Sat 30 January - Maurice Fulton, Brighton

Summer season is a busy one with a fair few decent nights ahead of us here in Brighton, London and Berlin. Bank Holiday Sunday at The Joker with the Black Key guys should be a lot of fun too.

OK so I'm not gonna go on too long, let's just focus on August:

Detroit Swindle have been a DD favourite for a few years dropping the kind of US style house we grew up on. Always fun and they always bring the party with them. Tickets are moving fast for Saturday night, they'll be playing a 3 hour set for us at Patterns - You can grab yours for £8 + BF here

We return to Camden Lockside on Sat 22 August for a Disco Deviant x Midnight Riot party. Yam Who? and Pablo Contraband are joined by Fingerman & Aashton running from 6pm on the terrace moving inside once night falls. It's free before 9pm and a mere £5 after.

Last but not least Bank Holiday Sunday 30 Aug, Pablo will be joining Black Key Records for an all day affair at The Joker, Brighton with special guest Mosca headlining. Tickets pretty essential for these parties as they are always popular.

Still to come we go to Berlin for our very own Exposé night at the end of September, Weatherall, Heretic & Paul Daley join us in Brighton on October 2 and MCDE plays with Pablo at C2 in November!

Brighton & Hove Pride Weekend + Late Nite Tuff Guy PBR Streetgang

Disco Deviant Summer Terrace Jamm with TheseDays - LNTG, Rayko, DJ HMC & Pablo Contraband 17 July - Brixton Jamm

Excited to announce we are bringing Disco Deviant to London, showcasing Late Nite Tuff Guy and his more techno oriented alter-ego DJ HMC (DJ HMC’s only London show in 2015.) He will be joined by Disco Deviant resident Pablo Contraband and Spanish disco mastermind Rayko, who will open the night. TICKETS

Rayko is playing an open air set on Jamm's recently revamped terrace from 6.30pm alongside the lovely TheseDays DJ's.

Idea is you come straight after work for the early session. Arrive before 9 and you will be offered an ice cold San Miguel on us, arrive before 8pm and you'll also get a gourmet Hotdog from Oh My Dog free of charge! How good is that!

Plenty of summery disco vibes before moving into the club after dark and getting serious through til 4am.

Line up
Late Nite Tuff Guy [Tuff Cut]
DJ HMC [Reflector]
Rayko [Rare Wiri / Eskimo] - Terrace & Club Set
Pablo Contraband [Disco Deviant]
TheseDays DJ's

Food: Oh My Dog will be serving delicious gourmet Hot Dogs from 6.30pm on the terrace.

Disco Deviant show - Pablo Contraband 1/7/15 by Pablo Contraband on Mixcloud

Pablo Contraband - Patterns Brighton Residency playlist June 2015

Looking forward to starting my residency at Patterns (formerly Audio) in Brighton. I have put a playlist together before kicking things off properly on Saturday 20 June alongside HNNY and Neal Schtumm in the newly opened venue.

A brand new L'Acoustic soundsystem and a lot of restyling downstairs mean the club is a very different animal from Audio, the booking policy has altered since the new team took over and guests so far have included Berlin doyens  Tama Sumo & Nick Hoppner,  DJ Nature, Tin Man and DVS1.

Gilles Peterson recently took to the decks on the ground floor, which is unrecognisable from its former guise. A complete refurb and rebuild of the bar, terrace, entrance and the installation of custom made Ohm boxes, mean that playing upstairs is an absolute pleasure - Gilles tweeted about the gig afterwards and was most impressed with the Patterns.

Coupled with the acquisition of a new Rane rotary mixer and an excellent drinks menu, means that life just got sweeter in Brighton.

'I've put 20 tracks together to reflect the style and mood late night at Patterns. Some are aimed at the capturing the vibe of bar others heading squarely for dance floor reactions in the club. I'll leave you to tick the boxes' - Pablo Contraband

For more details & tickets to the events:
JUNE 20 - HNNY, Pablo Contraband & Neal Schtumm
JULY 18 - Erol Alkan, Kamera (live), Charles Green & Pablo Contraband

Pablo Contraband Gigs - May

We seem to have made it through a chaotic spell of venue sales and closures, in fact the chaos has now been replaced with a spring like rejuvenation and sunny weather making everything OK again!

A Bank Holiday Weekend approaches and I'm happy to have a few Brighton gigs planned in May.

