Clubbing Highlights - September 2012

The Ashton Weekender is like a Spotifyied version of a music festivals where the initial cost is extremely low (or in this case, free) and you are served up a cavalcade of exciting new bands and DJs interspersed with a sprinkling of big hitters. The only catch is that they want the punters who stream in over the three days to hang around for a good long while to make the tills ring happily into the night, which does not seem like a catch at all. Spread across three participating venues, The Grosvenor Cafe, The Lane and Nude between 21 to 23 Sept will be all manner of musical delights that will serve as a reminder to the diversity of the Scottish music scene and DJs are right at the heart of the festivities, with Optimo headlining and with Animal Farm, Bunty Beats and Hushpuppy also unleashing sets. We have a feeling you'll want to hang around. 

La Cheetah Club continue with their schooling of your asses in the subject area of Detroit techno with their Motor City Electronics series. This second night covering Detroit electro on Fri 28 Sept will feature Keith Tucker, otherwise known as K-1, Optic Nerve and one half of electro group AUX-88. Tucker spent his formative DJing years not just on the ground in the city that spawned techno but in its underground clubs where the scene was developing and mutating. His back history is that of a man who has not just lived and breathed every aspect of that music from playing in techno cover bands to releasing his own records and forming AUX-88 with Tommy Hamilton, which sealed both their reputations when techno went global. 

Compakt celebrate their forth year in the business of making you forget about everything else but the music on Fri 21 Sept at The Annex when the exuberant presence that is Gary Beck of Drumcode and Soma takes control of the reigns and manages to launch his album at the same time. It goes without saying that Beck is ultra-high demand at the moment, what with his debut release also marking Soma’s 100th, with the label now concentrating on its third decade of releases. i AM also have something to mark as the second anniversary of their revivification of Tuesdays nights continues, and they have some rather special guests appearing at Sub Club on Tue 18 Sept in the form of Artful Dodger. A group who helped defined the sound of a whole period of British dance music, MC Alistair and DJ/producer Dave Low will no doubt be dropping some of their classics whilst handing out their birthday mixtape to the first 200 through the door. 

CAUSE IT having a very special guest in the shape of Utrecht techno master Invite ready to be let loose on The Annex on Fri 7 Sept for his Scottish debut, which will also be raising funds for Macmillan Cancer Support in Edinburgh. With techno support dealt out from Foxtrot and The Apprentice, this is shaping up to be a night of the most thumping beats to be found in the city. Finally, Claude Von Stroke rocks up in Glasgow for what is bound to be a night of ridiculous sessions of bouncing dance madness at Sub Club on Fri 28 Sept. The Whistler and Who’s Afraid of Detroit? may have been released a few years back now but they still define the signature manic energy that is the essence of his party style. With Mia Dora in support this will literally cause you embarrassment should you contrive to miss it.