‘’Anything can happen.’’
The catchphrase used by Spazio Disponible as an indicator of what to expect at the Spazio label showcases, namely; anything. It seemed inconceivable that this night would not turn into a special one. As upon leaving for Shelter, a friend of mine messaged me that Crossing Avenue started their live set. Knowing that the Italian duo were opening, led me to regret not leaving a bit earlier. Therein lies the risk of not showing up when the doors open for a party with a secret lineup, I figured.
Upon entering the nightclub and walking onto the dance floor, I immediately felt immersed with the deep soundscape that the two Andrea’s were able to create. Containing a steady groove flow that made the crowd want to constantly move their feet, it was clear that the duo was the perfect fit to open a night full of mesmerising hypnotism. As the typical live set is a maximum of an hour and a half, I felt slightly worried that their set was close to finished at the moment I joined the crowd on the dance-floor. While time passed, the realisation that this wasn’t a typical live set arose. 2 hours after entering Shelter, they were still carrying on their sound consisting of a lot of subtleties that kept the crowd remarkably captivated. The Italian duo played ‘Malandra’ in the final hour of their set, which was a part of their first release on the Spazio label. Sounding a little bit different than the track itself — including some live elements — ‘Malandra’ truly swept the crowd off their feet and led to some noise erupting from dance floor. We knew we were in for a special night.
After about 3 and a a half hours, Crossing Avenue’s live set was close to ending. Dozzy and Neel were preparing their set throughout Crossing Avenue’s performance from early on. It seemed as that they were going to perform some kind of hybrid set. Differing somewhat from their own Voices from the Lake live set, which usually showcases the more subtle and hypnotic side of techno. As Crossing Avenue were wrapping up, Dozzy and Neel started jamming over the last part of their set. Dozzy was standing behind several CDJs, while Neel was operating his Octatrack sampler, 909 drum machine and modular setup. What they were planning on showcasing seemed to be very promising.
Playing Anthony Linell’s ‘Layer’s of Reality’ from early on, Dozzy and Neel didn’t let any time go to waste trying to continue the groove that Crossing Avenue were able to create. Nevertheless, they went quite a bit more into a fast and harder direction. The first half hour I felt very deeply enchanted by the sounds that the Spazio label-bosses formulated. Yet, somewhere along the set they started to lose me a bit in the increasingly coarse sounds that they were bringing to the table. As expected, their hybrid set was unquestionably different to the other sets I have heard from Donato and Giuseppe under the Voices From The Lake alias. The clock turns to 4 AM and Neel and Dozzy start to wrap up.
A long-haired individual shows up behind the decks. It appears to be Semantica label boss: Svreca. Instantly the Spanish DJ brings the crowd on a journey into his vision of techno. Containing a lot of psychedelic mind-bending elements, while still stimulating the crowd to move their body to the fullest extent. Earlier into his set, Svreca played ‘The Nomad’ by Antonio Vazquez on Oblique Music. This was one of tracks demonstrating the mind-bending and spaced out sounds that the Madrid-born DJ is known for. Not long into Svreca’s set, I was already genuinely fascinated by the atmosphere he was able to create in such a brief time. The way he exquisitely blended the different tracks and created a narration that was able to grab the crowd’s attention to an extraordinarily standard, was something that I had only witnessed a few DJs do. The Spaniard brought the Spazio showcase to an enthralling ending, one that was worthy of the Spazio label. Clearly, the many years of DJ experience that Svreca had under his belt beautifully came to fruition on the clean Funktion-One sound system at Shelter.