We went back to the Boiler Room. Now for those of you who have been living in the Outer Hebrides for the last year, The Boiler Room is an internet radio station with a difference. It is broadcast live from a recording studio which is attended by 100 or so invited guests (and yours truly) and is streamed live over the internet for folks to watch, as well as listen. I was first hipped to it by Mr. BPM bask in May last year, and went along, the results of which you can check here. It's pretty cutting edge, as far as clubbing goes. Excellent DJs, secret location, definitely strikes high on the cool-o-meter.
So it used to be in the ceiling partition of an old warehouse up in deepest darkest Hoodville (aka Hackney), y'know, the kind of place where you out-of-towners hope never to find yourselves. It totally leant itself to the edginess of the night, I loved it. I also knew that by it's nature and location, it could last in that space. So when I heard it had moved this year, I was interested to see how it had moved on from the early, scene-heavy days.
So now, it's in South London. I must admit, and I'm sure Beeps will kill me for this, but when I first heard that they'd moved it to South, I thought it was hilarious. From the way all them cats were givin' it last time I went up there, you'd have thought that Hackney was the centre of the known bloody universe. Going down to one of London's few remaining bonafide 'hoods' will teach some of them sceney tossers a lesson!
Performing this time were the Boglewaltz crew (that's them in the above picture). Not sure which part of town they're from but their main gig seems to be at the Dex club in Brixton. They also had D'Ablo and Shea Soul backing them up on vocals. The band Little Dragon had preceded them (no photos, sorry:( but check out their live set here). The act that Cengiz and I were there to see however, was Soundspecies, the group fronted by our good friend Henry Keen. Another group also performed, Velvet Stream (again, no pics, not bad from what I remember).
To be honest, I was a little disappointed. Firstly, The Boiler Room concept has expanded massively. It's a company now, with employees and offices sponsors. The guys behind it have done extremely well, broadcasting their unique show from gigs as far as The USA, France and Spain the level of DJs they can attract has also gone up (Karizma, Photek, Goldie, . The question is, have they lost a little something in translation?
I couldn't take any booze in, instead they had a 'Boiler Room Bar' that was marginally cheaper than your average West-End clip joint/nightclub (seriously? I thought this was supposed to be underground?). Aside from the 'hipster' massive in there, it was pretty much all dudes. Worst of all? Bouncers. No trees. :(
Shea Soul performing her track off the compilation, check the video in the upcoming link. She's a very talented young lady with a bright future ahead of her.
Here's the thing. The Boglewaltz guys didn't really do much actual DJing, They just seemed content to drop tunes off their latest compilation, and other bits that haven't been released yet. They're all talented obviously, but why the need for an extended album plug? I'll tell you what, how 'bout you decide? Check it all out here.
I was quite looking forward to seeing some serious skills...oh well, I'll just have to go back at a later date!
Unfortunately, I missed thet Sounspecies set becuase of last tube issues, but it was excellent, and can be listened back to here, watched here, or dowloaded to podcast here. Don't say I don't do anything for ya!
So anyway, enough said, here are some more pics of the night...and a few from my last gig with Cengiz @ Soul Solution South @ Living Bar...strange times in South London indeed! I've never played at a venue that had a one-armed man, or a midget. Dressed like a stripper. Weird central...!
ATB folks, till next time. Look out the soon-coming HD Music series, mixed by yours truly.
Holla.
Legion.
