- We may not have the Mediterranean café culture that was promised by New Labour politicians who brought about the 24-hour licensing legislation a few years back, but we do appear to have something of a growing after-hours circuit. With Fabric open till 8:30 on Sunday mornings, and numerous, smaller after-parties all around, the capital's late, late (so late, it's now early) club culture seems to be steadily growing. Contributing to this insomniac tendency amongst the (admittedly never normally sedate) party-goers of London, a new night, er morning?, called Found was recently launched, providing just the opportunity to forget what the world was doing outside in the morning sunshine.
Found's inaugural shindig came with a line-up any other city would be proud to have as its main night listing, featuring Rossko, a purveyour of some of the city's finest deeper house and techno; Mulletover's Geddes; Ali Kuru and headlining guest of the night Konrad Black. All in Cable, which has perhaps one of the finest sound systems in the capital, and is one of those venues that are so singularly, utterly London: Victorian, brick, dark, deep and where no sunlight has penetrated since at least 1885. This club (in a railway arch under London Bridge Station) is going from strength to strength, with an acoustic environment that has been well-tailored to underground, electronic dance music (no uncomfortable reverb here—the whole rear wall being covered with sound-absorbent paneling and the system tuned to perfection). As an after-hours venue, that Victorian gloom is perfectly suited to keeping the daylight, and the daytime, carefully locked out, and keeping the party well locked in.
Arriving for Geddes set—a deep, funky and crafted affair—Konrad Black soon followed and played what he's been quoted as saying was one of his "most fun DJ sets" in the past five years. Having seen him play at New York's Cielo, and at 2008's Sunday Adventure Club in Berlin, I can safely say that Black's set topped both. With a sound that has diversified from the clicky, twisted minimal of four years ago to the deeper (yet still twisted) early-morning house and techno of today, Black played tunes perfectly pitched to the time of day. Having been asked to continue playing by the promoters till gone lunchtime, he kept the party beating in the labyrinthine heart of the Victorian city, losing itself while being Found.