Blu-ray: I Am Weekender

New doc on Flowered Up's rave epic Weekender, plus its sensual, sensitive, scene-defining video

Pinned eyes stare from a frozen husk of a face as a clubber comes down, cradled high over London on a window-cleaner’s perch. Director WIZ’s 18-minute video for Flowered Up’s rave epic “Weekender” (1992) takes you on the E’d up odyssey of Little Joe (Lee Whitlock), from skinning up at work through clubland peaks to chilly aftermath.

Album: Steve Mac - Bless This Acid House

Old sounds meet new tech to create a bumping set by Britain's house music perennial

Some rock bands base their career around being musically fluid, an ever-changing what-will-they-do-next? conundrum. Others, such as, famously, Motörhead and The Ramones, simply go on doing their thing, honing it, repeating ad infinitum, with an almost zen devotion. The results, at their best, are vigorously on-point.

Album: The Orb - Prism

Rave on, party animals - music guaranteed to lift the heart

The Orb’s story is rooted in the widescreen psychedelic explorations of Pink Floyd as much as the MDMA-fuelled musical adventures of acid house. This is music to get high to, laced with all the effects, from distortion to reverb, that play with the mind and take it on a trip.

Orbital, Brighton Centre review - a solid hands-in-the-air night out

★★★ ORBITAL, BRIGHTON CENTRE A solid hands-in-the-air night out

Nineties rave originals mix polemic social commentary in with festival dance tent classics

Just before the encore, the crowd is finally warmed up and dancing. It took a while, but hands are now in the air, middle-aged bodies are shifting about, muscle memory of MDMA nights in the last century.

Oslo World review - a dizzying selection of high-tech, grassroots global brilliance

★★★★★ OSLO WORLD A dizzying selection of high-tech, grassroots global brilliance

A microcosm of a weird, wired world in the clubs, bars and churches of Norway

The Oslo World organisers are at pains to point out that, despite the name, they are not a “world music” festival. And with good reason, really. There may have been a few familiar WOMAD veterans headlining over the week-long event – Senegal’s Youssou N’Dour, Malie's Fatoumata Diawara, the queen of Cuba Omara Portuondo – but the emphasis was emphatically not on any kind of beads-and-bongoes authenticity.

Album: Daniel Avery - Ultra Truth

★★★★ DANIEL AVERY - ULTRA TRUTH Introspection and maturation from the leftfield dance mainstay

Introspection and maturation from the leftfield dance mainstay

There is now a kind of “leftfield mainstream” in electronic music. It’s populated by people a decade or more younger than the original acid house generation, but who take their core inspiration from post-rave experimentation of the early-mid Nineties. Dusky, Bicep and to an extent people like DJ Seinfeld, Four Tet and Jon Hopkins all channel the rich melodies and textures of Future Sound of London, Orbital, early Aphex Twin, Underworld and co to arena-filling effect.  

Album: Hudson Mohawke - Cry Sugar

★★★★★ HUDSON MOHAWKE - CRY SUGAR An apocalyptic masterpiece from the Glaswegian dance pioneer

An apocalyptic masterpiece from the Glaswegian dance pioneer

The journey of Ross “Hudson Mohawke” Birchard has been truly one of the most extraordinary in modern music. From teenage scratch DJ champion and happy hardcore raver in some of Glasgow’s more feral club environments, in the late Noughties he quickly moved through making rhythmically fractured hip hop.