Hola hombre! Long time no speak! It’s been a while since our last posting… But this one is going to put that right, just in time for the weekend. And quite a weekend it is to be reopening the blog post account. So lets get down to it…

Basically if your head has been in the ground for the last month or so, or you happen to be a Chilean miner, then you’d be hard pressed to have bypassed the monstrous weekend happening at fabric. The Chilean miners amongst you might have checked the calendar and realised its October. This obviously brings the fabric birthday instantly to mind – mainly due to the fantastic review that we wrote last year. Well for this year they’re following up the phenomenal party with what looks to be another phenomenal party. Part of the magic last year was the three Villalobos sets spread across the Saturday to Monday marathon. This year they’ve got RV back in again. You might ask, are you not fed up with the prospect of RV for another marathon session so soon after the On&On session the other month in August? The answer is no. Literally RV can do no wrong at the moment. I hate to gush, but the guy is just on fire. But that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Supporting through the weekend will be dOP, Floating Points, Move D, Trus’Me, Ryan Crosson – all people who have been brilliant this year. Plus established firm favourites like Ame, Lazarus, Dixon, Tobi Neumann and Lee Burridge along with the trusty residents Richards and Francis to make the whole weekend a mouth watering melon of a session. If last year was anything to go by you want to buy your tickets right now if you already haven’t… The top tip from earPIPE is go for a bit of a posho breakfast at Smiths or the Modern Pantry, all nearby, followed by some bloody marys down the road from fabric at the Fox & Anchor. Then arrive at fabric around 10am to spend the day in the dark cavernous rooms. If I were a Chilean miner just back on the surface, this is exactly how I would want to celebrate life. FACT.

Get your tickets at TICKETWEB or you can get some interesting ticket CD combos at the Fabric Website.

However if waking up to rave on Sunday just sounds a bit too civilised and you want to bash through from Saturday night, then you might be interested in the following two nights. It’s a toss up between A Night With or Shake It. The former has the always brilliant Ivan Smagghe for the whole eight hours. Smagghe plays a fair bit in London, but he rarely plays for eight hours. Personally I think this will be one of the standout A Night With nights. However… Shake It have brought in some Minus folks in the form of Magda and Marc Houle – two DJs that I do thoroughly enjoy hearing out. Its though. Maybe Smagster just sways it, either way they should be both entertaining. But please do get yourself down to fabric, after the tough year they’ve had, they’re bound to be blowing off some major steam. You’ve been warned!

A Night With… Ivan Smagghe (Tickets)

Shake It with Magda, Marc Houle and Layo & Bushwacka! (Tickets)

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

This weekend has been relatively quiet (and a little wet) so I’ve had a bit of time to tell you where I’ve been. First, two weeks ago was yet another bank holiday weekend and the Sunday was set as the big night since Saturday was reserved for watching a fat Manc get decked by a cheeky chappy Phillipino. Anyways Secretsundaze started their summer of events with their opening party on the THAT terrace out in the middle of nowhere (well no where in Greenwich with no Jubilee line). It was touch and go whether the weather was going to be good but Mother Nature for once pulled through and the terrace was to be blessed with sunshine all afternoon. Sunshine, drinking and outdoor dancing is just a great combination. The crowd were really up for it and despite some pretty shaky mixing, apparently due to some technical difficulties, the party still went off. Brothers Vibe did a great job of changing up gears from evening to night whilst Melon was knocking out some great grooving house beats. Move D early on was good but maybe a little too deep for my liking. Being tired and hungover whilst hearing some laid back deep grooves can make one a little sleepy however it did go well with the sunshine and glamorous crowd. So despite the awkward location and shaky mixing Secretsundaze was in my eyes a success.

But things weren’t to end there. Later on that evening we swapped sunny terraces for grotty warehouses and another Eastern Electrics bank holiday shindig. Last August saw the first of these parties in the Union Car Park venue with mixed results. But over the last year they’ve ironed out the issues and got things running smoothly. On arrival Craig Richards was out stretching his limbs having been unchained from the Fabric DJ booth. He was serving up some delightful tripped out techno. I would try and recall some records that he played, but I never really know what Craig Richards plays, all I know is that it’s good.

A quick wonder through the Disco Bloodbath room and I see two slighty mad Mancunians ripping up the middle arch with the ressies. It can only be the Unabombers. They serve up epic disco to the most up for it crowd in the venue. Disco in London has once again made its mark and it’s easy to see why. After a lengthy detour we finally make it to the third arch for the Freak n Chic showcase. By this time I’m told Shonky is on but this is all hazy second hand information. By this point I’m shuffling around to some great bleepy techno lost in a carefree utopia, which pretty much sums up Eastern Electrics. There’s something about being in a grotty warehouse where the crowd can really get down to having a good time. No rules as they say.

