When you’re a mainstream radio DJ you have to reply to Tweets and texts, you have to stick to playlists and deal with Nick Grimmy Grimshaw as a Radio 1 wifey, so people may forget, or not even know, that you play a blinder of a set when left to your own devices. This is exactly what Annie Mac does, she smacks it, to use the parlance of our time.
The Blah Blah Blah DJ’s warm us up with the shuffling beats of Daphni’s ‘Yes I know’ and Scuba’s percussive disco track ‘Everywhere’ as Digital’s dancefloor gets engorged with brightly adorned bodies. The BBB boys then drop the glittering sounds of ‘Wut’ by L-Vis 1990, which gets precocious gun fingers raised through plumes of smoke.
When Annie turns up she’s behind the decks immediately and doesn’t hold back. Tonight celebrates the release of her second Annie Mac Presents compilation, two CDs of Britain’s best club music. Yet her set isn’t full of these tracks. She kicks off with Jamie xx’s remix of ‘Rolling in the Deep’ and there’s the piano rave of Toddla T’s ‘Take it Back’ mixed over a big bad sub-bass that woofs at our rib cage, but after this she veers off into her own world, delving into dubstep, jungle and drum ‘n’ bass. Digital becomes alive with a thousand freshers, whooping on the gallery, running through the wings and salivating over each other in every spare scrap of space. It’s got to be noted though, no matter how much reckless fun you’re having, the “Oooeeeoooeee! Oooeeeoooeee!” chant is never acceptable, whether you’re on a beach in Ibiza or raving on Brighton’s seafront, the dancehall Grim Reaper will find you and make you pay.
Annie winds things up with jungle classic ‘Incredible’ and finishes on an inspired note with DJ Hype’s seminal remix of ‘Ready or Not’ proving why she’s still Britain’s First Lady of bass music.
Digital, Thursday 6th October 2011