Viper 100

Friday the 25th November saw the mighty Viper recordings celebrate 100 releases in style with a party unlike any other at Fire in Vauxhall, London.

With Fabric being closed since the summer due to its licensing woes (more on that later), things appear to have stepped up within Fire’s premises as they try to occupy the void left in the wake of the capital’s clubbing mecca being shut down. I have always liked Fire as a venue but was pleasantly surprised by the refurb that had happened since my last visit- the bridge walk way normally found on the right as you enter had moved sides from its familiar location and admittedly did make me wonder how wonky I was on my last visit, had I imagined it being on the other side (I hope not as I’m normally the designated driver)?! Similarly there were shinning LED style lighting on the ceiling I don’t remember being there but really added to the ambience…

The club has always been great at presenting an underground feel whilst maintaining the professionalism a club truly needs to survive in these tough times- the refurb just added to this, giving a sheen to the club whilst keeping the infamous arched tunnels that are reminiscent of the early warehouse parties associated with the birth of rave culture in the early 90s. The newly added LCD TV screens used to show the set times definitely helped add to the professionalism but fear not there were still blue tacked posters dotted about too, maintaining the underground vibe.

The one unfortunate change to Fire that left a bit of a sour taste in the mouth was the increased cloak room charge- £2.50 per item is just daylight robbery that even the Brexit economical shift cannot justify!

After feeling mugged by the cost of not carrying my jacket with me it was time to try and turn the frown upside down and thankfully the set from one half of the Brookers Brothers helped do just that! If you aren’t familiar with what a live set from the Brookes Brothers is about, it would only be fair to assume it would be showcasing similar sounds to the impressive catalogue of material they have released via Breakbeat Kaos, Ram and Viper. A Brookes Brothers set is VERY far from that with this set being no exception- the full spectrum of DnB was present with trade mark quick mixing that saw all sounds catered for. From the liquid and dancefloor most would expect through to the tech, jump up and rollers that are a departure from the signature sound of the Brookes’ own production. The set was so varied within the space of 10 minutes we were treated to the bliss of the Brookes’ seminal hit ‘Beautiful’, to the evil tech of The Upbeat’s Remix of Noisia’s ‘Diplodocus’, via the stepping delights of Hazards ‘MKQ’, the peak time dancefloor roar of 1991’s ‘Jungle Cats’ and the fierce funk of Culture Shock bangers ‘Tangent’ and his ‘Lower Freq’ bootleg.

As the set ended we were treated to a very special opening ceremony that would be more accustomed to something at a massive festival rather than a London club night… The lights went out and a heartbeat pumped through the sound system whilst accompanied by a visual of a heart monitor on the screen in front of the DJ booth. The heart beat eventually flat lined in sync with the lights going out. A voice broke the silence and went on to talk about a topic incredibly close to everyone with the capitals heart; the devastating closure of Fabric and quite frankly miraculous re-opening of the venue, thanks to the overwhelming support via the #savefabric campaign. It was refreshing to see this display take place within what is essentially a rival venue. It shows just how important it is that we voice our opinions and fight for our rights to party! The narrator openly discussed the war taking place on our culture. The word ‘revolution’ was mentioned several times, brilliantly bridging into the next set as two fireworks were shot from the stage to the back of the venue accompanied by Miss Trouble performing a Live PA of ‘Revolution’ her Collaboration with InsideInfo.

The ‘Back 2 Back’ set is something that can be a complete hit and miss- drum n bass is one of the few genre’s where the back 2 back can work wonders and the rest of the acts in the main room for the evening were to embrace this sound clash style tradition and to do it how it should be done with pairings that make sense and complement each other.

Insideinfo and BMotion were the first back 2 back of the night and as Miss Trouble finished her PA InsideInfo wasted no time into launching rounds of heavy artillery that made the DnB army stand to attention on the frontline of this revolution. Throwing dub grenades of his own music forthcoming on Viper alongside some of his impressive contemporary release like ‘Conformity’, ‘The Plains’ and ‘Mushroom’ left me wondering what the hell BMotion could do to retaliate. Having never seen a live BMotion set I had no idea what sonic slugs he would be drawing for. I can say I was incredibly happy with his returning fire and the impressive mixing skill on show from one of Viper’s newest emerging talents as he played Culture Shock ‘City Lights Instrumental’ and meticulously double dropped Into the DC Breaks VIP of ‘If This Is Love’. Bmotion didn’t stop there playing a personal favourite of mine, his own track ‘Tekken’ before teasing Cyantific’s ‘Can’t Hold Back’ over the top. The battle lines were drawn and InsideInfo wasted no time retaliating fire with his own double drop destruction that saw TC’s ‘Tap Ho’ slide over the top of InsideInfo’s remix of ‘Deadhouse’ and Noisia’s ‘Deadlimit’ become one with InsideInfo’s own ‘Metamorphosis’ resulting in absolute club carnage. Just as you thought how can BMotion recover from that he retaliated by double dropping two of Viper’s most destructive anthems of the last year; his own ‘Arabia’ with Insominax’s ‘Uridium’. It’s not clear who won this battle but the real winners of the war were the ravers treated to this 90minute lesson in how a back 2 back should be!

Up next, label bosses Matrix and Futurebound were back 2 back with special guest Tantrum Desire for the next two hours. Matrix and Futurebound littered the set with many of their own tracks that make up a healthy chunk of Viper’s 100 releases as well as other material from the past and present of the label. While the last set was a close call, I’m sorry to say the entirety of our party agreed that the label bosses were quite frankly the losers of this battle. It’s fitting that Tantrum Desire was playing at Fire as that’s the one word applicable to his selection at mixing at this particular night. Highlights of his selection were the audio assault of Ed Rush and Optical’s ‘Chub Rub’ into The Prototype’s ‘The Pulse remix’ and the Armageddon caused when ‘Deadlimit’ and Dimension’s latest banger ‘UK’ become one track in the mix.

Cyantific and Culture Shock followed and the one-up-man-ship continued! As a huge Cyantific fan I fully expected Culture Shock to be the weaker link in this set but it was I that was left in shock by the impressive technical ability on display by Culture Shock. Cyantific had some moments of brilliance with blends including Chase & Status’ ‘No Problem’ merging with Sigma’s ‘Special Dedication remix’, Mob Tactics ‘Play Me remix’ being sprinkled on top of Cyantific’s ‘Ice Cream Vanilla mix’ and Renegade’s ‘Terrorist’ strapping C4 to the back of Sub Focus’ ‘Could This Be Real Remix’. It wasn’t enough though as Culture Shock displayed lighting quick mixes that really pushed what can be done on four decks to the limit- his blending of ‘King (Culture Shock remix)’, TC’s ‘Tap Ho’, Sub Focus’ ‘Stomp’ and TC’s ‘Where’s My Money’ was a technical DJs wet dream and really was the money shot to finish off Cyantific’s hopes of claiming the win in this war.

The only bad point to having 4 killer sets one after enough is that eventually the human body can take no more and a white flag had to be waved- a shame as was really looking forward to Mind Vortex and Mob Tactics back to back to finish off the evening.

Viper boasted of this night being unlike any other clubbing event in London and in my 15years of DnB club nights I can quite frankly say I have never seen an experience like this within a club- it was all the spectacle of festival scaled down to club land without any fear of commercial dilution of the overall music. This was one of the best club events of 2016 and there’s definitely an evolution taking place as the Viper revolution is here to stay!