When the soon-to-be last surviving man in the universe tries to stop his house from being bulldozed minutes before the Earth is demolished instead—for the sake of a “hyperspace express route” through the stars—H2G2’s Arthur Dent asks the machine-operator a rather obvious but profound question. That is, whether there was any other solution to the problem of his quaint village home obstructing the path of progress. That’s precisely the jumping-off point of Creamcake’s “Didn’t anyone consider the alternatives?” club night, happening as part of 3hd 2022: “Life, the Universe, and Everything”at OHM on October 22, by exploring other ways of moving forward, without destroying what’s here right now.
As an ongoing venue partner, and one of the first to host the inaugural 3hd festival in 2015, the former power plant battery room follows Berlin’s industrial past into its post-industrial present with a line-up of live acts and DJs carrying the mantle of a classic Creamcake club night into the future. There’s Evita Manji’s hybrid set evoking sonic organisms and shapeless solid non-materials, woven together by synthesis and choir-inspired vocals, as well as the menacing industrial and left-field reggaeton of Safety Trance (aka Luis Garban)—as heard on Arca’s KiCk series—in addition to collaborations with Boys Noize and Rosalía.
Adding their gritty sound palette to the night of modern chaos, AUCO pays tribute to their South London roots while traversing the global underground via new gen and deconstructed club tracks; gqom, and Jersey club; old-school jungle, garage, and ragga. Manchester’s Iceboy Violet presents an energetic live performance of their rap and dance music-inspired experiments, and London-based artist Suutoo rounds out the festivities with an expansive DJ set befitting of their work across disciplines. And let’s not forget acclaimed artist and musician Juliana Huxtable, who brings her celestial DJing into the futuristic fold, mixing old and new influences that explode at the limits of genre, intuition, and experimentation, asserting creative freedom and the evolutionary structure of electronic music subcultures. That’s why, when the last surviving man asserts “there must be something terribly wrong with the universe,” it’s 3hd 2022’s “Didn’t anyone consider the alternatives?” club night that offers suggestions on how to fix it.
Flyer & title by Jon Lucas, featuring art by Nina Sarnelle in “collaboration” with AI & S.A Mayer’s main poster assets
