After the success of the Fabric 10th Birthday it showed that marathon Berghain style party sessions could work in London, so it made sense for fabric to give it another stab, this time under the “just for fun” circumstances. So the first weekend in March saw fabric host another 30 hour marathon session from Saturday night through till Monday morning, with a line up equally as mammoth to suit. Everything was pointing to a party as fun and wild as the 10^th birthday, but ultimately that was its main draw back.

Like a younger sibling “On and On…” inadvertently followed in the footsteps of its older sibling “the 10th Birthday”, where every detail was compared to the other every step of the way. First comparison to be made was the crowd and atmosphere. Arriving on Sunday morning, Troxler is in full affect with Craig Richards. Room 1 is a comfortable busy, similar to the 10th Birthday and perfect for throwing shapes; except the main difference was a lacking edge in the atmosphere. It missed that electricity and that unified excitement that was so predominate in the air from last time. There was still energy in the crowd, but it seemed more like a crowd going through the usual after party motions. That judgement is probably harsh one, but again it’s so easy to make these comparisons. That said, Troxler and Richards were still on fine form laying down deep and dark grooves with flourishes of funk and soulfulness. Whilst the room wasn’t at fever point they had still captured a crowd that were hanging on their every movement.

By the mid afternoon Keith Worthy was laying down his deep techno grooves however they weren’t enough to keep the attention of Room 1 which had started to wane as Saturday night’s legs grew tired. Trus’Me followed soon after, lightening the mood with his slow grooving house set punctuated by flashes of cosmic disco, aside from a few calamity mixes the tune selection was spot on, hooking in a new wave of punters. However whilst Worthy and Trus’Me were both good, it wasn’t quite enough to fully ignite the crowd.

For the late afternoon earPIPE stepped out for a break to watch the sunset. Conveniently this happened to be from the 31st floor of Centre Point with Todd Terje and Sound Stream providing the soundtrack at Secretsundaze Red Bull Music Academy party that was taking place. This is probably the best winter venue SS has held a party at. The stunning views on such a gorgeous day emulated that Secretsundaze outdoors day time vibe, whilst all the coldness of the British winter was firmly locked outside – just perfect when combined with the bright soulfulness of Terje and Soundstream. I definitely urge SS to throw a few more Sunday daytime parties here through the winter.

After sun down and a few tonics, we head back to Fabric. The wristbands given to us got us back in no probs and we were greeted with Dinky ushering in Monday morning. She’s laying down some solid techno tracks, but Room 1 is still a little frosty and she’s not cutting enough of a unique groove to lift the crowd. For a typical Saturday night her set would have been on the money, but at the tail end of a 30 hour marathon the crowd needed that something extra to latch on to. Along with a couple of sound outages and a hangover hitting home whilst still on a session, it was time to call it a day…

Overall Fabric did a good job, the night ran like clockwork, there was some great music on offer, but it could have been a bit busier at times and the atmosphere was just missing that last piece. And whilst it was a different party with a different meaning, it was just too difficult not to compare it with the 10th Birthday to its own detriment. Whilst the line up was technically very good, it didn’t have that constant stream of stellar DJs that instantly draw in a crowd on name alone. There were no repeated Villalobos appearances or a constant stream of heavyweights to instantly attract and keep a crowd through the days. So the programming of DJs needed to have been carefully planned to keep your average punter locked in through out the two days. Unfortunately Keith Worthy, Trus’Me or Chez Damier whilst brilliant DJs weren’t enough of a “name” to instantly hook in a crowd which in turn would have fed into kick starting an atmosphere through more bodies. It sounds fickle relying on “big names” but then your average clubber is relatively fickle too.

However don’t forget we were only there for part of the Sunday daytime activities, so our perspective is blinkered somewhat. It maybe we just picked the wrong time to go as we heard from other punters that Ellen Allien and Dave Clarke weighed in with some great sets on Saturday night whilst Wolf and Lamb and Radioslave closed Monday in fine style. It may sound like we’re being picky and negative, but I think that’s just testament to the quality we expect from Fabric. Give it a few more tweaks along with filling in those last missing pieces and I’m sure Fabric will get the formula right to make marathon parties like these work in London on a regular basis.

I wait with baited breath for the next one. Preferably on a Bank Holiday weekend!

You can download the mix from here, just right click save as, or stream it from the player below.

