SMS takeover.

We're very much looking forward to tomorrow night at our new basement, Q Cavern and we're happy to have Seb from Stop Making Sense lending a hand. In anticipation of tomorrow, he's put together a little playlist of the stuff he's been playing out, from hypnotic electronic to inappropriate house, we're sure you'll enjoy it.

Work Them
Q Cavern
Newton Street
17th November
10-3AM


See you soon. x


Joe- Studio Power ON

 

I think Joe is a vastly underrated producer. I'm a huge fan of the way his samples are so crass and seem cheaply placed over the track like some 90s clip art. I guess that's his main skill though his tracks are sparse and he manages to balance them so well that the end result is totally fantastic. Check out all his shit.

 Mike Dunn-Phreaky MF
 

 Smutty house vocals really do it for me, if a track is talking about how someone is going to shit on another whilst holding their large ____ I instantly buy it up.... I once played this record at one of the NQs street parties at about 6pm, apparently there were young children running around.....I feel.....ashamed.




 Discrete unit- Shake Your Body Down



This came out a couple of years ago.... I still can’t get enough of the bass hook.


 Kassim Mosse- untitled A

 I am a regular attendant to the night meandyou and those guys really got me switched on to the workshop crew. I saw Kassim Mosse play live this summer it was awesome, I’m pretty sure I didn’t say a word throughout his whole set. This is a stunning opus of a track, full on journey.


 Marcel Fengler- Friction
 

 I used to be really into all this Ostgut style techno and made frequently pilgrimages to Berlin. I remember when I first started going out an dancing to 'harder' music how I used to just get super locked into the groove and get fixated on all the subtle changes in the tracks……this isn’t the track I wanted to post…. But I think it’s a pretty decent example of what I’m getting at.





SMS has been going for just over 5 years now. In that time we've played host to guests from Pangaea to Mike Simmonetti to ...and you will know us by the trail of dead. I think that mix of those artists pretty much well sums up the night, it's meant to be fun with an anything goes music policy that doesn’t take it's self all too seriously. To celebrate our 5th birthday we are having belated a party next Thursday (22nd) at Common.  As we are  turning 5 we plan to have cake, party bags and fancy dress. You are all invited with open arms.

Work Them at Q Cavern + New Basement Mixtape

After two months worth of sweat and sellout crowds at Soup Kitchen, Work Them shifts up the road but keeps it down in the basement with a night at Manchester's coolest and strangest new venue, Q Cavern.

You wouldn't suspect that this unassuming jerk chicken mini-mecca could make for such a great party, but Q Cavern is fast gaining a deserved reputation amongst those in the know, and we're delighted to bring you another night of weird and wonderful body music below Newton Street. If you've yet to sample Q, we'll be waiting with new discoveries, current groovers and records that still sound as fresh as any from the worlds of disco, psychedelia, post-punk, house, experimental, bass and more. Willing feet and broad minds required. 

As per, you can find all the details and RSVP at our Facebook event here.

To celebrate in our usual fashion we've released a special new Nyce and Slow mixtape, mixed live by our John, and designed to give you a feel for the early hours of Work Them. It's a a low-tempo but big impact 45 minute mix for you, dear potential punter/Work Them convertee, which happily gels alt-rock, slow ass acid and weird pop. Tracklist after the jump and a download link on the way.

Don't forget to have a gander around our Mixcloud for more furtively mixed mixtape nuggets.

Work Them Basement Tape #2 - Nyce N' Slow by Workthem on Mixcloud

 Tracklisting....

Maria Minerva with LA Vampires - Seasons Change

Orange Juice - Rip It Up (Dicky Trisco Edit)

Venice Beach - Da Mind

Mock & Toof - My Head

Dead Rose Music Company - Your Kisses

Matthew Dear - Her Fantasy

Homework - Spinning Top

Daniel Avery - The Eagle

Wooden Shjips - Crossing (Andrew Weatherall Remix)

Walls - Into Our Midst (Capracara Remix)

JETS - Sin Love With You

Work Them Basement Tapes - Vol 1.

