Tim Sweeney, Leeds
For the past 15 years, New Yorker Tim Sweeney has rocked up to the city’s WNYU FM each Tuesday evening with an ever-growing collection of dancefloor-friendly records both old and new, inviting guest DJs along for a couple of hours of uninterrupted airtime to showcase whatever’s tickling their earbuds. The show, Beats In Space, is now a landmark of alternative music culture, and, as you might imagine, Sweeney has in this time picked up a fair few hits himself. There’s a collection of them available on a recent, far-reaching compilation celebrating the show, but it’s in the club where Sweeney is best experienced. An unfussy party-starter with a bag of wax to be envied, in spite of the crate-digging nature of his radio endeavour, Sweeney’s skill is to draw together even the most disparate crowd with records they’re dying to know. His natural sense of humour, warmth and diverse tastes translate seamlessly on to any dancefloor, and Sweeney will be coming straight out of the studio for this midweek party from Mavrik.
Wire, Wed
JT
XOYO Loves, London
XOYO bursts out of its usual home for the starriest lineup in its spin-off series yet, headlined by Danny Brown. The Detroit rapper’s voice is instantly recognisable, starting gruff and becoming more adenoidal as his energy levels rise, his larynx like a crumpling ball of heated cellophane. He’ll deploy it on his club-ready tracks here, celebrating kush, molly and general abandon. He may crop up during Rustie’s set, too, for the pair’s collaboration from earlier this year. Equally A-list is Mark Ronson, who’ll do a DJ set, and while his new single with Bruno Mars may be immaculately retro James Brown funk, he’s equally likely to delve into his milkcrate of hip-hop obscurities.
The Coronet, SE1, Sat
BB
A Night In Paradise, London
Free of alcohol but awash with acid-spiked fruit punch and sexualised murals of Greek gods, the Paradise Garage was a sanctuary for the gay libertines of New York to lose themselves to disco. The in-house DJ was Larry Levan, whose edits of tracks by the likes of the Joubert Singers and Gwen Guthrie further honed the nascent craft of DJing. That this tribute night is being held at Ministry Of Sound’s corporate pleasuredome shows how far that craft has come, and while the intimacy will be lost, the likes of Garage disciple Danny Krivit and this week’s Harangue The DJ selectors Horse Meat Disco will still stun.
Ministry Of Sound, SE1, Sun
BB
Anëk, Norwich
Anëk are the first female duo to be welcomed on to the exclusive roster of Steve Lawler’s VIVa MUSiC records, with Karina and Denise honing in on their childhood friendship to produce house music full of irrefutable energy and connection. Their standout track Girltalk was part of the label’s 100th EP, evoking their all-round uplifting house-drenched vibe. Gonzo’s Tea Room will play host, with its vintage and recycled interior and knick-knack-filled shelves ready for a ruckus.
Gonzo’s Tea Room, Sat
SM
PC Music, Glasgow
“I can make you feel better,” chimes Sophie’s 2013 underground pop hit Bipp, a sweet yet caustic headrush that shone a bright spotlight on PC Music, the label that encapsulates this crew of weirdos’ 3.0 vision of electronic pop. In the year since Bipp’s release, PC Music has come to divide opinion in the clubbing community. For some, it’s a bunch of upstarts trying to mess with the dancefloor: chipmunk vocals, fizzy off-key melodies and elements of happy hardcore and J-pop smashed together, seemingly without rhyme or reason. For others, it offers the perfect postmodern antidote to the seriousness of techno and the limpness of house music’s current UK chart incarnation. I mean, it’s almost punk rock, right? The label doesn’t care about anything except making you dance like crazy. Here, PC Music brings along GFOTY, Kane West, SPINEE, Nu New Edition and the label’s founder AG Cook for a very 2014 riot.
The Art School, Fri
LM
