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It was very good. Gwill Morris played a great opening set, ramped up the energy pretty quickly and kept it quite hard. The only track I remember knowing was Opus III - It's Going To Be A Fine Day. Lieb's set was roughly similar to his Cream Reunion set, but with an hour more to play with he used more tracks that weren't his own. He started off with an extended intro of spacey atmospherics before getting into some old school trance and techno (playing tracks like Zyon - No Fate) and built up into some big hitters of his own (Hidden Suns Of Venus, Dreamstate), then took it down into thumping and percussive techno before ending on a flourish of anthems. The last four tracks were The Ambassador - Fade, Netherworld, Lost Vagueness and Subraumstimulation. Took the roof clean off.
There were a number of niggling issues that kept it from being a perfect night, in my opinion. Lieb's mixing was rough in places, with some cueing errors leading to clangs that he didn't seem to want to correct. I also think he went slightly too deep into techno minimalism - while it made the epic ending of the set stand out even more, there was a 10-15 minute spell where he played a succession of extremely stripped down tracks and killed my buzz somewhat. And I thought the closing DJ got it totally wrong, opting to play full-on Gatecrasher supersaw fare, after three hours of pounding Germanic tech-trance. But that was only the last 30 minutes of the night, so no great loss.
I actually haven't heard many Lieb tunes out in a club before, and last night made me appreciated just how well mixed and produced his tracks are. Even the oldest stuff from the early '90s was absolutely pounding, with the clean hardness of serious techno combining with washes of trancey melody. I was particularly struck by how fucking good Aquilia - Dreamstate sounded. I've liked that track since GU:013 but always regarded it as quite a deep progressive track, but when the bassline came in on Saturday it absolutely destroyed the dancefloor.
The crowd and atmosphere were really good - everyone was bang up for it and very friendly. I got chatting to quite a few random people who I temporarily befriended over the course of the night. And honestly, the whole trip out was fantastic. Rocking up into Manchester Piccadilly on a Saturday night is always an electrifying experience, and wandering around record shopping in the sunshine the next day was an ideal come-down.
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Mixes:
> Maximum Elevation [Progressive House]
> DI.FM 26th Anniversary Guest Mix [Progressive House]
> Live @ Dance:Love:Hub London, 11.10.2025
> Higher Peaks [Progressive House]
> Dance:Love:Hub Afterparty (The Return) 23.11.24
Like these sets? Come see me play live at Kibosh in Manchester: https://www.instagram.com/kibosh.mcr/
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