The first in a series, Work Them's Basement Tape Vol. 1 is 50 minutes of music, selected to reflect the sounds of our monthly discoteque. Gradually increasing in tempo from the organic experimental stylings of Can and Brian Eno to the visceral machinery of Factory Floor and Daniel Avery, whilst Prince shows up before it gets lairy to remind us of our own humanity. 

Work Them returns to Soup Kitchen on Saturday 13th October, from 11PM-330AM. £4 on the door before midnight, £5 after.

Work Them's Basement Tapes - Vol. 1 by Workthem on Mixcloud

Work Them returns... again

First thing's first... A massive thankyou to all of you who made it down to the bowels (not bowls) of Soup last weekend for the first edition of Work Them 'by night' in quite a while. Any by all of you, I do really mean all of you, as we had a total sell out event on our hands. So as well as a big thanks to everyone who kept dancing until the end, and for not making a single shite request along the way, a big apology to anybody who couldn't make it in. Fortunately, you'll have another chance, but you'll need to move quick sharp. Work Them returns on Saturday October 13th to Soup Kitchen once more, for another throwdown of full bodied alternative and electronic music for the body and mind, but be warned, this is no victory lap. We've got plenty more where that came from - more grooves, more fuzz, more weird stuff, more liberal use of the strobe light and smoke machine. No fuss, no muss, so see you down there? It's just £4 in before midnight, and only £5 after. This event follows on directly from Now Wave's PINS headline show, so come find us and we'll see if we can cut you a deal should you want to stick around.

You can find the poster below - click for the Facebook event - and then scroll for a quick video playlist of some choice tunes that those in attendance appeared to enjoy. For a more comprehensive, but hopefully not too conclusive idea of that Work Them sound, drop by our Mixcloud for a history of streaming live mixes. There's more of them to come too, as well as a few other features and interviews.

Work Them at Soup Kitchen

As promised, Work Them returns this month to a brand new venue that'll really allow us to take it up a gear, down in the basement of Soup Kitchen. If you've never had the chance to visit, you're in for a great party. And we don't use the term party lightly. It's the perfect setting for five hours of weird and wonderful body music with minimal but effective disco lights, dubious enclaves and chatty communal unisex toilets. Oh, and a great soundsystem and a typically up for it crowd. Just in case communal toilets aren't enough to convince you to part with £4*. That's right, less than a premium jacket potato in many of the UK's top chain retailers. Ladies and gentlemen, this is hype.
 

Credit to Natalie Dunning for our crisp poster, as well as all our other artwork.

To celebrate, and also because it just seems like the sensible thing for a still relatively fresh club night, we've produced an hour of music mixed and mastered to give you an idea of jus what to expect down there. Entitled Work Them's Somewhat Esssential Mix #2 and is the sequel to last year's mix, stil available on our own Mixcloud archive. Held together with a more four the floor style reflective of what to expect now we found ourselves below ground level (where things get deep, yo), you'll still find an eclectic hour of music covering a wide range of edits of artists and producers from Zomby to Kate Bush, Nicolas Jaar to Bob Sinclair, some chopped up, beefed out or rearranged, some nestling comfortably in their original form. Listening atmosphere suggestions include a Metrolink at sunset without a ticket, a hungover shower or with a girl you want to impress. If you suspect she may be impressed by Andrew Weatherall remixes, therefore rendering her a keeper.

Work Them presents... Somewhat Essential Mix #2 by Workthem on Mixcloud

 The mix is also available as a free download with a quick visit to our Facebook event page here, which contains everything you need to know, but, in short...

WORK THEM

SATURDAY 22ND SEPTEMBER

10:30PM - 3:30AM

£4 BEFORE MIDNIGHT/£5 AFTER

GET OUT THE HOUSE MUSIC ALL NIGHT LONG.

 

 

Afternoon Delight & Summer Mixtape

Hello, nice catching up. It's all been a bit quiet on the blog front as of late, but fear not, the Work Them cogs are turning and things are coming together. A few of said things, we're pleased to be able to tell you about right now.

