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.

Robert Hood – Minimal Nation

When I said the moment might have passed I wasn’t talking about the one back in 1994 when this seminal classic was released. Instead I’m talking about Robert Hood and Planet M’s decision to re-release Minimal Nation to another generation of techno lovers and re-school the kids on where manipulating a minimal set of elements comes from.

Many of the tracks on this album still sound fresh today however it might be more the case of recent tracks trying to achieve Robert Hood’s classic 909/303 sound found throughout this album. But one that certainly flies the ‘still relevant today’ flag is Sleep Cycle. It’s deep reverberating beats and slowly evolving pattern changes sounds as if it’s walked straight out of a 48 hour Berghain/Dettmann session.

Even the tracks that have aged still make a mark. The way Rhythm of Vision’s distinctly 90s Detroit melodies and patterns unfold in such a subtle manner, like a Rubik’s cube slowly shifting and twisting towards a solution; it just really highlights some of the roots of minimalism in electronic music.

Buy Robert Hood – Minimal Nation on CD, Amazon MP3 or DJ Download

Bloody Mary – Black Pearl
On the subject of minimalism, Bloody Mary’s recent album release on Jay Haze’s Contexterrior label has been pushing one area of the minimal spectrum. The first full album release for both Bloody Mary and Contexterrior is an exploration into the subtleties of melodic ambience, techno and broken beats. Bloody Mary holds a certain darkness throughout with her melancholic melodies, twisted samples and restrained beats. Opening track Black Pearl sets the style immediately, planting itself as a hybrid of dub step mechanisms and techno undertones which are eroded away with the injection of a organic soaring string section. The rest of album dabbles around with this unison of techno and broken beats colouring the mechanical nature of the percussion with organic samples and melodies.

If Ellen Allien and BPitch is your thing then this is sure to tickle your fancy. Contexterrior have even thrown in Jay Haze and Sasche Funke remixes of Black Pearl too.

Buy Bloody Mary – Black Pearl on CD or MP3

Butane – Endless Forms
Another purveyor of the modern minimal sound is Butane. His latest album Endless Forms can be compared to Robert Hood’s Minimal Nation in that both feed off the concept of evolving patterns with a select set of elements deemed necessary to the composition. Butane uses this concept with dark reverberated movements of sound. Transmit The Music In Me has a massive throbbing bassline with minor detailing touches. The same goes for Mutation a track which we reviewed a few months ago- we liked its reverberating bassline that phased in and out of the track doubling up as the fill for the breakdown. I must say many of the tracks on this album have some of the slightest progression I’ve come across for a while which doesn’t bode well for continuous play as an album. But as a DJ some of the loops on this are just so hypnotic and infectious that you can’t help but buy into it.

Buy Butane – Endless Forms on CD or MP3

On the same release is two remixes from some heavyweight up and coming producers. Sety of Circus Company fame reworks the dark original into a more bouncy shuffling number. Sety fills in the minimal gaps with quite an infectious horn hook which sounds like something out of the King and I. Musical prejudice aside it seems to work, giving it a catchy and infectious edge the original didn’t have.

The other heavy weight remixer is man of the moment SiS. He also uses the original’s bassline but pads out the space with a clichéd minimal tap drip and samples of an Indian sitar. Add the skipping beats that SiS is so good at and the result is another infectious shuffling remix of the original. Another great release from the Crosstown stable.

Tracklist (Click for Mp3):
1. Mutation (Original Mix)
2. Mutation (Sety Mix)
3. Mutation (SiS Mix)

Second track Other People keeps with the eeriness opting for a shuffling beat to compliment another fine and full bassline. Multiple synth lines of a haunting flavour descend on to the track creating a dreamy and mysterious atmosphere. It’s a murky mixture of basslines and synths scored with sharp animal sounding stabs equals another decent deep and moody house track.

Tracklist:
01. You Just Arrive
02. Other People

Last year Crosstown Rebels released an electronica cross pollination track with Riz MC called Radar. To start the New Year Crosstown have come back with the remixes. The first comes from Ashley Beedle of X-Press 2 Fame. His Ill Communication mix starts with the angry, thundering percussion taken from the original. But it rather quickly transforms into a mellow and luscious track as sweeping strings soar to neutralise thundering percussion. The vocals awkwardly sit somewhere in between the two. And when the track fully metamorphoses into its cloud nine form, the vocals seem like they’ve been shoe horned in like a fat Essex girl in tight hot pants. If anything this should be a dub mix. EDIT – according to the press release there is a dub mix for the digital release only. So hopefully that will do the track justice.

The other mix in this package comes as a little venture into the Dubstep world. Sukh Knight uses a synonymous mechanical dubstep beat accented by light reggae/dub notes. Knight then excellently works the vocals in by taking snippets of the chorus, adding a vocoder effect to bring it inline with the mechanical nature of the track. The result is a raw and well worked remix.

Riz MC – Radar Remixes is released on vinyl 26th Jan/digital 9th Feb. Buy other Riz MC tracks from DJDownload

Tracklist:
1. Radar (Ashley Beedle’s ILL communication mix)
2. Radar (Sukh Knight remix)
3. Radar (Ashley Beedle Dub) (DIGITAL ONLY)

On the flip is Beautiful Eva, still keeping very much in the house vein, Dyed Soundorom turns to punchier percussion and quaint vocal samples as landmarks on a pretty flat house track. It has a great groove but lacks some spark to differentiate itself from the others.

