Digging through the hard-drive and found May release reviews! Check out the delights at a record store near you, good selections here.
Mondkopf - ‘Day Of Anger EP' (In Paradisum)
... onto a winner
Mondkopf is onto a 2011 winner with title track ‘Day of Anger’, lulling you into false security with an piano solo before decay seeps into powerful Modeselektor-esque emotives with stamping beats, and a whiff of Justice on ‘Eastern Revolt’, ebbing out with eerie, dark electro.
Giorgio Gigli, Obtane, Milton Bradley - The Dark Thoughts of Fate's Manufacturer (Zooloft)
… Tim Burton techno
Three tracks capture ‘The Dark Thoughts...’ intent of moody and blistering corrosion of techno, peppered with the animal snarl of synths and roars of white noise, setting the dark and moody scene. Dark UK techno has provided a template, and Zooloft is running with it.
Out now
Lo-Quality Recommended
Albert - Albert EP (Studio Rockers)
…garage, meet dubstep
Albert leans far from the garage sounds of popular predecessors like Shanks and Bigfoot, enmeshing stabs of dubstep melancholy with 2-step futuristic garage on ‘Darling Now’, and bringing out metallic textures for the industrial clanking of busy dubstep percussives for the intriguing ‘Cant Lie Still’.
Life Support Machine picked up this DJ mix for the 9th edition of their podcast, Beats & Bass Must Have.
"Don’t be fooled by the reggae ting-tings of the intro, this mix quickly gets sweaty. Silly, funky, fidgety house-party grooves and wibbly-wobbly gut-wrenching breakbeat nonsense for over an hour. Madness. And dubstep. A real journey of drug-fuelled attic-antics."
**The tracklisting is included at the bottom of this post.
Free Tracks
Wanda Jackson - Whirlpool (Damn Horns Remix) - [lifesupportmachine.co.uk]
"It’s quirky, crowd friendly mix of vintage Rock ‘n’ Roll vocals and funk-fuel beats ‘n’ bass has had mad support on this from the likes of Nick Thayer, Ben & Lex, Peo De Pitte, Pete Jordan and Plaza De Funk. Even been awarded 9/10 in iDJ Magazine on the ‘Warehouse’ page. I’m not quite sure what Warehouse is, but it sounds like a good thing."
Damn Horns Vs Harry J Allstars - Liquid Heater - [lifesupportmachine.co.uk]
"Maybe I might get an angry fist shook at me from a nooligan or two for this. I don’t know. I don’t like football unless a hard bloke asks me, anyway. Eitherways, this classic has been respectfully fattyfied. One for the festivals?! Bung on kettle and give it a whirl. Two sugars."
Featured Club of the Week: Let’s Go Back
Venue: Stereo
Date: Saturday 25th June
Hark ye back to the time of Shades Of Rhythm... well, actually you don’t need to hark that far, as the acid-house and techno heyday of the late 80s comes to you! Catch Nick Slater, Kevin Lancaster (Lanx) and Rayan Gee at Let’s Go Back for their live PA set, reminding you how the lengendary raves of yore are really supposed to sound. Bosco and Rob Mason support.
Club: Diamond & Rush vs Hush Hush
Venue: The Store
Date: Friday 24th June
The Diamond & Raw record label launches next month to bring the next gen of dubstep, house and garage, and you can catch their talent in the run up at Giles Walker’s Hush Hush club. Guests Oktavists and Nautical Nightmare journey through melodic bass, and Giles supports on the main floor, meanwhile VanDerBeak and Sam Jones take the bar room to space disco heights.
11pm - 3am, £4 / £3
Club: Karnival and Friends
Venue: Cabaret Voltaire
Date: Saturday 25th June
Kapital, Wired and Tokyo Blu join forces to showcase the venue’s resident DJs: Kapital’s Barry O’Connell and Brad Charters; Wired’s Mick MacNeil and Hans Kato and Tokyo Blu’s Stevie Nobad. Mike Pinkerton, Stu Todd and the Oxygen Junkies complete the line-up for a whirlwind of house, techno, electro, and lots of great bass rumbles.
