Metro Area
Jesus Died So We Could Rave for Two Extra Days – Easter Weekend Update!
Tuesday, March 30th, 2010 | Event Preview | No Comments
A weekend bookended by bank holidays, don’t you just love Easter. Jesus died so we could rave for four days with out feeling guilty about work. I’m pretty sure that’s what it said in the bible. Plenty of stuff on so I won’t ramble on in this blasphemous theme.
Thursday
Secretsundaze @ Stamford Works (Buy Tickets)
Ooo its nearly time for Secretsundaze to emerge from its winter cocoon and head back out into the great outdoors. I cannie wait. But just to wet your whistle they’re throwing a Bank Holiday warehouse party this Thursday. I remember reading somewhere that its at the great little warehouse called the Stamford Works in Dalston where the recent DDD birthday took place. Its round the back of the Jazz Bar and Kingsland Road station. However I can’t find where I read that, so the official word is its in Dalston and yet to be announced. For the line-up they’ve got a veteran of the New York scene Morgan Geist of Metro Area fame, whilst in support they have new comer Nina Kraviz who’s found breaking fame on Radioslave’s Rekids. › Continue reading
Plenty of Basement Action for the Weekend!
Thursday, February 18th, 2010 | Event Preview | No Comments
For your consideration – a few things happening this weekend, and they’re all underground quite literally in basements.
Warm at Plastic People with Steve Bug (Info)
London just can’t get enough of the Bug at the moment. He’s been popping up all over the place of recent times. This Friday sees him in the intimate surrounds of Plastic People for Warm. Steve Bugs mix of electronic house will be perfect for the low ceilings of the plastic people basement. However this perfect match of DJ and venue has caught the eye of many. So if you haven’t got one of the few tickets that went on sale you › Continue reading
The Festive Wounds Have Healed, Time To Get Massively On It!
Thursday, January 28th, 2010 | Event Preview | No Comments
It’s been a long time coming but it is now finally time. The festive wounds have healed and now its time to rip off the staying in plaster to get rid of that itch you’ve been feeling under your skin for the last week or so. The January blues, the detox month, whatever it was, people are now back on the streets and the clubs are there with glee to help you on your merry way, so as always here’s our round up of things to whittle away the weekend. › Continue reading
The Berlin Bus is Coming and Everybody’s Jumping | Weekend Round Up
Thursday, November 26th, 2009 | Event Preview | No Comments
It’s the end of the month… That can mean only one thing – pay day! And don’t the clubs know it. The arse end of the month is so stuffed with nights that it’s actually touching cloth wanting to overspill into December. Consider this the official start to the run down to Christmas and New Years Eve/Day. › Continue reading
May The Rave Be With You!
Friday, April 24th, 2009 | Event Preview | No Comments
I love this stretch of April to May. There’s a nice series of bank holidays which firstly equates to four day weeks or long weekends, but secondly and most importantly it means so many great rave up opportunities. You might have only just flushed the last bank holiday weekend out of your system, but here it is again, another extended weekend in our midst.
So what are the options for the May day rave up?
Saturday has some nice options with Excuse The Mess being top of the pile. They’ve got My My live along with the always excellent Matthew Styles in room 1. Then in room 2 Ralf Kollman takes the spotlight to entertain along with Shane Watcha.
The first part of Eastern Electrics also kicks off on the Saturday too. They’ll be vibing with some dub-tastic sounds with Dublime who have brought in Brendon Moeller. Room 2 has been taken over by the folks that brought you the Bloc Weekender. Their room is looking particularly sharp with the likes of Metro Area, Appleblim and Zomby. Then the third and final room is hosted by the Man Make Music guys. They’ve got the West Coast house head and Buzzin Fly aficionado Justin Martin.
Tickets are still available for both, so get Excuse the Mess tickets here and Eastern Electrics tickets here.
BLOC Book The 13th-15th March It’s BLOC Weekend Baby!
Saturday, January 17th, 2009 | Event Preview, Events, News | No Comments
BLOC Weekend looks set to return after last year’s sell out success. Taking place on the 13th – 15th March weekend, this year sees the early spring weekend move location to the Butlins “mega-resort” in Minehead near Bristol. It boasts the largest water park in the South West with a water slide that can spit you out at up to 40mph. Definitely what you need after a night of jaw breaking techno and Aphex Twin’s microphone in a blender trick! But it’s not really about the luxury settings of the holiday resort its more what’s on. And judging by this year’s current line-up it could be held down the local sewage works without deterring anyone.
