Club review: Wax:On at Mint Warehouse with Four Tet and James Holden

The quality nights at Mint Warehouse have been coming thick and fast since the club opened at the back end of January, and here we have the second instalment of established night Wax:On, at their new home.

It’s clear since the move that they have changed their game plan in Leeds. The main focus of 2011 was collaboration with Metropolis, showcasing big names in electro, dubstep and drum n bass. 2012 seems to be tailored to the techno scene, with tonight's event attracting two of the biggest names in what I like to call “technical techno”; Four Tet and James Holden.

Entry into the club was smooth and we headed straight for the main room, where Youandewan, a regular at Mint Club (and now Mint Warehouse) was warming up the crowd with some deep housey beats. Half the crowd were yet to arrive, but this quickly changed over the next half an hour. In no time the room was full and Space Dimension Controller had taken over the reigns.

The musical journey began with feel good deep house that plastered smiles over the sea of faces and, I'm sure that for a split second, even the giant picture of the Mona Lisa on the wall. The vibes were a perfect warm up and The Mint Warehouse slowly turned into the “Mint Garage”, as the crowd went wild to a rendition of Womack & Womack's “Teardrops”. Great performance from Space Dimension Controller, but before too long it was time for Four Tet to step up.

He began with eerie, beatless noise as he built the anticipation up to a maximum, before dropping into some garagey techno. After listening to his recent Fabriclive album, I knew to expect the unexpected. From deep and meaningful to fast and rolling, Four Tet took the journey to the next level; the tunes were nothing but magical. The highlight for me was Four Tet's own “Pyramid”; a big beat with a hypnotic vocal that echoed round the warehouse. He played for one and a half hours, and the crowd hung on to every second.

James Holden followed on with his unique style of trippy, electronic techno. You could tell he was locked into the set, crouched over his equipment with both hands forever busy around the array of knobs and buttons in front of him. This is what I mean by “technical techno”, every detail counts and Holden is one of those that really reflects that. The energy that pulsed around the room from the build ups electrified the dance floor, and time seemed to fly by. Holden's set drew to a close, and just as it seemed it was all over, we were all delighted as he treated us to one more tune – his own remix of “The Sky Was Pink”. Safe to say it was a great ending to a great night.

The Mint Warehouse had done it again, providing a neat location to showcase the current techno talents out there. One criticism I might have – when did bouncers start taking chewing gum off people?!

Words: Jack Law

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