Club review: Poker Flat London, Secret Location, 25/02/12

East London: famous for its underground events over the past ten years. 'Secret Location' this, 'Secret Location' that. To be honest, it's all become quite complacent and a touch boring.

Then the odd temporary dwelling pops up and shakes the clubbing culture's very foundations with an amazing aura of decency. Hosting some of the world's tops talents, this has become not just a place to party but a place to move to for the underground generation due to the stellar line ups being announced.

So the Poker Flat crew decided to jump on the band wagon and have their soiree in the East London massive did they? Oh no. they went to Willesden Junction, and really put a spanner in the works. It's safe to say that there was a lot of uproar about this. But controversy creates cash, and controversy makes for good reading - and certainly good events. This is only my opinion however.

As we land at the venue, which does take a short while to find if I'm being honest, we are hit by two large rooms and a smoking quarter. The venue, immaculately laid out for the comfort of the Poker Flat crowd, has the feng shui that keeps the intimacy but has the atmosphere of a 4000 capacity venue. The party, not even two hours old, already feels like it's in its latter stages as Martin Landsky lays out his soulful and deep grooves to take us past the midnight mark. Staggered fist pumps from the crowd show that they were definitely feeling the warm up set from the German stalwart.

Funktion One provided the sonic backdrop, and they never disappoint. The perfect chug of the deepness of Martin was perfectly matched with the rig of the DJ set up. Effective and slowly projected lights shone against the brickwork to create an eclectic approach. With Landsky's set coming to a close, a deserved applaud rushed through the faithful audience. The sexy groove and throbbing kickdrum slowly fades out for the headliner that is none other than Steve Bug.

The head honcho doesn't mess about. He brings the bass back in and plants his famous tech house seed from the get go. The system is taking a real battering by now, in the best way possible of course. By this time even the bar staff are fist pumping behind the bar as the whole crowd were sucked into Buggy's set. This was a true testament to his talent. Every track was picked perfectly, keeping the soiree as fresh and as exciting as when we walked through the doors. As the sweat started to perspire through the brickwork Steve did drop in some classics like Adultnapper and HOSH and Stimming's 'My Shadow'. before finally making way for another genius; Josh Wink.

We did manage to take a cheeky look at Burnski and M.A.N.I.K, who played to a similarly eventful audience downstairs. Keeping with deep and more subtly sounding deep house, it's very easy to understand why Steve, being the brilliant A&R that he is, snapped these two guys up at an early age. These guys had a huge 2011 and will certainly have an even bigger year this year.

Heading back to the main room, Josh stepped up - always with a smile on his face, providing the chunkiest techno, dropping his acid house snippets along the way. Without question, this was the best five hours of music I have heard in a very long time.

Taking into consideration that there have been a lot of disappointing experiences over the past few years in term of 'Secret Location' events, with artists not turning up or the venue not being up to scratch, this certainly eradicated all these problems.

The Poker Flat events team certainly made their label proud. This was a truly inspirational party, from the artist sets, to the programming of the event. If you ever want to create a Secret Location party, this is one to aspire too.

If Poker Flat throw a party near you, jump at the chance to get on board. It's well worth the trip. Well done Poker Flat!

Words: Tasha Remington

Read more club reviews

See all upcoming club events in London

Tickets are no longer available for this event