Review: Hi Ku Second Birthday with Luke Vibert

Photo: Luke Vibert / Credit: RBMARadio

Hi Ku are a group of party starters who have been bubbling under, putting on lovely little events around Manchester as well as the odd excursion to the slopes. It was a surprise to learn that they were celebrating two years in the game already, and for their birthday they brought out by far their largest billing yet, with the mighty Luke Vibert topping the bill.

Previous Hi Ku nights have been at Joshua Brooks and the Roadhouse, but for this party they opened up 1 Primrose St, an old factory that was previously known as Underland, then briefly Bassment.

To be honest you can see why the venue has had a patchy year with name changes, some of the facilities and organisation was a bit under par, however, the Hi Ku boys put in the effort where it really counts, bringing in a Void Acoustics soundsystem (below) to the main room that was full and phat sounding, crisp in sound and appearance.

The overall feeling was that of a barebones venue focused squarely on the dancefloor, there was the kind of all-comers welcome vibe that a certain club in the neighbourhood got famous for. 

Funkineven warmed up the main room downstairs with a hugely varied set. His productions and collaborations show a producer and label head forging his own path, with a distinctive raw sound. Having collaborated successfully with Kyle Hall (Hi Ku's first ever booking), and having Seven Davis Jr on his roster makes the booking (in the words of the promoters) 'extremely appropriate'.

In person an Adonis of a man, he flitted seamlessly between a larger variety of genres than I've heard in a single set in along time. Eclectic doesn't cover it, from funky house to classic Berlin techno, Disco to 303 Acid mixed with wild abandon. Each change lit up a different corner of the room, and somehow he slowly brought a fairly mixed crowd together.

Upstairs and the 2nd room was curated by Banana Hill, an excellent Sheffield group that have been hosting events for a few years, with an Afro-house through to techno/disco feel. The setup was tiny by comparison to the main room, just a small raised dancing area, a basic PA noticeably much quieter than downstairs.

Despite this Banana Hill managed to get a good feeling going, with a distinctly housier set, better suited to the bar/smoking area vibe. Their headliner Romare, a producer who’s had an excellent year with support from all of the best bits of the BBC output (Gilles Peterson, Huw Stephens, Benji B to name three). He kept the atmosphere light and relaxed, a perfect counterpoint to the main event downstairs. 

It's fair to say that most of us were here for said main event, Luke Vibert. It's the first time the other Cornishman's played in Manchester for a long while, and it's fair to say that he was greatly missed. He hasn't changed his setup and has barely changed his style in years, using just a laptop, with no fancy controllers here, just his keyboard – a lesson for the gear heads. 

He opened with a few classics, and it just goes to show that there's still nothing quite like hearing Voodoo Ray drop and 3.30 in the morning in a dark sweaty room in Ancoats. Pretty soon he's playing with his usual palette of 303 acid lines, amen breaks and Roland drums.

The acid sound has had a resurgence in recent months (thanks in part to some cheap, decent 303-style boxes), but in truth acid and jungle have always had a solid spot in the UK scene, and hearing Luke Vibert play, it makes sense why. These sounds are distinctly British, we still do them better than anyone.

Luke took us through the full range of these sounds, filling in the dots between electro, hip hop and house. In general he stayed away from his own extensive back catalogue, this reviewer didn’t spot anything from his (excellent and pretty under-rated) 2014 album, Ridmik, or from his recent EP under his Amen Andrews moniker (it’s a testament to how long he’s been in the game that that pun of a name has long since ceased to be relevant). Instead he focussed on building a classic sounding set, in parts sounding surprisingly like straight up breakbeat (I’ve said it before, there’s a breakbeat resurgence just around the corner).

The Vibert heads in the audience (a lot of beards in attendance) knew that he would be building up to full on Jungle, but tonight Vibert decided to tease them. It wasn’t until about 4:40AM that he finally decided to pick the tempo up, with a screamingly dark breakcore tune that flipped the whole room wide open. And then just as abruptly the set ended, with the crowd chanting “More Amen! More Amen!”... From looking round, it was clear to see that everyone had just had their minds blown.

It was up to Dog Eat Dog to follow that, a crew that have also been putting on low key nights of the highest quality around Manchester for the last year or two. They kept those of us left going, the DJ duo wearing their alliances firmly on their T-shirts, Warp-style techno all the way. Ones to watch for sure.

Previous appearances by Luke Vibert still rate as some of my favourite nights out in Manchester of all time, so it’s safe to say expectations were high. Mr Vibert delivered and then some, but the real icing on the birthday cake was the quality of everyone else playing too. Some slight issues with the venue aside, the promoters put in the effort to make this a night that’ll last in the memory. Just don’t leave it so long next time eh Luke?

Follow Alan Wragg on Twitter: @tacetmusic

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