Skreamizm At The Warehouse Project Manchester

Skream has a bit of history with the warehouse project. A crowd drawer of the Manchester night’s program cycle for the last few years  whether with long time collaborator Benga, as dubstep supergroup Magnetic Man or playing solo sets. He showcased himself with a 130bpm set at Store Street in support of Modeselektor in 2011 and now he’s brought his Skreamizm concept back to a scaled back Victoria Warehouse.

Having only visited the new site in Salford once last Winter I’ve been thinking twice about returning. The place was too darn busy, especially for the first half of the night, and being herded round the one way system was frankly unpleasant.

The removal of the huge first room for the Easter shows massively eased the issue of overcrowding. The space was as great as ever and it was good to be able to enjoy the stripped back industrial surroundings more on this visit.

We entered late and we were lucky to get in. Apparently the last entry time printed on the ticket really means it now! Nevertheless we began in the smaller room taking in Koreless playing various bits of his own productions alongside tracks  from like minded bass musicians. Highlights included Evian Christ’s “Throw Like Jacks” and Jacques Green’s remix of “Lost in Tokyo”. Unfortunately there was a fair bit of noise pollution from the larger room next door which spoilt some of the breakdowns but it was still a great set.

Next up Krystal Klear had the main room packed to capacity delighting the masses with an eclectic set of house disco and little treat in the form of “This Must be the Place”.

Skream took the decks greeted by… screams. Skreamizm in it’s original incarnation was a 3 hour set: “old stuff.., into new stuff and then future-sounding stuff”. For this night, and in line with a recent announcement that Skream dubstep sets will from here on in be few and far between, it was just 2 and for the most part eschewing the dubstep sound which made him a household name.

Stepping off with some disco revelers which worked  their way through house and techno with the odd wobble brought in, Skream then began the transfer into house DJing which doesn’t feel  like fully completed transition just yet and many of the selections made were not as adventurous as they might be from a man who made his name as a true pioneer. Lot’s of Dirtybird style house on show, there were also the obligatory homages to Madchester in the form of “Blue Monday” and “Love will Tear us Apart”

Nevertheless the mixing was top notch and the man is a master of the crowd. The inimitable outbursts on the mic got the crowd up and the declaration that there should be no-one taking videos (there is no light show to discourage people viewing the show through the backs of their phones) was pleasingly only ignored by a tiny minority.

Midland was excellent, as you’d expect, quite deep but brought the mood up with 2013’s most hyped: “BRTHDTT”. Rustie closed out the night with typical hyperactive set, upbeat house incorporating a few of the idiosyncratic cuts from Glass Swords keeping everyone’s energy up right till the end.