Review: South West Four

Photo: South West Four / Credit: Sam Neill

This bank holiday weekend there wasn't just the carnival that had people's feet moving. As the craze for EDM continues to sweep the country, SW4 was taking place in Clapham and the opening day drew in a large number of ravers, who made it down to the South West to share their bank holiday with some of the kings of electronic dance. 

The line up boasted a string of well known DJs including names such as Markus Schulz, Sasha, Booka Shade and Alesso, which proved a hard choice for electronic dance lovers. We especially had difficulty choosing, however we went along to go witness three huge names that have been in the game for a while, who along with them and their music, their live shows are incessantly spoken about on the scene.

Seth Troxler, dubbed one of the best DJs of all time, is known for his deep knowledge in music, as well as playing sets up to 15 hours; in which he joked an hour at SW4 was not long enough!

Playing in the Last Day On Earth tent, which displayed an orbital theme and dangling planets, he was joined by Sasha, Josh Wink and Paul Kalkbrenner. No newcomer to the scene, his set went down like a pro, along with plenty of pyro to give us a show, which went down a treat and was perfectly synchronised.

Shortly into the set in his usual manner Troxler started mixing a whole variety of tunes, including a standout track with an Asian infused melody, which set the whole crowd in uproar and an energetic buzz washed through the tent.

Setting up decks in the DJ Mag tent was Mr Hot Creations himself aka Jamie Jones, making his South West Four debut. Undoubtedly at the pinnacle of his career after donning dance floors over the past few years, Jamie didn’t need anything to drum up the crowd attempting to get the front was a huge challenge, however it was definitely worth it just to catch a glimpse of the crazy geometric patterns awash with euphoric colours that Jones had projected onto the stage.

His set was full of iconic melodic instrumentals along with some of his classic remixes and the rave was on once ‘Percolator’ was dropped (above). Other legends making their presence known in Arena 2 were Tale Of Us, Tiga VS Audion and Loco Dice. 

Closing the first day are known as the ultimate UK gods of EDM, that have ruled the roost for the past ten years, Above and Beyond. Playing main stage and the last act on, the had the entirety of the festival raving, bouncing and basking in the power of their beats and synths.

The set was truly hypnotizing along with their aesthetics, which were endearingly memorizing, displaying scenes of the city reflected in water. They then went on to give the crowd something they were waiting for - to be some of the first to hear new song 'Blue Sky Action'. The live settings were perfect - clear skies with fireworks above listening to the legends of dance music.

With the Sunday being sold out in advance, Saturday dipped slightly in attendance, however these were the pure fans of electronic music, sliding away from the more commercial acts, and this way there was more space to dance.

The only thing that was slightly disappointing was the lack of entertainment away from the stages, but that was only a minor thing. Overall, what else could you ask for but the royalty of dance music all in one field?

Head here for more info and tickets to this year's SW4 Festival

Tickets are no longer available for this event