Inside Jamie XX’s Sold Out Ten Day Residency At Venue MOT

It was just more than a month ago that critically acclaimed record producer, DJ and remixer Jamie XX unveiled his highly anticipated return to the London live event scene; announcing a ten-day residency at Venue MOT, a converted warehouse location in the depths of South London, the multi-talent promised a window back into the ‘rave culture’ we associated with the early 21st century. Famously making up a third of the experimental indie trio The XX, Jamie has come to work alongside some of the biggest names throughout his solo-career as a producer.  With every single event selling out in a matter of minutes due impeccable demand, Jamie XX was ready to welcome around 3500 ravers to ‘The Floor’ – the name given to the 350-capacity venue for the duration of his residency. With the residency starting on the 15th of May and each night consisting of five to eight hours of live DJ’s spinning tunes, we had the privilege to check out last Friday’s event (Night 9), and here’s a little look at what went down inside…

Having travelled up to London directly after attending The Streets’ headliner in Brighton, the opening 10pm set came around just a little too fast for me. With Lil C playing from 10pm-11:30pm and MJ Cole spinning the decks from 11:30pm-1am, those who managed to get down for doors open were treated to some unreal warm-up riddims. However, a Thameslink train, a short five-minute overground and a fifteen-minute walk had me primed in a the location of Jamie XX’s residency just in time for his set. Having religiously announced each lineup via his Instagram shortly before the venue was set to open each night, I was pleasantly surprised to see that Night 9 promised a two-hour B2B set from Jamie XX and Daphni, who as many will already know also goes under the alias of Caribou. A night that promised so much, the impression was general consensus that all in attendance were more than lucky to have gained access to the venue. 

Arriving at the the venue shortly before 1am, the first striking feature of the venue was it’s disassociation with the outside world, yet still located within a typically generic and standard ‘everyday life’ place. Located in a warehouse unit on a small industry estate in South Bermondsey, Venue MOT enclosed 350 ravers in a dark, dingy and underground feeling environment. Although not neccessarily the most appealing of descriptions for the casual live music fan, this is everything the rave scene been calling out for, a nostalgic location that can help create flashbacks to the times in which illegal and ‘underground’ raves were held in old buildings and below car parks. 

With the atmosphere brimmed with anticipation and a resounding heat that struck you as soon as you entered the main door and curtain to ‘The Floor’, Jamie XX took to the stage with Daphni just after 1am.

Mixing entirely on vinyl for the two-hour duration of their set, the extended set gave us a wide array of electronic and techno-influenced bangers; reverberating around the four walls of ‘The Floor’, the bass shook to the floor as the crowd was treated to intuitive reimagined mixes of tracks such as “Gosh” and his latest single “Baddy On The Dancefloor” which hybridised perfectly with Daphni’s original and signature sound. A real masterclass in the dance and electronic music world, these two back-to-back were the stuff of dreams. closing the evening came on rising duo Two Shell who mixed alongside Kit Seymour to see the evening out until 5am. 

Throughout the full ten-day residency, Jamie XX brought some of the biggest and most underground names to South London, with notable sets including that of Charlie XCX and Romy amongst the many that came through to perform. The full list below shows every artist that came through to perform at Venue MOT throughout the ten-day period.

Some way to mark your return to the live music scene in London, that’s for sure. Those lucky enough to be attending Glastonbury next month will be relishing the opportunity to see one of the UK’s leading dance and electronic music exports, and with a highly anticipated potential new album around the corner, everybody eagerly awaits his next move.