Pro-ject & Portal's Crystal Warehouse Takeover 2.12.17

Worcester's home grown house movement with parties in the UK, Ibiza and Croatia paired with Birmingham's innovative minds, attracting some of the biggest names in the game. Sounds like a party right?

Worcester's Pro-ject and Birmingham's Portal have made some serious noise between them, With Pro-ject becoming a regular feature at one of Europe's biggest and best festivals; Hideout and The Portal changing the game in it's home city, hosting world renowned DJs at one of the country's most exciting new venues; CRANE, landmarking Birmingham as a house & techno hotspot. Now they've chosen to join forces, binding their reach and growing following for a one off event in Pro-ject's usual stomping ground; The Crystal Warehouse.

Venue

Pro-ject's venue of choice is a prime example of the creativity and forward thinking behind the brand. You'd think we were lying if we said that by day, The Crystal Warehouse is merely a car wash facility. Yep, a car wash. Fast forward just 5 hours after closing and the Pro-ject team turn this car wash into a rave venue, installing a bar, stage, lighting and sound, setting a picturesque underground warehouse rave, perfect for an all night party.

Personally we're huge fans of obscure and multi-purpose venues being transformed, using nothing but imagination to find the perfect spot for a knees up. This route for finding rave venues has become increasingly popular all over the country, leading to iconic rave spaces like Tobacco Dock, Printworks and of course The Portal's new stomping ground; CRANE coming to fruition and completely redefining the scene.

Once transformed The Crystal Warehouse offers a medium-large sized floor space able to pack in 1000 ravers with a blank canvas for production and sound.

Drink Prices
Cheap, cheerful and a fair amount of choice! You could argue the prices are low due to being a small town, however a local bar's prices were £1-2 higher than the warehouse, so a thumbs up from us here!

Heat
Being the start of December with minimal heating options, a warehouse can quickly become an igloo. Without a crowd the venue does leave you shivering so we'd recommend bringing a jacket, thankfully the party filled up within the first 30 minutes creating a more comfortable temperature.

Venue Staff
Consisting of merely the Pro-ject team who are literally like a band of brothers (and sisters). Working tirelessly to transform the venue before the show starts and then throughout the night, working on the bar, and serving with a smile. Hats off to the team behind the scenes at Pro-ject. One improvement we would like to see in future events is either a longer or additional bar to divide the queues.

Crowd
The vibe inside The Crystal Warehouse was rocking. We weren't sure what to expect with Worcester famously being a tranquil and historic town, rarely used as a rave location. Pro-ject has however spent it's 4 years in the game educating its town on their music offering and attracting a following from neighbouring city Birmingham, with Portal also having a role to play in this night's travelled crowd.

Production & Sound

Production
Lighting came in the form of various multi coloured rotating spotlights, par lights and sunstrips, which also acted as room clearing strobes at iconic points of the night. Hanging along the length of the room was coloured bunting and also Pro-ject logos to mark their home venue. Lighting was all situated on stage with a smoke machine also making appearances throughout the night. For a blank canvas with pop up production, the offering was more than adequate and had us two stepping away to the colourful setting. Further use of the venue's structure and low hanging frames for production would be great to see in the future.

Sound
An impressive sound offering found it's way into the warehouse with two line arrays on either side of the stage thumping festival grade sound throughout the warehouse. This covered the majority of the venue well, but we'd love to see additional speakers added to the back of the venue for a 360 audio experience.

DJ Sets

Paradox City
After Attack & Release set the tone with a popping opening set, up next were Portal residents; Paradox City. This dynamic duo have a wealth of experience both behind the scenes and on the big stage, playing at renowned venues up and down the country, whilst supporting some of the biggest DJs in the scene. We’d previously heard good things about these guys and couldn’t wait to see what they could bring to the table. From an early stage we were treated to Patrick Topping’s recent hit, 'Be Sharp Say Nowt'. A brilliant funky track which builds with vocals before an emphatic bassy drop. Eli Brown's tech house monster 'Tech This Out' kept the pace going and enticed the crowd further into their set. With their performance coming to a close, they held the atmosphere and kept the crowd's spirits high, ready for Jay Newman to carry the baton. Andrea Oliva's 'Soho Nights' was the perfect handover, with it's powerful rolling bassline driving through the speakers, leaving the warehouse rumbling.

