Beloved party Cream's 21st was sure celebrated in style. Anthony Probyn eased us from midnight with prominent house tunes of the moment, Take Me Away by DJ S.K.T and Chris Lake's Chest. In the main room Pure NRG performed live with synthesisers and drum pads on the go, creating a seamless execution of escalating electro notes with jabs of old school rave breaks. The club appeared much more filled up after 1am, going to see Andrew Rayel saw you rubbing shoulders with those chanting along to the W&W remix of Zombie Nation's Kernkraft 400 as soon as you walked down the slope into the main room.
Our interests lay with Sasha however, reviving an old partnership to make a rare appearance on the terrace for Cream. With only one and a half hours to show off his stuff he didn't hold back and was certainly a smooth operator, casually slicing chunky drums with nifty springy sections. Sampling Seven Nation Army courtesy of remix work from Chris Liebing, as he mixed Alan Fitzpatrick's beastly U Said U, I had to turnaround halfway through leaving.
One last enticing rhythm was dropped and Eric Prydz took over, his entry getting a couple of people overexcited, trying to climb the booth causing security to be put to work. The beginning of his second appearance of the season saw him follow Sasha's lead, keeping the pace. Taking us on a building tangent to give us a moment to catch our breath, a gush of the ice cannon joining the eventual kick drum. The Cream logo now accompanied with dropped shards rippled with colour, lowered in a tier, taken up and down with the melodies. This was a birthday party of impressive graphics and multicoloured lightshows.
Flitting between rooms meant going from unassuming percussions, to Paul van Dyk with one hand on a midi, another twirling in air to the music. Delving into fast, pelting synth lines and whirring vocals, lasers catching you from every angle and trancey sing-a-longs all the way through. Back in the terrace, now in its lively element, tickling backbeats would catch you before washes of synthesisers from his recent release as Pryda, Rebel XX ensued. Giving himself little rest on the mixer he showed he was far from a one trick pony, lowering the tempo below 100 for a moment. The energy he was brewing was quite something, causing his headphones to fall off his head, for him to quickly grab them back.
The first huge climax (though it was to be topped later) came with a power-trio of hits, as Prydz mixed the vocals of Layo and Bushwacka's Love Story into his latest release, Opus. Opus is basically one, long, epic build up, and it had the crowd in sheer mayhem at the final release. Before those arpeggiating synth stabs had faded he was already weaving in Generate, the terrace crowd enjoying a passionate vocal chorus before dropping back into bassy depths. Surprisingly, the roughest and thorough bass lines techno has to offer were in abundance at Cream last night. Appreciation for Eric who continued to play an extra hour was indisputable, his remix of Personal Jesus caused arms to be stretched out, and the onset of his ancient house classic Pjanoo led to ten people climbing onto shoulders, the drop sending euphoria through the room. Cream's anniversary was sure seen in properly - Prydz's closing set a perfect example of the interplay between euphoric moments and grizzly power-drops that Cream has made its name on.
WORDS | Emma Gillett PHOTOGRAPHY | James Chapman
