Living For The Weekend

Thank god Mr Soft’s back! Seeing as he’s nicely rounded up a fair few musical treats to get your ears around, I thought that I’d round up the weekend’s clubbing activities in London and Bristol. It’s yet another hectic weekend in the South West for us – too many parties, not enough time! Our friends who run the Byte nights are celebrating their first birthday with an extremely ambitious (yet going by their previous parties, it’s going to be fucking rammed) three day bender at Native that’s very much on a traditional Bristol tip. Suburban Base and Planet Mu’s Bizzy B headlines the Friday with a rinsing D&B set, whilst Pirate Soundsystem and Malice & Enzyme battle it out for the battle for the title of ‘the real nu-ravers’ with an hardcore breaks vs. electro-house face off that will, well, literally take your face off. Things take a groovier turn on the Saturday with a funk and soul set from Hundred Strong, and the Sunday’s all about the dubstep. Much has been said about headliner Chef’s previous appearances in the city, so I’m pretty sure that Transition’s master engineer is going to do the business again with a selection of dubplates so upfront, they probably won’t come out til at least 2010. There’s loads of other people filling up the bills, so go to the Byte site (http://www.byte.moonfruit.com/) or their myspace (http://www.myspace.com/byteclub) for more info.

If you fancy your dubstep with a twist of techno, however (and on a Friday night rather than a Sunday), then you should head down to Four:Twenty’s new monthly night down at Timbuk2 for a killer line-up. Daniel Stefanik (Moon Harbour/Mobilee/Statik) heads up the main room with his dubwise clickiness alongside Four:Twenty’s own James Mowbray, whilst the dubsteppers take over the the second room with sets from hometown hero Peverelist (check his incendiary The Grind/Erstwhile Rhythm release on his own Punch Drunk imprint if you haven’t already) and Skull Disco’s Appleblim. Quite a large bill, I think you’ll agree. I’ve heard on the grapevine that they’ve already booked Matthias Tanzmann and Solomun for future dates, so keep a look out for those.

As Byte are busy with their birthday shenanigans, myself and Puffin Jack’ll be taking over their weekly Sunday Sessions down at The Park (just off The Triangle) alongside our best before: compadre and iDJ editor Sell By Dave (best before: is back by the way, but more of that another time). Things kick off at 8 and finish at 2 in the morning, so pop down for a few drinks and a wiggle to our melange of house, disco, techno, italo, and whatever else takes our fancy. We’ve been ordered by Byte head honcho Basic DJ to ‘keep things lively’, so expect us to be kicking out the jams, proper TAPE style.

So…. London, London, London… No idea what’s going on this Friday at all, but there’s a mammoth marathon of techno over the Saturday and Sunday that’ll test the endurance of all but the hardiest ravers. Things start off at Fabric on Saturday night, where Ricardo Villalobos will be launching his ‘Fabric 36’ mix with a star studded line-up. Joining him in the main room will be English starlet Jamie Jones and resident DJ Craig Richards, whilst Bruno Pronsato (Orac/Telegraph/Philpot) completes room one’s billing with his masterful jacked up glitchfest of a live set (as witnessed at under_score last year). As if that wasn’t enough, you’ve got the uber-minimal Detriot legend that is Robert Hood in the second room, and Chateau Flight’s Gilb’r in room three if all that techno gets a bit much for your poor ears. If Ricardo’s previous Fabric appearances are anything to go by, the main room will definitely still be going into the early afternoon, so you’ll get plenty of pops and clicks for your buck.

If, by 2pm, you’re still in a fit enough state to remember your name, you might want to think about traversing across town to Kings Cross for the last Secretsundaze party of the season. This time it’s held on the terrace of Canvas, and they’ve got a pretty stellar bill to send the summer off with a bang. It’s been getting pretty cold out of late, so make sure you wrap up warm and take your Thermos whilst you enjoy sets from Poker Flat and Dial’s respective svengalis, Steve Bug and Lawrence (this time performing under his Sten guise). You Londoners are bloody spoilt, aren’t you? Things wrap up at 10pm so there’s plenty of time to nip home and enjoy a cuppa and the Studio LP before preparing for work on Monday. Failing that, I guess the T-Bar will be open til god knows when…

Anyway, take care of yourselves and your raving buddies, and we’ll see you next week when we’ve got roundups of the latest compilations to hit the shelves from Cadenza, Sender, and Fabric, a showcase of the Beard Science label, and the fabled ‘HMS Cokehead’ mix that myself, Joe Hart, and Dan Kelly put together during one wrong morning earlier this year. Au revoir!

Actually... before I go, here’s a sneak preview of the bill for Fabric’s 8th birthday celebrations. The Thursday and Friday aren’t really to my tastes, but the Saturday honestly is absolutely ridiculous. There’s not many nights where I could say that I’d happily stay in all three rooms for the duration, but if you look at the line-up for this bad boy, I think you’ll heartily agree.

Saturday 20 October @ Fabric
10pm-10am
£15/£12 (NUS/Fabric First Members)

ROOM ONE:
Craig Richards, Terry Francis, Ellen Allien, Cobblestone Jazz (Live), Tobi Neumann, Dyed Soundorom
ROOM TWO:
Ivan Smagghe, Optimo (JG Wilkes), I-f, Black Devil Disco Club (Live)
ROOM THREE:
Rub N Tug, Omar-S, Pete Herbert, Matthias Heilbronn

See what I mean about you Londoners being spoilt? See you down at the front… of one of the rooms anyway!