DJ Taye touched down at Archspace and introduced London to Footwork.
Enter Archspace, a small inconspicuous venue which has hosted many an act, artists or event to those looking for those searching for the alternate.
The warm up DJ (I’ll find his name!) played a couple of bangers including: Damn! By the Last Skeptik which definitely got us in the mood for what was to come.
Enter DJ Taye, backpack and Teklife merch bag in hand, no entourage, no other Teklife members – just Taye, refreshing and cool at the same time. Not gonna lie the guy looks young, but don’t be fooled, talent knows no age and this guy is mega talented.
The bass rattled every inch of the arches and it was a pleasure to hear all those tracks we’ve been booming in the office played on a wider stage, bigger speakers, ground bass rumbling.
The crowd of a bout 15 people gravitated to the decks, as the rhythmic mixes started rolling in. Yep, small crowd but that’s to be expected, how many footwork gigs have even been played in London? This was very much an introduction in the fullest sense but one which we hope has many chapters to follow it.
The guy mixes with no headphones! I don’t want to believe there’s any software involved, just wizardry and magic, because that’s how it sounded.
Mid way through the set Taye asks the people (cos let’s face it it’s not that many of us) to make a circle, a few people moved into position, the rest stayed put as if their £1 entrance fee didn’t warrant participation.
Taye then jumps into the crowd and shows off his footwork skills, and wow the guy’s feet were moving like they were controlled by a rapid machine independent from his body. Intro to footwork indeed! I can’t help that feel the English are a little too timid (or too sobre) for this but again this is an introduction, these things, take time. But wow the energy levels had to be commended and the crowd duly applauded when he jumped back to the decks.
The tunes and mixes kept coming and the jiggles of ten crowd continued, with a few people breaking into dance here and there. The rawness of what was displayed by DJ Taye was apparent and natural at the same time. Footwork and the music produced by the Teklife movement are relentless and command you to move. The baseline of most of these tracks ridiculous and for sure the sound system in the arches were doing it justice as the sound bouced off the arches and into what felt like our very souls.
And all pulled off with effortless aplomb, as crazy and frantic as the mixes sound Taye is constantly gliding between the mixer, the CDJs and the MacBook. Again Talented man, every mix is tight. Every. Mix. Is. Tight.
And to add to the multidimensional skills TAYE raps! Breaking away from the decks to spit bars over a couple of tracks with flow and lyrics, for sure ‘we got bars on this bitch’.