Currently, we're going to ride out the drizzly dusk of Manchester's summer scene and come back with more proper parties in September, which will incorporate guest DJs, a few live acts and the same sound but different as usual. In the meantime, to keep us alive in hearts and minds, we're making our presence felt in various bars and basements for the meantime.

First of all, we're pleased to announce that Work Them's director of sonics and flyer-size, John Thorp, will be undertaking a new residency on the last Saturday of each month at the ubiquitous Deaf Institute, between the Aquatics centre and the kebab shops of Manchester's contrived Southern Quarter. From 3PM to 9PM, expect a set that transitions fluidly from an afternoon laze around to a pre-night out drink-up, taking in ambient electronica, psychedelic edits, warped hip-hop, laid back disco and hypnotic shoegaze. Given that we've six hours to fill, we'll also be inviting down some very special guests over the coming months, often taking the advantage of the daylight streaming in to play the sort of music you might not expect...

As well as the speaker output, The Deaf Institute (AKA, 'The Deaf', AKA, 'The Deafy', AKA, 'The Wes Institute'), will be serving it's fine selection of craft ales and impressive cocktails, to match the mood. Also encouraged are zines, mixtape swaps, crafts, t-shirt printing and readings. This gives us a broad remit, so if any of you have any ideas of something matching but beyond the musical realm to match, do get in touch. After all, this is your event. Actually, no, it's ours, but there's no better company than like minded souls.

We'll be compiling an accompanying Spotify playlist for the event to enjot at your leisure, and whilst our edition is not for a month or so at the time of writing, the series launches with our pals Dr. Me this Saturday the 7th July, whose are fine designers and DJs to boot.

Meanwhile, we've a summer tinged mix to download and stream over at Mixcloud here. We've previously been advocates of Soundcloud, but they didn't seem to want this one as apparently the new Major Lazer track featured, and is particularly copyright protected. This is particularly stupid as not only did I customarily lay some wonky electro-jazz chords over the end of it anyway, but it was a free giveaway. I tell you kids, it wasn't like this back with Freeserve. Anyway, do enjoy it, and some of our favourite tracks this year from the likes of Slow Magic, Romare and Trevino.

Natural nger at Diplo notwithstanding, we've some great stuff planned, so thanks for your time, see you for some Afternoon Delight. x

Sounds From The Other City & April Mixtape

After a brief hiatus, Work Them returns to host an Islington Mill afterparty for Sounds From The Other City, taking you through until the early hours after a day of fantastic new music, and featuring a line up of DJs as fresh and eclectic as the festival itself. Admission is free with a Sounds From The Other City wristband, which allows you access to our little soiree as well as a record eleven other stages across the river in Salford, brought you by promoters such as Underachievers, Mind On Fire, Trash-O-Rama and more! 

Acts Include But Are Not Limited To!

• Walls
• Dam Mantle
• Loney Dear
• Keep Shelley In Athens
• This Many Boyfriends
• Molly Nillson
• Patterns
• Islet
• 100% Beefcock!!!

It’s like the most sonically enlightening pub crawl you’ve ever been on. The event has sold out in the past, so act fast!

First off, we’re very excited to welcome the 100% silky queen of modern weirdo pscyh disco, Miss Maria Minerva, upstairs at t'Mill for a DJ set after she’s finished off the Now Wave stage downstairs. One of the most unpredictable and individual new artists working in alternative/dance/experimental/lo-fi/whatever music today, and she’ll be bringing a stack of records focused on pure groove. Creator of some real, “What’s This?!” on rotation at Work Them, check out her excellent FACT mix - the appropriately subtitled ‘Living in Ecstasy’ for an idea of what to expect from Miss MM.

