London review: RPR Soundsystem @ The End

London review: RPR Soundsystem @ The End

15 January, 2008 | 4.25AM

• Written by: Industry Boy
• Filed under: Music News: pedro, petre inspirescu, raresh, rhadoo, rpr soundsystem, waveform

The queue outside The End tonight confirms the hype that was bubbling all week about RPR Soundsystem’s London premiere.

Messageboards, forums and even the London Paper previewed the Romanian techno threesome’s debut at Waveform’s 6th Birthday.

No doubt because Raresh, Rhadoo and Pedro are the trio tipped by Hawtin, Luciano and Lee Burridge as the next big thing.

By the time Industry Boy gets downstairs the main room is rocking to RPR’s deep loopy house and techno.

Having heard Rhadoo play at Circoloco at DC10 in Ibiza last summer, I was excited to see if they could do as much dancefloor damage collectively in The End, with its mammoth soundsystem.

“So which one are you?” Industry Boy asks one of the three blokes in the DJ booth, screaming over the frequencies.

“I’m Raresh,” he says, his long shaggy hair flopping over his face.

He looks like a model, tall and skinny.

When he spins, he dances and taps his feet very much like Ricardo Villalobos - from behind he could easily be mistaken as the Chilean superstar who’s sometimes known for camping it up.

Rhadoo is equally as lanky, whilst Pedro (who produces under the name Petre Inspirescu) looks like the younger, shorter brother of the two, a baseball-cap-wearing mini Andy C.

The three play back-to-back-to-back, taking turns on the turntables.

There’s a huge pile of vinyl on the right of the decks, and whilst one of the DJs plays, the other two flick through the records or drink vodka.

Surprisingly the trio don’t play a single CD all night.

They must be vinyl junkies.

By 1am, the dancefloor is cheering as another rocking bassline comes from out of nowhere.

RPR mix fast and rough, with bass cuts being their main weapon of choice.

Percussion and hi hat loops meld their tracks together and it’s the common thread of their music.

It’s easy to see why the three are popular at Circoloco.

There’s a level of anticipation when they DJ, built around their repetitive music and brash mixing style.

Basslines drop from nothing, and then disappear just as quickly, creating discombobulation in your feet.

You think the set is going somewhere, but it ends up going in a completely different direction.

It is great for the first few hours, but by 3.30am it starts to get a bit annoying.

The irony is, the unexpectedness and unpredictability of the music becomes, well, predicatable.

Whilst the music builds up and hints at something bigger and more intense on the horizon, it always drops back down into a drum loop of nothingness.

That’s fine for the early hours, but when it’s 4am and your battling with fatigue, you need a hook, melody or harder beat to keep the dancefloor moving.

And when Pedro drops Lil Mo Ying Yang’s classic siren house track ‘Reach’ the dancefloor erupts, excited to be finally going somewhere.

That somewhere however, turns out to be the same place we had been at all night.

It’s like Groundhog Day for the dancefloor.

Unfortunately this means that clubber numbers start to dwindle at around 5am, which is a shame as The End’s main room usually stays jumping till 7am when the lights come on.

Industry Boy trots to the bar in the adjacent lounge to grab a vodka Red Bull and finds the room surprisingly full to a DJ who’s playing electro house and big floaty minimal tracks.

With a Gui Boratto track preceded by Marc Houle’s ‘Bay of Figs’ it is easy to understand why the lounge is so busy, whilst RPR’s monotonous groove remains at around 70% capacity.

It’s a shame that the DJ playing obvious hits has more clubbers.

“If these lot don’t do something special by 5.30am, let’s bugger off to an afterparty,” says Dwayne.

Normally Industry Boy would tell him to stop being such a pussy, but on this occasion, he speaks sense.

The clock ticks over 5.30am and still RPR continue to peddle the same techno loops.

With regret, disappointment and an unsatisfied face Industry Boy leaves The End after gathering up the troops.

In a taxi on the way back to Bogan Boulevard, Dwayne’s house in Islington, Industry Boy laments the night that could have been.

On the street, the dregs of London’s street life move slowly through the grey morning whilst Dwayne and the crew inside laugh and chat random club rubbish.

Considering The End’s reputation, and the fact RPR have never played before in London, you’d have thought that they would have planned a riot.

From all their live sets available online, Raresh, Rhadoo and Pedro have always impressed with sets that go somewhere and do something.

Perhaps the three can’t play together.

Tonight it seemed like they were each too afraid to take the set to the next level and make a dash for it.

And when you’re playing back-to-back with another DJ, or indeed two DJs, somebody needs to take charge and set the pace continually.

Maybe they thought underground and repetitive was the best formula for The End?

Ultimately, though, the hype this time was overinflated. A bit.

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