Alex FromTokyo & Nickv at Betino's

Japanese classics warm up by Alex From Tokyo
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1:00-2:00 : Nickv part 1
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2:00-3:00 : Alex From Tokyo part 2
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3:00-4:00 : Nickv part 2
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4:00-5:00 : Alex From Tokyo part 3
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5:00-6:00 : Nickv & Alex From Tokyo Close Down the party
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After three years of trying to coordinate our agendas we at last finally managed to lock down a date for Alex From Tokyo at mona. Alex is quite a special person and you can definitely feel it in his djing : positive and generous with his energy, refined and open minded in taste, with his Japanese, French and New Yorkan influences all coming together in the mix. Our good friend DJ Deep lent us the very special DJR400 mixer and you might be able to hear it’s enhanced sonics in the recorded mix. The first part starts off with a Japanese classics warm up by Alex specially conceived for the dance class given by Marion FunkyGuapa (still over buoyant with energy despite being 5 months into pregnancy!), with Jazz, Hip Hop, Disco and House in the mix and on the dancefloor. Tracks of the night were the very excellent ‘Basement chord’ by Washerman on Drumpoet community, played twice and creating havoc on the floor and the classy ‘Waiting for a train’ by Flash and the pan, played right at the end of the night.

Future mona nights :

Saturday 26th May – Masters & Servants with Maxime Iko & Alex Katapult at Le Rouge Pigalle facebook event

Saturday 9th June – Back to Berlin with Alex Barck at La Java facebook event

Vogue ball : Nickv runway mix
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1:00-1:20 : Nickv part 1
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1:20-2:20 : Pal Joey part 1
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2:20-3:20 : Nickv part 2
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3:20-4:20 : Pal Joey part 2
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4:20-5:00 : Nickv part 3
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5:00-6:00 : closing the night down back to back Pal Joey, Yvan Le Bleu & Nickv (including Hot Music at the end)
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Depuis un an ou deux, dans les clubs, on remarque le retour de nombreuses mouvances issues des subcultures des 80 et 90s. D’abord il y a eu la déferlante 90s house, puis, plus récemment, le retour de la scène rave. Depuis quelques années, le voguing, danse popularisée au début des années 90 auprès du grand public par Malcolm McLaren, Thierry Mugler ou Madonna, fait sa réapparition en France timidement dans les rencontres de house dance ou sur les dancefloors de certains clubs. Cette danse, issue des communautés gay, noires ou latinos, de New York, a aujourd’hui traversé l’atlantique et tente de conquérir d’autres frontières, celles des préjugés ethniques, sociales et sexuelles. Le voguing, à l’origine dansé par des hommes gays, est aujourd’hui également pratiqué, minoritairement certes, par des femmes et voire même repris par des hommes hétéros. Preuve que la danse, comme la musique, n’a pas de frontières.

C’est dans ce contexte d’ouverture que nous avons choisi de faire un vogue ball (competition de voguing) à Mona. D’abord parce que Mona est une house party et que le voguing constitue l’un des piliers de la house culture des origines. Mais aussi parce que le voguing reste un courant de danse minoritaire, dansé par des minorités et à Mona on aime les minorités. Dès l’ouverture des portes une vingtaine de danseurs se sont exprimés devant le jury de Mona, pour concourir certes, mais aussi, au travers de leur danse, pour s’affirmer.

Un ball qui a projeté la soirée dans une autre dimension tant l’intensité était forte. Pour l’occasion j’étais accompagné d’un autre pilier de la house culture New Yorkaise, le DJ Pal Joey avec qui j’ai partagé les platines toute la nuit. Une occasion exceptionnelle de relier près de 25 ans de club culture dans une même bande son et rendre hommage à l’auteur de l’incroyable morceau, Soho ‘Hot Music’ qui a imprimé la mémoire collective des clubbeurs depuis 1989. Vous avez au-dessus les mixes de la soirée avec notamment sur la fin du dernier mix le fameux Hot Music. En premier vous trouverez le mix que j’ai fait pour le premier passage du vogue ball, just to get a feel of things!

Les photos de la soirée par Mathias Casado Castro pour Têtu ici.

