PROFILE: BASSLACED LONDON

Sod London Pride! If London was a drink, it would be laced with warm, thick bubbly bass. If you need to be told why, obviously you are not a Londoner. Soaking up all manner of bass activity during its lifetime — from dub to jungle to dnb to dubstep — even house has been infected by the capital's love for filthy low-frequency rumbles in recent years.

One group of promoters more in-the-know than most are those behind Basslaced, the Nottingham -born bass night now living it up in London. “If you truly understand something, you should be able to sum it up in a sentence or so,” Tom Edgar muses when we ask him about his night's music policy, before pausing to add: “'Music which has its origins in bass music'.”

After encountering FWD with a mate at Plastic People in London, Tom and his pal sought to emulate the dubstep night's trailblazing force in Nottingham, the city where he was a student at the time. Starting at a small venue called The Social (now The Bodega) in 2008, Basslaced has gone on to throw nights at Stealth and London's Cable (god rest its soul), as well as hosting the 1500-capacity second stage at The Forum as part of Nottingham bass festival, Detonate.

“It was at the time of 'In For The Kill' and when Skream came on it felt like the whole festival was trying to get into our room to see him,” Tom recalls.

These days, the night resides at Vauxhall's mega-club Fire, where it's booked the likes of Calibre, dBridge, Doc Scott, Krafty Kuts, DJ Yoda and Marky during the past couple of months alone. With a boat party in Croatia for Outlook coming up, Basslaced is one of the leading bringers of UK bass on the international circuit these days. Teaming up with Broken & Uneven's Ajay Jayaram — one of the bodies behind The Hydra series — Tom has watched the night go from diminutive Nottingham party to mainstay staple of the dance establishment.

“It started out just as a monthly club-night at a small 2-300 capacity venue and has grown into a monthly in two cities, with each event doing over 1000 people,” Tom explains

“We've now changed the company structure. We are now promoting more branded parties with labels and artists, which gives us flexibility to work within a wider range of music genres.” With events with Blackout, Exit, AboC, Stanton Sessions and Ram Jam with David Rodigan on the horizon, Basslaced is bossing it.