Back of the Club
Back of the Club Blurry nights split between standing front-left of the DJ booth and having a cig in the cramped smoking area soundtracked by these songs from some of our favourite artists making music for the current club scene. TNAM Playlist {{ reviewsTotal }}{{ options.labels.singularReviewCountLabel }} {{ reviewsTotal }}{{ options.labels.pluralReviewCountLabel }} {{ options.labels.newReviewButton }} {{ userData.canReview.message }} You Might Also Like Recent Posts
GALA 2025 Review – Friends, Flags, & Farts in the Club:
GALA 2025 Review – Friends, Flags, & Farts in the Club: GALA is still a guaranteed fun weekend, even after 10 years By Caitlin Taylor GALA is a strangely comforting festival to me, as I’m sure it is to others who’ve spent a decent chunk of their lives walking distance from Peckham Rye Park. It attracts a loyal crowd – you’re going to encounter the same faces year after year, especially on a Saturday when most are off work. This was my first year not in a large group, which felt slightly alien, and I stand by that likely being the best way to enjoy yourself. Most people here are in eclectic, eccentric and impeccably dressed friend groups, but there’s also a growing movement of people finding new friends to go with. Sometimes people are hesitant about DJ-heavy, dance music festivals due to a fear of being the oldest there but users like Slaypril on TikTok are doing their best to dispel this anxiety. She started a group for those over 25 who aren’t yet ready to give up partying and recounts in one of her videos how she found a beautiful community of people feeling the same at GALA. The crowd we experienced was much more akin to one at The Cause than Ministry of Sound if that means anything to you. We walked in and were immediately met with Amaliah, a tiny figure on the enormous Main Stage. She captivated the growing crowd though, starting with a few early attendants sitting closely swaying along and finishing with a large audience almost spanning the entire length of the stage. Before we arrived, we’d been keen to spend time at the Pleasure Dome, a large geometric tent situated right at the centre of the site. The lineup here was very fun and very queer but unfortunately, after the first few hours there always seemed to be a large queue when we walked by – rightly so, but no less annoying. If we weren’t so keen to catch as much as we could we may have waited it out, and from what we heard inside it would’ve been worth it. DJ Fart in the Club was a highlight, as usual. It will never not be entertaining to see the confusion on people’s faces when one of their friends loudly announces that she’s playing. Her backdrop featured a Palestinian flag – like most festivals so far this year, GALA’s Pro-Palestine message was clear from flags on stage to scrawled messages on tents. dreamlike feminine quality. One key highlight was the Sunflower tent, offering a starkly different vibe to most of the rest of the festival with its sparkly balloons and vinyl DJs. Their lineup was announced partway through the day on a scrawled piece of A4, including two surprise sets by Floating Points and Giles Peterson – a regular name at UK festivals this year. We camped out here a few times, catching Mafalda’s B2B. It was a refreshing break in between heavier sets especially as the night went on. Avalon Emerson closed out, keeping her foot on the ball by featuring remixes of up-and-coming French darling Oklou. The crowd were captivated, a sea of grinning faces and bodies in motion. GALA 2025 was a lovely celebration of the 10-year anniversary of one of the best London festivals still going. It manages to feel fun and fresh, intimate and casual – a crowd-pleaser, and rightly so. We look forward to year eleven! You might also like ˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗ Recent Posts ⋆⭒˚.⋆
Our GALA 2025 Top Picks:
Our GALA 2025 Top Picks: Going to GALA festival this weekend? Here’s who we think you should see. By Caitlin Taylor If you’ve never been to the Peckham Rye DJ-focused festival GALA, you’re in for a treat. It’s pretty small, but their lineups always pack a crazy punch. Last year saw Joy Orbison, Girls Don’t Sync and Chaos in the CBD take to the park, and this year is somehow even better. We’ve put together a list of our top picks, if you’ve not yet got tickets hurry up! FRIDAY Savssounds is truly up and coming with a really eclectic mix of experience behind her. Her live set for Art Beyond the Shell made Nirvana’ Smells Like Teen Spirit a song that you could grind to. She recently started the club night Altverse focusing on black alternative music featuring the likes of The Internet, Doechii and Kaytranada, and also somehow manages to juggle both being a DJ and a financial consultant – a seriously talented woman. View this post on Instagram A post shared by SAVSSOUNDS (@savssounds) SATURDAY Amaliah is super popular at the moment, playing a crazy run of shows over the summer. Other than GALA, catch her at Shangri-La, Maiden Voyage and Boiler Room in Ibiza. She started DJing in 2018 after record collecting since her teens. Her sets are varied, she plays around with house, techno and UK funky and she started the collective Borne Fruits to showcase some of the best underground music, something we can definitely get behind. If you’re maybe in the mood for something a little more retro, Portuguese-born London-based Mafalda is known for her brilliant taste in soulful disco tunes. She doesn’t believe in guilty pleasures, as she told Dust & Grooves “Good music is good music”. She radiates joy, so if you’re in the mood to feel good make sure you get to her set. