Update – Check out the earPIPE Sonar Disco Map Here.

This weekend Barcelona becomes the centre of attention as Sonar festival rolls into town. The festival itself is a jam packed 3 days and 2 nights of music and art featuring the likes of Plastikman, The Chemical Brothers and Roxy Music. However its not just the festival that garners all the attention, as for the same weekend Barcelona turns into a thriving party city with what are now known as the Off Sonar parties. This year we’re spoilt for choice in terms of party venues. We’ve got parties on beaches, on rooftops, on terraces, on boats and at secret villas. There’s even a few parties happening in them there nightclubs. There’s a lot to pick from so here’s what we think is looking pretty hot for the weekend.

Wednesday

Ovum at Boulevard Culture Club (Tickets)

If you’re arriving in the city before the festival starts, then you can start your sleepless campaign from Wednesday night. Josh Wink takes over Boulevard Culture Club with friends Shlomi Aber, David Squaillace and Luca Bacchetti from his Ovum record label. The clubs conveniently located on La Ramblas, so there’s no hassle in getting there.

Warehoused  at Mephistos (Tickets)

Warehoused is a new night for Off Sonar and it opens at Mephistos, a heavy metal club in Barcelona. So i’m not sure what the venue has to offer, but the line up looks pretty solid with Konrad Black and Stimming heading the bill. Not bad to warm things up for Wednesday night.

Thursday

RA by Day at Hotel Diagonal (info)

RA host one of the parties of the weekend. They’ll be getting things into motion with their Thursday daytime party at the beautiful Hotel Diagonal rooftop pool. A minor distraction from the views will be the stunning lineup they’ve got planned – Michael Mayer, Steve Bug, Jesse Rose and Eric Duncan from Rub n Tug!! All for free!! But before you dust off you deck shoes and rolled up denim cut offs, entry to the party is by invite only. So you either need to know someone who knows someone, or you might have been one of the lucky 50 that won tickets.

Desolat Experience at Ghoa Beach Club (Tickets)

Sub Club at BeCool (Tickets)

Moon Harbour at Discotechque Club (Tickets)

Moon Harbour will be celebrating ten years with its sister label Cargo at the imaginatively named Discotheque Club. Matthias Tanzmann, Martinez, Boris Werner and Ekkohaus will be playing the labels’ blend of bumpy techno and house.

Friday

Watergate and Beatport Secret Villa Party (info)

Hot Natured at W Barcelona Hotel (info)

BPitch Beach Party at Playa de El Prat (info)

Cocoon at Ghoa Beach Club (Tickets)

Kompakt at Nitsa (info)

Kompakt have a pretty tasty party at Nitsa. You’ll be able to catch Michael Mayer, if you weren’t invited to the RA party, as well as Superpitcher, Gui Boratto and DJ Koze. That’s a huge lineup to celebrate 10 years of Off Sonar parties.

Circus Company at Oshum (info)

Saturday

Mobilee Rooftop Party at Hotel Diagonal (info)

BPitch Control Boat Party (Tickets)

Cadenza at Ghoa Beach Club (Tickets)

Crosstown Rebels at Oshum (info)

If you’re still alive then Secretsundaze will be taking up its traditional position at La Terrazza. They’ll be out in the picnic area from 5pm and then in the usual club from midnight. For music, they’ve got the cream of their DJ agency from Patrice Scott, The Mole, Trus’me, Ethyl, Flori and of course the two residents Jamie and Giles. Great club, great tunes, always a must on the Sonar weekend.

Minus Beach Party at Playa de El Prat (info)

If you fancy something with a rougher edge, then Minus will be for you. They’re throwing their beach party at Chiringuito Calamar out by the airport and have got everyone off the label to get involved, from Marco Carola, Troy Pierce and Heartthrob to Ambivalent, Fabrizio Maurizi and Hobo. They also say they’ve got some special guests, which means its highly likely the two Minus names not on the line-up but are playing at Sonar will probably turn up for a few tunes!

Playkula & Wilde Boat Party (Tickets)

Two of Berlin’s biggest DJ agencies join forces to set sail for the high seas. Tiefschwarz, MANDY, Pig & Dan, Thomas Schumacher, Matt Tolfrey, Heidi and INXEC will be entertaining a packed catamaran of ravers finding their sea legs after a weekend of fun. Let’s hope the seas aren’t too rough.

