Phonica 8th Birthday in London

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  • The fact that the Phonica Records 8th birthday fell on an unusually sunkissed October weekend in London and was coupled with a stacked lineup in one of the city's finest warehouse venues meant that the makings of a successful party were in place. At around half past midnight, The Great Suffolk St Warehouse was already busy with those who'd been out and about during the day, soaking up the last of the sun and ready to see the night out emphatically. The huge venue is made up of several large arches, three of which housed the different musical arenas: Matt Tolfrey's Leftroom stage, Heidi's Jackathon and, of course, Phonica's birthday room. There were several well-stocked bars, and a large outside smoking area all easily accessed by a wide walkway that ran along the back of all of the arches. Entering the Jackathon room part of the way into Deetron's set, it was clear that, despite the large scale of the event and solid lineup, one of the most important aspects of such a large-scale party had not been given the attention it should have—the sound. Sadly, the quality of the system left a lot to be desired. Deetron's otherwise brilliant set, which was comprised of music apparently chosen specifically to fit in with the "jacking" theme of Heidi's arena, unfortunately failed to really hit home as a result of the poor sound quality. Photo credit: Nick Ensing Over in the Leftroom arch, things were not much better. Benoit & Sergio certainly impressed with their performance, but Benoit and fellow Visionquest exponent Lee Curtiss occasionally had to fiddle with the sound in an attempt to improve it. Bass distortion and a lack of "oomph" were evident throughout the set. At some point, the sound problems were obviously relayed back to organisers who improved it somewhat, upping the volume and improving the clarity as best they could. In the final three hours, the Phonica room went crazy as Boston natives Soul Clap took to the decks, playing to what was probably the biggest crowd of the night. Heidi was also impressive, working her way through a set full of crowd pleasers in her own energetic and hypnotic style, rocking the Jackathon faithful through the very end. In Tolfrey's room, Lee Curtiss, Shaun Reeves and Ryan Crosson somehow squeezed in Daft Punk's "Around The World" in amongst the likes of Murphy Jax's "It's the Music" and the Claude VonStroke mix of Cajmere's "Percolator." This was a great end to the night, but for such a high-profile event the initial lack of care and attention to sound was difficult to ignore and a big disappointment.
RA