Disco Bloodbath continued their sound system travels around north east London locations last weekend. Previous Bloodbaths that I have been to always tended to be held in various ironic Dalston clubs which were always great fun. But with its astronomic rise to popularity over the last few years it was just getting harder and harder to pack everyone in to those sweaty basements. On Saturday they set up shop at a warehouse on Bocking Street and I have to say it was a great location. The space was just perfect for the size of crowd. Furthermore it was in an actual warehouse with real warehouse pillars and high ceilings rather than a mock warehouse which is actually a car park under some railway arches.

As for the music – top marks all round. As from any Disco Bloodbath, the mix was a fine blend of house and disco which provided plenty of fun and had a lot of dance-ability. It’s a great niche which plays the best bits of house off the best parts of disco giving you a good balance between rhythms and grooves against the big melodies, riffs and “moments” from disco. It’s easy to see why this night has grown so much and so quickly.

So that was last weekend, but what does the fallout from discarded rockets and burnt out sparklers entail?

Top of the picks is DDD’s MJ themed Big Bad Birthday Do. They’ve found some warehouse space in deepest darkest Dalston to put on two rooms of thoroughbred house to celebrate seven years. Headlining DDD’s room will be the delightful Ripperton who has been churning out great house over the last few years. In support will be a live set from Ekkohaus who has been putting out tracks on all the right labels, from 2020 Vision and Circus Company to Leibe Detail. But the biggest draw for me is Pete’s 50th room where The Revenge will no doubt be laying down some serious grooves. And if that’s not enough to wet your appetite then the sight of a flood of worn out MJ costumes is sure to provide some comedy.

Tickets for DDD still available here.

If warehouses and dressing up isn’t for you this weekend, then how about retreating to the confines of a loft? Giles Smith from Secretsundaze has got together with Alex Ruello from Need2Soul to create Lost in the Loft. I’d imagine they’re aiming for that Brooklyn/New York loft party vibe which definitely isn’t a bad template. They’ve also lined up some pretty awesome talent too. Sven Weisemann is on the bill and he’s been shaking Berlin to its foundations in recent years. Giles Smith will also be dropping some records to celebrate his birthday, but the main headline is Chicago’s Chez Damier – a legend from the early house scene. There’s going to be some serious deep house action going on.

However if a loft space just isn’t high enough off the ground, you can always go higher with Superfreq. They continue their monthly run of parties at Paramount, 31 floors up the Centre Point Tower on Tottenham Court Road. DJ Three, the DJ’s DJ, will be headlining the towering party along with Moscow’s SCSI-9. Expect some diverse and incredibly underground music in an ironically very over ground location. Does that balance out to purgatory?

You can get Superfreq tickets here.

So there you have it… Try not to get caught out in the rain.

Since the mid nineties the DJ turned into the super star DJ. No longer was the DJ some person that happened to be playing records in the background, they were thrust into the limelight, they became centre stage and elevated above the crowd, they became closer to becoming the rock star. Well at the end of September Richie Hawtin and the Contakt bunch stepped DJing that little bit closer from merely playing records to putting on a full blown show. Gone are the dark sweaty dingy small clubs; in are the arena sized live venues. No more will the single sweeping blue light and occasional strobe keep the crowds visually entertained, it must be 30ft high LED screens with intricate graphics. Production values now rival a rock gig. But is that what clubbing and dance music is all about? Had Richie Hawtin pushed the concept too far away from its roots? There had been a lot of apprehension on whether the London Contakt show would be any good founded on some of the issues from last year along with a bit of a Minus backlash with people growing tired of their sound for being too cold and too clinical. There were also qualms about the venue, the ticket price and just a general feeling of tiredness from the whole idea. Leading into the show/gig/party, expectations seemed pretty low with a general feeling of well I’ll pop along to see what its like plus I’ll get to hear a bit of Hawtin.

I happened to pop along too and to answer my questions – it can be; I don’t think so, he’s having a go at trying something new; the venue worked; and finally was it any good – a resounding yes!

I had my reservations about Brixton academy when the venue was announced but looking back it really was suited for that type of show. The large capacity room could fit everyone in along with the massive stage space required for the screen and DJs. Brixton also sorted the floor out by having it level for the majority of the main dancefloor, so the fears of being wonky and at 20 degree gradient were alleviated. The only gripe that persisted, and I mentioned this when I was previewing this event, were the drinks. A choice between Tuborg or Carlsberg was like a choice between gouging your eye with a bread stick or trying to do a surgical incision through paper cuts alone. There was the special cider option number three which was Strongbow or the final alternative – the spirits route. Either way the drinks situation, as always with O2 Academies, was pretty dire. But then again you’re not out clubbing for the drinks – or so I’m told. But as I was saying before I got distracted by drinks, the venue worked well, the staff were well organised, there was space to move yet the right busy for a good atmosphere plus the sound weren’t too shabby either.

