Nuclear Free Zone (Oct 22nd) - DJ review
What a wicked party!
After being a regular at Nuclear Free for roughly two years, this has to have been a personal favourite.
Having been promoted to a later slot, I was looking forward to the night’s proceedings. Initially I was going to use FX for my set, but that idea was scrapped when I realised that there were some technical problems that needed to be dealt with first. For a start the only leads I’d brought wasn't compatible with the mixer, plus there was a problem with one of the cartridges, and my headphone jack had broken. Bit of a nightmare really and made things a tad difficult, but it wasn't too bad because I still had one of the cones on the headphones working, so I could still monitor at least and all the cart needed was a clean and some more weight on it.
So anyway, we was lucky that I turned up early otherwise there'd have been a bit of a dilemma, no-one else was there to DJ until about midnight, so I ended up playing for over two hours to start with and ended up playing most of my tunes.
At this point (midnight), I was a bit sceptical as there was hardly anyone in the club; Cloggi was tearing up the dance floor with some ghetto tech, breaks and all sorts of crazy stuff.
It wasn't until Product 19 got on the decks at 1.45 that things really started to get going, more people were turning up and the vibe had grown on the dance floor. This guy's technical ability is superb, he instantly picked the crowd up & all of a sudden everyone was up for it and the night just got increasingly better.
At about 3am, I think everyone in the club was dancing, Product 19 & myself started a back-to-back (4tunes on 4tunes off) set. I took the opportunity to play something harder, whilst Product 19 was playing hard and funky and we got a great reception from the crowd.
I haven't had as much fun in ages, I thought it added much more variation to the music and kept things interesting for the dance floor. I also felt that with a tighter tune selection, the whole experience really tested and developed my skills and improved me as a DJ. We finished our set to a Beast (so apt in so many ways) and Thermobee followed on with some quality industrial strength techno. I needed a drink and a rest so I retired to upstairs for some 'relaxation'.
After a chill and a couple of drinks we returned to the booth and started to prepare finishing the night off with another back-to-back set (2tunes on, 2tunes off this time), frantically trying to find some gems that hadn’t been played yet and getting organised. Thermobee closed his set with some 303 actions and it was once again my turn to spin some tunes.
This is when my abilities really started to shine through. Things were starting to get tougher, tune selection was even tighter and I got distracted at one point with a booth invasion. After all that time I’d spent playing earlier, somehow I managed to save some decent records for later and i feel that we did manage to maintain our concentration and finish the night off with some real belters. It was hard work rummaging through all those records trying to find decent b-sides that we hadn't played yet, but I think we did actually pull it off, people stayed until the end of the late closing at the 414 and a hedonistic time was had all round i think.
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Overall, from a DJs perspective, this was a very liberating experience, spending so much time on the decks throughout the course of the night was great fun and invaluable 'xp'. I think back-to-back sets can be very rewarding; it's a great way of getting to know other DJs and test each other’s skills & abilities.
Also, I thought the night did really well, what with a huge party going on just down the road at Brixton Academy and various other events going on around the capital, the turn out we got exceeded my expectations and everyone was up for it pretty much all night long.
A fantastic experience and I urge everyone to come along next month for more chunkiness at one of the longest running techno parties in the land. Nuclear Free Zone showcases the most up-front techno music that London is offering and is a great place to see underground DJs, testing their skills, proving their potential and generally just having a great time.
I'll be Seeing you soon!
Words: Alan Badger