It’s a bit late in the day for a weekend run down with it being Friday and all.. So I’m just gonna blast through what’s on this weekend.

Friday

Innervisions at CAMP (info)
Tonight is sure to be a road block at the City Arts and Music Project as Innervisions rolls into town with Dixon and Ame. That’s going to be huge.

Unwind at East Village (info)
If you can’t get in at CAMP, then head down the road to East Village. Baaz, Le Loup and Simon Lee of Faze Action fame will be cosmically easing you into the weekend.

Deadly Rhythm Vs Hot Flush at Plan B (info)
For something a bit grittier, Deadly Rhythm go head to head with Hot Flush Recordings at Plan B. Scuba, Appleblim and Joy Orbison litter their line-up. And its only eight bucks.

Saturday

Bread and Butter Day Party at Light Bar (info)
We’re liking the sound of the Bread and Butter party at Light Bar. They’re in the garden, weather permitting, all day Saturday with the brilliant Argy at the helm. Lets hope its not to damp as that could be a corker.

Weatherhall, Slam, Butane Todd Terji at Fabric (tickets)
They’re open for business as usual. They’ll be fine, but they need your support through these hard times. Get yourself down this weekend!

Mulletover 5 Years of Mobilee (info)
Mobilee are only five years old? I swear they’ve been around for longer? Anja Schneider and Sebo K two Mulletover regulars return to the Shoreditch Hearn Street Car Park for a Mobilee knees up.

Sunday

Secretsundaze at RichMix
The new form Secretsundaze are now doing secret Sunday parties. So this is a secret, don’t tell anyone else. This Sunday they’re in the loft at RichMix on Bethnal Green Road. Giles and James will be joined by the excellent Mole and Brawther . It’s a paying guestlist only entry so get your names to guestlist@secretsundaze.net.

Ketoloco at Light Bar (info)
Light Bar is becoming a bit of a bank holiday epicentre this weekend. Those lads from a Leeds basement have moved things above board and into the sun light. Joining the Ketoloco DJs will be Julien Chaptal, Shonky, Alex Niggemann and Craig Torrance. Big for a Sunday afternoon. Tickets are sold out so get your queuing shoes on.

Move D at Horse and Groom (info)
The other terrace option is down the road at the Horse and Groom. The brilliant Move D will be joining the Warm and Discovery resident DJs for what will hopefully be a sunny day.

Image by Paul at Vision7Media

All things exciting seem to point to Clapham Common on the bank holiday weekend. But in all honesty, it’s not really all that it’s cracked up to be. Here are some reasons why not to waste your time on the common and some canny alternatives.

Rubbish Soundsystems

Being stuck in the heart of Clapham means you’re in the middle of a massive residential area. Residential area equals people with dogs, children, twitching curtains and a massive thirst for pissing on any parade. Call me crazy but these people hate it when their windows are vibrating during afternoon tea. Unfortunately they also pay taxes and actually have a say in how the world is run. So despite the soundsystem probably having tens of thousands of watts bottled up at its disposal, you can probably expect that the local council has it capped to a dreary cesspit tap drip. So the only way you’re going to hear anything of worth is if you’ve camped out inside the bass bin like some free party crusty.

What you need is some grotty warehouse space where you can crank it up a few notches. It just so happens that Eastern Electrics will be holed up in some grotty warehouse space where they will be cranking it up. Eastern Electrics staple Mulletover will be hosting the main room and they’ve got the Mobilee mistress Anja Schneider to headline. A so so DJ headliner in my opinion (great producer not so great DJ). But don’t worry as Damien Lazarus, fresh from recording a new album, has got Anja’s back. Glimpse will also bolster the support with one of his fantastic live sets too.

But what is really hitting the mark is the Need2Soul second room. They have Patrice Scott fresh from riding in on the recent wave of Detroit techno. He’ll be serving up deep techno cuts alongside the purveyor of dark pummelling beats – Ben Klock. These two names alone should be enough to hit this party for the measly £8 that they’re asking for. Instead they decided to chuck in a Claude Von Stroke and a Trevor Jackson in a third and final Resident Advisor room.

Great deal…. Get those tickets from HERE….  whilst you can!

