The first Human Traffic night put on by the mighty Helter Skelter at CODE came last November, and was by all accounts a success. This was their second event here and the first rave of the new year. The night started at 10pm but I arrived at the venue at 10:30. CODE has it's own security patrolled car park and there was a fair sized queue outside the venue when I got there. When I was searched the security guard asked me to open my mouth wide to check I wasn't hiding anything in there, then gave me a reasonable search. As CODE hosts the huge club night Godskitchen it is a superclub venue, and you really can tell. Everything about the venue is impressive, and this especially includes the sound system. It's loud but also clear, and could easily rank alongside any other sound system in the country. The production here was also extremely good, with two green lasers that broke the light into shards and filled the room, and a smoke machine which when used completely filled the front half of the dancefloor in a thick fog. There were also video screens which alternated between showing lots of different computer generated visuals or live camera footage of the DJs behind the decks. There is a balcony above the main room with lots of seats to chill out in, and there is also a second room upstairs. This is more of a lounge room though with lots of seats, so there isn't really any dancefloor space in there. The first set I saw in the main room was M Zone along with MC Whizzkid. He played a pounding and driving hardstyle set which was pure hard kickdrum the whole way through. After him came Wales' Juice and Cally who bought along MC Shocker and played a really interesting and different set. It started off with hard trance including a remix of BBE's "Seven days and one week", then moved onto some hardstyle near the end, and they finished off with BXR tune "Girls and Boys" by Marco Zaffarano. They were lively behind the decks, there was loads of scratching in the set and they were also cutting and chopping the tunes up nicely as well. The first hardcore set came next with Raverbaby's Styles. He played some new stuff like "To the dancefloor" as well as "Black magic, bad magic", "You're shining", "Chase" and hard house tune "Nervous Breakdown" by GTR vs The Shrink which was pitched up to hardcore speed. Following Styles came Mark EG who got a good reaction from the crowd and as always was manic behind the decks. He played a hardstyle set which included "The Speed" by The Crow and he was joined on the mic by MC Ribbz. The special guest for the night was Italy's DJ Radium from the Trance Generators and he came next at 2am. He also played a hardstyle set which included lots of stuff I hadn't heard before and a rip of "Insomnia" by Faithless. Then after Radium it was once again back to the hardcore with Compulsion's Demand. He ended up playing 45 minutes over his allocated hour so did a huge set with loads of tunes in. These included "Let the beat commence", "Feels so real", "Definition of a badboy", "Xpansions", the "No Alternative" cover and "Break of Dawn" which he finished off with. When Demand was 45 minutes over his time I had assumed that Sy now wasn't going to be there and that Demand was playing an extra hour until Breeze arrived. When Sy did arrive at 4:45 though I then realised that it was Breeze who wasn't going to be there. Sy therefore played the last set of the night along with MC Storm, which was right up to their usual standard. He started off with "Let the beat commence" then played "Get f/ucked", "Elysium plus" and "Like an angel". At one point he was scratching in samples from the drum and bass anthem "Badass" which I thought he was going to mix in but sadly didn't. They stopped the music to play the "Turn up the music" remix as their "one more" tune, then cheekily played yet another one after that which was "Just play it loud". This was another quality Human Traffic night from Helter Skelter which is hopefully going to become massive. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised with the attendance that they got here. Their opening night in November was fairly busy but I had thought this one would get much less people in than that as it was only a week and a half after new years eve. It got at least as many people in as their first night though which was really good to see. The best thing about this event is the production which is nothing short of outstanding. All the lasers, video screens, smoke machines and the awesome sound system are of a standard much higher than is usually found at hardcore events. CODE itself is another big strength the night has, as it is very well laid out and very plush, in contrast to the warehouse style venues that raves usually use. The music here was varied and I thought M Zone played the set of the night, although Juice and Cally were also good, as was Sy. The only criticism I can make is that there is nowhere in the venue which does any kind of food, hot or cold, but apart from that I really can't fault the night. Human Traffic is held monthly at CODE and the next one is on Feb 8th, although that does clash with Hardcore Heaven. :( Shouts to Thumpa, Sawyer, Hiney, Gallagher, Chris and all the other Lichfield lads, Lee UHF and Steph, Taff, Smithers, Stompy, Rich B, Lang-E, Part-E, D.Jay and his girlfriend, Bedroom raver, Andy, Leanne, MC Whizzkid, MC Storm and Sarah.
