Music / Clubs
Bristol best of 2015: Clubs
1. Room 237
This lot have made the artier end of dance music their own, and this has been a vintage year with bookings for James Ruskin, Helena Hauff, Roman Lindau and Source Direct. Best of all was their party in May, as Objekt and Marco Bernardi joined resident Black Amiga in the bowels of The Island.
2. RBMA presents Lords of the Manor
A grime and hiphop rave? In an 18th-century manor house? The idea was so delicious, it had to happen. A highlight of Red Bull Music Academy’s Bristol takeover on Easter Weekend, this one saw Detroit party fiend Danny Brown, shape-shifting producer Mumdance and emerging Lewisham voice-of-a-generation Novelist take time to overturn the social order.
Read the Bristol24/7 review
3. Who Cares?
Who Cares? have seized the midweek mantle once owned by Dubloaded. They don’t announce their lineups in advance but with NYTA, Gotsome and Jus Now as residents they don’t need to. In their first year they’ve hosted stages at Glastonbury and Love Saves the Day and a pair of huge daytime parties outside Lakota. Thursday mornings will never be the same.
4. Shapes
The 4/4 purists started 2015 as they meant to go on, with a huge New Year’s Day party at Motion. This year they’ve brought Marcel Dettman, Seth Troxler, Luke Vibert and Jeff Mills to town, staged a lavish masked ball, and spread Bristol’s passion for quality house and techno from Shambala to Boomtown.
5. Young Echo
With a sonic range stretching from soundsystem bangers to beatless noise jams, Young Echo is Bristol’s most progressive club night. While the parties have been less frequent this year that’s only made them more special, and the collective’s monthly podcasts have helped keep the hunger pangs at bay.