Local lads Keep it Moving are throwing a party on Friday 1st May at Sticky Mikes, Middle St.
I'll be playing 12.30 - 2am so hoping loads of you can make it along. Cheap and cheerful entry fee £2/4 and some great local selectors on deck duties. Full details are up on FB event

Patterns is opening soon and we have been invited to spin over the soft launch weekend May 8/9th
It will be a good opportunity to have a nosey, check the new soundsystem and improved layout and hopefully give it your seal of approval. We're excited, so keep an ear out for further news on that one

Saturday May 23rd at Fortune of War - I'm looking forward to playing with all round good egg Rob Savage -  Grateful he's invited me along as there's nothing else like this open air seafront frolick!

I've now started doing a weekly show on 1BrightonFM.co.uk every Tuesday 5-7pm be great if you could join me - check the station out as they've gone to a lot of effort to deliver a great studio environment and musical line up. Very community minded project and one I'm really happy to be involved with.

Easter Weekend - Good Friday Greg Wilson, Brighton + Easter Sunday Unity showcase at Camden Lock

Hope you're looking forward the extended Easter weekend ahead. 4 days off is always a treat!a tight spot a couple of weeks back, with The Loft abruptly selling up and closing it's doors, which left us in need of a venue for Greg Wilson on Good Friday. Fortunately our friends at Al Duomo have been most accomodating, giving us the run of the place for the night!

Down to the last 45 advance tickets, so if you want to catch Greg Wilson playing an extended set in the basement of an Italian Restaurant in Brighton, this could well be your only chance!  We have a Turbosound rig installed and the cocktail bar upstairs is fully stocked in preparation of our arrival.

Greg Wilson, Pablo Contraband & Leroy Select - Basement from 10.30pm

Fingerman & Aashton will play a special Pizza Oven set upstairs in the Cocktail Bar from 12

Ticket Link http://bit.ly/1EoSo0t 10.30pm Al Duomo, Pavilion Buildings, Brighton

We are gonna be in London on Easter Sunday with On & On, at the rather marvelous Lockside Lounge, Camden. It's a FREE party. Bit of an all dayer with Fingerman, Aashton & Pablo Contraband bringing the heat. Kicks of at 4pm and runs til 2am. Do feel free to join us, the venue has a riverside terrace, if the weathers good we'll be out there, before bringing the party inside as it gets later.

Table bookings and further info http://on.fb.me/1G8RsMI 4 - late, Lockside Lounge, Camdena tight spot a couple of weeks back, with The Loft abruptly selling up and closing it's doors, which left us in need of a venue for Greg Wilson on Good Friday. Fortunately our friends at Al Duomo have been most accomodating, giving us the run of the place for the night!
Down to the last 45 advance tickets, so if you want to catch Greg Wilson playing an extended set in the basement of an Italian Restaurant in Brighton, this could well be your only chance!  We have a Turbosound rig installed and the cocktail bar upstairs is fully stocked in preparation of our arrival.

Greg Wilson, Pablo Contraband & Leroy Select - Basement from 10.30pm

Fingerman & Aashton will play a special Pizza Oven set upstairs in the Cocktail Bar from 12

Ticket Link http://bit.ly/1EoSo0t 10.30pm Al Duomo, Pavilion Buildings, Brighton

We are gonna be in London on Easter Sunday with On & On, at the rather marvelous Lockside Lounge, Camden. It's a FREE party. Bit of an all dayer with Fingerman, Aashton & Pablo Contraband bringing the heat. Kicks of at 4pm and runs til 2am. Do feel free to join us, the venue has a riverside terrace, if the weathers good we'll be out there, before bringing the party inside as it gets later.

Table bookings and further info http://on.fb.me/1G8RsMI 4 - late, Lockside Lounge, Camden

Have a happy Easter - see you soon

Zeus - PILLS - Art exhibition, Brighton

Ahead of his 'PILLS' art exhibition launching this Friday in Brighton we caught up with James Woodley from Prescription Art, to get some musical insight into his past and to get us in the mood for the weekend.

More info on the launch can be found on Facebook -  Friday 13 March, 6pm at Prescription art, 1 Beaconsfield Parade, Beaconsfield Road, Brighton.

Following on from recent ‘sweet art’ works, ‘Pills’ will consist of a wall of oversized ecstasy tablets, each with their own distinctive – and authentic – branding. ‘Pills’ explores how adults continue to eat branded sweets – however this time they are looking for a stronger rush than sugar.

'As a retired music blogger I thought I’d enjoy writing a post to celebrate our forthcoming ‘Pills’ exhibition at Prescription Art… though having not done anything like this for some years it’s now proving a little bit like trying to snowboard after many years off the mountain.
 

