Aphex Twin, Mayfield Depot. 21st September 2019

Third gig night on the bounce, it’s a late one and I’m flagging. I’m not gonna pass up the chance to watch Aphex Twin for the second time in a week. So I’m at Mayfield Depot for Warehouse Project. An old train station, gutted out and lit up in Manchester’s Industrial Chic. It’s another fitting space for Mr James, but it’s not quite as cool as the Printworks in London last weekend. The crowd is different too, younger, crazier. The southerners seemed to consider a bit of head bobbing sufficient. That does not wash in Manchester and as Aphex cranks up it goes off! Everyone’s been slowly building up for 2 hours as the music blasts out from various Aphex curated DJs around the massive space, the highlight for me being Renick Bell who sounded phenomenal in the Archive area tucked away at the back of this sprawling place. As midnight hits, the crowd are hungry and as the strobe lasers bounce around trying to find walls to hit the roar is deafening, which is impressive seeing as the sound system those cheers are battling with is spectacular. The visuals and lights are similar to London, but the music is much more intense, apocalyptic, it’s like a celebratory rally where robots have taken over the world. By rights, in a space this size it should sound shit. It. Does. Not and I can only assume Richard is up there having the time of his life as the crowd physically pulses on demand, people on shoulders, arms aloft. It’s fucking chaos, utterly bonkers and absolutely brilliant. I thought London was good and it was, but Manchester fuck me that was special.