17th October 2008 : Hospitality, Valve & Andy C @ Custard Factory

With such a stupid line up at the Custard Factory on Friday it was
bound to be heaving and the music was bound to be heavy. With the soul
shaking, ear drum destroying Valve sound system powering the pool,
Hospital records hosting the Med bar and Eardrum Dubstep in room 3
things really did go off.

I arrived shortly after the doors opened at 10:30 to avoid any
ridiculous queuing and chilled in the Kitchen for an hour or so until
Dillinja was on in the pool at 11. As 11 o’clock came there was still
plenty of room in the pool for some stupid skanking and this is what
proceeded. Dillinja came with the bangers, plenty of familiar tunes
and couple of new surprises in there as well, Shining a strong
favourite for me!

Midnight brought “the executioner” Andy C, renowned as the best drum n
bass DJ for his unbelievable ability to mix, he was down for a two
hour set with partner in crime MC GQ> Personally I’ve lost a bit of
faith in Andy over the past year finding his two hour sets a little
boring, obviously they still have that amazing mixing but his
selection just seems to be letting him down and the same old tunes and
same old Ram classics just seem to be coming out the bag.. the crowd
thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it though. Don’t get me wrong there
were some highlights including Logistics - Together and Chase & Status
- Smash TV but other than that nothing remarkable.

After than dipping into the Med Bar to catch a bit of Nu Tone, playing
a little differently to the normal Hospital stuff, including some
disgusting Dubstep-esq tune??

Hopped over to the Kitchen to catch Jason X’s debut set, a purely cdj
set raised my eye brows at least, but he did well dropping some
serious bangers and kept the room bubbling. The next few hours were
really a wait for Plastician at four. Time passed slowly with Lemon D
on the Valve doing nothing special followed by Bryan G who decided to
bring UNCZ to the party which was definitely not a good look.

After chilling with Blaise, Grace and JP inside for a bit, 4 o’clock
came and went. Finally at 4:30 Plastician stepped up and absolutely
smashed through the next hour, working through all the familiar hits
from his Rinse show only 10x’s better live and with the added support
of SP:MC. Tune after Tune I skanked so hard to Jakes/Joker - 3k Lane,
Nero - This Way and plenty of others until Plastician finally brought
the curtain down with Japan and Intensive Snare. By then the vocal
support had switched to Stamina MC now and the “are you stupid in the
face” lyruc echoed around the arena a MASSIVE MASSIVE set from
Plastician.

My night was done, I’d seen everyone I wanted to see so we jammed for
a bit with Emile in the kitchen then headed home, Another huge night
from Broken Minds and Breakthru.

Words By Witts (bntl.co.uk)

Photos By Alina Ha

9th August 2008 Ultra+ with Dan Ghenacia & Deepchild (live)

It had been a wet week in August, and everyone on the street looks depressed. Maybe things will dry up for Saturday, and we can break out the BBQ, crack open a can and try to recoup some of our lost summer with a night of fun at the Custard Factory?

However the rain was relentless, and even the thought of going outside to get such essentials as bread and bog roll seemed like things we could put off forever. What is it with British weather, or more to the point, what is it with our hope that it’s going to ever turn out nice?

Thank goodness then, that Ultra+ teamed up with Bristol based Empathy on the 9th August to battle through the dismal rain and bring some super summer vibes to the Custard Factory.

Once again Ultra+ transformed the rather dull interior of the Factory club into and an all singing all dancing light and laser show, with sparkled silver drapes running down the length either side. The center piece being the now trade mark appearance of Shiela and her now over protective boyfriend hanging from the ceiling - who watch over ravers, rather like cupid gone wrong.

Ultra+ regulars Steve Carter, Tanner Jarvis and Ben Nott did a great job of warming up the crowd in the main room, building up some great energy. By the time Ben span his last track and unplugged his headphones, the crowd were eager for headliner, Parisian king of techno, Dan Ghenacia to take to the decks and take them off into a world of luscious minimal techno.

Unfortunately things never really kicked off for Dan Ghenacia, and the crowd, now feeling rather frustrated, went in search of something else they could splurge their hours of built up groove all over. By the time Deepchild plugged in his array of exciting midi controllers and flashing boxes, there was not much left for him to impress - which is a shame, because I really do think he has a lot to offer.

Thankfully the people from Empathy were not going to let anyone down, and the outside pool mezzanine area soon became the focus point of the night. Hidden through banks of thick thick smoke, was a great lump of people dancing to the sounds of Empathy’s residents, with Jim Rivers and Stuart Wilkinson both providing top quality sets.

