Hope Works Introducing, Sheffield
Hope Works – a warehouse venue in Sheffield – is staying true to the city’s pioneering electronic spirit with its Introducing series. Beginning this weekend, some of the world’s foremost alternative house and techno talent are taken and placed in an atmospheric, all-night rave space. On the bill is Yorkshire’s criminally underrated Chris Duckenfeld, crunchy techno from LIES favourite Greg Beato, a live set from Lo Shea and a turn by Boiler Room curator Bradley Zero. Headliner Funkineven is an artist pushing a classic, squelchy acid aesthetic in all manner of vibrant new directions, touching on pop and flat-out rave business on labels such as Boardwalk and Eglo.
Hope Works, Sat
JT
Nightmares On Wax, London
Anyone who went within 10 feet of a jazz cigarette in the 90s will have probably also come across Nightmares On Wax, whose smooth trip-hop was the perfect catalyst for caned monologues and nonsense after-hours diatribes. The brainchild of Leeds producer George Evelyn, his work gradually became ever more sumptuous. But early on it was all positively raw, a kind of Latin-tinged version of what the rest of NoW’s early Warp peers were doing with rave music. With luxurious reissues of all their records coming up, expect career-straddling cuts in this live set. Strong support comes from Peanut Butter Wolf and DJ Food doing AV sets, taking the far corners of boom-bap and scrunching them up, plus Brainfeeder alumnus Teebs and Danny Brown fave Paul White throwing in their own skewed takes on hip-hop. In short, it’ll be a night of bland breakbeats getting goosed into freaked-out new formulations.
The Forum, NW5, Fri
BB
Simple Things Opening Party, Bristol
Though it launched just three years ago, Simple Things has gone from a small start-up event to a bonafide example of how to do a large-scale, inner-city festival. It’s avoided the multi-venue route that brought the likes of the Camden Crawl down and instead took the slowly slowly approach, with gradual venue upgrades matched with increasingly impressive lineups. To kick things off this year, they’re hosting an opening party in the depths of the dystopian-looking Motion Skate Park, which will see Hyperdub’s Jessy Lanza and electronic producer Caribou take to the ramps. Caribou’s recently released new album, Our Love, sees Dan Snaith continue his deconstruction of dance music’s inner workings. Live it blossoms into a full-band jam with synths, bass drums, impressive lighting and Snaith positioning himself front and centre on vocals. Lanza joins the band for their song Second Chance and also performs her solo music - whispering, glitchy R&B, which combines Aaliyah-sweet singing with post-dubstep’s chilly exterior.
Motion, Fri
SM
Blacklip Bassnight Present Joe Nice, Dublin
When dubstep was a fresh new sound, nights such as London’s DMZ and FWD» were the big red dots on the clubbing map. These were the hubs where disparate music-heads came together to feel their chests rattle to spaced-out dubs on huge soundsystems. One of those clubbers was Joe Nice, a DJ from Baltimore who fell in love with dubstep so much that he took it back to the US with him, starting parties at home and in NYC. Ten years later he’s one of the sound’s foremost DJs, championing the ethos of bass, space and weight that those heads never forgot.
The Pint, Sat
LM
Licked Beatz, London
Grime never went away, but its mainstream-minded arm got confused, not sure if it wanted to be actual rap or pop. Everyone’s now seemingly decided to go back to the clattering, collapsing, Sega-churning madness it once was and, quelle surprise, the scene’s now stronger than it’s been in years. It’s thanks in part to old stagers such as Slimzee keeping the flag flying alongside Spooky, plus grime 2.0 pin-up Visionist and Trim, who is on MC duty here. Expect nimble rhyming with funny disses.
Plan B, SW9, Sat
BB
