[acid-jazz] Sub Rosa 02 Report

From: Jon Freer (jon-freer_at_excite.com)
Date: 2004-04-07 12:31:09

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    Jon Freer’s Live Reviews. Sub Rosa 02 - City Hall Ballroom, Bakers Pool, Sheffield. Friday 19th March 2004.

    The Real Story behind a 2nd ambitious attempt to expose Sheffield’s clubbing populace to all manner of musical treats in a single, sumptuous venue…

    Far-reaching in their musical outlook, Remedy’s founding father joined the mastermind behind the city’s deep-sea house escapades for another night of unbridled electronic passion. Offering Sheffield’s punters a few quirky live & DJing surprises alongside sets from local heroes, the promoters must be commended for their ambition. The historically steeped venue has witnessed its fair share of successful events in the past, including some genre defining soirees. However, using it as a space for clubbing today is a decidedly different affair. Today’s clubbers frequenting the city’s finer danceries are predominantly used to low ceilings and cosy intimate venues, not sprawling yet artistically pleasurable venues. Visually, all three rooms were stunning; courtesy of some understated yet wonderfully complimentary backdrops. However, in general, the atmosphere was kind of flat, more akin to that of a dreaded ‘superclub’, than that of a place celebrating the diversity of electro!
     nic music.

    The room that drew in the most bodies and had the finest atmosphere of the three was unsurprisingly the ‘Electric Chair Vs LDL’ room. Pitting ex-Sheffield resident and Manc based electrifying party pioneer Luke Unabomber against Sheffield soul brothers and current toasts of the city, Chris Lowlife & Raif, was a logical move. All three are quite similar DJs and friends, who have shared a DJ booth before. The trio rely on similar musical ammunition to get hips swinging; often preferring to drop tried and tested classics, as opposed to unknown future flavours. Similarly, they also prefer the emphasis to be on the records played, not the mixing. Many key records at the Chair have also found favour over the Pennines at Lights Down Low. Raif started proceedings, with a wholesome collection of Hipped up Soul and relaxed grooves, which included the Blackbeard rework of Talib Kweli’s positive “Get By”. Sensibly, Luke then followed, with a selection of discoid and soft House g!
     ems, including Max Sedgely’s beaming “Happy” and a cheeky housed re-edit of the Detroit Experiment’s invigorating “Think Twice”. Chris then picked up the tempo with a few unabashed House classics like Inner City’s joyful “Big Fun” and Joshua’s re-rub of Davina’s seductive “Come Over 2 My Place”. The tempo was then dropped later on and Raif wound things up.

    The ‘Sub Anything Lounge’ was predictably odd. The Lovers beguilingly appealing yet unsettling live set was accompanied by an amazing video display. Their sound was a mixture of quirky electronics meeting overtly tongue in cheek easy listening, an appealing and amusing novelty, which did get a bit much after a while! The supplementary video presentation may have taken five days to construct, but it was certainly worth it, and was easily the highlight of the room. DJ sets from I Monster DJs and Chris Duckenfield were a little too disconcerting and bizarre for most.

    The grandiose Ballroom and the centrepiece of the City Hall suffered from a distinct lack of punters. Optimo’s night may work on a Sunday in Scotland, but their set of electro kissed grooves didn’t really appeal in this environment. Continuing the soundsystem tradition, following on from a slightly stoned appearance by Roots Manua alongside Lord Gosh crew last time, Riton & Ben Rymer let their ‘Gucci Soundsytem’ out of the bag. Not nearly as successful as the clothing brand of the same name, their set was dominated by nasty electronics and ear-hurting beats.

    Theoretically this could have been an astounding night, but in practise things didn’t quite gel and parallels can be drawn to the previous Sub Rosa event at the City Hall. The distinct lack of a ‘huge’ name put some people off parting with their hard earned cash and making the effort to visit a venue that certainly has character. The City Hall is closing for a refit in May, so it’s unlikely that the promoters behind this night will try such another ambitious outing in the near future. I hope they do considering doing another large-scale event when it does eventually re-open, but only if they’ve learnt their lessons from Sub Rosa 01 & 02!

     

       

    Jon Freer(jon.freer_at_wrongsteps.com)
    reviewer and writer for the following
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    deephousenetwork.com, offitsface.com, Sandman mag,
    funk-me.com,
    Vanguard online, quadrastate.co.uk,
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    universalsource.co.uk,
    Inner Loop Magazine, housemuziq.com, undergroundhouse.net, worlddj.com,
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    Writer for:
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