These are the top UK club events in April 2019

The cloven hoof of festival season is already here, as is proven by London's top pick, Hackney’s experimental and boundary-pushing Test Pressing. Everything from kraut crunch to electro bangs will be explored.

It's worth noting there's another special occasion in the capital this month, as Egg hits sweet 16 and drafts some serious tech to celebrate; Nicole Moudaber, Japan's Hito and Italy's emergent Anna V are among those lighting candles. 

Spirit Level, meanwhile, is a new one from dnb and jungle don Mantra, where the focus is on ‘proper’ lengthy sets— Manchester’s Djinn, for example, gets no less than three hours. Check what happened when she went b2b with Mantra for DJ Mag. 

Bristol and Bournemouth crew Delete are kicking it with London’s Runsounds for a day-into-night-into-morning thing. Acid don October will be there, as will techno lord Jerome Hill, curveball bassist Facta and Freerotation talent, Tom Ellis. Sticking south, but away from The Big Smoke, Auf Bau’s May Day makes Tuesday seem unusually appealing— Saoirse and Moxie b2b, Scottish legends Optimo top the bill.  

Edinburgh claims No.1 in its section thanks to the epic production levels and 10,000-strong crowd heading to Terminal V. Glasgow is hot on the heels, though, with Maximum Pressure hosts Slam inviting a seriously strong techno line-up to party over Easter. Miss Giant Swan, Acid Flash's IDA or top local pair Craigie Knowes and answer to us. 

Newcastle’s Move might be the best programmed party this month— timeless electro type DMX Krew, new school rave-resurgent Imogen and one of our Fresh Kicks interviewees, CPU Records’ 96 Back. Evidently someone knows what time it is. 

We’re thrilled to see Love Dose in Manchester again. Baba Stiltz flies in from Sweden, Bipolar Sunshine’s new electronic project Rabbithole gets introduced, Aus Music’s ever-sexy-sounding Cottam is there and northern stalwarts James Holroyd and Luke Unabomber play together. Wire, on the other hand, proves less can be more as enigmatic techno dramatist Redshape returns to Leeds after a five year hiatus from the city's listings, hitting the always-reliable Sub:Terranea. 

Bristol seems to dominate elsewhere, and not without reason. Bitch, Please! switches from Motion's big rooms to The Island, and boasts a line-up to suit (Gideön, Hannah Holland). Experimental dnb session NOISE Test returns with its second UVB-76 takeover. Catch Pessimist, Outer Heaven, Clarity and Karim Maas to guarantee satisfaction. Meanwhile, Albeit Records heads to The Queens Head for a night with Omar, whose crisp tech, deep house and off-kilter beats blew Houghton Festival away in 2018. 

West Country aside, Birmingham’s Hare & Hounds hosts The Orb’s 30th Anniversary Tour. The outfit still know how to do it, their hallucinatory acid house, rave and ambient hybrids vital as ever. And shout to CC:Disco, who’ll be spinning disco (no shit) at Nottingham’s Stealth, proving why she’s one of the most danceable things to come out of Australia in ages— a country we just covered with regard to its prohibitive laws and war on festivals. 

As ever, more complete listings are available in the current copy of DJ Mag, Issue 592, April 2019, which also includes this year’s Top 100 Clubs Poll results. 

LONDON / SOUTH 

1. TEST PRESSING FESTIVAL 
SATURDAY 27TH APRIL 
VARIOUS VENUES, HACKNEY WICK, LONDON
Test Pressing returns to London’s no-longer-too-wild East for its second edition, with LNZRT, Bad Vibrations and Snap Crackle & Pop teaming up to run the show. Needless to say, then, we’re expecting to hear some pretty special things during this multi-venue celebration of dance music’s more experimental ends. 

Unusually, but also tellingly in terms of the aural offering, there’s a major leaning towards heavy live acts, which range from the bone-shattering techno of Ancient Methods to Moon Duo’s wall-of-sound psych-kraut, the gnarling industrial-edged electro of Schwefelgelb (think Factory Floor, but in a bad mood) to celebrated electro-pop emergent C.A.R. and onto minimalist composer Silvia Kastel. Other players and performances to catch have to be Lisbon’s multi-faceted Naive imprint boss, Violet (a firm favourite in the DJ Mag office), party starting London duo and former-Cheeky Bubblers Kiara Scuro, Turkish disco don Baris K, and Sc&P’s Harry James and Marcus Harris.
3PM - 5AM / £30

2. SPIRIT LEVEL  
SATURDAY 6TH APRIL 
THE PICKLE FACTORY, LONDON 
Mantra, Om Unit, Djinn.
10PM - 6AM / £15

3. AUF BAU: MAY DAY 
TUESDAY 30TH APRIL 
EMPORIUM, OXFORD 
Optimo, Moxie b2b Saoirse. 
10.30PM - 5AM / £10

4. EGG 16TH BIRTHDAY
SATURDAY 27TH APRIL 
EGG, LONDON 
Nicole Moudaber, Hito, Anna V, Crazy Sonic, Artbat, Kyle E, Luther Vine, Gold Diggers.  
11PM - 7AM / £15 - £28 

