Thursday 29 April 2010

Sustainable Clubbing: Environmental (and possibly judgemental)

I spotted this article earlier this month, and reckon that it deserves attention for two reasons; firstly because of the possibilities for cheap energy, lower utility bills, and that nice feeling of doing something for the environment, and secondly, because it could become the ultimate DJ rating tool.

Toulouse in France has adopted 'pavement power' technology, using the electricity generated by footsteps to power lighting. It's a technology borrowed from the Netherlands' Sustainable Dance Club (SDC), which produces technologies such as the movement-generated dancefloor, a zero-waste bar, and a personal cup-holder to avoid festival and club chuck-aways.

But imagine the possibilities of taking this to the next level: no back-up generators, no auxiliary supplies, just a sustainable dancefloor, a DJ and a crowd. Then link the dancefloor to the amps, speakers and turntables, and hey presto, you get instant crowd judgement with immediate effect. If the set is banging, the crowd is jumping, and the tables keep turning, but as soon you drop a dancefloor clearer, all energy will be zapped from the DJs' fingers - the incitement to maintain crowd spirits and feet movement will only be as great as the urge to have a clubnight in the first place.

This all sounds a bit Stasi, but I've yearned for the ability to turn off the mixer for particularly bad sets, and quite frankly the stage bouncers just keep getting bigger (while I've got fatter and slower). Having the option presented in emission-cutting sustainable technology is just icing on the cake.


Check out SDC's site for more info on how you can become a sustainable club venue - it's time Scotland saw this technology in the mix.

Wednesday 28 April 2010

May 2010 (Week 1) Clubbing Listings: Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, and Dundee

In the name of sense, I'll be making weekly posts of clubbing listings - with articles in between. No more burial of text; viva la extra content!

Edinburgh

Club: Ultragroove
Venue: Cabaret Voltaire
Date: 1st May


Glasgow house wunderkind Milton Jackson (Freerange) joins Gareth Sommerville and Stuart McCroy to infuse the club with his Dark Energy and the kind of sounds that captured the attention of Roger Sanchez, Laurent Garnier and Ashley Beedle. The prolific attitude has barely paused for breath, and already Jackson is working on his 2nd Freerange album, due early 2011 - enjoy guessing where he's taking his sound through a blinding set!

11pm-3am, £8 / £5 before 12am or students

Extras: The second Ultragroove of May witnesses the Shindig 18th birthday tour on the 15th. To celebrate their clubbing longevity, promoter and resident Scott Bradford digs deep into the house grooves, with support from Neil Bainbridge. 11pm-3am, £8 / £5 before 12am or students

Club: Xplicit
Venue: O2 ABC

Date: 1st May


Live gig on the books, folks: Chase and Status do it arena-style with Xplicit and the major promotion dudes for an all-age dnb riot (sorry 13 year olds!). Chase and Status are those rare dance acts who manage mainstream chart success without watering down their love for speedy bpm or genre-bending, accruing a wide and varied following. Add in dubstep from 16bit and grimy lyrics from Devlin and you've got the UK tour!

7pm, £13.50

More info: Gig open to 14 years+, but those under 16 must be accompanied by an adult.

Extras:
Xplicit also presents the Dubstep vs Dnb Soundclash on Friday 30th April at Edinburgh's Bongo Club with Eclair Fifi (LuckyMe) taking on Tekamine (Jungledub). Paul Reset (Nerve Recordings) and Eno (Parlay) join the beat-down. 11pm-3am, £7 / £5 before 12.30am.

Glasgow

Club: Melting Pot

Venue: The Admiral

Date: 1st May

DFA star Tim Sweeney spends a lot of his time inviting DJs to play on his Beats in Space New York radio show, but on the flipside he's just as requested himself. Melting Pot's cries for a deck reunion have been heard and Sweeney will take over the downstairs floors with residents Andrew Pirie and Simon Cordiner on support. Upstairs in the Esprit d'Escalier room Little Rock Records' The Niallist unleashes his live and DJ set for the first time at Melting Pot - and Lo-Quality doubts it will be the last! It's diversity squared at this event, with plenty house, disco, electro, pop and more in the oven.

11pm-3am, £10 on the door

More info: Free pre-club at The Admiral from 9pm - limited number of £5 club passes available from the bar.

Thursday 22 April 2010

FUCKNO: Hell yes!

The long-awaited Little Rock compilation sequel is soon upon us - from the Glasgow crew who brought you NORAVE comes the delicately-titled and appropriately colloquial, FUCKNO! 30 Tracks from 30 bands available on April 30th, and in the run-up to release our good friends Shallow Rave will be giving away music from the artists, everyday!

FUCKNO - A NORAVE Re-contextualisation continues the joyous revel in new and underground music; from breakcore to glitch-hop and plenty thrashing in between. As before Little Rock will also release an eight track EP to coincide with the full-length album; compiled from the tracks which didn't make it onto the already extra-length LP, the Niallist explains that they "got sent so much stuff it's a shame to see it go to waste!"