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Mafalda (@mafaldafromthesun) SUNDAY If you’ve been DJing for over two decades you better be good, and Michelle Manetti certainly is. Self-described as a ‘genre non-conformist’, she loves to experiment with a variety of genres from house to disco to acid. She also promotes and helps to curate multiple female/non-binary-focused club nights in East London including Femmme Fraiche. If you tend to spend your nights at Dalston Superstore, this is the set for you. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Michelle Manetti (@michelle_manetti) Millie McKee is a standout on this list. Her taste skews more into the psychedelic, with percussive dub and spiritual jazz beats. Another decade-long vinyl collector, she even manages the record store Hidden Sounds on Ridley Road. Truly a Sunday vibe, and maybe a good one to add to your itinerary if you’ve attended all 3 days of the festival and are looking for something to chill out to. You might also like ˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗ Recent Posts ⋆⭒˚.⋆
Charli XCX- Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat
Charli XCX- Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat (Re-Uploaded) Brat Summer just received a new season with Brat Autumn and the release of “Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat” this past weekend. Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, the new remix album is a new lease on life for arguably the best album of 2024. Words by Ricky Labrada Currently Listening to: To understand the significance one has to understand the cultural phenomenon that was the original album. Charli XCX dominated this last summer with her latest album “BRAT”, an inescapable and catchy, last hoorah for the hyperpop scene realising to critical and commercial success. It was an absolute phenomenon spawning the iconic “Brat Summer” phrase and making lime green become associated as brat green. This album was Charli fully embracing her impact on pop while giving it a nostalgic hyperpop sound embracing early 2000s club and EDM scenes. I also view it as her magnum opus after More so it also created anthems for the summer with tracks such as “365”, “Von Dutch” and “Apple” all achieving worldwide popularity. Tackling the issues of her party persona, hard drugs, a desire to be a mother and the conflict it creates with her career, “BRAT” is a truly raw album lyrically. On the musical side it embraces its synth sound, hard hitting baselines and autotune. It is at times meant to be played at 4 A.M. in a grimy club while in its timid moments it is a moment to sit down and cry. The initial album already received a bonus track version with “Brat and it’s the same but there’s three more songs so it’s not” adding the immensely popular “Guess” amongst the tracks. Simultaneously the singles “Von Dutch” and “360” received remixes. More importantly this “deluxe” version demonstrated what was coming in the ever expanding brat world. Shortly following the album “Girl, so Confusing,” “Guess” and “Talk Talk” remixes released building anticipation for the now announced remix album. The build up was one of the most anticipated as Billboards worldwide started appearing in the iconic green with the names of the artists featuring. This latest version “Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat” (third for those keeping track) takes a different approach almost completely reimagining the album while featuring a star studded guest list of Ariana Grande, Caroline Polachek and Tinashe to name a few. Putting it simply the rollout for the remix had almost as much, if not more, emphasis than the initial album. In many ways it was a massive event as I can’t recall the last time a remix album occurred, let alone one with this amount of marketing. The push for “BRAT” has been so massive that in the time since I started this review a second version of the remix album was announced and released featuring a Kesha led remix of “Spring Breakers” on top of the 13 new tracks. This latest update further pushing the impact the album has on pop culture. “They all wanna sound like me, All wanna be like Lean ” commences the opening remix to Charli XCX’s “360” featuring Yung Lean and Robyn giving us a taste of what is waiting. The three artists go back and forth having fun with their lyrics with examples such as “Hey why you do it so cold? They say I’m the realest ever, yeah, Thats what I’ve been told,” involving all three in a playful manner. On the whole it is a remix in the traditional sense maintaining the original beat while adding both features and updating Charli’s own verse. It’s a fantastic introduction to a brand new version of a track many of us grew familiar with over the summer. What I couldn’t imagine was how drastic some of the tracks would be. Overall much of the album tracks lyrically are natural thematic extensions with the artists chosen for each track serving a purpose. Lorde’s