- Bedrock spelled my third week in a row of top draw music. The onslaught started with Danny Howell’s at The End, followed by Sasha and Paolo Mojo at Fabric, and finally Bedrock. The other two events had been musically flawless, and as with anything to do with Bedrock, I knew to expect the same. And I wasn’t far off…
I arrived at Bedrock rather late, so only caught the last part of Phil Thompson's set. I had never seen Phil play before, but had always heard good things about him. His production works are inspiring, so I hoped his DJing would also be of the same standard. When I arrived he was playing some nice chunky tech house. In the short time I saw him, I could hear why John Digweed has chosen him as his warm up DJ. He plays really groovy, sexy music, that gets people moving and on the dancefloor, without going over the top. He is great at creating an atmosphere, of anticipation, without being either too boring, or stealing Digweeds thunder. I will next time make more than a concerted effort to get to Bedrock earlier, and hear more of Mr Thompson’s set.
It was also nice for a change to be in a club where you could actually move, and you were not constantly thinking, ‘Hey, if there was a fire in here, do I actually think I would make it out…’ I loved the fact that I had good room to actually have a dance, as opposed to just nodding and bopping my head, through lack of space.
And before I knew it, Digweed himself had stepped up to the plate for what would be aural heaven. He started off nicely where Phil had left off, playing nice chugging house, moving into a little more melody. Always present in the set were these nice subtle bleepy, electro sounds. These weren’t overtly obvious, like in productions by artists Josh Wink, Medicine8, or FC Kahuna, but were instead reminiscent of the pioneers of the 80’s electronic music scene. These great warm bleepy sounds helped to liven things up, before Digweed stepped it up a gear.
Digweed then started playing more big room records. The best part about going to Bedrock for me, is Digweed's reading of the crowd. Through his ability he has a way of working people into an absolute frenzy, but still playing tracks that no one knows. So rather than playing the big tunes to get the instant reaction, he preferred to tease and build his own mayhem. And when he let loose, everyone knew about it.
As with every time I see Digweed, I recognised very few tracks, as Digweed continued his role as educator as well as entertainer. He has the ability to make the 3 hours he played fly by, and leave everyone begging for more. After I was so disappointed I missed his recent extended set a Fabric, it was nice to get my Diggers fix.
If I can continue to get the First Friday of every month off, I will try and make to Bedrock every month. It is just that good. End of story