Mura Masa’s label, Anchor Point, features a real mix of leftfield soul and new wave, highly energised sonic experimentation that could have made for a true paragon in Store Street history. But what with the critical drop out of co-headliner Nao due to illness, and the unconventional additions of heavy and industrial acts like Mumdance and Overmono, Truss and Tessela’s rave instilled double act, the night felt nothing short of confused.

Most of the crowd had arrived expecting the electronic jazzy vocal lines and pulsating fuzzy basslines of much-loved Mura Masa and his cohort; and room one for the most part delivered. Vegyn sent ethereal trippy rhythms bouncing off the Store Street walls, and Bonzai brought her iconic bare toothed and jagged female vocals. However, due to Nao’s drop out and also with the inevitable technical complications of live acts on a nightclub stage, the delivery was patchy and inconsistent with between 15 and 25 minute breaks between each act.



Over in room 2, three hours of Mumdance and Overmono from 11 until 2 was so heavy and intense that the room was left pretty empty, which in turn left room one bursting at the seams.

Then came the main event. Mura Masa’s performance was flawless. Accompanied with Warehouse’s beefy soundsystem and its state of the art lights display, it will for many have been the stand out show of the night. However, the show was unfortunately cursed with the reality of a three room capacity venue mostly squeezed into one room. Without much space to dance, and for many the ability to even see the stage, through no fault of Mura Masa’s, the show fell short of expectations.



Meanwhile in room two, Canadian DJ Jacques Greene was warming up, fully aware that in just a few moments the main room would disperse with high expectations for him to shut down room two in style. And he did not disappoint. Jacques Greene’s set was slick, eclectic and exciting from start to finish and featured all three of my stand out tunes for the evening. The experimental blips and trips of “Sacred” by Parple really got people moving and by the time he dropped Patrice Baumel’s “Glutes”, the room was on fire. Jacques Greene closed with his own tune “I Won’t Judge”, to the most lively and enthusiastic crowd I’d seen all evening. This trippy synthesised vocal banger is a much-needed addition to any new-wave dance music fan’s record collection.



And finally to close the show in room one was Warehouse resident, Special Request. Once again the set was outstanding but the crowd was all wrong.  Special Request brought out the likes of “Playing With Knives” by Bizarre Inc, and his own material from his new album, Belief System. And despite the energy in the room still being overwhelmingly positive, the set for whatever reason just felt like it didn’t quite get the reaction it deserved.

Once again it would seem Warehouse delivered a show of outstanding music and artistry but, as is all too common in line-ups like these, the end product, with moments of isolated genius, was at times a bit confused and disjointed.

Photo courtesy of Mura Masa