Clubs

Tresor is the lifeblood of the Berlin club scene. Borne of the ashes of early acid house den UFO, it's remained true to its iron cast principles ever since and it's coming to London to throw its first ever party...

As one half of Basic Channel, Mark Ernestus has one of the most influential back catalogues in electronic music. And just as Basic Channel releases were as eagerly anticipated as Santa dropping down the chimney with a sack of white labels for the techno cognoscenti during the 1990s, so Ernestus’ rare DJ appearances are almost as mythical an event. Or to put it another way, if you were to book him, you probably wouldn’t stick him in a back bar at the end of the night.

Krakow’s abandoned Hotel Forum defines communist design, invoking Orwellian futures via a rejection of humanist aesthetics. Instead it boasts a brutish, unforgiving concrete designperfectly suited to 1984's dictatorial ministries.

Sick of queuing for hours in the freezing cold for overpriced club nights on New Year's Eve? Perhaps you should consider CARDBOARDBOSS meets Real Roots at Doodle Bar to close the curtains on 2012.

Nottingham has spawned a fair share of trailblazing dance nights. Dollop — now based in London — was booking Carl Craig and SMD on the same line-up back in 2007, before it was even a year old.

Scrap preconceptions around Club 18-30 lads in Shagaluf, where the British really leave their mark around the world — in a meaningful sense anyway — is while flooding the coastlines of Europe's festival paradise — Croatia.

Stepping out of the feral confines of Ibiza's Gala Night to launch a massive event in a safari park in Kent, Zoo Project Festival is breaking new ground, even for us...

For the first time in 2012, the Top 100 DJs. Awards took its big-roomed bombast across the Atlantic to the US, spanning multiple time zones and multiple parties, whilst championing the people’s choice for No.1.

Layo & Bushwaka The DJ/production partnership of Layo Paskin and Matthew Benjamin has come a long way since delivering their first album 'Lowlife' on End Recordings in 1999

We all set ourselves impossible targets at the end of each year. If we had a dollar for every time we heard someone say “I've quit” to see them puffing on a tar stick in the smoking area of Fabric on Friday night, we'd be richer than Richard Branson. Our advice — to save disappointment — leave pointless promises well alone.

It's 6am. Two U-turns beside an industrial estate, we are no closer to knowing where we are — or if our cabbie's even on the right route. E6 (only a stone's throw from Essex) is where we are meant to be headed. Apparently.

Two heads are better than one is the old saying, right? A sentiment we wholeheartedly agree with, especially if both heads are this switched on. Besides, If New Year's Eve is about reflecting on what's past and looking forward to the future, you shan’t go wrong with these two.

It’s the evening before Exit Festival in the north Serbian city of Novi Sad, and the alleyways that line the far end of the city centre are rammed with people, bustling in and out of the numerous bars stacked alongside each other.

That's it. Over. Phew! ADE has been and gone for another year, bringing with it another shitstorm of parties, spandangled industry folk and a multitude of missed planes. Farewell, 'Dam, it's been emotional. Until next year, right?

Few parties in the whole of the UK are as established – or indeed, as revered – as Back to Basics. Established by Dave Beer and Ralph Lawson over 21 years ago, the party has become a byword for Northern clubbing, although its influence has proved both national and international over the years.

It is an age-old clubbing dilemma; where to spend the New Year? Let us take the hassle out of wading through the countless nights on offer with this cherry-picked selection box of our favourites!

Space Ibiza offers a spectacle few can rival no matter the occasion, but it's its closing party that's most explosive. The opener might be the culmination of eight months out the game, but the last day at the office is the product of six months of accumulated party joy; the last big blow-out before the autumn months settle in and the Ibiza season winds down for yet another year.

Throw crass generalisations out the window. Hooga in Chelmsford is the hidden corner of the dance universe for the month of December.

In an era where unlikely rave settings have become increasingly ubiquitous, making an impression has never proved more difficult. From fortresses in Serbia to abandoned power stations in Berlin, clubbers around the world have become increasingly accustomed to unique destinations and boutique festivals. Yet in spite of all this widespread competition, Mexico’s inaugural Time and Space Festival is still worthy of note.

Simon Dunmore’s Defected Records is so synonymous with house that it may as well be fashioned from bricks and mortar and used as a dwelling. Since 1999 they’ve straddled the worlds of commercial and underground dance music, bothering the top 40 as regularly as RA DJ charts, and taken their Defected In The House parties to clubbers around the world.