11pm-3am, £8 / £5 students
Club: Heavy Gossip
Venue: Hawke & Hunter
Date: Saturday 25th June
Craig Smith (6th Borough Project) joins Tornado Wallace and Nick Yuill for another Heavy Gossip, fast becoming the only place in Scotland to catch Craig Smith when he’s not touring the world with 6th Borough! Australian Tornado Wallace (Delusions of Grandeur / Sleazy Beats) spins deep house and “disco bombs” so hold onto your trendy hats. The Green Room will definitely not be chinese whispers, when Kris Wasabi, Kipps and Mastercaird take charge.
10pm - 3am, £10 / £8 before midnight or students all night
More info: Pre-party at the Newsroom from 8pm with Barry Fell
Club: Playdate
Venue: Sneaky Pete’s
Date: Saturday 25th June
Steven and Stewart invite Brian d’Souza (aka Auntie Flo) over for a Playdate, still riding high on his afro-inspired ‘Goan Highlife’ release, and chasing up his second EP ‘Oh My Days’ coming later in June on Huntleys and Palmers.
Round up
LuckyMe curate another night in Edinburgh at Teviot Underground on 24th June (10pm-3am, £9 / £7 adv) as part of the Edinburgh International Film Festival – expect the freshest beats, and similarly at Numbers on the 25th at Sneaky Pete’s. The Glasgow club returns to Edinburgh for its bi-monthly event, pumping the future bass (11pm-3am, £5 / £3). Sugarbeat hold a T in the Park warm-up session, featuring a selection of DJs from Cab Vol’s on the 24th (11pm-3am, £5), and Xplicit prescribe your regular dose of dnb at the Bongo Club (11pm-3am, £tbc). Finally, on Saturday 25th June She-Bang hold a beach party at the Voodoo Rooms with DJ Brainstorm, with a beach party dress code (they don’t mention which beach, so I’m assuming washed up crisps packets, turds and condoms with a bit of raggedy sea-weed.) from 8pm-1am, £5.
Glasgow
Club: Bigfoot's
Venue: Sub Club
Date: Friday 24th June
Bigfoot’s are long-time fans of Edinburgh’s own Simon Stokes, and welcome him back for a live set of bassy techno. Christopher Kelly, Dave Scott, Daniel Hedley and redux (visuals) support.
Club: Phonic
Venue: La Cheetah
Date: Friday 24th June
Phonic invite Ben Spaander aka Cosmic Force (Clone / Marguerita) for their first birthday, securing a fully analogue set from the electro, hip-hop and techno specialist. Headspeath, Paul Bendoris and Dave Shades support.
Club: Crème Organization Label Night
Venue: La Cheetah
Date: Saturday 25th June
Dutch label, the Crème Organization hosts an artist special of electro and jackin’ house, with label boss TLR spinning out extra layers of synth-disco with several nods to the American west coast. Marco Bernardi and The Wasp are the finishing touches to the line up.
Club: Itch!
Venue: The Saint
Date: Saturday 25th June
Fans of Crosstown Rebels’ brand of house will welcome newest signing Russ Yallop, making his Glasgow debut with nu-school house beats. Dave Cuthbertson and Heerah support.
Round up
Mzuka Bass performs at the Afro Caribbean Centre on 24th June (11pm-4am, £6 donation) with sets from DJ Zhao (Ngoma), DJ Kokoro (B.A.S.S/Neo Tokyo Bass), Towerblockrockerz, Zeb Mc Queen and VJ George, touted as a “Afrophuturist Berlin Bass Fusion Collusion”. No drink on sale, free to bring your own cans and plastic bottles, and proportion of the profits go to Samoudhi beehives for Palestine project. Catch the launch night of Glass at Club 520 on the same evening (11pm-3am, £6 / £5 students / £4 guestlist – email sound@club520.co.uk) with Barrientos, Esq, Discetro and Dave Sinclair for upbeat house, techno and electronica. Veteran DJ Andrew Weatherall joins Domenic for another addition of Subculture at the Sub Club (11pm-3am, £10 / free before midnight) on Saturday 25th, and keep to the Subbie for a special Skank and Grind edition of Hung Up! On 26th June with JD Twitch’s Jamaican 7” Soundsystem (11pm-3am, £5 / £4 before midnight), featuring ska, reggae, dub, sleng teng and dancehall through the 20th and 21st century.
Aberdeen
Club: Dot To Dot presents Liebe
Venue: Club Snafu
Date: Friday 24th June
According to the Liebe DJs’ manifesto, they’ll be using Snafu as way to showcase and break new music, stretching across a range of styles pumped over a Funktion1 Soundsystem. Join Dot to Dot for a new music experience!
