Review: MEOKO @ Village Underground, Shoreditch

Rarity is probably the defining principle of dance music culture. From its endless pursuit of ‘underground’ material and unknown seven inches, through to the fashion sense of ‘one of a kind’ on the scene, one can see a thread of authentic ideals and passions that pervade it.

MEOKO, then, on Friday night, was billing itself as a rare and one-off event. Encompassing all aspects of electronic culture, it was a celebration of music, photography, film and fashion, but ultimately it was music that was the main subject at Shoreditch’s wonderful arch/underground space, Village Underground, as is often the case with such events.

With electronic music being its forefront subject, the venue had been taken over with sonic interests in mind. This much was obvious during the screening of the electronic music film premiere ‘Beatz’, featuring talking heads from the likes of Carl Cox, Luciano and Laurent Garnier, where the sound was unfortunately set up for the club night afterwards, with all of the low end thumping through. This aural aspect was wonderful when the club night got going, but it left the spoken word parts above the music in the film barely audible and made the viewing slightly redundant (the lovely people at MEOKO, however, are sending a free download of the film to all who attended due to this).

What could be heard from the film, it must be said, was golden. Carl Cox is particularly engaging when discussing his love for what he does and the materials he uses and holds a presence which goes some way towards explaining his status on the dance music scene as a premiere DJ-cum-performer.

Beyond ‘Beatz’, the actual night itself was great fun. It was a serious dance event with some top class names (if you are, indeed, one of those whose interests lie in rarity and the underground) such as Juni Akomoto, Voigtmann and Rico Casazza playing, providing a wall of bass heavy nasties whose impact were not spoiled by the slightly overly heavy draping (surely the point of dance music is reverb, isn’t it?) and crowd noise.

There was a sort of festival feel to MEOKO with clothing stalls set up by the bars, housing purchasable vintage threads and some rather esoteric leggings, and, in all, Village Underground seemed like the perfect place to hold such an event – a proper Shoreditch venue with that underground feel so many entranced by dance feel is necessary for a hang-out.

MEOKO was, overall, a good event and is a lovely idea in theses modern times, where such events are often gate-crashed by estate agents from places like Basildon or Ruislip looking for a cheap thrill. Its intention was clearly artistic rather than purely for raving and thus attracted a crowd with leanings this way (the odd moron with muscles and a crap hat could be found however – such is the shape of things these days). Such rarity can be hard to find now and should be cherished.

Click here for a peek at ‘Beatz’