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Two of Sheffield musical saviours, Scuba and The Store, collaborated on this event, to offer a night of groundbreaking aural delights. They pulled off the booking coup of century, prising four reclusive and inspirational Detroit DJs away from the shadows of the motor city, to spin together for the first time together as the '3 Chairs', in front of a mesmerised crowd. The seminal solo work of both Kenny Dixon Jr aka Moodymann and Theo Parrish is renowned throughout the world, despite their fierce anti-media stance.
The distinct black soulful roots of House and Techno, comes across effortlessly in their production work and DJing. Either could sell out a venue such as The Fez (where Scuba is held) at the drop of a hat, so to get both together, alongside less well known Detroit heads Rick Wilhite and Malik Pittman is the equivalent of any true House aficionado's wet dream (and judging by the ratio of men to women, most of those in the north of England were here for this event!!!).
Spinning an emotional mix of House, Techno, Funk, Soul, and un-genre definable electronic grooves, the four span a rotating four and half hour set between them. The deepness of their music was unfathomable, and soulfullness unparalleled. The biggest roar from the crowd was saved for New Order's robotic "Blue Monday" which knocked many out their dreamy deep daze and saw them running onto the dancefloor. Another cut which drew the crowd into a musical induced hypnosis was Model 500's inspirational proto-techno "No UFO's", giving them a piece of Detroit history, from 1985. However it wasn't a just slew of classic oldies, and one of the picks of newer tracks was MAW's gorgeous fragile re-edit of Nina Simone's "See Line Woman", which got an airing early on. The soundsystem was perfect, and the 3 metallic chairs hanging from the ceiling just added to the magic of the night.
However this wasn't all. Scuba had one room to themselves, and the usual suspects; Desi, Chris Duckenfield, Winston Hazel and Alec Greenough thrilled those who wanted something a little more upbeat for an hour longer than normal. The Store were left with the bar area, definitely the short straw, but the residents and broken beat ace Seiji still managed fine performances. Nothing short of inspirational, this truly underground event will go down in Sheffield's music history as a night to remember. Jon Freer