On a Friday night that was drenched in rain, I made the familiar trip down to Chinese Laundry for a Roni Size DJ set, supported by Dynamite MC. There was a long line to get just at midnight – and Size had just started (as advertised as well). Once inside there was another line to get into The Cave! The room was packed body to body, and I’m sure it was filled beyond capacity (150 apparently). It was great to see a turn out of boys and girls, young and (relatively) old for Size. For a while I thought drum n’ bass was sort of dead, and given Size hasn’t actually released anything new for a while I was surprised to see such a turn out. The room was steaming hot, the mirrors behind the booth were all fogged up. Not one for the claustrophobic.

Size’s set was really fresh and energy-filled for a drum and bass set. He was dropping a mixture of jungle and harder drum n’ bass, and the new and the old tracks. One minute he’s cutting up the tracks with the faders, next minute he’s letting the track roll along. Dynamite was great, he’d sing along to the record or make up some lyrics for it other times he’s rhyming using interesting words and rhythms… this man has been on the top of his game for so long, but he is always fresh.

The room never stopped moving the whole night, with a steady stream of followers moving their way up the front to pay their respects to Size and Dynamite. At one point I looked over and saw a pair of crutches being held up to the ceiling. Respect! For all you trainspotters out there, Size dropped Booyaka l7i, Nero Act Like You Know, Gold Dust, The Game from Zodiac, Music Take Your Mind. I think I heard a bit of DJ Krust in there too. And a remix of the ever classic Valley of the Shadows Ram Trilogy – he mixed it in with another track, and only just enough as a teaser too so as not to let the atmospheric nature of this track drag the upbeat mood of the party down… It was like bumping into an old friend. Of course he played his own tracks, most notably slipping in Brown Paper Bag (the 2008 re-edit) but again, just little by little, and not the whole track, making us all hang on to every significant loop. Dynamite MC’d to the track layering on top of his vocals on the track. Towards the end, Size dropped Rockstar... the crowd went crazy, Dynamite went crazy and then they stopped it and went back and played it all over again. It was cause for thought though; in my absence from DnB, surely there must have been a new anthem?

For you techies, Size was using Scratch Live on a Macbook Pro. I am not sure if they did do any live sampling (it could have just been Dynamite singing on top of his own voice on tracks) but it sounded great with all the mixups and layering. All up the set was really full of energy and really fresh. After 2 hours Size ended it with a new track on the scene, and Dynamite proclaimed “This one is for my people!”.

Mode featuring D Tech MC followed, and started off on a few nice solid tracks. It was great people hung around to see the supporting DJs. It would have been nice to stay for the whole set, but after Size I had to escape and get above ground to fresh air. It’s a shame that the bad aspect of the night was the overcrowding, it would have been nice to have some room to dance! otherwise, it was a rare opportunity to catch a drum n’ bass legend in the flesh.