Music fans - don't forget to comment on how any of the events went, and what you enjoyed / detested!
Glasgow
Club: R-P-Z
Venue: Glasgow School of Art, The Vic Bar
Date: 4th February
R-P-Z is a joy every Thursday, but the first show of the month sees special guest Felix Cartal (Dim Mak) draw on punk rock and electronica to break out the blogging and myspace sphere he has already won over, and treat your ears Canadian-style. R-P-Z is perhaps the only club in Scotland to advertise ‘gay hi-NRG’ amongst its favoured genres, and they say it without shame or regret! Also catch italo, disco, electro, techno, and many other European nuances.
11pm-3am, £4 / £3 / £1 GSA students
More info: The ticket price includes entry to Mixed Bizness upstairs in the same venue.
Extras: Free download! Check out R-P-Z’s ‘Dancing into the Decade’ 2010 mix featuring tracks from Zombie Nation, In Flagranti, Andrew Weatherall, Wolfmother and Sirius Mo.
Club: Monox
Venue: Sub Club
Date: 5th February
2010 means the start of a new decade, but it also heralds Monox’s 10th year with a delicious line-up of techno. Seldom Felt aka mmm men in masks who are all mysterious, but secretly well-known techno producers, will appear for a live DJ set, and the incentive that this may be their first and last appearance in Glasgow. Also making their Scottish debut is Cottam, outstripping the competition on sale at Glasgow’s Rub a Dub records, so it looks like the crowds are already prepped for his mix of disco, house, techno and hip-hop! Jackmaster of Numbers and Monox supports.11pm-3am, £10
Club: Muck!
Venue: La Cheetah
Date: 5th February
Another Scottish debut in the mix is Lorcan Mak, bringing tribal gypsy fidget-house to all-flavours of house, electro, dubstep and disco club, Muck! Winner of IDJ’s Raw Talent Award, this upcoming star deserves at least one night of attention to pique interest. Support comes from Synth’s Shapes! and resident PMcQ for an altogether jackin’ event.
11pm-3am, £6 / £5
Club: Bigfoot’s Tea Party
Venue: Glasgow School of Art
Date: 5th February
Well there’s certainly a lot of competition ramping up for the first Friday of the month! Belgian techno courtesy of Hermanez (Circo Loco/Cafe De Anvers) gives the West Coast a taste of the sounds which have grooved the likes of Sven Vath, Gregor Thresher and recently earned himself a spot at Amsterdam's Melkweg. Support from Marmalade Man, Faux Pas and Redux (visuals).
11pm-3am, £10 / £7 students
Club: Second City
Venue: Stereo
Date: 6th February
Second City - possibly not the one mentioned in Dickens' tale of two, and definitely providing a greater musical backdrop - welcomes JD Twitch of Optimo and Pure fame on his community development project; otherwise known as an education in all forms of music for the citizens of the world. If you still haven't heard of him or seen him I'd start questioning your interest in dance music - scratch that - music, full stop.
11pm-3am, £7
Club: Melting Pot
Venue: The Admiral
Date: 6th February
This won't be one of those events where the residents try to hog the decks over their guests in a misguided attempt at impressing the crowds - the Melting Pot crew have deep respect for their first guest of the year, Mark E (Jiscomusic), and indeed couldn't resist bringing him in for a storming Melting Pot NYE party in 2008/2009. Get in the groove with looped disco and steadily rising temperatures! Also, the Admiral pre-club kicks off at 9pm in the same venue with the Melting Pot DJs Andrew Pirie and Simon Cordiner, and a limited number of £5 passes are available from the bar.
11pm–3am, £10
More info: 'Mark E works 2005-2009' was just released in January, featuring edits of the Plastic People and Mr Scruff. It's limited edition so grab a copy soon.
