Live Review: Rustie, Oneman

Howler’s back room is empty when DJ Oneman starts his set.

Our dance buddies for the evening are two hardcore Rinse FM fans; they’ve been downloading Oneman’s weekly podcast for years and they’re stunned to see this luminary of the UK dance scene playing to 20 people. Whatever, we figure, more for us. He doesn’t disappoint. The eclectic set blends R&B, grime and hip hop in these deft, danceable waves; Oneman (aka Steve Bishop) strutting behind the decks, whipping his hands over the dials and raising his arms in some serious hip hop gospels moves while the crowd draws in. He is incredible. From Young Thug to Billie Holiday, through beats that map the last 15 years of London’s club sound and seemingly endless reams of underground rap, his set is full of drama. It tells a story. It peaks around a knife edge remix of James Blake’s Limit To Your Love and ends with a special cut of Katy B’s Katy On A Mission, with Katy singing Oneman’s praises and the crowd (finally, a crowd) hollering their delight.

Rustie (aka Russell Whyte) is a totally different beast. He winds so slowly into his set that we get bored and wander off for a pee then come back to find the baby-faced Glaswegian slapping monster synth hooks over the audience. It’s jarring after Oneman. Though his tunes have very different nuances and pacing, the sharp peaks and glassy, inorganic drops have that US dubstep flavour, that stadium-scale, brain-mashing intensity that feels like punishment. The audience loves it. We are nonplussed. For an hour, the Warp Records artist slings high drama rave anthems of a Flume-ish ilk while we wander in and out of the room, play some ping pong in the front bar and hum Katy B to ourselves.

Something happens in the last ten minutes and suddenly Rustie drags us onside, with some dirty grime breaks over sparkling bubbles of synth. The set bounces, for a couple of tracks, and we bounce with it. There ain’t much of the good stuff, but it’s definitely worth the wait.