We’d seen MJ Cole just the week before at Deviation in London – it’s the mark of a good DJ that he can get one of the coolest crowds in Shoreditch tearing it up as easily as he can the sunburnt holiday types who frequent the Funky Buddha.

Some people were there specifically to hear MJ spin, but most were just on a mission to mash up, seafront style.

MJ Cole was one of the pioneers of the decade-strong 2-step sound. He plies his trade with an irresistibly funky blend of house and drum’n’bass – hi energy beats with uplifting vocals spread generously over the top (he started his set with the Headhunters’ God Made Me Funky). With a vast back catalogue to draw from, his sets are inevitably heavily peppered with his own tunes, Crazy Love and Sincere being the biggest roof raisers. He now releases on his own label, Prolific Records, but back in the day he was signed to Gilles Peterson’s Talking Loud – his debut album was widely regarded as the first real garage album, winning several awards and being nominated for a Mercury. 2-step was maybe consigned to the dustbin of genres that were just a little bit over-inflated, but Prolific is as prolific does and MJ’s stock is as high is as ever – producing, remixing, DJing and generally pushing UK dance music forwards. The crowd at the Funky Buddha didn’t care what genre it was, it was making them shake their asses and raise their hands in the air, and that’s all that really matters. (KM)

MJ Cole, Funky Buddha Lounge, Sat Aug 14th

WORDS BY KATE MAGIC