solidarity, komrade!

the uk scene is as you might expect, very diverse. if you like DnB, youve come to the right place. clubs to check out in london:

the end http://www.endclub.com is intimate but has some of the best dnb nights going. check out renegade hardware if you can. on a larger scale, but similar tip, http://www.mass-club.com is a ruud club in a massive church, up brixton way.

also in brixton is the fridge, and if you want a bit less attitude and a bit more variety, thats ur place. project ozma nights are a spectacle to behold, in true tripped out psytrance style.

for a different night altogether, or a good place to start your evening is camden, but im sure as a tourist you’ll find your way around there soon enough. its a wicked chilled and funky corner of london, and while there are still loads of crackheads wandering about, it has a nice freindly vibe running thru it.

tbh, london is harsh and dark and cramped, imo. check out bristol if you want uk dnb hiphop styles, that is where its at. and brightons well nice but a bit snobby if you ask me.

hope thats confused you enough for now.

i hear ya, not a big club fan meself, its all about ravin in the open air…

check squatjuice.org, urban75.com, and if you want a little of me and mine, nativebeats.co.uk

there are loads of sites about….do you have any AZ sites for us to peruse so we can seewhere ya comin from?

the heat is pretty hot. 3parties are havin a resurgance atm, and the police are responding accordingly. having said that, when parties get on the news, at least the coppers dont take off their numbers and baton rush you. it has been known.

the pigs used to just come down as heavy as poss, but now theyre being clever, which makes it harder on us, obviously. last year 10 rigs were nicked by the police at the same party, and the owners face massive fines. hardcore.

the freeparty music i would say is predominantly techno and gabber, with some DnB and jungle and hardly any psytrance. oldskool hardcore and the like does turn up, but quite sporadically. dont mention house and freeparties in the same sentance. you’ll regret it. 😉

yer, i recon house was the template for most dance, and as such has its place in the history of dance music, but four to the floor is old and dead now, only existing in cheesy mainstream clubnights. i have never heard house in anything other than that environment. just goes to show how little i know, and how limited my experience of clubbin is, nowt else.

personally house makes me want to strangle the dj or leave the club. it bores me to tears and destroys my energy. i know people who feel like that about dnb.

wow, it would be lush to have a desert or a warehouse area with no sound restrictions, that would be mint. england is a much smaller place, so pretty much no matter where you party, someone will be kept up. we try to tuck ourselves away as much as poss, but its not that easy.

we also have infolines, and thats the main way of promoting freeparties. freeparties in this country started off (so ive heard) in the late eighties, when the police started getting wise to illega events going off, andat the time there was a loophole in the law which meant if you didnt charge, it wasn’t illegal. money was collected on a voluntary donation basis, but thats all. this grew into a tradition in england, of taking a stack into the woods, flyering our partylines or just word of mouth (and sometimes the net if we’re feeling lairy) and inviting everyone. because theres no money involved, it opens the event up to more people, and coz its outside the law, there are no rules. “temporary autonomous zones” they have been called.

there have been plenty of nasty police breakups of parties, although theyre getting better now. the media in this country love nothing more than to write nasty articles about raves and wind everyone up, non more so than our police. freeparty as a word is now popular partly because if you say “rave” most people start getting rabid. check out this article from the most popular paper in britain: http://www.nativebeats.co.uk/forums/index.php?act=ST&f=10&t=92& the crew in question are freinds of mine, and they were pretty shocked to have two gun toting maniacs storm their party, and then doube shocked as a lot of the press were on their side! it seems guns should never be used to intimidate, unless its ravers, which makes it ok!

to be fair, usually the police only comedown hard if the site isnt safe, or is right next to loads of rich people. but sometimes they go mental cos they thinkm no one is watching. ive been doin parties for four years and the police have only been not nice twice, and even then there was no violence and no one got nicked, they just got angry and one time fucked off, the other time shut us down (the only shut down we’ve had, and it was a private party on private land!).

most raves ive been involved with went smooth as silk, not a whisper from the cops (or a freindly visit), no annoyed neighbours, just pure wicked vibes.

there are loads of different laws they can spring on us, and do, but somehow the scene keeps goin. rigs (soundsystems) usually have their own set of djs which play one stye of music, so i help a dnb rig, we usually invite a techno rig, and a chillout rig to our raves. because of the police, we need at least 100 people to start a rave from the word go, or they will try and nick everyone.so raves start at around midnight, when there will be the most people abvout, and end the next day, sometimes 10, sometimes two days later. have you checked the teknival thread? worth a look. thats how we do.