Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Interstellar Fugitives at The Warehouse Project


UR, Jeff Mills and Francois Kevorkian played The Warehouse Project on the 19/10. Here's a short review that one of my chemically-enhanced operatives wrote for the blog. He also sent me some quite disturbing photographs, but I'm having trouble getting them off my phone. Cheers Pete.

After the disappointment of last years Warehouse Project, because of the deficiencies of the sound system in such a large venue as Boddington's Brewery, this years Detroit themed night was eagerly awaited. With both Jeff Mills and Mike Banks on the same bill the night was promoted by the team at the Warehouse Project as something of a unique event, as well as allegedly being the last time that any of the UR personnel would go out under the name of " Interstellar Fugitives ".
This year the venue is an underground car park adjacent to Piccadilly station. The venue is smaller, with a much lower ceiling. The sound system is excellent with speakers all the way to the back and around both sides. The only problem is the inadequate number of toilets. At least twice as many are required, in my opinion.
Francois Kevorkian was about 20 mins into his set when I arrived and warming things up very nicely with a pretty eclectic set of techno, electro and some old school house thrown in for good measure.
After Kevorkian, Interstellar Fugitives took the stage dressed in black combat gear complete with bandannas and ski masks. Highlights of the set were " Final Frontier ",
" Moor Horsemen on Belarus Five ", " Crackzilla " and the new single " Kill Your Radio Station ". It was an energetic performance that was generally well received although a few people I spoke to complained about " this resistance shit " and asked me " what time is Jeff Mills on this is rubbish". For those who know for those who don't know. The lure of the big name DJ is still prevalent.
After having been introduced by UR as " the greatest DJ on the planet and the reason why we are all here " Mills appeared at 3am. He played a tightly controlled and programmed set which gradually built over two hours. In a word, quality.
Overall the Warehouse Project is much improved this year. Apart from the toilet facilities and the lack of a designated smoking area it was pretty much perfect. It is bizarre not to be able to smoke in a venue where amyl nitrate was on sale! Still a visit to Manchester is highly recommended.

And although this has been heavily blogged already, go out and buy this months Wire. resplendent with a Mad Mike interview.

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