Drum and bass legend Roni Size has played a one-off set 1,375 feet beneath the mountains of Eryri in a bid to set a world record for the deepest underground rave. The event took place in Cwmorthin slate mine, the deepest reachable place in the UK, after attendees endured a gruelling two-hour descent.
Descent into the mine
The rave kicked off with the Welsh national anthem. Attendees, who won a ballot held for the launch of Casio's G-SHOCK Mudman watch, wore helmets and followed miners' stairways, cold and flooded passages, loose slate and vertical drops, including abseils, zip lines and scrambles. Only 39 people attended, with Go Below Underground Adventures on hand to guide and manage the underground event and safety of the ravers.
The decks, sound, lighting and recording equipment were carried in on people's backs. From the first recce to the final ascent, Go Below ensured the event paid homage to the people that built the passages and honoured the history of the mine. Go Below said: "This event serves as an opportunity to share the history of the quarrymen with both the attendees and a wider global audience."
History of sound in Cwmorthin
Cwmorthin has carried sound for more than two centuries. Quarrying began in 1810, and the mine's original soundtrack came from drilling, tools, wagons, running water and voices travelling through slate. Beyond the workings, Welsh quarry communities were centres of culture as well as industry, with bands, singing, poetry and eisteddfodau woven into life around the mines.
At the bottom, Roni Size played inside a vast underground chamber reached with support from Go Below's qualified mine leaders. G-SHOCK staged the event as a reward for the people with the deepest commitment to toughness and music as it launched its new Mudman.
Size on the underground experience
Roni Size said ahead of the event: "Back in Bristol, we'd put on a party wherever we could, and some of the sounds came from what we called happy accidents - playing a track at the wrong speed, hearing something that sounds new but still works. Raves could take place in some crazy and unexpected places, on someone's front lawn, down in tunnels, but what I've always done is play to the environment and the crowd. The set is a living, breathing thing that reflects the people there with you."
"By the time we're 1,375 feet underground, everyone there will already have shared an adventure. And how much more could you reflect the environment than by pumping a set into the mountain, hearing the sound travelling through the slate, rock and mud, and bringing it back into the mix? It's the most underground of underground raves ever."
During Size's set, vibration transducers sent elements of the music directly into the surrounding slate. Geophones and hydrophones then captured what travelled through the rock, water and mud, bringing Cwmorthin's acoustic and geological response back into the performance. Evidence from the strictly ticketed event is now being submitted for independent verification as a world-record submission for the world's deepest underground rave. The full Roni Size set is available on G-SHOCK Radio Mixcloud.
