Last weekend a small warehouse tucked in between some housing blocks just behind Kingsland Road Station hosted DDD’s MJ themed 7^th Birthday. It was an inconspicuous location with the warehouse nestled in a very quiet residential area. Walking round the corner from the station it seems like a walk home rather than a walk to the party, but looks can deceiving. It still doesn’t seem normal as I pass the two solitary bouncers out the front, then the guest list girl with gay porn playing cards for accessories. But after going through the curtained entrance into the main room it all falls into place. A small warehouse space is bustling with a comfortable crowd lapping up the techy dish being served up by DDD resident Simon Baker. Simon has always been a quality resident for DDD and his main room set comes up trumps. He’s cranking out some big beats which keeps a fair sized dedicated crowd down the front. Walking through to the back room you pass all manner of MJs from yesteryear. Michael Jackson circa 1979 Off The Wall was a particular favourite as full tuxedos with too short trousers were dug out. There were a couple of MJs from the Thriller era and even one from the more up to date Bo Selecta guise. Quite a surreal backdrop whilst Daniele Moore is dropping classic disco and house cuts. Daniele showed some good music knowledge with her tune selection, but lacked a little finesse in mixing. However disco is a hard genre to mix and more often than not the stop/start is king, or queen in her case.

She was in good company for learning though as The Revenge came on directly after her, showing a masterclass in mixing disco through house. Custom edits, plenty of funk and some super stellar cosmic vibes – make The Revenge one of the best in his field. If you can definitely catch him play at a disotech near you.

Over in the main room Ekkohaus is tearing it up with his Chicago-esque bouncey house set goes down a treat with the still strong crowd. It was the first time for me catching the chirpy greek and I have to say his Chicago 2.0 sounds really did lift the room and provide a nice hark back to the happier days Chi-town grooves. Ripperton stuck with the theme too. He laid down some heavy grooves with some bump, but with a distinctly electronic edge. I hadn’t really take much notice of Ripperton until now, but this guy really does seem like a consistent DJ when checking back over various podcasts and mixes.

So happy 7^th birthday DDD. They laid on a great party in a great venue. Its just a shame the wind and rain kept a lot of late comers away. But those that battered through the forces definitely left with a smile on their face or at least some sparkles off the nearest MJ outfit.

But what now? Another weekend another warehouse of course. This week the abundance of London warehouses doesn’t fill my needs so I’m trundling up to Manchester for the now long running Warehouse Project. Cocoon is in town and they’ve got a fantastic line up. The heavyweights are Loco Dice and DJ Sneak – both excellent DJs in their own right. If heavyweights aren’t enough then the B-team is like the Man United Carling Cup team. Onur Ozer, Zip, Minilogue and Johnny D – you’d be hard pressed to find a better line up this month. FACT. Unfortunately tonight ain’t particularly a secret, so its completely sold out. You’ll just have to take my word for it in my review next week.

Closer to the M25 Danny Howells is randomly doing a dig deeper session at the Notting Hill Arts Club on Sunday. Strange time to do it, but it might bring in only the heads. If Monday doesn’t exist to you then by all means denounce its existence by attending this. Although if West London is too ritzy for denouncing things, you can always waste a Sunday night away at T-Bar. Trus’Me, Jamie Jones and Craig Richards will certainly do a good job helping you do that… all for free too.

What happened to just clubbing on a Saturday like normal people?

It’s pretty easy to stay stuck on this fair island called London. It seems everything you could possibly need is right here within the confines of our concrete perimeter, the M25. But believe it or not life does exist beyond those walls. For the last four years, during the autumn and winter months, Manchester has been the clubbing destination of the North. The reason – a grotty car park found in the arches of Manchester’s Piccadilly train station where the Warehouse Project setup shop to host some of the strongest nights past the Watford Gap service station.

