- The sense-rippling roar seemed to come from a crowd five times too big for XOYO's intimate capacity. Elbow room was a luxury. The low-ceilinged room's atmospheric pressure cooker was hissing. This was the grand finale of one of Andy C's most interesting and successful career moves in years. Opening with a hurricane triple-tune intro mix, he'd made sure within two minutes of this six-hour marathon that every person in the room knew what was about to go down.
Following series from Eats Everything, Scuba, Skream, Jackmaster and Tiga, Andy C is the first DJ to represent drum & bass in XOYO's long-running resident project. With lineups that celebrated key elements of the ever-sprawling sound, his season has created a genuine buzz among people involved in the genre. Watching him bounce wildly behind the decks, wolf-whistling and air-punching while pulling off perplexing mixes, it was clear this buzz extended to him as well.
Understandably so. This was a unique opportunity for Andy C to step off the main stage merry-go-round and tap back into his roots, recalling the days when he cut his teeth in London's Wax Club and The End. This was his first chance in years to really get to know a venue, its vibe and its community. It was a return to the underground mentality that lured him into the game in the first place. It was also a chance to remind us who's boss. Regardless of how high-profile he's become, or how many of the scene's grumblers complain that he's sold out, Andy C remains one of the sharpest selectors out there.
His only fault, perhaps, is that he's a bit of a show off—something his MC, Manchester's Tonn Piper, who guided fans through every one of these 13 events, was keen to remind us throughout the night, demanding rewinds on the most remarkable mixes so everyone in the room could appreciate what was happening under Andy's hands. Whether it was his Cybotron / Dillinja montage, or the way he audaciously blended his own "Heartbeat Loud" and classic Suburban Base, '92-era jungle, every mix was met with another roar. This kind of musically mischievous fusion sums everything up. Andy has successfully joined dots between 25 years of drum & bass in the mix, in his lineups and most importantly in the crowd, a healthy range of 20-somethings to 40-somethings, all of them having come into the genre at drastically different points but nonetheless sharing the same appreciation and sense of history.
Andy C has pulled of something commendable here, and he's done so with all the authenticity you'd hope for from an original guard artist. As the night wound down with emotional speeches and a rolled out VIP version of "Original Nuttah," the skin-rippling roars still came, but the pressure had been released. Everyone in the room knew that history had been made.
Photo credit /
Jake Davis