March (Week 4) Clubbing Listings: Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Dundee

The Egyptian Lover in '87 sporting a Soul-Glo do

Featured Club of the Week: Banjax

Venue: La Cheetah

Date: Friday 25th March

There were two Egyptian themes in the 80s – the Bangles’ ‘Walk Like an Egyptian’, and Greg Broussard aka Egyptian Lover. But luckily we’re talking Banjax instead of Bangles, so warm up those legs for electro hip-hop master Egyptian Lover! With support from Dave Shades, Tommy & McGarvatron, and Data Rape.

Sounds like:

11pm–3am, £10


Edinburgh

Club: Sugarbeat
Venue: Cabaret Voltaire
Date: Friday 25th March

It’s a residents’ party at Sugarbeat, starring the Utah Saints and Trilogy for an unusually cheap entry fee – there be no inflation rises here!

11pm-3am, £5 / £3 before midnight

Extra: New deep house and soulful disco club, Studio 100, opens upstairs on the same night in the Cab’s Speakeasy. 11pm–3am, £7 / £5 before 1am

Club: Club 10-86
Venue: Lane Nightclub
Date: Saturday 26th March

Jamie Bissmire and Ben Long aka The Space DJz make a squelchy and hard techno descent on the Lane nightclub, ripping up the floorboards with the pounding beats.

Sounds like:

10.30pm-3am, £7 / £5 before midnight

Club: Karnival
Venue: Cabaret Voltaire
Date: Saturday 26th March

Bugged Out’s Justin Robertson continues the strong techno theme of the weekend, mixing up the acid house, balearic and dub to move those bodies.

Sounds like:   JUSTIN ROBERTSON-LIVE @THE QUEEN OF HOXTON MARCH 2011 by justinrobertson/deadstock

11pm–3am, £10 / £8 before midnight or students

Round-up
Start your Friday 25th March with low-end bass at Wee Red Bar’s Dubstar for grimy dubstep and dnb (11pm-3am, £tbc), and the dub continues over at LuckyMe’s art collective event at Sneaky Pete’s (11pm-3am, £tbc), with extra dollops of hip-hop and funky flavours.


Glasgow


Club: Killer Kitsch
Venue: Sub Club
Date: Friday 25th March

Soulwax tour DJ Paul Chambers and techno artist in his own right takes the headlining spot at Kitsch’s Sub night. Residents Euan Neilson and David Sinclair spin electro, synth, and more in support.

Sounds like:

11pm-3am, £8 / £6 before midnight

More info: Killer Kitsch also appears in Edinburgh with the residents on Sunday 27th March, at Cabaret Voltaire. 11pm-3am, free

Club: Pressure
Venue: The Arches
Date: Friday 25th March

Pressure continues their techno domination of the last Friday of the month with a headline set from legend Jeff Mills and a FOUR hour set from duo Pan Pot. Slam supports.

Sounds like:

10.30pm–3am, £17 adv.

Club: La Cheetah Presents Pusch 79
Venue: La Cheetah
Date: Saturday 26th March

If you want disco to finish, then walk away, but if you want Finnish disco and house, come on down to the basement for the Pusch 79 duo.

11pm-4am, £10

Club: Dum Dum
Venue: Bacchus
Date: Saturday 26th March

Attention dark electro and dystopian lovers, Galaxian is playing live at Dum Dum, coming to you from the future of heavy IDM.

Sounds like:

10pm–3am , £8 before 11pm and students all night; £10 after

Round up
Co-Op starts the weekend early on Thursday 24th March at the Sub Club (11pm-3am, £tbc) with electronica courtesy of special guest Wardy. On Friday 25th, house and techno night Dirt Box at Stereo invites Calvertron and Last Japan to go head to head (11pm-3am, £10), and then it’s a chocabloc Saturday 26th, starting with Bad Mouthin’. This monthly Chicago disco party stars Rick Wilhite (3 Chairs) at SWG3 with support from residents Al Kent and Rahaan (10pm-3am, £10 / £8 adv.). Jilted takes the Soundhaus on the same night for tech-house and electro with Frostfire, Captiv8, Daniel Donnelly and Harvey Anderson (9.30pm-4am, £6), and Maneuver performs at Ad Lib with guests Simon Stokes and Unique for bouncy techno bass (11pm-4am, £6). Tronicsole for bouncy techno bass (11pm-4am, £6). brings Saturday to a close with their second birthday party at The Admiral. House producer Shur-i-Kan (Freerange) spins to celebrate (11pm-3am, £10 / £9 members).


