CLUBS

There are those who will say that Tardis-like pub backroom The Black Swan isn’t quite the life-nudging force of raveology it was before it wrestled through a licence snafu a couple of years back. They may be right, but when local promoters Tiki cook up a line-up – their biggest to date – that has the exact degree of depth, ballistic beat intensity and straight-up quality that was heard here on a monthly basis half a decade ago, you’d be wise to don your filth-repellent shoes in preparation.

Headlining the main room, not for the first time, is Drumcorps. Conceived around 2005 by Berlin-based American Aaron Spectre, its chief aim was to entwine two of the main strands of Spectre’s taste: ferocious, clotted-snare breakcore and modern metalcore/grind brutality. A handful of releases, notably 2006 album ‘Grist’ (based around lovingly demolished samples of bands like Converge, Botch and Pig Destroyer), made Drumcorps an arguably bigger draw than Spectre in his original guise, and played well on the extreme metal side of the fence too.

Also boasting past Swan form is FFF, a Dutchman named Tommy de Roos who has been puking out tracks since the late 90s. He’s normally found at the intersection between heart-meltingly overdriven ruffneck jungle and helium piano rave, both in effect on his spectacular 2011 album ’20,000 Hardcore Members Can’t Be Wrong’. The room ain’t getting much softer lower down the bill either, with Brighton’s Techdiff lending his razor-sharp, loosely Venetian Snares-esque skills, along with Bristol’s Eraserhead and Leeds’ raga-soaked Helix. Room two has – well, more of the same for the most part, with locals like Breakwhore and Michael J Rocks plus the grinning gabber hellstorm of Weyheyhey!!; Jungle Syndicate and the fellows who do the infamous Micro_Raves are jointly holding it down in the third room. (Jordan Minnesota)

BLACK TO THE SWAN PART II WAS AT THE BLACK SWAN, BRISTOL ON SAT 8 OCT.

Copyright Jordan Minnesota 2011