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You are here -> Live / Past Clubs Thursday, 20 November, 2008
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Clubland Goes To The Dogs! Pure at The Printworks!
Clubland Goes To The Dogs! Pure at The Printworks!
30/07/2008
tags: | pure | pure manchester | pure the printworks | pure manchester news | more...

Friends and Family featuring Guilty Simpson
Friends and Family featuring Guilty Simpson
20/02/2008
Friends & Family Cargo 16 February 2008 A hip hop writer once told me a story. He was in New York City and making the obligatory trip to Fat Beats. While approaching that 6th Avenue mecca, he saw someone rapping outside the shop. A man with a veteran swagger propped up by a bag of records and a whole lot of attitude. It was Percee P. They chatted. My friend said how inspirational it felt to be face to face with hip hop – politicking with an emcee who put out his first record in 1988 and has hustled ever since, consistently raising his game and becoming a cornerstone of the underground. Percee P’s still at it – his show at London’s Cargo peppered with tunes off his ‘Perseverance’ album – the title, he tells us, is just what he’s had to subscribe to. But on this particular evening, hip hop’s brave new world takes the stage too – another emcee who has guested on so many records and has his own, ‘Ode to the Guetto,’ coming out very soon. It’s Guilty Simpson, that Detroit stalwart who had the honour of working with the now-legendary Jay Dilla and is creating a sizeable buzz on the street. His mic tactics are aggressive. He drops lyrics steeped in the grit of the city he’s grown up in, cushioned by that deliciously off-kilter production Detroit’s become renowned for. It’s a deep set – head nodding is deliberate, brows are furrowed. DJ House Shoes cues up beats that take you further into a blue-collar world, where the quest of success is a hard one, and explains the paucity of Simpson’s flow. He doesn’t have time to waste. And while he’s doing his thing, Percee’s doing his – walking through the nodding heads and selling his CDs, chatting to the punters and continuing that guerrilla distribution campaign that’s taken him from the pavement outside Fat Beats Records to London’s Cargo. It’s with a sigh of relief that these emcees bless the venue with such prowess – they cut through all of the jiggy commercial hip hop that pounds the airwaves and prove that, yes, hip hop’s got life in it yet. WORDS: Helene Dancer - PHOTOGRAPHY: Ben Harris
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AREA51 Launch Night
AREA51 Launch Night
08/02/2008
There was a definite buzz surrounding Manchester club AREA51 as the crowd grew outside. But then, who wouldn’t be excited about an evening with club giants Kissdafunk? Especially at the launch-night of a brand spanking new club… The Manchester clubbing scene has always thrived; from the formidable emergence of The Warehouse Project (attracting the biggest DJ’s in the world) through to Sankeys; from dirty underground techno-dens to plush ‘super-clubs’; AREA51 fits snugly in-between – a venue people can visit every week to hear quality music – no mucking about! The venue was formally known as the Emporia and has since had a massive regeneration and re-fit… From a first glance they’ve done an amazing job, giving the whole club an underground warehouse feel with two excellent sized rooms; not too big and not too small. This allows both rooms to generate a quality atmosphere at peak times. The best thing about the club though, is the sound system. I could immediately feel the base reverberating through my chest as I queued outside, and couldn’t wait to experience the full impact. Frankly, AREA51 didn’t disappoint. The ground floor was rammed to capacity as soon as I entered, with resident Adam ‘Dangerous DJ’ Guy playing funked-up twisted-electro; whilst glamorous, fresh-faced punters, were drinking, dancing and getting down to the thumping beats within. The first floor, a fair-sized room with the DJ to the right, was the first you enter; the atmosphere and buzz hitting in an instant. The back area held a well stocked bar, including top-quality cocktails and very helpful barstaff. As the music thumped-up through the massive speakers overlooking the dance floor, this was a perfect spot to catch your breath and take-in the full impact of AREA51. The main room featured Rob Tissera playing sexy electro, house, and tech-tinged beats; the low ceilings creating a fantastic, intimate feel. On entering, the dancefloor was already rammed with punters ‘standing and pointing’ fingers in the air, creating the electric vibe we’ve come to know and love from Kissdafunk parties. When the Trophy Twins graced the decks they didn’t disappoint. Playing right across the board, the lads effortlessly mixed house and electro beats seamlessly into techno, with Dubfires ‘Roadkill’ and a heavy dose of twisted-house thrown in for good measure. Their enthusiasm was infectious; genuinely creating an atmosphere to which the crowd fervently responded. All in all AREA51 looks great and sounds great; you could still feel the vibrations a day later. Welcome to a new era of dance music in Manchester… Welcome to AREA51… With loads of event going on weekly at AREA51 club check out the website for details www.area51club.co.uk AREA51 2B, Whitworth Street, Manchester , M1 5WZ Words: Greg Felgate
tags: | area51 | more...
