Club Review: Colour with Ben Sims vs Paul Mac @ Sankeys, Manchester

Date: 4th November 2011

Words: Martin Guttridge Hewitt

Photo: Gemma Parker

Manchester’s a weird place. As a major European business centre amid an urban area that’s home to roughly 2.6million, its geography is something of an anomaly.

We’re given everything we can dream of in just a couple of city centre square miles, before the landscape turns to recurring suburbia, where endless terraces are broken up in ten minute intervals by the odd corner shop or takeaway. This is, of course, a sweeping generalisation, but for the most part if one word describes local town planning it’s ‘inconsistent’.

The same can be said about Manchester’s clubbing calendar too. We spend May to September scouring barren listings sites, only for autumn to arrive with a barrage of flyers offering everything from acid house to post-modern whatever-step.

With that in mind, hats off to the Colour crew for throwing caution to the wind. Sankeys as a venue is perhaps the most famous club in the city, but there are of course so many other options. Meanwhile, Bonfire Night weekend throws more spanners into the works, with copious house parties and outdoor events ready to steal people away.

As such it was impressive to see throngs of people energetically foot stomping to worthy local head Ed Mackie’s rolling set inside a main room some two-thirds full. It’s a difficult notion, the techno warm-up, and when the following guests have a reputation for dropping several tonnes of moodiness on a crowd it could be tempting to follow suit. But here the early formula was right, as stripped outdid minimalism, and toughness melded with warm, dark house sensibilities.

Moving on though the relative bounce of those 1am(ish) moments didn’t last long. Like a sledgehammer to the face, relative freshmen Tommy Four Seven and Monoloc stepped out, each brandishing cast iron kick drums and menacing atmospherics, referencing Perc, amongst other names, and arguably forsaking soul for factory floor funk. Which isn’t to say it wasn’t great, more a testament to the often unsung correlation between timbre and dancefloor energy.

Reassuringly, the same problem wasn’t evident when duties were finally handed over to the evening’s headliners proper. After all, with a combined nocturnal resume that spans considerably more years than most of tonight’s attendees have lived through, it’s safe to say Ben Sims and Paul Mac should know exactly how to lift a crowd into a four four fuelled frenzy via their Killa Productions show.

Which is kind of what happened. As exhibited throughout Sims’ debut long player (released last month on Adam Beyer’s Drumcode), he’s not a guy that gets pigeonholed very easily, straddling the gamut between disco-edged tech and darkroom chuggers with ease. And as for Mr Mac, very few people inside required an explanation as to why he was there, but if clarifications were needed everything was understood by 6am.

A blend of everything that once made the UK techno scene so irresistible was evident throughout. So that’s a pinch of relentless Motor City kicks, driving baritones, vocal flurries to add the essential element of humanism, and, dare it be said, breakdowns that actually did something. It’s the kind of set that’s a joy to hear, but also makes one thing glaringly, unnervingly obvious.

For all the improvements in production, and a greater diversity in genres and styles, we may be at risk of leaving one thing behind. A club should be fun, and the only way that’s going to happen is when the soundtrack dictates a party. And this isn’t a cry for help from someone lost in the underground en route from chart to TV advertised compilation, more an attempt to point out the fact that a room full of serious faces does not always a good night make.

Thankfully then, smiles abound as we made our way to the taxis waiting outside.

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