Soup Kitchen and Night Fantasy

A quick, unusually waffle free bulletin from your friends at Work Them. After our supremely satisfying party with Huntleys & Palmers last month, we're back, kicking it midweek from next Thursday 26th September at 10:30PM, at our usual spot below Soup Kitchen. It's just £4 in advance or before Midnight, or £5 after and it'll be business as usual, A no bullshit discotheque drawing on discoveries both fresh and classic, expect forward thinking dancefloor noise on a bed of out there pop, funk and disco, plus plenty of surprises. No foam machines, no photographers, no awkward live PAs. Full Disclosure; No Disclosure. 

Before that, we're partnering with our pals at Melodic Records for another intimate party in the basement of Kosmonaut, now officially titled 'Night Fantasy', and as well as John Loveless, Andy and Alex of Melodic and Chris Egan of Tusk, our special guest with be James Booth. Back in the days when James was better known as Kiosque (July), he played live for us and since has released his fantastic debut LP for 100% Silk. He'll be digging into his ample wax collection for Night Fantasy, which you can revisit in his previous Work Them mix below.. It's free in and "the fun starts at 8." Credit to Natalie Dunning as usual for both amazing posters, we have a couple spare to give away at each night so just tap the door hound and ask nicely.

And as a reward for your willing absorption of details, here are some current recorded favourites you might well expect to hear at both...

See you on the floor!

Huntleys & Palmers present... Auntie Fl

Work Them are very pleased to be pairing up with our friends down the Mersey, Deep Hedonia, to a present an evening in the company of one of our favourite producers since our inception, Auntie Flo. A true original from the way of Glasgow by Goa, he'll be dropping by with one of the most out-there and eclectic record collections currently circulating clubs and festivals worldwide, as well as a selection of his own one-of-a-kind productions, in less than one week time as you read these very words... If you're reading them after 6/9 it's too late, and I'm sorry that you have to keep hearing about what an awesome party we had.

Taking cues from Afrobeat, Kwaito and outsider music, Auntie Flo's music respectfully and seamlessly mixes in elements of house, disco and psych to create proper vital rythyms. Exisiting as a project for around a decade, Auntie Flo has in the past few years seen appearances on Boiler Room both live and DJing, remixes by the likes of Pearson Sound, and fans found in the likes of Micheal Mayer, Dixon and fellow Glaswegians Optimo, all of whom are releasing his productions through their own  esteemed labels such as Kompakt and Innervisions.

c

The first label to release his material, and currently prepping a new series of 12 inch edits by the man himself, London based Huntleys & Palmers are synonymous with Auntie Flo and label head Andrew J Thomson will also be spinning a series of finds that form the aesthetic of the label, who have also released fantastic records from Work Them favourites Alejandro Paz and SOPHIE.

Joining the pair will be Work Them's resident John Loveless, as well as a special live A/V set from Liverpool's Acrobat. Tickets are available now priced at just £5 in advance from both Skiddle and Resident Advisor, and more on the door on the night. For more details and to let us know you're coming, see Facebook.

You can still hear John Loveless' Work Them August Selection mix as a free download below. Featuring Thundercat, Beautiful Swimmers, Lone, In Flagranti and more...

We hope to see you on the floor.

u

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.