A few bits and bobs going on this weekend with the big elephant in the room being the Lovebox weekender. Now extended to three days featuring the likes of Roxy Music, Grace Jones, Hot Chip, Hercules and Love Affair to name a few stellar names. Saturday looks like a hot tip with Roxy Music headlining the bill along with Mark Ronson. The terribly named Relentless Energy Stage hosts a solid line up consisting of Bookashade, Jesse Rose, Henrik Schwarz and personal favourite Dixon whilst Grandmaster Flash rounds off the Rizla arena on a old skool hip hop tip. A few tickets are left at Ticketmaster here.

On the Sunday Grace Jones will impose her diva stylings on the crowd whilst Hot Chip will be doing their thing in a more nerdy way. From the dancey side of things, Kubicle will be warming up for their birthday marathon with all their favourite DJs from Craig Richards and Jamie Jones to Lee Foss, Clive Henry and Lee Curtiss. Horse Meat Disco and Disco Bloodbath will be taking over the seedy derelict hotel of the NYC Downlow fresh from its outing at Glasto for a colossus disco hoedown. It is quite the temporary structure with a taxi crashing through the roof, plus what happens inside is so camp that your retinas will never be the same again. I’m not sure how the king of middle class bling – Westwood will handle the campness when he plays on the Saturday. Also the big gay bear from Chicago Derrick Carter will be in the house, or more so the Rizla arena with Larry Heard and the Hot Chip DJs. Tickets for Sunday are also still available but going quick at Ticketmaster here.

You can also get the both days for a cool £80 here.

All this daytime festivallng also means there will be swarms of people lost for things to do in the evening. Luckily though there are also swarms of DJs playing at Lovebox also lost for things to do. So conveniently there’s a few after parties happening to mop up the stragglers. Saturday sees Magic & Medicine make use of Dixon and the Bocking Street warehouse for a little post Lovebox shindig. I say little but probably mean massive as the pimp Seth Troxler and The Revenge will be joining in. Tickets are available from Ticketweb here.

On the Sunday Kubicle will be on after party duties with their entire Lovebox line-up heading back to Metropolis in Hackney to play eclectic sets to an intimate crowd of 500 jobless souls. With Craig Richards, Jamie Jones and Clive Henry on the bill its even worth quitting your job to be there.

If you’re not in the Loveboxing mood then A Night With… Cassy might be for you. The Berlinette will be smashing the back doors out of The Basement in Hoxton to a small and dedicated crowd. The atmosphere will no doubt be reaching fever point for this quality DJ. Tickets still going at RA here.

Finally on the Sunday Bread and Butter will be doing a day party at Light Bar’s roof terrace. Yep, turns out they’ve got a roof terrace… Ryan Crosson of wolf+lamb/M_nus/Wagon Repair fame will be keeping the rain at bay with house and techno records. Tickets available at RA here.

Not a bad weekend all in all. Lap it up, we’re half way through the summer.

Wax’d at Public Life
Just a bit of self promotional glory first. This Friday I’ll be laying down some grooves for Wax’d at Public life – Shoreditch’s most loved toilet. I’ll be playing alongside Andy Richardson and Nick Warren, where we will be laying down your typical offering of house and techno fit only for a toilet. Its free before 11 and then only £3 after that. We finish at 2am so you’ve even got options to go other places after….

Derrick Carter at T-Bar (Buy Tickets)
One of those places is most definitely T-Bar. They’ve been pushing hard on giving you good reasons for paying on the door and I have to say with recent line-ups they’re doing a pretty good job of convincing me. This Friday they’ve got the teddy bear of Chi-town Derrick Carter busting out those bumping rhythms that there windy city is so famed for. Dave Congreve the legendary Bomb resident is down to give some support too. Big for a Friday night!

Buzzin fly at Plastic People
Also in the general Shoreditch vicinity will be Ben Watt and Buzzin Fly chums at Plastic People. He’ll be taking the deeper stance on house with his long time side kick Chris Woodward. Tickets are gone so get there early!

Paradise 45 at Dalston Superstore
Guy Williams of DTPM fame brings kicks off a new monthly night called Paradise 45. Serge Santiago will be joinging Guy to start things with a bang at the now staple Dalston Superstore. At only a fiver on the door it sounds like the start of something promising.

MuMu 1st Birthday at The CAMP (Buy Tickets)
Saturday sees The CAMP play host to relative London new comer MuMu who will be celebrating their 1st year in the city. They’ve just got the opening hours extended so that Boris Werner and Lauhaus can now do a five hour extended set. That is a great way to celebrate being one.

Mulletover at The Basement (Buy Tickets)
Mulletover are sticking their two fingers up at Valentines Day which happened two weeks before. I’d imagine Mulletover were busy wining and dining their Valentine which is why their Anti-Valentines Special is happening now. Either way Luke Solomon of Freaks fame will be headlining, so expect all manner of quirky house sounds for your listening and dancing delight. Another of the third wave Detroit contingent Ryan Elliot will be in support along with Tom Demac who’s making his debut. And of course Geddes will be there to keep things tidy.

Lick MY Deck T-Bar (info)
Finally, another great line-up at T-bar. Lick My Deck have Baby Ford and Bruno Pronsato for a night of introspective minimal techno, and that’s minimal in a good way.

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!!

On the remixes Luke Solomon attempts to take things darker. A deep growling bass throbs as the cow bells and percussion have been rearranged in a scatty mess with sporadic snippets of the vocal. It’s dark but too busy for my liking. You would need to get your timing perfect to drop this full on busy track.