WHP – TEED – A Reflection

 
Art & Culture

I don't like crowds, never have. Really I don't…  dancing and all that came in its wake changed that for me though… it made crowds of people bearable for a few obvious reasons.

I don't even really like people either. You could argue, why the hell are you doing what you do then… which is a fair point. 
The one thing I do like is dark rooms with lots of lasers and people enjoying dancing to music that blows their mind which is what happened last weekend.

Excerpts from a Skype chat….
W I don't like big crowds of people, they make me feel uncomfortable but I think what they're doing up there is amazing.
Yeah.  They have this ability to attract gig-sized crowds but when you're watching the performers, it still feels like you're in a club.

Last Friday was our third visit to the Victoria Warehouse and the newly upgraded Warehouse Project this year and as line-ups go sat as squarely in this humble R$N scribes zone of 'yes please, I'd happily spend a whole evening having my ears pummeled by aural delights".
It was a pretty brave line up too, given the size of Victoria Warehouse's weekly mini-festival sized new home.

The last time we saw everyone's (well ours) favourite Mexican and Comeme head Matias Aguayo was in an old working men's club in Berlin earlier in the year. And it'll remain the last time we did…  To have seen Mr Aguayo vocal prowess on a main stage such as WHP's main room would've been an experience to behold. Unfortunately a combination of hernia inducing

Fin, one of our albums of the year by a Mr John Talabot translates incredibly on a live setting as we've had the pleasure of witnessing on a number of occasions this year already. As a DJ Mr Talabot is a different kettle of musical fish entirely. More dubby disco is evident in his sound and it's rather a nice intro into the full night's proceedings. Nipping next door into WHP's ace Berghain-esque room 2 we catch a quick bit of Dan Avery's increasingly vital musical blueprint. His star is definitely rising… 

Cohort came for one thing and one thing only and that is TEED or Totally Extinct Enormous Dinosaurs to extend the name. If I'm honest I've never been a huge, huge fan of his tho I fully appreciate the way he crafts a record. I blame on it on… well I blame it on just being me. His live proposition is something else entirely. Over-stated flamboyance, dragon dancers and a lot of confetti falling from the sky. He plays the hits, everyone loves it and I'm left eating my words as we walk away saying how great he is. 

It's testament to Mr TEED that he's assembled a line-up of such diversity and that it all works in situ too. Mr Carter, yes he of the Derrick, Chicago and boompty boomp variety steps up as TEED leaves the stage and proceeds to hammer the ass out of the main room. He's one of those DJs – a DJs DJ if you like – that transcends 'scenes' and pretty much fits in wherever you drop him. Winning over everyone in his path.

From the middle of the crowd in the middle of Mr Carter's set "It's like an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm. From the beginning you can predict exactly where it's going to go, but it's class."  

It's hard to leave a floor when he's playing but we steal our way to catch a bit of 2 Bears in the second room again who's quickly followed by for us, the highlight of the evening and pretty much the best producer and DJ around at the moment, a Mr Todd Terje.  Mr Terrry-eh… is one of those people you just can't help being positive about with everything he does. He's made countless incredible, actual 're-edits', transforming the originals into new pieces of dancefloor gold entirely and made the last two records of the year in the form of Ragysh and this year's Inspector Norse. Plus he's a supremely great DJ to boot… an all-rounder if you like. Bubbling along just under the surface of the mainstream 'DJ circuit' he's pop without being too pop and at times slowed down dancefloor gold all night. 
Popping in to catch Factory Floor live – the only strange bit of programming of the night, in our humble opinion we'd have put them on first in the main room – we're drawn back into numero dos room for the fitting finale with Mr Terje dropping his now signature anthem and aforementioned Inspector Norse… seems rude to post it here for reminiscing's (not a word) sake:  

All round, a musically flawless evening and one of the best nights out we've had all year… 

If you've not made the journey up for WHP, we'd recommend you rectify this fothwith.

Have a look what's coming up before the end of the season including the rather large closing party line-up on NYD just announced here.

W