Powerhouse, London
German producer René Pawlowitz is perhaps best known as Shed, making industrial techno stormers that bristle and fret, beaming anxiety through the crowd. But his other moniker, Head High, is a more straightforward proposition: these bangers merely ask you to masticate gum and top up your synovial fluid on the way to an all-night workout. His recent EPs, now mixed together in new package Home. House. Hardcore., are centred on a very 90s sound, where chunky breakbeats and bass kicks drive euphoric house tracks reliably forward, like a Land Rover Defender ferrying a coterie of fake-tanned babes through a festival mudpit. He headlines here alongside Steffi, whose recent album Power Of Anonymity was similarly 90s-facing, with plenty of ambient chords and 808 percussion, plus there’s Dalston disco denizens Hannah Holland and Dan Beaumont, likely bringing out their tougher house. Get down early for the 100 tickets left on the door.
Dance Tunnel, E8, Fri
BB
Big N Bashy: Silkie, Edinburgh
Big N Bashy have been throwing bass-heavy parties in the capital for years now, so they can flex their tastes in the darker side with pride, and their latest booking of Silkie is a solid one. After switching from DJing grime to the early dubstep sound, the Londoner signed to Mala’s Deep Medi Musik label and released the still-underrated City Limits volumes: waist-winding, neck-breaking riddims pumped through chest-rattling sub bass, and sprinkled with tightly wrought melodies. With more recent efforts on Elijah & Skilliam’s Butterz label, too, that 8-bar, addictive shock of energy is still alive in Silkie: expect this to be a head-rattling trip through dubstep, grime and myriad bass-led machinations between.
The Bongo Club, Sat
LM
Art’s House, London
Perhaps burned by the experience of seeing dubstep get shoved into a genre box and packed off to the US, where it was instantly surrounded by capering, beer-bonging frat boys, Artwork – one third of dubstep supergroup Magnetic Man – has taken a radically open stance when it comes to DJing. Disco, deep house, UK bass, Chicago cuts and yacht-friendly Balearic all get blended up, often back-to-back alongside chums like Jackmaster and Daniel Wang. He’s now starting a month of parties each Friday, which begin in the lofty hipster creche of Dalston Roof Park, and then bimble down the ocakbasi strip to The Nest for after-hours business. The latter is to be decked out, as per the title, like Artwork’s house, so is presumably to be decorated with Frizz Ease bottles, obscure Italo sleeves and discarded cans of Red Stripe. There’ll be unannounced special guests, but given that Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, Skream and Route 94 turned up to his last house party, expect there to be some relatively A-grade DJ talent. Use a coaster, though, yeah?
Dalston Roof Park, E8 & The Nest, N16, Fri
BB
Horseplay - (IM)PERFECTION/BLUE, Bristol
Bristol’s best gay dance party welcomes Seattle dancefloor powerhouse DJ Nark for “an art-party inspired by Yves Klein, unrealistic expectations of beauty and saying a big FUCK YOU to feeling like you just don’t measure up”. The soundtrack is raw disco, synthesiser jams, proto-house and underground pop, and Horseplay is open to anyone with a positive mental attitude and a desire for liberty and sleaze. The atmosphere will be heightened immeasurably due to its happening in the poignant ambience of the old police cells in Bristol.
The Island, Sat
GT
Hoya:Hoya, Manchester
Many of Manchester’s best regular nights have said a fond farewell to the Roadhouse this past month, with the lovably grotty and uniquely intimate club closing its doors after nearly two decades. Frankly, it’s more bad news for the city’s dwindling selection of established venues, but before it becomes a Premier Inn or yet somewhere else to buy pulled pork, Hoya:Hoya is on hand to offer a typically versatile kiss of death. Get down early for Illum Sphere, Krystal Klear, Jon K and the rest of the gang.
Roadhouse, Sat
JT
