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You are browsing our club reviews, we tell you what was wicked so you can wish you were there and go next time.
Elevator Music Launch @ Fabric
Elevator Music Launch @ Fabric
18/01/2010
tags: | club review | fabric | elevator music | mosca | hudson mohawke | todd edwards | more...

Deadly Rhythm @ Plan B, Brixton: 24/10/09
Deadly Rhythm @ Plan B, Brixton: 24/10/09
29/10/2009
Deadly Rhythm @ Plan B, Brixton: 24/10/09 South London's nightlife has always been a slightly touchy matter; a tussle between money grabbing pop/funky house bars/meat markets, and local promoters striving to bring forward thinking line ups, and more importantly, trying to provide a consistent crowd to keep both artists and club owners happy. It's with this in mind that Plan B (the Venue, not rapper) should be commended for their constantly evolving music policy and high level of production ensuring we don't all have to mission it back from East London every weekend... So it's was welcome news that last weekends reopening featuring enough names to make a few small festivals embarrassed continued the standard previously set. I was there on Saturday where it was Deadly Rhythm's turn to provide a line up which including the British institution ( and mums favorite) Goldie, UK Garage legends Wookie and Sticky, Dubstep pioneer Plastician, mad future hip hop-step from Philadelphia's Starkey and deep techno infused Dubstep from SW2 resident Luke Envoy. The venue was (as you can imagine) packed, with all DJs on top form, highlighting the eclectic nature of dance music right now, as styles swapped and switched seamlessly throughout the night. One criticism I had of Plan B previous incarnation was that it's main room layout meant that nights often felt slightly anti-climatic. Thankfully this has now been addressed, by moving the DJ both to ground level and isolating bar from dancefloor they've insured that the atmosphere remains intense, and no longer do you feel like you might be dancing in a que. So all in all a welcome return for Plan B. Don't forget to check out future Deadly Rhythm line ups. including Kode 9, Zombie and Joker. AMAZE. -- Ben G8HAUS Gatehouse --Image by Miles Dell http://www.myspace.com/deadlyrhythmclub http://www.plan-brixton.co.uk/
tags: | deadly rhythm | more...
Trouble Vision's First Birthday
Trouble Vision's First Birthday
25/10/2009
There were hoardes of disappointed people at Trouble Vision’s 1 st birthday… but those who were lucky enough to make it inside Corsica Studios for the sold out party had the night of their life! Since the off, Trouble Vision has prided itself on hosting all that is big and up-and-coming within every genre of dance music Its small home’s massive sound system was the perfect fit for their eclectic line up that this time included heavyweights Shy FX, Plastician and Hannah Holland and as well as up and coming names such as Tomb Crew and Boy 8-Bit. Clubbers as diverse as the music policy filled Corsica’s three rooms that offered drum n bass/dubstep/grime and house/techno, plus the chance to enjoy a surreal moment in the Silent Disco room with Dalston '90s RnB revivalists Work It! alongside Yo Mama and Trainspotter. In the big room, Plastician was – as usual – totally mindblowing, unleashing some vicious wobbly basslines which made way for some relentless and sweaty skanking. The predominantly young crowd meant that perhaps the atmosphere was not as fun as it could have been - these yoots care too much about ‘being cool’. Over the last year, as well as putting on rammed bi-monthly parties at Corsica Studios, the Trouble Vision team have also hosted rooms at Matter, Chew The Fat! at The Arches, Cargo and Dirty Canvas. What’s the odds that by the time their 2 nd birthday comes around they would have done even more? 2-1? Trouble or nothing! -- Kara Simsek
tags: | trouble vision | more...
Chew The Fat! at The Arches. March 27th.
Chew The Fat! at The Arches. March 27th.
09/04/2009
Chew The Fat was made homeless by the closure of The End, so it’s relaunch at new south London club The Arches promised to be pretty spectacular. Welcoming new resident Foamo to the fold, they also promised a room of dubstep to go along with a main arena of electro. This was my first venture to this new south London nightspot, and I must admit that in my opinion it is 100 times better than The End. Not only are the ceilings a decent height, but it has an amazing soundsystem, fantastic lighting, numerous bars and a decent smoking area. A night listening to the radio in a place this good would have made the £13 entry fee seem like a good deal, but a simple look over the line-up revealed it to be a total bargain! The electro room’s atmosphere was – for need of a better word – electric. Hervé is probably the best DJ to play in London this year, playing exactly the tough techie electro that is surprisingly hard to find on a Friday night out. Everyone loved it, which is unusual in these fussy times, and it was great to see people having a great time instead of standing at the edge of the dancefloor trying to look ‘cool’. Of course, there was a handful of sceney waste of spaces there, but most people were casual Friday-nighters just enjoying a night out. Sadly, the dub step room was shit. I didn’t even hear any dubstep in there and the atmosphere was tri pe. Such a shame considering the soundsystem available! As well as a bad atmosphere, I also had a bad taste in my mouth at the sight of some pudgy faced chav girl spontaneously grinding up on the stage like some sort of Pussycat Troll. Urgh! Chew The Fat will now run monthly at The Arches, SE1. Next one is April 24th 2009. (link: TheFatClub.Com ) Words: Apricotte Gold
tags: | chew the fat! | more...
