I Love London - Electronic Sessions Boat Party w Finnebassen & Jadele

Electronic Sessions Boat Party River Thames  London

'Another Night, Night... Just Like That!'

Celestial Jadele

London on a sunny Bank Holiday in May: 
We're at Temple Pier, about to board 
Electronic Sessions' Thames boat party upon Golden Flame. Headlining tonight is deep house sensation Finnebassen, supported by Traxsource top twenty producer Jadele, the darling of Celestial Records. 

We got to know Jadele's energy this year as she made her way around the Koh Phangan party circuit, playing at Jungle Experience, Loi Lay Floating Bar, The Castle Koh Tao, Eden Garden and Bash Bangkok...

As we board Golden Flame, the familiar bars of a deep tech track I know from Koh Phangan are already putting me at ease. 'Another Night, Night...'  I'm scanning the Koh Phangan scene, where have I heard it before? And then I get it... 'Just Like That!' It's a Darragh Casey number, our very own legend in the making! Resident DJ at Loi Lay and Jungle Experience, Koh Phangan. Played by London DJ double act Sam James & Jack Plows. Welcome to London! Home from home, obviously...

Photos courtesy of Linas Justice for Overseas Project

The young London underground crew take instantly to the dance floor as they board the boat. I raise my eyebrows but my friend just looks at me knowingly: "This is London, darling! They've come straight from Fabric!" They've been out all weekend, and this isn't the start of the party; this is the party mid-flow!

Jadele is warming up for Norwegian deep house sensation, Finnebassen, on lower deck. She's missing out on the early evening sunshine on top deck, but has her support crew around her - who all have the same vivacious, happy energy she has. We're joined by friends who spent years partying in London together: I missed out on that time, having done all my partying in Asia.  

It's years since I partied in London, but even then it was always on a Sunday: SW4, Sunday Roast, Elephant & Castle… and now Electronic Sessions!

Photo courtesy of Electronic Sessions

As we congregate on lower deck, Jadele is working her deep tech magic on us. Finnebassen normally plays around 115bpm so she's got to keep it low, she tells me, but it's still going to be banging!  With the sights of London sailing past on the skyline, my friend is saying, "I met Jadele at a boat party, well a floating boat party on Koh Phangan, only right that we should reconnect at another boat party!" 

The sun is shining on us: Reunited on the waves for Jadele's birthday.

Up on upper deck Brazilian duo Overseas Project have the crowd pumping with their high tempo electro tech. It's faster than I'm used to; I'm guessing 133bpm and I ask promoter Sam, who I met in Koh Phangan. As he closes his eyes you can almost see him on the running machine: 132bpm he confirms, a fast workout! 

It's a 'hands in the air' hot and messy affair which the crowd are loving, while outside on deck everyone is lapping up the late spring sunshine, which has been a very long time coming this season! 

Downstairs the underground vibe is more in tune with my heart rate! Jadele knows her craft; she has her own definite sound and she knows Finnebassen is about to go deeper. Her friend Russell from Nononsense Events is talking of the Jungle Experience video of Jadele, capturing our Tech House Princess Missy in action to a Full Moon Warm Up crowd of a few thousand!

And then emerging Norwegian star Finnebassen takes over from Jadele with his brand of 'dirty melancholic house music', a kind of nu-disco funk, deep funky baselines with disco throwbacks almost to Motown. Think Four Seasons maybe, or Earth Wind & Fire!

He's going upbeat and happy for a while, then brings it back down to pure beautiful house music, back to edginess... before taking the crowd by surprise and dropping his remix of the well-loved vocal number that launched him on his way to stardom:   

'If your girl only knew... If your girl could only see' 

Ripples of ecstasy roll though the crowd: Finnebassen is visibly pleased with the reaction, as though he's unlocking the key to the English soul. Only in London, love? Maybe the seriously deep loving Scandinavian/Germans don't react like that when he plays it!

Finnebassen hails from the Northern European deep house scene. A much deeper, Germanic scene, they are underground innovators and pioneers; they're the ones starting music trends.  As we say on Koh Phangan, no-one does deep like the Germans!  Take Berlin's rising underground stars Marcus Meinhardt & Empro, seen on Koh Phangan the last few seasons!

As we groove on into the night to Finnebassen, we're having the Scandinavian discussion again; this time it's my sidekick Odette, "You know, like when you go to Koh Phangan and it's like being transported to another world - like you, coming to London! - well London's got nothing on their scene!"

The Northern Europeans have a mad, manic confidence in the very deep and the very underground; hardcore party people, they are pioneers in a very vibrant hub, trend-setters in their field...

FINNEBASSEN absolutely smashing it down the Thames!
Love a Bank Holiday Sunday Party :) 
Electronic Sessions

Joe Varni: So the Electronic Sessions boat party yesterday has got to be the best one so far, amazing night, surrounded by good people and good music!  27/07/13

To be continued...