Aberdeen and Dundee

Club: Monism
Venue: Reading Rooms, Dundee
Date: Friday 25th March

The filthily named DJ Moneyshot headlines this new funk, breakbeat and hip-hop night for Dundee.

Sounds like:

10.30pm–2.30am, £7 / £5 before 11.30pm

Club: Zazou
Venue: Kage, Dundee
Date: Friday 25th March

Harking back to the 70s and 80s wave of synth sounds, DJs Il Discotto and Stefan Blomeier give Dundee a taste of past electronics.

11pm-2.30am, £4

Club: Let it Bleed
Venue: The Forum, Aberdeen
Date: Saturday 26th March

Nu-disco, cosmic disco, electro, house and more will seep in your brain with Italian-Belgian duo Aeroplane leading the charge, and Mash and Steve Milne supporting.

Sounds like:

11pm-3am, £12 / £10

Round up
CTRL-ALT-DEFEAT electro-fies the Reading Rooms in Dundee on Friday 25th March from 10.30pm-2.30am (£tbc), and keeping to the same venue, Autodisco rides again on Saturday with more electro, funk and disco (10.30pm-2.30am, £tbc).

Free tunes: Uraki Riddim and Mark E

Free tunes, that lovely, lovely phrase, is here again!

First up we have Uraki Riddim's La Mixette, 'Midnight Blue' for Fulgeance's Musique Large, featuring 24 tracks of techno, broken beat, skweee, hip hop and more. Uraki runs and DJs the Do It! events in Aberdeen and Oslo, giving fans just about the only skwee-orientated club in Scotland, while finding the time to graphic design, and write for Vice and Resident Advisor!

Lamixette#53 Uraki Riddim by La Mixette on Mixcloud

Mark E

 

------------------------------------

Tailored and Warm are delighted to be giving away a free hour & a half long DJ mix from Mark E on soundcloud this week! Mark's 'Stone Breakin' mix was recorded at home in Birmingham earlier this month, and can be directly dowloaded from this link.

His debut album 'Stone Breaker' will be released on Spectral Sound in May.

 

Profisee: Logan’s Run

Lo-Quality speaks to Profisee about his upcoming EP, Logan’s Run.

Profisee

Representing Scotland’s talent, Phuturelabs have lined up a fourth release and their first EP for 2011; lyricist and Edinburgh MC Profisee drops new work Logan’s Run, featuring production from Process Rebel, Poirier (Ninja Tunes), Scharkz, and S-Type. Profisee has worked with the likes of Hexstatic, Yard Emcess and Neil Landstrumm in the past, keeping one foot planted in intelligent vocal delivery and the other in dance music. The new EP does its best to maintain the variation in styles with electronica, dubstep, hip-hop and hints of jahtari, leaving clues as to what to expect from his full-length LP.

The title of your EP is Logan’s Run - big sci-fi fan, or are you feeling wary about ‘that age’? “No, I'm not worried about the new age that we’re moving into, in fact probably the opposite,” says Profisee. “I'm quite excited about the new technologies, plus the social and scientific developments that are hopefully around the corner. The choice of title Logan's Run, I suppose is just an observation of that and my own ageing process. Particularly in the west, we are immersed in youth culture and remaining eternally young. So, I guess it's a personal and social commentary on time, loss and change.”

Title track Logan's Run [No Guts No Glory] kicks off the EP with Glasgow’s S-Type producing, with a groove you can lean into. It’s in the same vein as Calvin Harris and Rascal collabs, but it’s a more laidback electronica meets hip-hop vibe ridden by the lip-curling chorus; “Heard it before / It’s the same old story / Lay it on the line / No Guts, No Glory.” Altogether it makes the Harris and Rascal duets look like an hyperactive affair. Next up, the most high profile producer on the EP, Ninja Tunes’ Poirier takes the listener to an 8-bit game landscape with Movin, and uses the clunky nature to add weight to the delivery of Profisee’s vocals. It’s not quite jahtari, but I’d be tempted to invent Spectrum-rap as a genre to cover the sound. It’s a simple track of few notes, but it’s this simplicity which highlights this track as one to take the dancefloors by storm, goaded on by Profisee to keep moving unless “you’re dead or a mannequin.”

“They were all hand-picked choices... I feel like the man from Del Monte!”

There’s a fantastic list of producers on the EP, from the global Poirier to local Glasgow talents like Scharkz and S-Type; did you personally select them, and how do you think they added to the overall sound?

