Update – Check out the earPIPE Sonar Disco Map Here.

This weekend Barcelona becomes the centre of attention as Sonar festival rolls into town. The festival itself is a jam packed 3 days and 2 nights of music and art featuring the likes of Plastikman, The Chemical Brothers and Roxy Music. However its not just the festival that garners all the attention, as for the same weekend Barcelona turns into a thriving party city with what are now known as the Off Sonar parties. This year we’re spoilt for choice in terms of party venues. We’ve got parties on beaches, on rooftops, on terraces, on boats and at secret villas. There’s even a few parties happening in them there nightclubs. There’s a lot to pick from so here’s what we think is looking pretty hot for the weekend.

Wednesday

Ovum at Boulevard Culture Club (Tickets)

If you’re arriving in the city before the festival starts, then you can start your sleepless campaign from Wednesday night. Josh Wink takes over Boulevard Culture Club with friends Shlomi Aber, David Squaillace and Luca Bacchetti from his Ovum record label. The clubs conveniently located on La Ramblas, so there’s no hassle in getting there.

Warehoused  at Mephistos (Tickets)

Warehoused is a new night for Off Sonar and it opens at Mephistos, a heavy metal club in Barcelona. So i’m not sure what the venue has to offer, but the line up looks pretty solid with Konrad Black and Stimming heading the bill. Not bad to warm things up for Wednesday night.

Thursday

RA by Day at Hotel Diagonal (info)

RA host one of the parties of the weekend. They’ll be getting things into motion with their Thursday daytime party at the beautiful Hotel Diagonal rooftop pool. A minor distraction from the views will be the stunning lineup they’ve got planned – Michael Mayer, Steve Bug, Jesse Rose and Eric Duncan from Rub n Tug!! All for free!! But before you dust off you deck shoes and rolled up denim cut offs, entry to the party is by invite only. So you either need to know someone who knows someone, or you might have been one of the lucky 50 that won tickets.

Desolat Experience at Ghoa Beach Club (Tickets)

Sub Club at BeCool (Tickets)

Moon Harbour at Discotechque Club (Tickets)

Moon Harbour will be celebrating ten years with its sister label Cargo at the imaginatively named Discotheque Club. Matthias Tanzmann, Martinez, Boris Werner and Ekkohaus will be playing the labels’ blend of bumpy techno and house.

Friday

Watergate and Beatport Secret Villa Party (info)

Hot Natured at W Barcelona Hotel (info)

BPitch Beach Party at Playa de El Prat (info)

Cocoon at Ghoa Beach Club (Tickets)

Kompakt at Nitsa (info)

Kompakt have a pretty tasty party at Nitsa. You’ll be able to catch Michael Mayer, if you weren’t invited to the RA party, as well as Superpitcher, Gui Boratto and DJ Koze. That’s a huge lineup to celebrate 10 years of Off Sonar parties.

Circus Company at Oshum (info)

Saturday

Mobilee Rooftop Party at Hotel Diagonal (info)

BPitch Control Boat Party (Tickets)

Cadenza at Ghoa Beach Club (Tickets)

Crosstown Rebels at Oshum (info)

If you’re still alive then Secretsundaze will be taking up its traditional position at La Terrazza. They’ll be out in the picnic area from 5pm and then in the usual club from midnight. For music, they’ve got the cream of their DJ agency from Patrice Scott, The Mole, Trus’me, Ethyl, Flori and of course the two residents Jamie and Giles. Great club, great tunes, always a must on the Sonar weekend.

Minus Beach Party at Playa de El Prat (info)

If you fancy something with a rougher edge, then Minus will be for you. They’re throwing their beach party at Chiringuito Calamar out by the airport and have got everyone off the label to get involved, from Marco Carola, Troy Pierce and Heartthrob to Ambivalent, Fabrizio Maurizi and Hobo. They also say they’ve got some special guests, which means its highly likely the two Minus names not on the line-up but are playing at Sonar will probably turn up for a few tunes!

Playkula & Wilde Boat Party (Tickets)

Two of Berlin’s biggest DJ agencies join forces to set sail for the high seas. Tiefschwarz, MANDY, Pig & Dan, Thomas Schumacher, Matt Tolfrey, Heidi and INXEC will be entertaining a packed catamaran of ravers finding their sea legs after a weekend of fun. Let’s hope the seas aren’t too rough.