But the true spectacle of the night has to be the visuals. I’ve seen the Ali Demirel show a few times now and it just doesn’t become tiring to see, and at Brixton Academy it looked particular special as you can see by the video in this post. It really does step up a few DJs playing records to a full blown audio visual show. Demirel had a full kit of visuals for every moment in the music from graphics that gave the illusion of travelling through space, through to slowly mutating and growing, pulsing graphics or simple shades and shapes – all complimented the abstract and discernibly electronic music being played by the Minus crew.

Earlier I mentioned people becoming tired of the Minus sound with it being too cold and clinical, but on the night no one seemed tired at all. Yes they played that Minus sound where it is mechanical and clunky or abstract and alien, but the high energy beats and big room bass gushed a sea of smiling faces from where I was standing. Whilst I did yearn for a quick detraction from the Minus techno to add a bit more dimension,  it wasn’t detrimental to the set. People were happily caught on every whirring sound, every bass drop and every flash of prominent noise which created a great responsive atmosphere. The techno was heavy and pounding yet not at a pace which required a crowd to try and keep up but instead have everybody in the place bouncing on the temporary level floor. It is big room techno for a big crowd to be audibly and visually floored. It still is clubbing, it certainly felt like it, just with that larger than life production. Its something different and it worked.

But did the combined DJ show work? Kind of. I still question whether it really requires all of them to play at once and whether one or two people could do same job. There were some interesting moments which involved some practiced set pieces to heavily layer up a body of sound. Yet it was difficult to tell whether their real time manipulation was making any impact and adding more than if that piece were simply recorded and played back by one person. And I guess this is the significant difference between a gig with a band musicians and a band of laptop DJs. Unlike a band of musicians there is no visual connectivity between the DJ and the affect they’re having on the music. You’ve got five or six people up there, but there’s no link between what a person is doing and what you are hearing. Whereas with a band the visual aspect of seeing a talented musician input to the sound is very powerful, allowing you the audience to appreciate each and every person’s input. It’s kind of like seeing an excellent lead guitarist going crazy on their guitar and being able to audibly associate the result directly. If Contakt can some how visually connect the DJs actions through their LED display then I think they will make a leap forward in the combined DJ performance realm.

However don’t let that last outburst distract from the fact that the party was fantastic. The music was great, the crowd were great and the event was well put together. The show does seem to be improving and I can only hope they take it further.

Pictures by Nick Ensing and Nik Torrens from Resident Advisor

The last 10th birthday I attended was about nineteen odd years ago on a Saturday afternoon and it consisted of a bouncy castle, some jelly and ice cream along with a goody bag full of sweets and a slice of cake. Fabric’s 10th birthday however was to say the least a little different. I didn’t really see any jelly and ice cream on offer, although there were bananas and a BBQ for nutritional support. It was lacking a bouncy castle, although you could say the mechanical rodeo bull was a grown up version of it. And the only goody bag you were likely to see would have been the inside of a body bag due to excessive celebration. But what fabric lacked in traditional 10th birthday festivities they totally made up for with their 30 hour marathon and the most impeccable line-up you would ever lay eyes on. The hardest decision was not whether to go but when to go. The guarded set times along with the massive array of talent that were going to play meant you either stayed for the two whole days to catch everyone or picked your time wisely to catch as much as possible.

Despite all the birthday options going off across the capital I ended up plumping for the quite civilised (really? do civilised people do this?) Sunday morning arrival with a quiet Saturday night under my belt. The first taste of fabric came thundering through the floorboards of Smiths, the bar next door to fabric. Popping in to start the day with a fry up, a quick glance across the bar saw a mix of glee and confusion on the faces of the other diners as their plates vibrated across the table to the bass and beats of room 1 pounding through the floor. Quite a surreal experience, especially for those just there for their Sunday paper read and breakfast.

As surreal experiences go that was just the first for the day. On entering the club it was odd to see club casualties crashing out with massive smiles on their faces ready to be replaced by fresh faced party revellers. It was going to be interesting to see how well the sober new comers would mix with the inebriated after partiers, like a designated driver with completely trollied passengers scenario. But it seems that didn’t matter at all, after an hour of hearing those hip shaking grooves it wasn’t important whether you could barely speak or hold a debate on socioeconomic policy. Everyone was happy and on the same wavelength, the room was at a perfect capacity with plenty of atmosphere yet plenty of room to move but most importantly, everyone was just fully involved to party.

