The Canadian pop artist warms hearts at one of the last parties London may see for a while.
Space289, formally Redon, is an unassuming, 250-capacity spot under a railway arch just off the busy Cambridge Heath Road. Inside it feels like a small, dark aircraft hangar. Black drapes fall from the side of the stage. Before the gig, I hadn't heard much about it, and despite fears of a global pandemic, the show had sold out. At peak time, you wouldn't have known anything was amiss. There wasn't anywhere near the level of drop-off you might have expected—or, really, any at all. But then last week was a totally different world. Today, London seems destined for total lockdown; last Wednesday, most of the UK had no idea just how severe the situation was.
The harsh, noisy sounds of Loraine James wasn't a natural precursor to Jessy Lanza's retro-leaning pop, but the Londoner was brilliant nonetheless. A good many fans had made it down early to check her out. The venue's punchy soundsystem highlighted the dance floor weight of tracks like "Glitch Bitch" and a remix of Cardi B's smash hit "Bodak Yellow." Big tempo shifts kept things interesting. Monochrome visuals glitched behind her, at first black and white, then red and black. They matched the music so well I was surprised to learn they hadn't been designed especially, a detail betrayed only by the file name briefly flashing on screen at the end: "visuals for party."
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