Clubs

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‘NOWHERE ELSE IN EDINBURGH COULD CONTAIN A LINE-UP LIKE THIS’ Hitlist THE BEST DANCEFLOOR ACTION*

John Digweed

✽✽ Fuse Party hard, eccentric electro from Essex boy and Radio 1 star Kissy Sell Out (pictured). Berlin Bierhaus, Edinburgh, Fri 5 Feb. ✽✽ So . . . Sub Club & Slam Two instalments with Prosumer guesting alongside Harri & Domenic at Subculture and Danton Eeprom joining Twitch & Wilkes at Optimo. Subculture at Sub Club, Glasgow, Sat 6 Feb; Optimo at Sub Club, Glasgow, Sun 14 Feb ✽✽ Ultragroove and Wedge The new-disco sound of Linkwood and Fudge Fingas, of the Edinburgh-founded Firecracker Records and latterly Prime Numbers. Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh, Sat 6 Feb; Hetherington Research Club, Glasgow, Sat 13 Feb. ✽✽ Four Corners Fifth birthday with a residents reunion as they gather from the four corners (ahem) of the globe for a soul, jazz, hip hop and funk party. The Bongo Club, Edinburgh, Fri 12 Feb. ✽✽ Club Noir It’s an Italian- themed Venetian Masked Ball for this Valentine’s instalment of the popular burlesque club, with dressing-up positively encouraged. O2 Academy, Glasgow, Sat 13 Feb. ✽✽ Musika John Digweed and Timo Maas head up the list of talent at this big third birthday bash. See preview, left. Corn Exchange, Edinburgh, Sat 13 Feb. ✽✽ Pretty Ugly Celebrate Valentine’s with the Pretty Ugly girls and guest DJ Manda Rin (ex-Bis), playing indie rock’n’roll and offering discounted entry for everyone who brings a single friend. Admiral, Glasgow, Sat 13 Feb. ✽✽ Substance Real deal underground techno action with live sets from Lory D (Sounds Never Seen/Rephlex) and Ital Tek (Planet Mu). The GRV, Edinburgh, Sat 13 Feb. 4–18 Feb 2010 THE LIST 37

Three is the magic number With a big third birthday on the cards David Pollock and Henry Northmore catch up with Musika

I n just three short years, Musika has become a mainstay on the Edinburgh club scene. For Derek Martin, promoter of the Edinburgh house and electro clubbing brand, the fire which temporarily put the city’s Liquid Room venue out of action has represented an opportunity more than a setback. Musika’s residency there wasn’t even two years old when the fire struck, but rather than putting the night on ice, he’s spent the time since developing bigger parties with bigger guests around the city.

Having already promoted Musika nights at Cabaret Voltaire, Ocean Terminal and a recent New Year bash (featuring Mylo) at the HMV Picture House, this will be his first date at the Corn Exchange. ‘I’ve been knocking on [Corn Exchange director] Paul DeMarco’s door there for a while now,’ says Martin. ‘It’s not any further out the way than Ocean Terminal, and the main room is the perfect capacity for what we want to do. There’s nowhere else in Edinburgh that could contain a line-up like this, with John Digweed and Timo Maas on it, and we also get a second room where the guys from [Cabaret Voltaire’s] Sugarbeat will be playing.’ It’s not surprising they need a bigger venue with doyens of the DJ world on the bill. John Digweed is one of the godfathers of house, who, along with Sasha launched the first ever club mix CD, Renaissance, on the world, he’s remained at the top of his game since its release back in 1993, spinning his own brand of house across the globe at all the

clubs that matter. Timo Maas has a harder style with tough slabs of techno cut into his sharp house sets, and the night also offers a chance to catch a true rising star before he goes huge as Tim Green, aka TG (signed up to Claude VonStroke’s Dirtybird records and Sven Vath’s Cocoon) rounds out the main room’s mightily impressive line-up. The aforementioned Sugarbeat founders Jez Willis and Tim Garbutt, better know as Utah Saints, will be in charge of the second room. They will be joined by guests Hot Chip for a DJ set (see our feature on page 26 for more on the electro boffins) and the low-tech bleeps of Boy 8-Bit. It’s a perfect distillation of the music that makes Musika, centred on house but happy to experiment with progressive beats, techno and electro. Ask Martin to name his favourite dates in Musika’s history, and many of them come from the Liquid Room days. He mentions guests like Moby, Booka Shade and Eric Prydz, all of whom played for Martin at the venue, so it’s with a great deal of pleasure that he tells us Musika will be regaining its monthly residency there when the venue reopens later this year. Not that he isn’t still thinking big. ‘I’m really looking forward to the Corn Exchange show,’ he says, ‘and I’m hopeful we’ll get to do more of them in future.’

Musika featuring John Digweed, Timo Maas and more takes over the Corn Exchange, Edinburgh, Sat 13 Feb.