Shunning Glade and Sonar in an attempt to protect our health, Two Inch Punch, Fantastic Mr Fox, Jakwob, Maribou State and GETME!’s Lixo, headlined the i-D MIX night at XO Bar on Thursday. Four walls, good. Tents, bad.
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Shimmying our way through until the early hours of Thursday morning, i-D Online kept the heady partying vibes alive in East London as others fled en masse to larger electronic music festivals. Undeterred by the heavy action we might be missing out on elsewhere, hundreds flooded into XOYO’s XO Bar from 8PM and made a lot of noise until curfew encroached at 1AM.
Teasing the event into action, GETME! record label founder and event organiser Alex Hislop commanded the gathering attendees attention with a seamless mix of decent beats. Premiering June’s mixtape live, i-D was next up for a fully-fun-forty-five-minute-set, before the beautifully blue eyed and ambiently masterful PMR-signed Two Inch Punch (aka Ben Ash) headed behind the decks. Taking the tempo to a stable level his digi-soul soundbites blended and dropped before Jakwob intervened with some dutty dub flavours. Premiering tracks from his latest and greatest mixtape, The Prize, he also introduced some of his latest, choice tunes, featuring the likes of Ghostpoet, Kano, The 14th, Youngman and Mr Hudson. With the atmosphere charged and space tight, crowds bustled to get in on Fantastic Mr Fox‘s epic hour of airtime. Original support act to The XX when the band first toured, the Black Acre signed artist created some merrymaking action with his bouncing, knee-jerking, bass heavy rhythms. Reviving energies with some soulful house, Southern Fried signed duo Maribou State then chucked down some Julio Bashmore, making the rest of the night a hazy, wavy memory.
If you missed this, you missed out. Watch our Facebook page for announcements detailing July’s exciting headline acts and listen into our June mixtape here!
Text: Milly McMahon
Photography: Stephanie Sian Smith