That said last weekend was spent in one of the nicest clubbing locations ever. Superfreq’s Cable opening party had been relocated to the Paramount bar, a swanky members only bar at the top of the Centre Point Tower on Tottenham Court road. It’s not the prettiest tower in London, but the bar has views to die for. Think Weekend in Berlin but overlooking a prettier city and higher up. Even though we were there for a boogie a good part of the night was spent looking out the window pointing at obvious landmarks and trying to see if you could see your home. For the record I could.

Photo by Nick Ensing

But once over the city gazing thoughts turned to dancing and who better than Steve Bug to an intimate crowd of 400 or so like minded revellers. It was just a great combination. The views, the music, the crowd and the setting made one of the parties of the year so far. Similar to the Loco Dice 300 party, the crowd was made up of people that had made an effort to be there. And when the sun rose at around 5:30 am the place just went nuts. A special moment which brought back memories of what made Ibiza special back in the day. I’ve only got two minor gripes from a near perfect night out. First, the lack of toilet facilities which for a bar that normally has only a handful of people couldn’t bear the strain of 80% of the 400 people “really needing a poo” and the second having to take the lift 31 floors down to smoke a cigarette. It’s a hard life I know.

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.

But in true bank holiday weekend style, the parties really kick off on Sunday and being the start of May for most Brits we’re in full blown summer. That means, outdoor parties in blustery not quite hot weather. Secretsundaze have their first outdoor party on the recently refurbed terrace of That formerly the House and Terrace in Greenwich. Apparently the terrace was always quite good, but with its Greenwich location it used to attract a pretty unsavoury crowd. Anyways, with a strict door policy and the terrace done up in the Secretsundaze way we can expect a pretty decent party. Brothers Vibe, Move D and Melon will be providing the tunes to what we hope will be a sunny day (a quick BBC weather check says sunny intervals!). If you’re after tickets you might be out of luck as they sold out the other week. But you could give your money a run on the door.

Another outdoor party which is a bit closer to home comes from those Circo Loco and tranquiliser lovers KetoLoco. They’re throwing a shindig at Light Bar in Shoreditch. They’ve brought in man of the moment SiS to do a live set along with Hobo from Minus, Ilario Alicante and Craig Torrance off MurMur. A balanced quality underground lineup. Lets hope its stays sunny for those guys too.
Get your tickets here.

The final outdoor party that takes our fancy is the Escape From New York Roof Top Party at the Queen of Hoxton. They’ve got a pretty spectacular roof top terrace which will play host to Holy Ghost from DFA and The Revenge. They’re also laying on a BBQ spread for those which need to eat through the daytime sessions. Sounds yum.
Tickets for this here

Once the sun sets, not to be seen until Monday, the main option is to head to Eastern Electrics for their second part of the Bank Holiday extravaganza. Sunday sees them team up with Mulletover once again who have brought in 2000 and One, The Mole, Craig Richards and Karl Gonzales. Our disco favourites Disco Bloodbath once again take over room two with Manchester and Electric Chair legends The Unabombers. The third room sees the Freak n Chic label setup shop with Dan Ghenacia, Shonky and Terry. MASSIVE. Get your tickets from here

If you’re wondering where Eastern Electrics is, its down at the Union Car Park on Great Suffolk Street.

View Larger Map

So there you go.. I’ve laid it out.. You just need to play it out. Good luck and see you there.

Saturday sees a lude three-way orgy between Fabric, Matter and Secretsundaze. Firstly Fabric has their annual Digweed soirée joined by Lee Burridge and Radioslave which is sure to be prog-e-licious affair. Up the road at Kings Cross’ Scala, the Secretsundaze rabble once again takeover. They’re joined by Shindoe, 2000 and One and Kabale und Liebe in the main room whilst the residents Giles Smith and James Priestley hold fort in the back room with the excellent Brothers Vibe. Finally a Secretsundaze do wouldn’t be the same without a lick of disco, so the Disco Bloodbath boys take over room three. Again another great party to get too.

Last but not least we have Matter and quite possibly the first decent all round line-up they’ve put on since they’ve opened. The main reason for this is due to RA who is taking over for one night to throw their Christmas party with many of the fantastic DJs that have graced their podcast this year. You’ve got everything from the disco funk realm of Trus’me, the electronic techno and house stylings of DJ Koze and Modselektor and the dubby darkness of Appleblim and Shackleton. And that’s just the main room; out back you’ve also got Move D and the excellent Motor City Ensemble. What’s also good about this night is that you can get £8 tickets from RA. That’s £12 cheaper than your normal Matter night with a line-up that is more exciting than poking your knob in the VCR. The big question is, which party do you go to? Unfortunately I can’t answer that; well my answer would be to do all three.

So I present to you EarPipe’s Christmas Three Club Orgy. The map should help you get about and you should be able to squeeze in about 2.5 hours in each club. It may require a dedicated driver and a wheel barrow of cash too. But meh its Christmas… spoil yourself… Thank me later when you’ve got a stinking hangover the next day.

View Larger Map