Released 19th January exclusively on Beatport
Tracklist:
1. Naked
2. Beautiful Eva

Crosstown Rebels goes leftfield on their latest release with Riz MC, combining raw electronica sounds with thoughtful rhymes. He’s being hotly tipped as one of the UK’s bourgeoning talents with a growing list of advocates from the likes of Massive Attack and Nitin Sawhney. And when he’s not doing music he’s having a crack at being an actor for BAFTA winning TV. Pretty talented eh? Well that’s not the end of it.. A friend of a friend tells me he graduated Oxford with a first and had the pick of all the top finance jobs in the city earning crazy money.

But rather than go down the disgustingly rich route, Riz MC decided to follow the path of what he loves. His effort for Crosstown Rebels is a two track effort. First is Radar, a raw electronic thudding track which subtly supports the pacey lyrics. Heavily distorted static noises and striking electronic sounds denote verses, choruses and words adding a hidden level of emphasis and oomph. The second effort People Like People has a heavy breakbeat come Baltimore breaks feel, think M.I.A but more electronic. This is undisputedly raw output for the Crosstown Rebels.

So not to make the release to out there for Crosstown fans, Loco Dice is called in to completely strip the track down. Muted beats flutter with tight percussion as Mr Dice twists Riz MC’s vocals in to a garbled sample. It’s such a contrast to the original, but that definitely gives it big crossover potential for the house and techno fans.

Does anything not turn to gold when Jamie Jones touches it? You just can’t fault his raw edgey tech house productions. His latest release 911 sees Jamie return to Damian Lazarus’ label Crosstown Rebels where he slides in haunting space aged blips with a classic growling tech house bass which centres on quite a comical 911 call about a marijuana freak out. It’s rough round the edges and has a great raw feel. Its simplicity and directness has one thing in aim and that’s to rumble a dancefloor to pieces.

Jamie Jones – 911 is out now on MP3

After their seminal Mlle Caro remix of Far Away, the French duo return with their own EP Tuesday Paranoia on Crosstown Rebels. The title track is a dark and twisted mental workout. The old skool drum programming brings in classic elements of acid house whilst the bassline rumbles away in the sub bass. The track switches between the eerie sirens and the bright string washes hanging you in a state of confusion as you decide whether the tracks is dark and brooding or bright and colourful. Come Down to Earth the second track on this release is sure to be a winner with most people. Reminiscent of their Far Away remix, Come Down to Earth is a slow ominous track. Life support machine blips echo through the track as the sawtooth bassline vibrates the low end. The track takes its time in developing adding in new elements ever so slowly. Sure to be a hit for the summer.

Jamie Jones remixes the title track and comes out with an evil tech house monster ready to eat your mind. He cuts and stutters the vocal and uses the sirens sparingly for a proper dancefloor shaker. One of his best yet. Great dark tracks to lose your mind to.

Jennifer Cardini & Shonky Tuesday Paranoia is out now on Beatport

Brendon Moeller – Electricity

Release number seven on new label Leena comes from Brendon Moeller, a bit of a stalwart on the scene with releases on Third Ear and Echocord over his ten year career. His Leena release Electricity covers the spacier house sounds currently out there. Title track Electricity is a smooth and relaxed house beat awash with harmonies and synth stabs. It slowly sweeps over various synth swirls to create a deep and dreamy house mover. B-Side Sweet Decade is a little more abstract. The bulk of the track resides mainly in the bass regions as it rumbles and bubbles with the occasional synth stab that breaks through into the higher frequencies. Its an interesting concept, but I’m not sure if it would work well on the dancefloor. Maybe as a warm up track.

The final track on this release is Tiger. Another spaced out house number with bright synth washes and a shuffling Chicago-esque percussion. The dubby synth in the foreground reverberates and adds intensity as the splashes of synths in the background tickle your senses. Warm deep tracks for the warm up/wind down slot but lacks something to really grab me.

Brendon Moeller Electricity is out now on Beatport

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Monika Kruse – Changes in Perception Part 2

Monika Kruse seems to be pressing the right buttons at the moment as her popularity begins to grow outside of her native Germany. This release on Terminal M is the second part of her Changes in Perception series. The first track Spank Me Later is a raw track. It has a rumbling saw bassline which changes from short stabs in the intro to elongated gut rumbling notes after the break. Typical percussion and noises syncopate through echo effects to create a hypnotic but raw sound. The second track Morgana loops a chant sample over a warmer house sound to create a latino feel similar to your Luciano’s and Villalobos’. The round and bassy winding synth riffs make the track easy to follow and will definitely entertain the masses.

Monika Kruse Changes is out now on Beatport

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Chic Miniature EP

Crosstown Rebels re-emerge from the winter with this delightful Chic Miniature EP. Escandalo is a hypnotic house track with glistening harpsichord riffs in a similar style to Luciano’s infamous “Father”. Chancita on the other hand is its beefier brother. The rolling bassline and vocal stabs rustle about in a peak time pot whilst intricate percussion twitches and scats around. On Kimono, Chic Miniature lay down another couple of a piano riffs with a menacing bass and beat, everything is left to revolve around the piano occupying the high end whilst the beats and bass jostle in the bass regions. Great release.

The Chic Miniature EP is out now on Beatport