EarToGround Records x Civil Disobedience - Review
‘Music of a socially and politically charged nature’ - this is the ethos of Civil Disobedience Records and after their collaboration with EarToGround at Corsica two weeks ago, it’s safe to say the imprint certainly hit the message home with a troop of unruly artists from the UK, Ireland and Berlin.
Founders Nicola and Annabel, aka Violent Blondes, are the driving forces behind the label and have signed a handful of burgeoning talent since launching in 2016 including Mila Dietrich and Jason Fernandes. But after releasing snippets of Tommy Holohan’s new ‘Ros Eo’ EP, a significant amount of hype began to take hold both around the label and in the lead up to the night itself.
Along with Holohan and Violent Blondes, Kwartz, Stranger, Reflec, Habgud, Voicedrone, Nur Jaber and ETG head honcho Gareth Wild completed the bill - a strong indication that it was going to be heavy one all round.
Despite being the first ones to warm up, Violent Blondes went straight in with a solid dose of hard hitting damage in Room 2. Dropping in Headless Horseman's remix of Flaminia's freshly pressed 'Fear of Fire' to Paula Temple's Percussion Remix of The Knife's 'Stay Out Here', the pair hit the nail on the head with what to expect from Room 2 for the night.
ETG’s Habgud opened to a sparse Room 1 but remained unperturbed with a robust selection of dingers including Janzon’s ‘Rove Contact’ before Reflec took over.
Undoubtedly one of the highlights from Room 1, the Clergy affiliate blended bouncy electro with tougher cuts of grainy techno before a spontaneous B2B with Stranger towards the end of his set. It was at this point things began to noticeably shift. Closing his set with Tessela's 'Tenner Eclipse', the inevitable appearance of topless males began to emerge from the darkest corners, slithering into position centre-dancefloor.
Over in Room 2, Voicedrone gathered in a strong crowd with a spicebag of break-beat and menacing techno, from No Moon’s ‘Sirens’ to Interview’s ‘Arc’ before passing the reigns to Gareth Wild. As always, Wild played a searing set of hammering techno which dutifully reflected the sound of his long running ETG imprint.
One of the most alluring artists on the line-up, Nur Jaber, took matters in another direction after Wild with a blistering, experimental-tinged set. The OSF label boss combined a mix of punishing techno with darker, hypnotic melodies, building up another stand-out set from Room 2's antics.
As Stranger and Kwartz blasted Room 1 into smithereens between 2am-6am with the latter closing the room, the sweltering heat both in and outside of Corsica added to the frenetic energy bouncing throughout the building. With Jaded soon on the horizon, Tommy Holohan brought proceedings to a close in Room 2, leaving a significantly mouldy mark on us.
Living up to his 'no fucking about' sound for his first London booking, the Rave Selekts founder came prepared with a crusty selection of fast-paced, ravey cuts that could have been produced anytime from 20 years to 1 day ago. Always one to support his Irish brethren, Doug Cooney's 'Coming Home' put the Funktion Ones through its paces before leaving the crowd in a sweaty, delirious mess - the ideal form to be in pre-Jaded.
The combination of two independent imprints with a distinct vision to host a one-off collaboration clearly worked well. A scintillating fusion of new breed and established talent created an 8 hour ride of unwavering carnage, leaving us feeling optimistic about the future of the kind of offensive techno we support.
Expect to hear a lot more from each of these artists over the year - they're shaping things to come.
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