5. DELETE VS RUNSOUNDS 
SATURDAY 13TH APRIL
CRATE BREWERY AND THE YARD, LONDON  
October, Jerome Hill, Facta, Tom Ellis, Ekkis, Anina more. 
3PM - 5AM / £5 - £10 

NORTH / SCOTLAND / NORTHERN IRELAND

1. TERMINAL V: THE RISING 
SATURDAY 20TH APRIL 
ROYAL HIGHLAND CENTRE, EDINBURGH
Big venue, massive names, even bigger crowd, 2019’s Terminal V super-session boasts a mind-blowing capacity of 10,000, making this busier than your average egg hunt. With that in mind let’s not waste any more space introducing this winning Easter treat and instead skip to the fundamental details.  

Richie Hawtin arrives to play (what is amazingly) his first set in Scotland’s capital for 18 years. How things will have changed. On top of that veritable coup attendees can also look forward to getting hot and bothered to Andrew Weatherall, Daniel Avery, Derrick Carter, Helena Hauff, Green Velvet, Maceo Plex, Patrick Topping, Mr G live, Mella Dee, Objekt, Philipp Gorbachev, Young Marco, Jennifer Cardini, Kobosil, Chris Liebing, Nastia, Tama Sumo, and an as-yet-unannounced b2b. Not bad at all, needless to say the production and sound standards should match that bill, and then some. 
12PM - 11PM / £59.95 - £74.95

2. MAXIMUM PRESSURE x EASTER 2019 
SATURDAY 20TH APRIL 
SWG3, GLASGOW 
Slam, Len Faki, Laurent Garnier, KiNK, IDA, Giant Swan, Craigie Knowes, more. 
6PM - 3AM / £30 

3. LOVE DOSE EASTER PARTY
THURSDAY 18TH APRIL 
STAGE & RADIO/HIDDEN/THE WHITE HOTEL, SALFORD/MANCHESTER
Baba Stiltz , Rabbithole, Cottam, James Holroyd b2b Luke Unabomber, Kerouac b2b Efenar, more. 
6PM - 6AM / £8.50 - £15.50 

4. MOVE 
FRIDAY 26TH APRIL  
THE WORLD HEADQUARTERS, NEWCASTLE 
DMX Krew, Imogen, 96 Back. 
11PM - 4AM / £TBA 

5. SUB:TERRANEA 
SATURDAY 20TH APRIL 
WIRE, LEEDS 
Redshape, Rory Flynn, Daniel Jackson, Alex Brown.
11PM - 5AM / £6 

MIDLANDS / WEST & WALES

1. BITCH, PLEASE! 
FRIDAY 19TH APRIL 
THE ISLAND, BRISTOL 
In a city that has been feeling the pressure on its music community more than most— with venue closures and licensing disputes abound— the combination of Bitch, Please! and The Island makes for reassuring evidence that even during the starkest and darkest of times you can still find some very good soirees in Bristol. 

Having filled out Motion for New Year’s Day you can bet your bottom dollar this more intimate offering will sell out, not least considering the two headliners on the bill. Gideön is best-known as the force behind Glastonbury’s bastion of queer club culture, NYC Downlow, but it’s not for nothing that the London-based head has been picking up increasingly regular guest bookings over recent years, too. The man knows exactly what people want, make no mistake. Tonight, Matthew, he’s joined by none other than rising Batty Bass face Hannah Holland, with Spice Boys’ ZenZero and In:Motion regular James Dyer also in attendance. 
10PM - 3AM / £8 

2. NOISE TEST: UVB-76 MUSIC TAKEOVER II
SATURDAY 20TH APRIL
THE ISLAND, BRISTOL 
Pessimist, Outer Heaven, Clarity, Karim Maas, Vega, DB1, Holsten, Mediaka, more. 
10PM - 3AM / £10 

3. STEALTH SATURDAYS 
SATURDAY 13TH APRIL 
STEALTH, NOTTINGHAM 
CC:Disco, more.  
10.15PM - 5AM / £5

4. THE ORB - 30TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR 
SATURDAY 13TH APRIL
HARE & HOUNDS, BIRMINGHAM 
The Orb, more. 
7PM - 11.15PM / £22.50

5. ALBEIT RECORDS NIGHT SERIES 
FRIDAY 19TH APRIL 
THE QUEENS HEAD, BRISTOL
Omar, more. 
10PM - 5AM / £7

Martin Guttridge-Hewitt is DJ Mag's Clubs Listings Editor. Be honest with him on Twitter, @Martinghewitt