Red bull Music Academy at South Bank Centre (Buy Tickets)

This weekend sees the start of the Red Bull Music Academy which is taking place over the coming weeks in London. The academy brings together prospective musical talent from across the world to work and share ideas with help from established and successful music industry types. In conjunction with the academy, Red Bull have a series of events lined up for the general public. This Friday sees Red Bull team up with Resident Advisor at the stunning Royal Festival Hall in the South Bank Centre for a head on collision of experimental electronica, Jazz and techno. There are two acts in particular that have us foaming at the mouth. We have a showcase from SHAPE, a collaboration between Detroit heavy weight Carl Craig, the classically trained pianist and Innerzone Orchestra member Francesco Tristano and minimal dub techno innovator Moritz Von Oswald of Basic Channel/Maurizio fame. The other act will be another massive collaboration between Innervision’s Henrik Schwarz and Nordic Jazz sensation Bugge Wesseltoft. Their recent showing at Giles Peterson’s Ronnie Scotts takeover was supposedly incredible, so it will be a privilege to see these too jamming out in the distinguished Royal Festival Hall. Don’t expect danceable 4/4 beats, this is going to be a proper sit down affair. There are still some tickets available at TICKETWEB.

Egyptian Lover at The Big Chill

Probably a little less serious for a Friday night will be a live show from 80s rap legend Egyptian Lover. His early rap records of ballsy 909 beats and distinctly electronic synths helped pave the way for the hip hop movement in the 80s. He’s even had a bit of a comeback after his Egypt track was sampled/covered by Jamie Jones on his recent track Galactic Space Bar. Fun beats and straight up classic 80s rap. What’s not to love?

Musiq Concrete 2D at The Lightbox (Buy Tickets)

Saturday brings us a selection of equally solid nights. Down south at Vauxhalls Lightbox, we see Musiq Concrete return for their second night with a well rounded lineup. The dazzling lights of the Light Box will play host to Get Physical’s Thomas Schumacher who’s techy sound will give London its very own slice of pseudo Berlin Watergate. Whilst Simon Baker and Alex Cellar will provide some worthy London based support. In room two Brighton’s Cagedbaby and acid house legend Justin Robertson will show us another side to electronic dance music. Also if you print out this flyer you get a free drink!

Phonica at T-Bar

T-Bar are now running a new freemium business model. No more are the fall back nights where if all things failed you could always end there for a relatively cheap one. They’ve gone and started asking for some money on the door now. However to back up the asking they’ve bumped up the quality. This Saturday the record selling folks from Phonica have brought over Sascha Dive. Him and Anthea are sure to lay down some deep groves into the early hours of the morning.

James Priestley at The Horatia

Disgusted at the fact that T-Bar want to charge? Well there are new free options out there. New venture The Horatia have some solid nights lined up over the coming weeks. This Saturday James Priestley of Secretsundaze fame will be digging out his disco records and showing the masses that he’s not just about playing deep house outdoors with ironically tashed friends.

Superfreq 8^th Birthday at Centre Point (Buy Tickets)

Finally if you didn’t have enough of the birthday celebrations last weekend, then there’s one more for you. Those sycophantic slags Adultnapper and Mr C celebrate 8 years with original London tech houser Dave Mothersole. They’ll be wiggling their way until sunrise 31 floors up at the glamorous Centre Point.

Hypercolour with Mark Henning

I’m guessing the promoters and clubs have all chipped in to charter a Mega Bus from Berlin as practically all the DJs headlining are coming over from our twinned party city. On the Friday Hypercolour are taking over East Village and they’ve reserved a seat for Mark Henning on the Mega Bus. He’ll be pushing his new HYpercolour EP, ‘The Right Time’, out in all good record shops now! Supporting him will be the Hypercolour head honchos Alex Jones and Cedric Maison whilst Pete’s 50th keep the upstairs warm with the Dalston connection.

Fabric with Luciano, Pedro, DJ Hell and Tiefschwarz

For Saturday we have Luciano cashing in on his Mega Bus ticket by including a spot of Christmas shopping over the week. He’s up in Manchester the weekend after for the Warehouse Project, but this weekend sees him return to Fabric to take control of Room 1. In toe will be his Romanian protégé Pedro who’s now convincingly made his own name with his A:rpia:r buddies. Room 2 features yet more current Berlinites in the form of DJ Hell and Tiefschwarz. A stellar line up in think you will find and coincidently it comes around just as I’ve got over the Fabric 10th Birthday. Salute!

