London promoters Colony will set their sound systems rattling for the final time this Saturday, 7th December – they’re calling it a day after five years of operation. Over that time they’ve hosted some of the Quietus’ favourite nights out in the capital, as well as teaming up with us for a mind-and-leg scrambling Colony vs. Quietus party this September just passed. For our eulogising spiel on Colony’s wake, click here, but more to the point, if you’re in London this weekend we’d thoroughly recommend you head across to The Hive Project in Hackney Wick for the final Colony party, featuring Bristol sub-bass architect Peverelist alongside Equinox, Sync 24 and Spaces (plus Colony residents CB and Tengui, as per usual). Full details and tickets can be acquired by clicking here.
In an email citing their reasons for terminating operations, Colony’s organisers stated thus: "Without wanting to go on at great length, it’s just not tenable, for us, to be true to the kind of DIY, anti-brand, anti-bullshit UK soundsystem aesthetic we’ve always valued and to continue to push new music and new ideas, rather than simply fall back on tried-and-tested methods. At least, not in any consistent, enjoyable sense – which is very sad." But more positively, they addd, "of equal, if not more, significance, is the simple fact that we genuinely feel we’ve said what we needed to say, booked (most of) the people we wanted to book, and built exactly the kind of event we always aimed to – both in terms of the smaller, more esoteric nights we’ve put on and the 500+ balls-out, beans-in cane ups we’ve managed to execute over recent times. Quite simply, the project is complete."
It’s become a bit of a tradition for MB and CB to put together an advance-of-night playlist, partly as a means of getting you in the mood if you are heading across to the party, but also just as a way to gathering some great music in one place. (Click here and here for a couple of previous playlists.) So, seeing as this’ll be the final one, they’ve opted to gather a selection of the finest tearjerking bangers and not-so-bangers to make you well up on – and off – the dancefloor. Scroll down the page for a listen…
Chris & Cosey – ‘Walking Through Heaven’
"This could be the most divine piece of EBM-y synth music ever made: raw, driving, laced with pathos and somehow utterly euphoric, too – the ultimate electronic tearjerker. (Our good friend Jonny P takes full credit for putting us onto this once-in-a-lifetime beauty – yes mate!)"
Leyland Kirby – ‘Ready To Go Down Together’
"Blazed post-everything black hole music for weary time travellers/haggard club promoters. The sound of Colony drifting slowly but irreversibly into a giant, intergalactic Hackney council wheelie bin."
Luke Slater – ‘Love (Loved)’
"GO LUKE! This one really is something: a roof-shaking, heart-breaking 90s techno banger which everyone should have played at their funeral, ideally on a large, bassy Funktion-One soundsystem tweaked so as to best precipitate spontaneous, involuntary gurning/dubious side shuffling/totally uncalled-for arse pinching a la this year’s Plex/Colony/BleeD ‘All Stars’ session. Or not."
Conrad Schnitzler – ‘Ballet Statique’
"Hard to believe this lil’ gem first surfaced in 1978, sounding every bit as touching now as it didn’t to us back then (before we were fakkin’ born)… but y’know."
Martyn – ‘We Are You In The Future’
"More simply a banger than a tearjerker (banger), but it has to be in here because (a) it’s one of the best club tracks made in the last ten years or so and (b) makes for a totally annihilating, reese bass-powered trance-meets-‘ardkore set-closer-par-excellence each and every time we deploy it. A true Colony anfem."
Shed – ‘Estrange’
"Sticking with the (post-) rave theme, this Shed classic (released the year we got Colony off the ground) sounds like every comedown ever survived compressed into a single, hulking slab of rain-drenched breakbeat stoicism. Truly exceptional, affecting stuff – the cloud to Martyn’s silver lining."
Photek – ‘124’
"Impossibly deep and melancholy jungle-house stepper from the mighty Photek, reminding one that music made for soundsystems can resonate ever-so-powerfully away from rooms full of hammered people gawking at DJs playing music they’ve just fished off promo engines for £800 p/h + cabs. This is a fucking desert island disc y’all, make no mistake."
Aphex Twin – ‘Analogue Bubblebath’
"This, meanwhile, is THE ONE, THE ONE I SAY. Dismissed."
The Village Orchestra – ‘All The Little Lights Going Out’
"We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: we love TVO. We love him, his music (he’s played for us more than pretty much anyone else over the years, despite being Scottish) and his label(s). And we love his prior incarnation as (the significantly less abbreviated) The Village Orchestra, responsible for this here out-and-out heartstring plucker – 8 minutes of just the lovliest pastoral-but-a-wee-bit-glitchy bedroom techno that never fails to get us welling up like the two biggest pansies this side of Berwick. All hail T(he) V(illage) O(rchestra)!"
The The – ‘Giant’
"Sometimes, twisted 80s anti-anthems are the only way to go, and this, friends, is surely one of the best out there. Treading a fine line between despair and elation, underpinned by a thudding kick and afflicted, early on, by paranoid vocal wailings unfit for the ears of children, ‘Giant’ steadily crescendos with a crushing, crushed sort of aplomb, and with it we, your ‘umblest servants o’ Colony, say: "Thank You And Good Night!"."
