• Drumcode 15th birthday


  • Adam Beyer’s Drumcode label celebrated 15 years with a Halloween birthday party at London’s Great Suffolk Street Warehouse on Saturday, October 29th. Sets from the label’s roster including Joesph Capriati, Paul Ritch, Alan Fitzpatrick, Patrick Siech and Beyer himself were given a visual boost with the final appearance of Beyer’s Maze show before it goes on a global tour next year.

    After last year’s vibrant Drumcode party saw Beyer and Chris Liebing get the crowds worked up to their techno stylings, this year’s return for Beyer was much-hyped thanks to the presence of his Maze visuals. Perhaps best described as creating the effect of looking down a tunnel at the DJ with a projector creating all manner of shapes and movements in time with the music, the potential of the project did not seem quite realised yet as it was a little lost at the end of the long arches of Great Suffolk Street Warehouse. Until you got very close to the structure at the end of the arch, it looked good though the need to have no other lighting meant it took away some of the atmosphere at the back of a packed dancefloor, though no one was complaining that much.

    Ritch’s live set was pumping up the crowd on arrival rounded off with a remix of Fatboy Slim’s “Star 69” ahead of Beyer’s twisting techno that start off hard and got progressively more minimal while keeping a lively spirit. Throughout the Maze “tunnel” visuals wove a web of shapes and images to excellent effect up close, though there were a few times the Maze seemed to repeat itself: Beyer needs to get more varied designs done ahead of his shows next year and perhaps make it bigger, but the blueprint is there (check out the pictures!). Joesph Capriati stepped up after Beyer with his bass on/bass off style keeping the ghouls and ghosts up until early morning and proving he’s one to watch.

    In the second room Drumcode imprint Truesoul hosted sets from Ida Engberg, Joel Mull and Alexi Delano, though I never made it into that arch such was the quality techno in the main room – from the vibrations heard en route to the outside chill area, it sounded just as fun.

    Photography by Freya van Lessen.

by Mike Barnard

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