Sub Club has been celebrating Subculture’s 20th birthday throughout 2014. Guided through the decades by duo Harri and Domenic, it is one of the longest running club nights in the world. Sub Club’s own achievements ought not to be stated here, for its reputation among Glaswegians of all dimensions certainly precedes itself. But, in the event that you’re inanimate and yet to come to life, I’ll bring you up to speed.
The long lasting basement of wonders is revered on the worldwide stage, ranked number 10 on Resident Advisor’s list of Top 100 Clubs, and appearing over at DJ Mag on their list of Top 5 Intimate Clubs. Renowned for its divergence from the contemporary era of twerks and anacondas, Sub Club specialises in offering an assortment of underground beats that will rattle your skull; 2014 seeing the likes of DJ Koze, John Talabot, Petar Dundov and Nicole Moudaber make their Sub Club debuts. Saturday night was no exception, as house stalwart Leon Vynehall had his Subculture initiation.
Mr Vynehall has made a name for himself via the bustling Brighton club scene, and has previously made releases under labels such as Well Rounded Housing Project and ManMakeMusic. His most recent EP, Music For The Uninvited (3024), bears an air of progressive transcendence from beginning to end. From the controlled ambience of The Legend of Zelda-inspired ‘Inside the Deku Tree’ to the subtle bass and murmurs of daydreaming ‘Christ Air’, Leon experiments with an array of effects – synth, string and percussion not omitted – and generates potent results. Hyponik has described the record as ‘[t]uneful, intimate and original’, and I wouldn’t argue otherwise.
On the night in question, the Portsmouth native served up a fresh helping of tunes for the voracious crowd, who had already revelled in a portion of Subculture resident Telford for starters. Featuring the sleek smoothness of ‘Goodthing’ and the groovy yet scrappy ‘Gold Language’, the enigmatic set was a nostalgic journey through the alleyways of house, with ambience and disco mixed in along the way. By the time it came for the melodic wave of ‘Butterflies’, folk were plenty enthralled.
The night met a bizarre ending, coming to a (kind of) premature halt by the Five-O. Unfortunately, Strathclyde’s finest disallowed the extra hour created by the clocks changing to be taken advantage of, and things were brought to a standstill around half 3. Nonetheless, we still got an extra half hour and one more track before they called it a night, so it hardly spoiled what was an overall worthy instalment of Subculture.
On November 8th, techno overlord Andrew Weatherall will take ahold of the Subculture reigns for a 4 hour set. Following on from him will be Minnesota-based DJ Sprinkles on the 15th, and Panorama Bar resident Steffi on the 29th in what promises to be a smashing month for Subculture. Don’t miss out – get your tickets over at subclub.co.uk or visit http://www.residentadvisor.net/club.aspx?id=1918.