Deeper, darker, heavier and weirder more, we’re also joined for the latter part of the party by creature of the night and one of Manchester’s finest producers, The Countach. Once promising ‘an original techno anthem to inspire the troops’, in the meantime, The Count has expertly crafted some of the most memorable techno of recent times, with tracks such as ‘Melvin Never Made It’, and several strange and wonderful edits for the likes of Abba and Queen. Probably uncommissioned, we must admit. As well as this, he also runs Fallowfield’s extra sweaty Countach Club, a sort of Friday night community rave project that has lured some great guests. Whilst only a glimpse into his untame musical mind, here’s a recent ‘5 Songs You Must Hear This Week’ as requested by paid-up Countach fanboy Erol Alkan to get you started...

Victories at Sea are one of the most potentially powerful new bands in the UK, a Birmingham cross breed between Factory Floor and New Order, presenting their full throttle live show earlier on in the day over at Underachievers stage, save them travelling back down the M6 on a Bank Holiday, they’ll be sticking around to play some tunes and be merry with us. We’ll be honest, we anticipate tunes that sound a bit like Factory Floor or New Order, but they could be big Rick Ross enthusiasts for all we know.

In between our special guests, we’ll be keeping it going with our usual mix of tunes for the booty shakers and the beard strokers, from dubbed out disco, weirdo indie classics, charismatic techno to oddball house and pop. Who knows what to expect in our ongoing quest to establish the link between Edywn Collins and Flying Lotus, but boy, you’d better get set for cowbells!

As promised you can reacquaint yourself with our style and pizazz, with this April’s Work Them mixtape, a downloadable one hour odyssey through our worthy flavours of the month, including tracks from Chromatics, Burial, New Build, Midland and more... Our last mixtape had over 500 listens, so thanks for the support, and we hope to see you at the Mill. Pace yourselves... x

www.soundsfromtheothercity.com

On Decks - Kindness & James Blake.

Hello there, hope you're well.

First of all, a big thanks to everyone that made it down to see Halls great debut Manchester show last Friday. A totally promising young band in possession of both atmosphere and pulse, and we look forward to seeing them back in Manchester soon.

After a couple of months collaborating with live bands, we'll be returning to a more traditional clubnight for a cool party this Easter, but we've still copped two very special local guests to add some flavour, both rooted in our ethos of cutting edge leftfield and electronic music, although you can expect a fair few uncovered gems too if we may so ourselves... details to follow very shortly.

In the meantime, we're happy to annouce we're going to be administering audio hits for our pals at Now Wave a few times soon. First of all, we're very pleased to be an addition to a bill for a very special clubnight in June, featuring James Blake collaborating with astounding Roll Deep MC Trim, for a special set of his Harmonix productions,. In support is a live set from the tremendously underrated Hyetal, whose debut album from last year, Broadcast, was frequently a thing of real beauty. Also featured is Riz MC, rapper/MC/producer/actor/comedian, best known for his role as Omar in Chris Morris's Four Lions, but also one of the original founders of co-promoters Hit and Run. Please, no "Rubber dinghy rapids" business. All the details, the full line up and a selection of very reasonably priced earlybird tickets are available right here. Be warned the limit to these, is equal, if not lesser than that of Jimmy B's love.

Before that, and in fact, this Thursday, we're delighted to be warming up at another Now Wave joint, the debut Manchester show by the engimatic dubby disco pop king to be, Kindness. His new album 'World, You Need A Change Of Mind', has been soundtracking late evenings and Sunday afternoons for us for a while now, and lead single Cyan (see below) has yet to miss out on an airing at the club. On the night, we'll be bringing a suitable selection of disco, psych and pop to get you in the mood. The Now Wave blog features a preview from yours truly, as well as a stream of the album.


"... What Kindness does best, is create warm, encompassing pop music. Mastered in the studio by Phillippe Zdar (last responsible, of course, for Phoenix’s exempelary Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix) it’s an odd but reassuring tapestry of ideas. With Zdar at the helm, and support from a range of dance music alumni, ‘World…’ may feel like a throwback album, but it’s certainly an idiosyncratic and very current one at that...."

Tickets for the show, in the wonderful basement of Soup Kitchen, are priced just £6 and all the details are here. Get down early to catch us and support act, Modern Blonde.

