Carefully masterminded by Stefan Ro, the newest addition to the house of Torture Garden Dj’s, the party took place @ The Corsica Studios, Elephant and Castle. The line-up promised a fresh mix of grooves and styles ranging anything from down tempo electronica all the way to energetic techno & trance.

Before getting my teeth into the story, I’ll tell you how I first met Stefan Ro a couple of years ago @ a Christmas party somewhere in North London and had a rocking night away from the entire Santa headache everybody else in the “real world” was probably having.

The passing years have seen Stefan Ro alongside his “partner in crime” Dani D, rocking the very foundations of Camden’s most original venue, The Purple Turtle. Every Sunday, after the elegantly wasted week-end clubbing, you knew that THE PLACE to get a grip of your senses ‘till next week was there, at Byte, at Purple Turtle. As well as becoming a resident for Torture Garden and more recently, Poison, Stefan has been appearing at various other parties on the London and Brighton scene, getting some very good responses from the crowds.

Coming back to our story, the whole Black On White concept started out from Stefan’s need to get his hands on the freshest, most exciting sounds and delivering them to the people on the dance floors he rocked; Probably a melting point for the darker, twisted sounds and the more pushy, energetic “white” ones.
With this in my head I jumped in my clubbing shoes and went down there hoping for some good times.

Spread in two rooms relatively the same size, the club was the perfect set up for the night. An intimate atmosphere, supported by the friendly stuff there, crystal clear and powerful sound gave a promising start to the gig.

The first to warm-up the speakers was Junky_Stepz, one of the “young bloods” on the night. Opening the “festivities” with a very original and inspired combination of Ragga and Techno, it got the few people already on the dance floor at 10.00 pm, shaking feet and bouncing heads. Taking a few steps towards the bar, the happiest face inside the club came my way...Stefan who was arranging the last bits & bobs before everybody else came to conquer the dance floor. He pleasantly showed me the rest of the place while I was probably “assisting” him in the check-up.

By this time, the room was filling up and the crowd was constantly reacting to Junky’s energetic flows. Some really entertaining burlesque Charlie Chaplin movie was giving everybody something to giggle about...probably one of Stefan’s ideas, an inspired icebreaker.

Junky_Stepz…an interesting name - I sure hope I’ll be hearing more about him in the near future, judging by his original and refreshing take on warming-up the floor that night… By mid-set, the room got really crowded, with the rubbing up quickly to his selection of minimal, house, techno and some trance influenced bits. I could not stop from smiling and feel the chills down my spine when I heard the first sounds of Roger Sanchez’s big track “Lost”. Man, I loooove that tune!!!

Overall Junky’s set had a really uplifting flow… Stefan could not have made a better choice for his warm-up man, I thought to myself, looking around at the happy faces. All this was topped up by Junky’s contagious smile and his cheeky dance moves behind the desk that really lit up the room!

Following up on the main room was Eduardo Herrera, a well known name on the London scene, resident for all of Never Enough events. His trademark pumping tribal sound was flawlessly making its way to the feet down on the floor preparing everybody for the long run.

Now, imagine this : The friendliest, always smiling , most peacefully looking man delivering some seriously dirty beats, with screams already tearing the air...hah : That’s Eduardo !! And Everybody, from the most underground floors of London to the more “classy” ones, loves his sound.

A true vinyl fetishist, playing records for almost 2 decades, Eduardo Herrera is now a monthly resident at the Kinky Mambo night in North London. Rumour has it, that lately, Eduardo has been polishing his sound in the studio and we’ll be hearing some new releases from him very soon.
Grooving set by the Brazilian which culminated with Trentemoller’s take on the seminal “Go” by Moby. And the “hands up” screams of the people suddenly got fiercer...well you can’t blame them, can you?!!? This tune rocks every set of ears it gets it grip on. ?

The 2nd room opened its gates around this time and made way for the many new faces that were in search from some harder stuff and were getting more & more crowded in the main room.

