Thursday night saw one of the first closings of the season, as Claude VonStroke's Dirtybird at Sankeys migrates for the Winter. For their final party, VonStroke and Justin Martin were joined by some of the biggest and best names that have played the party over the course of the season: Eats Everything, Catz ‘N Dogz, J Phlip and Leroy Peppers.
The night, which has had one of the island's giants ENTER. to contend with just round the corner, has been part of what is in fact a general Sankeys success story. Making it as a new night on an island with so many parties at a still relatively new club is no easy feat, but each week there has been a great vibe and last night saw people flocking down for one last dance.
What's great about seeing a DJ play at openings and then again at closings is you get to see how their sound and they in general have developed over the season. A perfect example of this is Eats Everything. His set was fantastic and his confidence has clearly grown a lot, developing a certain swagger that replaced the more humble modesty that I felt I saw at the start of the season. This has definitely been his summer, and it seems worlds away that we saw him at the IMS conferences at the beginning of the season. His signature almost futuristic sound reverberated through the speakers and through my feet, songs like The Withywood Walk really being done justice by Sankeys basement space and sound system.
For me, Justin Martin's set was outstanding. He played a huge collection of intricate rhythmical lesser-known tracks, along with great hits from this season including his remix of Rachel Row's Follow the Step, keeping the right balance between playing what he wanted to play and reading the crowd and keeping them happy. The floor went wild when he played The Gettup, his collaboration with Eats Everything, where hi-hats, claps, reverb and minor piano chords come together to create a really great funk. To my delight he also played a song I've been desperately trying to track down for the last fortnight, the Maetrik remix of TV Baby, New York Is Alright. The atmosphere was amazing and ‘very Sankeys'... Huge sounds in an intimate space, no gimmicks, just raw bass and some serious dancing.
Claude VonStroke rounded off the night and the floor was still packed with dedicated ravers. Everyone will have been glad they hung around til the end, as his set was definitely worth waiting for. His new track, suitably named The Clapping Track got a fitting round of applause and cheering from the crowd. This track is gaining huge support from other DJs, and with people like Dixon dropping it at DC10 and the reaction I saw from the crowd, there's no doubt it's going to be a huge one for this final month of partying.
As the night came to a close, we all fell out of Sankeys with our feathers well and truly ruffled by a wicked night. So there we have it - September's closing parties are already in full swing. And I can tell you with total confidence, if all closing parties are like this, you're in for a right tweet!
