With many doomsayers predicting the end of human civilisation around the end of 2012 (December 23rd according to the Mayans but, lets face it, they didn't predict the arrival of the Spanish too well did they?) We thought we could bring you a monthly run down of which big tings a gwarn, so you can edge towards the Apocalypse having as much fun as possible!
January is a notorilously slow month for clubbing. Everyone got super crunked at Christmas, all the students are working hard at exams (ahem!) and so its a tough gig for any promoter to fill a club. But luckily for the hardcore amongst us there are a few very decent nights floating around, so here's my picks...
WEEK ENDING 15.01.12
Jan 13th sees a reopening of classic Manchester venue- The Attic. Once the scene of my 21st birthday party, it's now hosting a much cooler party. The Joe Kalius Project are stepping in with a wealth of local talent; SKITTLES has top be the top dog in UK hip hop right now with unmatched flows and lyricism. BIOME carries more weight than a neutron star and gets a bigger reputation with each release. THE STEPPAHS will be coming fresh from smashing Sankeys on New Years Day for Metropolis. Finally the JK residents SMITHY & AL SONAR are not to be dismissed as warm up acts, each are pure class on the decks. All this is hosted by The Kollective- SPARKZ and L-DIGZ.
For those who like the heavier things in life, Jan 13th also sees the return of RippeR to Moho Live. What once started as a tiny local Drum & Bass night out in Altrincham has grown in reputation and status thanks to great vibes and great bookings. This Friday the 13th RippeR tries its luck by getting Grid Recordings main man TWISTED INDIVIDUAL down for a rare appearance in Manchester- a must see for any jump-up fan. Combine this with a jungle set from local legend GLOXXY and you have a serious party afoot.
On Jan 20th there's an event at Joshua Brooks which we barely noticed as it is so dark, light can't escape its surface. The Project 13 guys, fresh from breakthrough success in 2011, host their first event of the year and stick to their dark atmospheric music policy with COMMODO, DJ RUM and a BIOME b2b VERSA , techno-to-dubstep set which sounds a little bit special. Hosted by the busiest MC in Manchester, SPARKZ.
Moving from underground to upstairs, Sankeys has the house for Jan 20th more than covered as they invite the massive LAIDBACK LUKE to town, alongside OLIVER TWIST & JASON HERD
On January 27th there's a serious gig for your diaries. ROOTS MANUVA makes a long awaited return to Manchester at the HMV Ritz. Fresh of the back of last years success with '4everevolution', expect new hits like Toddla T collab 'Watch Me Dance' alongside classic UK bangers such as Colossal Insight and the epic 'Witness (1 Hope)'.
If you want to carry on the party after that, our bet would be to head over to Sankeys where KISSY SELLOUT will be bringing his unique and eclectic styles to Manchester. If you haven't seen Kissy DJ he is highly recommended; lightining fast tight mixing on 4 decks, every genre covered- a dance fanatic's dream!
Of course throughout January, as per usual, Hit & Run will be doing their best to mess up your Tuesdays, starting on Monday 9th with local talent CHIMPO & THE STEPPAHS for just £2
If you would like an event posted in our monthly listings, don't hesitate to get in touch. Simply email 'events@examplemagazine.com' with some details.
I entered The Warehouse Project for ‘Crosstown Rebels’ with high expectations after having already attended in October on my birthday for ‘Lights Out’, which had set the bar pretty high. I have four words to say and I quote “I WAS NOT DISAPPOINTED”.
I got there around 12pm because any earlier and the Wray & Nephews would have limited my ability to remember anything (that stuff is lethal), if you are there any time soon try the Wray & Nephews fruit punch. Anyway I digress back to the night at hand. When I arrived to Store Street the queue stretched from the entrance to the corner and around onto London Road THIS WAS A SELLOUT EVENT. Luckily the queue for the guest list was considerably shorter so my entrance was a swift one.
Only one word comes to mind when I think of the atmosphere as I entered ‘BUZZING’. The vibe was electric everybody had come for the same thing and that was to rave until their body shut down me included.
The line-up was full of possible rave smashers but the best three sets have to be Art Department, Seth Troxler & Jamie Jones, and I find it really hard to choose which my favourite was, but if the metaphorical gun was placed to my head the set of the night goes to Jamie Jones. Start to finish banger after banger. Sometimes when a DJ is playing I’ll wait till they play a song that I’m not really feeling to go to the bar/toilet. This did not happen.
His tune selection was a mix between well known songs such as Hot Natured’s Forward Motion, (which in my opinion is sing along of the year). When this song dropped I experienced a crowd of over a thousand maybe two thousand people singing along in a mass euphoria. Also, tunes that are not so well known, but instant hits with the crowd. To top it off he finished his set with Chaka Khans ‘Ain’t Nobody’ followed by stage dive / crowd surf. Belting stuff. I recommend that anybody into the ‘Tech House’ movement needs to go and see anyone of these acts as soon as possible.
