This was only the second time that I’d ever been here, the first being four weeks earlier on November 2nd. I had enjoyed the last one and thought the night had a good vibe, so I was looking forward to this one. After meeting a few mates in Leeds I headed off to the venue and arrived there at just before 11pm. I wasn’t given a search on the door, even though I had a bag, and I went straight in. Once again the venue was done out very well, with lasers and cypher banners. The thing that most impressed me about it though was the video projection screen they had up on stage just behind the DJ. This was showing lots of different trippy visuals that wouldn’t have looked out of place at a big rave event such as Slammin Vinyl. I can’t remember going to any other smaller rave event such as this one which had a projection screen like they had here. The first DJ of the night was Cypher resident Epic, and he was playing an old skool set. This was full of big old skool tunes which every one knew, such as “Everybody is in the place”, “Out of space”, and “DJs unite”. The venue was still filling up at this point but Epic’s set seemed to go down well. After Epic came the second Cypher resident, DJ Ginge. He played a good hard trance set which was a big jump in speed from the set before, and everyone was loving it. The club seemed to fill up during this set, and overall it was definitely busier than at the last Cypher event four weeks ago. The dancefloor was pretty full all through Ginge’s set and he kept the crowd dancing all the way through, although once again I thought his mixing was a little bit suspect at times. Following Ginge came Dolphin, who was the first of the guests in the main room. His set included a mixture of techno (but not gabba style techno) and some hard trance. I really enjoyed it as it was constantly hard and pumping, and for me it was the set of the night. During Dolphin’s set I also nipped into the drum and bass room, which I hadn’t managed to see the last time I was here. On the decks were Sonic from Metalheadz, and they consisted of two blokes playing back to back on the decks. I only caught about half an hour of their set but it was good drum and bass which on the whole I hadn’t heard before. The drum and bass arena only had a few lights at the front of the room, and so this made it seem quite atmospheric. Around the side of the room were some chairs and tables for people to sit on, but there was still a reasonable sized dancefloor as well. Last set of the night in the main room was Leeds’ own Mark EG, and this was the set that I had been looking forward to. He came on at 3am and played an hour and a half until the 4:30 finish. He started off with a few purist techno style tunes, before moving onto his usual pumping hard trance. The set got progressively harder as it went on, and he dropped in a big new EDM tune, which I think is called “Shadows and light”. If anything I thought Mark EG seemed a bit more subdued than usual, and he didn’t seem to be jumping around and doing his mad antics as much as he usually does. I enjoyed his set though, although I thought that Dolphin’s was slightly better. It got to 4:30 am when the night was scheduled to finish and Mark EG was still playing. I had to dash though to get a taxi to the station for a 5am train back home, so I’m not sure how much longer he carried on playing for. I had danced pretty much all night and I did really enjoy the music that was played on the night. Last time I thought the Cypher crowd were very good and this time was no different. Everyone seemed well into the music being played, and I didn’t see any trouble all night. The people there were all friendly, and once the club had filled up by about 12:30 the dancefloor in the main room wasn’t really empty all night. The only thing that I can possibly criticize the night on is that the venue is a little bit out of the way, and you need to get a taxi to it from Leeds city centre. This is only a minor gripe though, and overall the night was pretty faultless. I didn’t see any flyers for the next Cypher event, so I’m not sure if there will be another one before the new year, but keeps your open for it. This is a good quality hard dance night with a friendly crowd and deserves checking out :) Shouts to Allan McGrath and all his university mates :)
