Photo: For Festival

Just A Little have rightly earned a reputation for putting on different and exciting parties all over Leeds. Wire Magazine have said “it would not be a stretch to call him the greatest DJ ever” so booking Baldelli along with Just A Little’s choice of Full Circle multi-use arts space as the venue, the night certainly had a great deal to commend it.

With the resident DJs providing a solid warm up for the main act, Full Circle was in full swing by the time the Italian legend graced the decks. Immediately moving into a stunning set of disco and 80s hits, there was certainly a very retro feel to the music, which of course is unsurprising from a man of 59.

By about half an hour into his set the crowd were completely entranced by the Italian’s frankly outstanding set. The LED floor of Full Circle certainly added to the exuberant atmosphere and the Baldelli dropping classic such as ‘Konika’ the italo-disco was starting to heat up.

With his blend of disco, funk and splashes of the cosmic disco genre which he founded, Baldelli masterfully kept the dancefloor mesmerized for nigh on the entirety of his set. It was clear after watching him perform why artists such as Lindstrøm and Prins Thomas cite him as a touchstone with regards to their musical influences.

That’s not to say that the night was completely plain sailing, the primary problems of the evening presenting themselves in two main forms: the toilet situation was pretty dire, which is to be expected from a venue which is after all not a purpose built club, however you get the feeling when the queue is more than 10 metres long that a bit more planning or forethought could have been useful.

Secondly, the night was sold out and unfortunately this translated into a sensation roughly equivalent to being a sardine in a tin whilst on the dancefloor. Luckily the crowd was a sufficiently relaxed one that this presented more slight annoyance rather than anything too taxing.

Overall, though, the night was a great success – Baldelli was a fine booking and continued Just A Little’s knack of tapping into unique ideas for one off nights.

Joseph Konstantinos James 

 

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