Photo: Press
The club night is dead as we know it and Despacio have blood on their hands. The audio-experimental project, from LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy and the duo from Soulwax/2ManyDJs, has reinvented the way that collective dance nights can be experienced - for the better.
The Roundhouse was flanked around the edges by seven towering speaker systems measuring in at 11-foot a piece, as a gargantuan disco ball hung above our heads. What everyone might not have realised is that the Despacio experiment is designed on a molecular level to provide the best party experience it can.
Playing exclusively vinyl beats, sample, breaks and grooves, the DJ trio have built the one-of-a-kind speaker system from the ground-up to be able to cope with high volume sets, while maintaining the depth and high fidelity nature of vinyl. This writer has heard his fair share of analogue signals and overpriced audio equipment but nothing compares to the sound at a Despacio show - every minute detail, record scratch and dust particle is audible.
The venue was decorated to suit the 'Despacio In The Jungle' theme, with an array of plastic animals dotted around - but the real atmosphere came from within the crowd, as grossly pseudo-intellectual as that sounds. The average club night is an environment for hedonism and diet substance abuse whereas a Despacio show is an immersive dance experience curated for real people by real people.
A six hour party featuring Tame Impala remixes, ‘Dance Machine’ and a dose of Talking Heads, the track transitions were as seamless as you’d expect from some of the world’s most proficient and innovative DJs.
While light cues and strobe blasts indicated a sequence or beat change-up, the rich sound emanating from all angles was all the prompt we needed. As inhibitions dissolved, the overwhelming feeling of community and legitimate, non-ironic fun took control.
Watching from a distance, you can see the effects of Despacio in action. People first meekly take to the dancefloor bouncing on their heels to the beat, becoming more daring with their shapes the longer they're exposed to the sounds, and then something magical happens. It could be a specific beat or just a realisation of self-esteem but, regardless of what's going on around them, everyone eventually finds their own, personal groove.
Confident and free-flowing, the energy of the experience can't be replicated at any sub-par Propaganda night - it has to be lived to be believed.
