Mood Swings - Tribalistic Animalistic

Before boarding the zany Beaver Bus in Hyde Park, I wasn?t sure what to expect of the new ?tribalistic, animalistic? night at Beaverworks: Mood Swings. I had a feeling that this might not have been the intention of the organisers, but the name ?Mood Swings,? before any musical connotations came to mind, suggested to me the idea of . . . well, mood swings. I pictured a deranged psychopath whose smile turns a to a vicious snarl as he sinks his teeth into your newly polished dinner table, after you?ve tried so hard to keep it from getting ring stains. The evening itself was very much removed from this notion of manic thuggery. It became obvious that the mood in question was that of the genial festival crowd; a much happier one, swinging around in a non-threatening manner to a patchwork blizzard of evolved sounds. That?s where they may have got the name from - apologies for the tangent there (am I actually sorry though?). It was obvious, from when we boarded the bus to when we arrived at the bracing fallout-zone checkpoint that Beaverworks resembles, that Mood Swings was the autumnal haven for the die-hard Northern festivalgoers. There was no doubt whatsoever that an entire summer of ridiculous costumes (endlessly shaming fools on the Otley Run) and garish, organic decoration wasn?t enough for these battle-hardened individuals. It was a fairly standard bus, but rather than being filled with uninteresting school children, it was filled with strangely garbed, colourful creatures, most of whom had already strayed into accomplished zones of intoxication. There were reptilian apaches and feathered cave-dweller types alongside psychotic berserkers donning AC Milan football strips. Upon arriving, they all funnelled out to the Beaverworks, an outpost in Yorkshire?s stylised oblivion. ?Full of weirdos tonight, in here?, one girl remarked. Once in, it proved to be a heated, enlivened menagerie - bunting dancing across the ceiling and hanging mushroom lanterns by the bar; wide projections covering whole walls in the box room; and a raw, frantic and occasionally chilling basement. Each room was packed with its own special adornments, aesthetic and musical, all of which contributed to an extremely varied evening of sights and sounds. Live artists worked away at stations across the whole venue, while firedancers ?flamed amazement?[i] outside in a smoking area that was farcically encased in an almost post-apocalyptic, skeletal metal frame, half-covered in fabric, half-bare. There was even a hole in the wall between the basement and the smoking area through which hapless smokers had their legs grabbed by lurking basement types. Dr Vogg and Sangria Kong spilled out respective streams of marching dub and languid hip-hop in the box room alongside the flourishing jewellery and face-paint stalls. During Sangria Kong?s set, several MCs eased that flow along in a way that was reminiscent of the 90s but also had a certain stylistic uniqueness, as fractals and overlapping fluorescent bubbles floated across the walls and ceilings. Meanwhile in the bar, Wolfie Razzmatazz, sporting a lovely novelty gramophone, blitzed out a particularly heavy strain of electro swing so that the addled maniac in the AC Milan strip could have a little dance. Every now and again he stopped to stare at people?s knees in an edgy manner. Chimping, cooped up in cage plastered with assorted tribal masks, unleashed a wave of primordial viscera. His cocktail of future bass music, sambacore, juke and neurofunk (Christ?) sent people reeling across the basement. His set was followed by that of Junglord, who brought on the classic breeze of steady but frenetic jungle. Seamlessly leading on from my last point, the whole experience reminded me of my Norfolk free-party days. Except that the people involved aren?t directionless, backward and moronic, trapped in a bygone era of a now two-decade-old rave culture. Things have changed quite a lot since The Prodigy; take a leaf out of West Yorkshire?s book, Norfolk. The best dressed person walked away with a prize bottle of Buckfast; a gallant and deserving individual, I?m sure - King or Queen of all yogurt weavers and space pirates. [i] ?flamed amazement? ? the character Ariel in William Shakespeare?s The Tempest (Act 1, Scene 2). ROOM 1...BAR (Good Vibe Beats, swing, bass & Breaks) OCELUS - [Happy Slap Boutique] (http://soundcloud.com/ocelus) EXTRA SPECTRUM -[Beats Bizarre](http://soundcloud.com/extraspectrum) KEY_LO - [M.A.D.M] (http://soundcloud.com/keylodrsicknote) WOLFIE RAZZMATAZZ - [Speakeasy] (https://soundcloud.com/razz-ma-tazz) HYPNOTOAD - [Swing Box] (http://soundcloud.com/sandwich-of-doom) 3RD EAR - (http://soundcloud.com/3rdear) HARVESTER - (http://soundcloud.com/harveyyy) ROOM 2...BASEMENT (Ruff Riddims & Bass) OMEN BREAKS - [Jungle Cat Records] (https://soundcloud.com/omen-breaks) ANDEE J w/ live percussion from ANTIDOTE - [100th Monkey] (http://soundcloud.com/andee-j) JUNGLORD - [Labelless Records] (http://soundcloud.com/junglord) SHAMEN - [Porkchopper Sounds] (http://soundcloud.com/teknoshamen) CHIMPING - [Eden] (http://soundcloud.com/sam-grattan) MAGIC LANTERN - [Beats Bizarre] (http://soundcloud.com/magiclantern) JAREZ - (http://soundcloud.com/j-jarez) ROOM 3...BOX ROOM (Reggae, Funk, Afro-Beat and Hip-Hop) JUNIOR MAC - [Sugar Sound] (http://soundcloud.com/lion_dread) SANGRIA KONG - (http://soundcloud.com/sangriakong) ADDIKTZ - [Porkchopper Sounds] (http://soundcloud.com/addiktz) LAZY MONK - [Rhum Boogie] (https://soundcloud.com/smallworldvenue) DR V.O.G.G - [Versatile Octaves for the Greater Good (http://www.mixcloud.com/dr_vogg/) LSD-LICIOUS - [Nelly Rodger] (http://www.mixcloud.com/richard-buck/)

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