The Late Escape returns to The Great Escape, hosting late night dance, electronic and grime artists at a number of Brighton’s club venues. Here we focus on The Arch, who have a line-up curated by London’s Phonica Records.
His sophomoric 2015 LP “Insides” released by Ghostly International was inspired by an eclectic mixture of house, kraut, ambient and techno, and showed a further development of his unique take on dance floor music.
His love for music and record collecting goes back much further. As a child he would join his father, an avid vinyl collector on journeys to record fairs and jumble sales, digging every weekend from the age of 8 years old. And so it was quite natural that the collector became the DJ and the listener became the musician.
The past few years have seen him play all over the world, from Mexico’s beaches to Tokyo and regularly at some of Europe’s most revered club spaces. 2015 saw him set up his own label “Cin Cin” releasing split EPs from established names and newcomers alike, with a diverse musical policy that reflects the DJ/producer’s open minded and inquisitive approach.
SESSION VICTIM
The late James Brown aside, you won’t find anyone with a more visceral connection with soul than Session Victim in the midst of a DJ set. Their live set pitches the energy levels up even further, the frenzied head banging of two friends jamming like their lives depend on it, now a signature scene.
Since the success of their bedroom-produced debut LP took them a little by surprise back in 2012, Hauke Freer and Matthias Reiling have formalised their ad hoc studio jams and fanatical sampling sessions into something resembling a schedule, But besides that, refreshingly nothing much has changed about their friendship, spanning over twenty years and a regular Hamburg to Berlin studio exchange.
With a record collection covering several decades of hip hop, funk and soul as well as releases on numerous vinyl-only house and techno imprints, it’s their passion for uncovering dusty vinyl treasures and the soul that can be captured on a miniature moment in wax that inspires both their DJ sets and production environment.
www.facebook.com/sessionvictim
JANE FITZ
A DJ for over 20 years, Jane Fitz is a resident at London’s Pickle Factory; at Night Moves,the party she co-runs with Jade Seatle, and legendary UK festival Freerotation, for which she was nominated for a DJ Mag Best of British award.
Unique in creating her strong reputation from DJing alone, Jane plays a hard-to-categorise mix of music that can take in early UK acid tracks, deep, spacey house, modern psychedelic techno, or ambient textures. That’s why you’re just as likely to hear her playing in the mountains of Japan, the beaches of Montenegro or the warehouses of Birmingham as well as in the world’s most credible locations, such as Panoramabar, Concrete, Tresor or Closer, often playing lengthy sets or even all night long. Recent, unhurried productions have begun to surface under the Invisible Menders
name (co-produced with Dom Ahtuam) on cult labels such as Porn Wax, Boe and Animals on Psychedelics. But playing records in obscure locations remains a focus.
PHONICA RECORDS
Over the last thirteen years or so, Phonica Records has grown a reputation as one of the world’s most formidable dance music retailers, with an enviable wall of the newest 12″s from across the spectrum.
When Phonica Records opened in 2003, it entered an environment of decline. Record shops in Soho were closing, vinyl sales were at an all time low and Dido’s Life For Rent was the year’s best selling album. How times have changed.
Aside from being an independent record shop that counts a who’s who of international DJs as regulars (Four Tet, Floating Points, Caribou, Dixon to name a few), Phonica has been instrumental in bringing a new type of record shop to the fore. Where shops previously limited themselves to specific genres, manager Simon Rigg encourages a “broad church” approach to dance music, offering everything from rare soul 7″s to library soundtracks to big room house and techno 12″s.
And where other “one-stop-shops” can lack the breadth of knowledge to match the variety on offer, Phonica’s prowess lies behind the counter, in its staff and the grand wall of vinyl that looms over them.
Hosting regular in-stores, legendary Record Store Day parties and live streams, it has cemented a reputation at the heart of London’s international club scene and now also boasts an overseas outpost at The Store in Berlin.
In their own words: “Fads come and go but we still always sell good dance music, that’s basically it.”
The Late Escape Curated by Phonica Records takes place at The Arch on Fri 19th May.
Find the Facebook event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/286048021851606
Buy tickets here: https://goo.gl/7tRFY3
