Clubbing Highlights – August 2012

Festival madness descends once more upon the clubs of the capital, a joyful time when sleeping patterns lose all regularity thanks to Edinburgh’s 5am late license which, by the time September arrives, will have you longing for a place that keeps you out so late you will need sunglasses to walk home. Cabaret Voltaire’s festival closing party on Sat 1 Sep will be rocking the global club night for one of France’s biggest dance labels Kitsuné. London duo Punks Jump Up had previous dropped a number of spanking hot remixes before releasing their own joyfully daft Blockhead, while Jerry Bouthier is a regular resident for Kitsuné’s operations on both sides of the channel. This will be the only sensible way to get over the post-festival hangover which will be in the post for us all.

Fifty years of Jamaican independence is being celebrated on Jamaica Street all bank holiday weekend long as MacSorleys features over 30 artists over four days, including a soundsystem battle between Samson Sounds and Jumble Sales Sounds as well as sets from Chungo Bungo amongst others. Sat 4 Aug sees the festival’s main event in the shape of genuine reggae legend and star Cornel Campbell, whose career first began before his homeland broke free of British rule, performing with support from The Fenomeno Show. i AM keep the independence vibe going on Tue 7 Aug at Sub Club when Chungo Bungo and Greenman spin some real Jamaican sounds.

Erol Alkan, who makes his Sub Club debut on Fri 31 Aug, seems to have such a precise knowledge of what makes a crowd lose it that he has lost some of his underground appeal, simply because he stays true to his mission statement of keeping kids dancing, even if his label signings reveal a man who is highly-attuned to all kinds of music outside of his perceived comfort zone of grimy electro. Joining him will be Daniel Avery who is all about dark, pulsating funk-propelled techno; his forthcoming Fabriclive mix looks like it may the making of him. For anyone who has a thing for Detroit techno, this is your heaven: La Cheetah Club’s four part Motor City Electronics nights will be showcasing the best of the Detroit electronic music scene with the first installment on Fri 31 Aug welcoming the ‘Godfather of Techno Soul’ Eddie 'Flashin' Fowlkes, who will be delivering a sonic history of the city’s finest techno. As one of a handful of DJs who have been right at the core of the scene for decades, there really are few people better placed to deliver such a set.

We Own are a collective of party engineers and clothing label designers who will be bringing their styles up north for two outings during the festival, the first being an opener at Sneaky Pete’s on Sat 4 Aug with Russ Chimes who will be working his own brand of ever-so-trancey, synth-crazy electro house. On Fri Aug 17 they bring Swedish electro-sleaze-house duo Dada House to a full-on party at Cabaret Voltaire, which will have three rooms bursting with the likes of Aussie Tommy Trash, who has been producing some utterly mind-warping electro of late, with wailing guitar-style synths and basslines as inescapable as tractor beams. Finally, it would be silly not to mention the return of Trouble and Bass founder Drop the Lime on Sun 5 Aug at Sneaky Pete's for a festival opener that will set the agenda for the rest of the month with his eclectic 'anything goes as long as it keeps you dancing' style.