Review: Loefah @ 2022nq, 27th September

Photograph: Loefah

Having enjoyed many a night at one of Manchester’s most intriguing underground lairs 2022nq, of which Love Dose’s first birthday was a recent highlight, we jumped at the chance to see one of our favourite players in underground dance music journey up from London to headline the venue. Manchester and Leeds promoters Selective Hearing had teamed up with Coded Rhythm to host Loefah, and we for one were not going to miss this chance to see the man himself in action.

Addison Groove - Footcrab

Since setting up Swamp 81, an imprint that has risen from the ashes of a broken down and sold out dubstep movement to forge new pathways into the underground dance music scene, the label has been responsible for some of the most game changing and forward thinking dance music records of recent times. Addison Groove's 'Footcrab' introduced elements of Chicago footwork to a classic 140bpm template, and despite nothing like it before having been put out in the UK was immediately snapped up by Loefah and played in his sets, challenging audiences in the formulaic faltering bass music scene.

'Work Them' by Ramadanman pushed things further, and then came the hallowed coming together of Boddika (fresh from his split from techno giants Instra:mental) and Joy Orbison which gave way to ubiquitous acid house and techno monster ‘Swims’. It’s Loefah’s insight as to what will push and yet excite audiences that has meant his label had become so incredibly sought after.

Knowing all this, we turned up at 2022nq with high expectations, immediately met by the opening soundtrack. Tracks that showcased an IDM philosophy with added bass weight and otherworldly atmosphere set the tone effortlessly, despite only a few people dancing. Things took a strange turn though when the music moved into a slightly tropical Balearic infused deep house vibe that didn’t really seem to fit to our ears. The gradually heaving throng on the dancefloor though clearly felt otherwise, particulalry as towards the end the tempo increased and all the summery suntanned vibes disappeared. The intensity was suddenly cranked right back up.

Typically for someone involved with Swamp 81, who notoriously take their time to release records, Loefah was late. His three hour billed set turned into a potential two and a half hours, then two hours. However after a few minor technical hitches and a bit of panic filtering through the club, he eventually shows up, and it’s immediately evident that it was worth waiting through fairly mediocre house music and a slight bit of confusion for.

With his calculated approach, Loefah would go on to treat us to an ever changing, brooding, dancefloor destroying couple of hours of pure class. Most the tracks off the new Boddika EP were played to our delight, as well as a whole host of genre bending, acid licked, bass heavy gorgeousness which had the dancefloor frothing at the mouth (almost literally at points).

Boddika - Crack

It was slightly painful knowing that we ares probably going to have to wait months before ever finding out what a large of the tracks played are, and even then whether Loefah would actually decide to press to vinyl the stuff he was playing. With one dark basement fuelled track of distorted drum rhythms moved slickly into another, Loefah was delighting the heaving rave hungry crowd to a sojourn through hugely varying, caustic drum patterns, almost confusing beats that took you a second to work out how you danced to it.

He was getting you to think about the music instead of just mindlessly bobbing along and get completely lost in it. This never became too much though, the balance was perfectly judged. Even tracks like Boddika and Joy Orbison's 'Moist' had people going crazy, which at first listen sound so gritty and dense you wonder how they will work.

Boddika & Joy Orbison - Moist

It seems in the hands of Loefah he can make just about anything work on the dancefloor. As his set progressed he even made a return to half time, yes, almost dubstep material, that reminded us just how good some can be, if only the genre hadn’t been completely sold out and sullied by, well, you know who the main culprits are. We wondered if perhaps these were some tracks the man himself was working on, but this was more likely to be wishful thinking. He’s painfully only released two tracks in the past five years, one of which was limited to 50 copies, which is a bitter truth to swallow, as his talent as a producer is undeniable.

In all this was another fantastic night at 2022nq. One cracking warm up act, one, er, different  and then Loefah, who was simply magnificent, giving us a glimpse into the future sounds of genuinely exciting bass laden techno. With Selective Hearing’s upcoming roster including the likes of Tom Demac, Anthony Naples, South London Ordnance, Recondite and Dense & Pika, we’ll certainly be checking them out again, and as for 2022nq, well it remains perhaps this writer's favourite Manchester venue, the perfect marriage of underground basement vibes with a touch of class.

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