Lady Bianca, the hard face of beauty, resident of London’s best after party, Fuel, took everybody for a walk on the wild side. The heavy funk infused techno she played felt like a breath of fresh air while riding down on a rollercoaster of beats. I just love her stuff man, she’s got that X factor, or call it whatever you want, that gets people smiling and dancing like complete nuts.

I’ve seen her a few times before Black on White, her vibrant smile is still where it’s supposed to be :-), her tunes are completely changing all the time. No matter how much I’ve strived to recognize anything in her set...just couldn’t do it. This girl must have her own Dj Poll, getting all the unreleased/ unheard stuff before everybody else. Hats off for the amazing tunes selection!

As the beats rolled, more people started coming in, many good people I know from my “adventures in clubland”. The friendly, familiar feeling was there, giving everybody a big grin while chatting and getting their treats at the bar.

Stepping down to room 1, Arthur Keen(NRG Exus), was rockin’ the floor for half an hour now with a disturbing darkish electro sound. Robot voices chopping up a solid ever swinging bassline kept me tied to the floor for the next hour or so. Great, energetic and entertaining act from the Polish Dj & promoter , making such good use of the club’s amazing sound system and the bouncing people on the dance floor.

No better anticipation for Stefan’s rocking set that followed after. Starting with a few moments of complete silence, Stefan steadily built things up for the “messy” part of the evening. I only say “messy”, because this is how rock heads usually are, grabbing the moment with both hands and having it ‘till nothing’s left to grab and the hangovers kick in :-).

Being part of a Goth-rock band in his high-school years has definitely left its mark on his sound. Steady beats surrounded by headbangin’ guitar riffs got everybody screaming for more. Blasting the best in underground “rockelectro”, Stefan’s 1 hour and a half gave no mercy as people were visibly sweating by 4 o’clock.

One of the most innovative players for Torture Garden parties, Stefan unashamedly confessed on various occasions his lack of love for the cheesy stuff that spreads uncontrollably over any musical genre once it gets more popular with the masses. Judging by what happened there that night, he is a man true to his mission with a frenetic following that grows in numbers with every set he plays.

Meanwhile, in the second room, Claudia Cazacu, Trackitdown’s very own girl of the moment came to give everybody a taste of her skills and good looks?. I’ve known Claudia since my Camden Palace days, five years ago or so... when we were queuing up in front of the same hard house venues eager to party ‘till God knows when.hah !!! I was really curious to see her behind the decks...especially because I remembered her as the beautiful nut that you could see first thing when you entered any main room in those days, jumping right out in your face.

After a few sweet, trance fuelled moments hearing her stuff, I immediately found the girl I knew: careless and energetic as always. She stroked me as a light breeze after Stefan’s darker twist. Not bad, not bad at all...she’s herself when she plays her music, and ambitious as I‘ve seen her, this girl is definitely destined for great things!

Towards 5 am in the morning, when I was just chillin’ out on one of the comfy sofas in the hallway, the sound pumping out from the main room just got a fierce injection of audio steroids, if there is such a thing.

It was time for Dani D, resident for Byte at the, Purple Turtle alongside Stefan, to show some crowd control. His first tune came as a screaming dragster...”put ya hands up!! Put ya hands up!!!!...” and that’s exactly what everybody did?. Good tune selection, helped along by some really clever use of sound effects put me right back on track for some more dancin’. The perfect choice for this early hour of Sunday morning!

Dani D was the one to pull the curtain down around 6 am. I looked around...everybody was still standing ...all chatty and smiles! Everybody ...

So, dragging my ass towards the bus in the morning cold with my “pack” around me, felt like good clubbing times all over again..Man, amazing variety of sounds, most original I’ve heard in ages, great organising, loads of friendly faces and, most important, LOADS of ass shakin’ .
And there you have it, Black on White, proof that wicked times are still at large here in London.
The rule is simple: TRY! :-)