Once again the team have put together another great run of nights starting from the end of September and running every weekend through till New Years Day. Last year we had great fun at the Cocoon night where Tobi Neumann absolutely smashed the main room after Sven Vath and the Ar:Pi:Ar boys completely stamped their mark on the back room. We also heard great reports about the Minus night with Richie Hawtin and the Resident Advisor night with Luciano and John Digweed.

So what’s hot for this year season? We think the following will be worth checking out.

Saturday 17th October
Minus with Richie Hawtin and Magda

The first big party for us has to be the Minus night. Richie has been on fire recently with a stellar set at Sonar over the summer so it will be great to catch him on his own in the car park. Magda as ever will no doubt provide some solid support along with minimal pushers Ambivalent and Hobo. To add an extra bit of spice Ali Dermirel is on hand to wow the crowd with his ever stunning visuals. The last Minus night there was a road block event so better get your tickets now!

Buy Tickets For MINUS With RICHIE HAWTIN

Saturday 7th November
Resident Advisor with Dubfire

Resident Advisor, another regular on the Warehouse Project party calendar, hosts “Deep Disher gone back to his techno roots” Dubfire alongside Swedish techno stalwart Adam Beyer and wonkster Claude Von Stroke. But its not the headliners we’re excited about… Its all about the support. Jamie Jones is on the bill pushing his forthcoming album. He recently amazed us with a fantastic set at Superfreq the other week. Then there is Seth Troxler who is just doing the business all over the place with his eclectic quirky house sounds. In addition to that there is the Motor City Drum Ensemble too, whose RA podcast earlier this year had us toe tapping on public transport for weeks.

Buy Tickets for THE RESIDENT ADVISOR PARTY with DUBFIRE

Friday 20th November
Cocoon with Loco Dice and DJ Sneak

Later on in November Cocoon are back to the Warehouse Project with one of their favourites – Loco Dice. His 300 party completely stormed London with rave reviews coming from all corners. I’m sure he’ll deliver the goods at the Warehouse Project too. Also on the bill is Chicago’s DJ Sneak, a fantastic booking as he is probably one of the greatest DJs to grace the planet in my humble opinion. Once again the support for this night is astronomical – Minilogue live, Zip, Johnny D and Onur Ozer?!?!?! Yes Yes Yes! Do not hesitate..

Buy Tickets for COCOON with LOCO DICE and DJ SNEAK

Friday 4th December
Cadenza Records with Luciano

Finally in the run up to Christmas, Luciano will be popping into the car park for a massive five hour set. The last time he played he apparently blew the doors off the place rolling through his trademark South American influenced house and techno.I’d expect him to do something similar on the Cadenza night. Failing that his moustache will definitely school the kids in how to wear an ironic tache. Luciano will be bringing along a few label friends in the form of Rhadoo, Pedro and Alex Picone. Not a bad way to warm up for the onslaught of festive partying.

Buy Tickets for CADENZA RECORDS with LUCIANO

So there you have it. Four perfectly good reasons to leave London for at least a night. If you book your train tickets from Virgin now you can get up there for as little as £16. Don’t worry about a hotel as the night runs right through to when the trains start up again. I’ve done it a few times now…. It’s certainly character building.

I normally struggle to think what tunes have been and gone in the last month, so trying to remember what I was listening to back in January is a mountainous mission in itself, which is probably why I’m going to write this avoiding any specifics and will talk around the subject pretending I know what I’m talking about like any good politician would do. But from what I can recollect “minimal” became housier (or maybe I became housier?), Dubstep collided with Techno and Disco has undergone a massive revival

So lets start with the shift towards the housier sounds. We noticed a lot of DJs ditching the repetitive and bland “minimal” sounds that were starting to stagnate and instead nudging more towards the house end of the spectrum. This meant a bit more funk and soul embedded into tracks, more vocals and jazzier samples. It may sound like we’re harking back to the funky house days circa 2000-02, but this was slightly different, it was more an amalgamation of what came out of the “minimal-tech” sounds which dominated ’05-’07 with older house music sensibilities as seen from the Chicago deep house days. A perfect example of this is probably My My, their remix of Djuma Soundsytem’s Les Dijnns ’s typifies where the sound was during 2007 whilst their latest release Everybody’s Talkin’ is a glimpse into the house sound doing the rounds at the moment. The same goes for Josh Wink’s Stay Out All Night and Matthew Styles We Said Nothing, both distinctly Chi-town influenced numbers which bebop’s to a fun and funked up skipping rhythm. In a similar vein who could forget Johnny D who’s had a fantastic year. His track Orbitallife was causing raucous everywhere through the summer not to mention all his other releases.

