Red Bull Music Academy & Major Lazer Carnival Party @ under Westway, London - Monday 30th August
Tunnel your way in, seduce a Red Bull employee, become a DJ whore: do whatever you have to do to make it into Red Bull Music Academy and Major Lazer’s Notting Hill Carnival Party next year. It’s that good.
Hundreds of tickets were given away to the public who registered on Red Bull’s Carnival website, and there’s a tangible sense of elation when we arrive at the fantastic space, situated under the Westway road behind Ladbroke Grove tube station. Major Lazer graphics adorn the vast walls, bizarre smoking and fire-breathing animatronics sculptures swerve and swoop over the crowd, sunlight beams in from the open terrace and the London Underground track that bookend the main room and gorgeous Carribean dancers weave around the plastic palm trees. The open bar is flowing freely, and the hog roast barbecue is just serving up, while Poirier dishes out carnival flavours like JW & Blaze’s ridiculous Palance. Today, is quite clearly going to be a good day.
Garage badman Sticky launches into his set with his classic Boo!, and slowly draws the crowds in with tinges of broken beat and hard-hitting 2-step. Drop The Lime’s up next, and although his rock ‘n’ roll stylings are pretty fun at first (a Johnny B Goode re-edit), it soon dragged on, and his wobbly-bassed set doesn’t really speak volumes to us. Good work on the mic though, as he serenades a man who does an extended headstand and other assorted crooning – and he’s definitely got his own style. It’s Joker we’re seriously hyped for though, and the fuzzy haired Bristol boy doesn’t let us down, sifting rapidly through most of his biggest moments, from Digidesign and Purple City through to his remixes of The Heavy and Simian Mobile Disco’s Cruel Intentions (which receives a huge reaction from the now-packed and jubilant crowd). Absolute fire, as they say, and you can feel fever pitch slowly building. Reggae ambassador David Rodigan does his usual predictable but enjoyable thing – playing a virtually identical set to that which we saw at Secret Garden Party the month before – but there’s few better primed to unite the various strands of dub music and its descendants. The main event cometh.
As soon as Major Lazer hit the decks, it’s a riot. A friendly riot mind – everyone’s in such a good mood from the excellent treatment they’ve had all day that you’d be hard pressed to find anyone with any attitude whatsoever. Hold The Line soon causes explosions of beer in the air and some light daggering, and Diplo and Switch (looking dapper in a suit) mix it up beautifully for the remainder of the day, from dubstep anthems of the moment (Magnetic Man, Katy B) through to their own bangers (Jump Up). Pon De Floor unexpectedly gets the biggest roar of the day, with huge cushions and cushioned stools now flying through the air as peroxide-mohawked vocalist Skerrit Bwoy amps up the crowd. It’s pretty much the perfect party, and we’re battered, bruised and disorientated by the time it finishes.
Bits of the day are still coming back to me. It’s hazy. Apparently the legendary Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry performed with Major Lazer for 5 minutes. I have absolutely no idea how I didn’t clock that. I was probably either busy making new friends, queuing for more delicious booze, or getting clunked on the head by an inflatable paddling pool. Or just palancing hard. It was that kind of day. This is basically what party heaven must be like. I’m not sure I can go to “normal” club ever again…
Hear Joker's set in the player below.
Full photo gallery at http://www.datatransmission.co.uk/ViewPhotos/173/