Shake It!, Loft Studios, 2 July 2011

Shake it is the latest night from electronic geniuses Magda, Layo and Bushwacka. Loft Studios is an amazing venue and has an outdoor courtyard and a cool indoor loft space, which overlooks Kensal Green cemetery.

The music is pumping dirty beats in the main room and carried on into the adjacent darker loft space, which is more cosy and intimate.

Shake It is serious underground throbbing electro so the crowd are slightly unhinged and rowdy, getting bumped into while trying to throw shapes on the dance floor is the norm. It is a bit hot and sweaty in the main room so the open courtyard is great to go and cool down and have a chat in.

The party goes on until the early hours but as the sun comes up at about 4am it is unforgiving to the crowd and leaving might soon be on the horizon if you don’t fancy dancing in daylight.

For the next few months Shake It is branching out to Ibiza, and it’s definitely a night to attend if you are thinking of hitting the Spanish party town. But at home or abroad, you won’t be disappointed if electro is your thing.

By Emma Holtham

DJs at The Lexington, 10 June 2011

After the bands pack up and the entry price is reduced to nothing, a different side of The Lexington emerges.

Downstairs it’s retro rock, played loud enough to dance to, but largely ignored by this sophisticated middle-class crowd of young professionals. At this point, their focus is getting drunk and having shouted conversations.

The playlist is somewhat hit and miss. You might get David Bowie, or you might be subjected to Ram Jam’s Black Betty. Either way, it’s enough to persuade half the place that upstairs might be a better option.

And they’re right – to an extent. Upstairs isn’t quite as rammed, but the dancefloor is showing signs of movement. After all, it is a Friday night.

The tracks are mostly decent: LCD Soundsystem, Talking Heads, and surprisingly good remixes of everyone from Friendly Fires to Rod Stewart.

But the downfall is in the mixing. Whether it’s laziness or a sheer lack of experience, this DJ seems to have no idea about when to bring in the next song, and which beats mix without jarring.

Each song plays on for about a minute too long, causing a sense of weariness within even the most enthusiastic dancers. Every time, the DJ misses about four chances to bring in the next track. And what he brings in doesn’t make the least bit of sense.

There is a 30 second period at the beginning of each new record when the punters stand still, faces strained, trying to figure out what’s playing.

Anyone who mixes one of Arcade Fire’s least danceable singles, Wake Up, into Vampire Weekend’s Apunk could do with putting a bit more planning into his playlists. His mixing makes this a night of stops and starts, and fails to hold down a packed dancefloor.

When it comes to DJs, it seems, you get what you pay for.

By Sophie Armour

How Does It Feel To Be Loved?, Canterbury Arms, 4 March 2011

We’ve been to How Does It Feel’s Cavendish Square edition before, so there are certain things we know to expect tonight. The Cavendish Square venue (The Phoenix) is an elegant basement with textured wallpaper, a decent-sized dancefloor and a well-stocked, if slightly expensive, bar. How Does It Feel’s DJs play “indie pop, northern soul, Tamla Motown, girl groups, and sixties heartbreak”, which all adds up to a night of retro fun.

The Canterbury Arms, behind the police station in Brixton, is rather different. We pay £6 to get into the back room of an old man’s pub. The walls are yellowish, half the lights are on, and there are rainbow-coloured ‘DISCO FEVER’ posters on the walls. The place has the vibe of a village hall, and brings back bad memories of those eighteenth birthday parties that are unexpectedly attended by the host’s entire family. It’s almost strange there isn’t an Iceland finger food buffet.

The venue might have seemed a good idea in theory: it certainly carries on the retro theme. But, it practice, it doesn’t quite come together. There is something awkward about dancing with too many lights on.

On the plus side, the drinks are reasonably priced and the music is still excellent. They play the classics: Baby Love, All Day And All Of The Night, Mrs Robinson – but they mix it up with lesser-known retro tracks. At times not having an encyclopaedic knowledge of underground 60s music means you don’t know what you’re dancing to half the time, but they’re all quality pop tunes.

The clientele tonight seem never to have looked beyond the 60s. Most of them are about 32, and dress like toned-down versions of Austin Powers characters – quite different from the young and trendy crowd that turn up at The Phoenix.

By about half one the crowd is coupling off, and numbers are already beginning to dwindle – meaning we, as under-25s, are starting to stand out like children at a wedding. The retro hits are now few and far between, and our enthusiasm is waning.

In future, we’ll make the effort to mission into central London, where the lights are low and it’s ok to be young.