Tobacco Dock, a Grade I listed warehouse situated in the Docklands area of the East End of London, provided the venue for LWE’s New Year’s Day party. The lineup, which brought together some of the finest raw talent around, saw thousands of people descend on the infamous London venue; making this one of the hottest tickets around.

Having heard only good things, we decided to venture down early to catch Solardo, who were providing The Great Gallery with their energetic, bass driven sounds. 2016, saw Solardo crowned Dj Mag’s Best Breakthrough Artists and it was evident just why from the masses that had gathered. The guys, in their unmissable shirts, had no problem taking the crowd into the new year with a selection of uplifting driven techno and house; most notably their remix of Snap’s classic, ‘I’ve got the power’. As the set progressed, so did their sound and a few tracks later we began to hear that infamous chant from their mammoth release, ‘Tribesmen’ on Hot Creations; which has been resonating throughout the summer months. Furthermore, we got to hear a sneak peak of Detlef’s forthcoming release, ‘Pump It’ and their recent release, ‘The Aztecs’ on Toolroom Records.

Following Solardo, we decide to head down into the Car Park, a short walk from the central hub down a dark corridor, which provided the space for Hot Since 82’s Knee Deep In Sound imprint. Instantly, as soon as we walked onto the car park, we found ourselves completely soaked in darkness. The Car Park was packed, with thousands of people pressed tight in a long narrow space. We managed to manoeuvre to the front, now realising the sheer size of the crowd, we decided to dig in, just in time to witness Anna take centre stage. Anna, one of Beatport’s 10 techno artists for 2016 and a firm favourite of ours throughout the year, gifted the crowds with her very own productions, which included Terminal M’s ‘Face Your Fears’.

Darkness had now settled over the venue, as we headed back to The Great Gallery to catch Circus Records boss Yousef perform. As expected, Yousef’s set was flawless. Yousef, who prides himself on rolling percussion, solid grooves and big vocals, certainly raised the tempo. Embedded into his set, were a number of Circus Records favourites; one of them being Mihalis Safras’s remix of Marco Carola’s ‘Play it Loud’. A highlight, around half way through, came in the form of an edit which featured Biggie Small’s classic ‘Hypnotize’.

Butch was definitely one of the sets we had planned to hear, another firm favourite of ours throughout the year, with his remix of the Mighty Dub Katz’s being a staple fixture for the majority of artists this summer. Butch’s tight mixing and the knowledge to command any dancefloor proved a hit with both us and the crowd. The prolific producer dropped a killer remix of Funk Phenomena and Bicep’s standout remix of 2016 ‘Higher Level’ between those hypnotic grooves and the intensified production.

Around 9pm, Hot Since 82 rounded off a perfect day in the city by dropping some of his Knee Deep in Sound favourites; which included Roxan from Leonardo Gonnell and Subb-ann’s remix of Nic fanciulli’s classic anthem ‘That Place’. The set throughout, was littered with deep basslines and high energy percussion which the crowd responded to. Overall, Hot Since 82 produced a sublime performance which capped the day off nicely.

In our opinion, Tobacco Dock, which is still relatively new, has proved itself amongst some of the more established one day events. Furthermore, LWE has done a fantastic job at putting together a lineup which delivered on all accounts.