TDK Cross Central - Sunday

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  • Now in its fifth and final year (at the present venue that is), TDK Cross Central is the end of summer, last Bank Holiday until Christmas blow out, comprising over 120 acts over two days, on eleven stages, spread across three clubs (side by side), a roof terrace and even the pavement outside. Whew. Sunday’s affair, which went from 7pm to 7am, focused mainly on house, electro, minimal and techno, with the likes of Loco Dice, Dan Bell, Theo Parrish and Tiefschwarz drawing tens of thousands of punters to the former King’s Cross freight depot. The organisation (for the most part) and security were quite good as were the stage designs and sound systems (again for the most part). I have to say though, there were a few negatives which got my back up. The most obvious one was there were just too many damn people. I suppose when you have such a stacked line-up this is always going to be the case, and there would have been room if people had spread out evenly across the venues (the need2soul stage in the Key was quite nice, as was Ninja Tunes), but the terrace during Tiefschwarz’s set was just silly. There was some space the further back you went, but unfortunately there weren’t any speakers back there. Up front it was a log jam up as the dancefloor intersected with one of the stairwells leading out from Canvas. You could barely move, let alone dance. Very unpleasant and claustrophobic, which is unfortunate because the terrace, sponsored by Club Azuli, had a great set up, tailored in a Japanese manga style, complete with patio lanterns. The Time Warp stage was equally rammed, except as it was inside, it made things sweltering hot. The terrace all of a sudden didn’t seem like such a bad place to be. TDK Cross Central 2007 My second gripe were the extortionist prices TDK were charging. £4.50 for a bottle of beer is outrageous, and making you pay £4 to buy a programme so you can find out who’s playing when is just low. If you want to sell those things as a keepsake fine, but at least post the times somewhere. Could you imagine going to a rock show and the promoters telling you your favourite band will be on sometime in the next 12 hours? This programme shite is a nasty trend that I’ve started to witness at a few other festivals as well. Not cool at all. Needless to say I couldn’t see everything, and was a bit choked to have missed both Martin Buttrich and Alex Under who came on quite early at 10.30pm. I managed to catch the tail end of Shitdisco (live) who are an abrasive indie/electro band, not disco, but a bit shit, so it was over to the terrace where Azuli boss Dave Piccioni was spinning some rather pleasant tech house. One friend commented that it felt a bit last summer with tracks like 'Baby Kate', but it was nice warm up and his set put the crowd in a good mood. I popped back inside to see a bit of Loco Dice, but was not as impressed as I am by his productions - the tunes he was spinning were a lot heavier. But the crowd were going nuts, and it was definitely peak time. Just as I was really getting into one track a bunch of morons were invited on stage to throw beach balls into the audience. One inevitably made its way back onto the stage, knocking the needle right across the record, and that was the end of that groove. Loco Dice did not look happy. Time for my exit. Next, it was down to the Key to catch some of Theo Parrish’s four hour set. If Piccioni felt like last summer, Parrish put us in a time warp back 20-30 years, playing proper disco numbers, funk and soul as well as some more modern house and even a bit of acid. His mixing was non-existent in places; he was letting the tunes do the talking. The crowd were eating it up, and the floor had a serious good times feel to it. No time to stand still with so many acts on the bill, so we got dragged away from Parrish (who was easily one of the highlights) past the Secret Sundaze tent, which was going off all night, and over to Dan Bell, who was playing the Phonica stage inside the Cross. Heidi was warming things up, and as a record store owner, was championing vinyl in all its glory, dropping Eva & Padberg’s 'Black Beauty'. Dan Bell was meant to come on at 3.30am, but rumour had it his records got lost at the airport! A real shame as he is a legend in his own right and one of the major influences in minimal techno. So back up to the terrace to see some of Tiefschwarz. Just Ali tonight, and they aren’t the same when the brothers are not together. Basti is normally hanging off the decks, getting the crowd going and playing the real party time numbers, while Ali chose to take a more subtle root, really locking in a groove without it getting too nuts. A few notable numbers included dropping the Rocco Bronco and Tobias Becker remix of 'Doppelwhipper' and as a special treat, Ali later dropped 'Tears' by Frankie Knuckles. Classic tune! TDK Cross Central 2007 My spies informed me that Dan Bell was finally playing back down in the Cross, so we closed out our night there. I don’t know if his records ever arrived, as far as I could tell he was playing some (borrowed?) CDs. It wasn’t really what I was expecting, more tech-housey then minimal techno. The crowd wasn’t overly responsive (or not even aware who Dan Bell was - could be anyone I guess when you don’t have a programme), more just hanging out casually, but the vibe was friendly and everyone seemed quite social. Bell looked stoic behind the decks, rather nonplussed quite frankly, with the crowd not really spurring him on and vice versa. So what about headlining act Ricardo Villalobos, who was supposed to close out the main Time Warp stage with a three hour set? Well, unfortunately for us (not for Ricardo), he had to cancel so that he could be by his heavily pregnant wife’s side who is, at time of writing, expected to give birth imminently. Will this be the last we see of Ricardo for the near future as he trades in his vinyl for nappies? Only time will tell. Expect a 25 minute minimal dubstep white label made entirely of gurgling noises and crying to start circulating the clubs in the near future. As a side note I have no idea who filled in for Papa Villalobos, but for me it was time to call it a night. Overall the enticement of so many good acts on one bill is too good to miss, but in reality, you’re never going to see everyone you want to see and so much time and energy is expended fighting through the crowd, hopping from stage to stage, catching bits and pieces of everyone’s set. Although you wont get the mega-event feel of TDK (if that’s even what you want), in a city like London, you’re better off seeing these DJ’s at smaller clubs, as they will most likely pass through town at some point. You’ll have space to dance and can focus your attention solely on the one DJ for hours on end, losing yourself in the music, while not having to worry about getting jostled around or the fact that you’re missing out on someone. Hell, you might even have some money left in your pocket at the end of the night.
RA