Saturday's 2011 | 9pm til 3am | Riki Tik, Bond St. Brighton

Saturdays are changing at Riki Tik.

Now under new management, Riki Tik is fast becoming a cutting edge electronic music venue, with Saturday nights leading the charge.

Offering a genuine alternative to Brighton's many other late bars and clubs, Riki Tik's Saturday nights promise to be consistently music- led and trend- free, with guest sets from heavyweight DJs, producers and labels.

Our resident DJs have access to pre-release material from many of the finest electronic labels on the planet and play regularly across Europe, so you can expect to hear the latest sounds and future classics here first. Not interested in following the herd, you can expect our sessions to transport you all over the Globe in search of the finest, warmest, most soulful cuts of electronic music known to man.

Cracking review from Jon Freer here on his groovy blog, freersounds.com.

"It’s always interesting to see a big name in electronic music return, especially one with the pedigree of Tom ‘ (one half of) Global Communications’ Middleton. Gliding proves that he certainly hasn’t lost the ability to create mind melting and ass shaking grooves. Energy expelling synths rule on this cut and they are backed by smart beats and flying basslines. The D&B Mix is the sort of thing you’d have expected the like of Bukem to drop in the golden era of the Good Looking/liquid sound, whilst Shur-i-Kan drops a heads down keyed version."

UT134

Released: 7th March 2011

Following his Hypnotizer single release from 2009, Tom makes his return voyage to the home of forward thinking UK Deep and Tech House! This time with a big nod to Liquid Drum & Bass and a big grin on his face!

After numerous conversations with Lars (FDV) and rediscovering his Liquid Drum & Bass collection/listening to classic LTJ Bukem mixes from the mid to late 90's Tom wanted to capture the spirit and feel of the deeper, subtler, ambient end of Drum & Bass with it's characteristic use of long 808 Kick Drum's to play the Bass line's, warm pads, Rhodes piano motifs and sci-fi sound effects. With maybe only a handful of Artists using 808 Kick Drums for Bass lines in current Deep/House/Tech, no one apart from Claude Von Stroke with his 'Aundy' track had touched on this more musical and fluid style.

UT133

Released: 28th February 2011

'I Can't Live My Life Alone' is the second single to be taken from Steve Mill's debut album 'Higher State Impressions' to be released this spring. Steve ontinues the swirling melodic synth laden house of previous outing 'Gemma Calls', adding vocals in to the deep groove. Remixes come courtesy of long time UT favourite Karim Sahraoui aka Djinxx, who brings more soul and strings to proceedings, assuredly sustaining the fine legacy of his works on labels such a Ovum, F-Comm and Cocoon. Elias Tzikas, a long term friend of Steve's and fellow Greek, and Jevne of Onethirty provide the final two mixes, a fine package indeed.

The good people have voted, and we have been placed at number 88 for the Best Music Cloudcasters of 2010. Here's the last show to check out...

More free track goodness to celebrate the new year, and of course the release of the excellent Focus On compilation, picking out the finest works from Scope as released on Urban Torque since 2007. This free remix of a UT classic has been resting on our hard drives for a while now, so it's good for it to see the light of day and it's completely free.

Focus On: Scope is available on iTunes or on the Urban Torque Facebook Store. If you buy from the Urban Torque Facebook store you get all 13 individual tracks plus the mixed version in the digital format of your chosing, all for £4.99

Free track from Avatars...

UT132
Released: 13th November 2010

Moscow’s Kimouts returns to Urban Torque with an extended EP of beautiful depth and warmth, showcasing different shades of electronica for a sonically elegant journey which is both emotive and evocative. Kimouts, previously releasing 'Down To Earth' on the ever excellent Buzzin' Fly, and his debut outing for UT 'Sometimes', is not someone who is knocking tracks out for fun. Instead preferring to take a slow and considered approach to insure he injects meaning and musicality to his productions, with an altogether more analogue approach.

Random Tales Pt. 1 encapsulates Kimouts focus on quality over quantity, shifting from the slow down cosmic disco of 'When I Was At A Dream-Making Factory', the etherial splendor of 'Drive', to the broken tripped out grooves of 'Endlessly Endless'. As a special bonus, included is Kimouts re-intrepretation of Erik Satie's 'Gymnopédie no.1'

"This track is captivating from the word "Go".  With a slower tempo than your typical dance song, "The Air" puts the right foot forward by grabbing you with swirling synths and and engaging production.  The vocals on "The Air" are of the male variety, which is definitely a welcome thing.  The singer reminds of The Temper Trap, and "The Air" sounds almost like a downbeat electro Coldplay song.  The cruz of Avatars' song is the emotion as the singer morosely proclaims "I can't breathe the air!"  The track is backed up by a collection of remixes that tend to distract from the beauty of the original by throwing in a lot of unnecessary elements.  80's influences, some downbeat grooves, and even a weirdly pop rock remix at least provide a little variety but ultimately the original stands up on its own.  Hopefully this track will gather a following for Avatars, as they rightly deserve the attention."