I’m going to miss Store Street we share some fond memories from Steve Angelo earlier this year on Easter Sunday to Lights Out to Metropolis to Crosstown Rebels, but I look forward to the new location and I am eager to see if it is going to top Store Street.
For those hardcore ravers who just don’t know when to call it a night, welcome the world of ‘Afterlife’. Afterlife is an after hours shindig which starts at 4am and runs until as early or late (it gets very confusing as to whether it’s early or late at these times) as 8am. Tickets for this event are sold inside Warehouse but it is also possible to become a member by sending your full name and details to afterlifemcr@gmail.com.
There is a free minibus services which will take you from Store Street to a club just of Deansgate called South where the Afterlife session is held. On the night in question attendees were treated to an impromptu set from all of the headliners from Crosstown Rebels, with the addition of Manchester’s very own MDNA DJ’s (who happen to be good friends of mine).
When I spoke with DJ Seth Troxler after it he said it reminded him of nights he used to do in his hometown of Detroit and that ‘It’s all love man it’s all love’. By this point the night gets very blurry but one thing that remains the same and that is the good vibe. You leave the club long after the birds have started singing and most people are on there way to work. I did my walk of shame proudly and I would do it again no questions asked.
Utopia Music's founder and bossman Mako has had a host of releases on Psylence's Ingredient's and Mars imprints over the last couple of years and since its inception in 2009 Utopia has built up a strong following of keen listeners with its catalogue of releases. Mako himself is an interesting guy with a keen interest in creativity and his mind.
He's not afraid to talk about spiritual aspects of his life and meditation in his interviews and he comes across as a guy who has certainly been on a journey and arrived in a place where he feels happy. His focus when it comes to his production and also running his label is certainly admirable and it was for these reasons that I thought it would be worth asking him for 5 tunes which have influenced him through his life and still do.
Expect lot more talk of Utopia Music on Example magazine in 2012 as they have some top releases on the way in a couple of months. Andyskopes 12" on Utopia in November finished the year on a high ready for them to pick up where they left off from now. Anyway in the meantime have a listen to Mako's 5 tracks.
Bjork - Undo (from the album 'Vespertine' released on the label 'One Little Indian')
Never fails to make cry. I love the sentiment of 'undoing'. I built up a lot of unconscious resistance in my body and mind and needed to let go of the past. It was only when I started to undo this that I had more motivation and energy to do the loving things I wanted to. Undo, undo, undo :)
Mala - Alicia (white label)
Villem showed me this a while back and I fell in love with it straight away. A great rework of an Alicia Keys skit. I'm more of a Mala man than a Skrilex kinda guy :) The beats are snappy and firm whilst the bass is warm and full with none of the shit mid 'bass' screechy plastic noise that a lot of dubstep seems to have. Can this record even be called Dubstep? I'm not sure, I'm not an expert on labelling, I do know that I love this tune though and its another record that helps me feel like i'm at one with universe.
Photek - The Fifth Column (from the album 'Modeus Operandi' released on Virgin records)
I must've listened to the album about 2,000 times. Now this may seem excessive, but it was the best way of calming my mind. This tune in particular zones me in on the pitch of the snares, the rhythm created by the pitch change and how deliciously crispy they are. I love the ambience too, the subtle crackle, pops and atmosphere that compliments the breaks so perfectly.
Goldie - Sea of Tears (from the album 'Timeless' released on FFRR)
Pure vibes this one, for the whole 12 minutes. Soft bass guitars, wave crashes and sick vocal samples. This got me into using environmental sounds in my productions and showed me that I got more emotionally involved and affected by this kind of soundscape rather than DJ friendly whap whum tunes. It got me sampling the outside world rather than looking on sample cds for breaks and bass.
Portishead - Roads (from the album 'Dummy' released on 'Go!')
I remember buying the album that this is on when it first came out and my mum telling me 'this is a bit odd for you isnt it?. Up to that point my mum would only hear Nirvana and Rage Against the Machine blaring out of my tinny speakers, with me singing loudly (and fairly badly) into one of them. Ahhhh, thank god no one saw /heard that apart from my very non-judgemental mum. If you're reading this then I send you my love, and I'm sorry for forgetting your birthday :) The use of jazz samples and crusty breaks on the album record will inspire me to the end of my days.
To celebrate our birthday this month we're offering up an Example T-Shirt (either size M, L or XL) to one lucky winner. All you have to do to win the competition is like our facebook page and write a joke on our wall. The best joke will be judged by me and Skittles and the winner will be announced on Example Magazine on the 20th of January.
Example Magazine is three years old this month. We've come along way since January 2009 in my room in student halls. Im not going to talkabout it all, but a look at the Example Media site will give you an idea. Im not going to thank everyone personally but I do like to take at least one time each year on our birthday to thank everyone who has helped me and Example over the last three years to get to where it is now.
Thank you to anyone who has ever read, talked about, repped, written for, hated on, took photographs for, designed for or / and bought t shirts from Example. Im going to take less time to talk about Example than I did last year. The way I feel now is more about looking toward the future. I hate to say in the true grime cliché that 2012 is going to go off but expect a new direction from Example over the next 12 months. We're going to be going bigger harder and broader than ever before. I hope you like what we've got planned for you.
