This was Cypher’s second event at their new venue The Warehouse in Leeds, after spending a long time at the West Indian Centre. It was my first Cypher at this venue and my first time at Cypher in over a year. The Warehouse is reasonably central in Leeds and is about 10 – 15 minutes walk from Leeds train station. The night started at 10pm and when I got there at 10:30 there was no queue outside. I went straight in with no search, put my coat in the cloakroom and went to check out the venue. The club is set on two levels with the main room downstairs and a smaller second room upstairs. The main room has a raised DJ booth, seats behind this, a large bar at the back, a raised podium section on one side and a mini stage in front of the DJ for people to dance on. This room holds about 4-500 people so isn’t huge, but the thing that impressed me was how much production they’d managed to fit into a room like this. There were painted UV banners all round the room, strobes, a smoke machine, a nice green laser and a big screen above the bar showing visuals. The main arena sound system was generally loud enough although it did seem to vary slightly in loudness throughout the night. The second room had some seats at the back and a stall selling UV items. There was a bar in there and then the DJ box was sunk into the wall at the other end of the room. There was a small dancefloor space in front of the DJ, but then this was as much a chillout room as it was a music room. The good thing about this room was that there were windows in it that overlooked the main room. These were above the main room DJ box so it was possible to stand there and watch everyone going for it on the dancefloor downstairs. :) Cypher’s principal characteristics are its varied music policy and its lack of MCs. There were no MCs in the main room all night and Clipper’s set upstairs in the second room had up and coming MC Gazy J but then that was it for the night. The first set of the night was Chris Impact in the main room who played hard trance. Following him came Easty who started off with hard trance but this was a step up in tempo from the previous set. He then moved onto some hardstyle, playing “Age of the Reverse Bass” by Hardstyle Masters. One of the main guests for the night was Tidy’s new boy and local lad DJ GRH. He played a hard house set including lots of new stuff that I hadn’t heard before. He also played his own hit “New York, New York” and a hard house rip of “No Good (Start the Dance)” by The Prodigy. I then went upstairs where some drum and bass was being played (I’m not sure who the DJ was). He played a mixture of new tunes like “Elm Street” by Fresh and Vegas and “Snapshot 3”, and older tunes like “Brand New Funk” by Adam F, “Pandora’s Box” and “Valley of the Shadows”. It was then back downstairs for resident DJ Ginge in the main room, playing the penultimate set of the night. His set was hard right from the offset, playing mostly hardstyle with a bit of hard trance. Near the end he then dropped in a few freeform tunes like “Cluster” by Helix. The final main room set of the night was the main guest Brisk. He played a really varied upfront hardcore set, starting off with “I Had a Dream” by Two2 Company then playing freeform tunes “Wanna Be” and the new “Crazy Styles” remix. He then went on to play Sy and Unknown’s “For an Angel” rip, Hixxy’s version of “Punk” by Ferry Corsten, “Sonic” by Breeze and Styles, “Tekno Harmony 2003” and Scott Brown’s “Eye Opener” remix. That made it 4am so unfortunately it was time to go. Cypher have definitely done the right thing in moving here because this venue is an improvement on the West Indian Centre where they were previously. That had a good atmosphere and nice production but was quite out of the way and located in a dodgy area. The Warehouse is a nicer venue, is easier to get to and it suits Cypher well. As always with Cypher this event attracted in a really wide range of people. There were clubber types, cyber kids, ravers, people in shirts and trousers, and some older people. There was the same almost psychaedelic feel that Cypher always seems to have, with people in there with the cloths on strings that are span round by their arms, and one lad with UV juggling balls. There is no dress code here because when it comes down to it dress codes are pointless and achieve nothing. The music here was varied and had been planned to gradually get faster on the night until the hardcore at the end. I also liked the second room upstairs. This also had a variety of styles in, and I thought that the drum and bass I heard worked well up there. On the night Brisk played my favourite set although GRH was also good, as was the drum and bass DJ I saw. The venue production here was impressive and was at the same kind of level that much larger events than this have. The atmosphere on the night was friendly, with lots of people dancing and no attitude. One possible improvement would be to try and get a later finish time (say 5 or 6am) as the night just flew by for me. Another would be to try and do some kind of cold food inside, even just chocolate or crisps. For the last hour and a half I had really bad hunger pangs but couldn’t get any food as there wasn’t anything there to eat. Overall this is a good night though, and definitely something different from your standard hard dance night. The next Cypher event is on Friday May 30th, where the guests are DJ Sy and K90 doing a live PA. See you there. :) Shouts to Toby and Paul Cypher, Ginge, Number 2301 and Kayleigh, Thumpa, happythoughts, Wiggi, Solstice, Gazy J, Clipper, Neil M and Big Mike from 4clubbers, and Chloe-Amber from Clubbers TV.
