Size matters or so they say, but at Warning on Valentine’s night an evening spent in the upstairs Room Two proved that small can be beautiful.
While the Junction was road blocked in the downstairs main room, up a flight of stairs near the bar, the low ceiling second venue held what felt like a mini revolution.
In here the bass hit a little harder and the volume a little louder intensified by the tiny space.
The six times a year Cambridge rave is renowned for 21 years of well-known and emerging drum n bass artists, but what a lot of people don’t realise is there are two rooms of music to lose yourself in.
So, for the first Warning of 2016, a decision was made to spend the majority of it in the small room upstairs with a line up of Omen, TC-O, Upgrade, Oblivion, Randall, Switch and Concrete.
Retro met new-school drum n bass with some big tunes from DJ Omen followed by TC-O cranking it up ready for Upgrade - Norfolk’s Samuel Smith - who packed the room with jump up tunes showing why he is fast becoming a big noise in Belgium.
The bass warp swell kept coming with DJ Switch leading to the small hours with jungle vibes and ripples of deep dub reggae with a kicking set from Norwich-based Jacob Oblivion, of Warrior Jungle, Bass Jam and Symmetry Festival who added to biggest noises of the night along with Randall and Concrete.
Hailed as the DJ’s DJ for his flawless mixing ability Randall was sublime.
An original junglist, he started DJ-ing in the 80’s making a name for himself on the illegal rave circuit. A mix of filthy bass and shoe shuffling infusions left no doubt of this man’s skill. A rare treat to see him in such a small space.
Closing the room was resident Warning DJ Concrete with a mix of heavy on the tuneful under-tones, cutting through impossibly infectious loops.
So, apologies to the artists in the downstairs main room who get no mention. But for this Valentines Warning the decision was made to stay on top.
• Warning celebrates its 21st birthday on Saturday April 9. The line is being announced on Tuesday February 16 at 7pm when tickets go on sale.
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