Trojan vs Rawfuion
Trojan vs Rawfuion
29/01/2008
Trojan vs Rawfusion Cargo, London 25 January 2008 If you haven't copped a sneak preview of Simbad's soon-to-be-released-in-the-UK-after-much-prevarication 'Supersonic Revelations' you have a treat of the highest order in store. It's an amazing journey to the outer limits of future soul, with all manner of stuttering, syncopated and dub-inflected joy in between. An interesting proposition to juxtapose this man against the mighty Trojan Soundsystem, renowned for its quality reggae output delivered with a veteran swagger. Simbad, part of Mad Mat's Raw Fusion crew – the label putting out his debut – played a set steeped deep in the spirit of his album, with a bit of madness thrown into the mix. It was in his second set that he really found his groove, throwing in some filthy dub-step and deliciously off-kilter beats. Interspersed, the Trojan boys did what they do best, digging up the requisite reggae flavour and attitude; but the leap between the two camps felt a little extreme. On their own, it was perfect, but together, it jarred. Collaboration can be a beautiful thing when it works, but when that's not the case, the set-up has the danger of coming across just a little diluted. Words: Helene Dancer
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Hospitality
Hospitality
31/10/2007
Whistle? Check. Horn? Check. Glowsticks? Check. Oh, I'm sorry, drum n bass seems to have moved on since my raving days of 1996. Good thing too as I'm not sure my –near-30-year-old pins can carry off the hotpants look so well anymore. I approached Hospitality at Heaven with slight trepidation, it having been a few years since I last ventured away from DnB on the sofa and explored DnB in a club. Would I come away feeling like I'm broaching OAPdom? Could I handle an all-nighter without a pocket full of disco biscuits? Would I even recognise any of the tunes?? Well it turned out that Hospital Records deserves it revered reputation...although not in my wildest dreams had a trip to heaven involved swimming in a sea of sweat. With the likes of DJ Hype, High Contrast, London Elektricity and Fabio among the line-up - accompanied by MCs including Wrec and Stamina - it was highly unlikely this night would disappoint. High Contrast's set was, as per usual, a corker, with the crowd particularly loving absolutely banging remixes of Justice's 'We are your friends' and Daft Punk's 'Harder Stronger'. And a personal favourite of mine was also clearly a favourite for those on the other side of the decks, with Q Project, Fabio and High Contrast all slipping Chase & Status' 'Hurt You' into the mix. DJ Hype's first event for Hospital also went down a treat, with the big man having clearly put some serious TLC into his allotted hour. Hype set the tone with an exhilarating mix of 'Together' from Logistics, and continued to lay down track after track of golden nuggets, providing the perfect background for Wrec to do his thing. As a huge fan of London Elektricity Live, I was delighted to see the Surrey-born lyricist looking and sounding as good in front of the decks as he does in front of an orchestra. But then I would say that: I'm female. There was one downside to the night, and it was a biggie: the heat. Heaven is in dire need of a major air con rehaul. With water bottles not even big enough to satisfy a small gibbon, and tap refills not allowed, the sauna that was Room 1 was verging on unbearable by midnight, and by the early hours had gone from sauna to steam room, tipping me over the edge. So off to Room 2, where Nottingham's mega-promoters Detonate had lined up Doc Scott, BBC 1xtra's Bailey, Dom & Roland and Metalheadz's Commix. As expected, Doc Scott pulled dirty tune after tune out of the bag, although 'Shadow Boxing' was sorely missed. I guess times have changed after all. Commix was slick n sick, and all acts were accompanied by a sweet multilaser display that was enough to remind me of my chemical romance of yesteryear but without actually inducing gurning. Rooms 3 and 4 provided a much needed breather - from the heat and sweat if nothing else - with underground electro beats from Oslo's Todd Terje and DJ Gymbag, funky party tracks from The Doctor's Orders, and DMC champion Mr Thing doing his...errr...thing. Hospitality supplied the ingredients for a perfect end to the summer festival season, and although the sun may have failed us for most of it you couldn't tell from looking at the smiling residents of Heaven. Hospitality attracts a mixed and friendly crowd, even if the guys kicking seven shades out of one poor laddie outside didn't agree. Still, heat stroke aside, the night that marked my return to club land was nothing less than a complete success and reinstalled my desire to become a fully-fledged member of the party crew. Long live drum n bass. Amen. Now where are my slippers...?
