Slipping through the inconspicuous gate like a thief in the night, I find myself at Venue M.O.T. to report on the Maiden Voyage afterparty – when the motive calls, you arrive. The queue is short and the staff are efficient, and it is clear who has come from Maiden Voyage proper, those with a light coating of tan dust on their calves and a wane energy before they pick themselves back up for another round in the party ring. This event is in partnership with artistic collective and record label Live From Earth, powered by Relentless, and we’re promised a space where the ‘music, community and culture will carry through to the early hours’ – having hosted a re-charging zone at the festival during the day, it only felt right that Relentless energised the rest of the night. And with the likes of Aki Oke, DJ G2G, Alcatraz and DJ Gigola on the line-up, the electricity from the festival was sure to follow into the afterparty.
I enter the first room, and the best way I could describe the music at this moment is that it is quite whimsical – it is 8-bit, and like something you’d find soundtracking an indie video game, paired incongruously with shouts from the performers. In the other room, through the long open-air smoking area, a neon-green-lit corridor welcomes us.
Here, Aki Oke is leading a fantastically smooth transition into the hot night. You could feel the bass in your sternum, a beautiful sheen of sweat surfacing on everyone as I watch the sound-level meter edge past 100dB and more and more people pack in. The crowd is dressed sleekly, thin fabrics and tightness in the right places, but it truly doesn’t matter what you’re wearing, as everybody is swathed in whatever colours the lighting fancies into one big dancing amalgamation. You’ve got angels with big fans cooling down anyone within a one-metre radius; you’ve got gum-smacking fiends and shades galore; and you’ve got divas in seven-inch platform heels putting their long limbs to good work, gripping the metal-latticed sheet between the DJ and their audience, the stone and its ripples.
On one of our many breaks for air, someone offered us a few coveted silver-lined Vogues. It turns out they knew the Maiden Voyage organisers, and had come from the festival. “It was so fucking dusty, but diverse and great. It felt like London.” They gesture at the riffraff around us, and it seems the sentiment extends on to the afterparty, too. I feel a rush of warmth for my city and the people around us as I inhale, the embers flaring, all of us committed to one common cause: to dance our fucking tits off.
It’s reaching 103dB as we enter again, the fan blowing wind into DJ Gigola’s hair while she raises our heartbeat with her ever-increasing-tempo-techno. Her mixing is as genrefluid as her genderbending stagename: ‘gigolo’ originally derives from ancient French ‘gigole’, which meant ‘dancing woman’, so between 1 and 2am, we have a playboy-dancing-woman on our hands. What a treat, especially considering she also performed at the day festival; we make sure to repay her with our energy. On one high bit of the room, the lighting has become a crackling red whip, seemingly splitting the wall into sexy fissures. This feast for the eyes paired with the electronic Latin synth in our ears concocted a mesmerising synaesthetic experience.
Several friends report to us that they’re playing ‘Where Are Ü Now’ in the other room and they rush back to enjoy the holy trinity of the Bieb, Skrillex and Diplo. Most of us opt to stay and watch the switch to the final DJ of the night, DJ G2G – wearing headphones on top of a keffiyeh on top of a baseball cap, her presence is commanding and the crowd is at its most excitable – it’s clear that she was the highly anticipated climax everyone was waiting for. We are hyped up, roaring up to each beat drop, punching the upper echelons at 107dB. Her seamless transitions demonstrate a masterful, unpredictable manipulation across a wide spectrum of sound, drawing from all nooks of the universe – there is no-one better to embody the Relentless Freeform mantra of empowering disruptive underground talent to create without limits. At times, it’s as if 100 Gecs met Nyan Cat and birthed a divafied Darth Vader – there’s a flash of Billie Eilish’s ‘when the party’s over’, the ‘Harlem Shake’ slides into ‘Gasolina’, and at one insane point, the lighting starts to look like a psychedelic maths book as it gears us up for a remix of ‘The Imperial March’ into a staccato-something that sounds like it belongs in Space Invaders, all while keeping the DNA of a filthy beat pulsing throughout the whole two-hour set. At 5am, we erupted into jovial whoops and cheers; DJ G2G was the perfect way to end the night and start the day.
Check out highlights from Maiden Voyage Festival and the Venue M.O.T. Afterparty, via @RelentlessEnergyDrink @MaidenVoyageFestival and @Live_From_Earth
