Review: Laurent Garnier, Carl Craig and Planet E @ The Warehouse Project

Date: 23rd April 2011

Reviewed by: Oli Byrne

The Warehouse Project returns to Store Street for another Bank Holiday instalment, this time bringing a night packed with legends and up and comers alike celebrating 20 years of Carl Craig's Detroit based Planet-E record label.

Laurent Garnier is a household name for dance fans in Manchester; beginning his 20 year career in the late 80's at the Hacienda. The French DJ is renowned for his long sets filled with Chicago house, Detroit techno, acid house, trance… need I go on. If you can dance to it, Laurent will play it. Tonight Laurent brings to the Warehouse Project his new L.B.S. project, which combines traditional DJing and live performances using various synthesisers, samplers and effects units. Joining him on stage are Benjamin Rippert and Stephane Dri, who you may recognise if you have seen Laurent play one of his live sets over the last few years.

We arrived to a relatively quiet Store Street venue at around 11:30, but with weather like this who can blame people for squeezing out every last ray of sunshine. Never the less, Laurent was banging out some Detroit Techno and the half full main room was lapping it up. He obviously knows what a bank holiday does to us Brits and wasn't holding back one bit. It was a pleasant surprise to come into the Warehouse Project and see a crowd excited rather than just waiting around for a headliner to come on. Slowly but surely the room was filling up as Laurent continued to shred the main room, sticking mostly to techno and throwing in the occasional acid tune that a Manchester crowd always enjoys. 

Around 12.30 the set took a more soulful direction and I noticed that Laurent had stopped using the decks; taking his place instead behind the huge sound desk he likes to use for live performance. Extended synth solos were accompanying euphoric uplifting segments while Laurent kept the tempo and bass lines up there. He started to play a few crowd favourites such as 'Crispy Bacon' and 'The Man With The Red Face', and everyone was loving it. Girls were slung on their partners shoulders, hands were in the air, shirts were coming off to reveal white vests and on more than one occasion I was greeted with a hug from a particularly sweaty gentleman. Good times. 

The trio continued to work the crowd with this soulful play on techno. I must admit though, that I was enjoying the harder edge of detroit techno that Laurent was playing earlier - and found this was becoming slightly monotonous. However, the crowd seemed to be having a great time. I called it a day in the main rom and retreated to the back room to check out anonymous disco duo, Tiger & Woods.

With a string of sought after 12" releases, a highly rated Resident Advisor Podcast and a debut album on the way Tiger & Woods are definitely up there on the list of DJs I've wanted to see for a while. Opening with Clyde Brown's 'Your Wish Is My Command', the duo kept the tempo super slow all night and went on do deliver a set full of sleazy disco edits, slo-mo house, classic disco and some of their own material including my personal favourite 'Love In Cambodia'. A lively crowd took a break from the techno surrounding them and seemed to really enjoy what was a refreshing treat; easily the best of the night. My only complaint is that I'll never find out what half the tracks they played are.

After a refreshing disco boogie I headed back in to the main room for man of the night, Carl Craig. Carl started Planet-E back in the early 90's in Detroit and it has become one of the most important record labels in dance music - home to some of the most influential Detroit artists and releases and still releasing quality tunes to this day. This was going to be good.

Carl had already started his set when we entered the main room, and was playing hard and frantic techno from all eras, with no signs of slowing down. Highlights of the set has to be flawlessly mixing from barnstorming techno into a disco track; which the crowd went absolutely mad for. Two hours felt like minutes, and I was shocked when Carl played DJ Rolando's 'Knights Of The Jaguar' as a final tune; a bit of an obvious choice, but hey, it worked. 

An absolutely amazing night which could only have been made better if the WHP had pushed for a later license, as not many people were keen on leaving at 5am.

Tickets are no longer available for this event