That's it for now. Don't forget to like our Facebook page to find out what we've got on offer over the coming months. We're excited and hope you will be too.

Work Them Chart Mixtape - March 2012

Our new mixtape for March 2012 features the toast of what's been entertaining our collective ears lately, and what to expect from the night itself. Following a 45 minute trail of alternative dance and weirdo indie, expect contributions from Todd Terje with the irresistible 'Inspector Norse', Errors euphoric post-rock on 'Pleasure Palaces', and future-thinking hip hop from the likes of Lapalux and Evian Christ. There's also an accidental Whitney Houston tribute guaranteed to tear up anybody's sad Aunt. The mix is downloadable for a limited time, and available on our Soundcloud below, and soon at our dedicated Mixcloud account, which is also a permanent home all of our previous mixes.

We hope you enjoy it.




The next edition of Work Them takes place on March 9th, at Kraak Gallery off Stevenson Square, and features a live performance from Halls one of the best new alternative electronic bands in the UK. Their recent EP, 'Fragile' has been gaining plaudits from critics and new music lovers all over, and we're delighted to bring their full live performance to Manchester. Support comes from a DJ set by co-promoters for the evening, Grey Lantern, and after the band, we'll be keeping it going until Kraak gives up the ghost for tne night,. What to expect? A mind expanding and pulse racing mix of everything from shoegaze and psych to future thinking electronica, all dashed with leftfield pop and club classics for the beard strokers, the booty shakers and the awkward ravers.

For full details and tickets for just £4 in advance, register at the Facebook event. We hope to see you at the show and on the floor.

Also, producers, bands, and so forth... We're always looking for exciting new tracks and releases, for our chart mixes, live bookings, and some sort of potential beyond. If you're reckon you've got something we might like, email it over to workthemclub at g mail dot com. But of course, we never really want to know just what we like...

Halls - 9th March, Kraak Gallery

Hello, and a big thanks to everyone who made it down to our show with patten earlier this month. It was a truly exciting set of live electronic music, and anyone that missed it can still catch both audio and video recordings of his show in the Boiler Room archive. Since his appearance at Work Them, patten has also announced a new label, Kaleidoscope, which has begun with a release from a London duo, Sculpture. The track, Slime Code, matches their label boss' interest in strange and hypnotic sounds that unravel slowly. Released on tape and now unfortunately sold out, there's a limited download release available for free here, and the suitably unusual visual accompaniement can be found below to get your head around.

Looking forward, our next Work Them show and accompanying clubnight will take place on March 9th, at Kraak Gallery as usual, when in accompaniment with our pals Grey Lantern, we'll be playing host to London's Halls. Originally a one-man production project, and now expanded into a live band, Halls have been on our playlists and such since we first encountered them last autumn, although the project is two years in. The recently released 'Fragile' EP is easily his best work, much of which is available on a well stocked Bandcamp page. Affecting and enigmatic electronica with a real pulse, Halls recalls Work Them favourites such as Mount Kimbie, Radiohead and Gold Panda (whom he has also remixed), and we're expecting a brilliant debut live set before a night of dancing to some of the best alternative and electronic music of this moment and those gone. Find the superb 'I Am Not Who You Want' attached below.

Tickets are available now from WeGotTickets for just £4, and will be more on the door. Full details are available on the Facebook event.

Also look out for a new run of Work Them flyers and posters around town, and perhaps upon seeing one, point it out towards a friend and say, "Hey, you, that looks good." Ta.

In potentially unfortunate news, all of us at Work Them were pretty upset to hear that Legends on Whitworth Street could be closing to make room for another (theoretical) hotel to be constructed by the Olympian Group. An alternative club on the fringe of the gay village, it is in possession of a unique style and layout (half glittering cabaret, half shameless rave) and an attitude to match, as well as friendly staff, an open minded crowd and a dedication to strengthening Manchester's LBGT scene and reputation, rather than capitalising on it. It's spawned nights like Bollox, and our favourite, if not unfortunate date-clash rival, Homoelectric. There are some of the best alternative clubbing experiences in the UK, run by people who each give more of a shit than a collective concierge of Workfare customer service staff in a drab business hotel ever could. In order to keep people drinking, dancing, making friends and engaging in safe filth not to be replaced instead by pay-per-view pornography channels, please take the time to sign this petition. Although perhaps it's best not to repeat all of that logic in the process.

