I’m going back to a shoot I did a few months a go. A Belfast-based record label (DSNT) got in touch with me about shooting one of their artists who was based in Manchester. We worked some things out and eventually I got in touch with the artist, Deadsound, to organise it. It was a great coincidence when it turned out he lived on the same road as me, just a few doors down!

Check this mix from my man:

In organising the shoot, we decided on using the derelict basement of Paul Deadsound’s building, it seemed to be well suited to the dark industrial sound of the techno that he produces. I went round on a wet Saturday afternoon and surveyed the space – it was nice and empty and ripe for shooting in! Over a brew we got to know each other and looked through some images of other artists that he liked. There were quite a few images with distorted, blurred or invisible faces, and ‘ghostly’ images from longer shutter speeds. I thought we should use this style – without any photoshop trickery – by having Paul standing (or sitting) still whilst shaking his head, and using a slightly longer shutter speed (camera on a tripod).

We went down to the basement and started off, messing about with some of the different lights and combining them with some off camera flash to light up the background. Eventually we ended up with a few different shots  that I was happy with – we captured the dark and desolate mood which Deadsound conjures up so well in his music and were able to be a little more creative than doing the standard, boring, ‘man stood against wall’ press shot.

Real electronic music fans had quite a selection depending on their tastes; Hideout, Soundwave, Outlook, Dimensions and more ensured there was a reason for everyone to get a ‘HRVATSKA’ stamp in their passport.

I was lucky enough to make a couple of trips their, the first one was for Hideout 2012. A huge festival of varied dance music, ranging from the deepest house through to full on drum & bass, on a beach littered with outstanding open air venues and state of the art soundsystems. I was shooting for the organisers and had one of the best weeks I can remember. I’d recommend Hideout for anyone, but mainly for the people into the big brash side of dance music, think more Radio 1 than pirate radio. Unfortunately this year’s has already sold out! I did this review for Example Magazine if you’d like to see what you’re missing!

Following on from there my next trip to the Adriatic was on the other side of summer, where the Northern coastline of Croatia hosted Outlook and Dimensions festivals over consecutive weekends. Literally more off-the-beaten-track than Hideout; Outlook takes place in and around an abandoned sea fort, which leads to some of the most unique festival arenas you are ever likely to see and the organiser’s attention to detail ensures the sound quality is top notch across all the stages. I can truly say there is nowhere on Earth quite like it. Outlook’s musical direction takes it slightly more underground than Hideout, concentrating on the bassier side of things with the cream of the dubstep, D&B and reggae worlds all featuring heavily. Unfortuately, for all it’s plus sides it has gotten quite large in the past years and has lost some of the intimacy for which it was so famous. Last year there was increasing queueing and bottlenecking of crowds and, as a personal aside, access for photographers was shockingly bad, with most security unable of unwilling to help out. I did a full rambling review here!

After the weekend of Outlook my wish for fewer crowds was granted by the first ever Dimensions Festival. Taking place on the same site but losing the two huge ‘main stages’ and keeping all the entertainment up at the fort led to a much more intimate feel, although there were still the inevitable queues for the popular acts due to the limited capacities of each arena. The acts here were even further underground, drawing from the deepest corners of bass music, techno and house. The crowd was a lot friendlier and more mature and altogether it was a massive success. There’s a review with more thoughts here!

As for 2013, there’s still plenty of reasons to head to Croatia, the latest lineups for Outlook and Dimensions have just been released and look mighty tasty, there’s also the matter of Soundwave Festival – one for the more hip-hop / downtempo orientated amongst you – and a new festival from the organisers of Hideout, Unknown!

40 Tracks going through many genres and tempos. Give it a go! Oh and pls download & share if you care for it

The tracklisting is as follows:

Frameworks – Vanish ft Sabira Jade
Versa & Rowl – Jupiter
Arnaldo – A Song Name of One Word
Daughter – Love (Synkro Edit)
Fantastic Mr Fox – Power
Mr Scruff – Nervous Energy
Alex Coulton – Bounce
Stickman – Nappy Heads
Trevino – Tactical Manoeuvre
AnD – 001
XXXY – Everything
Chunky – Thang
Elsewhere – Trippin
Akkord – Renewal
Stickman – The Verge
Szare – Red Desert
Indigo – Kali
Illum Sphere – H808er
Chunky – Rugged
Akkord – Back & Forth
Swing Ting ft. Fox – Head Gone
Sleepin Giantz ft. Fox – Kerosine
Virus Syndicate & North Base – Home
Chimpo & Trigga – Gaza (Dub Phizix Remix)
Biome – Shaman
Mavado – Dem a Talk (Compa Remix)
The Eyes – Harder
Lone ft. Machinedrum – As a Child
Frameworks & Blurum13 – They Told Me (Neko Neko Remix)
Kydro ft. Dubbul O – Spooky Caravan
Skittles – In For Me
The Mouse Outfit ft. Sparkz – Shak Out
Marcus Intalex – The Guillotine
Dub Phizix & Skeptical ft. T-Man – Run it like the President
Spectrasoul ft. Fox – Shackles
Dub Phizix ft. Fox – Never Been
MC DRS ft. Skittles, Strategy, Fox, Rolla, Chimpo, Konny Kon & T-Man – Bun Ya
Indigo – Symbol 7.1
MC DRS ft. Enei – Count to Ten
Synkro – Progression

