Superstition – Village Underground, London

Set in the cavernous underbelly of a tunnel, with only deep bass drums, screaming hi hats and candle light to guide you. One main room with it’s infamous downward facing peripheral speakers and an eager crowd, Superstition came into existence with a big bang.

As far as Techno is concerned, London is definitely leading the way, with its vast array of venues almost dedicated to the cause, which is why it is able to draw such great line ups with adventurous crowds. Randolph, Alex Smoke, Clockwork & Avatism and Marcel Fengler all featured in this line up.

Having been to Village Underground countless times in the past, the decor had never been a thing of an adventurous virtue. Being known for its dark and dingy interior, it was a great revelation seeing a myriad of dim candles offering an edge of spookiness to the grand main room. A perfect touch to what was about to be laid down throughout the course of the night.

To start things off in the way he is renowned, Alex Smoke slammed down his finest R&S-esque experimental slabs, as always with a twist. Playing through his abyssal back catalogues with fresh material woven throughout, really showing how far ahead of his time his releases have been while not complying to the ‘4/4’ rule which most DJs comply to when trying to get things going. Smoke used a variety of breaks and lateral motion tracks to keep the interests high, with audio/visual elements maintaining the atmosphere.

Keeping things ominous, next up were Clockwork & Avatism, performed their debut Superstition with a fairly new live concept in the form of CW/A. Showcased earlier at Sonar Festival for the first time it was clearly apparent that this is a talent which they should follow up on. After plugging in and ready to go, the two were seen on stage starting things off nice and slowly taking things down a peg after Smoke had finished. As with their DJ sets, they keep an air of mystery to their sound with new elements creeping in as opposed to slamming riffs. This kept the crowd on their feet with levels being taken higher and higher to the peak of their set and despite the difficulty in ‘reading’ a crowd whilst performing live – there are only so many avenues one can go down compared to DJing- the two managed to keep everyone’s consciousness locked throughout. 

This all led to the moment the Berghain regular was handed the reigns. Knowing his trade extremely well, Fengler took a no-holds-barred approach and came slamming in with his peak time set. By now the dance floor was seething with energy. Keeping to the tried and tested 4/4 kicks, he went on to rock the crowd with his extended set. It was definitely a treat to hear his work as DIN being played out of the bass-ready speakers, with nods to Dettmann and Schwarz remixes of the MASSE release making an appearance.

It can be said with most certainty that the first in the Superstition series was received with great admiration by the London crowd. The event showing innovation to aspects of an typical clubbing night in London can make a huge difference, while showing how adventurous the London crowd can be.

Words: Jenagan Sivakuma