LIVE: Gorgon City – Warehouse Project, Manchester 13.10.16

Warehouse Project is rapidly becoming The Haçienda of the modern day. It has once again focused the eyes of a pop culture firmly on Manchester, and for twelve weeks of the year a car park underneath Piccadilly station becomes the nucleus of the house scene.

As always these kinds of events are met with an amount of fear from the ‘general public’, generated by stories of illegal raves and what goes on at them. To give WHP its full credit, they are doing all they can to distance themselves from this. That said, there is a certain amount of irony in a venue giving out anti-drug pamphlets a matter of yards from a water and ice-lolly stand.

If there is one thing they have nailed with these events, though, it is the artists they attract. Some of the biggest names in urban music have graced their venues, notably Mercury award winner Skepta just a couple of weeks ago. Gorgon City headline this particular event, which happens to be my first experience of this underground phenomenon which has incredibly taken the mainstream by storm.

German DJ Claptone stands out with a set worthy of a headline slot. A consistent procession of crowd favourites has the whole room moving, it’s hard to convince yourself this is actually happening on a Thursday night in a Manchester car park. His edit of ‘God Made Me Feel I’t is particularly well received, as is his remix of Gregory Porter’s ‘Liquid Spirit’. The only criticism of the set is that is pretty much unbeatable for headliners Gorgon City.

As the main act take to the stage, crowd already buzzing, it becomes clear they are also going to pull out all of the stops. In a live set they drop hits from their critically acclaimed debut album, ‘Ready For Your Love’ being the biggest. They also break the hits up with tunes from their second album ‘Kingdom’, an album which carries a more underground tech sound, very well suited to the Warehouse Project atmosphere.

Although they arguable do not reach the heights that Claptone did in his set, it is not a major criticism, more a plaudit to the German. As a whole the night has bought two great performances which were both massively appreciated by the ravers below. A huge success of a night, and one recommend to anyone who is yet to experience Warehouse in its underground glory.

Sam Wright

Sam Wright

Sam Wright

Music Journalist, formally at MOJO Magazine. Black Country born, now mainly covering Birmingham and North-West England
Sam Wright

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