It feels almost cliche to say that, but it  really does live up to every expectation. The huge imposing power station on the East-side of town is a perfect looking venue for such a legend and getting in is not like wandering up to Fabric!

 
My visit to Berlin was primarily to see the Festival of Lights, however, shortly after my girlfriend and I had booked to go my thoughts turned to nightlife! I read many articles about Berlin and the resounding theme was that Berghain was some kind of holy land for clubbers, and that it was notoriously difficult to get in to. I read many articles ‘How to get into Berghain’, ‘What to Wear to get into Berghain’ etc. and came away with some decent ideas, essentially boiling down to two rules I follow throughout life:

• Don’t be a dick
• Don’t fuck about

It went a little deeper in that we tried to dress a bit ‘cooler’ than you would perhaps for a Warehouse Project, and by that I mean German cool, not Northern Quarter / Shoreditch cool (ie, twattish), so think dark clothing, minimalist styles etc. In my case this was a black ‘Estate Recordings” tee, some jeans and some black shoes I had (not trainers but not ‘work’ shoes ). All rendered virtually irrelevant by the long black coat and scarf I had on (not for ‘cool points’ but because it was freezing cold!). My girlfriend had a lovely simple black dress, tights and black boots, and again, coat and scarf.

Research had firmly advised that the time you go can have a distinct impact on your chances of getting in, we were advised to avoid arriving at the peak hours of 2-4am and either leave it later or earlier. Having spent the day trekking around the city and definitely past the point of any kind of all-nighter, we chose the early option. Although I wanted to experience the place, we weren’t quite in the mood for a 30-hour rave!

We wandered up there just before 1am, unaware of our bearings we approached from the wrong side, walking across some wasteland around the side before finally catching view of the queue. It was already significantly long and was growing by the minute. Our approach took us right by the entrance and we walked past disappointed punters who had just been turned away. ‘They looked harmless enough’,  I thought, ‘Maybe it was that lads baseball cap.’ We wandered down to the back of the queue, eyeing up those who would get to try their luck first.

After about an hour of waiting politely and silently (another tip: stay quiet in the queue – anyone being animated or rowdy was quickly turned away at the door), staring up a the stray flashes of light popping out from the windows, and making sure we were obviously separate from the loud Italian guy chatting up girls behind us, we neared the bouncers. Everyone in the line had a careful eye on who was getting in/who wasn’t but there didn’t seem to be any discernible pattern, some people looked a definite candidate and were dismissed, others seemed too brash but were waved in through the doors.

We reached the front next to an intimidating giant of a man who looked us up and down. Another thing drawn from previous reading was to try to look as if you don’t care whether you get in or not, no matter how nervous you’re feeling. Its one thing to read that and quite another to put it into practice as you stand there and have a huge tattooed bouncer make a judgement as to whether you have just wasted that hour-and-a-bit in their queue!

‘Zwei?’ the bouncer addressed us. Luckily my GCSE German and my girlfriend’s knowledge of Rammstein tunes meant we both knew what was being asked. ‘Ja, zwei.’ I responded, and just like that, we were waved in the doors. Needless to say my smug levels went into overload once inside.

Entering the cavernous hallway we checked our coats and wandered up the stairs to the main dancefloor. The first thing that struck me was it was a lot smaller than I envisioned, maybe the size of Fabric’s main room. The second thing was how amazing the venue looked, all steel and industrial with chains hanging down and pipes running across the wall. Although a club for years, the disused power station appeared like it could have been decommissioned the week before. This concrete interior was also perfect for the hard-as-fuck techno which was coming from the Funktion1 soundsystem, a system which was incredibly clear for such a high roofed room, obviously fidelity means a lot to these guys.

We got a drink and took a seat on a huge hanging wooden platform and took in the scenery. Having paid just 15 euros for entry and now about £6 for a couple of drinks, I was also pretty astonished at not being ripped off left-right and centre, as is so common in UK clubs, definitely a refreshing change! The club was still in the process of filling up and was pretty empty however there was still enough of an atmosphere to get excited. We made our way up to the second space, PanoramaBar which employs more house based leanings than big brother Berghain. It was fuller and more vibrant than the main space, with deeper house grooves filling the air. Clearly this was the spot to warm up before going in on the serious techno!

