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| Bugged Out |
Date: 21st
September 2002
Address: Code, 49 Heath Mill Lane, Digbeth,
Birmingham
Occurrence: Monthly /
Saturday
Hours: 9pm - 4am
Ticket Price: £10
/ £8 NUS
Dress Code: Dress for
the Event
Genre: House
Capacity: 1650 |
Main Room:
Tom Middleton, Futureshock Dex & FX, Rob Bright,
Javier Zucker
Lounge: Simon Foresterio |
Bugged Out @ Code? Surely this couldn't
be true! Code usually caters for the hard house/
trance heads (Godskitchen) and funky house clientele
(Babooshka). Clubbers who prefer the filthier, techier,
deeper side of house and techno don't usually have
much to shout about in Birmingham, apart from the
odd low-key illicit affair in certain trendy bars
and pubs (Medicine Bar's nights are wicked). Which
is why me and my mates, out and out underground-heads,
welcomed the news that Bugged Out, synonymous with
quality, discerning music, were staging a series
of nights at Code. The opening night was to boast
a line-up of longstanding resident Rob Bright, Brummie
heroes Futureshock with a dex and fx set, and Tom
'the Jedi Knight' Middleton.
When we got in Rob Bright was laying down some rolling,
acidic grooves. Quite pumping for the time of night
but entertaining nonetheless. The dancefloor was
filling up nicely and it was good to see people
coming out to support Bugged Out in Brum. Some of
the 'Dirty' nights at Code that I've been to have
attracted embarrassingly low attendances. Towards
the end of his set Rob B took things down a little
and went all Latiny on us with percussive tunes
rife with samba rhythms. Really good music to tee
up Futureshock, and the massive Josh One 'Contemplation'
(King britt mix) went down especially well. It must
be said that Bright was either drunk or else he
had some technical monitor difficulties to contend
with as his set contained several glaring trainwrecks
and missed beats.
Futureshock took to the decks and the expectancy
amongst the crowd was palpable. The room was dark
and thick with smoke. The perfect setting for Futureshock's
wicked, brooding, atmospheric progressive set. Full
of deep throbbing basslines and haunting sound effects.
They were having a blast and so were we. Their set
climaxed with King Unique's much acclaimed 'Sugar
High' and Underworld's 'Two Months Off'. The latter
was particularly apt as they are now off on tour
with Underworld.
About 2.30 am, into the booth strode Tom Middleton,
donning his trademark flat cap and slightly grotesque
wispy beard. He announced his arrival with a vocal
reverberating repeatedly round the room, "The
Sound of the Cosmos, the Sound of the", and
started his set with a 15 minute version of Cosmos
'Take Me With You'. Undoubtedly a good tune but
15 minutes was overly self-indulgent. It took a
while for me to fully get into his set as he was
playing harder than I'd heard him play in the past,
but I suppose for the time of night he was playing
this was justified. I really enjoyed the second
half of the set when he started to lay down more
of the crisper, melodic tunes that he's known for
such as are on CD2 of his excellent 3CD mix 'Sound
of the Cosmos'. Despite some shoddy mixing on occasions
(probably due to technical difficulties again) Code
was rocking, and it was a big anti-climax when security
cut Middleton's flow early at 3.50 am for no apparent
reason!
All in all this night was a really enjoyable
first outing for Bugged Out @ Code. There were a
few teething problems, but with the quality and
variety of their line-up they couldn't really go
wrong. Techno don Luke Slater headlines the next
one. |
Venue: 7
Music: 8
Crowd: 8
Sound System: 6
Total: 29 / 40
Rating: Silver Award |
Review written by: Vivek Katyal vivek@uk-cl.co.uk |
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