Work Them with Howes, plus August Selections - New Mixtape

This Saturday, Work Them and one of Manchester's finest record labels, Melodic, present a one-off free live show from Howes, a prodigal local talent whose recent, inaugural release on Melodic has been met with much acclaim. Playing live, he'll be joined by Work Them's own John Loveless, as well as Chris Egan of Tusk and the Melodic crew themselves. It's our first event in the recently refurbished basement at Kosmonaut, begins at 8PM, finishes at 1AM and comes at the cost of entirely nothing. Before you check out Howes, and our new mixtape, check out the poster below, courtesy of the brilliant Natalie Dunning.

Creating restrained, detailed music (especially for a self-confessed 'non-musician'), Howes debut EP still comes with in built groove and sonic textures bound to sound brilliant below the streets of the Northern Quarter. You can grab centrepiece track Leazes here, from XLR8R, or read more about the EP over at Boomkat, who describe it quite simply as, "Really good stuff." And those cats listen to a lot of records.

For more details, and to kindly let us know you plan on dropping by, you can find the Facebook page here. Otherwise, 8PM, Kosmonaut, Tariff Street, 10/8, 8PM. 

You can also hear a touch more of Howes in the new Work Them August Selections Mixtape, linked below. From the malleable hard drive of our own John Loveless, you can expect new alternative and electronic music, and a couple of unearthed discoveries from  Disco and Acid, to art rock, even a little Gospel, all furtively mixed for an hour and a bit of your audio pleasure.

The mix also features friends, associates and former Work Them guests Ste Spandex and James Booth (formerly Kiosque), the former of whom recently created a typical mind bender of a video for the latter, linked below. James' outstanding new LP, Reunion is out now on 100% Silk, from Junodownload (digital) or on limited edition cassette from Piccadilly Records. Act fast, dance well!

See you on the floor.

Work Them w/ Kiosque - THIS SATURDAY

Work Them returns this Saturday evening/Sunday morning, into the basement of a newly refurbished Soup Kitchen where the bar is longer, the sound is crisper and the urinals are still hidden behind a mysterious door.

Joining us will be mysterious local analogue merchant Kiosque, whose full length release lands soon on 100% Silk. You can find his exclusive Soundcloud mix right here below, featuring some his noted influences and his own material. It's a proper fun listen, and a free download.


Having seen his all gear set in action rehearsal, we can safely say this is going to be a bit of a trip, expertly flitting between irresistible jackin' and melancholy dub disco, with some blink and you'll miss them samples all along the way. You can take a gander at his gear below, via. of the moment snap app Vine (please feel free to follow our Vine if inclined.)

We'll be opening the doors at 11, so get down early. Not only might we fill up, but we've tonnes of brilliant records to play before Kiosque takes the stage after Midnight. After he's done, anything goes. With no current mix from ourselves (but an archive here, of course), find this month's Five Records You're Probably Likely To Hear Given The Circumstances below.

You can pick up an advance ticket from Skiddle for just £4. We'll keep your name on the door. We're nice like that, just make sure you're with us by 12. It's going to be a scorching Saturday. Nonetheless, deep necks at a minimum please. See you on the floor!

Facebook details.

Kiosque - From Hulme To Chicago

With less than two weeks to go, we're very excited about our next live special guest at Work Them, which is saying something given that he's yet to even release a single sound. So here's the scoop.

Earlier this year, yours truly attended the psychedelic Maria Minerva show at Kraak. It were a chilly night way back in late winter - arguments about Disclosure were more infrequent, friends and associates would still occasionally say 'YOLO' for comic effect, and the good club and gig loving folk of Manchester held strong and ploughed through a seemingly endless winter with a seemingly equally endless supply of drugs and alcohol. Oh well, YOLO.

After Minerva had finished one of her typically weird but exciting sets, I spied the DJ playing it strong, playing it all night long, and not immediately recognising him thought, "Hey, who's this jerk?!" Filled with righteous indignation towards this mystery selector, I marched over to the booth, furious, and said, "Hey man, cool set. Who's this by?"

"Oh this?", he responded. "This is one of mine." I told him, with a sincerity I hadn't expected to conjure, that it was really good, that it sounded like something that might come out on 100% Silk. "Oh cool", said the man known as Kiosque. "I've actually signed to 100% Silk." And on that dark winter night, tentative plans for a gig were born.

Work Them has somewhat gravitated to 100% Silk releases (and guests) since our conception, with tunes by the likes of Magic Touch and Ital becoming inadvertent floor fillers. Kiosque's music, or what we've heard of it, gravitates in a similar direction to their output thus far - warm, strange, both euphoric and melancholy and even faintly poppy. His upcoming live set on Saturday July 6th is going to be an all analogue affair to compliment our usual DJ sets, and the mysterious Hulme resident has put together an all vinyl taster mix featuring some of his favourite records as well as a selection of his own material. You can hear and download it below.