Short DJ sets

On paper it looks great having every conceivable big name DJ on the bill. But the problem with having them play in one afternoon of raving is that the laws of time only permit a DJs set to be shorter than the time it takes to piss out a tinnie of luke warm festival cider. With only a few hours for prime time DJ sets you’re likely to get a Sasha and Digweed set consisting of half a monster prog record played and tweaked between them. Richie Hawtin will be barely through a bass filter drop before his set ends; and Zabiela would have only had half a fumble of an EFX knob before being kicked off.

What you really need is one amazing terrace and five quality DJs for the day. Who else can do that but Secretsundaze. They return to THAT, the site of this year’s opening party. Hopefully any niggles from last time involving sound and turntables will be sorted. If they get blessed with sunshine then the THAT terrace should bring back some of those happy Space/DC-10 terrace memories of yesteryear. There to invigorate happy terrace times will be the man who is all things insect in house – Steve Bug, a firm favourite of the Secretsundaze bunch and now an annual occurrence. With record labels in every pocket, his extensive electronic tastes are sure to ignite Sunday. In support is Doc Scott, one of the old guards of dance and making a much fabled Secretsundaze return. Like riding a bike, once you know how to rock a crowd you never forget and Doc Scott has been doing so for over a decade and a half. Finally on a live tip is the Canadian born Guillaume and The Coutu Dumonts. They’ve released a string of fantastic tracks on uber-cool labels Oslo and Circus Company and they feature heavily in the Secretsundaze sound. Their brand of percussive house should smoothly go down with the SS crowd.

Don’t miss out. Earlybird tickets are still going at RA.

Tourist Clubbers

Photo by Nick Ensing

The weekend is sure to lay prone to thousands of clueless clubbers that have rolled in for the one weekend of their lives. They’ll be lapping up the big beats as they come flying out the speakers like bricks hitting them square between the eyes. They’ll be saving their biggest “whoops” for the one with the hair on the Loreal advert or the other one that had the hot aerobic fitties in his music video. I mean how can you enjoy and dance to the music when you can’t recall when it was released, what label it was on, what mixes it has featured on and who was the assistant engineer in the second breakdown.

What you need is a versatile crowd open to the unheard boundaries of music. Warm tend to get a good crowd in for their underground house shindigs and the Innervisions showcase at Corsica Studios should be a bit of a roadblock, especially when you’ve got Henrik Schwarz, Dixon and Marcus Worgull on the bill. A massive one for the heads!

Get your tickets from RA.

Despite everything I’ve just said, all these recommendations all take place on a Sunday. So if you are heading down to Clapham Common, I guess it would be rude not to check out a bit of Hawtin, Danny Howells and Sasha & Digweed. But don’t say I didn’t warn you!!

DISCLAIMER: I’ve never actually spent an August Bank Holiday weekend on Clapham Common. So everything i’ve said is completely unfounded and might well be complete bullshit.

Mobilee start the year with a double remix package to support Miss Jools forthcoming Back to Back compilation. For her complilation Miss Jools chooses her top Mobilee picks from 2008 on the first CD and then on the second CD she mixes a compilation of Mobilee remixes. And its that second CD which has spurred this double release.

Part 1 sees one of Mobilee’s finest Sebo K remixed by Nick Curly and Efdemin. The 8Bit and Cécile records extravaganza Nick Curly takes on Sebo’s Diva, one of last year’s biggest Mobile releases. The original was a ballsy tribal monster with striking diva vocal snippets. Nick Curly totally transforms the track into his own. He saps out the ballsiness and swaps it for smooth funk. The first half of the track is spent building up to the first kick drum with crisp percussion and a slap bass funk line which slowly comes to the fore. When the kick drum releases all the pieces fall into place. The diva vocals are sparingly used and quite rightly so. The funk riff and crisp percussion is all it needs for the excellent house vibe Nick creates.

On the flip, Efdemin reworks Moved. He opts for a sublime yet moody ambience with restrained beats and a pulsating synth ostinato. And to keep things current and topical, Efdemin layers in stock market news reports talking about the recent crashes. It seems to work nicely as it doesn’t dominate the track, but I do think the idea is a tad cheesy like when moon landing commentary or Martin Luther King speeches are used in dance tracks. Apart from that it’s a deep, airy workout from the man.

For Part 2, D’Julz and Christian Burkhardt are on the remix duties. D’Julz takes on GummiHz’s Los Los and makes it a bit punchier for the clubs. A lot of the original features such as the hollow riff remain whilst D’Julz injects a punchier kick drum and reigns in the sporadic synths of the original to make it more club friendly. A straight forward mix destine for the dancefloor.