tags: | hospitality | more...
Imax
Imax
24/08/2007
Imax London Thick pink, purple and green light-lines pulsate and writhe around the mammoth screen before the audience, keeping rhythm with some industrial house beat. A possessed tribe of neon serpents, snaking their way to en-jaw us? Some bunch of optical fibres, seething with crucial messages about the Apocalypse? Or just so many lasers, marking out oblique meanings along their unpredictable course… Right on time the voice of an internal tormentor arrives to chastise: ‘Stop just sitting there in confusion! Surely you can extract some deep meaning from this audiovisual artefact, you vacant heretic?’ Soon enough the screen blacks-out to accommodate a particularly expressive white square. This cube throbs and rattles along to the accelerating beat with quasi-human responsiveness, passion almost, and you’re still left sitting there puzzling over what in the world of leftfield wonders it is trying to tell you. Just as you’re on the brink of epiphany, the square retires to usher in a lively crew of coloured zig-zags, the music relaxes its tempo, and the audience is propelled into another alternative mental position. ‘Yeah, people have commented a lot about that square. We wanted something spiky in the middle, so that it wasn’t too serene all of the way through,’ Lemonjelly’s Fred Deakin tells me after the show. ‘IOTA’ (‘Inventions Of The Abstract’) is their offering for this year’s Optronica festival at the mighty London IMAX. Was this the hugest screen the pair has ever turned into a freewheeling audiovisual spectacle? ‘Absolutely! We made ‘IOTA’ with this screen in mind. Unlike music videos or with film soundtracks, we made the music just as we received segments of the visuals from our artists – it was an integrated project.’ Integrated this work may be, and as suitable as ‘spiky’ is to describe that insistent little assault on my spirit and my sanity, Deakin is going to have to throw me more of a bone before I march straight up to the next square I see and violently extract a more satisfying explanation. ‘Well, we wanted to work with the most abstract elements but make them as animated as we possibly could. The Japanese are the best at that – twisting the rules of character without actually breaking them.’ ‘Abstract’ was Lemonjelly’s watchword, rendering any cerebral efforts on the behalf of the audience completely out of place. Deakin continues: ‘I think that what we did was for people who have experienced a club environment. The aim really was just to get you to feel something.’ Fear, bewilderment, empathy, elation; any feeling would have done. It seems that my (over)reaction wasn’t too far off the mark. Not so with one disgruntled Guardian critic, for whom ‘The unkind thought… occurred to me that I was sitting in a noisy nightclub watching the world’s biggest screen saver.’ ‘You have a go then!’ is Deakin’s ready answer to combat the inevitable sceptics, referencing Disney’s ‘Fantasia,’ Pink Floyd’s unforgettable light shows and the challenging Op Art of the 60s and 70s as the (pop) cultural signposts such audiovisual initiatives have reflected and taken off from. As for the development of this burgeoning sub culture, Deakin enthuses about the different types of technology arriving ‘daily’ to assist an audiovisual revolution. Citing Pioneer’s DVD turntables – ‘They’re excellent, you can treat DVDs just like vinyl! – and looking forward to ‘animated and digitalised music packaging’ reversing the threat to album artwork thanks to MP3s, Deakin also promises me that soon there will be ‘a strong audiovisual community, putting out as much of their work as musicians do on myspace.’ Ditch those 3D shades (Calvin Harris, are you listening?) and stamp out the last sparks of life in your glow sticks (for the love of progress, Klaxons, please instruct your disciples accordingly). Stand by for your eyes to be widened and your brain to be addled by audiovisual works just like these. After all, who needs chemicals when you’ve got gregarious geometry and emotionally intelligent light-lines to orchestrate your raving steps? With Lemonjelly leading the way – Deakin’s passion and the duo’s flair indicate their dominance on the scene – there’s sure to be some treats in store. As an older member of the audience sitting behind me comically said, ‘Well, it’s not rock n roll is it?’ Curiosities like ‘IOTA’ are specifically built to rip you right out of your remit and excite an emotion to make you feel alive again. Wake up!
