Innovation
11th Birthday Bonfire Bass & Jungle Showdown
Se One
London

Tonight saw Innovation hosting their 11th birthday at the SeOne in London. Having been to both parties in Barcelona, this was my first reunion with Innovation since then,& a new experience as I’ve never actually been to an Innovation party in England. I was quite looking forward the night having enjoyed both Inno's in the sun and i was intrigued to find out what the Innovation vibe was like back home.

As this was Innovation 11th birthday bash they had invited Full Cycle, Jungle Fever and also Kool FM to the dance, making this a monstrous party with a gigantic line-up! Innovation made the right choice in venue, SeOne fulfilled the quota, a massive venue, located near London Bridge under the railway arches spreading over 4 arenas.

We arrived in the capital well before 11,and made our way to the venue. Having parked up at the bottom of the Arches we saw how massive the queue was & knew that it was going to be a busy party!!! After being thoroughly searched by the door-staff, which also involved having to look into a video camera for security purposes, I was greeted by Gavin. It was good too briefly catch up and talk about the forthcoming party in Amsterdam.

As soon as you entered the venue you could hear the oldskool jungle basslines pouring out. I headed straight into the Jungle Fever arena, to find Innovation’s very own Mickey Finn taking control of the crowd. The Jungle Fever room was draped front to back, top to bottom in the original banners that were used back in the day, including the massive Black Panther, giving it an authentic feel. The DJ box was located in the far corner and saw the arrival of my first oldskool MC for the night, Moose.

Mickey played a heavy set, from the 95/96 era. With the crowd already into the party spirit, plenty of people were already shocking out. Moose was using a wireless mic and MCin in the crowd at certain points through Mickey’s set. Mickey played an assorted set with tunes like ‘Pulp fiction’, ‘Burial’,’ Special dedication’ and ‘Dirty chopper’. He finished the set with the True player classic from DJ Zinc ‘Reach out’.

After Mickey it was the turn of Kool FM’s legendary DJ Ron. Ron started the set with ‘Warp 9’ the Rocky tune and then played ‘Babylon’. At this point I decided i ought to check out the rest of the venue.

The main arena was laid out different to my previous visits to SeOne, making a welcome change. The main stage was located across the wall of the main arena as opposed to the back of the room. The DJ box was located on a raised platform and either side of the box was a small platform for the MC's to perform. The main arena was really busy, and was kind of hot in there too with plenty of ravers having it on the dance floor, Ed Rush was on the decks with the MC duo of Eksman and Fatman D.

I headed back to the Jungle Fever arena and arrived in time for Kenny ken with the Ragga Twins. Kenny played an awesome set with plenty of tunes from the 'golden years’ of jungle. The Ragga Twins were entertaining the crowd working off each other with their unique 'ragga' style. This suited Kenny’s set as he played a few heavily reggae influenced jungle tracks, such as ‘Set it’ DJ Rap’s ‘Intelligent women’, 'Under me Sensi' alongside Production house – ‘Superhero (My Knight)’, ‘Hearing is believing’ before ending the set with ‘It’s the way’.

After Kenny it was the turn of Darren Jay. This was one of my favourite sets of the night as Darren played more of a 97-99 set, littered with tunes that don’t really get played much at oldskool raves. The selection was definitely different proving that oldskool doesn’t have to be restricted to certain era.

Darren played plenty of my favourites such as ‘Watchin windows’ remix, ‘Better than dem’, ‘Police in Helicopter’, ‘Dub plate’ ‘Phantom Force’ and ’20-20’ remix on Trouble on vinyl, both of these tunes are awesome! 5-0 was MCing for Darren Jay and was charming the ladies on stage and fanning them down like a true dapper!

After this set I decided to have a wander around the venue again, and found the Full Cycle room with DJ Clipz on the decks. Clipz was playing plenty of tunes from the Full Cycle label. He played tunes such as ‘Snapshot’, ‘26 Bass’, ‘Poison Ivy’ and ’Drop bear’ to name a few. This arena was well busy with the Bristol boys taking over the dance floor.

Nicky Blackmarket was on in the main arena along with MC’s Fearless and Kasha on the mic. Nicky Blackmarket played a party set, lots of tunes to keep the people brockin out. He started the set with ‘System Test’, ‘Sound in motion’ and also played the new remix of Shadow boxing which was quite interesting. Fearless was immense on the stage, hyping up the crowd with the ravers responding by reciting his lyrics.

Back to the Full Cycle room and Bryan-Gee was playing alongside MC Dynamite, an excellent set but I decided to nip off and catch a bit of Brockie in the Fever room. I was a bit disappointed to find that Det wasn’t MCin for Brockie as this is one of my favourite DJ / MC combos. I still enjoyed Brockie’s set, playing some good tracks including his own tune ‘Represent’.’ Friday’ another awesome tune was also played. ‘World of darkness' from Hazard was dropped, which fitted in well with his set.

Pendulum DJ’s were finishing up in the main arena and they dropped ‘Machomist’ with ‘The Tide’ this was an awesome mix from the Aussies. Final set of the night was from Andy C which had both Det and Skibadee MCin. I was quite fortunate to watch him mix by the DJ booth and his skills are just awesome, he just makes it look so easy!?! Mixing and teasing in the tracks! Didn’t recognize many of the tunes that Andy played at the beginning of his set but the he played ‘ Feelings’ ‘Ask not VIP’, ’Complicated’ for the latter of his set before finishing off with a few oldskool tune such as ‘Dread bass’ and ’Set It’

Was a shame that at the very end of the set, two girls decided to start fighting, which was dealt a cussing from the MC's. Apart from that, the night was a heavy. With the various arenas covering all the different aspects of the jungle / drum and bass spectrum. The Jungle Fever arena was definitely my favourite arena of the night, with plenty of forgotten and under-rated tunes being played. Favourite set of the night has to definitely be Darren jays oldskool set. His selection was amazing, playing a totally different spectrum of oldskool jungle / drum and bass & being totally different and definitely not the norm! Respect!

Se One is it’s quite a spacious venue with numerous arches and places to explore and get lost in. The main stage was laid out differently than what I’ve experienced in the past, which kept it fresh. Keeping just the DJ’s and MC’s on the stage with no room really for any dancers was different to. My highlight of the evening was going to an Innovation in the UK, and this being a reunion was the perfect opportunity to meet up with many familiar faces from the weekenders in Barcelona!

Massive shouts to Gav, Micky and Lloyd and the Innovation crew, Fearless, Brockie, Andy C, Darren Jay, Nicky Blackmarket, Kenny Ken, Foxy, Eksman, Bryan Gee, Dynamite, moose, Ragga Twins, Five-0 and the Pendulum DJ’s

Big Respects to Zoë and Collette, Satin, Brian BK, Manny, Sue, Zoë, Anna, and Nathan, Alpha, Kieran, Jessi, Markit plus many of the other ravers from the Barcelona Weekender!