Review: Circus with Yousef, Richy Ahmed, Lewis Boardman

Images: GB Multimedia

January, depending on how you look at it, is considered to be a pretty grim month. The realisation of the dawning of a new year sets in, the Christmas buzz wears off and a lot of people embark on a whole month without alcohol. There's all that plus the harrowing prospect of heading back to work with nothing but an extended waistline.

Rejoice though, there’s always a lot that goes down on New Year’s Day that helps prolong the festivities and encourages you to delay facing reality for one more night. We chose to draw out our holidays at one of Liverpool’s most cherished rave establishments, Circus, housed at the East Village Arts Club.

Circus has been a paramount part of the city’s club culture for over twelve years. It is the product of DJ and producer mastermind Yousef, who attentively crafted the club night to bring some of the most influential electronic music artists in the world to illustrious Liverpool venues.

Anyone worth shouting about has played a set for them, and on New Year’s Day they welcomed some old friends and new ones to party with their loyal crowds and started 2015 as the mean to go on, with their ethos ‘serious music and fun times’.

On arrival we took our specs in front of the colossal speakers in The Loft, which led to the rattling of internal organs as they vibrated in response to the pounding bass. Cool and collected resident Lewis Boardman was on warm up duties, teasing the crowd with bursts of thumping techno.

'Amame' by Intruder lifted the mood, the mesmerising, eerie vocals and chants of ‘come to me when you’re ready’ kept the crowd moving and engaged, it's the ultimate sexy warm up track. 

Richy Ahmed took over and unleashed a string of ruthless and unrelenting techno tracks. He sent the crowd into frenzy with SEFF’s new unreleased track ‘Like That’, the chugging bass and vocals was answered with howls of approval. The solid house and techno set was filled with massive drops, Ahmed took no prisoners. 

Downstairs the Theatre, as glorious as ever, was bouncing as Yousef took to his podium.  The new visuals on the screen behind were a welcome addition to the already epic room. The signature Circus artwork of vibrant, colourful faces danced on the screen, morphing into new shapes and then into Yousef’s name.

He executed his set with his trademark energy; getting on a level with the mixer, jerking his body with the beat. The crowd were at his musical mercy and the illustrious head honcho was in complete control of the room. The prolific boss jumped from funky house to fast and furious tracks like Shed Turtle's remix of Steve Lawler’s 'Kalimba'.  

2015 is looking as bright as ever for Circus, with the recent release of another mega line up for the end of January with Laurent Garnier, Apollonia, Laura Jones and a trip to London's Egg. What a way to shake those first month of the year blues. 

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