Lo-Quality Music is celebrating the auspicious occasion with a full-length interview with the Little Rock bods - The Niallist, Boag and Kid Ritalin, so without further ado get your gums round these info gems.

CAUTION: This interview done gone contain them big words, approach with a dictionary and prudence.


Starting with a most nationalist question, who are the 'homegrown' talents we need to listen out for on the compilation?

The Niallist: "Well, loads of the tracks are by Glasgow and Edinburgh bands. It seems churlish to single out any particular acts, apart from Geoff Before Dishonour, Yoko, Oh No!, Kids On Tv, Blood Of The Bull, Hannas Barber, Boy Army, Divorce, Miaoux Miaoux, Dam Mantle, Blue Sabbath, Noisy Pig, Tokamak, Sileni, Dr Nojoke, Blackhead, NYRR, Gatr, Headless Kamikaze, Doxy, J-Lab, Texture, Ultimate Thrush, Vars Of Lichi, Weenliz, and anyone else we may have forgottten."

Kid Ritalin: "Well, Niallist forgot me. However, I'm really pleased to be able to give space to Gatr and Blackhead, two child proteges whose rude-as-fuck breakcore would make Raffertie prolapse in horror. They're both Stow College students, and I'm really glad to be able to give a leg up to kids I think are going on to greatness. The same goes with Ultimate Thrush - they're rising stars who we've booked in the past, written about, talked about and generally pushed down everyone's throats, and are now seeing going stratospheric."

Why the name 'Fuckno'?

Boag: "NORAVE is in the past; FUCK NO. We've moved on, and killing who we used to be is a big part of becoming someone else. NORAVE was hopeless and jaded, coming down hard with all the brutality and weirdness that comes with that. This year we've taken our psychoses and run with them. Far from being cowed by the comedown, freaked and tweaked in the corner of our own minds, wandering through a dystopian imagination borne of a rave-induced schizophrenia, FUCKNO is about saying FUCK NO to the fear of the evil that lurks. We've embraced our demons and we're taking them clubbing. The music we'll make with the endless and evil ecstasy-fuelled egregore others might run from? We call it FUCKNO, because that neologism is about the only word that seems to fit."

"I think 'Not-Dancing' should be a chuckable offence in clubland, right up there with spewing or falling asleep." - Boag

Kid Ritalin: "FUCKNO is a non-statement - a negation; a decision to go against assumed knowledge and memetic inheritance. From the noisecore of Radiation Line and Blue Sabbath, to the sonic deconstructionism of Gatr and Blackhead, this compilation is about artists who resist convention and change the face of music by doing so. Net Audio and saying FUCKNO to the financial bullshit of mainstream music consumption has been one of the biggest changes in music consumption over the past couple of years, and we've tried to include some artists who we respect for using it as a tool; Black Lantern crew like Texture and Sileni, Berlin's Dr Nojoke, Winning Sperm Party / Glasgow DIY scene guys like Blood of the Bull and Ultimate Thrush."

Texture (left)

What have been the changes for Little Rock since the NORAVE release?

The Niallist: "We have moved beyond the download-only market to embrace making vinyl and CDs, even though our focus is still on being a net-label. Some of the acts we have released have moved onto bigger labels. Apart from that we have also launched a radio show and now run a blog, both of which are going very well."

Kid Ritalin: "As Niallist says, we're attempting to change our outlook to include things like limited-run CDs and vinyls, whilst staying true to the freeconomics mindset, and pushing as much of the alternative and unusual music that we love. The blog and the Radiomagnetic show have been great opportunities for us to expand our horizons and spread the word in as many diverse ways as possible. We've managed to get a lot of our favourite artists to come on the radio and play records / mix / perform live."

FUCKNO has been touted as a move away from "dance music you can't dance to" - what sort of body / bodily movements are you hoping to induce in unsuspecting musos?

The Niallist: "Some extreme bowel movements, hopefully. Though I have recently been rather taken with the urban dance form known as "crumping". So, a combination of crumping and bowel movements would be nice."

Boag: "As long as people move, I'm happy. I'm bored of able-bodied people who go to clubs to stand about. I think 'Not-Dancing' should be a chuckable offence in clubland, right up there with spewing or falling asleep."

And finally, in the interest of conspiracy theories, is there a significance in the 30s? 30 tracks, 30 artists, April 30, in 2010 (20+10 = 30)?

Kid Ritalin: "Magic and coincidence are intertwined and essentially the same. We can't explain the details of this spell, otherwise it ceases to be either."

On that spooky note, Lo-Quality thanks the Little Rock / Shallow Rave crews for sharing the FUCKNO lowdown! A special gig is currently being planned ("We're looking forward to birthing this monster into physical form" - Kid Ritalin) and will either be very limited entry or invite only so check who your pals are ;).


Visit Shallow Rave (tag: april) for more info and free FUCKNO tracks!