“Yeah, they were all hand-picked choices... I feel like the man from Del Monte! Essentially as an independent artist, I have been fortunate enough to meet and perform with a wide array of DJs / producers. To be honest, most of the collaborations have been through forming a personal and musical connection. Undoubtedly this has added to the texture and vibe of Logan's Run. I have worked this way for years; in fact this idea is feeding into my album process… One possible title for the album being Exquisite Corpse. Diversity often produces unexpected results.”

Credit: Kenny Hall - www.kennyhall.co.uk

Glasgow producer Scharkz produces on This Means and Why Today, the former being a carving of Ultravox’s Vienna with spacey female vocals a la Sneaker Pimps and an industrial degraded feel. “You can say what you like / This means nothing to me / I will stand, I will fight / This means nothing to me,” lyrics roll across the dubstep drawl of beats, mingling with synthpop. Why Today takes a simplified piano journey into glitch-filled electronica territory, contrasting off-key sung vocals with the slicker rhymes of Profisee, slightly masking the poignancy of the lyrical content - wishing for the chance of a last goodbye.

Another international link is forged with Prof’s collaboration with the Netherland’s Process Rebel, producing How It Go, a bouncy take on dancehall, hip-hop and plenty of bass melodies. Did Profisee have an idea about how he wanted the accompanying music to sound or support the lyrics, or did he welcome each producer’s interpretation? “As a general rule, I write to the energy and emotion the beat provides,” he explains. “For Logan's Run, it was actually a certain vibe that I was on at the time, and I guess I gravitated to tracks as a consequence. When I first started writing, I just wrote lyrics all the time to any beats, nowadays I often have a specific emotion or idea in mind and look for the beat to match it. What works the best though is when I get a beat that just ignites the emotions and concept.

“I also like to work closely with the producers’ ideas and direction - which means your singing from the same hymn sheet. The chopped chorus on Logan's Run was my idea, and because me and S-Type are open to ideas, he totally understood where I was coming from and transformed the track. Also, I worked very closely with Scharkz on Why Today; that track has special meanings and if you have experienced certain things, you will hear that in the lyrics and the music. It was a real pleasure working with all the producers on Logan's Run.”

Any plans to take this out on the road, with possible live performances from the producers?

“I am looking to take the EP on the road performing the tracks, live. I’m aiming to incorporate album tracks into the show too, so that I can showcase the forthcoming LP. Because of everyone’s busy schedules and various locations of everyone, it’s unlikely we'll be able to get everyone in the same place at the same time (unless someone has an amazing budget!?). But I'm doing a few gigs with S-Type (Glasgow), and there is a possible Amsterdam gig lined up, so hopefully that’s confirmed and I’ll do a show with Process Rebel.

“Ironically, I've deliberately avoided gigging recently, to focus on the album, and complete releases. I’m also looking forward to working out a brand new live show, for the festival season.”

The EP will be released for free download on 28th March 2011 on a Creative Commons license at Phuturelabs. Check www.profiseemusic.com for news updates and gig info.

March March (Week 3) Clubbing Listings: Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Dundee

 Featured Club of the Week: Bigfoot's
Venue: Sub club
Date: Friday 18th March

He was there when minimal tech-house started picking up speed, and added his own cultural influences of European meets Middle Eastern flavours for interesting textures; now Cocoon’s Onur Özer hits Bigfoot’s with support from Christopher Kelly and visuals by Redux.

Sounds like 

11pm–3am, £10

Edinburgh

Club: Axis
Venue: Cabaret Voltaire
Date: Friday 18th March

Axis host a Jack Knife Records special with Hostage vs Calvertron, Attic Kings and Hot Knives for a battle of techno, dubstep and electro, to be crowned the king of bass.

Sounds like:

11pm-3am, £9 / £8 before midnight or students

Extra: Upstairs in the Speakeasy, Solefusion’s backroom, The Cricket Club presents The Crease takes over the top floor with Illtch Joe, Sugar Ray and St’Ax’ playing soul, hip hop and funk. 11pm–3am, £6 / £5 before midnight.

Club: Xplicit
Venue: The Liquid Room
Date: Saturday 19th March

I’m actually beginning to get exhausted doing listings for Xplicit – award winning DJ after award winning DJ on their line-ups; I’m running out of positive adjectives! This week sees drum & bass and dubstep explain their connecting rhythms when Nero and Jakwob headline.

Sounds like:

10.30pm–3am, £14

Club: Ultragroove
Venue: Cabaret Voltaire
Date: Saturday 19th March

Keeping their dedication to deep house going, Ultragroove welcomes Hyperdub hot property Cooly G for her tribal influenced house dubs. Gareth Sommerville supports.

