MUSIC

Lakota, Bristol (Sat 23 Oct) ● We were promised a beast of a party, and tonight’s three room circus is just that. Set up bruisingly by Svengali’s low-punching dubstep, Room 1 really takes off with Point B. His woozy, sunlit UK garage is like locking on to a late 90s pirate station on a radio with dodgy batteries. Next – and packing enough machinery for a pre-laptop Kraftwerk - Neil Landstrumm blends austere warehouse techno, starry-eyed 8-bit melody, and bumpy dancehall bass. Despite fierce competition, he proves impossible to beat. At 2am there’s a clash, as Boxcutter’s addictively heady bass medicine meets the attack dog breakcore of Kid 606, while Parasite’s explosive ragga-jungle brings delirium to Room 3. Then it’s crowd-pleasing Bogdan Raczynski, whose hard-jacking 4/4s and rampaging breaks are upholstered with tonight’s plushest synths. Up there with the dubstep greats, Tokyo assassin Goth Trad does punishing and meditative in equal measures, but it’s Panacea’s vengeful outsider scum & bass that reduces Lakota to rubble. Three rooms, as many continents, and 57 varieties of sickness. Electronica lineup of the year?

Copyright Adam Burrows 2010