Clubs

The Rise of LuckyMe

The Glasgow collective from conception to the present day

While the LuckyMe collective has its roots in Glasgow, its co-directors Dominic Flanagan and Martyn Flyn have both recently returned to their home city of Edinburgh. The pair became friends working in the Leith branch of Tiso when they were still at…

Kraak and Smaak

Name: Kraak and Smaak. Occupation: Dutch purveyors of crispy funk and futuristic jazzy beats. Kraak & Smaak? Is this some new high-class drugs combo I’ve never heard of before? While we’re sure they get the double meaning it actually translates as…

Marshall Jefferson set for Byblos, Glasgow

Dance music sounded very different before Marshall Jefferson got his hands on it. In 1986, Jefferson played piano over a 4/4 beat for the first time and was told by record companies that the sound just didn’t work. The next year he produced ‘Acid Trax…

The final Kinky Afro

The techno night waves a fond farewell

Kinky Afro’s promoter Matthew Bennett, aka Mr Mafro, is on his mobile phone in a field on the Isle of Wight, the sounds of Bestival pounding out around him. For the moment, though, his heart is in the Sub Club. ‘It’s almost 13 years to the day since I…

Hitlist: Clubs

Cabaret Voltaire’s Alternative Freshers Week, Kinky Afro, Motherfunk, Pinup Nights, Weak at the Knees, Numbers & Fortified, Huntleys and Palmers Audio Club, Compact Disco, Streetrave 20th Birthday Party

Cabaret Voltaire’s Alternative Freshers Week

So you’re a new student in the fair town of Edinburgh and not quite sure what club nights are worth going to. Well fear not young fresher, Cabaret Voltaire has assembled all their best nights for a full week of house, drum & bass, indie, electro and…

Skream

Numbers and Fortified join forces to unleash the dubstep anarchy of Croyden’s finest Skream on the crowds at the Subbie. One of the earliest and most respected pioneers of the genre, he mixes jazzy complexity and house rhythms with juddering bass and…

A guide to the best clubs in Scotland

It’s not that we want to make Edinburgh feel inferior, but Glasgow is pretty much recognised as the most vibrant city in the UK after dark, behind London. Sure, your student days aren’t complete without a stagger alongside Sauchiehall Street every now…

Fresher's week club nights

An evening's entertainment for student sorts

Although Edinburghers might not notice it quite so much thanks to their fancy festival throughout the month of August, the clubbing scene does tend to go into a state of semi-hibernation over the summer. And there’s one over-riding reason you just can’t…

The Psychedelic Ballroom

Introducing the best new club nights in town.

Residents: Glasgow band The Balladeers: Jackson Scott (guitar and vocals), Gav Troon (bass), Ruaraidh Macleod (drums) and Sean Fitzharris (keyboards, violin). They’ll be playing a set and DJing afterwards. Guests: For this debut night it’s…

Clubs hitlist

JakN & Cause It, Kapital, Ballers Social Second Birthday Party, Wrong Island, Death Disco, Fortified, Wire, Killer Kitsch

Phil Kieran

Two techno clubs celebrate their birthday this fortnight. Glasgow’s Shift reach their third while Edinburgh’s Compakt hit their all important first anniversary, and both nights have decided Belfast boy Phil Kieran would be the perfect guest to help them…

Eddie Halliwell, Sander van Doorn and Judge Jules set for Parklife

It may well be the dying embers of summer, but there’s still time for one last hoorah as Parklife lays its claim as the last dance music festival in Scotland this year. Returning for a second year of trance, hardstyle and commercial dance the festival…

Ballers Social Second Birthday Party

Spend two days in the company of Ballers and LuckyMe as they celebrate their second birthday. And it’s a bumper line-up of warped hip hop, leftfield dubstep and wonky electronica featuring the likes of Jamie Vex’d (live), Darkstar, Rustie and The…

Nathan Fake returns to Kapital

Nathan Fake returns to Kapital this month to showcase his new album Hard Islands. Signed to James Holden’s Border Community, Fake will be putting in a live (or ‘a laptop with some controllers and shit,’ as he describes it) set of melodic techno and…

Two Tribes: Xplicit and Musika

The two big club events bringing the festival to a suitable climax

The closing weekend of the Festival Fringe has become a traditional highlight in Edinburgh’s clubbing calendar. And this year doesn’t disappoint, with dates from Vegas!, Optimo, Tackno, Taste and more across the bank holiday weekend, but it’s two…

Twisted and Brainfire: Ten Years

Despite not being the most critically-acclaimed genre, hardcore has a long history of popularity in Scotland, and a still-strong fanbase. Possibly the style’s biggest monthly parties in the country are run by Glasgow-based promoters Alan Robertson and…

Alter Ego

Profile of the German dance duo

Name: Alter Ego Also known as: German duo Roman Flugel and Jorn Elling Wuttke. Occupation: ‘The Pet Shop Boys of techno’, asserts their MySpace. It’s hard to argue. Where did they come from? Longstanding legends of the German techno scene in all its…

Hitlist: Clubs

Where to go and what to dance to this week

David Holmes, Modern Lovers, Elextric Frog Street Carnival, Million Dollar Disco, Club For Heroes, Eyes Wide Open, Tokyoblu, Melting Pot, Second CIty

Electric Frog Street Carnival

The Notting HIll spirit comes to Glasgow

‘The Street Carnival came about from us deciding that we’re the north’s version of the Nottinghill Carnival in London,’ explains Jack Revell, aka Numbers DJ Jackmaster and one of the people behind The Electric Frog Street Carnival, a new all day event…

Tokyoblu

The Tokyoblu live band say goodbye in style

After four years the Tokyoblu live band will be saying a final goodbye. Their funked up house, electro grooves and disco rhythms have been heard from T in the Park to V Festival alongside their residency at the Cab. ‘To mark this last gig we will be…

Richie Hawtin

The Detroit techno man plays Glasgow

Despite hailing from Oxfordshire via Canada, Richie Hawtin was part of the second wave of Detroit techno innovators, his Plus 8 label and Plastikman alter-ego helped set the ground work for the minimal scene. He’s slayed the Slam Tent at T in the Park…

Bongo Club Cabaret

Seduction, celebration and imagination

Beginning with American roots folk straight from the Bible Belt (though without the morals), the Bongo Club has created a cabaret of seduction, celebration and imagination. Thoughts that variety is dead are dispelled by ingenious performances from the…

Bloody Beetroots

Expressionless fright masks and slaying dancefloor electronica at Death Disco

On the backstreets of Bassano del Grappa, in northern Italy, an ungodly experiment took place. Elements of Slayer and Daft Punk were fused together to produce the mutant progeny that is Bloody Beetroots, a vicious electro duo whose music hits like a…

Top 5 Things To Do This Week

Bloody Beetroot (clubs), Inglourious Basterds (film), Emergent Artists (Visual Art), Soulsavers (music), Christopher Brookmyre (books)