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Ultra Utopia @ Club Supreme ... Reviewed

Reported by josie / Submitted 26-01-05 14:51

London gets a third regular trance night with Ultra Utopia at Vauxhall’s Club Supreme. As if we didn’t already have few enough braincells. Initial impressions hit the spot - there’s that visceral thud of dance music when you walk in, and it takes your eyes an exciting moment to get used to the smoke, darkness and retina-hammering flashes of light.

The launch event saw a varied, typically London crowd, ranging from the uber-trendy to the odd gurning chav. There were obviously a lot of favours called in for the first night, and a slight ‘touristy’ vibe was detected – it’s hard to imagine, for example, that many people were track-spotting. No matter though, as it was an extremely friendly, smiley atmosphere, helped no end by the staff, who were quite quite charming. More and more places seem to be getting this right finally, although I wouldn’t hold your breath for the door staff at Ibiza’s Amnesia… aka ‘scorn-central’.

Tania Mann was up when we arrived, and turned out a nice, if not particularly wild set of smiley, euphoric trance stuffed full of 2004 classics. Young Parisians’ anthem ‘Jump The Next Train’, the remake of Delerium’s ‘Silence’ and Adam White & Andy Moor’s ‘The White Room’ all got an airing. Best of all, Tania played the BRILLIANT ‘Havannah’ by Dreas – an intense, proggy, guitar-based track that just doesn’t get played enough. Paul Kershaw then went a bit down tempo, but still with a lovely addictive trance sound. Again, some storming tracks, including the glorious ‘New Life’ from trance A-listers The Thrillseekers.

The best thing about Ultra Utopia is the atmosphere. People tend to smile in clubs anyway, for obvious reasons, but there’s something particularly heart-warming about euphoric trance that has clubbers pledging life-long friendship and weeping on stranger’s shoulders for joy. The space works pretty well too. Club Supreme is a slightly unconvincing elongated shape, but makes up for it with literally the most beautiful lazer I’ve ever seen – knife-edge sharp and striped candy-pink and baby-blue. And call me sentimental, but when the bubbles drift out of the darkness like snow… well, it’s all I can do not to hug a stranger myself.

The ultra-experienced Graham Gold was next up, and brought a bit of toughness to the proceedings. He didn’t play his own beautiful track ‘The Ending’ sadly but still some good tunes, including Mirco De Govia’s soaring ‘Voller Sterne’ and the shouty, atmospheric acapella from CJ Bolland’s ‘The Prophet’. Last up was the Gallery’s 2004 DJ Competition winner Sophie Sugar, of whom I had high expectations. She played a decent enough set in the end, but nothing outstanding to be honest… perhaps she’s still finding her feet. I’m looking forward to seeing her play again anyway.

Ultra Utopia deserves to do well, and I had a lot of smiley fun. The sound is uplifting and glorious, but it’s also borderline old school. Today’s dividing line between trance and hard trance is greyer than ever, what with tracks like Dogzilla’s ‘Your Eyes’ and Sander van Doorn’s ‘Dark Roast’ helping to bridge the gap, and artists like K90 playing at dedicated trance events like Knowwhere. It’s a fact that not everyone in London is as sad as me, and I sincerely hope there are enough people still up for the tinkly, euphoric end of trance to keep this night alive. It doesn’t help they go up against well established event Trance Generation next month. Perhaps try to think of Ultra Utopia as winter therapy - like aural UV against clubbing SAD. Find a cute stranger to hug, close your eyes, and pretend it’s Ibiza.

Photos courtesy of HF members David Glynn and garfield21
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Other Features By josie:
It's the Generation game featuring Agnelli & Nelson, The Thrillseekers and Lange
Peach at Heaven: Reviewed
The Gallery at Turnmills: Reviewed
The International Indoor Festival at SeOne: reviewed
The double ender: interview with trance legends Darren Tate and Mike Koglin
The views and opinions expressed in this review are strictly those of the author only for which HarderFaster will not be held responsible or liable.
Comments:

From: Tranced_up on 31st Jan 2005 11:07.47
Good fun night. Graham Gold's set was brilliant. Good review

From: wide-eyed-girl on 31st Jan 2005 16:44.38
How big is Club supreme? whats the capacity? I can't find any info on it and a group of us are thinking of going on my birthday weekend, Feb 12th.
x

From: Neil English on 2nd Feb 2005 21:30.04
keep up the good work guys, you know its worth it!!!!!

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