Remerciements : Pal Joey, Yvan Le Bleu pour sa gentillesse et son mix back to back la dernière heure, Alice Hubert pour le masque ‘amazone’ premier prix, Killygrind pour le tshirt ‘screaming hand’ deuxième prix, Alex Mugler, Lasseindra Ninja, Stéphane Mizrahi, Vjuan Allure pour ses beats livrés en temps et en heure, Mathias Casado Castro, Etienne & Ka, Marion Funky Guapa, Fred de Mona, Carlos Torres, l’incroyable public de mona et bien sûr tous les danseurs pour leur engagement et leur énergie positive partagée.

Prochaines mona :

• samedi 12 mai – love for Japan avec Alex from Tokyo à la Java : facebook event
• samedi 26 mai – masters & servants avec Maxime Iko & Alex Katapult au Rouge Pigalle facebook event

23:30-0:30 : DJ Z 303909 warm up mix

0:30-1:30 : Nickv part 1
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1:30-3:30 : DJ Per from Amsterdam
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3:30-4:30 : DJ Rork
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4:30-5:30 : Nickv part 2 – rave classics party mix
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5:30-6:15 : closing the night down back to back DJ Z 303909, Rork & Nickv
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The spirit of 90s dance music is everywhere right now. You can hear the vibe of New Jersey deep house, UK junglists and warehouse raves in today’s production. What a great feeling for those who were around at the time. Despite massive government pressure, France had a small but lively rave scene throughout the 90′s. It’s origins can be retraced to a factory built on the outskirts of Paris called Mozinor (Montreuil Zone Industriel Nord). Of course this wasn’t the only place from which the French rave scene took it’s source, but it’s fascinating architectural design, much akin to today’s techno and house haven in Berlin, Berghain, gave the venue somewhat cult status. Hosting major raves during the early 90′s, Mozinor certainly lived up to it’s reputation back in the day, so much so that the idea of a revival became more and more irresistible. One facebook group and a mix competition later, and the scene was set for a Mozinor rave special at mona with original rave DJ Per from Amsterdam, regularly billed in Paris back in 1992-93, and DJs Rork & DJZ 303 909, both joint winners of the mozinor mi amor mix competition. You can hear the whole night recorded live here, including the usual crowd noises and screams and excellent DJ sets from all, spanning the pre 1994 period. Needless to say this was another full house at mona with many of the original rave heads bringing smiles to the dancefloor. In today’s consumerist and increasingly individualist world it’s refreshing to see that the open minded, free and sharing spirit of original underground rave culture is still alive. The Mozinor mi Amor crew held their first large scale event a week later with another full house turn out and a full power rave from start to finish. Catch them here to stay in touch for future events … it’s all about one Nation under a groove!

Next mona gig : mona is burning – Sat 14th April 2012 – vogue ball w/ Pal Joey (NYC)

Photo by David Volants

Little Dragon – Nightlight – Peacefrog records

Wow these guys have really hit the spot this year. I saw them live at Café de la Danse in Paris in April 2011 and Yukimi the singer absolutely rocks such great energy and a wicked voice. There are so many little dragon tracks to choose from, but I really like this moody one that has actually been used by FIFA this year. Combining pop, electro, house music, funk … anything Little Dragon does gets me excited. Definitely on the look out for more of this in 2012!

Lunice – Fancy Forty – Lucky Me

First heard this being played by DJ Jase Nguyen during his Paris dj set at Favela Chic. I love the bounce in the beats, the synth behind and the vocal clips. Definitely a track I’ve played in a number of my sets since. Jase is Vietnam’s number one dj, if you go to Saigon, seek him out.

Jesse Boykins III – B4 the Night is Thru – Alala records

My good friend and dj partner da’vince introduced me to this track via a facebook post and I got hold of it on 7″ at Betino’s Record Shop early this year in Paris. Great production from Machine Drum and wicked vocals from the young singer that I was able to witness live later in 2011 thanks to the boys at Free Your Funk. Definitely a talent to watch for this year and I await any of his new material with eager!

Alex Agore – I Got Something – Development music

90s deep house has become quite a big phenomenon this year thanks to people like Jeremy Underground Paris and his amazing My Love is Underground imprint, Chris Thomas at Qalomota and a host of young and talented producers : Inner Sense, DJ Steaw, Brawther, Lemy Leopard, Kool Vibe, James Johnston and … Alex Agore. This track was actually released just after the new year but it definitely represents this scene that is bursting with energy today. Alex has made an epic number that reminds me of early Barbara Tucker on Strictly, needless to say that is has been pumped out at mona quite a few times already!