Sounds like:

11pm–3am, £8 / £5 before midnight or students

Round up
Friday 18th March sees psychedelic trance and progressive house club Cosmic return with special guest Morph at Studio 24 11pm-3am, £5 / £4). Saturday is all about the disco and electro funk, beginning with Devil Disco Club at The Bongo with special live guests HRH and support form the Trouble DJs and Giles Walker (11pm–3am, £7 / £6 (conc.) / £5 before midnight / £4 before midnight (conc.), and rounded off with Wasabi Disco at Sneaky Pete’s, with special guest Billy Woods of Der Supermaxx Love Machine and accompanied by his vintage Bozak mixer (11pm-3am, £3 / £0 members)

Extra: Live recordings of previous Devil Disco Club sets are available to download here

Glasgow 

Club: Innuendo
Venue: The Arches
Date: Friday 18th March

Innuendo takes over the Arches for a wobbly dubstep thunderstorm courtesy of Caspa, with MC Rod Azlan spittin’ the consonants.

Sounds like:

11pm–3am, £12
 
Club: Men & Machines 
Venue: La Cheetah
Date: Friday 18th March

Just to keep the nationalities mixed up here, a DJ from Munich, called San Quentin is playing in Glasgow for a collusion of electronica, disco and deep house at this now infrequent club.

11pm–3am, £5

Club: Kollektiv
Venue: The Art School
Date: Saturday 19th March

Fancy Italians doing Detroit techno? Then your wish comes true at Kollektiv as they invite minimal M_nus star Fabrizio Maurizi to see the moon out.

Sounds like: Premonitions by Fabrizio Maurizi - @burnstudios EXCLUSIVE by Burn Studios

11pm–3am, £8 / £6

Club: Mungo's Hi Fi
Venue: Stereo
Date: Saturday 19th March

O.B.F. Sound System and Diegojah up the ante on dub reggae and dancehall when they join Mungo’s Hi Fi for roots carnage and dubplate heaven.


Sounds like:

11pm–3am, £8 / £6 advance

Extra: Diegojah also appears at Dancehall at The Caves in Edinburgh on Friday 18th March with Riddim Tuffa and Big Toe’s Hi Fi in a digital dancehall evening (11pm-3am, £8 / £5 before midnight).

Round up
Special guests Hercules & Love Affair appear live for neo-disco at The Arches’ Death Disco with residents Hush Puppy, Mingo-go and more on Saturday 19th March (11pm-3am, £14 / £7 on DD email mailing list) while Radio Slave’s rescheduled appearance from NYE falls on the same evening at Sub Club’s Subculture for glorious techno grooves (11pm–3am, £12 / £10 before midnight).

Aberdeen and Dundee

Club: All Neon Like
Venue: Snafu, Aberdeen
Date: Friday 18th March

A La Fu takes over Snafu for more electronica, techno, disco, house and everything in between.

11pm–3am, £6 / £3 before midnight

Club: Spaceball
Venue: The Reading Rooms, Dundee
Date: Friday 18th March

Spaceball go head to head with Disuko to spin breaks, electro, house, techno, fidget and more

10.30pm–2.30am, £5 / £3.50 before midnight

Vinyl and Digital Reviews: Various Artists - Landscapes Of The Future (Greener Records)

Greener Records was created to bring together founder Andrés Zacco’s fellow Argentinian artists who share the same vision in techno. This compilation is a new direction however, for armchair listening and musing, so disband your hopes for techno drumming before playing. As the title suggests, there’s something of a soundscape approach with an eye on the future, and soundscapes have certainly been a big feature of the dance industry in the last year (such as the recent debut LP of Stroboscopic Artefact’s Lucy) and whether this actually follows or precedes a resurgence of popularity for ambient drone works amongst fans is still undecided. There does seem to be a trend in producing singles and EPs for the dancefloor, and reserving LPs for more esoteric or ‘mindful’ works, however.

Opening with Gustavo Lamas’ (Kompakt / Traum) ‘Mas’, you’re taken to a crackly soundscape, reminiscent of a soundtrack used to accompany flashbacks, and quietly fizz into Zacco’s ‘Landing’, which is meant to depict the journey of a safety capsule in space. The theme of deep washes of sound and wind prevail, and make use of natural sounds freed of a rhythm. Sandoval adopts the sounds of the forest for ambient with strong similarities to meditation music for ‘Estacion Nunez’, but there is a sense of techno being held in a darkened room somewhere asking to come back and join the fray. Nico Purman (Vakant) is perhaps the most recognisable name on the compilation, and ‘Mauer Park’ manages to inject melody and ergo, a sense of rhythm without letting the team down on their soundscape aims. He uses field recordings to help capture his vision and it comes off as one of the more coherent tracks of the LP. The compilation is named for Franco Cinelli’s bubbling and bell-jingling ‘Landscapes Of The Future’, and it provokes a deeper thought in me; suggesting that we are living in our own self-awareness, picking out sounds that have been captured in thousands of different ways and repackaging them for new ears, and I'm specifically talking about the cult of Bladerunner. There is getting to be little distinction between film scores and ambient works coming out of the techno scene and it’s this haziness which sometimes left me wondering whether there were missing visuals to complete the experience of the ‘Landscapes...’ compilation.