Ekstravaganza with Prins Thomas and Lindstrom (Buy Tickets)

If you still can’t bare to look at the walls of Room 1 from the 10th birthday then how about looking at the four walls of Corsica Studios? Featuring is Scandinavia’s 5th most popular export after Ikea, Volvos, Lego and liberal sex; it is of course Scandinavian Cosmic Disco! Prins Thomas kicks off the second coming of his bi-monthly London residency Ekstravaganza with close friend Lindstrom. The pair have been known to go nuts and play well into the night, so having the pair together in London is certainly a treat. Label friend Magnus International provides some support, whilst the Horse Meat Disco guys have trundled along the river from Vauxhall to prop up room 2. Expect lashings of camp cosmic disco sure to make December open with a smile.

Mulletover Xmas Party with Prosumer (Buy Tickets)

Too Scandinavian? Fair enough… There’s still plenty more Berliners coming in on the bus. The ever delightful Prosumer is supplying the Worthers Originals for the trip. He’s dropping records and toffees at Mulletover’s Xmas party at the Bocking Street warehouse. We thoroughly enjoyed the venue when we were there at Disco Bloodbath the other week. It’s sure to be a winner with Prosumer on the decks, however it’s a bit tenuous calling it an Xmas party in November.

GetPhysical and Phonica 6th Birthday with MANDY (Buy Tickets)

Occupying the back row of the Mega Bus from Berlin will be those naughty GetPhysical kids MANDY and Thomas Schumacher. They’ll be causing mischief at Cable along with the Phonica boys and girls who are celebrating six years of selling records.Heidi, Hector, Anthea and Simon Rigg are all on board.

matter with Vitalic, Black Strobe and Morgan Geist (Buy Tickets)

Finally, if none of that takes your fancy, then matter doesn’t look too shabby. Vitalic live, Black Strobe DJ Set, Mero Area’s Morgan Geist and Guido Schneider for Very Wrong Indeed in Room 2.. A great mix of artists which should drop a mix of electronic sounds, house, techno, disco.. basically the works. Not sure what Black Strobe are doing these days Smagghe-less or what Vitalic have been producing, but going on past experiences they have always been good quality. Failing that there’s Morgan Geist!

Fuck me that was a mouthful to reel off. Hope you have fun!

MANDY rekindle their partnership with Bookashade to come up with a Donut. No that’s not a derogatory term for the track it’s the title. They use some round beats and a bit of healthy wood percussion with whirling synths to create in moody bobbing monster. Its eerie and quirky but with a little funk to get down too. Its no Body Language, this is MANDY Vs Bookashade 2.0.

Two of my favourite producers the Italoboyz and Noze get together on Double Trouble. I’ve loved the way the Italoboyz cleverly sampled old jazz and jive records whilst the quirkiness of Noze is hilarious in a good way, however when they go head to head on Double Trouble its just disturbing. There are jazz drum and sax skits left, right and centre which make for an extremely scatty track. Then add the freaky vocal samples from Noze make for a sample martini shaken to hell. That said I’m sure the silliness of this track will find its niche at some German after after after party.

On Funkshovel, Lopazz and Heidi hit back with some attitude laden grooves. A ghetto tech bassline oozes attitude as basic yet intricate tom toms fidget along with a sporadic vocal sample. Its simple and o so diiiiirty. In a similar vein, Dakar and Siopis’ Dubai has the filthiest saw tooth bassline ever, combined with its big splashing drum hits results in a down and dirty mechanical boogie.

The other efforts from the other collaborations are also worthy, Einzelkind and Meat creates the simple and driving Gin which hums away brilliantly. The Djuma Soundsystem and Raz Ohara take on a slow italo disco form with piercing vocals, twinkling notes and a galloping electro synth. DJ T and Thomas Schumacher produce an intricate bubbling track with round bass and scatty woodblocks. And finally Patric Baumel with Cathlin Devlin and Tiger Stripes with Audiofly both create dark driving numbers.

Tracklisting
A M.A.N.D.Y vs Booka Shade – Donut
B1 Italoboyz vs Nôze – Double Trouble
B2 Dakar vs Siopis – Dubai
C DJ T. vs Thomas Schumacher – May Contain Nuts
D1 LOPAZZ vs Heidi – Funkshovel
D2 Einzelkind vs Meat – Gin

Digital
Patrice Bäumel vs Caitlin Devlin – 7 days
Djuma Soundsystem vs Raz Ohara – Zillion Lights
Tiger Stripes vs Audiofly – Hundra