Arriving after breakfast and a Bloody Mary I manage to catch the closing parts of Ricardo Villalobos’ first set. He’s already kicking out some crisp beats tinged in an aura of South America as he does so well. It’s Sunday afternoon and it’s a nice day outside, but in Room 1 its dark and the music is gripping the mixed crowd, losing themselves to the syncopated sounds from Fizheur Zieheuer. Doc Martin has the difficult job of following on from Ricardo with a crowd that’s in progress of being replenished. But he holds his own using his extensive repertoire of experience that very few DJs have. He leaves his mark by ingraining, actually probably more imprinting, Afefe Iku’s Mirror Dance on everyone’s memory.

Midway through Doc Martin’s set we’re drawn to Room 3 for Ricardo’s second and eclectic set. There’s just enough time to catch Pete Herbet finishing on the acid house classic Voodoo Ray – another moment of the day as a packed Room 3 pogo to the wailing vocals and hollow riff anticipating the second helping Villalobos. Ricardo jumps on and swan dives into a deep swirling malaise of ambient sounds and luscious melodies. A packed Room 3 with broken air con isn’t quite sure what to do. He pulls out some really interesting sounds, but the temporary Fabric sauna and being in that “I’ve just woken up to come clubbing and really need something a bit more upbeat” vibe means Room 1 reels us back in once more.

Coming back down the often forgotten back stair well from Room 3 we stumble upon the adventure playground that has be erected in Room 2. The lights are up, the room looks a thousand times smaller and there is a mechanical Rodeo Bull on what used to be the dancefloor?!? What used to be the site of heavy weight techno is a playful den of Mario Kart, sofas and giant Operation; a welcome rest bite to the continuing rigours of Room 1.

Making our way back to Room 1, Doc Martin has finished up, but Terry Francis is well into carving up the room with his sharp tech house sounds. Terry Francis’ set is so good in fact that he ends up turning what began as a civilised, slightly drunken Sunday outing into a full on debaucherous all day and night session. Francis carries on the continuing build that Doc Martin left with, stepping up another gear pushing the crowd further. And that’s pretty much how the rest of the night panned out. Every DJ that came on stepped up the game and basically had me and most of the crowd glued to Room 1’s dancefloor for the rest of the evening.

Ivan Smagghe switches with Terry Francis to raise the bar even further. He invigorates the room by playing heavy tribal rhythms keeping everyone on an excitable edge. The second part of his set sends the crowd over the brink with some twisted electronic beeps and bleeps. Hearing the dulcet German mutterings on Pandullo Vs Und’s remix of I-Robots Frau was a particularly haunting moment in the darkened depths of Room 1. Smagghe taps out to let Steve Bug take control. Running up to the eight hour mark for me, things start to get a little murky in the detail. What I can tell you is that Bug kept the energy following on from Smagghe’s brilliant set, dropping a ton of house music full of groove and with plenty of colourful riffs and melodies.

Daniel Bell who followed Bug with a live set followed a different tact, yet he still kept energy levels high. Bell laid down plenty of grooves but opted for a more stripped down sound with slowly mutating hypnotic loops to engage the crowd. It got the crowd locked in and worked well as a conduit between Bug and Villalobos who was to follow on.

By this point the club seems to be bouncing more than ever. Room 1 has filled up with a few more bodies and the second wind, potentially third or fourth for some, has kicked in ready for Ricardo Villalobos’ third return to the decks. There’s instant gratification when he jumps on as the Villalobos fanatics’ crowd round the caged DJ booth of Room 1. But it’s easy to see why, this man just sounds like no other when he DJs; his sets sound so fluid, effortlessly breezing through tempo changes, different rhythms and influences. And it’s all executed with an air of nonchalance, with minor mistakes often dropping left right and centre, yet it all adds to the character of Villalobos whilst many other DJs sound so clinical and detached through their digital interfaces.

I would love to tell you exactly how his set panned out, but despite the fact of things being hazy at the time, more often than not I’m never really sure what he’s playing or doing. Either he’s kicking out some fresh cut or remix that no one else has or he’s dug up some decade old house track that sounds so current that you’re thrown off the ball trying to think which producer from the past year could have made it. But you can be assured this fabric birthday set had all of the Villalobos hallmarks. 909 house grooves would bounce and then shatter into broken beat rhythms, dark sinister riffs would slide in over bright joyful melodies, Jazz sounds would happily sit alongside South American influences and of course there is the trademark knocking of the record needle along with a dropping of a massive house classic (Basement Jaxx’s Fly Life is the current in vogue classic). Hardly anyone can match what Villalobos can do, but a man who will definitely keep pace is Craig Richards. When he joins Villalobos for their back to back set, the room practically convulses from audio overdose. Their combined musical knowledge and experience of working a crowd results in one of those sets that will go down in club land legend and a fitting way, for me at least, to end a fifteen hour birthday celebration.

