New Year/New Noise, Bristol
With four years of superb live shows and releases behind them, multi-platform outfit Howling Owl has created a niche as an enervating, experimental force in Bristol’s dense music scene. Suitably, its annual event, New Year/New Noise, will be opened this year by stirring local artists John Bence and Kayla Painter. The former’s Disquiet EP – snapped up by Nicolas Jaar’s Other People label last year – featured eerie cut-and-paste vocals that recalled the avant garde innovator Meredith Monk, albeit with a modern layer of contemporarily synthesized textures. Painter, meanwhile, peddles a more familiar blend of thoughtful, poignant synths on a palette spattered with dubstep and UK garage rhythms. Later on, Howling Owl DJs will provide what’s likely to be a refreshing montage of new music, with noise-rockers Spectres and Repo Man (16 Jan) appearing later in New Year/New Noise’s three-night run.
Arnolfini, Fri to 17 Jan
GT
Tief Present Dance Mania, London
Jesse Saunders can lay claim to making the first ever house record – On And On, in 1984. Its lo-fi synths, tinny claps and Italo pulse have their charm, but listened to more than 30 years later, the title becomes all too appropriate: on and on it plods, apparently without end. His greatest legacy is instead the label he founded the following year, Dance Mania, which alongside Trax came to define Chicago house and laid the groundwork for today’s club culture. As well as championing deep cuts such as the sublimely pervy 7 Ways by Hercules or Vincent Floyd’s desperate I Dream You, the label promoted the ghetto house sub-style (think: the filthily jacking DJ Funk or Housemaster Boyz, whose House Nation became a definitive smash). Two compilations in the last two years have fed Dance Mania back into our house-fixated age, and this night features a new-school fanboy in Mr Beatnick. But there’s also original talent in Parris Mitchell, whose paeans to freakiness are as soulful as they are mechanically raunchy.
Dance Tunnel, E8, Sat
BB
Animal Farm, Glasgow
Having released a smattering of tracks under his Furesshu, Eachnewhour and Esoteric aliases, for the last two years Luke Standing’s Blue Hour project has forged a dialogue between the functionality of big-room techno and more delicate melodic flourishes. It’s indicative of a wider spectrum of influences at work. His debut Flow State EP, for example, was full of juxtapositions: intricate minimalism; stammering mutations soaked in syrupy reverb; submerged trance chords and acid stabs complementing brittle percussion. This year’s Introspective, meanwhile, focused on frantic kick drum-splattered sections of dark and light. Here he’ll be play alongside residents Quail and Turtle.
Sub Club, Fri
SC
Banana Hill, Manchester
One of the few true genre-spanning parties in the UK right now, Banana Hill presents early Boiler Room contributor and naturally knowledgable crate-digger Thris Tian. Promising everything from flamboyant Turkish disco to guttural Detroit techno, percussive delights and the Afrobeat pulse that ties his expansive aesthetic together, the overall effect on the floor is both soulful and pulsating. Joining Tian is Contours, the latest artist on Peckham’s Rhythm Section International imprint, alongside resident DJ Cervo, a masterful selector in his own right.
Soup Kitchen, Fri
JT
As Below, So Above, London
A brilliantly varied lineup here at the Bussey Building, recently and blessedly saved from the dread hand of luxury flats. The highlight is a live set from Rezzett, whose releases on The Trilogy Tapes have been among the label’s best: jacking house tracks staggering through the milky sun of a duststorm. Headlining is Randall, a fondly regarded jungle great who was one of the first to twist acid house into something even gnarlier. Down in the basement are El-B and Horsepower Productions, whose minimalist spins on garage helped spawn dubstep.
Bussey Building, SE15, Fri
BB
