Review: Yousef presents Circus, Liverpool July 26th

Image: Gary Brown

Liverpool’s night life is booming and the selection of events on offer is continuously expanding, ultimately creating more competition and encouraging each club night to excel further and explore new territory.

To stay in the game and to secure a relevant place within the city, an event must strive to produce something and exciting, and deliver a line up capable of getting everyone talking. There’s one event that does exactly that month after month, and after close to 12 years in the business still stands tall - that event is Circus.

Circus is proudly housed in The East Village Arts Club and the territorial connection between the venue, the organisers, and the crowd is detectable with every visit. Especially with one man in particular, founder Yousef.

Yousef was on warm up duties for this event, and by no means did this result in him taking things easy. With The Theatre section of the venue filling up steadily, Yousef worked his way through groovy track selections, and effortlessly lifted the mood in the room with a remix of his track 'Float Away'.

The venue itself always blows us away. The Theatre still boasts some of its original features including tiered sections and grand Victorian style posts. With every event, a different kind of magic is brought to the space, and every artist that visits brings a different atmosphere.

After a successful prepping from Circus’ main man, the crowd were ready for Subb-an. He’s a producer that has worked tirelessly to reach success at such an early age (including relocating to Berlin from his native Birmingham) and when you see him live you realise why he’s internationally recognised and praised. His ability to control a crowd is more impressive than that of artists 10 years his elder.

Next up was Tom Trago’s Circus debut, and what a debut it was. Each track was suffused with funk and driven by a huge bassline.  A particular highlight came when he dropped his own killer remix of 'Fever' from Tiga vs Audion (check it out above), the lyrics were chanted by the crowd as their hands hit the air, spurring a smile from the DJ himself. 

Following Tom Trago was possibly the most highly anticipated artist on the bill, Dixon. His profound dexterity was visible as soon as he took to the decks. He’s an incredibly cool artist, his placid characteristics and authoritative aura left the crowd mesmerised.

His set was a journey through sound; he fluttered between eerie, dark tracks, and fast-moving techno. Everything about Dixon is undeniably stylish and exciting, he offers something completely fresh and distinctive.

Closing proceedings was Green Velvet, who teased the crowd with snippets of the lyrics to his huge sash on CDircus' own label, 'Bigger Than Prince'. His other tracks 'Flash' (inevitably as we predicted) and 'Lazer Beams' made an appearance, which of course, was matched by strobes. The crowd went crazy and the energy was raised for the last hour as everyone two-stepped along to some of Green Velvet’s biggest tunes.

Each artist brought something different to the table, ultimately reminding fans that although the club night sits under an umbrella label of ‘house and techno’, it brings so much more than that. Each guest is so incredibly talented that you appreciate each set, irrespective of whether the genre is up your street. This was another reminder of that power.

The next Circus is Circus Recordings Launch Party at the Shipping Forecast on Saturday 16th August.

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