Offie Mag

Welcome to Reviews with Lou, a regular journal from Offie Mag’s first-ever intern, Louis Rowland. Known as Wachuwan when producing music or spinning tracks with Offie Mag DJs, Intern Lou can be found on our socials with a mic in hand — or right here on the blog, documenting the nights out, last-minute gigs, and everything in between.

He’s been spotted recently at a footwork night at Venue MOT, Halloween electro at Bar 90 and Up The Creek for a comedy open mic.

This time out he’s at Colour Factory in Hackney Wick, for Pitchfork Festival’s day of 10k.

Redlee, Duendita, Jadasea, Jespfur, Sideshow, Anysia Kym, Niontay, MIKE. Oh God, that does tickle my fancy.

MIKE has been a bit of a globetrotter this year, with his Artists Of The Century tour taking him and his friends across Europe and the States over 72 dates. That is obviously a lot! But oh no, no, no, they were not done yet.

Colour Factory was the place to be on a mild autumn evening. As we walked into the queue, I clocked Sideshow in the lobster shack and Anysia Kym wandering around looking like she wasn’t quite sure where the entrance was. At least we knew we were in the right place.

I’ll be honest, our little gaggle has had the fortunate pleasure of seeing everyone on the lineup before, and collectively they’re some of our favourite artists. Unfortunately, their extraordinary talents were let down; the sound was notably poor, and there was a lot of chatter in the crowd. Not enough to ruin the evening, but enough for me to say it wasn’t an accurate representation of what any of them are like live.

That being said, excellence usually prevails in the face of adversity, and these lot did exactly that. We walked into Redlee playing ‘Still Light’ from Wraith9’s project Designer, a track from a producer and artist the underground is very excited about.

Duendita filled the room with a voice that carries so much power behind every word; her full vocal range was on display for everyone to marvel at. Jespfur followed with true mastery of instrumentation that served as an excellent vibe shift.

Jadasea and Sideshow brought some real rap to the stage. Jada — one of the newer 10k signings — and Sideshow, a veteran at this point. Both artists have played Offie Mag events in Brighton, and if consistency were an Olympic sport, they’d have to share the gold. One of the best rappers in London and one of the best rappers in the world know their way around a rhyme or two, but it’s their natural swagger and confidence that really sets them apart.

Anysia Kym has had a great year. Purity with Tony Seltzer and Clandestine with Lorraine James are two projects I hold in high regard. We saw her on her birthday earlier this year at Ormside, and she continues to impress. There was even a lovely moment of rare crowd interaction as everyone sang along to ’Automatic’.

Niontay — one of Florida’s finest — donned a Jason-Voorhees-esque mask as he glided in and out of alt-trap pockets in a cadence so recognisable and unique that although he’s one of my favourites, I can understand why he’s not to everyone’s taste. There was a time when old heads couldn’t decipher the likes of Future and Lil Uzi, and their old heads would absolutely explode trying to work out some of Niontay’s blurrier bars. But if you really listen to what he’s saying on songs like ‘Thank Allah,’ you’ll see there’s far more nuance than you might expect.

To close the evening, the man most attendees were waiting for — MIKE. Our third time seeing him this year. At this point, we’ve essentially run out of words to describe the quality of his music and performance. We know what we’re getting, and he leaves it all out there on the stage.

If we take the partially dodgy sound out of the equation, this was something not to be missed. Even with it, the night was still memorable. So well done to Pitchfork, shout out the Colour Factory, thank you to Form for sorting the guestlist, and thank you to everyone at 10k who made it all possible.