feature changes “Girl, so Confusing” from a monologue into a dialogue between both artists, while showing us who the track was originally about. Similarly, Ariana Grande on “Sympathy is a Knife” flips its meaning into a commentary on how media can easily change the perception of someone, something Ariana is familiar with. Meanwhile, The 1975 featuring on the piano tinged “I Might Say Something Stupid” serves somewhat as a cheeky nod to Matty Healy’s tendency to say sometimes stupid things that cause controversy. Other tracks change their original meaning such as “So I”, the slow emotive track honouring the late Sophie. Initially a song expressing regret of how Charli treated Sophie, now becoming a positive reflection, reminiscing about the good times they shared. As for “I Think About It All the Time” it similarly shows us the progression of Charli’s psyche over the last few months and how this new level of fame affects her. It is a continuation of the initial fears of her career, persona, and desire to be a mother, while adding in the pressure of focussing being amplified from this new fame. Both tracks are beautiful, if not a bit of a heartbreaking change from the mostly party centric vibes of the original album. This version of “BRAT” is still very much in early on in its life and while I do not like every remix, I appreciate the distinct changes most tracks take. Significant highlights include “Club Classics” with Bb trickz, “Von Dutch” with A.G. Cook and Addison Rae, and “Mean Girls” with Julian Casablancas. In fact I vastly prefer these to the original versions. Some of the songs are deeply removed from their original becoming works of the featured artist rather than Charli XCX’s as seen with the 1975 and Caroline Polachek. The latter in particular gives the best verse on the whole project, it is truly beautiful both lyrically and melodically. Another track being vastly different from its original counterpart is “Club Classics,” sounding more of a remix of
NEW SINGLE RELEASE – Grove ‘MILF MAGNET’
NEW SINGLE RELEASE – Grove ‘MILF MAGNET’ 11.10.23 Words by Zoe McGarrick Bristol-based singer and producer Grove, has recently released Milf Magnet, as part of their new EP PL*Y. Their last EP ‘Queer + Black’ was a self-reflective tracklist that allowed the singer to explore their own identity in a sound that was genreless by all standards. Grove’s half-Jamaican, half-British/Irish background influences their work. They told DIY in 2022 that “The fluidity of a human being is viscous and doesn’t need to be contained in something like this or that, […] The need for categorisation stems from an extremely Westernised, Colonialist history, and the lack of needing to be placed into one space is what the core of my being gravitates towards” (DIY, March 2022). This new release allows Grove to let loose and express her love for older women. Grove has cultivated a queer fanbase and has expressed, in the past, their love of them – allowing space to let the singer express themselves freely. The vocalist demonstrates the ability to create a new unique sound, combining hip-hop, rap, pop, and electronica into quite the bizarre concoction that makes sense. The lyrics don’t shy away from the point; they want to be a milf magnet. The playful dancehall tune swings between electronica and Missy Elliot-type rap, almost creating a sense that this is Grove’s world, we’re just here to watch, as the singer unapologetically dives into desire and lust with this new EP. The music video, that Grove directed themselves, described as an “inter-generational infomercial” in all its campy glory, celebrates all parts of Grove and her fanbase. The song is about redefining the concept of Milf to not just embody an older woman/mother figure, but trans individuals. PL*Y EP is set to be realised on November 1st, followed by a UK tour from November 9th in London. You Might Also Like Uncategorised
NEW SINGLE RELEASE – Grove & EJ AKIN ‘Big Boots’
NEW SINGLE RELEASE – Grove & EJ AKIN ‘Big Boots’ Big Boots – industrial-driven sounds from Grove and producer EJ AKIN , creating an unapologetic anthem that urges listeners to dance, while showcasing the established partnership between the artists and leaving anticipation for future releases. Words by Isla Mcrobbie 16.05.23 Big Boots, an electrifying extravaganza that combines politically charged spoken word by Grove with the unapologetic, industrial-driven sounds of Bristol’s EDM scene, courtesy of producer EJ AKIN. This song is made to sweat to, there is no delicacy to ‘Stamping on the heads of the monarchy’ it’s a call to dance. “Our house is burning and its burning from deep down the rabbit hole of rotting systems and delusional beliefs. This is a fire not a beacon of light. It needs to be put out.” While Spotify may label this tune as EJ AKIN’s debut release, a simple online search unveils that she is far from a newcomer in the industry. In fact, her musical journey has long been entwined with Grove since their early releases, reflecting a well-established partnership and a combined energy that seems unparalleled on stage. Following their successful 2022 techno DNB cover of Girls Aloud’s hit “Sound of the Underground,” Big Boots marks Grove’s first release of 2023, leaving fans eager for the possibility of another EP to follow.