But then it wasn’t all fun funked up house, this year saw a lot of dub style house and techno music with heavy basslines at a relaxed pace. Tracks like Trus’me’s W.A.R Dub particularly stood out as did a lot of the output from Gedde’s new label MurMur which had artists like Bearweasel pumping out deep and hypnotic house. One of the best tracks of the year for me was the highly elusive Wax1001. There was no artist or label, just this white label containing the rawest house track ever. A simple track with clunky beats, classic hi hat patterns and a dark raw bassline made Wax1001 show how less is definitely more.

Amongst all of this was another return. Afrobeat house started reappearing in a heavier form predominately coming out of the Innervisions camp but also a whole host of producers. This house sound brought a lot of energy through African rhythms, chants and tribal beats. Henrik Schwarz’ I Exist Because of You was a prime example as was Dixon/Ame/Schwarz’s effort on D.P.O.M.B and to a lesser extent Laurent Garnier’s return to production on his Afrodiziac mix of Back to my Roots. Away from the Innervisions folk, Osborne’s Afrika had a not surprising African feel making it a firm favourite for many including EarPipe and was part of an incredible year for the Michigan born producer who’s self titled album received critical acclaim. The other big African influenced house but probably more so house influenced African music came from Afefe Iku and his track Mirror Dance. The heavy tribal beats and highly infectious glockenspiel hook were an instant success made apparent when every one would always poorly attempt to vocally imitate the glockenspiel hook.

Aside from genre nit picking, house and techno came out with some pretty good gems. SIS was a massive mover this year mainly with his track Nesrib but there was also Orgasa, Clarinete and that annoying but quite fun Trompeta. Truly a stellar year for the young producer. Another trend for 2008 was taking samples from old scratchy foreign records and working it into restrained house beats a la Italoboyz style. Stimming’s Una Pena and La Pena’s A1/Davino Canto were particular highlights of this trend and pushed massively by the Lucianos and Villalobos’ of the world. Radioslave also continued his world domination with a new direction through Eyes Wide Open not to mention his more ambient and down tempo project with Joel Martin as Quiet Village. But that’s not to say Radioslave’s dark technoness didn’t continue on. Dubfire’s remix of Grindhouse Tool was making a right mess on most techno dancefloors right through the summer. It was fun at first but it has become a bit dull.

Whilst many were disputing what house and techno had become there was an alchemy experiment happening behind the scenes where Dusteppers were blending Dubstep with Techno in an attempt to produce gold. Their attempts have been pretty successful Shackleton returned the favour by remixing Villalobos’ acclaimed Vasco EP, whilst Appleblim and Peverelist topped many charts with their track Circling as well as pushing their Skull Disco label to new nether regions in the Dubstep world. But it’s probably Appleblim’s RA podcast which helped to break down Dubstep/Techno/House barriers for many people.

But the most interesting development for EarPipe has to be the recent Disco revival. Its been bubbling away since the start of 2007 and properly came to attention when the James Murphy and Pat Mahoney FabricLive 36 release came out in October 07. From there Disco has gone from strength to strength in the capital. New night Disco Bloodbath and Horse Meat Disco have been busy throughout the year, whilst Fabric, Secretsundaze and Mulletover have all jumped on board with Disco backrooms. One of the biggest developments for the Disco revival was the release of Hercules and Love Affair’s self titled debut album. The album hit the charts and was widely respected by the critics putting this new Disco come House sound in the spotlight. Across the North Sea our Scandinavian friends Lindstrom and Prins Thomas continued pushing their cosmic disco sound on Smalltown Supersound and Metro Area’s Fabric 44 gave us a reminder of where disco came from.

