20 Years of Planet E with Carl Craig - Ewer Street Car Park - London
A review for http://www.residentadvisor.net/
Pioneer, Innovator, Composer, Mogul of one of the most ground- breaking independent record labels of its genre - Planet E, these are just some of the terms used to describe Detroit born-and-raised Carl Craig, who was here in London to celebrate 20 years of his label, accompanied by fellow veteran Francois K, Radio Slave, Psycatron, Paul Woolford and many more to complete the line up. The event was to be held at Ewer Street car park, a vast space not dissimilar to the venue used for Manchester’s Warehouse Project, its high arched ceilings, graffiti splattered walls and uneven stone floors guaranteed to cause slightly inebriated party goers to stumble into the scattered puddles after one too many shandies.
The car park was busy well before midnight, perhaps due to publicised set times prior to the event, maybe as many punters had been warmed up nicely by Carl Craig’s impromptu set down at Soho’s Phonica records earlier that evening. As the crowd settled in, Francois Kevorkian, or Francois K as he is better known was playing noodley synth based electronica under Arch One, building up slowly to more solid 4/4 beats and peaking in the form of Hardfloor’s ‘Acperience 1’; a record that is almost as old as Planet E itself. Meanwhile in Arch Two, Psycatron was performing a live set and bashing out tech-house to an equally lively audience, most still dancing in their coats due to the cold night air.
As Carl Craig appeared on stage, Arch One was completely crammed with bodies which meant that any dancing was resigned to a limited on the spot shuffle. Starting off fairly tentatively, Craig’s signature spacey synths plodded on for some time before he stepped it up a gear, then deciding to aurally knock seven shades of the proverbial out of the crowd with 90 minutes of pure, unadulterated techno. Prime cuts from Craig’s vast back catalogue were selected, from his growling bass-heavy remix of Theo Parrish’s ‘Falling Up’ reverberating off the stone ceilings through to his reworking of Faze Action’s ‘In the Trees’. Once he threw in Inner City’s ‘Good Life,’ you could have chucked a grenade onto the dance floor and it was doubtful if anyone would have noticed. As the time came for Matt Edwards AKA Radio Slave to take over, the audience were well past the point of slowing down and were keen for him to hammer out large chunks of his relentless techno to the finish, to which he dutifully obliged.
Paul Woolford had meanwhile been in charge of Arch Two, followed by the relatively unheard of duo also known as ‘Sound As.’ Tripping into the second arch at such a late hour which was inhabited by a mere 20 or 30 people was a welcome relief from the crush of Arch One, and despite it being late and the area being nearly empty, the duo were on good form and it seemed almost a shame that their house tinged techno was wasted on so few people, some of whom were past the point of appreciating anything at this time of the morning.
So an epically busy party had rolled to an end; a celebration of techno from past, present and a hopeful nod to the future sound of today’s scene. Let’s hope that the good ship Planet E, captained by Carl Craig, steers on for another 20 years.
Photo by Resident Advisor