Some respect should be given to all the people who braved the rain and got their legs down on the night. The weather did put a bit of a dampener on an otherwise faultless night.

Ultra+ is returning to the Factory in October, so keep ‘em peeled!

Words / Photography Tom Horton

Like what it says on the tin really - another fantastic night put on by the guys at Ultra+. James Zambiela is a bit of a wizard on the decks, and Ultra+ had the bright idea of hooking up a  camera and projecting it on a nice big screen so everyone could see what was going on. One of the most excited crowds I’ve seen at the Factory for a while. There seemed to be an unusually high number of complete nutters (good nutters, not punch your face in nutters), making up an awful lot of high energy in the main room. Something in the water perhaps? I think the photos speak for themselves really. Someone made off with Shiela the Ultra+ mascot, a life size blow up doll of dubious origin who looks down upon the party goes from the rafters. Anyone with knowledge of her whereabouts is urged to keep it to themselves.

10th May 2008 || Spectrum presents DJ YODA`s Magic Cinema Show which combines visuals and music!

Super hot weather combined with a tragic warm up Dj playing a hellish assortment of R&B and Speed Garage (WTF???) resulted in the night starting off with practically everybody outside of the medbar sitting around the pool. Infact there was hardly any surface not covered by groups of people chatting, wearing shorts, and generally not dancing or getting involved in the night. It was more like an afternoon in the park playing Frisbee than a night of aural goodness.

Luckily the night cooled down a bit, and the offending Dj was booted off the decks accompanied by a small cheer. Tentatively, people started to migrate into the medbar, where some decent music had been started up.

Dj Yoda was met with a somewhat hesitant audience - some people had bought some Magic Cinema Show popcorn from a stand and were munching on it expectantly, others looked on at the popcorn munchers wondering wherever they should be eating popcorn too, or wherever they should be sitting down and worrying about the tall person in front. Some looked as if they were still trying to get over the Speed Garage, and many had clearly been in the sun too long.

I guess people just didn’t know what to expect from a live visual and audio show. I remember seeing Yoda at the med bar a few years back, and it was rammed full of static people staring at the screens for an hour or so, you couldn’t really move, and you wouldn’t want to dance in case someone turned round and said “excuse me could you not do that, I’m trying to watch the show!”.

This time around was completely different, aside from being able to move (It was still incredibly warm inside, and only the brave ventured up onto the stage), the show had plenty of opportunities to have a good ‘ole boogie without worrying too much about what was happening on any of the three huge projection screens. Dj Yoda has got this performance down pretty tight, and the latest show is whole new experience with fresh new material. Certainly not bad when you consider hes just one guy up there doing everything, when comparable acts such as ColdCut have a whole multitude of peeps and at least a thousand laptops, gixmos and gadgets interconnected by ten miles of cables.

I didn’t stay around for Atomic Hooligan, but I have it on very good assurance that he was bloody ace, and theres a pic of Pete Jordan poking him in the ear to prove it. See Below::

Words/ Pics Tom Horton

Part of the Weekend Never Dies…Soulwax, 2 Many Djs @ Space 2 - Custard Factory Warehouse

The custard factory complex was completely opened up for this spectacular event, with Soulwax and 2ManyDjs headlining in the massive Space2 (Custard Factory Warehouse). Those lucky enough to get hold of one of the limited golden tickets were invited to a special screening of Part of Part of the Weekend Never Dies which was filmed on tour with Soulwax and was directed by Saam Farahmand and Soulwax themselves. The behind the scenes documentary was an insight into the tour and featured well known bands and dj’s as well as awesome music throughout.

Space 2 works really well as a large capacity venue, the stage is huge and incorporates an array of professional lighting rigs and a vibrant sound system that works well within the space. Despite being a warehouse, it’s very well catered for, with 2 well stocked bars, toilets, and a large smoking area at the rear under the railway arches. You get the professional looks, acoustics and feeling of being in a dedicated live music venue, combined with the underground and social feeling of being in a warehouse rave.

Both Soulwax and the 2ManyDjs set were very well received by the crowd. Space 2 got pretty full, but not overly packed, with only one or two stray elbows and drops of drink managing to find their way into me. When Space2 closed at 4am with the lights coming on and the familiar noise of bottle being swept about replacing the grooves, the party continued in the Medicine Bar and The Kitchen, although I only looked in briefly as I wandered off to find myself a taxi home. I heard rumours that it went on till 8am, but how many people lasted that long I’ve no idea.

Words & Photos : Tom Horton, more photos at thoshorton.co.uk