11pm - 3am, £4 / free before 12.30am
Club: Mothership
Venue: Snafu
Date: Saturday 25th June
Fresh from the Off:Sonar parties, Luke Cassidy and Adam Ackers return to the Mothership to fuel Aberdeen’s need for deep house, tech-house, and the most jackin’ beats in the city.
"Yes, I'm going to be climbing Mount Kilimanjaro with 34 other co workers in September 2011 for The Make a Wish Foundation UK (British Gas charity of the year). Just received a story on how Make-A-Wish help a young girl meet up with her Idol Kylie! It's just an example of how your donation is used when you give and help people like Lauren from Glasgow.
Lauren, 16, has Batten’s Disease, a genetic disorder of the nervous system. She is blind and her memory and speech are deteriorating but, despite her condition, Lauren (who owns every Kylie album) has memorized all the lyrics to her favorite songs and doesn’t let her illness prevent her from performing her favorites in front of audiences at home.
In the past, before her condition deteriorated, when she was not recording CDs at the Royal Blind School in Edinburgh or performing in a school show, Lauren could be found on her karaoke machine doing what she loves best – singing Kylie Minogue songs.
Her special day began as she was whisked off by Make-A-Wish in a limousine to Girlz Night, a popular beauty salon in Glasgow, where she was pampered before finally meeting her pop idol at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre in Glasgow and enjoying the live concert afterwards. She was thrilled to actually meet the Australian superstar in person, and it made the concert an unforgettable experience!
This is going to be a lifetime event and doing it for charity makes it even better. I know £2500 is a lot to raise but with your help I hope to make it happen. Many thanks for any donations, it's most appreciated."
And to help kick off the fundraising, check out PEAK at The Store on 15th July (11pm-3am, £5), where all proceeds go to the Make a Wish foundation. Even if you can't muster the strength for charity mountain-climbing, you can at least have a spin on the dancefloor to breaks, electro, hip-hop and more from Lee Jefferies, Ian iB Brandon, Morphamish and Texture.
Death Disco welcome back DJ Mehdi, eager for more hip-hop and electro thrills, as well as special guests Mighty Mouse and Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs. Disco, house and downright party tracks boom courtesy of residents Husy Puppy, Josh Jones and Wave Graves.
Club: Fisheye
Venue: Cabaret Voltaire
Date: Friday 17th June
Fisheye launches as a combined gig and DJ experience, featuring live psych-rock and punk sets from Death by Misadventure and The Method One, as well as art installations and indie DJ sets. Great for fans of Evol and Sick Note.
11pm-3am, £tbc
Club: Wonky
Venue: Teviot Underground
Date: Friday 17th June
Hobbes and Wolfjazz go back to back for the Film Festival, spinning UK funky, hip-hop, dubstep, afrobeat, and more with live visuals from Smudge.
11pm-3am, £9 / £7 adv or with Edinburgh International Film Festival ticket stub.
Club: Musika
Venue: Liquid Room
Date: Saturday 18th June
One of the first Summer parties of Edinburgh, Musika hold a house and electro special with DJs Derek Martin, Kev Wright, Blair and Ryan Harrower.
9pm-3am, £10 / £8 / free before 11.30pm
Club: Messenger Sound System
Venue: Bongo Club
Date: Saturday 18th June
Messenger Sound System welcome MC Afrikan Simba for another blast of dub, reggae, roots and sweet bass beats with Mc Ras Echo.
11pm-3am, £7 / £6 before midnight
Round up
Saturday, Sa-tur-day, saatttuuurrdaaay starts with Wasabi Disco at Sneaky Pete’s, filled with spicy peas of house and disco (11pm-3am, £3 / members free), and continues over at Cabaret Voltaire with Ultragroove when Harry Bennett (Edinburgh Boat Party) guests behind the deep house decks with Gareth Sommerville (10.30pm-3am, £8 / £5 before midnight or students). Finish off with Coalition on Sunday 19th at Sneaky Pete’s with your free dose of dubstep and breaks (11pm-3am).
Argonaut welcome a Manchester special guest this week, when MC Kwasi Asante joins the dancehall, reggae, dub and roots – much preferable to ‘Madchester’ artists in my opinion!