On the other side of Part 2, Christian Burkhardt goes down the club friendly remix route by reworking one of Anja Schneider’s lesser know album tracks Get Away. Christian uses heavier kick drums in place of the restrained drums the Anja normally uses. He then subtly layers in a few notes from the originally dominate guitar riff and sprinkles snippets of the vocals throughout the track. It’s a very straight up and down track, but it has that urging heavy bassline which is sure to get dancefloors moving.

Tracklist:
Part 1
1. Sebo K – Diva (Nick Curly Remix)
2. Sebo K – Moved feat. Prosumer (Efdemin Remix)

Part 2
1. GummiHz – Los Los (D’Julz Remix)
2. Anja Schneider – Get Away (Christian Burkhardt Remix)

Surely it’s time to shake of the January blues? There is definitely a fair few options if you do.

Firstly, Cargo on Saturday plays host to Go!Zilla with Joey Negro’s legendary Sunburst Band. In support is Switzlerland’s Agnes doing a live performance and deck duties being done by Benji B and James Priestly of 1Xtra and Secretsundaze fame respectively. Expect fun, soulful house music.

Since Cargo closes so early you can extend the night and head over to Mulletover. The warehouse floor isn’t even cold from New Years Eve yet, but they’re straight back in there with their winter warmer. Anja Schneider the Berlinette of Mobilee fame and Nottingham legend with Matt “Leftroom” Tolfrey are brought in to blow away the January cob webs alongside Geddes. Over in the second room disco reviver Todd Terje heads things up with the Future Boogie folks. House, Tech-House, Techno and everything in between and if that doesn’t keep you entertained there is the cosmic rays of disco in room two. This has sold out, so get there early.

Finally, since we’re getting back into things proper… we might as well power through till the early hours. Fabric seems to think so. Original Detroit techno minimaliser Robert Hood is in town with Arne Weinberg and Convextion, not to mention the rock like Craig Richards. That still Room 2 goes all Français with Jennifer Cardini along with Ivan Smagghe and Tim Paris making their return.

What a Saturday of things to do! Get involved!

To warm you up a little, the kind folks at Fabric sent over a Tim Paris mix… )

Listen below or download from here.

[See post to listen to audio]

Tracklist:
Skinnerbox ‘Binaer-Sedenaer’
Jaxson ‘Miami Flys’
Chateau Flight ‘La Roquette’
Instant Boys ‘Nya Farger’
Koze ‘Abudinga’
Johnny White ‘Musique Noire’ (Jamie Jones edit)
Lexy ‘Get Down’
Marc Houle ‘Selection’
Remain ‘Dependance’

You may or may not have heard that London’s beloved T-Bar is set to close in mid December. A while back they sent out e-mails asking for punters to find a new location for them. Lazy if you ask me! But lets hope they succeed as T-Bar has been a staple night spot for those looking for quality underground music all at no cost. In its prime the likes of Damien Lazarus, Michael Mayer, Ivan Smagghe and Andrew Weatherhall were gracing their DJ booth frequently on every night though the week but the weekend and the Sunday carry on party used to be nothing short of ridiculous. So in true “I should have gone home hours ago” style, Tea Bar have got a series of parties set through the week to go out with a bang, no doubt with the aim of hospitalising a few in the process.

Some great DJs will be coming through their doors, from the likes of Chloe, Pier Bucci, Anja Schneider, Cassy and Heidi, but our top picks has to be Damien Lazarus’ return with chum Michael Mayer and Mulletover Geddes for their infamous Stink night. Whilst on the right side of the weekend, Thursday, sees Andrew Weatherhall and Ivan Smagghe resurrect their Wrong Meeting night. And finally T Bar closes with the very last Dig Your Own Rave, where the Sunday afternoon and evening is whittled away with Jamie Jones, Matthew Styles, Dave Congreve, Clive Henry and many more.

It’s sure to be a painful couple of weeks saying goodbye at work. Sickies at the ready….

