Review: Cocoon at The Warehouse Project

Reviewed by: Katie Grange and Ben Plant

Well, what a difference a year makes. It seems like only yesterday that I was embracing the car park underneath Piccadilly station along with hundreds of other music revelers for an eagerly anticipated assault on the senses. Yet tonight marks the first instalment of my techno fix at this year’s series of Warehouse Project events.

Rolling up this evening is Cocoon, with the first of their two – yes TWO – WHP parties this year.  Headline responsibility is given to the crazy Chilean party animal and Cocoon Ibiza terrace resident Ricardo Villalobas, along with Romanian sidekick Raresh. Warm up duties were provided by Cecile records’ head honcho Nick Curly. On paper this was a mouth watering prospect.

Now before we start, I need to voice my first gripe. There’s no getting away from the fact that Cocoon has become clubbing’s worst kept secret, with every man and his dog now getting involved. Unfortunately, the crowd inside seems to reflect this - and upon first glance it would appear that the clientele is definitely more style over substance. It feels that the more authentic clubbers are nowhere to be seen, and instead there are fresh faced, inexperienced party goers. You could say people have jumped on the Cocoon bandwagon. I'm not prejudiced against newbies, far from it. After all, everyone has to start their musical journey somewhere. However, it does seem an injustice when a night loses the fans that create it because its exclusivity is sold down the river to the masses (through no fault of their own).

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Yet despite all this, there is one thing that will never change at Cocoon; the music. This is at the forefront of my mind as the night proceeds. 

Entering the club just after 11.00pm we were greeted to the sounds of Curly’s rolling tech house beats warming the crowd up nicely. They break down to a teasing loop before coming back in with some deep grooving basslines. Curly did a solid job on warm up duty. For the Warehouse Project to have a DJ of Curly stature playing so far down the bill shows how far they have come in the relatively short space of time.

Next up were the men we had all waited for; Ricardo and Raresh. Individually, these two are the crème de la crème, but together they are unsurpassed. It seems that they bring the best out of each other, systematically blending hit record after hit record, and infusing the undulating basslines to create a thrashing set that kept you on the edge of your techno clogs from start to finish.

With Ricardo’s ability to take you on a mystifying journey with his unmistakable percussive signature, and Raresh’s flair for a devilish groove and upbeat rhythm, the end-product results in a world-class performance that exceeded everyone’s expectation. The distinctive mark of the night was the transition of the melodic rift into a spine-tingling drop, and then back into a spanking set. It’s sets like this that reinforce my love of music and if I had an ounce of talent that these guys have, I would die a very happy person.

A special mention has to go to the lighting and visuals which have bettered year on year, - and it seems this season they have cracked it! We were entertained with an explosion of colours, contemporary angular visuals, and atmosphere-creating spots and strobes, which really contributed to the night as a whole. It should also be noted that the sound system this year is clean, crisp, and easy on the ears, which is a vast improvement on last year.

Overall, the night was first-rate and once past my initial reservations about the crowd, I had a quality time with quality music at a quality night.

The Warehouse Project has proven itself to be a clubbing institution, and I look forward to seeing what more it has to offer this year.

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