Club: Return To Mono
Venue: Sub Club
Date: 12th February
Craig Richards has already made a number of appearances at house and techno club Return to Mono; in fact he’s virtually playing a year’s anniversary given that we also saw him on 13th February 2009 for their Silver Screen Special. The Fabric/Tyrant resident is obviously a solid choice for Slam and RTM, and he handily carries the accolade of being responsible for Fabric 01 – the first ever in the successful mix series.11pm–3am, £10 / £8
Club: BBL Soundsystem presents: Mutiny
Venue: Glasgow School of Art
Date: 12th February
Irie! Broken Note (Ad Noiseam) play their twist on dubstep and DnB at a debut live set for Mutiny, Glasgow’s purveyors of reggae and jungle beats. Stivs of Life4Land and DSC (with Ed Cox) adds the ragga flavours, and J Bostron will dub-reggae the night into chilled satisfaction.
11pm–3am, £6 / £4 before midnight
More info: There are plans afoot to organise a bus from Edinburgh to Glasgow to accommodate cross-country clubbing!
Club: Mixed Bizness
Venue: Glasgow School of Art
Date: 18th February
Coming to you with the DJ Food seal of approval (“[His] attention to musical detail is as meticulous as his cuts, he leaves no stone or style unturned in his search.”), Bristol's Cheeba rocks up to MB armed with a truly genre-mixed blast, monikered the 'Reels of Solid Steel' AV set: not content with cutting electronica, hip-hop, breaks and more, he's using Serato Video SL to simultaneously broadcast a live visual feed , triggered by vinyl. This is not a gig you need to spend half the time smoking outside!
11pm-3am, £3/£4 / GSA Students free before 12am / £1 after
Club: Code
Venue: The Club (aka Club 69), Paisley
Date: 19th February
It’s not often that Paisley gets to shout from the rooftops about their techno talent coming to play, but Code has scored Alex Bau’s Scotland debut, shunning the populous cities. Mechanical grinding awaits your brain!
11pm-3am, £10+bf from Rubadub
Club: Velvet
Venue: ABC Glasgow
Date: 19th February
Either the electronic community has been getting uglier, or more mysterious, as the sight of masked performers is steadily increasing to the point where we almost have enough to bring them together for a techno version of Slipknot - and I hope somewhere, someone is letting this idea go to seed... The next hidden face (and now well-known identity!) to hit Glasgow this month is Redshape (live) for some overdue detroit beats to the ears, with support from Leigh Myles (live), Le Mac and Rob Etherson.
11pm - 3am, £10 / £8 if you wear a mask or advance tickets (and advance tickets will get you a free mask at the door!)
More info: Redshape and Leigh Myles hit Edinburgh's Cabaret Voltaire the very next evening, with support from Kill the Kid and James Carroll. 11pm-3am, £10 / £8 if you wear a mask or advance tickets
Club: Mungo's Hi Fi
Venue: Glasgow School of Art
Date: 20th February
After a mini-hiatus and still in the midst of a whirling dervish of world tours, Mungo's Hi-Fi brings us Kenny Knots and a full soundsystem in play. Knots has proved to be a favourite with both Mungo’s and the attendant crowds, so to make this extra special they’re also inviting Northern Exposure, Daddy Scotty and Pupa Zeb to share the mic and spread the reggae, dub and dancehall cheer!
11pm-3am, £8 / £5 adv.
More info: Remember! Every Thursday is Dub N Grub at The 78, 5.30pm-12am, free, and cheap, delicious food while you're played choice dub cuts!
Club: How’s Your Party?
Venue: Sub Club
Date: 26th February
Can you hear that? It sounds like the earth is growling – no, wait it’s a flashforward to Caspa and Toddla T’s appearance at HYP?! They like big bass, and they cannot lie, all you other brothers can’t deny, when the bass rolls in, it spreads a grin and you get sprung… sorry Sir Mixalot diversion there. Catch dubstep phenomenon Caspa and Toddla T (skanking his way through the bass-heavy genres) making the best use of the Sub Club’s knee-cartilage-melting sonic floor!11pm-3am, £10
Edinburgh
Club: Jackhammer
Venue: Wee Red Bar (Edinburgh Art College)
Date: 5th February
You'd have to be an idiot to wrongly guess the genre persuasions of Jackhammer – it's always going to be fuckin' hard! Techno possibly bigger than the Wee Red Bar can handle has been wrangled and assembled by Gee Dubs, Wolfjazz and we’ve got a live one courtesy of Stephen Brown.