Bedlam and Hedfuk. NYE 2008 - 2009. Hackney.
Bedlam and Hedfuk. NYE 2008 - 2009. Hackney.
06/01/2009
I’m not allowed to make decisions as I always ‘make the wrong one’. Like the single time my ex-boyfriend let me choose what we saw at the cinema and I opted for ‘Little Man’ (10 minutes in to the film he lent over to me and growled, “When this is over, I’m going to fucking kill you” - which to be fair made me enjoy it even more). So it was with great elation that my masterplan for this year’s New Years Eve was hailed as ‘the best choice’. Needless to say, it was horrific and it is now cemented in more people’s minds than ever that I’m not to be trusted. We welcomed in 2009 at a squat rave in Hackney, just off of Mare Street, run by the rigs ‘Hedfuk and Bedlam’. It was a Ronseal night - we got exactly what it says on the tin. The address was released on the party line at about 11.15, by midnight we were inside. Actually we just assumed it was midnight as we heard a countdown, but we heard that at least three times that night so who knows. The place was pretty empty and we set about exploring the kidnapped venue, a grubby ex-warehouse and office unit. The vast downstairs hosted a couple of makeshift bars, and bizarrely a stall offering tea and snacks, as well as a wall of speakers and some tinny techno that would sound better by default once there were more than fifty people in there. Upstairs clearly used to be an office, but now what once would have been a 70s woodchip wallpaper hell was scarred with clumsy graffiti that made no sense whatsoever. I should have guessed right then that we had entered crackhead territory and got the hell out of there, but I made another bad decision to just do some laughing gas and not worry about it. This was the second biggest mistake of the night; the other being even going to a place called Hedfuk and Bedlam in the first place. As I surveyed the space, which was playing some decent drum and bass – I spotted my friend ‘dancing funny’ with a woman. I danced over to join in, only to hear the cries, “She’s trying to steal my bag!” Sure enough, the ‘funny dancing’ was actually an attempt at escaping a crackheadette in an anorak! Like Paddington Bear if he swapped marmalade for gear! Her black shit stained talons were gripping my friend’s ‘genuine fake Chanel’, knuckles shining bright white through the ingrained dirt that comes from being a member of the junkie lowlife underclass, her yellowy fangs snapped wildly in our direction – yes, this crackhead was trying to bite and rob her simultaneously! We pulled the bag away, put thoughts of what we might have caught from her saliva to the backs of our minds, and headed downstairs, grabbing a couple of our party on the way. After wrestling our way down the narrow single flight staircase, which had suddenly filled up with every diseased looking chav scumbag with pills to sell in the whole of London, we saw a pikey fist fight. They had their fists up, like a 1920s boxing match, and then galloped behind a curtain. One reappeared with no top on, quickly followed by the other who was covered in blood. It was then that I realised that this was completely real. What the fuck had I gotten us into this time? Was I by default a piece of shit for even wanting to go to this place - by knowing about it? There was no time for philosophy. We were encircled by more gypos, three of them threw my friend on the ground before running off. It was now, after less than 2 hours in this abyss, that I suggested we left the lowlifes to it and went round the corner to Nuke Them All where it would be – and I can’t believe I’m saying this – normal . It took a good twenty minutes to leave the rave compound as hundreds of people clambered over one another trying to make their way in through a single doorway and big gorilla of a doorman. Amongst these people were more friends of mine who had received my ‘Come on, let’s go to a rave for New Years!’ call to arms. “Don’t go in there!” I begged. They wouldn’t listen. They spent the night hanging out with a couple of heroin smoking prostitutes. Then one of them got robbed at knifepoint. Needless to say, I don’t think my opinion will count for shit this year. Words: Apricotte Gold
tags: | more...
Clubland Goes To The Dogs! Pure at The Printworks!
Clubland Goes To The Dogs! Pure at The Printworks!