Jay Newman
Following on from the high energy fuelled set by Paradox City, brand boss Jay Newman jumped behind the decks to give us a Pro-ject masterclass. Starting the set with a touch of acid, Jay opened up with Eats Everything’s rebeef of Hot Natured’s ‘Alternate State’ featuring Rosin Murphy. The 2014 release still knows how to spice up the party nearly four years on. The set continued to keep the crowd pumped with some gritty, tech house beats before featuring the worldwide phenomenon and classic masterpiece that is Oxia – ‘Domino.’ A regular highlight throughout the lineup was the DJ’s ability to change the pace and break up their sets, with a great balance of genres to captivate the crowd. Just as the headline act Tommy Vercetti was making his preparations to take over, the room was back up to that fist pumping atmosphere, as one of Latmun’s newest tracks ‘Footsteps’ boomed through the sound system. Credit where its due, we can’t deny that the Pro-ject leader had us dancing away with his track selection.

Tommy Vercetti 
Headlining the proceedings was the 23 year old from Walsall, Tommy Vercetti. The DJ/producer been making his mark on the underground music scene over the last couple of years, becoming one of the West Midland’s rising stars. Having initially surrounded himself with house, disco, soul and UK garage, Tommy often opts to throw hints of these genres into his sets; adding some flavour to his track selection. From the outset we were given a taster of this with the opening track ‘Think (About it)’ -  Babara Tucker (Spen & Thommy Remix). The funky house record blended perfectly with the lighting painting red, blue and purple lights over the warehouse and setting an old school disco atmosphere. Soon after, Jay Newman jumped onto the mic to officially announce Tommy’s arrival and hype the crowd for the main man’s set. The vocal and upbeat selections continued throughout, treating us to some of his very own production with the uplifting anthem 'I Miss You', setting the night's vibe at an all time high. Our highlight of the set came from hearing the rattling rhythms of ‘Work it out’ by Karizma, mixed alongside the Catz N Dogz’s remix of Marlena Shaw's ‘Woman of the Ghetto'. Chopping the tracks in and out, allowing Marlena’s famous line ‘put your hands together one time’ to echo out before bringing Karizma back in again, truly demonstrating his skill as a DJ.

Sebastian & HUFF
Carrying on the party in style after Tommy Vercetti were the late addition of Sebastian & HUFF. These two are no strangers having recently supported Portal's huge party at CRANE Birmingham, hosting the The Hangar for Pro-ject. The b2b was a great addition to the line up, demonstrating the Pro-ject team's talent and ability to step up with a moments notice. The pair played in sync throughout, opening with Nathan Barato’s remix of “Rendevouz”  throwing some bouncy tech house into the warehouse. Our highlight of the set came from a massive throwback, hearing Dusky’s atmospheric belter 'Skin Deep' build in momentum before thumping it's way through the speakers.

Closing 
The final 30 minutes was handed to the head honcho, as Jay Newman stepped back up and closed the night. This was our favourite part of the show, delving into the archives with some melodic bangers such as K & K's 'Alter'. Even at 4.30am the vibe and atmosphere within the warehouse was rocking. The night came to a steady close with the perfect track to end the night; Octave one - 'Black Water', slowly drawing the curtains on the Pro-ject & Portal warehouse takeover.

Overall

We're certain of two things after this. 1. This won't be the last time we visit The Crystal Warehouse, 2. Portal & Pro-ject know how to throw a party. For such a small, remote town Pro-ject do their home proud, with a solid offering of house music. The atmosphere alone matching some of the biggest parties we've been to, with the collaboration of Portal adding further depth and appeal to neighbouring city Birmingham. We'd love to see some additions to the Crystal Warehouse in the form of further production and speakers, as well as an additional bar and toilets to divide the queues and make even more use of their little gem of a venue. 8/10