Xplicit: Five Years Ahead

It was early 2005 that Xplicit first made waves at the fondly remembered Honeycomb. A turnout more resembling a sweat-drenched asylum than a club night’s debut signaled that the nascent Xplicit was responding to a unanimous demand (not only in Edinburgh but all over Scotland) for “massive rave type line-ups”. Promoter Simon has lofty expectations when it comes to scale “I wanted to have line ups like London or as realistically close as you could get, being in Scotland. Basically dream line ups”.

No wonder, then, that with merely a year under its belt, Xplicit came third in Scottish club of the year in '06, with followers all over Scotland, from Aberdeen to the Borders. Highlights of the last few years include “hosting Xtrabass Live on BBC radio 1 in Edinburgh and Glasgow in 2006 and 2007, selling out at the Arches with Pendulum LIVE's debut tour…"and the camo netting collapsing at a sellout event at the Venue, catching all the crowd like a mousetrap over half the dance floor and security trying to get it off!”

Mayhem has become part of the night’s identity. The third birthday at mammoth venue Potterow culminated in the guests crowd surfing en masse. The seeds for what has become an enduring professional relationship were sown the night of Noisia’s first appearance at the Bongo Club- the vibe staggered the Dutch boys, who have since enthused that Xplicit is their favourite event to play.

Half a decade has passed, and Xplicit’s repute and repertoire has become what it always promised to be. A star-studded roster which has gathered artists as diverse as Bad Company, LTJ Bukem, Randall, Alix Perez and Pendulum is demonstrative of the resolve to cover “every area evenly from jump up to liquid to techstep”. And whilst the club’s roots remain resolutely drum 'n' bass, the likes of Foreign Beggars, DJ Yoda and Skream appearing in context of such a night keeps things exciting.

To commemorate the fifth birthday, DJ Friction returns to Edinburgh on three decks, alongside Dillinja, Spor and SP: MC, plus Xplicit’s long-time residents ENO, Paul Reset, Morphy MC Tonn Piper and MC BZ. Friction and SP:MC are affiliated through Shogun Recordings, having toured together. On top his colossal reputation as an MC, SP:MC has produced some captivating Loefah-esque dubstep these last few years. Friction is a notoriously dextrous turntablist, and his attention-deficit sets take you soaring through music history. Emotive nostalgia metamorphosises into bullying charisma in these collages, jungle basslines thrusting under liquidy midsections, hip hop cuts, and so on. Co- founder of Valve Soundsystem and Recordings, Dillinja is a prolific/compulsive producer with over 500 tracks so far. Look forward to iron plated tech beats, filthy basslines and stomach-churning drops aplenty. Spor’s rich, IDM-tinged productions are intense and physical, uniting meticulous, sometimes delicate, execution with the sound of dark matter and tortured machinery. With support from the slick Xplicit cohort, this line up appears at a glance to be as good as it gets. But it’s just the beginning. Simon says he is “really excited about 2010. I feel over January to June we have the biggest line up of acts we have ever had. We have fourteen guests coming up between the end of January and Mid March. And we are looking into bigger events…”