OURS at Bassment 159 Rochester, 29th April 2017.

On the 29th April we visited the very intimate venue Bassment 159 in Rochester, Kent for the debut of "OURS".  Relevant to the venue the event is all about bringing intimacy back to the music scene in Kent . Aiming to provide good vibes throughout the night in a small space that keeps everyone grooving in close quarters. 

The line up was very strong for a debut, full of great local talent with the likes of : Alex Niechoj, Atlas 808, FGTN Toys, K&K, Tommie-lee & Liam Haynes and finally Zephyr.

 Venue :

Bassment 159 is an small underground gem located below the Queen Charlotte on Rochester High Street in Kent. It has been home to many events in the past due to the intimacy it brings to events. With its low ceiling and compact floor area it brings the crowd and DJs within touching distance, giving a bit of a Boiler Room setting and we believe it was an ideal venue for OURS to start off.

Bar Staff - Bar Staff at Bassment 159 were polite, always smiling and delivered fast service throughout. No complaints at all.

Drinks - Drinks were reasonably priced, standard high street prices. A pint of beer ranging from £3-£4 depending on what brand, bottled beers were roughly the same price and for a spirit and mixer you're looking at around £3.50-£4.

Heat - The temperature did start to rise as more people arrived, the climate could be managed slightly  better with an air conditioning system as they only had one unit at the front of the room.

Crowd - The crowd was a perfect blend of close friends and random attendees. OURS is run by two genuine nice guys of the music industry, Umit & Graham. They always have a large following built of close friends when they perform so it was always going to be the same this time round for their debut event.

Production/Sound :

Production - The production was nothing special but with such a small space you would never expect anything major. There was however some lighting coming from a small system in the corner of the room with 4 alternating colour lasers at a mellow speed which still managed to set the tone well. 

Sound - The sound was brilliant for such a small and compact space. Similar venues can sometimes really over-do the volume and bass levels resulting the sound quality being ruined and simply deafening your ears however in this instance it was spot on.

 DJ Sets :

Zephyr started things off for the night, playing very upbeat house tracks to set the mood with a blend of older and more recent tracks the night was started well.

Next up were Tommie-lee & Liam Haynes, two of Kent's most promising young talents at the moment. Their set was made up of tech house and disco in an almost perfect blend. Starting off with some vocal disco tracks soon blending into some pumping tech house. Highlight of the set being their last track  "In For The Kill (Michael Bibi Bootleg)" which set the crowd off! 

K&K followed with a very hard hitting house set, made up of mostly their own tracks. This included  their killer remixes of Katy B's "Katy On A Mission" & "Blinded By Lights" by The Streets. Along with their track "Peaceful Crowd". A very decent set.

FGTN Toys took over from K&K and their set was very vocal and disco. They got the crowd grooving and singing every word, it was a real nice touch and you could see everybody smiling and having a real good time.

Finally we had Alex Niechoj b2b Atlas 808, I don't think there was a genre or sub-genre these guys didn't cover. One minute it would be disco the next it's heavy techno and then back to a nice melodic beat. One thing for sure is that it was special. The highlight of the set being the weird but wonderful way they made Alan Fitzpatrick "We Do What We Want" blend effortlessly from "Club Tropicana" by Wham. Now I know what you're thinking, but it was a truly magical moment.

 Overall :

We believe the event was a huge success, truly showing an example of local talent at its best and we would definitely like to see OURS return in the near future. Everything was spot on from the venue to the DJs and we have absolutely no complaints for this one. 

4/5 #WeDanceTogether.