Further details can be found at our Facebook, and you can buy advance tickets at just £4 from Skiddle. See you on the floor?



And don't forget, our semi-sort of spin-off Still Going can be found in the basement of The Deaf Institute, each Sunday from 9PM-1AM, although last week's jackin' session with the one and only Ste Spandex extended beyond that. Not band for a Sunday buzz. Upcoming guests include John Doran of The Quietus, Trash-O-Rama, Dance Lady Dance, Ghosting Season and more... And it's always free.

Soup Kitchen w/ Kiosque + Still Going

We're pleased to announce that Work Them will be returning to our favourite basement, Manchester's Soup Kitchen, fresh from a recent refit, on Saturday 6th July. Beginning at 11PM, expect 4-5 hours of alternative and electronic music for the body and mind, from classic edits to throbbing house, chugging heart tugging disco as well as a few surprises. We'll also be joined on the night by our pal Kiosque, performing a special live hardware jam. This mysterious Mancunian will soon release an LP on 100% Silk, a mainstay in the Work Them record box, and will be previewing his raw but uplifting material in his home city for the first time. He's recorded a mix featuring a variety of overlooked classics as well as his own material to give Workers (yeah, we're using that now), a taste of what to expect. We'll be uploading that next week, so bear with us.

Credit as ever to Natalie Dunning for the poster.You can find all the details and let us know you're coming here. You can let us know you're not coming either, but that'll probably be self-evident. Although at £5 all night, what's your excuse? However if you are completely stripped of currency, we may have something else of interest up our sleeves....

As well as nurturing Work Them, we like to think of Still Going as a semi-spin off, with a few key differences. We're still in a basement, albeit, at the other end of town, in The Deaf Institute. But we're not on a Friday, or a Saturday. Still Going is a new idea and a new attempt to establish a Sunday session in the city, every week, 9PM-1AM. To sweeten the deal after what could have been a heavy weekend, you can expect a special guest every week, playing as they wish away from the hustle of a big night out, but still within the remit of our handily rhyming Last Chance To Dance mantra. Best of all, each night is completely free.

So as well as weekly sets from us, in the first few month's alone you'll get, amongst others, the likes of Wet Play's Ste Spandex jackin' some Sunday evening boogie, Quietus editor and Vice columnist John Doran letting loose whatever he likes on the PA, local heroes Melodic Records going head to head with disco expert Chris Egan of Tusk, Trash-O-Rama opting in for some weekending dance sleaze, or moody techno experts Ghosting Season digging deep into their digital collection, whilst Dance Lady Dance and Pasta Paul will be popping along with many an obscure pop gem.

Still Going is all about variety, and an idealistic focus on good music and nice people to wind down a weekend, all in a properly intimate and ornate setting. If you've never ventured down below The Deaf, have a look at this recent gallery, shot by Sebastian Matthes. We're also lucky enough to have had Paul Hemmingfield take care of our artwork, which is typically incredible and as the more cultured amongst you will recognise, loosely based on MC Esher's (our favourite MC after Hammer and Chunky), and his concept for a never ending staircase. 

The first Still Going is this Sunday 16th June, from 9PM-1AM, with residents John Loveless and Tenmen, and is entirely free entry, as always. We hope to see you down there. For a flavour of what you might hear, you can find John's recent Work Them Spring Mix, available for streaming and as as free download below, featuring music from Four Tet, Glowing Palms, Romare, Rhye and more.

For details of all upcoming guests at Still Going, do us a favour and find us on Facebook and Twitter. Thanks for bearing with us through this lengthy transmission, it'll all just be music soon enough.

Work Them March Top 10 - Part 2 plus East India Youth

Following the first 5 in our new occasional charts compiling records we can't get enough of at the moment, here's another 5 to take us to a logical top 10, courtesy of the other Work Them resident, Scott, AKA, 'That Beaman Sound', AKA, Ricky SB. You can find the first half right here. Gotta catch em all!

Work Them is back down in Soup Kitchen this Friday from 11PM featuring the wonderful Fort Romeau. All details and ticket links can be found here. It's going to be a great party, we're sure.

As well as our Friday party, John will be taking care of business on the decks at the debut Manchester show from East India Youth this Tuesday at Kraak, courtesy of our friends at Grey Lantern. So good that The Quietus set up a record label just for him, the show will also include support from Swimming Lessons and Leopard of Honour, as well as ourselves. All the details and tickets are here. Advance tickets just £3.

