How UK Club Culture Reached Heady New Highs

How best to describe UK club culture in 2019? It’s brimming with fresh young collectives doing their own thing, focused on inclusive attitudes that reach new highs. This is despite the problems the clubbing community faces on an almost-weekly basis. From residential complaints to stricter measures from local authorities, the pressure is often on.

As the age-old adage goes, attack is the best form of defense. UK Clubs and promoters have done just that in the last few years, being proactive rather than passive, ambitious rather than submissive. Beaten down for too long, it's time to celebrate the collectives that have kept the heart of club culture ticking It's this reason the final night of Boiler Room Festival is night geared towards the best in Club.

SOUND, MAN

Nothing’s more important to our club culture than the music. Without it, venues would be empty, desolate rooms abandoned for good. While, in times of trouble, it may be easier to play it safe and stick to broadchurch tech-house or booming ‘business techno,’ the underground clubbing ecosystem has taken a riskier route.

Harder and more experimental strains of club music have come into the fore across the UK, dancers and DJs alike eager in exploring the ever-blurring lines between genres. Sherelle’s breakout performance on Boiler Room earlier this year is a perfect case study. That 50 minute set confidently ripped through the BPMs, touching on footwork, jungle, white label edits, dubstep and more. We’ve all seen the reaction. Her subsequent well-deserved rise on club and festival lineups the proof we need more DJs who take risks.

But while always looking forwards, UK club culture is glancing back to the past. Genres once thought to be left for dead are being revived, galvanized and made new. Happy Hardcore has been brought back by PC Music maverick Danny Harle, via his Harlecore nights. Trance has gained a new swarm of followers through nights like Evian Christ’s ludicrous Trance Party.

Speed Garage has been resuscitated by Back 2 Life in Birmingham, it’s 4/4 basslines pounding through Midlands raves. Gabber, most ridiculously perhaps, is getting spun by Bangface favourite DJ Bus Replacement Service as well as forming part of a wider, harder revival throughout Europe through the likes of Casual Gabbers, Wixapol and Gabber Eleganza. This is something Boiler Room have been profiling and platforming through our ongoing HARD DANCE series.

It’s not just the ‘90s sounds, either, that have returned. The ethos of rave and its more accepting, utopian atmosphere have come back to bless today’s clubs. A ban on phone usage on the dancefloor is becoming increasingly commonplace, whilst illegal raves grew by 9% last year. Secret, text-the-address parties like Afta Dark (Birmingham) and GASHcollective (Manchester) have given club culture a rediscovered, newly-sharpened edge.

WATCH THESE SPACES

Spaces are safer, too. This had to start with the people behind the parties. In London, the New Scenery collective have used their events as a platform to “navigate radical thinking to how club spaces function in regards to ensuring safe experiences.” Proceeds from their events go to helping aid operations such as intersectional feminist direct group Sister Uncut.

gal-dem’s series of Sugar parties proved to be another integral factor in making the dance floor safe for all; open to all but specifically aimed at women and femmes of colour. Speaking with Mixmag about the parties last year, gal-dem’s music editor Antonia Odunlami said Sugar and other “initiatives and platforms like Pxssy Palace, BBZ and Born N Bread” have helped ease the feeling of being “stressed by going out.”

Speaking of Pxssy Palace, they’ve done wonders at creating safe spaces in East London. It’s all about being proactive, rather than complacent: ‘Putting up a poster at the entrance of your venue isn’t enough. That’s why we like to use “safer” spaces and use volunteers who wear badges for our guests to approach if they have an issue.’

New forts have opened up in London, built when others have crumbled. Previously monolithic in London’s nightlife scene, the whole borough of Hackney has suffered harshly at the hands of council decision-making. Primarily, Hackney Council restricting closing times for new venues to before midnight, preventing the growth of East London’s nightlife.

Creative hubs like Peckham and Tottenham, however, have risen to the fore to fight for the cause. New venues like Five Miles, FOLD, The Cause and Studio 9294 have pushed boundaries with electric line-ups and eclectic purposes (gallery, cafe and theatre spaces abound).
Printworks have gone against every grain and managed to pull-off a 6000 capacity venue, as well as open a new 3000 strong club called Exhibition. When under attack, sometimes sheer ballsiness pays off.

CHECKING THE LEVELS

Behind every banging club night - and in front of the CDJs is a top selector. Here's where clubland has really matured, and all for the better. Whereas before nights were dominated by all-male white line-ups, times are changing. Back in 2016, London collective Siren put out an A1 poster bluntly addressed the facile suggestion “there just aren’t enough women DJs,” surrounding this quote with the names of roughly 125 women DJs. Clubland has changed for the better now, four years on, that you’d need a billboard to fill all the names of women DJs currently playing clubs.

Whilst nowhere close to equality, the gender cross-fader is slowly crawling towards mid-point. This is crucial, the personnel is political, after all. "We had no intention of BBZ being a politically charged space, nonetheless it dawned on us that as queer women and gender queer POC just existing is a political statement in and of itself," BBZ co-founder Nadine said in an i-D profile; their turn-ups have been instrumental in remoulding what queer nights look like on London’s club scene.

Be it recreating a Caribbean living room as part of gal-dem’s debut V&A Friday Late takeover in 2016, setting up a queer pottery class riffing off that scene in Ghost for a Valentine’s party, to teaming up with Balaami and Morley’s for a proper South LDN turn-up. BBZ’s creative events have opened up the way to approach clubbing.

Look further afield and others are doing crucial work too. In Berlin, Room 4 Resistance focus on “community-building and creating safer space & visibility for underrepresented artists” in the city and beyond. In Brazil, Laura Diaz and Carol ‘Cashu’ Schutzer’s Mamba Negra collective have been doing incredible stuff for the Sao Paulo underground. Their aims are best explained in their own words, as told to us previously: “It is the fruit of the need to access the means of production of the cultural machine. We want to be women, transgender, lesbian, gay, queer, and heterosexual. We want our work to be recognised. We want respect. That’s all."

It's for this reason that Mamba Negra, Room 4 Resistance and BBZ are hosting stages at the closing night of Boiler Room Festival. Tapping into the pulse of the UK Club scene - the harder sounds, safer spaces and riskier ventures - Saturday Night is celebrating Club in its entirety. It'll join Jazz, Rap and Bass line-ups for the other three nights, giving a full map of UK music for eyes, ears and minds.

Written by Kyle MacNeill

Boiler Room Festival Day 4: Club with Absolut

Based on a shared belief that creativity drives positive change, Boiler Room & Absolut are bringing together the world's most progressive club collectives. Saturday will showcase the best sustainable and inclusive parties out there. Buy tickets here

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