited form—the vocal chopped and changed almost beyond recognition—I couldn't help wishing the man would give his Ableton hardware a rest for a minute and let us hear the tune as we know it. For those with subtler sensibilities, this was all a bit too much, and as Kink made a transition into what was unmistakably dubstep, we knew it was time to go.
Back in room one, Plessow's presence behind the decks was marked by a considerable increase in energy, and his distinctive taste for raw timbres, vintage percussion and moody harmony instantly got the crowd rolling. As always, the man baffled all with a continuous stream of largely unrecognised gems from the golden age of house. Things came to a head when the gorgeous looping bass line of his recent hit "L.O.V.E" gently faded in, causing visible ripples of satisfaction (and a lot of singing along). This marked a smooth transition into disco, which could have been prolonged a little, since it seemed to make a few lose interest and head for the door. Meanwhile, in room two, Subb-an played to a crowd of around ten. Still, there were a healthy number of survivors that were treated to some of Plessow's signature disco—both Ray Mang's "Cereal Lover," Loose Joints' "Is It All Over My Face?" were rinsed—before FCL reappeared, and the trio finished the night by going back-to-back-to-back.