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

Featured Club of the Week: Subculture

Venue: Sub Club

Date: Saturday 15th January

If you dig the soulful and deep house sounds of Âme (Sonar Kollektiv), absorbing Detroit and jazz influences, then you’ll be excited about their first ever live show in Scotland! The German duo head to Harri and Domenic’s Subculture to wow Scots crowds with their smooth sets.

Sounds like:

11pm-3am, £10


Edinburgh

Club: Animal Hospital
Venue: Sneaky Pete’s
Date: Thursday 13th January

Ease yourself into the weekend with techno, minimal and house in the Animal Hospital - minus the sickly beasts, but there’s no accounting for finding some wandering the streets of the Cowgate!

11pm-3am, free

Club: Bedbug
Venue: Cabaret Voltaire
Date: Friday 14th January

This is the kind of bedbug you want to find! New dubstep, techno and baaaaassss club with special guests Hostage and Jigsaw to suck out any blues.


Sounds like: Hostage December Mix 2010 by HOSTAGE

11pm-3am, £tbc

Extra: What happens if you get there and are not sure about the music? Then head upstairs for other new club, Bound For Glory, taking over the Speakeasy. This new monthly night features Fudge Fingas, Kris Wasabi, Colvin Cruickshank, Beefy and Flyin’ Saucer with funky house and electro fare to raise funds for Oxfam. 11pm-3am, £4 / £3 before 12am

Club: Big’n’Bashy
Venue: Bongo Club
Date: Saturday 15th January

Reso (Pitch Black) and Doctor P spin four decks of dancehall, jungle, reggae, dubstep and big’n’bashy hyperactive bass through the Elecktrikal Sound System, teaming with lasers and dancers! It’s like a Major Lazer comic strip come true. I’m still not sure which other clubs in Scotland, if any, have pole dancers onstage.

Sounds like:

11pm-3am, £10 / £8 before midnight or if you have a vagina.

Club: We Own
Venue: Liquid Room
Date: Saturday 15th January

There’s been surprisingly little press about this event, which is a shame since Tempa T and Shy FX are coming to town! Grime MC Tempa and dnb star Shy get the beats on for a night that owns!

Sounds like: I apologise for the inclusion of Tim Westwood in this video. However, the idea of him sleazily ordering prostitutes tickles my funny bone.

11pm-3am, £tbc

Club: Ultragroove
Venue: Cabaret Voltaire
Date: Saturday 15th January

Ultragroove returns for their first event of the year, spinning, deep, funky and soulful house, disco and electro with special guest Harry Bennett.

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


Glasgow


Club: Hispanic Panic Presents Jungle Fever
Venue: Stereo
Date: Friday 14th January

For something a little bit different, the Glasgow Hispanic Society have organised ‘Hispanic Panic - Jungle Fever’, bringing some sunshine into winter months with live music, tropical DJ sets and themed decoration.

11pm-3am, £5 / £4 in jungle themed fancy dress


Club: No Divide
Venue: Soundhaus
Date: Friday 14th January

The new nights just keep rolling in! Soundhaus welcome another techno night, courtesy of resident Soundex Phonetic.

Sounds like: Southsider by SoundexPhonetic (Espee)

10pm-3am, £tbc

Club: Return to Mono
Venue: Sub Club
Date: Friday 14th January

Slam dominate the schedules in Glasgow, and have done so for several years, so it’s no surprise that for their first RTM Jan date, the duo are treating house, techno and electro fans to a special four-hour set!

Sounds like: Slam - Hot Knives (Slam Remix) by Slam :: Paragraph

11pm-3am, £5

Club: Death Disco
Venue: The Arches
Date: Saturday 15th January

Get your electro-house, post-punk and disco loop needs filled with the arrival of French talent Yuksek, while Acid Washed makeover dance fusions with vintage machines and Visions of Trees get you all woozy and high on nature, man, dreamscaping their way through lo-fi psychedelics. It’s another packed Death Disco, scouring the roster of music’s next big thing. In fact, maybe change their motto to ‘you heard it here first’? Hush Puppy and Josh Jones support.

Sounds like:

11pm-3am, £14 / £7 with a half price pass.

Club: Loop
Venue: La Cheetah
Date: Saturday 15th January

Loop are back for the first bi-monthly show of 2011 with house, techno and more from Polymath, Mykol Blyth, Jamie Knox, Neill Murphy, and John Clark.

Sounds like: Slicefnk by POLYMATH

11pm-3am, £4


ATTENTION, SOME PRESS HAVE LISTED MUNGO’S HIFI WITH SOOM T AND DISRUPT AS THIS WEEKEND. IT TAKES PLACE ON THE 22ND, AND NOT THE 15TH AS STATED.

Vinyl and Digital reviews: Luke Abbott & Tripswitch

Luke Abbot – Trans Forest Alignment (Border Community)

Taken from his acclaimed debut LP ‘Holkham Drones’, ‘Trans Forest Alignment’ features the original and two remixes by Rocketnumbernine and DFA’s Gavin Russom, as well as bonus track ‘A Caucus Race’. If you haven’t already caught the congratulatory reviews of the ‘Trans Forest…’, amongst the layer of sounds lies medical equipment bleeps and drones; some flatlining, others fluctuating, and eventually beginning to communicate as one. Like a vacuum cleaner meeting delicate chiming melodies, ‘Trans Forest…’ would be excellent as a Manga soundtrack and embraces the idea of white noise as a melodic and atmospheric layer. Unfortunately for me, I have an excellent hearing range, and the higher tones went through me like a dog whistle – mosquito alarm, eat your heart out! Nevertheless, this is great left-field electronica to show shapes to. Rocketnumbernine add a more definitive rhythm than the looser arrangements of the original and there’s a tangible focal point amongst the driving drones and disparate noises. It also tones down the higher mosquito bites of sound so that the tonal changes can be heard with more clarity. Gavin Russom draws on this more lowkey sound, filtering for a delicious haze and concussion of rhythms. ‘A Caucus Race’ nicely rounds off the b-side with a completely different tact and a squelchy bass arrangement – it’s a strange feeling to be invigorated by the last track on a release, but this dainty dirge (if there can be such a thing) steadily wins the race.

Released: 24th January 2011

Tripswitch – Strange Parallels EP (Section Records)

Seven remixes and the original included for context, this isn’t so much a Tripswitch aka Nick Brennan release as a romp in remixes by Purple vs Tim Healey, Shiloh, Aurtas, Codemonkey, Koan, Indidginus and ODT. I’m not keen on the original track - after a great beginning experimenting with textures and metallic shimmers, it’s rudely interrupted by what can only be described as a Tiesto floorfiller key melody that drags over downtempo trance with soft rock and shoegaze hints. The keys and guitar have a souring effect on the promising start. Purple vs Tim Healey infuse some life into the track with an electro-house makeover, and the kick drums help dust off the wishy washy theatrics. Shiloh and Aurtas approach with their progressive house hat on, but it’s Aurtas who wins the battle by diminishing the dramatics of the original with a repetitive edge for focus. Codemonkey puts considerable effort into taking ‘Strange Parallels’ to markedly different territory, bringing a ‘Supernova’ deep dubstep context and adding spoken word to complement and change the original’s downtempo intentions; this is the best interpretation of the remixes. Interestingly, Codemonkey is the alter-ego of Tripswitch, which leaves Lo-Quality wondering why he didn’t go with the dubstep interpretation in the first place! Koan’s trance remake, which immediately follows, is disappointingly indulgent, but Indidginus and ODT round off the release with acidic psy-trance remixes, and again, that extra ‘squelch’ texture helps sharpen up the wooly dream-scapes.

Released: February 2011