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I felt unsure whilst headed to Fibbers on Friday night. The holidays had me settled into a routine of domestic bliss, exams week had taken its toll and the icy cold was stinging my will away. Why was I going to the club, of all places?
But the name Palms Trax had me on a mission, and no amount of snow or common sense would deter me. I mean, the man was squeezing York in before jetting off to Berlin, who was I to miss the night? The DJ spread himself between Panorama Bar in Berlin, Dekmantel festival, Bicep’s side and the rest of the globe over summer. You know, just like any other Kuda resident. The 12” follow-up to the 2014 Forever curated by none less than Lobster Theremin, entitled In Gold , produced some sampling brilliance, melting anything from funk to techno into deep basslines. His sets are equally if not more impressive in this capacity. A skill he has been able to literally blast through the speakers of his Berlin Community Radio show, Boiler Room and so on to the excited ears of thousands. He is also affiliated with Banoffee Pies, a personal favorite record label from Bristol.
In other words, the joined forces of Blackbox and Closed Circuit did an amazing job on the booking. The night itself was busier than I expected, but everyone was actually dancing and enjoying themselves so the whole thing felt more like a big party than a club. Except the music was about a million times better, obviously.
At the beginning we heard some relaxing yet upbeat house, warming us up to Palms Trax’s set was Blackbox’s Antwon. Then, of course, things went a bit crazy. “Wow this is really good,” I thought to myself and turned around to find that the guest act was doing his thing. The next two hours went by in the blink of any eye, and I found myself dancing to slow jams and techno tempos at the same time. Special notice to Alex T and Sam Jefferies, who took upon themselves the task of continuing the night, and pulled through with remarkable ease. I thought the crowd would be too tired, I thought the bar would be too high, but they just rode the wave Mr. Trax created until the end of the evening, playing one track each.
I left Fibbers content and surprised. It doesn’t happen often that house and techno keep the crowd going and interested for so long, at least not during the grimmest beginning of term York has seen so far. The collaboration brought us a night worth bracing the cold for.
