clubs


INSIDE OUT FESTIVAL Bute Park, Cardiff Sat 2 + Sun 3 Oct


Even in the knowledge that the planet is burning up on a rocket ride to oblivion, surely Inside Out falls as late in the year as the weather allows us to gather in a field and get silly to goodtime upfront dance music. Or is that just the writer’s inner wuss talking? Heck, I daresay if it was Christmas morning, there was a rumble in a young Welsh clubber’s stomach, and the sort of nailed-on rave shutter-downers who’ve been picked here were playing in Bute Park for some reason, there’d be more tops off than Tenby beach.


Inside Out Festival – Rudimental


Inside Out launched in 2016, making this its fifth edition with the obligatory year off, and is now part of a conglomerate of Welsh fests including Swansea’s Escape and the recently announced In It Together, set for Margam in June 2022. It only became a two-day concern in 2019, meaning this follow-up bash has a reasonable claim to be their biggest yet. Sat 2 Oct has grime second-waver Ghetts sharing top billing with MoStack, a London MC who’s ridden the swelling popularity of afroswing and its hybrid styles to some success in recent years. Both days also have a “special guest” and “afternoon headliner”, which I assume


is something pushy agents demand on the poster; either way those are Jay1 and Nathan Dawe, respectively, on Sat 2.


Central Cee and Hannah Wants occupy those specific slots on Sun 3, with enduring chart dance sorts Rudimental headlining in their own right with a DJ set. They’ve just released an album, Toast To Our Differences, so some of that will likely be aired.


As well as the main stage, there are two further stages on both days. The Big Top is hosted by Abode on Sat 2, with Solardo, Alan Fitzpatrick and Ellie Cocks topping their bill; on Sun 3 the highly banger-centric CruCast are down for a session with no headliners as such but the likes of Skepsis, Darkzy and Kanine mucking in. And Arena 3 is handled by Cardiff drum’n’bass promoters Canopy on Sat 2, with Critical Impact, Logan D and Nicky Blackmarket among the clubbable names there.


Tickets: £67.50 weekend/£47.50 per day (VIP £97.50 weekend/£65 per day). insideoutcardiff.co.uk NOEL GARDNER


NINA KRAVIZ


often reverberate with the swell of the orchestra and the thrum of a pensioners’ tea dance. Promoters Solo announced the event in March and it sold out in April. Comfortably their biggest party to date, it’s certainly good to see promoters bringing world-renowned DJs to the city for the first time, and the fact that a thousand or so people are willing to pay up to £35 to see Russian techno maven Nina Kraviz does much to counter this writer’s unease at it apparently needing to cost that much to happen. That’s the free market at work, honey.


In many ways, the elevation of Kraviz to celebrity DJ status is a positive thing. An arch and witty persona whose main riposte to moribund clubland misogyny has been to be both successful and good, her sets are long, eclectic and unpredictably routed. Her трип (Trip) label has been responsible for plenty of great releases, including archive material from Biogen and Steve O’Sullivan, and I for one hope she gets weirder with Swansea ravers than they’re prepared for.


Tickets: £24-£35 (sold out – check social media for resales) brangwyn.co.uk NOEL GARDNER


Hall,


Solo @ Brangwyn Hall, Swansea Fri 15 Oct


This, to the best of my knowledge, is the first ever club night in Swansea’s Brangwyn


whose walls more


EATS EVERYTHING Con7rol @ Sin City, Swansea Fri 22 Oct


Con7rol return with one of these double parties that Swansea promoters seem to favour, starting at 6pm in Bambu Beach Bar and then moving to Sin City from 10-4. It’s not quite a substitute for proper rave-friendly licenced opening times, but it could mean you can walk right out of work onto the dancefloor and be whirlybirding your tie around your head by the watershed. Headliner Eats Everything plays at both, meaning twice as much upfront house chug and techno- adjacent bounce for your buck.


Bristolian DJ and producer Daniel Pearce has been a bankable name for about a decade. His own tracks, likewise his sets, as Eats Everything grab choice bits from bass music, garage, rave and breaks – he was tour support for Fatboy Slim a few years back, and Norman Cook clearly detected a kindred spirit in his aesthetic. A solid arsenal of solo and collaborative EPs has most recently produced Return To Hardbag, on Patrick Topping’s Trick label. While cribbing from ballroom house has been very cool for years, few have had the gumption to try and revive mid-90s gay clubber subgenre hardbag – until now.


Tickets: £17-£25. sincityclub.co.uk NOEL GARDNER


FOLAMOUR + ELKKA Good Life @ Tramshed, Cardiff Fri 8 Oct


Good Life have announced their Malice Motel tour, with a series of themed, immersive events across the UK. The “motel that never sleeps” arrives in Cardiff at Tramshed with headliners Folamour and Elkka, and the promise to transform Tramshed into a neon ‘explosion of colour’, with Americana-meets-acid stage design and art installations, walkabout ‘hotel staff’, street food stalls and a cocktail bar.


French


Folamour [pictured] has made a huge impact on dancefloors across Europe and the rest of the world over the last few years. Expect his signature mix of self-produced edits, remixes, and original records as well as the odd disco-pop classic (seek out YouTube footage of his Abba drop at a Boiler Room x FLY Open Air rave in 2019).


Producer, DJ, and founder of the Femme Culture record label, Elkka, will also be headlining, fresh off the back of her Euphoric Melodies EP release on Ninja Tune sublabel Technicolour. Furthermore, Good Life have a second Tramshed party this month: a Halloween-themed night on Sat 29, headlined by DJ Boring.


Tickets: from £17.95. 029 2023 5555


tramshedcardiff.com FRANCESCA GARDNER


38 house and disco producer


FATBOY SLIM Motorpoint Arena Cardiff Thurs 4 Nov


Isn’t it funny how if you sneak a DJ into a cavernous, aircraft hangar-sized structure and get them to play a couple of hours of widely loved dance anthems to a crowd of keyed-up munters, without strict permission to do so, people will say it’s very cool and counterculture. But if you do the same within the bounds of local licensing laws, the cavernous structure is the city’s largest be-roofed music venue, and the DJ is Rockafeller Skank hitmaker Fatboy Slim aka Norman Cook fka Quentin Cook, many of those same people will say it is all rather corny and not really in the spirit of Britain’s estimable rave legacy. Hmm!


This Fatboy Slim arena tour is titled We’ve Come A Long Long Way Together, in reference to his second best known and most singalongable single, which points to an evening of unashamed nostalgia being in the offing. Hey, autumn 2019 is looked upon with a similar kind of nostalgia to summer 1998, at this point, so all bets are likely off. The tour is also a reprise of a successful 2016 jaunt, In The Round, where venues like the Motorpoint were supposedly made to feel like actual clubs via impressive-looking laser and video shows.


Tickets: from £37.50. 029 2022 4488


motorpointarenacardiff.co.uk NOEL GARDNER


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