Billing itself as an independent taproom, venue and record label, Dartington venue Things Happen Here is fast gaining a rep as a really unique music space thanks to some canny bookings of late. Offering food (amazing pizzas) and a wide range of locally-produced craft beer and cider, the place has an independent quirkiness which fits with the TQ9 ethos.
Tonight’s gig was part of a run of UK dates promoting the Orb’s 18th studio album Buddhist Hipsters which features collaborations from Steve Hillage, Brian Eno, Roger Eno, Martin Glover (AKA Youth), Dr D and more.
This event actually sold out, hence another date was added, although I was only here for the first night. Filling up steadily early doors, up and coming Bristol-based DJ Minali treated us to an eclectic deep underground DJ set that took us on a journey encompassing ambient, dubby trip hop (I recognised Thievery Corporation’s 96 masterpiece ‘2001 a Spliff Odyssey’), deep house, proggy house, acid, tech, breaks and Detroit-y techno. Her set was seamlessly mixed and showed a real understanding of dance genres and set building skills, always shifting and never seeming repetitive. I didn’t recognise anything, which I liked – I find it very refreshing to hear a DJ not ‘anthem-bashing’ or pandering to crowd pressure. The Dartington crowd were up for hearing a more leftfield selection and people danced throughout. I’d tip Minali to be a key fixture on the underground club and festival circuit after this run of gigs supporting the Orb.
Onto Alex Paterson, who was performing a two-hour DJ set (not a live Orb PA which was not exactly made clear on the promotional material but hey ho). I’ve heard Alex DJ recently at last year’s Forbidden Garden Party and was expecting him to be quite dubby and downtempo like before, but he actually played a dancier set than I thought he would. Starting his set with some dreamy trippy dub house and breaks, he gradually upped the tempo from around 115 to the 125+ BPM range which is your standard dance floor clubby tempo. Alex chopped and changed the tempo at times to encompass some eclectic choices like hip hop track ‘Arabebonics’ from the latest album or a skanking reggae dance fusion of FSOL’s ‘Papua New Guinea’, but no one seemed to mind - the dance floor remained full throughout the set.
Orb tracks were represented, mainly in remixed format, highlights being Tenaglia’s darkly wonderful Detour mix of ‘Little Fluffy Clouds’ from 1998 and an epic harder techno-y mix of the 1989 classic ‘A Huge Ever Pulsating Brain…..’. I also heard elements of their 1991 classic album track ‘Earth (Gaia)’, while a few other tracks from the latest album were also played (‘Spontaneously Combust’ and ‘The Oort Cloud (Too Night)’. Other than Orb tracks, I didn’t recognise much else, but thanks to Shazam I can tell you tracks from Jurgen Paape, John Tejad and Le Trio Joubran were dropped.
The overall feel was trippy house and techno vibes with a dash of eclecticism. Alex ended on ‘Little Fluffy Clouds’ and ‘Earth (Gaia)’ completed with air raid sirens and a Beach Boys acapella. While Alex probably isn’t renowned as a technical DJ’s DJ, his willingness to think outside the box and make eclectic choices as well as the ability to play exclusive Orb edits or new tracks before anyone else makes him someone worth hearing.
Special shout out has to go to the sound man (Chris) who did a great job keeping it all sounding punchy all night - volume-wise it was loud enough to feel the music and cut out background chatter, but not so loud it hurt your ears. The PA in the venue is nicely balanced with good sound distribution and rich sounding bass which is probably helped by the acoustics of the low ceiling. Some venues don’t pay enough attention to the sound, so it’s always appreciated when they do.
I look forward to returning to this venue soon, I see they have Zion Train on December 12th and Techno legend Dave Angel on January 30th, both very much my bag.
To see all THH gig listings, CLICK HERE
Words - Joe Taylor
Pics - Steve Muscutt
