Last Gang Records ten year anniversary party with Canada’s best

May 22nd marked Last Gang Records ten year anniversary and we celebrated the occasion with a solid line up at The Guvernment. That night the team that brings you artists like Datsik, Boys Noize, Chromeo, and Death from Above 1979, among others, took Toronto back to the rave days with DJ sets by MSTRKRFT, Crystal Castles’s Ethan Kath, and Purity Ring’s Corin Roddick.

With a slow and early start the night had a fairly calm vibe for the first few hours but as Corin Roddick hit the stage with Purity Ring’s signature sounds the crowd begun to pack in by the stage. Roddick took his set around the globe and across decades from 90s house to trap and Beyonce remixes moving the crowd from bopping to jumping in matter of seconds.

Ethan Kath, next on the bill, similarly kicked off his set with a Crystal Castles song. Kath’s set seemed a little more focused on house. Closer to the end of his set Kath dropped his rendition of Bad Boy Bill’s “Satisfaction” sandwiched with Salt-n-Pepa’s “Push It.” Half of the audience nearly lost their minds while the other didn’t seem to relate to the epic, 25 years old track. While Kath was keeping the audience entrained, dancing on the speakers, MSTRKRFT’s entourage set up the set for Jesse F. Keeler and Al-P.

With strobe lights going in and out the room went dark and when the lights came back up the stage was empty – in the matter of moments the entire MSTRKRFT DJ setup was moved to the dance floor. People closed in around Keeler and Al-P with their arms up in the air and from up above the room looked like a sea in motion under the bright lights. Heavy house and techno beats poured out on the dance floor. Technically perfected remixes of the masters and their own work smoothy transitioning from song to song were causing a riot in the mini mosh pit around the duo. JFK and Al-P may have been off the grid for some time now only playing an occasional festival here and there but they still know how to make a party happen.

Here’s to another decade of good dance music, bring it on Last Gang.