Sud Electronic

To help celebrate its 9th birthday, Sud Electronic invited Berghain/Panorama Bar residents Prosumer and Tama Sumo to play in an unopened venue called The Camp near Old Street. The walls were bare, the bar was makeshift and the dancefloor was packed – in a good way.

Here are some facts about the night:

FACT: Prosumer has the hairiest back in the world. He was wearing what looked like a blue chainmail vest.

FACT: The back-to-back Prosumer/Tama Sumo combination brought a mix of techno, deep house and 90s house, without forgetting the soul, and at times a touch Balearic. It was a patchwork of styles that gave a sort of house-party feel.

FACT: The crowd were a diverse, dedicated bunch. Friendly and unpretentious.

FACT: The temperature inside was just right. I was able to dance for six hours without drips of sweat falling from the ceiling. The DJs did not have to play under an umbrella.

FACT: It was refreshing to see the DJs having as much fun as the dancefloor. I bet Prosumer’s singing voice sounds amazing – where was the mic?

FACT: The occasional (accidental?) switching on of the fluorescent-strip light bulb behind the decks was not quite as impressive as the window-shutter trickery of Panorama Bar. The ironic cheers made us smile.

FACT: The music jumped on a number of occasions. This was either because the makeshift table for the decks was getting knocked by over-zealous dancers/DJs or the vibration from the sound system was skipping the stylus (less fact, more speculation). Though, at least they were using vinyl.

FACT: The sound was pretty good. But where were the speakers at the back?

FACT: The last track was a tech-house remix of The Source feat. Candi Staton. The bassline was really warm and thick. The crowd went rubbery at the knees and there was plenty of air punching.

FACT: The venue had a lift. On the way out, bug-eyed clubbers took great delight in cramming in as many bodies as possible and travelling to the top despite there only being about ten stairs to climb.

FACT: The event brought something more European to London – it was laid back and unaggressive. A celebration of great dance music.

For some chronolgical memories of another recent event check our review of Love Fever Loft