11pm-3am, £3
Club: Subculture
Venue: Sub Club
Date: Saturday 18th June
Subculture host a Soma Records house special with headlining duo Silicone Soul taking it deep and dark. Esa and Telford support.
11pm-3am, £10 / free before midnight
Club: ShipRect Venue: Courtyard Date: Saturday 18th June
For those with a lengthy stamina on Saturday, ShipRect kick off at 2pm at the Courtyard, and from there it’s a bus ride to a party on the shores of Loch Lomond in an old paddle steamer. The mini-festival features techno, electro, house and trance with a splash of samba band, from over 20 artists. More entertainment and a BBQ later lead to a secret afterparty in Glasgow.
2pm-3am, £22
Round up
Rescheduled from a previous booking, the DJs DJ, Paul Chambers guests live at Sub Club’s Killer Kitsch on 17 June (11pm-3am, £8 / £6 / £5 before midnight) for techno a la Belgique! Pi-Eyed continue their free breakcore, dubstep and techno party at La Cheetah on Friday with Herv, Drokkr, and Parliamentalist (11pm-3am, free).
Aberdeen
Club: Gray’s Degree Show Party Venue: Snafu
Date: Friday 17th June
For those celebrating their degree, or simply just enjoying the degree show, head to the afterparty at Snafu, for the hottest music from HaHaHa (Mixed Bizness), Bang Bang (live), Sarah J Stanley (Project Slogan), and Krazzy Martin (Snafu).
10pm-3am, £5 / free entry with wristband from degree show
Club: Mothership
Venue: Snafu
Date: Saturday 18th June
Mothership sits astride their FunktionOne Soundsystem for another blast of jackin’ tech-house and deep, rolling beats courtesy of Simon Smith and James Tones.
11pm-3am, £5 / free before 12.30am
Dundee
Indie and metal haven across the board, not so much for dance music! Any DJs/promoters putting on dance music nights, feel free to get in touch and make me tell the people!
Shorter listings this week.... as I went to go meet my grandad for lunch instead of writing them. The heart-warming excuses are always the most satisfactory.
Featured Club of the Week: Fortified Venue: Stereo, Glasgow Date: Friday 10th June
Fortified continue to grow in strength, and this month they’re bringing in some mighty big guns in the shape of Africa Hitech (Mark Pritchard and Steve Spacek), blending Detroit techno, garage house and digital dancehall. This is their Glasgow show to support debut LP ’93 Million Miles’, with residents Electric Eliminators on decks.
Club: Devil Disco Club
Venue: Bongo Club
Date: Saturday 11th June
This month sees a special Deep Balearic theme for DDC, alongside the usual bounty of disco, electro, proto house and NY classics from the Trouble DJs and Giles Walker.
11pm-3am, £7 (£6) / £5 before midnight
Club: Helfi
Venue: Henry’s Cellar
Date: Saturday 11th June
‘Helfi’ portions of dubstep, hip-hop and grime are being dished out in the basement of Morrison Street, courtesy of Madhat McGore and MCF Records.
11pm-3am, £tba
Round-up
If you happen to be at the Cab for Compakt, you also have the chance to catch Bound For Glory, the monthly Oxfam charity event for electro and house fans, in the Cab’s Speakeasy (Fri 10th June, 11pm-3am, £4/£3). For something with more sub, Bass Syndicate are back at Sneaky Pete’s on Sat 11th June (11pm-3am, £3/free before 12am) with breaks, electro and house from G-Mac, Believe and Silver Storic. You can finish off the weekend at Sneaky’s with Coalition for free on Sun 12 Jun, spinning dnb, techno, breaks and dubstep (11pm-3am).
Glasgow
Club: Mixed Bizness
Venue: Glasgow School of Art
Date: Thursday 9th June
One of my favourites artists to interview, DJ Food returns to Glasgow to sign off the last Mixed Bizness at the GSA. I won’t even bother with adding a flavour of genres, because Food can play them all in one fantastic mix.
Club: Art School Degree Show & Closing Party
Venue: Glasgow School of Art
Date: Friday 10th June
The official GSA closing part is ticket only finale, featuring LuckyMe, Mungo’s Hi Fi and DJ Hushpuppy – reminisce on your previous clubbing years with a fine send-off.
