My God this summer is absolutely flying through. We’re already half way through yet I can’t even remember the summer beginning. We’ve literally been bitch slapped with great weather, festivals in parks, outdoor parties and for those lucky enough, flights to exotic places. Still dizzy from being sucker punched, here’s the run down for this weekend…

Friday

Ekstravaganza at Corsica Studios (Buy Tickets)

The Scandinavian returns to our shores for the fifth instalment of his Ekstravaganza, swapping the saunas and nudity of Norway for the gritty surrounds of South London’s Elephant and Castle. This Friday looks to be the biggest of them yet. Obviously Prins Thomas will be dropping some of his Norwegian branded cosmic disco, but alongside him the lusciously deep Mole will be wowing crowds with his live skills. Whilst in room 2 the gritty Parisian Ivan Smagghe will be stunning folk with his electronic weapons alongside Sean Johnston of Hardway Brother’s fame.  If you get down there before 10pm in you can get in for a fiver and sample the delights of the pre party BBQ with the Discosessions. That’s a family evening out right there.

Warm at Plastic (info)

If being south of the river is against your religion then fret not Hackney Council have just let Plastic People open its doors  again. Hazzar I hear you say? Hazzar indeed. For opening night they’ve got their familiar friends Warm to resume their brilliant residency. And for the headliner, who better than Berlin’s Prosumer to… erm… “warm” the place up for them. Delightful news and great to see the place back.

Saturday

T-Bar Closing Party at Scrutton Street Warehouse (Buy Tickets)

The other month it seemed like London was wheezing under the pressure of a club closure epidemic. One of the victims was T-Bar, already a bit sickly when it moved venues, it never really got back to its glory days and in June it finally bit the dust. We hope that T-Bar has gone to that happy place in the sky where the licensing laws are free, there are no sound restrictions and the punters are reliable and never ending. But apart from the wonky K memories and the countless mid week sick days what have we got left? Can’t remember? Well this Saturday is T-Bar’s wake to celebrate the once London weekday linchpin. Boston duo Soul Clap along with two brilliant young talents Floating Points and Nicholas Jaar will drop the soundtrack to this one last hoorah at the Scrutton Street Warehouse as people reminisce about the funny things T-Bar used to do. Ahhhh remember that time when T Bar opened on Monday night and Michael Mayer played that gut wrenching bass…ahhh yeahh… Rest In Peace

Sunday

Kubicle Birthday Marathon (info)

Blatant church dodgers Kubicle celebrate five years of sunday sin this weekend. From their humble beginnings at Public Life in 2005 they return to the scene of the crime to begin their 21 hour clubbing marathon. From Sunday morning till Monday morning the Kubicle rabble will transcend three venues across London’s east end. They’ll hope from Public Life to the Brickhouse on Brick Lane for Sunday afternoon before rounding off the night at Metropolis in Hackney. Across the three venues will see all Kubicle’s favorite people make an appearance from Dan Ghenacia, Jamie Jones, DJ THREE, Craig Richards and Clive Henry to Antonio De Angelis, FB Julian, Lee Foss, Derren’s Disco and jozif. Its going to be huge. You might need to take Monday off work though.

There it is… GET INVOLVED

During that last year of touring they must have had a  lot of fun as this album is a blink and you’ll miss it seven tracks long, not to mention one of those tracks being a Dyed Sondorom remix! But as the saying goes, its quality not quantity that matters. Across the short space of seven tracks we get glimpses of the Wolf and Lamb eclecticism we’ve all come to love. In the opening moments we see their willingness to experiment outside of house’s conformities. The opening track ‘Just For Now’ combines abstract ambience in to hypnotic house grooves, whilst their remix of Mock and Toof’s ‘Shoeshine Boogie’ fuses the mechanical ticks of old skool electro hip hop with acid riffs and sweeping melodic synths. Later in the album we’re subjected to further experimentation with ‘Monster Love’ which plays around with some of the abstract themes of Jazz. Its use of tumbling percussion, smoky double bass basslines and muted trumpet motifs all phase in and out of time with a loose rhythm making for some interesting listening.

But no Wolf and Lamb album wouldn’t be complete without some homage to straight up house music. Title track ‘Love Someone’ sides with the bouncey happy side of house. Its whirring strings and horn riffs loop round and round to create a bright, warm cage rattler of a track. Whilst in contrast there’s the restrained bounce of Dyed Sondorom’s remix of ‘Want Your Money’ or the hypnotic driving bass of ‘I Know You’re Leaving’ which covers the subtler and deeper strings of the Wolf and Lamb house bow.  With these tracks they really show they can make quality house music that sounds great in a club or at home. They’re danceable yet have the quirky depth which gives it that edge over other house productions.

Even though we see different sides of Wolf and Lamb on this album, it just seems seven tracks is a bit short to fully explore what they are about. What is on the album is good, from the experimental sounds to the bread and butter house music. However I still think they’ve missed other avenues that they would normally explore. What’s more, Wolf and Lamb is very much a community driven thing, bringing together a family of artists and on this album we see little of that community. It would have been good to get more collaborations with some of the artists that help made Wolf and Lamb what it is today or even with some of the fresh talent they’ve met whilst on the road this last year. A good effort in general, but maybe a little rushed so they could strike whilst the W+L brand is hot.

Buy Wolf + Lamb – Love Someone from Play.com (CD) or Amazon (CD)

TRACKLISTING:
01. Just For now
02. Mock & Toof – Shoeshine Boogie (Wolf + Lamb Remix)
03. Love Someone
04. Want Your Money (Dyed Soundorom Wants Your Love remix)
05. I Know You’re Leaving
06. Monster Love
07. Want Your Money

On the other side of this release is Seth Troxler’s remix of Nicholas Jaar’s The Student. It’s a contrasting mix of subdued and fierce percussion which slowly builds to a drop of trashy cymbal hits and splutters of electronic blips. The contrasting subdued percussion and guitar sample still runs throughout the track which creates this weird multidirectional pull. Its hard to make sense of which is ironically both detrimental and interesting at the same time.

Seth Troxler – Aphrika EP is out Feb ’09. Buy other Seth Troxler tracks from DJDownload.

Tracklist:
1. Seth Troxler – Aphrika
2. Nicholas Jaar – The Student (Seth Troxler Mix)