The hour is almost upon us! Following on from this month’s riotously enjoyable Five Years Of The Quietus party, we’ve been awaiting tomorrow evening, when we’re teaming up with some of our favourite London promoters Colony for a night of further dancefloor treats. Colony vs. The Quietus takes place tomorrow, Friday 27th September, at The Hive Project, aka Yard Theatre, Hackney, E9 5EN. Tickets are £8 adv or £10 on the door, and can still be purchased by clicking here.
For the night we’ve brought together a selection of dance music that’s among the most exciting and forward-thinking currently around – this is the kind of stuff you’ll be hearing about in years to come. Heading up the bill is Mark Fell, glitch pioneer as one half of SND turned solo maestro, with the London debut of his genre-bending and sense-dazzling Sensate Focus project. We’ve been itching to see him blast this material out on a dancefloor, and now it’s happening: on THP’s peachy Funktion-Ones, expect razor-wire two-step, shimmering house reductions and scrambled funk to tie your legs, minds and nervous systems in knots.
Also on the bill is Beneath – London’s purveyor of grimey, bare-bones sub-bass pressure, who pinpoints a chest-rattling sweet spot between ’05-’08 dubstep, techno and the undulating, grimey grooves of early UK funky – and Glasgow’s finest and Broken20 co-head TVO. The bill is completed by Factory Floor’s Dom Butler, fresh from the release of the trio’s debut album, who’ll be bringing a set of hypnotic FF-esque modular techno demolitions. Alongside will be Colony’s Tengui and MB & CB, and the Quietus’ Rory Gibb. It promises to be an excellent evening.
In advance of the night, and in the spirit of previous events, we thought we’d ask our participants to each contribute an entry to our Colony vs. Quietus playlist. So here it is – a varied selection of ice-blasting techno, industrial weirdness and unmitigated dancefloor bangers, chosen by tomorrow night’s players,
Tengui picks Pan Sonic – ‘Teurastamo’
"Noise(y) techno from Finland c. 1997. Best suited for blasting ice off large objects/razing soundsystems." – Tengui
TVO picks Liima – ‘Version 3’
"Mika is the one that gets the most of the love, but i’m #teamVaisanen all the way. Massively under-rated, and anticipating a wealth of weird, slow, abstract, alien music." – TVO
Luke Turner picks Diamond Version – ‘Forever New Frontiers’
"…speaking of which, Diamond Version have been one of The Quietus’ favourite new outfits of the past few years. Alva Noto and Byetone take Pansonic’s brittleness and re-engineer it into something witty and sensual. Music by the kind of gents who look and sound like they spend hundreds of Euros on coffee grinders that use technology that evolved from a space programme cannot be a bad thing." – Luke Turner
Beneath picks Calenda – ‘Forever’
"At the last Colony, Kowton finished his set with ‘Root’ by Loefah. The next time I saw him, I thanked him for playing it on Corsica’s Room 2 system, and he said that he was thinking about also ending his set with ‘Forever’ by Calenda, which I had shamefully forgotten about. Anyway, I stole his idea and finished with it at Outlook a few weeks later. I will never forget this tune again." – Beneath
Rory Gibb picks Apple – ‘Mr. Bean’
"Back in 2007 and 2008, a run of killer UK funky 12"s marked both the explosive beginning and, to be honest, the never-bettered high-point for the style. Apple’s ‘Mr. Bean’, a grime-encrusted, punishingly heavy and ludicrously simple beast of a track, remains one of my absolute favourites, a dancefloor killer and a genre classic. I’m still kicking myself for managing to lose my white label copy of this a year or so ago, but I’m having one more go at trying to re-find it before Colony vs. The Quietus – and if I do, you can bet it’ll get a late-night airing." – Rory Gibb
Mark Fell picks Monte Cazazza – ‘Distress’
"I’m really into Monte Cazazza." – Mark Fell
MB picks Janet Rushmore – Joy (Kaoz Gone Insane)
"Jacking things up a touch, here’s a ’94 garage-house banger from the man like Kerri Chandler. One of my favourite back-o’-the-crate finds of recent times (only a quid, I think!)" – MB
CB picks Dexorcist – ‘Don’t Come Cryin”
"London electro/bass don (and all round top geezah) Simon Brown aka Dexorcist delivers a quintessential slice of classicist ‘ardkore, craftily updated for 2013 sensibilities. Breakbeats, overdriven square bass stabs + crowd chants = a certified recipe for success. Throw in some euphoric sunrise chords (potent enough to get the most jaded raver buzzin ’92 style) and you’ve got a genuine smasher on your hands." – CB
TVO picks Gene Hunt – ‘Living In A Land (Mix 1)’
"Slow and looooow… This tune always makes me think of Colony for some reason, even though I’ve never heard it played there. Maybe it just encapsulates lots of the good deeds they’ve done over the years. This is pretty much the perfect acid record, for me." – TVO
Rory Gibb picks Sensate Focus – ‘2.5 X’
"Gotta be done… It’s tough to pick a single tune from Mark Fell’s Sensate Focus catalogue as they’re all equally scrambled-yet-irresistible dancefloor puzzles. This might be my favourite though – by Fell and snd’s Mat Steel, it spin-cycles jungle and techno into a sweat-soaked perpetual climax." – Rory Gibb
Luke Turner picks Chris & Cosey – ‘Re-education Through Labour’
"Noise Pop Sex Dancing Progress Intent… there are few in electronic music who come close to the purity of Chris & Cosey." – Luke Turner
Colony vs The Quietus takes place at Hive Project, the Yard Theatre, Hackney Wick, tomorrow night – Friday 27th September, and features Mark Fell as Sensate Focus, Beneath, TVO, Dom Butler/Factory Floor, Tengui, MB & CB and Rory Gibb. Click here for tickets
