I headed to the Afterlife Parklife Afterparty at The Met, keen to capture the sounds of Parklife inside more intimate surroundings. I expected tight security for The Met and was thankful to the promoters for ensuring my entrance into the club.
The club was very nice: well decorated, clean and practically labyrinthine in its layout. I was immediately impressed by the sound quality in the main Rroom: big and bassy, and really filling the space with an equal distribution of sound. I enjoyed watching a few of the early acts from the balcony, providing a good vantage point on the action. The floor filled up quickly as Bag Raiders threw down some tracks with one bright funky track in particular getting me going. The actual DJing seemed a bit loose, though I did appreciate the Teenage Wasteland break, which suited the growing atmosphere of debauchery. I stuck around for a bit of Ajax who did seem to throw himself into it and got a good response in return. This mixture of club hip hop and more breaks/dance tracks seems very popular right now. I think it works if the DJ throws in a bit of trickery and finesse to offset the bland smashing effect of what can easily come across as simply too much noise.
I unfortunately missed Sampology, which was disappointing as his name is getting thrown more and more about the scene as the wiz kid of the moment. Instead, I came into the smaller Coco Room in time to see Diplo heading straight for the jugular. I think he’s a bit of a chameleon when it comes to rocking sets, as this was reported to be seen as very different to what he played earlier in the afternoon. The festival set had sounded well-calculated and textural, full of surprises and very interactive with the crowd. The club set was more like a barrage of breaks, some nasty and some nice; interspersed with rare and unusual world sounds. Diplo himself was getting well into it, and seemed to be having the best time out of everyone. He seemed to be structuring the set on the fly to some extent, using Final Scratch, Serrato or equivalent to cue tracks and using the turntables off his computer. I found it a bit hard to get into the pace and ferocity of the tracks he was laying down, but certainly appreciated aspects of it. The fact that Diplo was putting everything into it came across very well too. I also found the sound in Coca Room to seem quite average; while the space was intimate, it just couldn’t really compare to the main room.
Later in his set he brought the tempo slightly down, really delighting me with some dancehall selections. While a few people left the room, many remained to enjoy his musical offerings. I just find so much more culture, feeling and intelligence in this kind of music, and it really made the vibe in there much more loving and positive. While dancehall isn’t soft music, being from some of the toughest neighborhoods in the world, it expresses this hardiness in an artistic and evocative style keeps it highly danceable, as well as mind expanding. It was music that was crafted to create a vibe in the club, and while hedonistic, it retained the consciousness of its reggae roots. He continued to drop blazing tracks before shifting into some dope club rap that kept things pumping. I found myself up the front almost without realizing it, to see Diplo really getting it by then. You could really tell he was feeling the vibe. To finish his set off, he dropped some sweet funk and soul tracks, with Real Love being really evocative of the beautiful atmosphere.
I found the event more like a party than a show, with the artists and punters just going for it with reckless abandon. Thankfully, what I discovered on this evening is that while there’s music that feels like it’s been created robotically; while there’s also music that’s evocative, holding a human element that affects body, mind and soul. It can be bright and positive, dark and hardcore, or in between, but it sounds genuine. And Afterlife seemed to bring this vibe to the forefront.
manuka says...
you obviously didn't see peaches 'DJ set' then..... hmmmmm