10pm-3am, £tbc
Club: Return to Mono
Venue: Sub Club
Date: Friday 10th June
Slam welcome fellow Soma artists Gary Beck, Harvey McKay, and Scott Byrne to the house and techno party.
It’s an absolutely packed Saturday in Glasgow – for house, electro and techno fans, head to Beatitude!, Mount Heart Attack and Wrong Island. Beatitude! takes Basura Blanca at the Brunswick Hotel (10pm-2am, £5/£4) with DJs Craig Fox, Lewis Park and Jonny Dobbie, while Mount HeartAttack treats La Cheetah (11pm-3am, £tbc). Dirty Larry and Teamy mash it up for Wrong Island at Nice’n’Sleazy (11pm-3am, £3). Club 520 welcomes Front to Back with Chungo Bungo, DJ L-I-A-M, the Marquee DJs, and La Bamba playing reggae grooves (11pm-3am, £7/£5), and Pass the Peas guest Krash Slaughta appears at Blackfriars Basement (11pm-3am, £5/£3 before 12am) for a hip hop rampage. Round off the weekend at Nice’n’Sleazy’s with Out on Sun 12 Jun with a powerful selection of techno, dubstep and electro (11pm-3am, £tbc).
Dundee and Aberdeen
Wow, I found nothing particularly dance-orientated for Dundee or Aberdeen. All quiet on the club front! Hopefully just a second week dip.
OK, this blog is my baby. I've been nursing it on my own, but I have to admit that there are a substantial amount of promos to get through and review. More than my fingers can manage between freelance projects. The main aim of this blog is to promote dance music, and if you fancy yourself of a similar mindset, can write well, and have an open mind to the world's sonic beats, drop me a line about entering the Lo-Quality world.
It would help if you could send a 50 word review of your latest purchase, or even something up on Soundcloud, etc. TIP: I admit now that I'm fairly biased against trance music. Listening to it, as well as reading about it induces immediate narcolepsy.
Fans of Tim Healey will be delighted to click here and grab his new 'Rest in Beats' LP minimix for the princely sum of spending energy clicking a mouse button. If you can't wait to hear his blend of electro, house, future garage, hip hop and more, stream away with Soundcloud below.
"A little taster for you from Tim's new LP - Rest In Beats it spans a galaxy of the freshest electronic sonics, with BPMs tastefully varied. Matt King (aka Peep show’s gnarly “Super Hans”) drops in for the album’s spoken word intro, before Tim tours hip-hop, urban and dance-hall beats, an awesome cover of the Beatle’s Dear Prudence and then double delivers with no less than 5 unmissable club cuts.
Collaborators on the album include a who’s who of dance-music’s glitterati: Calvertron, Tomcraft, Atomic Drop, Freqhouse, Pete Martin and an arsenal of vocalists from SirReal (Freestylers/Pendulum) to the legendary toaster Top Cat via urban-heros Manners, Loc-E and sassy songstress Pippa Trix."
Tracklisting for Album
1. Intro (Tim Healey featuring Matt King)
2. Live it love it (Tim Healey vs Tomcraft featuring SirReal)
3. Rock it roll it (Tim Healey vs Calvertron feat SirReal & Pippa Trix)
4. Take control (Tim Healey vs Atomic Drop feat SirReal)
5. Tempting to touch (Tim Healey feat Top Cat & Pippa Trix)
6. Dear Prudence (Tim Healey feat Kirsty Sillars)
7. Mars boudoir (Tim Healey feat Manners)
8. Believe him (Tim Healey vs Marc Adamo feat SirReal)
9. Tommy Finn (Tim Healey feat Dean van Jones) (Not in MiniMix)
10. Dance the tears away (Tim Healey vs Pete Martin feat. Pippa Trix)
11. Resistance (Tim Healey vs Freqhouse feat. Loc-E & Pippa Trix)
12. Loving you (Tim Healey vs Tomcraft feat. Pippa Trix)
13. Super surf (Tim Healey)
RELEASED - 30.05.11 WORLDWIDE
Released by: Surfer Rosa Records
Release/catalogue number: SRRLP001
Stay tuned to the Lo-Quality blog for an upcoming interview with Tim Healey - I'll be taking reader requests for questions, so please leave a comment or email if there's something you're just itching to know. Check out the review of his LP on Lo-Quality Music.
Tim is also playing a warehouse party in London on 2nd July 2011 for Spectrum's Summer Show - more details on Facebook.
