Dalston Sunday Club with Doudou Malicious & Mirrorcube

Last Sunday's Dalston Sunday Club got treated to the wonderful sounds of Mr Doudou Malicious, head honcho and all round nice guy (despite his name) of Multi Vitamins records. First up was the Mirrorcube boys with a couple hours of back 'n' forth business, busting out new tunes and old, whilst Doudou was warming himself up in the corner with a series of finger crunches and snacking on vinyl biscuits.

Mirrorcube at Dalston Sunday Club 19.06.11 from Mirrorcube on Vimeo.
Then Doudou stepped up and took over for the last two hours. I mean, it wasn't a takeover like in the movie rockers where Dirty Harry and Horsemouth storm the DJ booth and relieve the disc-jock of his limp disco nonsense

It was just some real nice techno business for two hours featuring plenty of his own Multi Vitamins back catalogue. Check it out below...

Doudou at Dalston Sunday Club 19.06.11 from Mirrorcube on Vimeo.

Clubland Jan/Feb

The mnml explosion wasn't particularly kind to hard techno. As the cleaner, reduced ethos of the music proved more popular the harder geared sound fell out of favour for a while, prompting certain labels to go into hibernation or dissolve completely. The pendulum has certainly swung back the other way of late and one of the stalwart labels of hard techno, Blueprint re-emerged this year after a good five years of dormancy. Paul Mac, a vanguard of techno for nearly fifteen years didn't suffer the same fate as some of the record labels, but for the past couple of years his releases have almost exclusively been limited to digital format. His latest excursion under the new moniker of Valmay on Blueprint strikes another win for the label this year and finds Paul Mac in top form.

Clubland July

If you figure in Holger Zilske's release history as Smash TV, Mindlab and Acrid Gain then his debut solo album has been a long time in the incubation chamber. For the past two years Zilske's productions under his own name have focussed on the meeting points between subtle, deftly crafted techno and house. “Mes Yeux”, the first single from the album backed with”Metrodancer” appeared just two weeks before the LP and as a foreteller of what was to come was exciting news.

Clubland June

They may not happen with the greatest frequency but one thing is assured upon tracking down a new Robag Wruhme release; you will be entertained. The veteran producer has a knack of injecting his tracks with a certain buoyancy and mirth that few others manage to conjure with each successive release. Abusus Adde, his latest on Vakant finds Mr. Schablitzki in top, maniacal form with three cuts that not only prove to be weighty peak time contenders but also remind you that this music is meant to be fun.

Clubland May

After the industrial strength artist album from Ben Klock on Ostgut Ton earlier in the year, which left some feeling a little too chilly the label have followed up with a decidedly warmer twelve from Berlin resident Nick Hoeppner. Makeover is nevertheless cloaked with a deep and brooding atmosphere, but there are touches of house licking around the edges of the clubby techno that immediately lightened the mood.

Redshape: The Man in the Mask

My monthly column from Real Groove magazine - this month: Redshape


CLUBLAND - AUGUST

For the past two years he’s been prescribing raw slabs of Detroit techno funk to a self-medicating faithful behind the anonymity of a red mask. Little is known about Redshape except that he is of shorn head and European decent. The rumours are many; that he is a well known producer; that he has produced for Delsin and Music Man before he adopted his current guise; that he is in fact Carl Craig/Deetron/Dave Clarke/Luke Slater/Tiesto… okay maybe not Tiesto.

Minilogue & Loco Dice

CLUBLAND MAY


The Swedish production team of Minilogue have barely put a foot wrong over the last few years. Originally starting out as Son Kite, producing progressive house and trance, they quickly branched out into more techno and house-centric material, finally abandoning their Son Kite project in 2004 in favour of their Minilogue moniker. Most of the releases have always held some element of this beginning but with ever more stylistic touches they have been refining their art, stripping back the clutter whilst enhancing the overall effect. With their debut album Animals recently released it looks like they have reached the zenith of this process. The album is in two parts; a dance oriented chapter and an ambient one, but let’s just look at the floor fare for now.

Claro Intelecto

Clubland April

Spring slowly brings a thaw to the chilling vise of winter that held London gripped between its icy jaws. Early mornings are met now with shimmering dew and blinding shards of golden sunlight, the foggy breath of harried commuters heaving a ragged seasonal farewell, scarves giving way to flashes of bare milky necks.

Shackleton, Quantec, Pablo Bolivar

CLUBLAND

If you’d never heard of Shackleton before Ricardo Villalobos got a hold of ‘Blood on my Hands’ then that record cemented him into your memory for all time. To extol the virtues of Villalobos’ immaculate remixes in two parts is somewhat pointless; if you know the tune then more than likely it’s been hanging around in your head/record bag/lap top/top ten ever since.

Sascha Funke - Mango

CLUBLAND FEBRUARY

A slack gray sheet of cloud whimpers across the London sky, spluttering greasy grains of moisture on to my head as I await the bus that begins my morning commute. I push my ear phones deep in to my aural cavity, remnant drops of my recent shower suctioning loudly against the pliable rubber moldings. There’s only one way to blank the pressed humanity of London’s daily commute, the jostling throngs of scurrying maze-rats about tube stations, the weak pushed aside or trampled underfoot.
Music, the sunglasses of the ears.