Regardless, and moving on to the only non-Argentinian on the release and another highlight, Poland’s Jacek Sienkiewicz and ‘Frk’, capturing the sense of working in an aircraft hangar: dwarfed by overhanging feats of engineering and overcome by engine drones. Jonas Kopp’s ‘Cloned Krishna’ is touted as a “ toxic walk through a bioroid production factory”, and we are again brought back to Bladerunner, a bioroid being a manga term for synthetic organisms or bio-robots. The track itself comes across as a lo-fi and echoing drone of oriental music in a 1940s film, however - slightly cliched, with a touch of witch house. Jeremy Flagelo emphasises the use of hardware to create music with a track composed with an ARP Odyssey MK3, which may work as a promotional tool, but as an experimental soundscape it holds a strong similarity with a school hearing test. The 9 track LP is rounded off with veteran Leonel Castillo’s ‘Doming Soleado’ which acts as a complete departure from the rest of the sounds. Imagine finding a degraded recording of Four Tet-ish dancehall in 2060 and carefully reconstructing on a now outmoded machine, and you have the strangely pleasing and upbeat ‘Doming’.

Release Date. February 28th 2011


Releases available: Nico Purman - Visions Ep (April 12, 2011)

March (Week 2) Clubbing Listings: Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Dundee

Featured Club of the Week: Deadly Rhythm
Venue: La Cheetah
Date: Saturday 12th March

They may be launching in a venue with only 150 capacity and a guest name that draws hundreds or thousands more fans, but Deadly Rhythm (already resident in London) is making a new home for its dubstep, house and future garage night in Scotland and for that we must let out a whoop. Starting the onslaught of bass is 2562 / A Made Up Sound, with support from Pictures Music’s Koreless, and residents Raksha, Masha, Aleksi and PCR.

Sounds like:

11pm–3am, £10 / £8 before midnight




Edinburgh

Club: Bedbug
Venue: Cabaret Voltaire
Date: Friday 11th March

It’s Breakbeat Kaos at Bedbug this week, when the dub, dnb and breaks bust out with special guest DJ Fresh infusing the club with powerful vocals, spine-tingling harmonics and that speeding kick drum.

11pm–3am, £6

Sounds like:

Extra: Upstairs in the Speakeasy, Bound For Glory host another Oxfam house fundraiser with special guest Joseph Malik (Compost), and resident’s Fudge Fingas, Beefy and Flyin' Saucer support. 11pm–3am, £4 / £3 before midnight

Club: Heavy Gossip
Venue: Medina
Date: Friday 11th March

Heavy Gossip is brought to you by residents Craig Smith and Nick Yuill, a regular outing in house, disco and funk, and for their first birthday they’ve invited Cottam to the basement; dig out your slurry dance moves for his minimal and slowed house and techno.

Sounds like:

10:30pm–3am, £8 / £5 before midnight

Club: Musika
Venue: Liquid Room
Date: Saturday 12th March

Musika pack another techno, house and electro stormer with special guest Nic Fanciulli, and support from none other than tech-house maestros Catz’n’Dogz, which forms part of their Escape from Zoo worldwide tour. Catch them at this double bill - their only Scottish date.

Sounds like: 

10.30pm–3am, £15

Edinburgh round up
Four Corners returns on 11 March with Simon Hodge, Johnny Cashback, Astroboy, and Wee-G at the Bongo Club to spin worldly goods on a funky dance tip (11pm-3am, £5 / £3 before midnight), while Kosheen runs with the dnb and trip hop mantle at Potterrow, with live support from Spaio and Sleazy Tek, 10pm–3am, £7 / £5 before midnight. On Sat 12th March Bass Syndicate is back with the heavy bass, breaks and electro of G-Mac, Believe and Silver Storic at Sneaky Pete’s (11pm–3am, £3 / Members free), and techno night Pulse welcome a live set from Dusty Kid (11pm-3am, £12).