Apart from that small request, all we ask is you stay tuned to the blog and our Facebook for more news of gigs, DJ sets as well as our own musical reccomendations, including a forthcoming monthly Top 10 of fresh records. You can still catch up on our mixtapes over on Mixcloud, to get a flavour of what we're about.

Work Them with patten (Live) this weekend at Kraak

The sophomore edition of Work Them is finally upon us. Friday February 3rd sees London's enigmatic patten grace Kraak Gallery with his thrilling live show, accompanied by Work Them DJs playing a multi-genre mix squarely aimed at keeping you moving. If you're coming to Now Wave and WotGodForgot's Still Corners show in the venue, beforehand, there'll be discounted admission on the door. Otherwise, it's £5 on the door or just £4 in advance from WeGotTickets. We'll have your name on the door.

To get you in the mood, we recorded a special 30 minute mix for our pals at The Pigeon Post, which you can hear right here, as well as a few words on patten from the pigeon himself.

We hope to see you there and to party late. x

Sounds From The Other All Over

We're delighted to let you know that both Work Them mixtapes so far are now compiled for infinite streaming over on Mixcloud, where they even come complete with tracklisting as standard, plus a full catalogue of all the labels they feature on, which we hope at least a few of you will appreciate and find useful. It's really important to ensure you buy records after because DJs on the internet have told you to do so having obtained them through more dubious means. They didn't close down Wikipedia for nothing.

It is 2 weeks now until the next Work Them featuring London's mind-boggling and enigmatic young master of experimental electronica, patten. Look out for flyers over the next few weeks, or visit the Facebook event page and let us know you're coming, which you most definitely are, right? Tickets are available in advance for £4, which is just 80 pence per quality hour of music.

Speaking of music, that's what we're all about, lest you forget admist other waffle - and we've been doing our fair share of that too. For example, here's a little interview we did for Sounds From The Other City, which we're extremely pleased to be a part of this year. We've more details to follow, but the ticket and line up launch party for the event, which typically combines the best of both a Salford bar crawl and a new music festival, is this Tuesday 24th January, at Deansgate's cosy Gaslamp. And we'll be there, spinning records, as well as the opportunity to buy limited earlybird tickets at just £14.

We've also got a few bookings of our own, live and behind the decks, that we're very excited about over the coming months, but in the meantime, here's some new records you can expect to hear at Kraak on February 3rd.

Hans Peter Lindstrom has returned with his latest LP, the curiously titled 'Six Cups of Rebel'. Best known for his chugging disco remixes, his new, and somewhat gloriously unfashionable new work, deals more than ever in psych and prog but is nonetheless full of his usual disco shimmer. Check out one of the several highlights above.

Many Matthe Dear fan shed a silent, but dicussion forum extolled tear when Matthew Dear began to leave behind the likes of Audion to indulge his experimental pop and dance sensibilities, as heard on 2010's superlative 'Black City'. So God knows what they'd make of this new collaboration from the new Headcage EP on his own Ghostly Records, and a taster for the full LP follow up, featuring Jonny Pierce of Smiths inspired/contrived indie pop lads The Drums. Whilst no fans here at Work Them Towers, Pierce's voice is perfect on this 3.5 minute slice of looped hip-pop, which retains the atmosphere and perfect rhythm that Dear has become best known for. More please.

Like our old pal Maria Minerva, DIY songstress Molly Nillson creates melancholy, witty dance pop, ambient and disco that are a gift for a warm up DJ or those after a night out in. Her fourth album, 'History' is out now, and is highly recommended if you enjoy the above. If you get round to listening to those first three albums from Sweden before we do, let us know what to check out.