Maxine Kabuubi 

Mixing with the best

Twice As Nice The End, London Rating: * * *
  
  


UK garage has certainly taken giant steps forward since Scott Garcia of MC Luck proclaimed: "It's a London thing," a few years back. Since then the country has gradually fostered a collective ear for two-step garage, a synthesis of electro, hip-hop, US garage, reggae and R&B, and sent Craig David to the higher echelons of the charts. Radio 1 sensibly rewarded the genre's premier DJ squad, the Dreem Team, with a show earlier this year; and as part of their Easter Sunday Live Sessions, the station took a leap into the Dreem Team's natural home: Twice As Nice at The End club in London.

Twice As Nice has been serving a primordial soup of hardcore's kinetic energy and reggae basslines to a devoted crowd of dancers for four years. In that time it has been at the forefront of the music's transformation from robotic pitch shifting, divas on helium and wayward sample structure to music that has rapidly transcended its inspirations to produce a sound that is more dynamic, directly expressive and deep.

As befits their party hard reputation, Spoony, Mikee B and Timmi Magic looked as though they were enjoying themselves behind the decks. At the height of their three-hour set, the boys managed to shoehorn 10 years of cutting edge dance music - house, garage, hip-hop beats - into a pretty good mix.

However, across both two-step rooms, the music itself was presented in a cut up fashion with irritating cartoonish samples and MCs who continually ruined the flow of tracks such as Ty Holden's gospel mantra, Heaven, with their incessant chatter.

***** Unmissable **** Recommended *** Enjoyable ** Mediocre * Terrible

 

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