Bondax
La Belle Angèle 14/11/14
Last Friday night saw Bondax return to Edinburgh with their nationwide ‘Bondax & Friends’ tour, bringing with them TCTS, the Young Cardinals and K-Stewart. The duo from Lancashire, only 18 and 21, haven’t yet released a mediocre track, and the past year has seen them make a sensational breakthrough into the mainstream of UK dance music.
Their songs are accessible yet unusual, melodic post-dubstep mixes that no single genre has yet managed to lay claim to.
Credit to the supporting acts, because by the time Bondax arrived we were all sufficiently warmed up and broken in enough for the night’s headliners to weigh in.
The combination of original tracks with remastered classics is always an attractive one and through this blurring of decades Bondax took us from the 90’s hit ‘No Diggity’ to last summer’s dance favourite ‘Giving it all’. Live vocals from K-Stewart transformed the night from a DJ set to a truly live performance, the highlight of which was the new track ‘All I See’ – their first, but unlikely to be their last, UK Top 40 hit.
The venue itself, La Belle Angèle, also returned in triumphant style, having been empty since a fire destroyed it in 2002.
With a capacity of about 550 the venue has retained its intimacy and charm, however as a matter of urgency the powers at be perhaps need to invest in some decent air conditioning. By the time 3am arrived, the crowd looked as though they had just swum the channel rather than been clubbing for three hours. Yet, as both dance floor and smoking area remained simultaneously full all night, the atmosphere was charged and the place felt alive wherever you were.
The music, the lighting, and the crowd put in a stellar performance on the night, and so La Belle Angèle should be warmly (in the literal and metaphorical sense) welcomed back to the Edinburgh music scene; if it gives us air-conditioning it will be second to none. As for Bondax, see them if you can, tickets won’t be cheap for long.
