One of the most memorable moments of the night was when he finally dropped his [new] track from his We Are The bRave label ‘We Do What We Want’. It seemed like everyone literally ran onto the dance floor at once
Sam Sharp, Promotion Manager @ Junk
In the midst of his jam-packed We Are The bRave tour, Techno DJ and producer Alan Fitzpatrick, managed to find the time to play an exhilarating 3 hour set at the UK’s best small club, Junk, in his hometown of Southampton. After their last two successful We Surrender showcase nights, featuring Jackmaster and Skream, expectations were high, and “Alan certainly didn’t let us down, delivering a masterclass in Techno.” Sam Sharp, Promotion Manager @ JUNK.
Fitzpatrick took over the decks seamlessly at about 1am, intensifying the bass and driving that steady four to the floor beat home; until it was reverberating in your soul. The club was a sea of writhing bodies and waving arms, the passion in the atmosphere was palpable and there were only a rare couple of phones attempting to savour this fantastical night, myself included. I took some photos, made a few more notes and left it there. The club was electric and I was killing the vibe.
Alan is working hard at the decks, reading his crowd and anticipating their every need as he drops in another track, another layer to this rich sound; and whoosh, the arms are back in the air again.
Yes, I did just say rich: Techno is often confused for an industrial, unfeeling genre that “doesn’t really go anywhere”. Whilst some aspects of this may be true: Techno has a very basic beat with minimal ornamentation, Alan Fitzpatrick redefines it in his own way, especially in the way he builds you up for about five – ten minutes or so, step by step, beat by beat, before he completely floors you with the drop. This coupled with Junks stellar sound system meant you could feel the bass in your bones, in your heart – it was pumping the blood round your body.
It was sublime.
It’s now about halfway through his set. There’s condensation on the mirrors. It’s so sweaty in here. But in a lush, primal kind of way.
Everybody is moving as one and we’re now in the sub-bass realm, there’s the odd break here and there as he adds in the snare preparing the crowd another drop, and bam! The sense of release is overwhelming. I didn’t think it was possible, but we’re beyond sub now, you exhale in time to the beat, the tension in the synths builds, stimulated by the vocal samples and the hard industrial beat keeps your feet planted firmly on the ground.
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This was at 03:18 AM: he dropped the track and the club went wild.
Everybody was dancing, not with each other but purely to the music; to the unrelenting rhythm, there was no escaping that pounding bass. At about 03:25 some sweeping synths were introduced and as they momentarily grasped your cares and carried them far, far away for you, Alan bought in more layers of drum tracks, leaving this one solo bouncy synth in the forefront to keep you going. At this point I take a quick mosey around the club behind the DJ booth to get a glass of water, and Sam’s right, there was nobody to be seen. Everybody was in front of the man himself, in this Techno temple that had been erected in the heart of Southampton. So I head back into the fray for another hour or so of Alan Fitzpatrick, the most exciting Techno I have heard in a long, long time.
“I think it’s fair to say he tore the roof off the place!”
Junk’s new Saturday’s “WE SURRENDER” have really taken off since their launch in January and are a guarantee for a good night out if you like your dance music. Alan Fitzpatrick concurs, stating that “Junk is without doubt, one of the best small clubs in the UK.”
“There’s a real buzz building around our Saturday nights already. We’ve got some fantastic booking coming up which we’re really excited about. A couple of examples being Radio1’s Monki on April 1st and Detroit Swindles all night set on April 22nd.” Sam Sharp
Be sure to check out the Facebook pages Alan Fitzpatrick and We Are The bRave and also Junk and We Surrender @ Junk to stay up to date with their up-coming events, and for all you fellow Techno-heads out there, or those curious to give this wonderful genre a whirl, head over to the group page Tech House & Techno Events in Southampton for the latest in Southampton Techno.