Clubbing Highlights - April

Electro-house has long been fair game for music journalists. With a few notable exceptions, the genre's short spell at the Zeitgeist of things owed much to its sheer, singular loudness, making its transition from big-time Charlie to scurrying prey that much faster. But, without wishing to exhume a corpse that was neither loved nor greatly missed, one fears that the bloodhounds might yet be exercised by the return of one of electro-house's more celebrated exponents, Justice. While there isn't the space for a thorough dissection of their long-awaited single, Civilisation, it would suffice to say that it isn't much cop. And that's a shame, because there are many other pellet-riddled, side-chained remains we'd sooner see splayed out on a cold slab.

That said, one of the aforementioned notable exceptions has reasonable claim to represent all that was right with 2006. On the back of his new album Mosaik, a commendable longplayer released via Monkeytown Records, an appointment to see Siriusmo alongside Jackmaster, Spencer, and Modeselektor at The Arches on Fri 29 Apr comes highly recommended.

Elsewhere, Optimo's Hung Up! welcomes Oneohtrix Point Never to the Sub Club on Sun 10 April. Daniel Lopatin's meditative take on techno and krautrock calls to mind the sort of ethereal textures last exercised by The Knife and Luke Abbot, though Lopatin's hisses and frequency distortions will find company in a sprinkling of 4/4 alongside GAMES, one of his more dancefloor-oriented side projects. Jimmy Edgar's irrepressible blend of post-Prince funk and Leisure Suit Larry electro finds a home at Hung Up! two weeks later on Sun 24 April.

After inviting Hyperdub's Cooly G to Edinburgh last month, Ultragroove continues to broaden its palette on Sat 16 Apr with a Prime Numbers special at Cabaret Voltaire. While Linkwood and Fudge Fingas make mutual overtures to soulful house, Fudge Fingas's luxuriant swells of mellow, Moodymann-evoking rhythms are offset nicely by Linkwood's more industrial compositions, marrying metallic 80s synths and Mega Drive bleeps to substantial melodic undercurrents.

Our 'Hot Ticket of the Month' Mount Kimbie find themselves at Wonky in the Bongo Club on Fri 22 April. Kai Campos and Dom Maker curate a melange of hollowed-out dubstep, house and broken beat that appeals to shoegazers and grooveheads in equal measure, and has a wider appeal than the 'post-dubstep' tag sometimes ascribed to them might suggest.

Despite a two decade career at the hub of Amsterdam techno ecology, 2000 and One remains a low-key figure. A notable mix for the Voltt series, featuring tracks from David Labeij and Luciano, should serve as a decent primer if you find yourself swithering over his date alongside Circus ringleader Yousef at Musika in the Liquid Room on Sat 9 April.

Loco Dice's appointment at Sensu in Sub Club on Fri 15 Apr should induce no such hesitation. The Düsseldorf DJ's hip-hop origins, though often overstated as a direct influence, do at least transpose onto his innate understanding of the rhythmic relationships between techno, house and everything else in between. The following evening, Deadly Rhythm host a must-see date with Instra:mental, after pulling in the impressive 2562/A Made Up Sound for their inaugural night at La Cheetah last month.