30/07/2008
Dog racing - the stomping ground of sullen old men in flat caps with John Smith's family recipe in hand - is not exactly the most obvious place you're likely to find this roving Notion reporter on a Friday night. However, after much bashing from crusty indie types spouting that "club land has gone to the dogs" and rock n roll is back and blah blah blah, one of the North West's mammoth clubbing havens has decided to bite back (no pun intended) and take off where the barnacled backsides of rock n roll have left off; by rustling up a media party that truly does take "Clubland to the dogs". Under the watchful eye of Pure's party extraordinaire and resident dj Kriss Knight, we have been invited to a pre-club romp in the newly refurbed surroundings of Manchester's Belle Vue Dog Track. With the clubbing shoe temporarily off and the first race underway, I sense that lady-luck might not be on my side tonight, with both my dogs struggling to find form outside of 4th and 5th place. But fear not, the liquid-engineer has arrived bearing refreshments. After a foray of alcoholic delights the second race commences and my personal wealth diminishes further into the red. The evening progresses with much triumphant behaviour from those around, as the booze cruise inside my blood system thickens and my wallet thins out with every passing race. When the final race is called I can't help but warm to the name "Ghetto Blaster", who unknowingly puts me a healthy £18 quid up by running in a strong second place for the final jaunt of the evening. Leaving no time to wet our beaks, our exuberant party-host quickly rallies up the troops (and my winnings) and together we make a b-line for the venga-bus. On board, we make our way to the "clubland" part of tonight's disco romp with Ministry of Sound, which promises to be a view from the different end of the country's rave landscape. But that's not before the entertaining insights into the outrageously strange world of Mr. Knights promotional activities, which includes the running of his club brands, Sex Toy and S.T.U.D, all of which lay witness to some additional extras, with stories circulating of a 4ft man dressed in drag, horses' head door staff and golden vibrators!?! On arriving at the club, we are met by a friendly pack of bouncers and a lady who ushers us through to a champagne reception in one of the venue's very swanky VIP booths, which loom out over the busy dance floor. Back in 2006 the opening of Pure became a hot topic both in and outside the city as the new owners, Puregroup, were the same minds behind London's world renowned Heaven nightclub; a venue stooped in clubland heritage. Sizing up a venue worthy of "big things", the Puregroup directors found the perfect location nestled inside the city's entertainment complex – The Printworks. Whilst the venue's exterior may not stretch your imagination for an evening of bass driven house, the interior does unravel the minds-eye to impressive proportions as I self-guide my way through seven - yes, that's seven - unique spaces. The main-room is king, with its Gatecrasher-styled amphitheatre and the housing of a £300,000 funktion-one sound system to fill the cavernous space with a mix of cross-over house, and electro anthems. Due to the venue's 2,500 capacity, the musical policy is as varied as is its bar stock, opening doors for a multitude of events to suit any TFI clubber. Over the last two years the club has welcomed packed out parties from Godskitchen and Cream to Hed Kandi and School Disco, whilst staging an assortment of week-day student-focused shindigs to make Benidorm look meek. Whilst it can't be said that Pure is going to make Manchester the national icon in club land that it once was, it's fair to say that for an inhibition-free night of fun-packed entertainment, Pure ticks all the right boxes… especially when under Kriss Knight's watch ;) Words: Vass Pure at The Printworks Withy Grove Manchester . M4 2BS Visit: puremanchester.com
tags: | pure | more...
Friends and Family featuring Guilty Simpson
Friends and Family featuring Guilty Simpson
20/02/2008
Friends & Family Cargo 16 February 2008 A hip hop writer once told me a story. He was in New York City and making the obligatory trip to Fat Beats. While approaching that 6th Avenue mecca, he saw someone rapping outside the shop. A man with a veteran swagger propped up by a bag of records and a whole lot of attitude. It was Percee P. They chatted. My friend said how inspirational it felt to be face to face with hip hop – politicking with an emcee who put out his first record in 1988 and has hustled ever since, consistently raising his game and becoming a cornerstone of the underground. Percee P’s still at it – his show at London’s Cargo peppered with tunes off his ‘Perseverance’ album – the title, he tells us, is just what he’s had to subscribe to. But on this particular evening, hip hop’s brave new world takes the stage too – another emcee who has guested on so many records and has his own, ‘Ode to the Guetto,’ coming out very soon. It’s Guilty Simpson, that Detroit stalwart who had the honour of working with the now-legendary Jay Dilla and is creating a sizeable buzz on the street. His mic tactics are aggressive. He drops lyrics steeped in the grit of the city he’s grown up in, cushioned by that deliciously off-kilter production Detroit’s become renowned for. It’s a deep set – head nodding is deliberate, brows are furrowed. DJ House Shoes cues up beats that take you further into a blue-collar world, where the quest of success is a hard one, and explains the paucity of Simpson’s flow. He doesn’t have time to waste. And while he’s doing his thing, Percee’s doing his – walking through the nodding heads and selling his CDs, chatting to the punters and continuing that guerrilla distribution campaign that’s taken him from the pavement outside Fat Beats Records to London’s Cargo. It’s with a sigh of relief that these emcees bless the venue with such prowess – they cut through all of the jiggy commercial hip hop that pounds the airwaves and prove that, yes, hip hop’s got life in it yet. WORDS: Helene Dancer - PHOTOGRAPHY: Ben Harris
tags: | more...
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