On Friday 5th March Fabrika in Leicester will host Special – a club night not to miss. Special @ Fabrika is the culmination of CDR East Midlands, a two-year Arts Council-funded project that has set out to discover and bring together the very best digital music talent across the Derby, Nottingham and Leicester.
Not only a night of celebration, live performance and just great music, Special @ Fabrika will be the biggest, one-off gathering of all the DJs and digital music makers involved in CDR from across the East Midlands. More than 15 DJs and live performers have already been confirmed to play.
So, you’re an aspiring DJ and digital music maker. Your work is good, but how do you get it played in a club when you’re still unknown? It’s a dilemma faced by many talented and enthusiastic would-be DJs and producers in the East Midlands, and it’s one that CDR, aimed to tackle.
Over the past two years CDR East Midlands has held club night in venues such as Sophbeck in Leicester, QUAD in Derby, and Muse in Nottingham. Aspiring DJs have been able to bring their own tracks burnt onto CDs down to have them played out in a club environment. For many music makers, previously confined to their own bedroom studios – CDR has been the first time their music has been heard by an audience.
The CDR concept was developed by burntprogress at London’s Plastic People club, twice nominated for ‘Best Club’ in Radio 1’s Worldwide Awards. The East Midlands is the first UK area to pilot the project outside London.
The project has unearthed a whole host of local talent, with many of that talent going on to collaborate and make its mark nationally:
Nottingham DJ Danny Berman aka Red Rack’em is well known for his recent wonky disco/boogie/Detroit house output as Hot Coins, and he had his recent set at the 2009 Worldwide Awards alongside Jazzanova and Laurent Garnier broadcast on Radio 1. His most vocal supporter, Radio 1’s Gilles Peterson, described Rack’em as ‘not being able to put a foot wrong right now’.
Danny says: ”CDR creates a network for local producers to meet and it makes you raise your game because if you come down and somebody else’s track is amazing, it makes you improve.”
He is not the only local success story to be involved with CDR. Leicester’s Psykhomantus has been amazing the crowds with his ability to manipulate classic records and produce fresh new compositions. Derby’s Si Tew, also known as Glitch n Groove – famous for their old school jungle, drum ‘n’ bass and breaks – have been enjoying great success at local club nights and are close to the release of their first collective EP: Powerpack.
Gavin Alexander, Co-director of burntprogress the creative agency that runs CDR, says: “The last two years have shown what an incredible amount of DJ and digital music talent there is in the East Midlands. Special @ Fabrika is going to showcase and celebrate that. It’ll be a really exciting and fun night and we’re hoping it will encourage DJs in the area to pick up what we’ve started and carry it on for the future.”
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