So that’s what we at EarPipe can remember from the year in music. It has been fun, there has been some rubbish, but then there have been some delectable moments and no doubt this will continue into 2009.

If we’ve missed something out then do stick it in the comments!

You can catch our review of clubs, festivals and parties here.

Since we’re halfway through December with Christmas right on our doorsteps I guess we should really cover what’s going down on New Years Eve. If you think you can bear the vomit laden streets and tourist clubbers who make it out for their annual party then read on. If not EarPipe recommends a house party or hired venue for you and your friends to get seriously pissed and whatever else you might want to do….

So what is the party to go to for us? Top of our list is Eastern Electrics. You may remember them from August Bank Holiday weekend, maybe for the wrong reasons. Here at Earpipe we had an OK night but it’s true it could have been organised better. But Eastern Electrics has assured us they’re one the case. So we’re definitely going to give it another shot because who could say no to some South London urban space. You may cry that its going to be cold. But fear not as you’ll be donning some kitsch 80s throw back tracksuit because as part of this year’s line-up Eastern Electrics have brought in Tayo and his legendary tracksuit party!! What better excuse to look 80s hip hop cool or more likely in our case Chuckle Brothers retro.

Tracksuits aside you may want to know what’s going on music wise. Well they’ve got three rooms in this warehouse location. The main room will have the formidable Mulletover who have brought in one half of MANDY Phillip Jung, they’ve also got Crosstown Rebeller Damien Lazarus, who might we add played an absolute stormer at the T-Bar closing parties, and to support these heavyweights they’ve got London faithfuls Geddes from Mulletover and Simon Morell form DDD. Tayo and Frank Tope take over room two with their tracksuit party canvassing support from ex Radioslaver Serge Santiago and to round things off those up and coming Man Make Music kids will be delivering the full spectrum of bass heavy dance music. So pretty fantastic if you ask me.

Tickets are still going at £20 from ticketweb here

And you might still be able to get some £16 ones from View London here

Not bad for New Years Eve!

But if bopping around a cold warehouse in a tracksuit doesn’t take your fancy then here are the next best…

Secretsundaze

Secretsundaze looks particularly good. They’ve taken Village Underground a rough and ready design space in the heart of Shoreditch. The location sounds fantastic and they’ve got a fantastic line-up too. Favourites from the year Omar S and Johnny D will be playing alongside Giles Smith and James Priestley. Expect nothing less than brilliant house music!

Get your tickets from here.

Horse Meat Disco

If you want something a bit off the wall then Horse Meat Disco might be right up your street. They’ve got plenty of delightful disco to see you through the night at Cargo and to give it that Studio 54 edge they’ve brought in show girl Johnny Woo of Gay Bingo fame.

Get your tickets from here.

Fabric

Now we move on to the big boys. Firstly Fabric has one big New Years Eve melting pot of styles. Its going to be a head on collision of Fabric vs Fabric Live. In room one they’ve got our Innervisions favourites Ame and Dixon along with Nottingham whipper snapper Matt Tolfrey. Of course the New Year wouldn’t be the same if the residents Craig Richards and Terry Francis weren’t present. Then over in room two they’ve got Yoda, Craze and the perverts. If you like hip hop and DnB there’s no point looking anywhere else.

Get your tickets from here

The End

The second big boy is The End. They do their final New Years Eve and who better to bring the club in to the New Year for the final time than the French master Laurent Garnier. All night the French wizard will do what he does best and that’s quality journeys through dance music. He’ll get a little support from Layo too and in the back room the most excellent Jimpster and Milton Jackson will have you buried deep in the ground with their deep deep stylings. Sure to be a fantastic party however you might be left a bit tearful not because it’s closing down but because of the ticket price.

Get your eye watering £40 tickets from here

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!