Wednesday 3rd
Event: High Horse
Lineup: Foals DJ set, Skull Juice, Casper C, Matt Walsh
Time: 9pm – 3am

Thursday 4th
Event: Baise Main
Lineup: Chloe, Danton Eeprom, Tomas More
Time: 9pm – 3am

Friday 5th
Event: Ditched Disco
Lineup: Pier Bucci & Gower Ramsey
Time: 9pm – 4am

Saturday 6th
Event: A Night With… Carsten Klemann
Time: 9pm – 4am

Sunday 7th
Event: DYOR & Fabric present ‘Go with the Blow’
Lineup: DJ’s to be announced on the day
Time: midday – midnight

Monday 8th
Event: Stink
Lineup: Damian Lazarus & Michael Mayer
Time: 9pm – 3am

Tuesday 9th
Event: Gay Bingo
Lineup: Jonny Woo, Ma Butcher & Jon Sizzle
Time: 9pm – 2am

Wednesday 10th
Event: Mobilee Loves T Bar
Lineup: Anja Schneider & Ralf Kollmann
Time: 9pm – 3am

Thursday 11th
Event: Wrong Meeting
Lineup: Andrew Weatherall & Ivan Smagghe
Time: 9pm – 3am

Friday 12th
Event: Ditched Disco
Lineup: Cassy & Gower Ramsey
Time: 9pm – 4am

Saturday 13th
Event: Phonica Special
Lineup: Heidi, Hector, Simon Rigg, The Vangelis & Anthea
Time: 9pm – 4am

Sunday 14th
Event: Dig Your Own Rave closing party
Lineup: Jamie Jones, Matthew Styles, Rob Mello, Hector, Dave Congreve, Clive Henry,
Dyed Soundorom, Ben Bryant, FB Julian, Pierre LX
Time: Midday – Midnight

The queens of Berlin go head to head this month. Mobilee’s head honcho vs BPitch Control’s head honcho in a bloody album release to the death… Chances are Anja Schneider and Ellen Allien are friends in the current European party capital that is Berlin and such brutal ideas probably never cross their mind. In fact we should be thankful that both are releasing albums. For Anja Schneider this is her debut album that she has co produced with Paul Brtschitsch on her own label Mobilee. Her album delivers the supple house sounds that Mobilee is currently pushing through acts like Sebo K and Pan Pot as well as the wider community from Rekleiner through to Dixon and Guido Schneider.

The album begins with Safari, a track which blends a cyclic melody of chimes and warm synths. It chime and synth melodies swirls and exchange positions as subtle percussion flutters in and out of the foreground to create a warm and welcoming opening track. From the light opening Anja dives straight into the heavy tribal rhythms of Mole. Released back in April it has been on heavy rotation for a lot of DJs out there. And rightly so as this is one of the stand out tracks of the album and of the year so far. Its highly percussive tribal rhythm and warm sub bass give Mole a dark and primeval foundation where stabs of sliding synths, plucked strings and wild sounds create an eerie and enchanted scene. Imagine Native Americans, the desert and some potent hallucinogenics as you quest to find yourself spiritually.

Maki and Beyond the Valley keep the restrained deep sound set by Mole. Maki utilises a Spanish guitar for an uplifting hook over a deep and percussive backing whilst Beyond the Valley uses a trickling guitar synth and echoed vocal stabs to create the atmosphere on the track. Both are similar in style but have their own nuances to distinguish them apart.

Cascabel uses intertwined melodies from various chime or glockenspiel sounding instruments which wriggle over a steady kick drum. It’s restrained like many of the other tracks in its delivery and the melodies hypnotise and mesmerise, making Cascabel a great warm up track for leading in to the next track Belize.

Another one of the singles already released, Belize is the other stand out track. Its stripped down nature and slow moving phases create a spacey round sound which has been destroying dancefloors for the last year or so. This track epitomises the deep hypnotic stripped back sounds which is rife across Europe at the moment.

Its hard to rate an album like this. On one hand each track is an excellent example of the new deep sound, yet as an album it can get tedious as one dark rhythm melds into the other. It’s not really an album to be listened to end to end but more so a collection of good dark house singles. Making it worth a purchase if you’re a DJ into this sound, but as an artist album it lacks variety and journey. 7/10

Anja Schneider – Beyond the Valley is out now.

Download from Beatport here.

Buy the CD from Amazon here.

Tracklisting:

1. Safari
2. Mole
3. Maki
4. Beyond The Valley
5. Gimlet
6. Cascabel
7. Belize
8. Get Away
9. Little Red Riding Hood
10. Fish At Night