Hours seem to pass by like minutes in Berghain, a little dance here and there, another drink, a cheeky look out of the PanoramaBar windows at the people still queuing outside and it was 5am. By this time we had progressed back down into the dungeonous main room where things were really getting going. The kick drums were pounding, the room nicely full yet there was still plenty of room to dance – no sardine situations like many UK gigs and festivals. There were guys dancing round in latex underwear, this was originally a gay club of course and most people were having the time of their lives, and that’s where the true nature of Berghain really came to me:

It was a gay club that opened it’s doors to everyone else, they have a large number of regulars who come to indulge in whatever hedonism they wish, and they want to do that without being made to feel like a spectacle. I think it is that, more than anything, which drives the club’s door policy; they only want to let in outside people who will ‘get-it’ and not freak out when a large leather-clad German man is dancing next to them. They are looking after their locals rather than their wallets, and that, I think, is extremely commendable.

We left around 5.30am, a pretty poor showing considering the first warm-up DJ was on until 5am and Berghain’s Saturday nights famously go on until Monday morning – indeed Julio Bashmore, who was on the lineup for ‘Saturday’, didn’t have a set until 6pm on Sunday evening! However it was more than enough time there to give me a taste, and cement it in my mind as the best club I have reached. We didn’t go to Berlin to spend the whole time in Berghain, however my next trip there will be a different matter entirely!

John Talabot’s superb remix of The xx, with a lick of Nero in for good measure

Exit Records smashed it with every release this year, this banger from Fracture was no exception!

Om Unit found a niche with superb half time D&B cuts – an outstanding producer

Mancunian Hip Hop from the Mouse Outfit, Sparkz & Dubbul-O put the American scene to shame

Boddika and Swamp 81 continued the acid revival. Old school house with a 2012 bassy twist.

You can’t fail to smile at XXXY’s Everything, a summer smash to follow on from 2011′s Ordinary Things.

Dusky emerged with a bang. This tune was in my head for about 4 months.

Rudimental turned up and everyone noticed when Zane Lowe backed ‘Feel the Love’ but this beautiful house number from a few months before went unacclaimed – and it’s much better.

Mindset Records stood out from most, with many forward-thinking releases from new producers – cutting edge bass music.

Akkord turned up and wowed everyone with a seamless blend of techno, dubstep and bass. If only we knew who they were!

Curiously Strawberry: Cereal of the Year 2012

Anyone who knows me very well will know I am a little bit of a connoisseur when it comes to cereal. Mainly stemming from being an extremely fussy eater as a child and cereal being one of the few things I would actually eat without shouting, screaming or distributing most of it on the kitchen floor.

I’m always keen to try new cereals when I see them, although it’s harder and harder to find something truly new and original these days. This year has seen some very good additions to the supermarket shelves, I was very impressed with Lion Cereal (from the makers of Lion Bars) which is a sugar junkie’s wet dream, and I have to give a special commendation to the UK reissue of the transatlantic favourite Froot Loops. However my overwhelming favourite has to be this new twist on the Graham classic.

Following Golden Grahams and Cinnamin Grahams, some genius decided to reflavour their little wheat squares with what is essentially powdered strawberry milkshake. It led to a taste sensation. One which defied the monopoly of sugar and chocolate to give us something refreshingly different.

I urge you to try them, just don’t come round to my place – I’m not sharing.

In earlier social media discussion, the Selective guys had said Objekt was coming straight from a big Techno event in Belgium and he would be bringing a bag of hard techno records with him. This displeased me as I had always stated a dislike of Techno music. In 2011 I had been swayed away from D&B by the styles of Swamp81 and similar labels but I still considered myself as a heavy bass fan (‘We’ll have no 4/4 here, thank you’). When Objekt started the first thing I noticed was he was using vinyl records alongside his Serato setup, which increased my respect right off the bat. I popped of some shots of him and settled back on the stage to check the sounds. It wasn’t long before my head was nodding intently and I started moving more and more. He was obviously mixing records but it was so seamless it sounded as one track, progressing and moving, increasing the energy levels of the crowd. It was maybe an hour or so into his 2 hour set when there was a breakdown in the music, as it built up again a heavy distorted kick drum pounded back into action and my hand leapt into the air. I had two immediate thoughts:

• That is seriously fucking heavy
• I guess this means I like Techno now

and that, as they say, is history. As it turned out Addison Groove was really late and I didn’t have time to see more than 5 minutes of his set, but that didn’t matter thanks to what had come before. Further into 2012 I revisited Selective Hearing many times, checking the sounds of Karenn, Akkord, Marcell Dettman and Levon Vincent (amongst many others). My musical tastes have broadened even more considerably and the spread of 130(ish) bpm music now dominates my listening time and nights out. I’ve still got the softest of spots for Jungle, but I’m glad I can spread myself further nowadays!