Clubbing Highlights – November, 2010

November’s a bit pointless, isn’t it. It lingers in the festive limbo between Halloween and Christmas like an uninvited guest, flicking ash on the carpet and twirling a terrible ‘charity’ moustache, starting most sentences with “As an artist”. We can’t make much of a case for bonfire night either. Fireworks stop being fun and interesting once you’ve reached a certain age. Like six. So it’s left to us to find good reasons to justify November’s otherwise arbitrary inclusion in the Gregorian calendar.

One of the best ones belongs to Glasgow dance music collective Numbers, who are set to have a very good November indeed. Following last month’s launch of their bi-monthly Numbers night at Sneaky Pete’s (which was, let us assure you, heavin’), 5 Nov sees them curate the bass-loving triumvirate of Joker, James Blake and Girl Unit back in the Sub Club for some after-hours fun. Numbers will also hit Berghain in Berlin on 10 Dec with an all-star cast: Hudson Mohawke, Rustie, Untold, Redinho, Jackmaster, Spencer and N>E>D. Said cast will arrive accompanied by gunfire, bling and slow-mo explosions (but not your silly fireworks, November), because this lineup is a Big Deal.

Back in Edinburgh, Green Velvet (you may know him better under his Cajmere moniker) drops by Cabaret Voltaire on 13 Nov to headline Pulse’s 1st birthday. He’ll join Pulse regulars Darrell Harding, Andy Problems and Ritchie Bryson for an epic session of highbrow Chicago house music. Diplo-approved wonk factory Rusko arrives at the same venue a mere 48 hours later on 15 Nov.

Sneaky Pete’s hosts an altogether less wobbly affair. Alex Egan of Astronomer and Skulljuice fame brings his remixing skills (The XX, Joakim, Silver Columns, Micachu) and lovely hair (just sayin') to the 100-capacity venue for Playdate on 27 Nov. While very much in the Kitsune mixtape mould (interpret that caveat how you like), Egan’s eclectic range of electro, pop and disco means that his record bag should swell with crowd pleasers.

Same goes for Affi Koman’s slot at TicTacToe on 13 Nov. Expect a superior selection of techno and house, and probably some tech-house too (since electronic music folks enjoy a good portmanteau so much) from the Sunday Circus regular. Some big names are getting themselves about at The Arches this month – Fake Blood (6 Nov) and Booka Shade (25 Nov) being amongst the better ones – but a trip to Koman would be a seriously good call on your part.

That brings us nicely onto Detroit house veteran Terrence Parker. Parker has been at the hub of Detroit house and gospel house music for the last three decades. He’s done loads and loads of valuable and noteworthy stuff, all of which is exhaustively catalogued on his website, which serves as a fairly accurate homage to how BBC News at 10 will look once the Treasury has a swing at it with Geocities and a bottle of PVA glue. Best of all, Parker uses a telephone handset as a monitor. What’s not to like? Catch him at Subculture on 27 Nov.

Return To Mono will feature Slam and Maetrik slathering thick gloops of techno filth-sweat onto your furrowed brows at Subclub on 11 Nov. Maetrik, real name Eric Estornel, has links with Claude VonStroke via the latter’s Mothership label and a variety of other established European techno and house imprints.

Finally, get your OMGs and emoticons out for Matthew Dear as he does the double on the 4 and 5 Dec at Stereo (Glasgow) and Sneaky Pete’s (Edinburgh) respectively. So it’s not ‘til December – I think we’ve established why November doesn’t get the last word here.