This month, Mute truly outdid themselves with an outrageous booking for their 1st birthday; all the way from Germany… Christian Burkhardt (applause!).
I must warn you, this review may be a little biased, since Burkhardt is one of my all-time favourites and I was seriously looking forward to seeing him on Friday night. The line-up was looking rather tasty with Raffa FL, a young yet talented DJ from Italy, the mute residents and of course, Christian Burkhardt. We could smell the talent all the way from Piccadilly station when we got off the bus! Well, slight exaggeration, but you know what I mean.
After a short wait in the queue, we went up the stairs to find a fairly crowded dance floor. The relatively new club South, home to Warehouse Project after parties was getting more packed by the minute, and the music was great so we decided to get ourselves a drink and find a prime position on the interestingly set up dance floor. This was the first mute I had been to, and to be honest, I was somewhat surprised, not by the crowd, but by the club itself. South’s uncanny set up seemed slightly inappropriate for a night that had potential to truly impress me. The position and height of the DJ booth restricts the crowd from truly engaging with the DJ, and the step into the ‘rave cave’, where the DJ booth is positioned, gives you a somewhat surreal feeling, as if you are stepping into a completely different party. However, the eerie club somehow made it work; the lights were incredible and the sound was on top form, with Funktion One speakers, one of the best sound systems I have heard in Manchester. So there you go, great music and great sound are two essential boxes mute certainly ticked, as well as an interesting crowd with lots of friendly faces, which is always plus!
When we got there, Raffa FL was effortlessly playing his set, and I was impressed at his fresh yet stomping sounds. He was playing musical treasures such as Get Serious by Audiojack and absolute mind-blowers, such as the increasingly anticipated NY Stomp, one of my favourite current tracks. I love listening to new, upcoming talents and Raffa FL proved to be an extremely talented guy. He received an incredibly welcoming response from the enthusiastic crowd when he played his very own ‘Hot for You’, which gave me some serious Hot Natured vibes and captivated me with its’ cleverly timed drops. He played some nice bass heavy beats, with plenty of melodies and riffs, which was very interesting! After his set, you can really see such potential is this young prodigy, mixing up breaks seamlessly. It is definitely fair to say, Raffa FL played a very good set.
At 4am, it was time for Christian Burkhardt to enlighten everyone with his startling talent. Vibrated gong hits, inaudible vocal snippets and the odd bleeps are certainly some of the aspects we all love about Burkhardt’s style. On Friday night, he was repeatedly building up tight grooves that nonetheless left me waiting for something more. Not to my surprise, he had the crowd’s feet stomping and everyone’s fists pumping, I was a happy reviewer, once again! After about half an hour of his set, he played his absolute banger ‘Cooper’. At the time, I was having a drink in the smoking area, but when I heard Cooper’s bouncy introduction I ran inside with a big smile (and smudged make up…) to groove to Burkhardt’s funky, full of personality firecracker! (yes, to me, it resembles a firecracker) I love how Cooper has such a progressive build up, allowing the crowd to fully anticipate the incredible drop at 2.03 seconds. It gets me jumping and fist pumping, without a doubt. What a
track! There are so many things I could say about Burkhardt’s set, but to sum it up it was fresh and it was banging, and he once again managed to tantalise the crowd with his superb abilities in beat mixing.
The night was thoroughly enjoyable, and I got home with sore feet, sore arms but a satisfied mind! Happy birthday to mute!