A party as huge and complex as this had so many points where it could have fallen down, with many people feeling apprehensive about those minor gripes that often tend to taint the other big fabric nights. But for this birthday weekend fabric got it completely spot on. The music was amazing, the club was on fine form especially with the lighting adding that little extra to the atmosphere; the staff were also great, but most importantly the crowd and atmosphere were perfect – plenty of room with great people wanting to have an incredible time. With everything working in harmony it created one of the most memorable fabric nights (day?, weekend?) ever. I hope I’m still clubbing when the 20th Birthday rolls around.

Now that I’ve picked up the pieces (Yes its been three weeks..) its time to talk about the bank holiday weekend that recently stomped all over my brain. The first outing was way out at matter, where the French master Laurent Garnier was down to show off his new live show. Unfortunately being a working man meant it was a bit tough getting back and mustering up the energy to head straight back out again, so I didn’t end up getting down to the club till gone midnight and therefore missed the whole live show. Not to worry as I’ll be catching it at Sonar and Worldwide festival this year. But what I did catch was the mighty Francois K who did his usual trick of coming on and obliterating any warm up. It’s not a bad thing because it does often work and that night it picked the night up in the right direction. However I think he might have scared some of the after work drinks crowd with the blistering tunes he was playing.

The crowd itself wasn’t as busy as I thought it was going to be. Usually a Garnier gig is a road block event. Maybe it was, but with matter being so huge it comfortably held everyone with plenty of room to dance. The rest of the club wasn’t used though with room 2 being closed early on or all night and the upper floors of the main room being cordoned off. No biggie though as there wasn’t really time for room 2 and the temporary ceiling they put over room 1 made it a bit more intimate. Come 3am and Garnier hits the decks for his second showing of the night. I don’t know how the man musters up the energy at his age, but he sure does still have the spark. As always his set covers the expanse of dance music. He led brilliantly out of Francois techno before gently descending into some dubby grooves. He pushes the dub envelope so far that he’s actually dropped it down to dubstep before snapping it back into some house grooves. Only genius DJs can do that. Come 5am the crowd thins out a bit more, the toll of being at work all day or being at the early gig seems to have got the better of the crowd. I personally bowed out around then too, but I’m pretty sure Garnier was heading towards the mixed bag hour where D&B, disco and everything else were gonna be chucked in. A solid set just a shame the crowd weren’t there with him. Something about house and techno on a Friday just doesn’t work.

Saturdays though are owned by house and techno. And who better to command it than Ricardo Villalobos. Back again so soon after his March gig but this time with Raresh in tow for a back to back set. March was an uncomfortable experience. High expectations from November and about as much room to always be 5cms someone’s armpit made it a so so night. But expectations reset I was fully prepared to give it another whirl. And my was it worth the second chance. The club was still really busy, but a bearable busy. Yes there were a lot of people but you could still get on the dancefloor and have a fairly decent move around compared to last time. But more importantly Villalobos was on fine form. Maybe Raresh was a good influence, maybe Villalobos was fresher than last time (rumours were that he was at the Robert Johnson till ridiculous-o‘clock last time), who knows. All I know is that some incredible tracks were laid down. Plenty of percussive rhythms, quirky samples, massive basslines, it was all being banded about. Raresh seemed to bring a house balance to the pairing as the set was very house-centric compared to the last time I saw Villalobos. I could try and name some tunes but I generally never know what Villalobos plays. I do however remember the new Reboot tune Pra Dizer being dropped with its ridiculous acoustic guitar breakdown and that Ralph Falcon Whateva track whose lyrics have burrowed deep inside my brain. I ducked out around 9:30am, but it seemed like the party wasn’t ending anytime soon.

Actually I know it didn’t end anytime soon as there were plenty of clubbing casualties at Secretsundaze the next day who said they were there till gone 11am. I myself would have been a casualty at home, but the amazing sunshine meant it was prime Secretsundaze weather which shouldn’t really be passed on. Another sold out event meant everyone was crammed onto the Ministry courtyard hustling for space in the sunshine. Even though I’m getting bumped around, feeling horribly comedown and sweating out the weekend antics profusely, I’m still loving the fact I’m outside soaking up sun and hearing some great house music. It must be something to do with past memories from Ibiza or something. Some aeroplanes overhead would have made it pretty special. As for the music. Well, I never seem to have a bad word to say about Tobi Neumann. The guy just plays brilliant groove laden house music and Sunday was no different. Reboot’s Pia Dizer got another airing which says to me it might be pretty huge this summer whilst Matt Tolfrey’s recent tune on Cocoon went down a storm.