Before we go sick on 2012 I thought we could have a look back at our sickest content from the last three years. So here's a rundown of my personal favourite articles from 36 issues of Example Magazine. Big Ups.
Back in the day Az and Bo used to write a weekly rundown of what had been happening in the soaps. This was in the days before iPlayer so it was pretty vital information to any soap heads who had missed the episode for whatever reason. Nowadays Az and Bo are still scrotes and have been trying to pitch invention ideas to Duncan Bannatyne.
By February we were getting into the swing of things and featured our first full length review with actual sentences in. Ive not heard anything from Count and Sinden in the last 2 and a half years. Do they still even make tunes.
We dropped our first ever exclusive mix in March 2009 from local boy Numan. A promising young producer who went on to have releases on Planet Mu and Starkey's label wicky lindows. I think he was about 9 when he did this mix.
April '09 and dutch man Gomes was set to release a 12" on friend of Example and now defunct dubstep label Subsonik Records. We caught up with him to talk about his tunes and the release on Subsonik. Our formatting wasn't very good back then and some of the photos from 2009 have been lost when we moved server.
Im not going to lie. Issue 5 was a tad thin on the ground. Main highlight is going to have to be the second Example mix by Royster. 20 mins of Dubstep business.
Our friends at Blind Aura Pictures have grown from strength to strength since we featured them in the June issue of Example Magazine. Not directly as a result of our support I don't think but they have progressed all the same. Check out some of their more recent work now.
Zara Khalique one of Manchester's best creative people made t shirts back in 2009. Since then she has gone on to found the Keep It Bright movement devoted to changing the world one person at a time. Check out her dream factory clothing range and the Keep it bright movement here.
In November 2009 Industry Hater was taking the grime community by storm on twitter by hating on everyone in... erm the industry. We thought we would strike while the iron was hot and grabbed him for a short interview. In the end he got boring and dissapeared.
We launched our new website on our 1st birthday in January 2010. With loads of new features and a custom layout our days of wordpress shite were over. Example Magazine v2 was the way forward. We put up absolutely tons of stuff that month. Check out the full issue . . .
One of the favourite but sadly shortlived series of articles was the Life Without Social Media piece helping people to get back to their roots with old school activities which generally avoided drinking.
Close friend of Example Dub Phizix jumped on the decks for us in May 2010. In all honesty doing a mix for us probably kick started his career which lead onto him having the "tune of the year" in 2011 with Marka.
We welcomed local legend Al Baker to the Example Family back in 2010 to take over the photographs as our new photography editor. As well as bringing us a monthly slice of his musical wisdom. Mr Baker has been a valuable member of the team ever since and can be seen with a lens constantly plastered to his face around some of Manchester's best nights.
We interviewed Zara Khalique in 2009 and just a year later she had started here new Keep It Bright movement and we thought Zara deserved some outright props on Example Magazine.
Phil Tangent exploded into drum and bass with his release "Billie's Smile" on Manchester's Soul:R. We caught up with him in the Autumn to find out a bit more about him.
Our boy Joe headed down to the Red Bull Music Academy sound clash in Laaandan for a sick night watching the likes of Metalheadz, Skream and Benga and Channel One going head to head.
In February last year I went to see Gaspar Noe's cinematic masterpiece Enter The Void. If youve not seen it you need to check it, preferrably in a cinema. Absolutely amazing visual onslaught although I have to admit the ending is pretty weird. Anyway Kanye stole the absolutely sick opening sequence for a shit video.
Friend of Example Skittles released his single Tip-I-Cal-Ly in april and threw a massive launch party in Manchester's northern quarter debuting his live band. Check the pictures here and hold tight for his album due out in February.
Probably one of the best parties ive ever been to in my life, Bimbotown in Leipzig is like a festival condensed into a room. I can reccomend it to anyone planning a trip to Germany.
I was still away in Germany this summer so I sent Skittles to review the festivals and he did so dutifully and in his own style.Check out his critical piece on Wickerman Festival.
Exclusive interviews and other such niceties are posted as Features. A full list of this month's features is below, or you can browse by page or issue by clicking the relevant links.
I entered The Warehouse Project for ‘Crosstown Rebels’ with high expectations after having already attended in October on my birthday for ‘Lights Out’, which had set the bar pretty high. I have four words to say and I quote “I WAS NOT DISAPPOINTED”.
To celebrate our birthday this month we're offering up an Example T-Shirt (either size M, L or XL) to one lucky winner. All you have to do to win the competition is like our facebook page and write a joke on our wall. The best joke will be judged by me and Skittles and the winner will be announced on Example Magazine on the 20th of January. 
Issue 8 Highlight - August 2009 - Zara Khalique Interview 
Issue 24 Highlight - December 2010 - Calibre Interview 
Issue 29 Highlight - May 2011 - Bimbotown Leipzig 
New Year and why its whack. 