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Report
by
What
a night!!! Yeah Camden is a wicked
venue. Easy to get to, easy to get from
and top for both a mental bit of raving or
a chilled smoke. It's a place that is
accessible to a very wide and diverse
range of people which is cool.
The
crowd that night was like a dream come
true. I can't think of any type of person
that wouldn't have fitted in that night.
Can You Feel It succeeded in bringing
together the most up for it people from
both the Rave and Club scenes. That is a
really amazing thing - 11 years on and
Raindance still has the power to bring
together so many different people under
one roof.
Connie
played a really fresh, raw and
unpredictable set of early 90's Housey
Hardcore. The best old skool set I've
heard in a long while. Quite similar to
Rob Blake's sound, Connie relied more on
the strength than the familiarity of the
music. A great set which kept things live
and exciting without relying on anthems
for effect. Connie gets all my
respect.
Lukozade
was on top form on all counts. His wide
and varied playlist jumped from Old
Skool to New Hardcore right
though to Nu Skool yet always maintaining
that ruff edge without depending on
anthems too much. Not only did he have a
pretty wild playlist but he gave it a
really ruff ass mix too. Building
up the pressure with some seriously
funky cutting & scratching, dicing up
beats and some properly outstanding set
pieces, in particular THAT mix with 'Hip
Hop Phenomenon' and 'Far Out'. I thought
I'd heard it all but Luke gave it lock
stock, the fuckin works and a mix loaded
to the teeth with surprises.
Freestylers
played an interesting set. A fair bit of
their own material in there like the
wicked 'Back To
99'
and
'Now Is The Time' ,
but also did some serious damage with the
Plump DJs mix of JDS - '9
Ways' .
They went of on a bit of a Nu Step
direction with a few tracks but it was
still good fun breakbeat. Everyone form
clubbers to ravers was down with the
'Stylers and it showed just by how hard
everyone was rocking.
Ratpack's
set at the end went down a storm because
after a night which featured a lot of
new and for many previously unheard
material, a set of all the big choons
sounds all that bit sweeter. I mean
it was near enough the end of the night,
but The Ratpack on top of being able
to keep 1500 people dancing at 5 in the
morning, was also able to introduce them
to the new sounds of Stakka -'Humanoid'
2001 mixes
that went off like a nuke. Two top
gentlemen that know their music, know
their crowd and know exactly how to get a
party dangerously fired up.
Squirrel
played a sweet lil' half an hour at the
end which he kicked to everyone's surprise
with some tuff Nu Skool. After 8
hours of the UK finest breakbeat from the
past and present, the crowd still had it
in them for just one more. Respect
to each and every person.
The
event looked so damm good. The visuals
where superb right from the backdrops to
the scans right through to the 3
projection screens and lasers. There was
this one really cool moment during
Lukozade's set where the bomb sounds on 2
Bad Mice -' Bombscare' where accompanied
by some well effective footage of a
shuttle take off. The production on that
night really did add a huge extra
dimension to the 'Can You Feel It'
experience. And it was nice to see an
engineer at a rave that knows his game. No
distortion or even the slightest glitch,
just a nice clean 48K System which handled
the bass like a dream.
Security
deserve loads of respect too. Tight but
appropriate searches with metal detectors
and everything but nothing to take the
piss. They even kept an eye on everyone on
the inside and respected us skunk monkeys
which I like to see. I didn't see the
tiniest bit of attitude or even a harsh
word all night. A big credit to security
for such a professional job.
Respect
to the promoters for taking the risk and
going with the music, to the DJs for
keeping every set so different and fresh,
to MC
Ice
for his best performance to date, to
Lip
Master Mark,
Evenson
Allan,
Penfold
and Smart
E
for opening my eyes to a lot of things, to
everyone who loves the Hardcore vibe
and push to see that
continue...... But most of all a
shout to every clubber and raver and old
skooler and nu skooler and geek and rude
boy and northerner and southerner and all
those people that left all that at home
to come together under one
roof and appreciate the best dance
music to ever come from the UK, to all
those who made Can You Feel It one of the
best raves I've been to in
years.
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