STUDIO 89 + TEAK MIAMI VICE PARTY | CLUB REVIEW
Jacob’s Antique Market, Cardiff, Sat 14 June
Let’s face it, anyone with an ounce of common sense would keep a Funktion One soundsystem well away from an antique store. Jacob’s Market might be the only place where you’d find turntables mounted atop a cabinet of stuffed animals, but soon it’s unique atmosphere and potentially large capacity could see it, perhaps one day, competing with the likes of Clwb Ifor Bach.
From 5pm, hosting the car park stage was Cardiff’s own Studio 89, whose legendary discotheque in the basement of a Cardiff noodle bar has blazed a glittering streak across Cardiff’s underground in the past few years. As trains shuffled along the brickwork viaduct into Cardiff Central Station overhead, their passengers were only briefly able to hear a rolling splash of Eddie C’s cosmic disco selections. On the other side of that window though, a patchwork sea of tie-dye shirts were being worked into a feverish rainbow by the man himself at the controls. As the sun went down and Eddie’s set finished, the crowd gave him their unbridled appreciation and applause, as little by little the party moved indoors for the night.
Germany’s Damiano von Erckert opened up this portion of the night with a bouquet of soulful grooves. His dance-floor parish swooned and melted in the heat of the saturday night fever. A fresh battalion of Colour Festival (elsewhere in the city earlier that day) partygoers arrived around midnight. Their bright pigmented faces ran in the heat, whilst warm analogue basslines and a relentless energy poured from the turntables all night long. The disc jockeys kept their records spinning long into the night and the crowd’s enthusiasm never faltered.
As we squinted in the morning sun, someone said: ‘I don’t think there was a single person in there who was being ironic,’ and the beauty of the disco revival was made clear. No fights, no bad vibes, just good music and a crowd of happy, blessed people.
words ROB JUREWICZ