 Considering the ‘Ecstasy’ theme of the exhibition, I thought I’d try and pick out five tracks that most defined the drug in my eyes (and ears). It seems likely that they’ll all be a nostalgic hark back to more innocent and less cynical times… but let’s face it the drugs and clubs were better! I would like to have done a nice old skool mix, but we’re busy making pills and time is tight!

The obvious first choice here would be ‘Energy Flash’ by Joey Beltram… however since everyone knows that one, I thought I’d pick out a similar sounding track that for me always sat closely alongside it – ‘Substance Abuse’ by Ritchie Hawtin as F.U.S.E.

 I bought Substance Abuse while at University in Leeds. My first ever proper night out clubbing was at the legendary techno night The Orbit in a small town called Morley… when Underworld played live – including what must have been a 25 minute version of Rez - and Derrick May got a taxi from Heathrow to play for the last half hour of the night. After that I never looked back. The atmosphere in the Orbit was incredible, and the crowd knew exactly what they liked & wanted. Techno. The residents from the Orbit ran a record shop in Leeds… a treasure trove of shinkwrapped imports from Detroit… and Substance Abuse was one of the tracks I bought on sight having had the hairs on my neck stand up in the club. 

At that time the undisputed anthem of the club was ‘Access’ by DJ Misjah & DJ Tim. I’ve listened to it a few times since, and I just can’t imagine playing it out again. It lacks the sophistication & funk of all the great techno tracks that have really stood the test of time. However since I’m writing from personal experience rather than as some music journalist’s ‘greatest 100 dance records’ perspective, this will always transport me back to the middle of the dancefloor in Morley, with a stranger massaging your soldiers and 20 people hanging from the camouflage nets pumping their fists. I guess a lot of great dance records exist quite happily outside the club… but maybe this is one that was just built for being in the middle of a ferocious sound system with 500 other people absolutely off their nut.

Of course raving in the 90s wasn’t just about techno. Wherever there was a field, a massive tent, and a soundsystem you were likely to hear some piano breakdowns! Get those arms up in the lasers! It’s been tough to think of a specific track, but one that sticks in my mind is Moby at Glastonbury in what must have been (through a bit of googling) 1998. This was I think the first time Glastonbury had a dance tent… whereas previously the raves had popped up on the outskirts of the site & in the market areas through the night. Having been to Glastonbury many times, it is rather hard to locate specific memories.. however I will always remember that Moby set, and in particular ‘Feeling So Real’ (here reprised in 2003) – which almost seems the musical embodiment of an ecstasy rush.

After the rush comes the sunrise…. maybe this is a bit of an obvious selection – but without doubt part of being high is being there as the sun comes up, with faces coming into focus and reality making its unwelcome presence felt.

Picking a last track proved difficult… however last week I was out with some friends for dinner, and sitting next to me was a guy who turned out to have founded Heavenly Recordings… home of St Etienne, Manic Street Preachers and many many others. His clubnight, the Heavenly Social, was another club I went to on a weekly basis… and a regular end of night tune for residents the Chemical Brothers was ‘Weekender’ by Flowered Up….in my opinion one of the greatest records of all time and with a brilliant 20 minute video to match. You could say that ‘Screamadelica’ soundtracks a night out on ecstasy over the course of an album – from ‘Movin on Up’ to ‘Higher Than The Sun’ to ‘Damaged’ and ‘I’m Coming Down’ – well Weekender does the same over the course of one record. Better still, seeing as we’re here in Brighton, the record ends with a sample from Quadrophenia that sums things up for so many people sitting in a dead end job waiting for the weekend to arrive:

“Yeah I'll tell you what you can do with your eye-teeth and your job, you can take the mail and the franking machine and all that other rubbish I have to go about with and you can stuff them right up your arse!”

Audio / Warehouse 50 - Pablo Contraband

AUDIO / WAREHOUSE 50 compiled by Pablo Contraband

So the time has come for Audio and it's in-house Saturday night Warehouse to close their doors for the final time. New owners are planning the refit and relaunch, Patterns being the chosen moniker for the all new era. They will re-open in May.

I've had the pleasure of working at Audio and Above Audio for the last 7 years or so, I started under David Parr at what was Summer of Love, where I played under the name DrkHrse.  Soon after this came Matt Bassant and Robbie Whishaw who introduced me to Audio's charismatic owner John Holland - by now I was Pablo Contraband and promoted my night Disco Deviant.