Glasgow

Club: Be Deep
Venue: The Admiral
Date: Fri 11th March

Be Deep live true to their name when they welcome Terry Lee Brown Jr to launch new deep house album Labyrinth (out on Plastic City) , with support from residents Russell Ventilla and Andy Barton.

Sounds like:

11pm–3am, £10 / £8 before midnight

Club: Return to Mono
Venue: Sub Club
Date: Friday 11th March

Minimal tech-house purveyor and long-standing fixture in sets, Damian Lazarus joins Slam for a Return to Mono.

Sounds like:

11pm–3am, £10 / £8 Students

Club: RPZ & Wrong Island Present Den Haan
Venue: Stereo
Date: Friday 11th March

The launch of electro-disco has caused RPZ and Wrong Island to join forces in the name of Den Haan and their new LP, Gods From Outer Space. Hung Up!’s David Barbarossa, Wrong Island’s Teamy, RPZ and Death Disco’s Hushpuppy support local talent with even more local talent. .

Sounds like:

11pm–3am, £7 / £6

Glasgow round up
I think DJ Zinc just can’t get enough Mixed Bizness, he returns to The Art School with Benny Boom on Friday 11th for more breakstep / crackhouse action (11pm-3am, £5 / £3 before midnight / £3 after midnight (GSA students) / Free before midnight (GSA Students), while Mount Heart Attack takes La Cheetah on a journey through deep and hypnotic house with NY guest Brennan Green, supported by Ali Ooft! (11pm–3am, £10 / £7 Students). One More Tune rounds off your choices for Saturday 12th with special guests Bad Autopsy (Ramp) and Jinty (Gutter Diddim) for grimy dubstep at The Art School. Supported by residents Define Define, Saavedra and Peace, 11pm–3am, £5 / £4 before 11.30pm.

Aberdeen and Dundee

Club: Joris Voorn
Venue: Snafu, Aberdeen
Date: Friday 11th March

Yep, I’ve officially seen too many car adverts, as I can’t help thinking Va-Va-Voorn every time I read Joris’ name; the cool-hand Luke of Detroit techno with a Dutch twist braves the Aberdeen cold to spin with locals Adam Ackers and Cheynie.

Sounds like:

11pm-late, £12 Advance / £8 Members

Club: Crayon
Venue: Reading Rooms, Dundee
Date: Thursday 10th March

Killer Kitsch resident DJ Duncan Harvey plays under his Frantic Ant guise for Detroit techo and deep house night, Crayon.

10.30pm–2.30am, £5 / £3.50 before 11pm

Club: Mungo's Hi Fi
Venue: Reading Rooms, Dundee
Date: Friday 11th March

Mungo’s Hi Fi’s expansion across the Globe is looking unstoppable now, feeding the needs of dancehall, dubstep, ragga and reggae lovers with special guests Pupa Zeb and Daddy Scotty at their Dundee location.
Sounds like:

10.30pm–2.30am, £5 / £3.50 before midnight

Club: Spektrum
Venue: Reading Rooms
Date: Saturday 12th March

Spektrum looks set to raise the pressure on other Dundee clubs to catch up to the likes of Glasgow and Edinburgh, by rounding of a three night run of great music with the launch of their house event at the Reading Rooms alongside special guests Jon Carter and Edwin Oosterwaal. Residents Alan Dobson and Paul McFarlane support.

Sounds like:

10.30pm–2.30am, £10 / £8

Vinyl and Digital Reviews: Lucy, Agaric, and Round Table Knights

Originally submitted for Clash magazine, these are the unedited originals.

Lucy - Wordplay for Working Bees (Stroboscopic Artefacts)
… riding intellectual thunderstorms and dampened reverb

4 out of 5

After wordplay with the track titles, a Diogenes quote reveals itself: ‘The art of being a slave is to rule one’s master’, and if slaves made IDM techno and found sound, it would have this flavour. The dark, moody atmospherics are etched with spoken word, drones, and clicky, clappy spasms of rhythm; genre-wise, you can call it dub-techno, IDM, experimental, electronica, but the LP is intended to work as a whole unit. Notables include ‘Bein’, great for fans of Sandwell District’s ‘Hunting Lodge’, and the Deep Chord-esque ‘Lav’, like hearing jittery electro through a drywall. This is thinking cap rather than dancing shoes music.

