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The Hydra, London

The promotion teams bringing funk to the UK club scene

WHAT? A series of events hosted only by on-point house, techno and bass labels, promotions and collectives.
WHERE? Various undisclosed venues across East London.
WHEN? It kicked off August Bank Holiday and will wrap up on New Year’s Eve.
WHO PLAYS? Ostgut Ton, Dial Records and A Bunch Of Cuts have brought Marcel Dettmann, Lawrence and Marcus Intalex (among many others) so far.
WHAT’S NEXT? Deviation 5th Birthday (13th October) with Moodymann, Dâm Funk, Hudson Mohawke and Kode9. Innervisions x Permanent Vacation Halloween Special (27th October), with Dixon, Âme, Tensnake (live), Todd Terje and Prins Thomas.

According to Greek mythology, the Hydra is an aquatic serpent beast with multiple heads. To Londoners, however, thanks to Broken & Uneven, it’s become a different beast entirely — one made up not of reptilian heads, but 11 different top-class dance events running until New Year’s Eve.
Its launch — on Friday 24th August with an Ostgut Ton showcase featuring Marcel Dettmann, Marcel Fengler and label boss Nick Hoppner at a secret East London location — was a fitting way to open, considering Electric Minds’ Dolan Bergin and We Fear Silence’s Ajay Jayaram first crossed paths when Dolan brought the label to Cable in August 2011, when Ajay was a director at the club.  Shortly after came Broken & Uneven; a London-based party that would serve as “...a vehicle with which to promote the music we love, across a wide-ranging spectrum of styles and genres,” Dolan tells DJ Mag.

Following that, an all-out series seemed a natural progression, bringing about a calendar of “high-calibre events” hosted by the most well-respected house, techno and bass labels, promoters and collectives to the capital. Served over two parts, Dial Records and A Bunch Of Cuts have already delivered the dastardly dancefloor deeds to part one, with Deviation’s 5th Birthday (13th October) and Innervisions x Permanent Vacation (27th October) lined up for this month alone.  But where is it at?
“We started the series using a brand-new space in Wapping, which we’ll most likely return to, but we will also be using different London venues,” says Dolan. “London’s venue situation is extremely volatile at the moment, so we will be working with a number of spaces to make sure that all of the events can go ahead.”
 
The consummation of high-end sound technology supplied by Sound Services — and its Funktion One installation — and state-of-the-art visuals from Relay Overplay, Broken & Uneven’s The Hydra Series is already proving to be an irrepressible monster. With R&S (23rd November), Non-Plus (24th November), Bugged Out! (15th December), Border Community (New Year’s Eve) and Aus (New Year’s Day) waiting in the wings for the coming months, it really is one for the heads.