Adam Beyer / Pan-Pot / Nicole Moudaber / Maetrik / Joseph Capriati - LWE's Drumcode Fright Night

Many friends had reported great things about this event, and seeing as the night was hosting the perfect excuse to get ghouled-up I decided it was time to pop my Drumcode cherry. Over the years my musical preference has become more house-oriented, so I was unsure how I'd fare with an evening packed with the harder stuff. But it was Halloween after all, and the ominous uncertainty seemed fitting for the occasion.

The Great Suffolk Street Warehouse couldn't have been more suited to host a Halloween party – the high arched ceilings and exposed brickwork created an dimly lit cocoon of shadows, the perfect backdrop for many a suspicious-looking character. There was a certain chill in the air, and a lot of people had gone to much effort to get dressed up which added nicely to the shivers.

The LWE team had done a great job adding extra touches to ensure Drumcode was much more than just a music event. There was a crew of face-painters waiting by the entrance to turn guests gory for £10. An asylum imprisoned a couple of bloodied zombies who were frequently tortured by a nutty professor, and throughout the night I bumped into two strange forms skulking around the premises; one looked like the remnants of a world war one victim hidden behind an old gas mask, dragging some sort of deranged creature on a chain – keeping punters well on their toes. I think I was most impressed however by the 'Funflip' mini studio, who filmed us for a few seconds to produce a mini flipbook which was ready in minutes. We each got a printed souvenir for free – a brilliant idea and something I'd not come across before.

Inside, both arches were equally jam-packed with bodies creating enough heat to thaw the cold-blooded. Arch 1 played host to the Rejam Residents 10pm-11pm, Joseph Capriati 11.30pm-1.30am, Maetrik 1.30am-3am, Alan Fitzpatrick 3am-4 and Adam Beyer 4.30am-close. Arch 2 had Magma warming up from 10pm-1am, Nicole Moudaber 1am-3am, and Pan-Pot finishing up from 3am-close. Although it was a mission changing rooms, I found the pan-European crowd patiently accommodating with none of the unnecessary barging you often find in tight confines!

I first caught Joseph Capriati who played a consistently driving, industrial set. His tune selection built with pacey tracks that were energetic and laced with whisperings of doom and unforgiving drops. Since his production debut in 2007, Capriati has worked incredibly hard and achieved so much in terms of remixes, productions and touring, and it was clear to see he meant business with a no-nonsense style of mixing.



Following on was Maetrik, who shifted the ambience with his trademark sounds of the robotic. With a BPM noticeably less furious than that that his predecessor, he gave us a good smattering of something a little more experimental and eclectic in range; a balance of electronic frontiers and warped elements blended with a dark groove made you feel like you were part of some sci-fi revelry. As always, he appeared to be enjoying his music as much as the crowd. His debut set for Drumcode was adventurous in terms of the range of levels he traversed to, and his diversity was as playful as ever. A good reflection of his creativity - he does have four pseudonyms, after all.

We managed to catch the end of Nicole Moudaber's set before Pan-Pot, someone I was unfamiliar with and so didn't know what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised to be greeted by a more housey vibe, albeit on the tougher side of tech, but more jacking in style – for a while anyway. She dropped Cuartaro's 'People Rocker' which added a nice element of funk to a night filled with serious heaviness.



Pan-Pot were the second debut headliners of the night and continued to stir things up with a set that saw big and bouncy disappear into more hypnotic baselines, crafted into eerie soundscapes mixed with seamless fluidity. The pair have a knack of creating inimitable experiences when it comes to musical journeys, building sets to great heights and using drops so powerful it feels like you're thrust into an abyss of relentless rhythm. Known for breaking the confines of genre pigeonholes, at some points Pan-Pot spun a nice fusion of tribal tech with minimal beats and even dropped some breaks-structured baselines for good measure. For the majority of their performance they were silhouetted against an array of pumpkins and skulls, looking as creepy as they sounded.



We finished the night in the hands of Adam Beyer, who showed no mercy right through to the very last minute. His set seemed the perfect ending to the night of frights, and his tune selection delivered bone-rattling base so dark it felt like the brink of an Armageddon. Unforgiving, slamming and loop-heavy, his set progressed to become completely stripped back at times – leaving percussive devastation so tough even the brick walls looked like they would crumble. By this point the cavernous space had become a visual spectacle of lasers and illuminated skulls, with Beyer whipping the crowd up to the ultimate crescendo of the night’s musical story.

Overall the event was a great success; full credit to LWE who brought the chill-factor, and presented a Drumcode line up that delivered with enough monstrous proportions to wake the living dead.

FUTURE GIGS

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