So who’s on the bill? › Continue reading
EarPipe Has an Even Hazier Look Back at the Music Through 2008
Saturday, January 3rd, 2009 | Music, News | 1 Comment
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.
Metro Area – Fabric 43 Review
Tuesday, November 11th, 2008 | Album Review, Music | 1 Comment
Disco in London seems to be making a bit of a come back these days with nights like Disco Bloodbath and Horse Meat Disco popping up in packed backrooms and main rooms all over the capital, it really seems to be down with the kids these days. You might think that there is little room for disco down at Fabric in amongst the basslines and electronic noises. Well you’d be wrong. Tucked away upstairs in the little room 3 you’ll find the playground for the leftfield and more often not you’ll hear those classic NY disco sounds pumping out its speakers. So it makes sense for Fabric to explore the flowery side of dance music. We got a taste from James Murphy and Pat Mahoney’s efforts on FabricLive 36 and I have to say it might have been the best Fabric release this year.
For Fabric 43, Metro Area has the fortunate or unfortunate task of following the LCD Soundsystem duo in the disco stakes. Hailing from Brooklyn, Morgan Geist and Darshan Jesrani should know a thing or two. They’ve been producing and DJ’ing since the 90s and were affectively ahead of the curve with their seminal release Metro Area 1 fusing the delights of early Detroit and Chicago music with their native Harlem disco.
On this CD they set out themselves the task of doing a mid 80s mix with emphasis on the not so obvious disco. And true to their word they have, about 90% of the tracklisting is circa 1985 and I don’t recognise a single record. The closest I come is knowing who Devo and that said I don’t even know any of their music.
So what can I tell you about this mix from my obviously lacking knowledge of disco music? Probably not that much. But I can tell you that this mix is crafted quite beautifully from start to end. They explore organic and synthesised sounds, they ooze funk, groove with a great sense of urgency and they get inside your mind with so many different hooks.
They effortlessly glide between the laidback grooves of Disco Four’s Move to the Groove and the luscious RnB infused You Should Have Known Better through to the urgent funk of italo disco I love with tracks like Swede’s Scandal’s Atmosphere and Mascara’s Baja. If the hooks don’t get you the percussion sure will.
But its not just pure disco throughout, tracks like Ray Martinez’ The Natives Are Restless provides a great tribal interlude before being followed by the Chicago and Detroit influences through Dreamhouse’s I Can Feel It and Plez’ I Can’t Stop. There’s even a head nod to French synthpop’s Poupee Flash. They’re completely different genres but one thing that unites them all is that they have this groove flowing through them.
There are some real gems on this CD, but then there are some tracks which stray into the dubiously cheesy disco territory. Souvenier’s Voyage stands out in particular. It has a strange resemblance to the theme tune of Love Boat a 70s TV show which aired 14 odd years before I was born. The way the funk bass jogs along before a crescendo into a flurry of clichéd strings and horns. As clichéd as it is however, it does just work, like the rest of this CD.
It’s great to see Fabric taking the series in a completely different direction and I think with Metro Area it’s paid off. For those not wholly into disco this is great journey through some of the great music that came from that era. It’s well put together and has great progression. However for me this still doesn’t top the FabricLive:36 effort from the LCD SoundSystem boys.
Buy Metro Area – Fabric 43 on (CD)
Tracklisting:
01. Babla’s Disco Sensation – Ghar Aya Mera Pardesi (Intro)
02. World Premiere – Share the Night (Breakdown Mix)
03. Ministry – Work for Love (Dub Mix)
04. The Disco Four – Move to the Groove (Instrumental)
05. Skratch – You Should Have Known Better (Instrumental)
06. Barbara Norris – Heavy Hitter (Dub Version)
07. Gary’s Gang – Makin’ Music (Dub Mix)
08. Voyage – Souvenirs
09. Five Special – Why Leave Us Alone (Long Version)
10. Ray Martinez – The Natives are Restless
11. Dreamhouse – I Can Feel It
12. Mascara – Baja (Instrumental Dub Version)
13. Play by Numbers – Cloud Nine (Ready Mix)
14. Midway – Set it Out (Funky Breakdown Mix)
15. Heaven 17 – Penthouse and Pavement
16. Data – Blow (Remix)
17. Atmosphere – Swede’s Scandal
18. Wiretap – X-Rated Man
19. Plez – I Can’t Stop (Acid Rainforest Mix)
20. Baby Oliver – Feelings2
21. Jean Luc Ponty – Open Mind (Special Dance Mix )
22. Premiere Class – Poupée Flash
23. Devo – Freedom of Choice
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