The Warehouse Project: Curated by Four Tet and Caribou
Published
The Warehouse Project returns to its spiritual home of Store Street for the winter 2014 season, as Dan Snaith AKA Caribou and Kieran Hebden AKA Four Tet, bring unquestionably the standout line-up of the programme. Upon entering, the intimacy of the original venue and the added extra of the ghost and ghouls in fancy dress bring an extra sense of occasion to this evening’s proceedings.
Fresh off the back of new album ‘Our Love’, Caribou (Snaith and full band in toe) take to the stage at the early time of 11:45pm. With the arches packed to the nines the title track of the latest LP tips a hat to Inner City’s ‘Good Life’ in the breakdown and sends the room into hysteria. The deep house of All I Need skips along nicely and the opening bars of ‘Can’t Do Without You’ (a song written for Snaith’s wife) see’s intoxicated students arm in arm with their housemates.
The set is heavily loaded with the poppy psychedelia and R&B rhythms of the latest album but the two standout moments of the evening have to go to tracks off 2010’s ‘Swim’. ‘Odessa’ is beautifully crafted and comes to life in the live arena and the prog rock journey of ‘Sun’ to close the set is broken down and pieced together within an inch of its life, ending in a wall of white noise.
Snaith wishes the audience a humble Happy Halloween with a coy sense of self-assurance before he exits the stage with his band. A truly great set, surely one of the best Store Street has ever seen.
In the back room, Detroit’s precociously talent Jay Daniel starts with some mid tempo house incorporating the wash of snyths and vocal accents. It’s a slow burner but the last half an hour sees the set intensify with some off kilter drum patterns and 8-bit bass-lines. It’s hard hitting but just falls a little short.
Now if Jay Daniel is the young pretender then Carl Craig is the messiah. The 3 Chairs connoisseur goes in hard from the start and there is no looking back. He smashes his was through two hours of Detroit techno starting with some minimalist syncopated drum signatures right through to an uncompromising workmanlike chug of industrial techno.
It’s clear that the Warehouse Project continues to deliver some of the best line ups that the country has on offer and the move back to Store Street has redeemed that certain je ne sais quoi. With plenty more treats in store before the 2014 season is out, normal service has been resumed.
Words by Sam Kershaw