Digital Lyrical with Dr. Me

Work Them's first Digital Lyrical guests are esteemed local creative minds Dr. Me. With a foot in the worlds of both art and music, and then another two between them to presumably do whatever the fuck they like, Dr. Me are responsible for some of the most distinctive and unique posters and artwork in Manchester over the past few years. As well as work for the likes of Dutch Uncles and Holy Other, they have also designed  the poster (pictured below) for our upcoming party with Fort Romeau at Soup Kitchen on March 15th. We were as pleased as we'd anticipated, ie. very, and happy to interview them for the blog (pictured further below)

How long has Dr. Me existed in it’s current form?

On the first day of university we were paired together to do a 'get to know each other' kind of project due to our names being next to each other on the register, that was in 2008 maybe? We properly formed DR.ME when we returned from working together for illustrator Mike Perry in 2011 though.

What’s the current studio setup?

We sit across from each other, separated by a pair of red boxing gloves that hang between us and our good pal Steve Hockett (http://www.wonder-room.eu) who sits across the studio.

Talk to us about your recent exhibition at Piccadilly Place, curating local talent. Are you now Godfathers of the scene? – here’s your unique chance to make that arrogant assertion!

The exhibition at Piccadilly Place was with our bro SAVWO it was the culmination of 2 weeks of workshops with students from University of Salford, it was serious fun screen printing, drawing and generally making a mess and then welcoming over 300 guests in over the weekend to see the temporary gallery space. Godfathers of the scene? No, we're just getting started.

You've mainly done work with other artists and musicians thus far. Do you intend to work in a more commercial arena, or is is your focus more-so on an independent ethos?

We're happy to work with anyone that is brave enough to work with us as long as we keep a healthy balance between keeping the wolf from the door and doing things that excite us.

In regards to this, do you often debate art and commerce? Or is it just important to consider what’s sincere and interesting? Is this a really trad question?

There's nothing wrong with making money for what you do, people seem obsessed with drawing lines and saying "well if you work for XXXX then you're a sell out", the only point when you "sell out" is when you find yourself crossing your own line of comfort and starting to feel those pangs of guilt in your stomach. 

You’ve recently worked with both Holy Other, Dutch Uncles and D/R/U/G/S amongst others. What is the collaborative process when working with an artist, and what are the key factors in ensuring a sort of trust between the two of you?

Communication, the better you understand each other the and the more trust there is the better the end product is. If there is no trust and bad communication then you end up with something that neither party is proud of. 

Is there a different creative process involved in creating a poster and some album artwork? What do you principally draw upon?

Normally just the time frame but in principle the process is kind of similar, you are trying to create something representative that captures the essence of whatever it is that is being presented, whether that's something really simple to something highly complex. Due to both of these processes normally feeding back to the promotion of an artist we always find listening to the artist over and over again paints things like colours and imagery really well in your mind before you start working. 

You’re quite closely associated with the Manchester music scene of late, and you’ve a background in DJing and such. Straddling both art and music, how do you feel about the state of ‘alternative culture’ at the moment?

It's great, especially in Manchester so many great bands and artists coming through over the past five years inspiring people to stay in the city.

What do you listen to in the studio at the moment?

We've been working on the new Haxan Cloak record design so that's been on quite heavy rotation, other than that it totally varies, right now we're listening to Deerhunter but aside from that we got sent a bunch of records from Warp as we did some work for them so we've been trying to motor through them, Gonjasufi's record is a stand out.

You're currently exhibiting a lantern as part of Soup Kitchen's ongoing Lantern exhibition? Is it true that the bottom of yours is full of fun size bags of Maltesers?

Who told you?

What is the future for Dr. Me? 

Keep on scaring the life out of each other and never reach for the boxing gloves.

Thanks to Dr. Me. For further details, archives and comissions, check out their website.

Work Them March Top 10 - Part 1

Music. There's an absolute load of it nowadays, more than one man, even the men at Work (Them) could hope to consume. Fortunately, the pushier sorts like ourselves are happy to compile it into lists and present it to people on blogs. Is this a good thing? How do you source your music nowadays? Given the tyranny of choice, who are the real tastemakers left to front for the industry? And do those in the limited yay or naysayer roles crush the dreams of the creator and narrow the mind of the fan? Will they kill the HMV dog? And how? All things to consider whilst you work your way through Part 1 of Work Them's Top 10 records for March 2013, as carefully selected by John AKA, John Loveless AKA, Thor Jones, AKA, JT Chasez.

Helpfully, these are all records you can expect to hear down in the basement of Soup Kitchen at our next party with the amazing Fort Romeau on March 15th. All the details here. If you enjoy these, expect another five from the other half of Work Them this week, and find more music we like and details we consider to be of note at our Soundcloud and Twitter. We feel it's a way of us being in your life that works for both parties.