Pulse, also known as Bankside Vaults, is built into four spectacular interlinked brick arches, right beside Blackfriars Bridge in central London. Divided naturally into four areas, its primary space is equipped with a performance stage, recently used by Erick Morillo for a record-breaking crowd of 2,500 people, and Carl Cox.
For the Soul Heaven event, the club's Nexo Geo S12 line array system in the main room, which is augmented by a shoulder-high bank of RS15 sub-bass cabinets, had been ingeniously re-configured by installation company VibaSound to allow the DJ performance stage to be repositioned against the long wall.
Clusters of three Geo S12 cabinets were flown in the four corners of the rectangular space; two pairs of S12s flew either side of the DJ console, directed into the crowd, and 12 RS15 subs were ground-stacked along the edge of the dancefloor area. Vibasound engineers Thom Holland and Hugh Sadleir were on hand to offer technical and moral support.
Soul Heaven's line up of guest DJs, including Andy Ward, Neil Pierce, Dj Spen, Atjazz, Sy Sez, RiskSoundsystem, DJ Rocco and Kenny Dope, spread themselves out across three different rooms in Pulse's cavernous under-the-arches estate. Resident DJs Phil Asher and Craig Smith, specialising in broken beat, jazzy and experimental styles were joined by special guest Atjazz in using the NEXO Alpha system, still a favourite for its warm punchy sound quality.
(Jim Evans)
