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Bedrock: Reviewed Reported by toxic / Submitted 28-04-08 12:55 Bedrock is something of a London institution having started way back in 1999 - the days when trance was bigger than Jesus and the kind of progressive trance peddled by the likes of Sasha, Digweed, Warren and Dave Seaman provided a deeper, richer alternative to the soaring synths and female vocals that were so prevalent in those heady days. Starting off as a monthly event Bedrock rammed out Heaven with 2,000 clubbers every time it was on, this was all the more incredible considering the event has always been held on Thursday night. As the years have passed the night’s frequency has reduced to just one party a year – Easter Thursday, the night of the year that has probably seen more memorable Bedrock parties than any other no doubt due to the no work factor the following day. Lately, speculation has been rife over whether Heaven is going to be taken over by the G.A.Y and run exclusively as a gay venue. Regardless of what the future plans are this year’s party was not affected by the rumoured changes and the Bedrock Easter special was due to take place at this venerable venue as usual. I arrived at 11:30 to see a queue stretching out from the arches up Embankment and past the Ha Ha! Bar – not quite the length of the queues I used to experience back in 2000 (when they regularly reached Charing Cross station) but still a good sign of a very busy club ahead. This was confirmed when I entered the club and it dawned on me just how busy it was! The main room line up of Eric Prydz and John Digweed had justifiably attracted people in their droves and it was clear that the night was a sell out. Surprisingly, Digweed was already playing when I got into the club, I later found out he was playing at 5 and a half hour set that started at 10:00, and the main room was already a throbbing mass of house music aficionados. As well as the busyness of the club one thing that struck me straight away was the male to female ratio of the crowd and the fact that 80% of the people there seemed to be men. Bedrock as always been quite a male heavy crowd but this was more unbalanced than anything I had experienced before. Now there’s nothing wrong with lots of men per se but a healthy mix of both men and women adds to a club’s atmosphere and also ensures that the women there aren’t hassled too much by the more forward male contingent. Digweed was playing some pretty deep progressive sounds at this stage so I checked out the rest of the club to see what was happening in the other rooms. The great thing about Heaven is that it has superb smaller rooms so if the main room doesn’t grab your fancy you can quite easily spend the whole night dancing in one of the other areas. All rooms were playing a similar sound – somewhere between electro and minimal. I plumped for the Star Bar as the sounds in there were just a little more accessible. Matt Van Holtz was DJing, I’d never heard of him before to be honest, but he laid down a pretty fierce selection of techno which at times verged on trance with huge breakdowns and synthy sounds. Star Bar was full and the dancefloor seemed receptive to the set Van Holtz played with plenty of appreciative whoops and hollers echoing around the room. At 2am house music stalwarts X-Press 2 took over and immediately reduced both the speed and intensity of the music. A strange time to pare things back so drastically but they were due to play for 4 hours so I guess had to start from scratch really. However, this did have a negative effect on the room and the dancefloor thinned out noticeably. I took this opportunity to make my way down to the main room to catch the end of Digweed’s set and prepare for Eric Prydz. Digweed was nearing the end of his marathon journey but unfortunately the music didn’t do anything for me at all – introspective, slow and dull is how I’d accurately describe it! This was a great shame, back in 2005 I saw Digweed play one of the top 3 sets I have ever seen but this left me seriously disappointed. The other issue that hampered my enjoyment was the heat in the main room – Heaven used to be a seriously sweaty club but in the period when Gatecrasher was resident there it seemed to be improved and the air conditioning seemed to be fulfilling its function. However, whatever improvements had been made had been reversed on this night and the main room was an unbearable sauna. Seriously, this just isn’t acceptable – not only is it not safe but it really saps the enjoyment out of dancing. Poor show Heaven! Finishing to a slightly muted response Digweed handed over the reins to Eric Prydz. Prydz has to be my pick for best dance music producer of the naughties with an unbelievable portfolio of sublime tunes released over the past 8 years. From house anthems Slammin’ and Woz Not Woz to his Pryda productions such as Aftermath, Genesis, Human Behaviour and 1983, this is a man who has consistently delivered. I was expecting a set full of his own productions with some white hot exclusives and a flavour of the Swedish House Mafia sound – however, what the club got was a 2.5 hour set of false starts and tedium. I don’t think this is necessarily a criticism of him as a DJ – everything was mixed perfectly and the flow of the set worked, it’s just that the ‘in’ sound amongst big progressive DJs now is what’s wrong; (minimal) techno is currently flavour of the month and I’m sorry but this is not dancefloor friendly music – there’s no joy, no emotion, no soul, no moments. And in a club like Heaven which has a huge main room you need moments. They don’t need to come all the time but one every now and again would be nice as well as a bassline to take your feet away from your body. Progressive has been down this road before of course, after the progressive trance explosion there was a backlash against this and during the dark days of 2002 DJs seemed to try and outdo each other by playing the dullest, deepest music they could get their hands on. With the electro boom from 2003 onwards this sound leaked its way into the scene and in my opinion the period 2003-2005 was one of the strongest progressive has had in its history, however the backlash against the electro sound began a couple of years ago and we seem to be going back to 2002 with DJs determined to play introspective sounds that to my mind simply don’t resonate with dancefloors. Such introspective music is in my opinion is a contributing factor as to why women appear to be staying away from clubs at the moment – a strawpoll of those women I knew there confirmed this. On the plus side Prydz did occasionally play some corking tunes and things were at their best when he played his own productions – the highlights of the evening for me were the final two tunes, Human Behaviour and ARMD. At several points throughout his set it seemed like he was going to drive it home only for him then to play another tune of turgid sparseness which promptly killed the momentum and atmosphere. I’m afraid I don’t have a great deal of positives to say about this night. It was great to see a night so busy in these difficult days for clubbing and those that did attend were friendly and up for it. The heat in the main room was unacceptable and really was an impediment to having a really good night out. And finally the music - occasionally it hit the spot but overall it was extremely disappointing with just far too many slow, dull and introspective periods of the night. BRING BACK THE FUN! Photos courtesy of the HarderFaster archive. Not to be reprodcued without permission. Share this :: : : : Follow HarderFaster :: Other Features By toxic: SouthWestFour 2008: Reviewed PvD - In between tour: Reviewed southwestfour: Reviewed The views and opinions expressed in this review are strictly those of the author only for which HarderFaster will not be held responsible or liable. Comments: From: Not Marcus on 28th Apr 2008 13:57.17 That echoes my experience of Diggers in Ibiza last year. Dull as dishwater. From: Ben Gomori on 28th Apr 2008 14:53.03 Load of bollocks, Prydz absolutely tore the roof off as he always does! Also that last photo looks suspiciously unlike a Bedrock photo....pretty sure they don't use any decor aside from their logo and their usual font? From: Toxic on 28th Apr 2008 16:01.48 I don't agree - he certainly threatened to tear the roof off but he never quite delivered in my opinion. From: Not Marcus on 28th Apr 2008 17:21.46 Ben, will you be declaring your vested interest at all? From: ~deleted1390 on 1st May 2008 06:12.54 Nice to see a brutally honest review. Quite shocked to hear the boys are outnumbering the ladies across the clubbing musical spectrum. Bit more Trance, that's what we need. From: dave_irvine on 1st May 2008 07:17.44 God help the world if people had different opinions! Everytime ive seen Prydz he has been dry anyways so it doesn't sound surprising. From: K8-e on 9th May 2008 09:14.00 Really interesting and honest review. Always wanted to go to Bedrock back in the day although it really wouldn't be my bag now. Interesting to know Heaven was hotter than the sun back at Easter... last Sunday it was red hot too.

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