tags: | imax | london
Miami WMC
Miami WMC
23/08/2007
Miami WMC James Zabiela is ripping it up on the decks, fruity new Thai tipple Sabai is flowing copiously and the bold and the beautiful are here. All we need now is the sun. So that it can set, this being a sunset cruise and all. Braving the threat of rocky waters and a sky the colour of doom, the boat is let loose and some serious drinking ensues. Before the official Miami launch later that week of Zabiela’s One + One project, which sees him undertake a breakneck 75 date global tour sharing the wheels of steel with longtime mixing partner Nic Fanciulli, the duo are here to play for the first time under the alias to a private party of hand-picked movers and shakers. Pioneer have kitted the beat brothers out with a fully digital Pro DJ set-up: Zabiela opens the cruise with a stomping mix seething somewhere in the future, paving the way for Fanciulli’s acidic onslaught before the two flex some impressive styles back-to-back. Steering clear of vinyl and potential needle slippages by bringing out the CDRs, it appears that One + One have come prepared to weather a storm. Offer the men a bottle for their thirsty work and each politely refuses. Forget, ask them slightly more enthusiastically a couple of hours later, and the answer is still the same: ‘I don’t drink when I’m DJing, sorry.’ Fair enough, spinning psychedelic house wobblers to a vessel of inebriated industry types would be challenging enough for even the sturdiest of tunesmiths. ‘I love playing on water, although it wasn’t as choppy as it can get back in the UK!’ James later discloses once the boat party has morphed into a Miami bar crawl. ‘It’s especially funny seeing all of the drunk people swaying in front of the decks, sometimes they get it right to be in time with the music!’ And some suitably stylised swaying there is this time around. Just because someone forgot to invite the sun doesn’t mean Miami dress codes can be broken, dahling! Set clinchers from One + One are some exclusive original remixes in the form of Zabiela’s ‘Human’ and Fanciulli’s ‘Scratch n Sniff.’ Equally effective at orchestrating our rhythmical sways are JZ’s edit of Crazy Penis’ ‘The Way We Swing,’ the trailblazing ‘Pinhole Of Light’ from Phil Kieran and Nick DK’s edited ‘Wiggin’ by Mayday. Selecta! Three hours of alternately rowdy and blissed-out revelling pass in Sabai-soaked obscurity and somehow we’re back where we started. The One + One boys are off to enjoy some well deserved alcoholic refreshment, while the rest of us make a sea-legged stumble back to solid terrain. A generous moon hangs over the Miami skyline to pick out the odd star, and you can almost see them throb along to the lasting echo of laughter, beats and toasted bottles – now that’s what we call a cruise, quality! THE ONE + ONE DOUBLE CD ALBUM IS OUT NOW (MINISTRY) – FANS CAN THEN DOWNLOAD A FREE THIRD MIX OF THE PAIR’S POST-PARTY FAVOURITES www.onepulsone.dj / www.sabaichilled.com / www.pioneer.co.uk
tags: | miami wmc | more...
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