Ramadanman – Don’t Change for me – Hessle Audio

Another big big big comeback scene for me is the 90s hardcore pre drum and bass vibe that is definitely a massive influence for the dubstep producers of today. Ramadanman captures this vibe brillantly here with this amazing track full of energy and deepness. I’m really enjoying the material that is being produced by people like Ramadanman, Joy Orbison, VIVEK, SBTRKT … really crossing the tracks from dubstep into house music with input coming from the 90s drum and bass and rave scene. Great stuff !

Lone – Approaching Rainbow – R&S records

The third 90s revival that is coming back strong is the rave sound. Here Lone renders a superb house piece that would be the perfect sunrise sound track, with lush chord stabs and intricate latin influenced house beats. This man brings back the best of 808 state, A guy called Gerald, Baby Ford all at once on R&S records, such a perfect label to release on considering it’s history in the domain. Lone can do no wrong at the moment and I would love to have him come over and play at mona sometime.

Scuba – Feel it – Hot Flush

Yet more UK based production on the amazing Hot Flush label that champions the house – bass music cross over. This is a definite late night mona classic, bringing out that crucial warehouse vibe that can turn your club night into a strobe light driven rave. Definitely feeling it.

Dj Rum – Turiya – 2nd drop records

Again more 90s influences, and again coming out of London. I was always a big UK garage / 2step fan, a style that never caught on unfortunately in France. I used to sell garage records at DMC 10 years ago and djs loved them, there were no clubs and no scene for it though, such a shame! This piece is deep, I love the attention he gives to sound and the cinematic atmosphere that is created as the track unfolds. Don’t know much about this guy unfortunately.

Modeselektor – Berlin – Monkeytown records

Definitely a soulful number from the electronics of this Berlin crew that have been producing techno, hip hop and electro since 1996! Big up to Gilles Peterson for showing the way once again.

Rim & Kasa – Love me for real (Red Greg edit) – ZEDD records

My last guest at mona in 2011 was Red Greg one of the world’s deepest disco and boogie diggers. His compilation “under the influence” on Joey Negro’s ZEDD records, is a glimpse of the wonderful world of music that this man plays out as a dj in clubs. Here is one of his edits also on the compilation, a track on the verge of disco boogie and the punk funk sound à la tom tom club. A great discovery just like the majority of the songs Red Greg unearths for us.

23:30-02:30 : Fred de Mona, Carlos Torres, Alice Hubert, Groov’shakra, Julien Lebrun, Professor INC, Romain BNO, Jason Fist, DJ Skillful, DDDisques, Hugo Mendez, Fantomette, Nickv
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02:30-06:00 : Psycut, Adam Green, Emile Omar, Louis Heel, Greg Gauthier, Nickv, Cosmo Vitelli, DJ André, Mandel Turner, Nickv
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Six and a half hours of mona’s 4th anniversary mix in two parts, featuring 20 djs, a vogue / house dance class with Marion Funky Guapa, a tribute to Whitney Houston who sadly passed away during the night, a CD player switch off (apologies to Jason Fist for cutting short his very own excellent Jomanda fist fusion edit) and some of the best dance music of the moment spanning jazzfunk to house, UK garage to the deepest dubstep, disco to nu disco. Many thanks to each one of the djs for supporting mona, Big up to la Java and to all the mona team (Fred, Carlos, Arnaud, Guss, Bouchra, Naoielle, Amel, Dam’alek) for their dedication and for making this possible every month over the past 4 years. Massive thanks to the mona crowd who come down regularly and make this such a special night. It’s all about the people.

