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After reassembling the pieces of my head following New Years Eve celebrations I decided to dip my toe in the clubbing water and flee from the damp regularity of a wintery Bristol Friday night. This was fuelled by the demand for a fix of some authentic deep house music an endangered species these days. This rare breed of club night was supplied by rural deep house congregators Niteskool who have been dispatching parties around the west country in and outdoors for the past few years; serving up choice underground house music and parties with no pretence.
The venue on this occasion was the "Fish and Fiddle" an impressive bar/club hybrid possessing an intimate feel through its moderate but adequate size, suitable for the choice of both talking and dancing (its sometimes good to be a bit sociable). The layout consisted of 2 areas, a fairly large bar area and main room with a reasonable sized dance floor. The main room boasted the plush ness of an open plan New York apartment rather than the seedy griminess of many clubs, with its high ceiling, visible brickwork and tall windows watching the streets outside. The visual aesthetics of the venue were heightened by a range of lights spraying out a wide spectrum of colours refracting around many angles of the club and a protruding image of Einstein"s head beaming its wisdom over the evening.
The first part of the evening plodded along at a sauntering pace gathering momentum with the addition of more bodies and consumption of alcohol. Marc from Cheltenham"s Sub tone club instigated proceedings with some sturdy, traditional 44 style deep house which pushed things along and gradually sucked people"s attention towards the speakers and dance floor. By the time Ru (Niteskool resident) was in full swing my post New Years Eve tentativeness was being lifted by the smooth pulse of some disco and break beat style house (and by beer of course) sustaining and building the mood created by earlier records.
As the music was placed into the hands of Tim AM (Niteskool & Groovetech) for the final section of the evening the dance area was spilling over leaving the bar area fairly dry. Inhabited by an assortment of people ranging from the clean cut to the rough edged there seemed to be no inhibitions with body movements concocting a buoyant atmosphere focussed on the music. This feeling was perpetuated by the more than capable p.a. system and a varied selection from Tim AM which never seemed predictable and moved through vocal, American style garage, future jazz and more technoinfluenced house.
Due to my perhaps over critical stance on many supposed "deep house" nights being nothing more than formulaic and tedious, the varied consistency and quality of the music was refreshing to hear. It was noticeable that much of the music possessed the kind of sensibility that is scarce in many house nights, avoiding the tendency to play harder or mare garish house records and focussing more on musical selections.
Next instalment: Niteskool with guest Simon DK (DIY) - Fish & Fiddle - Friday 22nd February