11pm-3am, £5 / £3 NUS or ECCF
Club: Az-Tech
Venue: The Caves
Date: 5th February
Like a bear awakening from its winter slumber, Az-Tech returns with Sam Hell of Mofo Recordings to stamp out the last residues of sleep with breaks and electro. It's a pretty full-on set, taking elements of funky house and electro-house and feeding them nitrous at 30 second intervals. Support from Al Majik, Siren, Re:Tox, and a cast of goodies in the form of lollipops, retro glowsticks, and free CDs for the after party!
10.30pm-3am, £7 / £6 members
Club: EBC Bhangra Night
Venue: Studio 24
Date: 5th February
To bring a little diverse flavour into the mix, the Edinburgh Bhangra Crew are back with a live performance of Panjabi by Nature, and dust away the rock and techno vibes which tend to dominate and populate Studio 24 with the best bhangra music on the current scene.
11pm-3am, £12 / £8 advance
Club: Volume!Venue: Sneaky Pete’s
Date: 6th February
Volume! are being good to your wallets again with a free party to start the month; residents Termite, G-Mac, Paranoise, and Brian D'Souza cosy up in Sneaky Pete's for the longest running (and still going strong) dubstep night in the capital. Baltimore, jungle… anything with a hefty bass will feature! To avoid long queue disappointment get there before midnight.
11pm-3am, Freeeeeeeeeeee
Club: Couture
Venue: Opal Lounge
Date: Every Tuesday
Described as the place for ‘Edinburgh’s it-crowd’ (and I’m almost certain they don’t mean Java specialists), Couture is the latest addition to restaurant-cum-bar-cum-club, the Opal Lounge. Curated by DJ Cunnie (Soul Biscuits) and Gino (Motherfunk), urban flavours of hip-hop, rnb, and music to look good to dominates, and there is emphasis on ‘looking your best’. Just had a look in my wardrobe – I can sense the knock-back from here.
10.30pm-3am, £5 / £4 VIP list or Couture card holders
Club: Tokyoblu
Venue: Cabaret Voltaire
Date: 5th February
Coming up for it's 8th year on the Scottish scene, house stalwart Tokyoblu brings you it melodic, sparkly and varied: favoured as support for big names like Roger Sanchez and Hed Kandi, the Tokyoblu crew are always about the joyful side of music whether that be vocal garage, latin house, or Chicago to raise the BPM.
11pm-3am, £tbc
Club: One Drop
Venue: Studio 24
Date: 12th February
Plenty of reggae, dub and dancehall this month, with One Drop adding to the mix with their welcoming gig for new resident I-tal Faya, who will be joining MC Premonitions, C-Biscuit, Robigan and Robtheft.
11pm-3am, £6 / £4 members or students
More info: Downstairs at Studio 24, another club takes centre stage with a remit for psytrance and live percussion to heighten the experience! Cosmic runs 11pm-3am, and costs £6 / £4 members / £0 before 12am.
Club: Musika Venue: Corn Exchange
Date: 13th February
Working in association with the Sugarbeat Club, Musika celebrate their 3rd birthday with John Digweed, Timo Maas, Hot Chip (DJ Set), Tim Green, Boy 8 Bit, The Utah Saints and the Musika residents. It’s like the world’s smallest festival’s line-up, and only house and electro fans are invited to experience the made-over Corn Exchange, to be transformed into a 2000 person capacity club!
9pm-3am, £22.50 adv.
Club: Substance
Venue: GRV
Date: 13th February
Substance pull together seven DJs for a journey through techno and its’ many side avenues, led live by Rephlex’s Lory D - who has a heavy payload of releases scheduled for 2010 – through squelching electronic caverns, with first mate Ital Tek (Planet Mu) grimy-ing up dubstep and techno, still riding high on the success of his Massive Error EP. Support comes from Hektor Ruiez (Stick 430), The Wasp (Monox), Cosa (Iridium), DJ DD (Dirt), and Substance resident Gavin Richardson.
10.30pm-3am, £10 / £8 before 11.30pm
More info: Ital Tek will be showcasing his upcoming LP on Planet Mu at tonight’s event!