So that’s two out of two for Secretsundaze and sunshine. The next one is indoors with skylight windows, probably for the best as their luck is sure to run out soon.

Here at EarPipe we do like to venture off the house and techno path every so often, so last Tuesday we headed down for the delayed Madlib & J.Rocc gig for Deviation. After missing his flight the previous week, the anticipation for Tuesday’s gig was at swine flu fever point. Getting into Fabric at 11pm the crowd had packed into Room 1 to get the best view and sound for Madlib’s arrival. Keeping the crowd warm was original Beat Junkie member J.Rocc. He was dropping funky classics such as Apache and They Reminisce into deeper stuff from Dilla and MF Doom. He even dropped Beastie Boys Paul Revere which had my guts rumbling like nobody’s business. For the best part he had the crowd eating out his palm.

Towards the end of J.Rocc’s set Madlib comes out and MCs live over loads of Madvillain and MF Doom stuff which sends the crowd berserk. J Rocc DJing and Madlib MCing, things look like they’re heading the right way until Madlib hits the decks and things start to fall apart. Now from the albums I was kind of expecting randomness, ultra deep cuts and strange interludes. There was plenty of that which wasn’t a problem. It was unfortunately the flow. Cutting poorly into interludes and back again tore down any vibe that the crowd had built up to at that point. The vibe had drained so much that Madlib walked off because people couldn’t muster up enough love for Madlib’s big up to J.Rocc. It may have been theatrics to get the crowd really hyped up, but it just didn’t seem to work. In the end it seemed like a stand off between Madlib and the crowd. Madlib was expecting a wild crowd before doing or dropping any real dope stuff; whilst the crowd were sitting back waiting for Madlib too truly drop something special. In the end neither side backed down and the vibe just petered out. Maybe it was a combination of it being a Tuesday night and some high expectations which created a disappointing cocktail for the majority of the crowd. But I’m sure there was enough from Madlib that the die hard fans loved every minute.

Image by Paul at Vision7Media

This weekend has been relatively quiet (and a little wet) so I’ve had a bit of time to tell you where I’ve been. First, two weeks ago was yet another bank holiday weekend and the Sunday was set as the big night since Saturday was reserved for watching a fat Manc get decked by a cheeky chappy Phillipino. Anyways Secretsundaze started their summer of events with their opening party on the THAT terrace out in the middle of nowhere (well no where in Greenwich with no Jubilee line). It was touch and go whether the weather was going to be good but Mother Nature for once pulled through and the terrace was to be blessed with sunshine all afternoon. Sunshine, drinking and outdoor dancing is just a great combination. The crowd were really up for it and despite some pretty shaky mixing, apparently due to some technical difficulties, the party still went off. Brothers Vibe did a great job of changing up gears from evening to night whilst Melon was knocking out some great grooving house beats. Move D early on was good but maybe a little too deep for my liking. Being tired and hungover whilst hearing some laid back deep grooves can make one a little sleepy however it did go well with the sunshine and glamorous crowd. So despite the awkward location and shaky mixing Secretsundaze was in my eyes a success.

But things weren’t to end there. Later on that evening we swapped sunny terraces for grotty warehouses and another Eastern Electrics bank holiday shindig. Last August saw the first of these parties in the Union Car Park venue with mixed results. But over the last year they’ve ironed out the issues and got things running smoothly. On arrival Craig Richards was out stretching his limbs having been unchained from the Fabric DJ booth. He was serving up some delightful tripped out techno. I would try and recall some records that he played, but I never really know what Craig Richards plays, all I know is that it’s good.

A quick wonder through the Disco Bloodbath room and I see two slighty mad Mancunians ripping up the middle arch with the ressies. It can only be the Unabombers. They serve up epic disco to the most up for it crowd in the venue. Disco in London has once again made its mark and it’s easy to see why. After a lengthy detour we finally make it to the third arch for the Freak n Chic showcase. By this time I’m told Shonky is on but this is all hazy second hand information. By this point I’m shuffling around to some great bleepy techno lost in a carefree utopia, which pretty much sums up Eastern Electrics. There’s something about being in a grotty warehouse where the crowd can really get down to having a good time. No rules as they say.

That said last weekend was spent in one of the nicest clubbing locations ever. Superfreq’s Cable opening party had been relocated to the Paramount bar, a swanky members only bar at the top of the Centre Point Tower on Tottenham Court road. It’s not the prettiest tower in London, but the bar has views to die for. Think Weekend in Berlin but overlooking a prettier city and higher up. Even though we were there for a boogie a good part of the night was spent looking out the window pointing at obvious landmarks and trying to see if you could see your home. For the record I could.