Three similar artists: Deep Chord, Inigo Kennedy, Isodyne

Release Date: 4th March 2011


Agaric - Who Made Up The Rules (Ovum Recordings)
…put simply, really enjoyable

4 out of 5

Kicking off in good fashion with abrasive deep techno reminiscent of Truss’ ‘Obstaten’, ‘Star Core’ clears a path for ‘Who Made Up the Rules’, a bouncy and weirded-out track that actually compelled me to get up and dance. It just gets better, dancing with Chicago, Detroit, Swedish, Berlin and UK techno styles with increasing sub-bass intensity and highlights like ‘Métro’, akin to a muted samba being trodden underfoot by LFO snares and a killer bassline, and ’No Way I Know I Feel’ exploiting addictive gravelly vocals. I was even excited by the ‘secret’ track - a mighty drone of sound - like music for dying superheros.

Three similar artists: Truss, Patrik Skoog, LFO

Release Date: 7th March 2011



Round Table Knights - Say What?! (Made to Play)
… taking sub-genres of house full circle

3 out of 5

The Round Table Knights take an un-medieval journey through varying angles of deep, minimal, and discofied house for Jesse Rose’s label, cutting with hip-hop and interlacing with leftfield piano, horn flirtations and jazz skits & scats, for a warming sound. Similar to the upbeat fare of DJs like Mr Scruff; it mixes up handbag house with Detroit stabs on ’Old Fashioned’ and contrasts with ‘Say What ft Ogris Debris’, a funky electro piece with a male Grace Jones, and high points like ‘Paparussi’s space-disco. Sometimes it gets cheesy, but catchy, like the bizarre ‘Cut To The Top’, sounding like the Butthole Surfers doing Riva Starr.

Three similar artists: Moodyman, Mr Scruff, Samim.

Release Date. February 28th 2011

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

Art Department

 Featured Club of the Week: Rendezvous
Venue: Lane Nightclub
Date: Saturday 5th March

Rendezvous score a double whammy with their first birthday party and special guests Canadian duo Art Department, launching their debut techno and house album, ‘The Drawing Board’. The Crosstown Rebels Kenny Glasgow (with over 20 years in the business) and Jonny White also scored number one track of the year on Resident Advisor with 2010’s ‘Without You’ - catch them at their Edinburgh and Glasgow exclusive shows.

Sounds like:
Art Department (Crosstown Rebels) - Promo Mix - July 2010 by R_co

11pm-3am, £12 / £10

More info: Art Department appear at Glasgow’s Ticatactoe club at The Arches on Friday 4th March. More minimal house and techno comes courtesy of resident Andrew Doran. 11pm-3am, £10 / £8

 
Edinburgh

Club: Xplicit
Venue: Bongo Club
Date: Friday 4th March
Xplicit are definitely on a roll, following up Andy C with Hospital Records’ Sigma, supported by ENO and Taz Buckfaster. The Breakbeat Kaos star maps the drum and bass subgenres in revitalising rhythms mixed with a side of subs.

Sounds like:

11pm-3am, £8

Club: We Own presents Pete Tong and Afrojack
Venue: Ocean Terminal
Date: Friday 4th March

We Own, the rather slick online youth clothing site, is launching a new website and clothing line with DJ support from house spinners Fred Lilla, One Dollar Dave and Jordan Cochrane. Special guests for the event are Pete Tong - no introduction needed, come on, there was a film named after him - and young dutch DJ and electro house producer, Afrojack.

Sounds like:

10.30pm-3am, £50 VIP / £25

Edinburgh round up:
Friday 4th March sees a whole host of talent coming, and residing in Edinburgh. First up, Jackhammer enter The Caves with Soma and Pressure’s Slam duo for heated house and techno (10pm-3am, £tbc), and new club Mad Caravan introduce world music flavours to Studio 24 (10pm-3am, £5). The prolific Kris Wasabi guests with Henry Bennet at Tokyoblu (Cabaret Volatire, 10pm-3am, £8 / £5) for warped disco, electro and Chicago house, supported by John Hutchison and Iain Gibson; and on Saturday 5th March, 6th Borough’s Craig Smith returns to deep and soulful house haven Ultragroove at Cabaret Voltaire (11pm-3am, £8 / £5).


Glasgow

Club: Sensu
Venue: Sub Club
Date: Friday 4th March

Ricardo Villalobos is Sensu’s award winning guest, tipping the deep techno and house and showing you why he’s earned the first place of Resident Advisor’s Top 100 DJs of The Year, twice. This is a booking Sensu have long been waiting for!

Sounds like:

11pm-4am, £20 / £15

Club: Nomad
Venue: The Art School
Date: Friday 4th March

New night for you, folks, from Club 69’s Ivan Kutz (Seasons), loading your ears with minimal and tech-house and special guests Heartthrob (M_nus) and deep and dubby Rossko (not to be confused with Rosko), who ‘s responsible for London’s Cerca Trova and Found parties. Chilean DJ Heartthrob has enjoyed the support of stars like Richie Hawtin and Magda and developed a ‘stream of consciousness’ style - check out his live set.

