Photo: Music Pickings

After putting on parties in their native London town, Dilation returned to Leeds for their first party of this year. Having stated in an interview with us last week that with this night they’re branching out from the garage sound that has previously dominated their bookings, this was very clearly in evidence throughout the night. It seems scarcely possible to recall the shuffle of a garage beat an any point of the night.

Upon arriving at the venue, it was surprisingly empty and although it did later fill up, this led to the bizarre situation of Behling & Simpson playing to an almost entirely empty main room until the very latter stages of their set. Theset drew on tracks which fitted the r&b infused style of house which has marked heir releases for Bristol’s Futureboogie.

Down in the basement, Catching Flies managed to fit a lot into the space of his hour long set. A highlight was Lone’s ‘Airglow Fires’, which was fantastic to hear played out on the heavy system that they have down there. As well as this, crowd pleasing tracks from Eliphino, Bonobo and others were scattered throughout his set, rousing some big love from the crowd down there as a result.

Lovebirds, over from Germany, came on at peak time in the main room to deliver a selection of soulful house tunes that went down extremely well in the room that was completely rammed by this point. However, it was never too busy to navigate yourself round the various parts of the venue, which can sometimes be a problem at Beaver Works.

Although the night was predominantly house music, the eclecticism that’s always been a part of Dilation’s nights shone through in the reggae and dub rhythms being played out in the bar room by Riley towards the end of the night.

Jake Hulyer

Lone – ‘Airglow Fires’ [R&S Records]

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