As most of you will know, London venue Corsica Studios is to close in its current incarnation later this year – a cruel loss for those of us who love a room where clarity of high volume makes for euphoric experience. Some of the best those came courtesy of the nights put on by James Tec and Luke Handsfree of Plex, the techno / acid / bass / you name it promoters who’s regular events (often alongside fellow travellers such as Colony, Machine, Them and Bleed) a decade-and-a-bit ago showcased the best of a particularly good moment in techno – adjacent to what we called Baader Meinhof Bum Dungeon, and appraised more seriously here. James Tec looks back fondly on those years, praising the Corsica management and staff for being “the best possible humans you could ever wish to meet”. He says that they were always given “the flexibility and encouragement to curate our line-ups to how we wanted,” adding that the club even took financial hits to make sure a night was viable. “Most other venues were fixated on their bottom line but Corsica was different in that respect and if we had overcooked it budget wise on a certain night or the numbers weren’t quite there they would often offset the bar take against our venue hire. They didn’t want us to leave thinking ‘well that didn’t go to plan, so that’s that then’ they made sure we could bounce back and actively helped us achieve what we wanted to do. We owe them a great deal for taking that stance with us and I’ll be forever grateful for it as it meant we could deliver some killer curation over the 10 years we did parties there.”
Plex nights, always ending long after the sun had turned the sky visible from behind the railway girders grey from black, were always fairly unhinged, with all sorts going off. What was the most insane thing that happened at a Plex night? “That’s a tricky question to answer as there have been quite a few and many I can’t mention in print,” says Tea. “A certain Brummie needing to be looked after having a little too much fun at Plex Colony Machine was one. The Blacknecks live set in 2014 was definitely another.”
Plex return to Corsica studios for one last hurrah on Saturday 21 February, this time teaming up with Dinamplatz (formerly Colony) to put together a bill that includes Nik Void live, Ancient Methods, a three hour set from Steve Rachmad’s Sterac, Radioactive Man B2B Tania Atyabi, Cignol, Moy and some special guests along the way. It’s already sold out, but you can see the full bill here. “We were asked to do one of the closing parties but neither Luke nor I live in the UK any more so the planning has all happened from afar,” says James Tec. “We got our good friends Dinamplatz (FKA Colony) involved to take care of the second room as we felt musically there would be a really strong balance between the two, just like old days! We wanted people back that were integral to Plex over the years and of course welcome artists who have never played for us before like MOY, Cignol & Steve Rachmad – three artists both Luke and I are really into. Having a healthy balance of DJ and live sets throughout the night like we usually did at past Plex parties was another key factor. It also wouldn’t be a proper Plex without an unannounced act and to cap it off this has resulted in a very last minute addition to that secret guest slot. It’s going to be very special and I think it’ll surprise everyone in attendance on the night.”
Five Corsica Studios Highlights:
Plex Colony Machine II – November 2012
There was a point at around three or four that morning where it felt like the best party we had ever done. The way the main room was locked into the Ugandan Methods/Ancient Methods/Regis four hour section literally brought a tear to my eye and reminded me why we did this in the first place – a cathartic moment for sure. This was probably my favourite party we ever did and it was Corsica’s 10th birthday as well. We got them a custom cake and we played a PCM All-Stars set until around 11am on Saturday morning. Was a crazy one and will live long in the memory.
Dopplereffekt [live] – February 2009
They had never performed in England before, only playing in Glasgow previously in the UK so the hype was real. I don’t think I have ever seen the main room at Corsica as packed as it was for their live set, you could barely move but they delivered an incredible A/V show which was really a performance at the same time. At the end of their set they dropped this super heavy electro beat loop and then just walked off the stage. We ended up letting it run for over six or seven minutes whilst trying to work out how to turn their Korg Triton off!
Rephlex Records Showcase / Plex second birthday – November 2008
A very early Corsica party, the second one we did there and a completely unannounced line-up until the night, risky business but one that paid off. We had a total of eigh live sets that evening from the likes of Ceephax Acid Crew, Global Good, Bochum Welt, Jodey Kendrick, DMX Krew, Wisp, Aleksi Perala & Orphan with Grant Rephlex DJing in both rooms. No afx which annoyed a lot of people but it was one hell of a party irrespective of Mr James not being in attendance.
10 years of Plex w/ Bleed – November 2016
The last three room party we did at Corsica Studios and it was another banger. 21 artists, 12 hours of music, 10am finish. Ben UFO played a sublime three hour set, Perc played B2B with Truss, Ancient Methods dropped in for his standard Plex birthday appearance and Daniel Avery spun a super hypnotic and very trippy 7am set. The line-up for this one was something else and one of the best we curated in terms of musical diversity.
Jeff Mills – May 2012
Not a Plex party but it deserves an honourable mention here. Personally, 2012 was one of the best all round years at Corsica Studios, there were so many techno nights happening pretty much weekly and it was a really important time for DIY crews at the venue. I think we did five or six parties that year at Corsica Studios. Halfway through 2012 they somehow got Jeff Mills to play which was just unreal. I had always wanted to see him DJ at Corsica but never thought it would happen. One room, 250 max cap, Mills with a strobe light, a mic and the entire eight or nine hours to DJ. It easily rates as the best DJ set I’ve seen live. This was a very special night/morning at Corsica Studios for both the crowd and Jeff.