Club: Devil Disco Club vs Wasabi Disco
Venue: Sneaky Pete's
Date: 20th February
While the cat's away, the mice will play, or something along those lines; Wasabi Disco frontman Kris Wasabi is off on a South American adventure, and he's handed over the club reins to his Devil Disco Club cohorts for a club clash smack-down. Genres will collide as the freshest tracks in italo, disco, proto-house, electro-funk - you name it, they have it - match beats and move feet. The List recently enthused they could be heirs to Optimo's mash-up qualities, and funnily enough the absent Kris Wasabi used to provide warm-up slots for the super-club in their old Venue days.
11pm-3am, £3 / Free to members
Extras: Can't wait till then? Grab live recordings of previous Devil Disco Club sets here:http://www.divshare.com/download/9874885-474
Club: Split
Venue: Cabaret Voltaire
Date: 23rd February
Cabaret Voltaire celebrate their fifth year as a top venue with their Five Days for Five Years events (find out more at thecabaretvoltaire.com), and Split provides a mid-week starter of DC Breaks, the DnB duo of DJ Samurai and DJ Kryptik. A six deck set-up; support from Andy C* under their belt; and eclectic support from Split’s residents spinning breaks, dubstep, techno, electro and jungle = winner birthday night.
*Who you can also see in Aberdeen this month
11pm-3am, Freeeeeee
More info: Continuing the fifth birthday celebrations are Slam at We Are Electric on the very next evening, 24 February. The Soma Records co-owners always have great techno music up their sleeve, and even their most average nights rate high quality. Resident Gary Mac supports. 11pm-3am, £3 / £0 before 12am.
Club: Departure Lounge
Venue: The Caves
Date: 26th February
Ahead of his latest LP ‘Black Sands’ to be dropped on the Ninja Tunes label on 29 March, Bonobo returns to the Departure Lounge for what promises to be another packed subterranean party. A live set from the Ordinary Allstars, a hip-hop, reggae and funk crew, will whip the crowd up for some more of the same with extra jazz, soul, DnB, and electronica from Bonobo. His appearances at Departure Lounge rarely need any press; his reputation already precedes in him Edinburgh. Astroboy, Jiminez and Mr Zimbabwe also deliver DJ support.10.30pm–3am, £9 / £7 adv.
Aberdeen
Club: Jungle Nation
Venue: Origin
Date: 6th February
Andy C from Ram Records. Need I say more? He's playing at the unlucky-for-some but brilliant for others, 13th birthday party of Jungle Nation, one of Scotland's most northerly DnB clubs! Also rocking the mic and decks are MC GQ, DJ Tez, DJ Davy, MC K-Rhyme and MC Bass Monkey.
10pm-3am, £15 / £10+bf ltd edition
Club: Let It Bleed
Venue: The Forum
Date: 27th February
With the musical energy of three consecutive glucose and taurine drinks, Kissy Sell Out takes to his podium at The Forum – always a hot ticket for the electro and house scene! Support from Mash, and visuals from M.O.C.
11pm-3am, £14 / £10 advance
More info: Just in case you’re not in Aberdeen this month, Kissy Sell Out also plays Berlin in Edinburgh on 5 February at Fuse for house, disco and mash-up. 10pm-3am, £10.
Club: Everything Else Sucks
Venue: Origin
Date: 13th February
Sounding like a soundtrack released by the RAC, A1 Bassline (Southern Fried Records) proves that Aberdeen can’t get enough of a) basslines and b) electro. If you’ve said ‘yes’ to any of the options, then join in the mantra of ‘everything else sucks’. Support from residents Djamba, Giles Walker (Hush Hush / Mixtape), and Eezma (Kaplank Kapow).
10pm-3am, £7 adv.
More info: DJs obviously like maintaining an easterly direction, since A1 Bassline also appears at We Are Electric Fridays at Cab Vol in Edinburgh on 12 February. 11pm-3am, £5.
Dundee
Club: HeadwayVenue: The Reading Rooms
Date: 5th February
The Dundee residents have been waiting for this – Funk D'Void touches down on Scottish soil to play Headway. The Soma legend fills the Reading Rooms with groovin' house and techno, supported by Andy Barton, Neil Clark, Bruce Anderson, and Graeme Binnie.
10.30pm-Late, £10
