Reviewed: Cooking with Palms Trax at Corsica Studios

Palms Trax – a man that can’t do much wrong at the moment – returned to Corsica Studios this weekend to give us another slice of his ‘Cooking with’ series.

When you’ve built up a reputation for yourself across various Boiler Rooms and infamous Dekmantel sets, it’s hard to displease your fans if you’re sticking to that golden formula that’s won the hearts and minds of many an avid dance music head and casual party-goer alike. It was business as usual down in Elephant and Castle this Saturday, and boy did it go off.

It’s no secret how much Palms Trax has been killing it at the moment. His popular ‘Cooking with’ series encompasses a monthly slot on NTS Radio and an event that has traversed several countries in multiple continents over the last 2 years. Expectations were high considering what’s come to be expected from the headlining act, with the buzz of upcoming talents Masalo, upsammy and Interstellar Funk looking to impress.

Across the spectrum of the popular London clubs, it’s hard to find the ‘one size fits all’ venue; some have absurd toilet systems, others might see you queuing for a drink for the best part of the evening and others simply just don’t have a sound system up to scratch. Aside from the inescapable inevitability of busyness in a cosy club such as Corsica, it definitely delivered. Sound system as reliable as ever, a suitably varied selection of tunes and set times a decent length; both room 1 DJs were given 3 hours to themselves followed by a further 2 hours b2b until the daylight hours of 7am.

Masalo kicked off room 1 early doors with a smooth blend of disco, funk and afrobeat whilst upsammy got room 2 suitably chugging along with some dark, atmospheric techno and electro. There was a sizeable contrast between the two rooms, with the latter being the darker and more sinister sibling feeling like what you’d expect Super Han’s NYE party from Peep Show to be like at particular moments. Room 1 was keeping spirits high and upbeat though and the progression of the warm-up set from Masalo set the scene perfectly for Palms to come along and slide into his slot like a well worn pair of shoes.

A seasoned veteran of a classic Palms Trax DJ set would’ve been very familiar with the way the next few hours would go; he’s managed to curate his own sound over the years which is quickly becoming a leading aesthetic in the dance music scene. As the Rush Hour newcomer Masalo saw out his set with some 80s classics including Yazoo’s ‘Situation’, Palms followed suit with a seamless transition and similar vibe. At the same time, upsammy was really coming into her own in room 2 with the likes of Pearson Sound’s ‘Rubble’ reverberating around the dance floor before Interstellar Funk would take over around the 3:30 mark to see off the evening.

Palms turned it up a notch with C.L.A.W.S’s ‘Disko Disko’ as the rolling, weighty bass lines followed into a substantial period of italo disco including Rude 66’s ‘The 1000 Year Storm’ and Tobias Bernstrup’s ’27 (Laser Mix)’. Peak time was signalled by Masalo’s own remix of Oliver N’Goma’s ‘Lina’ getting thrown in around the 4am mark and a flurry of further uplifting anthems following for the next few hours until 7am rolled around.

Another masterclass from Palms Trax in italo disco, afrobeat and house adds to the collection of memorable parties from the artist, with Corsica providing the signature dark and dingy space this time round. A huge amount of credit to Masalo and upsammy for top notch warm-ups (definitely both ones to watch) and Interstellar Funk for keeping room 2 pumping until the early hours – Find Me In The Dark killing it as usual.