ARTIST CLOSE-UP – Yuné Pinku
ARTIST CLOSE-UP – Yuné Pinku Words by Sam Walton 15.05.23 Here you’ll find vague melancholy vibes fused with nostalgic rave-sound, and all finished off with a techy upbeat twang that encompasses her sound, Yuné Pinku’s music is delightfully close, but somehow just far enough away that it can’t be grasped. This feeling is helped along by grounded lyrics and an emotionally intimate vocal sound, especially heard in ‘DC Rot’ and ‘Bluff’, but there’s an attitude that comes along with her sonic persona too, something that is both alluring and uncertain at the same time. Echoes of old-school electronic comes to mind, the likes of Orbital, specifically the dreaminess of ‘Halcyon On and On’, but Pinku’s music comes in fresh and crisp with a healthy dose of modern angst. The wide reverb and techno-fairy vocals in ‘Fai Fighters’ are perhaps hint at inspiration from the fellow bedroom-to-star producer Grimes’ earlier work too. Her music feels honest, intimate, put herself as “music for introverted ravers”, yet never missing the opportunity to lay down punchy beats with an otherworldly atmosphere. A sweet pairing, difficult to pull off, but you’ll find she always manages to hold the edge through her high-tempo and energetic sounds. At time of writing, Asha’s SoundCloud is bubbling with new elements. It can be said with some confidence that this is just the beginning for this grungy London techno-fairy. Credit: Ryan Blackwell
NEW TRACK RELEASE – Orielles ‘Tableu 002’
NEW TRACK RELEASE – Orielles ‘Tableau 002’ The Orielles released “Tableau 002”, an experimental IDM track with a music video paying tribute to the 1989 film “Tetsuo: The Iron Man”, featured on their upcoming EP “The Goyt Method”, which uses AI collaboration to repurpose acoustic sounds, a process they call “Goytism”. Words by Isla Mcrobbie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PC_yyjfUyCU The Orielles have conjured up a mesmerizing and experimental IDM track in the form of “Tableau 002”, which is now accompanied by a stunning music video crafted with the help of Manchester-based Beck Cooley. Their love for janky electronic IDM and experimental sci-fi and body horror films brought them together with Cooley and ultimately resulted in a tribute to the 1989 Japanese tokusatsu cyberpunk body horror film, ‘Tetsuo: The Iron Man’. The music video’s ‘man meets machine’ theme perfectly captures the essence of the track, utilizing metal and computer materials to create a striking visual spectacle. The Goyt Method EP, set to release on May 26, features this track and many more that were created through a process of randomness and chance. The band deconstructed their fourth album, Tableau, and pieced it back together in unexpected ways, relying on online randomization and AI collaboration to choose which stems to use. Their passion for avant-garde electronic music and deep listening shines through in their coined term “Goytism”, describing their process of repurposing and resampling acoustic sounds through digital production. The photograph on the sleeve, capturing their first Goyt session at the chilly and wintery Goyt Mill in winter 2020, adds a personal touch to this unique and captivating musical journey.