Find Me In The Dark, London
In two years, Find Me In The Dark has become a major UK mouthpiece for a strain of techno that’s analogue and industrial, but still shot through with sex and groove rather than fascistic four-four thudding. For its second birthday, things are more loose and witty than ever. Legowelt tops the bill, the Dutch synth collector whose recent Panama Racing collaboration with countryman I-F was a stupidly jolly romp through cosmic house. Delroy Edwards joins him; the Los Angeleno has started sun-drying instead of frosting his productions of late, leaving them just as crackling and lo-fi, but with disco heat now seeping out. Then there’s Willie Burns, proprietor of NY record shop The Thing, who this year quit being a swimming coach to become a full-time record nerd and underground house producer. Expect deep Chicago cuts, dubby disco and weirdo spirituality. ASOK supports, while Ozel AB plays a live set.
Corsica Studios, SE17, Fri
BBT
Clark, Leeds
Forming part of the third Recon festival, which spans Leeds and Bradford over three days and celebrates artists “who work playfully, creatively and sometimes naughtily with technology”, Friday’s event at the Belgrave presents a rousing bill of sonic specialists. Sitting confidently at the top of the bill is Warp Records favourite Clark, who is now seven albums into his career and still one of the label’s flagship artists, arguably unrivalled in his ability to incorporate experimental detail into shameless rave bangers. Emerging from a more contemporary strain of dance is Mumdance, who has gained huge support for his roof-raising collaborations with MC Novelist and his forward-thinking contribution to the Fabriclive series, thanks to his classic rave energy and effective ambient interludes known as “weightless grime”. His new live show traces the ties between US DJ Jeff Mills and a south London McDonald’s. Joining them is London sound artist Helm, whose abstract drones should set the tone in complementary fashion, alongside the cryptic Wanda Group.
Belgrave Music Hall, Fri
JT
Headstrong, Glasgow
Following such formative experiences as raving in the high-energy dance music institution that is T In The Park’s Slam Tent and elongated sessions making hardstyle tracks with friends, Perth’s Calum MacLeod and Liam Robertson make music that is as much about where it came from as where it’s heading. First emerging as Clouds in 2010 with a hyperbolic and buoyant 12-inch on Blood Music, they’ve spent the last five years weighing their sound down, flirting with both industrial and big room techno, as well as taking more nuanced influences from trance, house, and electro. Here they play as part of a lineup of Headstrong residents, alongside Quail and Turtle of renowned Glasgow techno crew Animal Farm.
The Art School, Sat
SC
Eskimo Dance, London
Grime’s pre-eminent rave has come a long way. It began in 2002 in Watford, that global Mecca for grime, when Wiley decided the nascent style needed somewhere to get properly rowdy. Cue stages that were as crowded as the dancefloor, as MCs piled on to squabble over the mic. It’s now in the more salubrious Building Six at the O2, where it hosts its creator alongside various blue-chip MCs – there’s multiple Mobo nominee and hoverboard entrepreneur JME; Jammer, the dreadlocked linchpin of new all-star track Royal Rumble; plus Ghetts, P Money and D Double E as well as a load more.
Building Six, SE10, Sat
BBT
Dogruff, Swansea
A Welsh club night pushing Romanian minimal techno is an odd phenomenon, but that’s what Dogruff does (alongside fist-pumping house and techno). Having booked Rhadoo – one of the scene’s biggest names – it continues the vibe with Alexandra. After immersing herself in Bucharest’s minimal techno world, working for figurehead Romanian label [a:rpia:r], Alexandra ended up sharing bills with Petre Inspirescu and playing Ibiza to Berlin. Expect culture-shocked dancefloor psychedelia.
Lemon Factory, Sat
GTDC
