Wooo! sounds like I got the right end of this deal. When I saw Convextion was over to play Fabric I was all set to make the journey South. Then a few weeks ago I found out the local promoter who'd put him on in Manchester last time had scored him to do a little low key gig here on the Friday.
As good as his last gig here was this was even better. Not as many people there but I thought just the right amount. And while everybody supporting him last time was good, I think this was the best night of music I've heard here in Manchester for some time. But the biggest difference was the sound (sorry Robin ;-). The promoters used a little out of the way venue which is part of a local music tech educational establishment. I don't know, but I'm guessing, this is the room they use to teach live sound engineering. And the set up was absolutely top. Little dark room, cheap bar, nice little outside area for smoking and the sound quality we almost never get in this city. Unfortunately I missed the first DJ, Sequence's Steve Gravener but arrived in time for most of Conor Thomas, who was appearing under some crazy made up moniker, and who set the tone for fine tunes. By the time the next DJ, Eastern Bloc's Karl Roscoe, came on I was I just the right mood for the impeccably crafted mix of Basic Channel and associated goodies (some, I believe, home brewed) he served up. It was a real moment to be in the dancing in the dark in front of a superb sounding speaker stack as personal favourite M4.5 played for an appropriately long time. All the guys supporting Gerard were local DJs, either residents of Faktion, the new identity for this night, or friends, but you couldn't have asked for better. I don't even know the name of the guy who closed out after Convextion but he was top notch. And as for the main event I came absolutely buzzing to see him after the last gig yet rather than being disappointed I was blown away all over again. As Toby says about the London gig, a little bit more on the ERP / electro vibe than last time but still serving up stunning pads and washes (if that makes any sense). At one point my head was nodding (I wasn't just head nodding, the rest of me was dancing) so hard to some amazing drums it must have been getting down near my knees. Roll on the next Faktion, 6th of June I believe, http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=43967135248 > From: Toby Frith [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: 28 April 2008 10:55 > > A polarised affair at London's Fabric. Gerard was fantastic - mostly ERP > style electro that sounded razorsharp on the > soundsystem..some new bits and classics, although Vox Automaton was a bit > short for some reason. Very happy to see him get a > fantastic reaction as well. > > Deepchord/Echospace was unmitigated sh*te. I'm sure Tristan will elucidate > far more than I could, as he was fuming! The sound was > muddy, so you couldn't hear the treble at all, but this was an hour of > relentlessly dull dub techno with no variation or subtlety > whatsoever, and a real shame because one of them (not mr Modell) was having > the time of his life behind the laptop. A shame he > couldn't obviously hear what sh*te we were hearing.
