Top Trumps (From Oxford Mail)

Top Trumps

6:00pm Thursday 11th November 2010 in Club Reviews By Richard Bell

Richard Bell tries out Progressively Less Elephant @ Baby Love Bar in King Edward Street, Oxford.

Over the past couple of years, Baby Love Bar has very quietly and very subtly become one of my favourite venues in the city.

This is a peculiar thing because it’s not the decor, the prices or even the unisex toilets that have really made this club stick out in my memory, but rather something much more important. Baby Love has consistently put on excellent nights, from the much-mourned indie/electro paradise, to the enormous anticipation of currently awaiting each new Broken Hearts Club for its inspired blend of dance floor chic and dark ’80s tunes.

So my enthusiasm at finding out a brand new indie/electro night was on the cards (at a venue already boasting such a terrific pedigree) was very high already, even before I found out the name.

Progressively Less Elephant is the new face on the block, and before I’m even through the door I know they’re off to a flying start. PLE is unquestionably the best name for a club night I’ve ever heard, both ludicrous and mysterious enough to spark rampant curiosity in all but the dullest people.

I wouldn’t be surprised if quite a few people think the name pretentious, but personally I think it’s justified. It’s a talking point and an enjoyable one.

By focusing on the merits of having such a peculiar name, however, I have unfairly under-represented the night itself, for this is a night with far more to offer than a silly title.

It’s an indie/electro event of the highest order, playing a healthy and well-informed mixture of styles, crossing everything from more standard indie/electro tunes through to Motown hits and funky ’70s jams. Throughout the night the DJs tease the audience with songs that tug at the strings of their nostalgia before tearing the dancefloor to shreds with a behemoth of an anthem.

A typical technique that most venues follow is to force you on to the dancefloor and try to keep you there for the rest of the night. It’s a tried and tested formula that can leave even marathon runners beaten, broken and exhausted by the end, having sweated all the beer from their blood.

Thankfully, Progressively Less Elephant follows a different path that teases the audience by creating a ebb and flow.

The important distinction between this and any other night is that PLE is inviting you to dance with them, an effect so disarmingly adorable that it comes across as both a wonderful breath of fresh air and almost unbearably charon ming.

The next one is Friday, November 19, and I’ll certainly be taking some friends down so they can witness the brilliance of this night for themselves.

I suggest you do the same.