Audio is far more to me than a mere nightclub, I was a part of the place. I worked hard to get a residency and then I just belonged there. Sentimental ramblings aside, I really can't say that about many venues, especially in this fast and often fickle environment. Over the years we've seen numerous venues come and go. Hype, hot air and the next big things rise and fall, time and again. All this occurring at an ever increasing velocity,  yet I have remained a resident DJ and promoter at this beloved venue. I feel very lucky to have been there until the end.

I started Disco Deviant and The Unity Agency whilst working for Audio and programmed Above Audio every Friday in 2014 - the year we won DJ Mag small club of the year. I have played with some amazing DJ's, alongside some hugely talented residents and guests alike. Learned so much, laughed so much and had some truly amazing nights there. I have absolutely loved every minute of it and am really grateful to have had the opportunity and support from the staff and the crowd week after week.

The door team, managers, DJs, bar staff and sound techs have always been like friends, welcoming and easy to deal with. Met so many sound people all from Audio; Albie, Bekki, Ambrose, Charlie, Jai, Tom Frisco, Justin, Oli Clark, Callum, Sophie, Neal, Charles, Battery Powered, Nick Sabin, Neil, Izzy, Milton, Lee, Ellie, Sasha, Marcus, Boycee, Cesare, Dre, Matt, Robbie and John.

As I will play my last two gigs at Audio on Sat Feb 21 (Warehouse) and Sat Feb 28 for the closing party I felt it fitting to put together a playlist of classic tracks from over the time I have played Audio and Warehouse. No doubt some glaring omissions but these things are always tricky to do, so I'm hoping to have captured a flavour of what went on in there over the years.

Audio + Warehouse All Time Classics (see youtube playlist)

Black Light Smoke – Lovework (DJ T remix)

Soundstream - Love Jam (Maceo Plex)

Marlon D, Bodhi Satva - Power of the drums (Marlon D tribal mix)

Barnt – Geffen

E-Versions – Mingo

Heretic –  Sharia Law (XY-Me mix)

Art Dept ft. Seth Troxler - Living the Life (Aba Therapy mix)

Hot Toddy – Mutha Sucka

Candi Staton – Hallelujah Anyway (Larse mix)

Soul Clap - Xtravaganza

Re.you – Junction

Seelunluft - Manila (Headman remix)

Lil Louis - Y U Fall (Pablo Contraband DJ Edit)

KRL – Deep Down (Ethyl remix)

Chamboche – Mello (BLM digi remix)

Till von Sein - Non Existent Love (El Txef al)

Eats Everything - Entrance Song

Azari & III – Hungry for the Power (Jamie Jones)

Ejeca – Rosario (Mic Newman mix)

Kidnap Kid – Survive

Disclosure – F For U (TEED mix)

BAZAR – Hard to Find (Maceo Funk drop)

Fabio Gianelli – Maintain

Boddika – Heat

NTFO – Pendos

Got Me So – xxxy

Solomun – Boot Camp

Italojohson 7 – Track 2

Aden – Whip (Jimmy Edgar mix)

Literon – Freak Function

Justin Vandervolgen – Clapping Song

Alex Niggemann – Materium

PBR Streetgang – 2square

Tale of Us – Another Earth

Oni Ayhun – OAR 003 B

Locussolus – Berghain (Darkroom mix)

Scandal – Just Let Me Dance (Maxxi Soundsystem mix)

The Mole – Party Lockdown (DJ Sprinkles mix)

Throbbing Gristle – Hot on the Heels of Love (Eskimo Twins mix)

Midland - For (Yacht) Club Use Only

Late Nite Tuff Guy – I Get Deeper

Him Self Her – Heavy Rotation (Lars Moston and Teenage Mutants mix)

Nneka – Shining Star (Joe Goddard mix)

Josh Wink – Talking to You (Groove Mix)

Paul Woolford – Untitled

Disclosure – F for You (TEED)

Todd Terje - Ragysh

Foals – My Number (TEED mix)

Disco Deviant Free Party; Saturday 31st Jan at 10 Below Brighton

It's feels like the longest month in living memory and high time we had a party!

Payday is fast approaching so let's get together on Saturday night at 10 Below, Brighton for a night of disco, electro funk and house jams.

Pablo Contraband is playing an extended set ably supported by Soul City's main man Leroy Select.

Good news is that it's FREE before midnight. Simply add your names to the FB event wall and we'll add you to the guest list. 

Looking forward to seeing some of you there, if not you can always tune in to Disco Deviant show 4 - 6pm today on Codesouth.fm.