But if you can bare the cold, especially up north, then Manchester has yet another surprise for you – Luciano. The cheeky chappy Chilean is back once again and here to smash out a five hour set encompassing house and techno with a good dash of South American soulfulness. We saw him last weekend at fabric and he just tore the place up with full on party tunes. A packed out warehouse project is bound to have a similar if not better electric atmosphere. He’s got fellow Cadenza friends Rhadoo, Pedro and Alex Picone joining him. Definitely worth baring the cold for.

On to Saturday and we have two major options. First is fun time disco from the Disco Bloodbath folks again. They’re back at the Bocking Street warehouse with a certain Serge Santiago in tow, he’s going to be showcasing is new live act Retro/Grade. If that’s not enough Serge is going to hit the decks with Retro/Grade partner Ben Rymer, and of course it would be a Disco Bloodbath if it weren’t for their very reliable resident DJs. Definitely get down to this if you can, it’s a great space and the last one was laser focused fun.

Option two for Saturday night is something a bit deeper. Those Need2Soul folk have pitched up a tent at new venue The Camp in Old Street. Good things have been said about the space from the Sud Electronic nights who’ve already had a few good parties in their basement. On the bill is the ever delightful Ame who can just do no wrong. The last few sets I’ve heard from the duo have been nothing short of fantastic and I’d expect them to deliver the same this Saturday. Marcus Worgull is in toe to provide some Innervisions support whilst in the other room disco funksters Linkwood and House of Traps keep the other room entertained… Expect everything from house, disco and funk to jazz, techno and hip hop. Sure to be an interesting mêlée of musical fascination.

Disco Bloodbath continued their sound system travels around north east London locations last weekend. Previous Bloodbaths that I have been to always tended to be held in various ironic Dalston clubs which were always great fun. But with its astronomic rise to popularity over the last few years it was just getting harder and harder to pack everyone in to those sweaty basements. On Saturday they set up shop at a warehouse on Bocking Street and I have to say it was a great location. The space was just perfect for the size of crowd. Furthermore it was in an actual warehouse with real warehouse pillars and high ceilings rather than a mock warehouse which is actually a car park under some railway arches.

As for the music – top marks all round. As from any Disco Bloodbath, the mix was a fine blend of house and disco which provided plenty of fun and had a lot of dance-ability. It’s a great niche which plays the best bits of house off the best parts of disco giving you a good balance between rhythms and grooves against the big melodies, riffs and “moments” from disco. It’s easy to see why this night has grown so much and so quickly.

So that was last weekend, but what does the fallout from discarded rockets and burnt out sparklers entail?

Top of the picks is DDD’s MJ themed Big Bad Birthday Do. They’ve found some warehouse space in deepest darkest Dalston to put on two rooms of thoroughbred house to celebrate seven years. Headlining DDD’s room will be the delightful Ripperton who has been churning out great house over the last few years. In support will be a live set from Ekkohaus who has been putting out tracks on all the right labels, from 2020 Vision and Circus Company to Leibe Detail. But the biggest draw for me is Pete’s 50th room where The Revenge will no doubt be laying down some serious grooves. And if that’s not enough to wet your appetite then the sight of a flood of worn out MJ costumes is sure to provide some comedy.

Tickets for DDD still available here.

If warehouses and dressing up isn’t for you this weekend, then how about retreating to the confines of a loft? Giles Smith from Secretsundaze has got together with Alex Ruello from Need2Soul to create Lost in the Loft. I’d imagine they’re aiming for that Brooklyn/New York loft party vibe which definitely isn’t a bad template. They’ve also lined up some pretty awesome talent too. Sven Weisemann is on the bill and he’s been shaking Berlin to its foundations in recent years. Giles Smith will also be dropping some records to celebrate his birthday, but the main headline is Chicago’s Chez Damier – a legend from the early house scene. There’s going to be some serious deep house action going on.

However if a loft space just isn’t high enough off the ground, you can always go higher with Superfreq. They continue their monthly run of parties at Paramount, 31 floors up the Centre Point Tower on Tottenham Court Road. DJ Three, the DJ’s DJ, will be headlining the towering party along with Moscow’s SCSI-9. Expect some diverse and incredibly underground music in an ironically very over ground location. Does that balance out to purgatory?

You can get Superfreq tickets here.

So there you have it… Try not to get caught out in the rain.

Image by Paul at Vision7Media

All things exciting seem to point to Clapham Common on the bank holiday weekend. But in all honesty, it’s not really all that it’s cracked up to be. Here are some reasons why not to waste your time on the common and some canny alternatives.