Photo by Nick Ensing

But once over the city gazing thoughts turned to dancing and who better than Steve Bug to an intimate crowd of 400 or so like minded revellers. It was just a great combination. The views, the music, the crowd and the setting made one of the parties of the year so far. Similar to the Loco Dice 300 party, the crowd was made up of people that had made an effort to be there. And when the sun rose at around 5:30 am the place just went nuts. A special moment which brought back memories of what made Ibiza special back in the day. I’ve only got two minor gripes from a near perfect night out. First, the lack of toilet facilities which for a bar that normally has only a handful of people couldn’t bear the strain of 80% of the 400 people “really needing a poo” and the second having to take the lift 31 floors down to smoke a cigarette. It’s a hard life I know.

Sorry for being a bit slow on the posts front recently. Its mainly down to me being found at weekends crawling around the floor of darkened rooms playing repetitive electronic music. That said I want to tell you about a few of those excursions.

Firstly way back at the end of February we got invited to the launch of Nic Fanciulli’s Saved Sessions at matter. The brand spanking new club was ideal for the heavy weight line up that Nic had brought in. Nic Fanciulli himself played a brilliantly judged tech house to techno set, whilst the the comedy techno antics of Green Velvet blew the socks off many a bewildered tourist clubber. The New York legend Francois K then smashed it home leaving only the lovers of techno to revel in the ridiculous bass that the matter sound system pumps out. Hopefully this is the start of a beautiful residency. Judging by the next Saved Sessions it sure will be. Derrick Carter vs DJ Sneak, Dennis Ferrer, Theo Parrish, Jerome Sydenham and Will Saul!?!?!?!?!?!?Surely i’ve died and woken up in US house heaven?

Fast-forward a couple of weeks and we’re down at East Village where Prologue had brought in Norman Jay for a bit of Good Times magic. I was worried whether Norman Jay was a one trick pony with his chesse-a-thon sets as seen at Carnival. However I was happily proved wrong as he dug out some great house music to have the basement turned up to gas mark nine.

The same night Laurent Garnier began his London residency for new night Shake It run by some of the folk from the End, including Layo and Bushwacka. The venue was once again down in the Southwark railway arches; I’m pretty sure the four or five times I’ve been down for various nights its been at the same place, yet everytime I go it seems like a different place. Either they’re moving the furniture around or maybe I’m too half cut most of the time to realise but i’m sure its different every time i go.  Anyways, for Laurent Garnier they had some how got the DJ booth between two arches to create a two tunnel main room (Disclaimer: Due to general late night antics plus a lot of smoke and strobes I think it was actually just one big room). It was a raw venue with an amazing rig. As you can expect, monsieur Garnier ripped the place to pieces in a way only he knows how. Everything from house and techno right through to Jazz and drum and bass was dropped in typical Garnier style. It just doesn’t get old. Definitely a night to get to, especially if you didn’t catch his sets down at the end. Just make sure you keep your nice shoes at home. The floor is filthy there!

Looking ahead, what have we got coming up? Well this Saturday Secretsundaze take over the Scala once again. It’s a terrible venue, but I think this might be worth the hassle. Cobblestone Jazz will be performing live with DJ support from Mountain People! A housetacular lineup! Plus the whole thing will be broadcast live on www.awdio.com. Ooooo… Then on Sunday mUmU continue their London residency at Cargo with the Oslo Records boss Federico Molinari and vinyl pusher Hector. A weekend large enough to have you completely forget about your mum on mothers day!

Then the week after that it’s a techno showdown between two monsters. Over in the red corner we have Ricardo Villalobos weighing in at Fabric with Dave Clarke, Billy Nasty, Jus-Ed and residents in his corner. Whilst in the blue corner we have Derrick May weighting in at Ministry and a heavy crew of Detroit backers in the form of Octave 1 and Stacey Pullen. Which ever one you choose its going to be bloody!!

As we head into the dark and gloomy winter months we should really conclude what actually happened on the last two days of EarPipe’s Sonar weekend. In previous parts we told you about our escapades at La Terrazza with the Soma boys, our thirst for mojitos, the booty shakin breaks of Diplo and the mind warping sounds of Contakt. In our third and final instalment, we’ll be covering our haggered limp across the finish line from Saturday to Monday.

