- Phonox, the Brixton club formerly known as Plan B, is an infinitely more visible nighttime option now than it was pre-September 2015—for house and techno fans at least. Where Plan B always felt musically all over the place, with little or no curatorial direction to speak of, Phonox launched with a vision and booking policy to rival the capital's leading players. Like its sister clubs XOYO and The Nest, which all operate under The Columbo Group, the bookings are done in-house, an approach that allows a new club to quickly establish an identity and a reputation. So far, its thing has been all-night sets, handing over the reins to the likes of Move D, Omar-S and Benji B. (Jeremy Underground, Ben UFO and Zip are all still to come.) Bookings like these are eye-catching on their own, but what really clinches the deal here is the price—at just £5 up front, it's hard to think of a dance floor in the city that offers as much bang for your buck. So far, the response has been very positive.
In London, cheap tickets bring students, and students, on the whole, bring an energy and enthusiasm that can be lacking at some of the pricier nights. On Friday, February 12th, the place was packed with young, revved-up punters, the sort that dance hard and whoop loud. Though a few tweaks have been made to the club's layout—the DJ booth in the main room has switched sides, and downstairs, which was previously a second dance floor, is now just a bar—by and large the size and feel of the space is similar to what it was. I especially like that they've added a couple more of the raised dancing stages that were a big part of Plan B's charm.
Joy Orbison shared the bill with Will Bankhead and Japan's DJ Nobu, a seasoned selector who finally seems be gaining recognition outside of his home nation. I got there shortly into Orbison's set, a two-and-a-half hour canter through various strains of club-ready house, from classic Chicago and Latin bits to fresher, more raucous hybrids. It wasn't boring but nor was it particularly absorbing, that is until the final 20 minutes, when he dropped Lee Rodriguez's "All The Same Family" and Armando's "Pleasure Dome" in quick succession.
That Armando track meant that the transition into Nobu was smoother than it might have been, but the contrast between the two DJs was still sharp. Nobu, bouncing from foot to foot and looking stern, led with a soupy ambient number into a handful of dark, lean drum tracks, surveying the crowd with every new tweak to the mix (occasionally he'd catch a friend's eye and break into a toothy grin, though these never lasted longer than a second). Later, he mixed Pearson Sound's "Freeze Cycle" into the back of Call Super's "Migrant" and the night hit its peak. Musically daring and rhythmically thrilling, a DJ hasn't left that deep an impression on me in a while. This speaks to Nobu's wizardry for the most part, but also to Phonox, whose booming soundsystem, genial crowd and no-photos policy helped form just the right atmosphere.