Rubbish Soundsystems

Being stuck in the heart of Clapham means you’re in the middle of a massive residential area. Residential area equals people with dogs, children, twitching curtains and a massive thirst for pissing on any parade. Call me crazy but these people hate it when their windows are vibrating during afternoon tea. Unfortunately they also pay taxes and actually have a say in how the world is run. So despite the soundsystem probably having tens of thousands of watts bottled up at its disposal, you can probably expect that the local council has it capped to a dreary cesspit tap drip. So the only way you’re going to hear anything of worth is if you’ve camped out inside the bass bin like some free party crusty.

What you need is some grotty warehouse space where you can crank it up a few notches. It just so happens that Eastern Electrics will be holed up in some grotty warehouse space where they will be cranking it up. Eastern Electrics staple Mulletover will be hosting the main room and they’ve got the Mobilee mistress Anja Schneider to headline. A so so DJ headliner in my opinion (great producer not so great DJ). But don’t worry as Damien Lazarus, fresh from recording a new album, has got Anja’s back. Glimpse will also bolster the support with one of his fantastic live sets too.

But what is really hitting the mark is the Need2Soul second room. They have Patrice Scott fresh from riding in on the recent wave of Detroit techno. He’ll be serving up deep techno cuts alongside the purveyor of dark pummelling beats – Ben Klock. These two names alone should be enough to hit this party for the measly £8 that they’re asking for. Instead they decided to chuck in a Claude Von Stroke and a Trevor Jackson in a third and final Resident Advisor room.

Great deal…. Get those tickets from HERE….  whilst you can!

Short DJ sets

On paper it looks great having every conceivable big name DJ on the bill. But the problem with having them play in one afternoon of raving is that the laws of time only permit a DJs set to be shorter than the time it takes to piss out a tinnie of luke warm festival cider. With only a few hours for prime time DJ sets you’re likely to get a Sasha and Digweed set consisting of half a monster prog record played and tweaked between them. Richie Hawtin will be barely through a bass filter drop before his set ends; and Zabiela would have only had half a fumble of an EFX knob before being kicked off.

What you really need is one amazing terrace and five quality DJs for the day. Who else can do that but Secretsundaze. They return to THAT, the site of this year’s opening party. Hopefully any niggles from last time involving sound and turntables will be sorted. If they get blessed with sunshine then the THAT terrace should bring back some of those happy Space/DC-10 terrace memories of yesteryear. There to invigorate happy terrace times will be the man who is all things insect in house – Steve Bug, a firm favourite of the Secretsundaze bunch and now an annual occurrence. With record labels in every pocket, his extensive electronic tastes are sure to ignite Sunday. In support is Doc Scott, one of the old guards of dance and making a much fabled Secretsundaze return. Like riding a bike, once you know how to rock a crowd you never forget and Doc Scott has been doing so for over a decade and a half. Finally on a live tip is the Canadian born Guillaume and The Coutu Dumonts. They’ve released a string of fantastic tracks on uber-cool labels Oslo and Circus Company and they feature heavily in the Secretsundaze sound. Their brand of percussive house should smoothly go down with the SS crowd.

Don’t miss out. Earlybird tickets are still going at RA.

Tourist Clubbers

Photo by Nick Ensing

The weekend is sure to lay prone to thousands of clueless clubbers that have rolled in for the one weekend of their lives. They’ll be lapping up the big beats as they come flying out the speakers like bricks hitting them square between the eyes. They’ll be saving their biggest “whoops” for the one with the hair on the Loreal advert or the other one that had the hot aerobic fitties in his music video. I mean how can you enjoy and dance to the music when you can’t recall when it was released, what label it was on, what mixes it has featured on and who was the assistant engineer in the second breakdown.

What you need is a versatile crowd open to the unheard boundaries of music. Warm tend to get a good crowd in for their underground house shindigs and the Innervisions showcase at Corsica Studios should be a bit of a roadblock, especially when you’ve got Henrik Schwarz, Dixon and Marcus Worgull on the bill. A massive one for the heads!

Get your tickets from RA.

Despite everything I’ve just said, all these recommendations all take place on a Sunday. So if you are heading down to Clapham Common, I guess it would be rude not to check out a bit of Hawtin, Danny Howells and Sasha & Digweed. But don’t say I didn’t warn you!!

DISCLAIMER: I’ve never actually spent an August Bank Holiday weekend on Clapham Common. So everything i’ve said is completely unfounded and might well be complete bullshit.