To kick Saturday off earPipe caught the Dirty presents showcase at the Sonar Dome. Until that day we had never heard of Dirty and their collection of French DJs and producers. Some digging about and it turns out these guys run a not for profit website hailing from Paris called d-i-r-t-y.com, where they release edits and compilations as well as run a bi monthly party. Their sound is a real mixed bag of stuff. Pilooski on his own was dropping all kinds of down tempo beats from soul classics edited in the Dirty way right through to upbeat disco and electro. He then followed his own set with Pentile on his joint live project called Discodeine. Together they combined the brash, rawness of electro with the funk of disco, but it’s not in your face jump around electro like their fellow country men Justice make; it’s more calculated, restrained and twisted.

To finish the Dirty showcase, Pilooski took to the stage once again as part of the Dirty Sound System where the whole team just ripped the SonarDome to pieces. Playing a French blend of their trademark electro sound they had the marquee bopping about like lunatics. Definitely people to catch again in the future.

Back over in the Sonar Village, The Field, a one man production extravaganza was creating his epic soundscapes for sun lavished crowds. His productions are in one word beautiful, it is the way that they twist and turn in a pleasurable but not overpowering wall of sound. It is kind of minimal, but not through the ethos of removing elements more so minimal in the way his music progresses. The soaring sounds fit snugly for the late afternoon slot just as those mojitos were beginning to hit home once again.

EarPipe’s final stop off for the day was purely for comedy value. Inside at the SonarComplex DJ Scotch Egg had been mounting his Osaka Invasion all afternoon. If you haven’t heard of Scotch Egg, he is basically a mental Japanese fella who bangs out hardcore gabba music with an 8 bit computer game take on things, though a combination of gameboys, megaphones, distortion and a bit of crowd participation by throwing scotch eggs at them. Is Mr Egg avant garde? Probably not. It is however completely nuts music and really can’t be taken seriously by anyone on this planet. Its shear insanity and the fact that it could give you a brain haemorrhage, nose bleed, as well as make your ears bleed and induce an epileptic fit kind of makes it so entertaining and a little intriguing. If you don’t believe me watch these videos. Scotch Egg 1. Scotch Egg 2.

For the final visit to Sonar by Night, EarPipe manages to catch the last half of Soulwax on their Weekend Never Dies tour. We always enjoy the energy they create as they relentlessly plough through their songs, rarely stopping for breath. It’s a whirlwind show and their drummer must be one of the hardest working out there. Interesting takes on Daft Punk’s Robot Rock as well as their classics NY Lips and E-Talking. These guys have played Sonar for the last few years and they have always put on a great show.

Next up for EarPipe was Dubfire out in the SonarLab. The Deep Disher was flying solo in his new “back to my roots” techno persona. We did enjoy his set of techno beats, but we did feel a bit sterile afterwards. There were some great tunes in there, but on the whole the set just didn’t seem very imaginative. It was an onslaught of typical techno tunes which were fun but not really that memorable. If Dubfire wants to shake of the shackles of Deep Dish then he’s going to have to try harder. However it was great when he dropped his recent remix of Radioslave’s Grindhouse Tool.

Sonar’s grand finale came down to the legendary Ricardo Villalobos. Over the past year the guy has been brilliant, so what better a setting than the outside SonarPub with the sun rising in the early morning sky and a few thousand revellers ready to go completely mad. Ricardo’s set was nothing short of breathtaking. Probably being on the right side of inebriated, his mixing was tight and tune selection playful. Effortlessly cherry picking South American influenced percussive house and techno through to the down right heavy balls to the wall stuff. The cheekiness and range which he can play is something that many DJs envy. Evidence of this was when he dropped Sis’ Trompeta, which is basically this year’s Heater. But despite it being a corny track, its silly sample was perfectly apt to end a weekend of debauchery and serious electronic music, and like last year at Exit when Heater dropped, it erupted in various gypsy-esque dances. Keeping command of his crowd to the very end he rounds of preceedings with house classic Lil’ Louis’ French Kiss. Perfect.

And so ends another year at Sonar. Three days and two nights of great music, great atmosphere and plenty of mojitos. However it doesn’t stop there. On the Sunday Secretsundaze happened to be keeping the party spirit alive by doing their Sunday shenanigans at La Terrazza. It was an ideal club which completely encompasses what Secretsundaze is all about and what it should be ideally in the UK, open air with plenty of sunshine, a great crowd and the highest order of house you can imagine. For their Barcelona party Johnny D, 2000 and One and Mountain People all played exceptional sets, keeping my frail legs moving to the very end. I could give you details, but they’re a bit thin on the ground. But I do know we had a great time and it was a brilliant way to finish off the weekend and seal my fate for a fragile journey home. So until next year, Adios Barcelona!