Ceephax Acid Crew

Sadly, Acid Techno until 4am is a bit of a rarity in this fine city, something that the guys from Cosmic Pint Glass saw fit to change. Moving from their regular haunt in the basement of the Bicycle Shop to various sites, Saturday night saw them setting up their impressive sound system/lighting rig in the Westwick Social on the top floor of The Mash Tun and bringing with them a line up that was far better than it had any right to be. This promised to be a banging night of the highest order and boy, did it deliver.

They gave us homegrown talent from the likes of Miles Otto, delivering a barrage of beats on a frankly staggering array of kit, and Luke Sanger with a delightfully wobbly acid set, to the genre hopping party vibes of Vic Tandy. We truly were being spoiled. But it’s Ceephax AKA Andy Jenkinson that was the main draw here. Over the years I’ve probably seen him play about 10 times or so, his performances ranging from perfect precision to utterly shambolic (with the shambolic ones often being the most enjoyable), but he’s always brilliant fun. Nobody can make me laugh and dance in equal measure like Ceephax can and I love him for it. This time finds him in good form, musically he is faultless, pumping out acid squelches, huge, disgusting basslines and driving 808 drum patterns, but he still gets on the mic and chats to the crowd as always, often just talking to us and saying whatever’s on his mind. It’s not something you see or hear much in electronic music ,but Jenkinson does it often - he wants to connect with the crowd and be as much a part of the party atmosphere on the dance floor as we are, and it just serves to make his infectious music even more so. Then when Sidney’s Sizzler dropped towards the end of his 90 min set, the atmosphere reached a crescendo and you could almost touch the love in the air.