HIGH FIVE: JANUARY
This month's essential club nights!
Forget the new-year detox, there is only one way to get through the January blues - keep on raving! You can use this month's top 5 nights as a starting point for your January adventures. Remember, sleep is for the weak. See you on the dancefloors!
1. Trouble Vision, Crosica Studios, London, Friday 25th January/Saturday 26th January
VERY SPECIAL GUEST (TBA), THEO PARISH, MARCELLUS PITTMAN, LOEFAH, HUXLEY, BICEP, DARK SKY, PHILLIP LAUER, HAPPA, DJ CASPA
For most promoters, January is normally a time to sit back, wait for the post-Christmas lull to pass and for people's bank accounts to recharge. Not the heads at Trouble Vision. The first month of the year is looked upon as the perfect time to cause more mischief by taking the initiative rather than playing safe, hiding in the shadows like other parties might. Once again, they're proving their mettle with another series of audacious bookings over two nights at Corsica Studios this month. Wannabe pretenders wondering how to be big in the game, listen up! This is how it's done, double Trouble Vision style...
Rule one. Still buzzing from a massive New Year's knees-up featuring a line-up or rare and revered underground treats from across the house and techno spectrum, it might be tempting sit back, take a well earned rest and count the fruit of your labours rather than stick your neck on the line and risk another big party so soon, right? Wrong. Resting on your laurels won't get you anywhere in this life, so don't. Take a leaf from TV's book. Keep up the momentum. If you're recognised as a powerhouse as capable as filling a room as the WI at a cake sale in Frinton, make the goddam most of it.
Do as they've done, book the likes of Loefah, Huxley, Dark Sky and dubstep-turn-techno resurgent Happa, while holding back a very special guest to hit 'em with on New Year's Day to really hammer it home. Helluva way to make an impression.
Rule two. Don't stop at one event. Promoters like TV – those with really bullish balls – aren't afraid to do parties on consecutive nights, draft in another lot of eyebrow-raising names – this time of legendary Motor City ilk – to really capture attention. These days, especially in clubland, people want choice. No longer are tribal heads split into silos. Our ITunes are just as likely to feature the starlets of UK bass as they are the early pioneers of Detroit techno and Chicago house, so why separate them? But don't just cobble them together willy nilly. Programme intelligently over two dates. Upcoming bass heads and the current stars of house for one, followed by old skool stalwarts Theo Parrish and Marcellus Pittman, supported by Bicep and Lauer, the next. That way, everyone is happy.
People can decide which night tickles their fancy and those with stamina – the hardcore raving elite – can attend both. And regret it on Monday morning.
So, there you have it. The rules to becoming as a bodacious booking force as brought to you by Trouble Vision. Turn on, tune in, club it out.
10pm – 6am |£8 - £15| corsicastudios.com
Pic: Eleonora Cecchini (www.anomalousvisuals.co.uk)
2. Five years of Louche, Plan B, London, Saturday 26th January
OMAR S, KYLE HALL, HUNEE, SIMONCINO, MR BEATNICK
Dance music is hinged on partnerships. To really make waves, especially in a club scene as busy as the Big Smoke, teaming up with respected brands is one way to give a party extra clout. Though, it works both ways. For many promoters making a name for themselves, the temptation to accept corporate backing is often too good to resist. Those with integrity think twice about accepting a wad of dough in exchange for injecting a conglomerate mobile phone brand with added credibility through a cool party. The test is choosing a brand that enhances the project rather than hindering it.
It's refreshing, then, that Red Bull Music Academy is one commercial enterprise that puts music above flogging a few more energy drinks. With regular events, workshops and festival appearances exploring the more experimental end of club music, a recent collaboration has given Leeds' Louche enough penetration to dice over London. The sum of all parts is this wicked party with Omar S, Kyle Hall, Hunee, Simoncino and Mr Beatnick, with a second room hosted by Oscillate Wildly. Allowing for better sound, more impressive visuals and a line-up to rival them all, it's proving to be a marriage of convenience.
10pm – 6am |£12/£15/£17| louchemusic.com
3. Fiesta, Sankeys, Manchester, Saturday 12th January
DERRICK MAY, HUNEE, DARIUS SYROSSIAN
It pays – even if you are one of the most consistent forces in clubland – to change things up to keep it fresh. Sankeys is no exception. Replacing the weekly Carnival staple, which moved to the club's Ibiza wing permanently this summer, Fiesta is one that's snugly slotted in to supply some new blood to Manc's colossal clubbing institution.
Stopping in at the month's halfway point, the sight of Detroit innovator Derrick May, Berlin's Hunee and ViVa protege Darius Syrossian is surely enough to coax pennies from the Rainy City's hardened house heads, no matter how sheepish they are, nursing a Chrimbo comedown. This post-festive Fiesta is just the trick to warm 'em up nicely.
11pm – 6am |£12| www.sankeys.info
4. XOYO, London, Friday 25th January
DIMITRI FROM PARIS, AEROPLANE, COSMONAUTS, NO ARTIFICIAL COLOURS, MARTIN DUBKA + MORE...
Frenchman Dimitri From Paris has had a bit of a resurgence of late. Between spinning in Hugh Hefner's living room to remixing New Order, he's been around the block a few times, clocking up miles like an Emirati air hostess, and doing his dirty disco business over the world's biggest rooms along the way. A recent mix for Defected proved he's still got what it takes to bring an explosive colour to a dancefloor, keeping a lofty foothold even now as part of a scene mutating quicker than Bruce Banner in a brothel.
This month, you can catch him DJ live and direct at East London basement XOYO alongside Aeroplane, now flying solo, and nu disco duo Cosmonauts, while No Artificial Colours headline room two.
9pm – 3am |£12.50| xoyo.co.uk
5. Shindig34/018, W34, Hoults Yard, Newcastle, Saturday 26th January
LOCO DICE, ENZO SIRAGUSA
Never ones to skimp on titanic talent for the warehouse series at W34, the guys at Shindig have nabbed another heavyweight for their next party. Recently more prone to teaming up mid-sized monoliths to take over the decks – Sneak and Heidi, Tanzmann and Squillace, Troxler and Maya Jane Coles – this month, following Laurent Garnier's LBS show in November, this month they've secured Desolat boss Loco Dice to dominate this gargantuan warehouse with his muscular moves and sturdy sonic masterstrokes, with support from Enzo Siragusa.
10.30pm – 4am | £13/£16 | shindiguk.com
