Mr. Carmack shot by Hector Vasquez for FUXWITHIT.
The description for Mr. Carmack’s Control tour is absolutely perfect: “This tour is all about experiencing the good music, enjoying yourselves and your friends, no hype. Come listen, discuss, drink, mingle, DANCE, smoke, meet new people, explore ideas and have fun.” This is exactly what happened on Thursday night when Mr. Carmack and London’s finest duo, Stooki Sound, took over the Hoxton, absolutely bodying the intimate show. Local DJ/Producer Hrmxny kicked things off with a strong set that moved from laidback and chill to hard hitting as the night progressed. He effortlessly jumped from familiar tracks (‘All Day’, ‘Recognize’, ‘Crank That’, ‘IDFWU’ to jersey club and dirty trap anthems (‘Bricks’, ‘The Gift, ‘Hand’s Up’). It was the perfect way to get the audience engaged and ready for the headliners without getting too turnt up too early.
HRMXNY shot by Hector Vasquez for FUXWITHIT.
Stooki Sound took the stage in contrasting black and white tee shirts adorned with their logo. They wasted no time blasting fans with the gritty sounds they’d come to see. The set list was a perfect mixture of their own productions stamped with the “Stooki Sound” byte and a ton of heaters from fellow trap gods. Only a few minutes into the set and the venue was on fire. The crowd was jumpin’ like crazy and the floor was flexing like trampoline; seemingly giving the crowd extra bounce to get higher and more energy to get wild. Remixes of ‘Test Me’ and ‘Bugatti’ were massive and ‘Bing Bong’ incited a sea of “trap arms”. Prior to dropping ‘Mosh Pit’ they said they wanted to see the craziest mosh pit ever. As the beat dropped the crowd obliged, getting stupid rowdy without being overtly violent.
Stooki Sound shot by Hector Vasquez for FUXWITHIT.
The vibe that the UK duo created was insane. I personally haven’t seen the Hoxton that turnt up since Baauer’s first performance there. Not only was the mixing and song selection incredible, but their energy was unstoppable. They perfectly balanced interacting and engaging with fans without letting it distract from the work they put it on the decks. This was best illustrated as Jelacee soaked the crowd with two waterbottles as DJ Lukey dropped GTA’s massive ‘Hard House’. There were too many incredible tracks to list them all but ‘Soundclash’ and Stooki Sound’s ‘Work It’ remix both murdered. As Carmack took the stage to set up, Stooki Sound closed things out. A brief pause in the music had the London duo looking confused as Carmack pointed to the decks with a smile. They quickly corrected whatever caused the brief silence and brought back some heat. A minor misstep in an otherwise flawless performance took nothing away from them.
Mr. Carmack shot by Hector Vasquez for FUXWITHIT.
The transition between the duo and Mr. Carmack was seamless. He opened his set with a slow melodic groove that transitioned into some fierce hard hitting grittiness. Just a track or two in there was a brief slip up where the music stopped, it seemed he may have paused the track playing when trying to cue up the next one. It was quickly corrected and fans didn’t seemed phased, plus in an era of pre-recorded sets it’s nice to know big names are actually DJing. It seemed Carmack’s set was not preplanned at all, as he scrolled through his Traktor library finding tracks that fit the vibe at the moment and drag and dropped them with undeniable swag (I didn’t think you could make drag and dropping files cool, but he did). Through the set the fanfare was immense, it was clear that the fans were given exactly what they came for. Carmack moved from melodic chill vibes into the signature dark trap sound that he pioneered. Coming up with a tracklist for a Carmack set is no easy task, the artist has hundreds of originals and remixes, many of which are unreleased or no longer available online. What I will say is Carmack delivered the sound you’d expect and the crowd drank it up like a cool beer on a warm day. Mr. Carmack’s groundbreaking work as producer has deservedly granted him headliner status, but Stooki Sound’s energy and skills as DJ’s may have stolen the show. If you have a chance to see either DJs I would jump at it, as it’s something you won’t soon forget.
For more on the event be sure to check out our full photo gallery on Facebook.