Video clip by Arnaud Bergin – video and light jockey for Mona

23:30-01:00 : Louis Heel warms up mona and the dance class
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01:00-02:00 : Nickv set 1
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02:00-03:00 : Red Greg set 1
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03:00-04:00 : Nickv set 2
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04:00-05:00 : Red Greg set 2
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05:00-06:00 : Red Greg & Nickv closing the night down
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Firstly my warmest wishes to all for this new year that has just begun. Remember to stay open as our world changes everyday. Talking of change we decided to move things around music wise for the final mona night of the year, just a few days before xmas. We’ve been hosting some serious house nights since the start of the year and it was time to put a little disco, funk and boogie into mona, after all it’s where it all started isn’t it ? Our guest of choice simply had to be Red Greg who has already played for us, summer 2009, back in the days when we never revealed the identity of our guests. It had been such a great night with one of the most impressive disco funk sets I’d ever heard, that we were definitely open to having him back at mona for a disco rewind. It’s always quite a task to follow up on a great one-night reputation, but this time Red Greg delivered once again, playing some of the rarest discofunk gems alongside proven classics and some of his own personnal edits that were released via his ‘under the influence’ compilation recently out on Z records. His mixing skills are spot on as you may hear on the mixes. To top up the bill we asked his ebonite disco partner Louis Heel to warm up the party, and to make things really vintage we decided on a vinyl only night. You might hear a few crackles, skips and approximate mixes from time to time (speaking for myself only) but hey it’s the magic of a live set ain’t it ? Oh and everyone was to dress gold, at least partly. It’s always great when you get your crowd involved in the make up of a night, so good for the collective vibe and atmosphere. Last but not least many thanks to Karl Kane Wung who came down to teach the hottest disco and hustle moves on the dancefloor. Gold all the way!

23:30-01:30 : Warming up la Bellevilloise
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I was asked by Parisian promoters, La Raphinerie, to open one of their nights last month at La Bellevilloise in the north east of Paris. La Bellevilloise has quite a young and cool open minded crowd, mainly into what you could call today’s soul music which includes many forms ranging from classic soul to electronic boogie, from hiphop legends to today’s producers that mix live MPC acts, MCing and DJing. A good opportunity for me to mix the soulful beats I’ve acquired of late alongside some of my classics. On the bill after me were Quantic and Mark de Clive Lowe playing his live show of jacking house and broken beats. Two wicked sets and a good night out indeed. My set starts with nusoul, hiphop beats rolling into broken beat territory and in and out of deeper shades of dubstep. Enjoy the music, turn up the system, dance and share vibes!

Tracklist :

The Anders Hjelmstad Experience – Mystic Brew
Rime – Smoke And Regret
Chris Turner – Liquid Love
Jon Phonics – The One
Lunice – Fancy Forty
Modeselektor – Berlin feat. Miss Platnum
DJ Jazzy Jeff & Ayah – One Life ft Tona
Visioneers – Rollin’ For The Ride
Omar – Gimme sum
Jill Scott – Lovely Day
Surra – Parousia
At Jazz – Wind and sea
Shokazulu – Part 4
Soulparlor – Is It You
Souled – Waiting (Instrumental)
Inverse Cinematics – Detroit Jazzin
Joe – Rut
Dam Funk – Galactic Fun
DJ Rum - Turiya
Falty DL -Phreqaflex
BB Boogie – Tell Him Again (Bugz In The Attic Remix)
Omar – Dancing featuring Zed Bias
Little Dragon – Brush The Heat
Didz & Chico -Something New
Dam Funk – Hood Pass Intact (feat MC Eiht)
Seiji – I Can’t Let it Go
Pal Joey - Hot Music
Jimpster – Left And Right (Ron Basejam Remix)

23:30-00:30 : Rainer Trueby playing for the jazzfunk dance class
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00:30-01:30 : Nickv
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01:30-02:30 : Rainer Trueby
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02:30-03:30 : Nickv
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03:30-04:30 : Rainer Trueby
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04:30-05:45 : Rainer Trueby & Nickv closing the night down
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German djs have been extremely popular with the mona crowd of late and after Phonique and Andre Lodemann from Berlin, I had the extreme privilege of playing alongside world famous jazz collector and dj, Rainer Trueby from Freiburg. To mark the occasion we had a jazz funk / jazz rock (jazz rock is the french equivalent to the UK jazz dance scene) dance class at the start of the night with a lesson from one of the pioneers of French jazz rock dancing, Alex Benth founder of legendary crew “Jeu de Jambes”. Rainer was kind enough to grace us with an hour’s set of jazz fusion, combining latin, funk and jazz of course, especially for the dancers.

Today Rainer plays not only jazz but a great mix of soulful and deep electronic music, a sound championned by labels such as compost, drumpoet community, mojuba or innervisions, coming out of Germany over the recent years and strongly influencing the new wave of enthusiasm that house music is currently enjoying today. You can definitely hear this in his later sets at mona. Rainer also produces great pieces of house music himself, alongside Danilo of Motorcity Drum Ensemble on Compost Black (listen & check) and you can hear their tracks at the end of his second set.

I really had fun playing that night. We combined the old with new, the New York scene with the Berlin sound, the New Jersey Garage divas with UK deep bass music, disco into house into jazz into dubstep. I hope you enjoy the mixes and once again maximum respect to the mona crowd who gave us all that crazy energy that we were able to give back. I love them!

