- I hadn't been to a dubstep night for a while before Saturday, but during the mid-to-late '00s the music played an enormous role in my life. Fake ID-ing my way into DMZ at Mass and FWD>> at Plastic People, many of my early rave experiences were coloured by the simple approach of the scene's pioneers: dark room, big soundsystem and mysterious new tracks, coupled with friendly staff and a familial atmosphere. I was interested to see whether, several years on, these principles remained intact.
Mala's Deep Medi Musik has been putting out records and organizing events for more than a decade—on Saturday night they holed up in Brixton Jamm. Refurbished last year, the venue has pub-style architecture and a cosy feel, perfect for the label's subterranean explorations. An extra VOID soundsystem had been installed for maximum bass weight.
After passing the wonderfully friendly door staff (Deep Medi insists on bringing their own workforce to their events), I headed into the main room. The set times, which had been held back until that point, simply read: "Deep Medi Musik: 12 AM – 5 AM." In practice this meant laissez-faire slots of roughly an hour each, giving the session a freeform feel and emphasizing that it was the music, not who was playing it, that mattered. Mala's absence was hardly even noticeable.
Belgian duo A/T/O/S opened with a live performance: Truenoys tinkered from behind a laptop while Amos warmed the crowd with her incandescent vocals. By the time they dropped "Strong Thing," producing the night's first big moment, the vibe felt sufficiently loose. Sun Of Selah, who hosted the night alongside Crazy D, requested all the lights be turned off for Kaiju's set, soaking the room in darkness. Paul White and Jamie Schildhauer kept things eyes-down and rolling to begin with, until their Flowdan collaboration, "Hunter," triggered a spike in energy levels and several demands for a wheel-up. "Kaiju, giving them a cardiac," hollered Crazy D. Next, Jack Sparrow and K-Man kept the dance floor heaving with an edit of roots reggae hit "Jah No Dead" by Burning Spear (Sparrow) and The Bug's "Skeng" (K-Man), which earned a pull-up.
For the final hour, Horsepower Productions' Benny Ill took a trip down memory lane. Despite a few shaky mixes, and with the room only a third full, he rewarded the resolute few with a run of classics. Loefah's half-step remix of Skream's "I" and Mala's "Lean Forward" were highlights, but, for me, the best moment was when he teased in the intro of Loefah's "Mud," only to then unleash Coki's "Burnin'"—I was so overcome with joy that I took out my ear plugs to take in the full ferocity of the sound. I left Brixton Jamm confident that the magical simplicity of Deep Medi's MO remained the same as ever, their vision unadulterated.