Shangri-La Presents Duke Dumont, Haus – Liverpool

All the same, Duke Dumont, Adam Dyment’s alias, stepped up to the plate for his spectacle. Once known as the ‘producer’s producer’, remixing and producing for countless artists such as Bat for Lashes and Santigold, he’s now taken to the title of the ‘people’s producer’. Infusing his talent of techno, UK garage, and house, he stole the show on a much heavier volume than you’d get off his vinyls or mp3s. ‘Need U (100%)’’s heavier claps and bassline injected raw adrenaline into the crowd while lasers of every colour spun webs across the faces. Ejeca’s ‘Horizon’, which can be found on Traxx’s recent compilation, The House that Garage Built, provided a solid tempo for the wild dancing that ensued. The atmosphere truly began to feel like a proper, unrefined rave, a timewarp to the raw 90s. ‘Thunder Clap’ and ‘The Giver’ of course brought the crowd to its highest level of gratitude. Smoke filled the room and you couldn’t see five feet in front of you at some points. You might’ve lost your friends and you wouldn’t have cared one bit. You’d find ‘em when you left. Hopefully. Again, ‘Let’s Jack’ came back for an encore, this time much heavier and a bit wonkier. It seems you can never get away for too long from that one! Duke managed to stretch and bend Disclosure’s ‘White Noise’ on a tantalising rollercoaster. For a good while, we began to feel a bit mad, wondering if it was actually the track we were hearing hints of or if it was just what we wanted. At any rate, he delivered the hit on a magnitudinal zenith. Nearing the end of the gig at 4AM, he doused the crowd with an insatiable desire to carry on after the music came to close and the lights came on. His application of George Fitzgerald’s remix of ‘Beam Me Up’ by Will Saul aka CLOSE and featuring Scuba, happily escorted the attendees off to their after parties.

We’re looking forward to more nights to come from Shangri-La and dead happy they’ve picked Liverpool for a new location. If you live in the Northwest, stay on the look-out for their next appearance. Don’t come in your sunnies and snapbacks though, that stuff can the hell stay out. This is a night for less pictures and more dancing.