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2006/02: LS2 Magazine: Patrick McLintock
Cee-quence Acid
In the name of investigative journalism Patrick McLintock headed over to Manchester to check out Sequence’s 2nd Birthday shenanigans.
Entertainment at birthday parties is a notoriously shady area. For all that we were pleasantly shit-faced on fluorescent squash-additives at the time, every one of us toils to suppress traumatic yet formative memories of ham-fisted clowns buggering up piss-easy balloon tricks and the resulting anti-climax and despair of a rubbish pass-the-parcel prize. However, in the transition to adulthood we also have lost some of the good things about such parties; the opportunity to get over-excited to the point of tears, and then to kick and pull the hair of others.
Despite this, as adults we can legitimately demand better birthday parties, the sort that have barbequed foodstuffs and cider-ruined relatives telling jokes, possibly about a man who inadvertently sees a nun’s tits or something equally riotous. Anyway, to mark its second year in this world, Manchester monthly Sequence planned to better even this with an array of entertainers from all corners of the sonic cosmos. Joining forces with the AShockingHobby posse, Sequence were able to boast an impressive 12 acts over two rooms and six hours of weird and wonderful music. Radio One’s Breezeblock was sufficiently impressed with the line-up to record the whole shebang for future broadcast.
Taking a place in the queue behind some of the Ceephax entourage, Leeds Student soon made its way in two the downstairs room hosted by AShockingHobby. With Planet Mu’s Dubstep hotshots Vex’d topping the bill we were ready for some seriously low frequencies, and were not to be disappointed. The downstairs, aka The Thirsty Scholar (a sweaty, low-ceilinged pub) made a surprisingly good venue for the pre-Vex’d grime-heavy selections which dominated the early period of the night.
Grime/dubstep/whatever-you-call-it is seemingly as popular in Manchester as it is on this side of Pennines with the downstairs dancefloor responding to tune-after-tune of brutal, moody sub-bass action. However, if downstairs was all a bit too cold and clinical for you, the Sequence room upstairs promised a host of talent from Rephlex and elsewhere. A trip up the stairs led to The Attic, which is definitely more ‘club’ than ‘pub’. Despite a relatively early slot, Cylob (who many of you will remember tearing-up Room 237’s ‘Wrong Music’ night at The Northern Light in October) brought his reliably chaotic mash-up style to the night. The dark and intimate Attic was a perfect setting for one of his rave-heavy sets, which went down a treat.
Back downstairs the AShockingHobby room had switched musical styles with techno, electro and even hip-hop entering the mix. Leeds Student even caught a few snippets of MTV Base favourites and Twista cohorts The Kray Twins chucked in with gay abandon. However enjoying the eclecticism could only last so long as news spread of Ceephax Acid Krew’s imminent performance upstairs. Famed, and often unfairly dismissed for his frenetic and sometimes comedic take on electronic music, Ceephax is fast approaching the cult-status of his older brother Tom ‘Squarepusher’ Jenkinson.
Those lucky enough to catch Ceephax at The -no longer with us, hold those tears- Bassment will know of the acidic chaos he is capable of. However, in terms of lethal dancefloor killers, his Bassment set was nothing to compare with this Sequence performance. Often upping the Tempo to break-neck gabba speed, he worked through favourites like Acid Varsity as punters struggled for their space on the dancefloor. Occasionally releasing some trademark vocal outbursts over his twisted 303-work, Ceephax was clearly a major pull for this Manchester crowd.
Taking a break from the 4/4 absurdity upstairs provided a chance to catch Vex’d in AShockingHobby’s room, showcasing the kind of exclusive dubplates that us mere mortals face little prospect of laying our fingers upon. The appetite for all things Dubstep which had been so apparent earlier on in the night had remained with the downstairs crowd, with bodies jammed together from wall to wall of The Thirsty Scholar. Despite this, it seemed that a fitting way to end the night would be back with birthday boys Sequence and the resident Computer Controlled DJs. With Room 237’s all-nighters currently on hold, these guys are arguably the best residents in Northern climes for (dare I say it) ‘electronica’ related music.
The loyal Sequence crowd received this rowdy bunch as warmly as any of the Rephlex acts earlier on, and it was easy to see why. From absolutely murderous gabba to pirate-radio junglism these DJs know how to close a night whilst leaving everybody wanting more. Despite the inevitable sacrifices punters make when more than one artist is on at a time, missing acid Pioneer Mike Dred’s set in Leeds Student’s case, it had been as good a night as possible. As the lights went up, revealing tired but elated faces and sweat-drenched clothes it became clear that this was going to be one birthday party worth remembering.
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