Sounds like:

11pm-3am, £12 / £10 adv.

Club: Melting Pot
Venue: The Admiral
Date: Saturday 5th March

I remember when I first started writing about Melting Pot - hard to believe they’ve now reached ten years, and to make sure it’s an extra special genre bending set, they’ve invited disco legend Joaquin 'Joe' Claussell (Body & Soul) straight from NY. Support comes from Glasgow's own Billy Woods and Thunder Disco Club.

Sounds like:

10pm-3am, £12 adv.

Club: Subculture
Venue: Sub Club
Date: Saturday 5th March

Scottish artist The Revenge - recently appearing on Steve Bug’s jackin’ Poker Flat compilation Forward to the Past - makes his debut at Subculture Scotland's finest export makes his house debut at Subculture.

Sounds like: Get The Curse Mix by The Revenge

11pm-3am, £10

Club: Highlife
Venue: La Cheetah
Date: Saturday 5th March

This bi-monhtly is a collaboration between Slabs of the Tabernacle and Huntleys & Palmers Audio Club, and this month sees the H&P record launch party for Auntie Flo’s debut. Also featuring T Williams and the afrobeat, italo, electro, latin and jackin’ Highlife sounds.

Sounds like:

11pm-3am, £7

Glasgow round up
Starting with Friday 4th of March, The Art School sees Bass Warrior Sound System take on Riddim Tuffa and J Bostron for reggae, dancehall and jungle, with DJ Dirtsman at the helm (11pm-3am, £6 / £5), and the newest talent in electro, techno, house and trance DJs is being found on the same night at The Soundhaus with the FreshLICK DJ Competition (10pm-1am, £6). The Arches host house legendary night Colours, featuring Wolfgang Gartner, AN21 (Steve Angello’s younger brother!), and Max Vangeli; the latter duo have recently launched new night Parliament. (10pm-3am, £15). .Finally, Jelly Roll Soul (a night inspired by Charles Mingus and Theo Parrish) welcome Eglo Records’ FunkinEven to La Cheetah to add the acid, disco and funk to their well-fired house (11pm-3am, £10).

Saturday 5th March kicks off with Pass The Peas at Stereo, featuring funk and soul with special live guests Federation of the Disco Pimp (11pm-3am, £5), but there’s a sweeter touch round the corner when Subcity have their Sweet Sixteen at The Arches. The event celebrates the University of Glasgow’s radio station and it’s birthday, with guests Beat Beneath, Chungo-Bungo, Datarape, Dim Sum, HaHaHa vs Raksha, Jackie Your Body, Kaleidoscope, One More Tune and Synth (11pm-3am, £10 / £8 adv).


Aberdeen and Dundee

Club: Chase & Status
Venue: The Forum, Aberdeen
Date: Friday 4th March

Bridging the mainstream and the underground with their hard, yet accessible drum and bass. This live show comes hot on the trail of their new LP ‘No More Idols’, released at the end of January. Support comes from MC Rage and Giles Walker.

Sounds like:

10pm–3am, £20 / £15 adv.

Club: Do It! x Dødpop
Venue: Snafu, Aberdeen
Date: Friday 4th March

Fans of skweee are underserved in Scotland, but Norway is bringing the genre from one of their best known labels directly to punters. This event supports the launch of Beatbully’s debut LP, and features live sets from Dødpop members Beatbully, Melkeveien, and Sprutbass. Do It! residents Uraki Riddim, Kid Bell & White Chocolate support.

Sounds like:

8pm-late, £7 / £5 before 10pm

Club: The Book Club
Venue: Reading Rooms, Dundee
Date: Saturday 5th March

The Book Club is Reading Rooms disco, techno and electro event with nary a text in sight. Is_Kill, Beatmaster 2000 and Teesee spin the experimental beats.

10.30pm-2am, £6 / £4 before midnight

Dundee and Aberdeen round up
Headway spins the deep, dubby and sometimes disco beats with house and techno at Dundee’s Reading Rooms on Friday 4th March. 10.30pm-2.30am, £6 / £4 before midnight. On the same evening, further North in Aberdeen’s Snafu, A La Fu (Big Dada) hosts All Neon Like, a ‘smorgasboard’ of wonk, disco, italo, electronica and techno all plattered up. 11pm-3am, £6 / £3 before midnight.






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