Shogun Audio Warehouse Party, London

Friction and his Shogun soldiers once again took over what is becoming the new go to venue of choice for larger scale nights in the capital as Shogun Audio brought the noise back to Great Suffolk Street, South East London.

As always the home team were represented to the fullest. Friction captained a line up including Rockwell, Icicle, Spectrasoul and Alix Perez, who was doing a special set of material from his soon to be released sophomore effort, Chroma Chords. Add to the mix Dutch maestros Noisia, garage legends EZ and Wookie, Randall plus many more and you had all the makings for a banger of an event. Obviously, it didn’t disappoint.

Pitching up in Southwark after 11pm and having to do the obligatory waiting for latecomers at the pub thing, after walking past some rather boisterous dogs outside the venue my friends and me were in. Arriving as The Prototypes dropped the unmistakable sounds of DJ Hazard’s Busted near the end of a crowd hyping set, I took position stage left to watch Perez’s album showcase. Working through a number of new tracks there were appearances from singers Sam Wills on current single Annie’s Song (as well as a great rendition of the sublime Forsaken from Alix’s previous long player 1984) and D.Ablo on We Could Have Been. Perez then invited UK hip hop royalty onto the stage in the form of Jehst and super special guests, Foreign Beggars. They thundered through Perez/Beggars favourites LDN and Dark Days alongside forthcoming collaborative efforts Monolith and Blueprint.

After Noisia damaged the dance floor post-Perez it was about time for the boss man to take centre stage. Positioned behind four CDJ’s, Friction took the roar of the on looking crowd and ran with it. A frankly silly two hours of DJing followed, full of blistering mixes, double drops and teases, as you’d come to expect from one of the scenes premier DJ’s. He went from Ed Rush & Optical’s Chubrub, Culture Shock & Brookes Brothers Rework to Doc Scott’s classic Shadowboxing with absolute ease. Dillinja’s All Aboard caused this writer to use language I wouldn’t like to have my Nan hear me using in public. Those steel pan hits and trademark crunching Dilly breaks causing all those who knew to show their appreciation, from stage crew to crowd and back again. I hadn’t seen a Friction set in a little while and on his Shogun home turf is definitely the place to see the man at his best. Flanked by Linguistics on microphone duties there was no question he was on top form here. 

Sets from Randall and Icicle kept the crowd in the main room there right until the end. I was a little disappointed I didn’t really give myself the chance to check out some of the other sets in room two and will fully blame a grey goose for that. Regardless, Great Suffolk Street is slowly turning into a venue I’m enjoying for drum & bass nights and the Shogun crew helped play a big part in that with stomper of a party.