Club review: Visionquest @ DC10, 01.08.12

This month saw the return of Visionquest for the third installment of their annual DC10 takeovers. This time however, they were back with a twist...

Jayne Robinson

Date published: 13th Aug 2012

The month of August is proving to be a very exciting time for hedonistic hotspot DC10 this year, playing host to a weekly series of special, one-off parties curated by some of DC10's favourites.

Week one saw the return of Visionquest for the third installment of their annual DC10 takeovers. This time however, they were back with a twist...

Ryan Crosson wasn't giving much away in our recent interview with the team, but having since undertaken the experience on Wednesday 1st August, I can see why; the fact that we didn't know what to expect just made it all the more enjoyable.

As we arrived at the club, we wandered into the usually quite bare smoking area by the main room entrance. Tonight however, it was far from bare. Carefully constructed teepees were placed at the foot of long, red carpets, below giant floating balls. The teepees came complete with ambient lighting and comfy beanbags, to provide an intimate and interesting chill-out spot that we club-goers could venture into for one of those well deserved rests which we sometimes require. It was in fact in one of these lovely little areas that we bumped into Lee Curtiss, who explained that it was very important to have such spots where we could relax with friends and fellow clubbers, and it was often his favourite part of the night to do so. We completely agree, and it's not often that a club caters for such a necessary experience in such a way.

The exploring wasn't over however, so we crossed through more beanbags neatly positioned around the rest of the smoking area towards the main room. As we entered we immediately noticed the difference. Ryan Crosson was playing deep techno in front of a red felt backdrop, smashing us right in the face as soon as we walked in with Davide Squillace's new tune 'Pieces of You'; the dark, electronic bass-line whomping around the room. The lighting was warm and friendly, creating a safe and intimate environment for us to all party in which in turn led to a massive energy across the room. At this stage however, we were eager to check out the what else VQ had done to the club, so we took our stride to the Terrace.

Once through the newly placed red curtain hiding what was behind the main entrance of the Terrace, we arrived at the foot of a corridor of black felt, shielding different areas containing weird and wonderful things. The music fit the setting perfectly, as a mixture of strange and dark, trippy noises and really chilled beats clambered out through the horn-like Void speakers dotted around the room, which was lit up by dark yet peaceful colours; blues, purples, reds.

The first hidden area was like a blast of light as the surroundings quickly went from dark to bright; it was covered from head to toe in mirrors and a shed-load of fairy lights – people were admiring the reflections in awe. Behind the curtains of another little area were some crazy masked characters on a bench, and at the end of the corridor was a cool, black, old-fashioned phone lit up under a spotlight. We picked it up and it just clicked continuously, as if the line had gone dead... maybe it had, as later on someone had said the phone was relaying different random messages about takeaways and taxis; who knows!

The rest of the terrace was home to a number of large double beds, with comfy mattresses and pillows – we jumped on one and must have been there for a good hour or so just chatting away and enjoying the relaxation. Tonight, VQ had made the chill-out areas absolutely perfect!

After all that exploring, we thought it was about time we caught some music. After all, that was originally our sole purpose of coming down to the club, to catch Visionquest in all their glory. Sadly it seemed we had missed both Lee Curtiss and Shaun Reeves but we did manage to catch the last part of Ryan Crosson's set. Crosson was still in dark, deep techno mode, as he smashed out Mathew Jonson's Cocoon Compilation contribution 'Sub-Atomic'. Given that there was so much chance to chill out, when it came to dancing there was a bucket load of energy spread across the dance floor and everybody was loving it. It wasn't long before Seth Troxler appeared on stage.

Troxler immediately set about layering copious amounts of deep, acid techno over the bouncing heads in the crowd. We would not be dragged away from this dance floor in a hurry, that was for sure. He was completely in his element. You could see how much he was enjoying himself and you could hear just how much skill was involved when it came to his weaving in and out of the tracks. Most importantly, his tune selection was, as usual, absolutely top quality - something which I think he is best known for. Tonight Troxler proved that when he is on top form he really does give it some welly - tonight he showed us just why he has become such a big name; because he is really fucking good! Hats off to you Seth, you blew us away with impeccable mixing, the royal party atmosphere that was created, the constant onslaught of amazing tunes, and even the cheeky layering of commercial classic 'Boogie 2nite' over serious, acid techno. He also played Catz n Dogz' funky new beat 'They Frontin', dancing around the DJ booth from the back, to the front and to the side, as the song goes!

Crosson came back on to play with Seth for the last part of the night, as the two played off each other in a most enjoyable way. The tunes kept coming, and Crosson played fellow VQ partner Lee Curtiss' new 'Freaks' tune which went down a treat. (Freaks is set to come out on the VQ label in the near future).

The night had been an absolute pleasure. It was exciting, fun, mesmerising, comfortable, chilling... the list of words I could use to describe the feelings and sensations that were experienced throughout the night could go on for a long time. The Visionquest crew had transformed DC10 from a special place into an extraordinary place, and they had provided a quality soundtrack to go with it. This was their first of many club transformations that they have planned, mainly for the year 2013, and I for one am very excited to see what more they have in store. Thank you Visionquest for an exceptional and very different experience!