Kinetik is another Belfast night doing great things for the City on a Friday night. Great international bookings backed up with a strong focus on good local talent.
On the bill tonight is Mendo, a production juggernaut with releases on Cadenza, Saved, 8-Bit, CR2, Great Stuff……. Well you get the idea. I have been following his career over the past few years but never managed to catch him DJ, so a mandatory fist pump was in order when it was announced on social media that he would be dropping into Kinetik on 09 March. Just a shame I was on a train at the time!
As per usual, I always try and make it down as early as I can. Tonight especially as Mendo was joined on the bill by, Kinetik main man, Dale Hooks and Deep City Groove. As already mentioned, Kinetik are always trying to push our local talent and I have to commend them for that. Deep City Groove have been making all the right noises in the studio lately and are fast becoming hot property, with big labels falling over themselves to sign their tracks. Tonight’s warm up duties seemed pretty laid back, with dale switching roles with Deep City groove on numerous occasions rather than having fixed set times. I feel this is a good move and gave both parties a chance to drop tracks as the night built. I am pretty sure I heard a new track from Mr Hooks himself, and a whopper it is too! But I have to say, Deep City Groove’s “Girl Get Down” was the highlight pre-1am for me. First time I have heard it on a club system and have to say the hype surrounding the duo is well deserved.
As 1am rolled around and it was time for Mendo to take over the reins, there was a great crowd now through the door and the atmosphere had been raised to just the right level so the guest could knock it out of the park. The first hour of Mendo’s set was predictable, now I don’t mean that in a negative way at all. He started to build his trademark groove with layers and layers of crazy percussion and twisted vocals, all punctuated with his own tracks at certain “peaks”. I was in my element; this is what i had waited so long to see! It was the second hour that really knocked me for six; he seemed to go beyond the boundary I had foolishly set for him and totally took the soundtrack to this awesome night to an even more hedonistic level. Bassline’s were now growling and percussion getting fiercer, all masterfully orchestrated with perfect timing and great presence. The final chapter of the epic set was clichéd but awesome. The energy level began to drop with a few left of field tracks that fitted so well in the overall landscape of the night, before the mammoth that is “Inocenia” was unleashed on us all! What an end to an AMAZING night. The lights came up and I glanced around the club. Going by the looks on everyone’s mug, I’d say Mendo could go back to his hotel safe in the knowledge he just rocked the arse clean out of Belfast. Good work Sir.