Next mona :

Saturday 17th december 2011 – Golden xmas disco boogie – w/ Red Greg (Ebonite – London) & Louis Heel (Ebonite – London / Paris) – Disco, funk, soul & vinyl only – Dress up in gold ! – event on facebook – party at La Java Paris

Photography by David Volants

02:00-02:30 : Nickv
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02:30-03:30 : Greg Gauthier
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03:30-04:30 : Andre
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04:30-05:00 : Nickv
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05:00-06:00 : Nickv Andre & Greg Gauthier all together
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Voilà un bon moment que l’on voulait inviter Greg Gauthier et DJ André deux pionniers Parisiens du Garage House sound. A eux deux ils ont fortement contribué à la diffusion de cette musique énergique et spirituelle au groove profond directement issue de la bande son disco des clubs gays et noirs du New York des 70s. Aux côtés d’une poignée d’autres djs, ils ont tenu les clés des principales soirées de la capitale durant les 90s : Cheers depuis 1994, les GTD (Gay Tea Dance) du Palace les dimanches après midi et surtout les mythiques afters Kit Kat au Privilège (quasi sous le Palace) avec ses colonnes couvertes de mosaïque et son booth perché tout en haut sur la gauche et parfois barricadé par une rangée de sièges empilés pour un dérangement minimum du dj. C’étaient des temples du garage house sound et on y dansait jusqu’au dimanche soir, voire le lundi matin, sur ce son importé directement de New York. C’était aussi le reflet de toute une culture nocturne avec ses looks, codes et personnages parfois marginaux mais toujours festifs : travestis dealers, gogo boys, call girls et d’innombrables fêtards toujours en quête de sensations. Les djs n’étaient pas eu centre de l’attention, la musique et la faune si.

Plus de 15 ans plus tard le public a changé bien sûr, mais on aime encore et je n’ai jamais arrêté de jouer ce son. Il était temps pour Mona de rendre hommage à la Garage et de laisser une place d’honneur à ces deux djs que l’on remercie du fond du coeur.

PS : ce mix commence en plein milieu de la soirée … I don’t know what happened!

Next mona : samedi 12 novembre “from Jazz to Techno” avec Rainer Trüby à La Java – facebook event – places offertes si vous arrivez à identifier le premier track du Set de Greg Gauthier (easy!!!)

23:00-01:00 : Andre Lodemann dance class warm up

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01:00-02:00 : Nickv

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02:00-03:00 : Andre Lodemann

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03:00-04:00 : Nickv

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04:00-05:00 : Andre Lodemann & 05:00-06:00 Nickv & Andre Lodemann close down

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If you come to Mona regularly you will know that we like to keep our djs deep. From Parisian house masters My Love is Underground to Detroit heads like Alton Miller or Terrence Parker, it’s all about covering the spectrum of deep house music. For the past two years, in my house sets, I have been playing quite a few tracks from Andre Lodemann out of Berlin who has developed a unique, hypnotic style of production, combining deeper sounds with strong electronic beats. Thus representing a very modern interpretation of the deep house sound. This is my favourite track of his – also a mona peaktime classic.

Not all producers are good djs though, and the art of mixing the beats and creating an atmosphere on the dancefloor is always number one criteria on the list when it comes down to choosing our guest djs. However when I found out that Andre had been djing for over 18 years in Berlin in clubs like the Watergate or Panorama bar on those very special Sunday afternoons, I was instantly persuaded to invite him over to play at Mona.

We chose to bill him for the first party of the new 2011-12 season at La Java (saturday 17th Sept 2011) and he definitely delivered. Not only was his music (mixing and selection) spot on, he also has great energy to share with the crowd. This is very important. After his sets Andre could be found getting down on the dancefloor alongside the crowd, spreading that same energy he was sharing behind the turntables. This is not something that happens each time and something to learn from. Nights are not only about the music that is being played, but also, and maybe more importantly, about the vibe in the room and on the dancefloor, and djs have a lot to do with that.

The night turned into a great party with a mixed crowd of dancers and party heads staying through till the end. Many thanks also to Damalek too for her excellent “jacking” house dance class at the beginning of the night. Such a perfect start to the new season !

Next mona night Saturday 15^th October with Greg Gautier, DJ André & myself for a garage (US & UK) special.

Photo by David Volants