I arrived at Shape quite early on, early enough to catch most of Luke Reti’s set – which was very funky. The club was still fairly quiet which was to be expected, but this didn’t stop some boisterous revelers from making a raucous on the dance floor. Luke’s set was very funky and techy, and the song selection suited the slot perfectly.
Following on from Reti was Olivier C who had won the slot from winning the 2009 Habitat DJ Competition.

Olivier continued on the funky tech progressive kind of sound and played Opaco by Hector Couto & Luca M – a song I have heard him play twice and one which is quickly becoming a favorite. By the end of his set upstairs at shape was gathering a bit of a crowd and Olivier had managed to accumulate a group of girls in front of the DJ booth who were obviously enjoying his sexy selection of tunes. Finishing off with Matteo DiMarr’s song Smell The Wood, Olivier made way for the big man Aarin F.

Aarin quickly progressed from the tribal tech sound that Olivier left off on and moved up to a more banging high energy techno. The crowd reacted by jumping around on the dancefloor and generally getting lose. A high point was when Aarin F double dropped two songs – his experience as a DJ shining through – and send the crowd into a head nodding frenzy. From this point Aarin eventually built up to a banging finale song leaving the floor heaving for the man of the night: Fergie.

Fergie started off with a smashing tune that made me go “Fuck yeah!”. Everyone else must have been thinking the same thing as the club went off with people jumping around and generally making it very difficult to stand without being knocked about. After this Fergie layered and built his set incorporating some world class mixing. Switching between bass lines of different tracks after breaks, and generally keeping things moving along Fergie had no remorse for our poor bodies and ears.

I don’t recall ever experiencing such unrelenting banging techno – it was merciless and it was, for lack of a better turn of phrase, absolutely awesome. Normally you expect a set to either have a gradual build or have toughs and crests and a set that sits high for so long usually gets tiring quickly but Fergie skillfully managed to keep most of his set at full throttle. He used the mixer to it’s full capabilities to create breaks in songs where there were none, and emphasizing build ups using ear drum busting ¼ beat echo loops. He also used plenty of back spins – which I have been informed are quite common in techno.

By the time 3am came around and Fergie was getting into the last hour of his 3 hour set there was a short respite with 2 progressive tech songs before switching it back up to top gear again. The club had started to thin out a bit by now which was actually a great thing for me; the drunken revelers (including a wedding party which stumbled in from down the road – some of the older guys must think all clubs play smashing techno these days) packing out the dance floor had gone home or retired to Shapes famous comfy couches. This left plenty of room on the dance floor for me and the other hard core techno heads to get lose.

The dance floor was now cheesey grin central with the opening DJs joining in on the fun. Fergie was clearly having a great old time trying to destroy Shape, and showed his appreciating to everyone who hung around for his set by applauding us. This gesture was returned by the crowd who were loving every minute of it.

Fergie finished off his set, but the night wasn’t about to end there. Flex made a last minute change and decided to put on a three way back to back set with Fergie vs Flex vs Aarin F. Unfortunately I am a bit of clubbing vampire and needed to get home before the sun came up – but the quality of these three DJs promised the delivery of banging tunes (and pizza apparently) until the early morning.

I left with a smile on my face, ringing ears, sore legs and a brain short of some brain cells. What an epic night!