June gets off to blazing hot start for music in Cork
The Liquid Lounge has opened on Marlboro Street, catering for the underground scene.
The bigger shows continue in both the Marquee and Musgrave Park in the next couple of weeks and artists such as blk., Becky Hill, Jazzy, Jax Jones are in town. We’ve also got Belters Only headlining the Musgrave Park venue before Jax Jones, and I’ll be catching up with the lads for a chat for next week’s column.
I’ve always mentioned how the big gigs have a huge knock-on effect in Cork for all aspects of our musical scene, but there’s more cause for optimism this week too.
On Sunday night we had the official opening of a new nightclub in town, and it’s one that promises to cater for the underground scene that is lacking in such late night spaces at the moment. The Liquid Lounge has opened on Marlboro Street and the aim is to cater for aspects of electronic music that some of the commercial clubs aren’t covering right now.
It won’t have been the first venue to go all guns blazing aiming to fill this void, but the Liquid Lounge already has a late licence in place plus it’s a small club with a savage sound system and intimate vibe.
Hopefully the team there will make a go of it, as despite having some decent venues, we certainly need more choice in Cork.
There’s a huge underground scene that’s very healthy and there’s plenty of DJs and promoters actively running parties. Bars such as the Liberty, Bru and others put on DJs very regularly, but the late late options are more limited, and most nightclubs and late bars are fairly commercial after 12.30 and 1am.
The Liquid Lounge will hopefully add to the scene here and if they stick to their guns they have a chance of giving us a crucial extra late night option in Cork.
The original Liquid Lounge was a great option back in the day, so let’s hope the new incarnation is a success.
There are more DJs than ever in Cork and if they can’t get gigs they will do what we always did, and take matters into their own hands. A recent high-profile article in Vice magazine put a spotlight on the underground rave scene here in Cork. There’s always been a free party scene here that exists miles away from the mainstream, and mostly it’s catered for music and DJs and parties that don’t get a fair shot anywhere else. The Vice article featured photographer Maclaine Black who has been documenting the parties, which often take place in “forgotten abandoned spaces, from old castles and churches to psychiatric hospitals and warehouses”.
It was a really good feature which was obviously short on detail for multiple reasons, but these parties have always existed alongside dance music.
Many of the more established DJs and indeed radio presenters in Cork would have done time on pirate radio back in the day and the rave scene is not a million miles away from this in spirit and outlook.
If DJs have music they will find some way of playing it to people. The DIY element of it has always been at the forefront of the culture since dance music developed from disco to house, hip-hop, techno and drum & bass.
There’s a huge underground festival taking place in Glanmire later this month and Bualadh Bass promises to bring drum & bass, jungle, house and tech-house to a site just outside the city. Jorge Favela, Outrage, A Sub Culture, Jet Li and Milo are among the acts playing, but there’s tons of Cork’s best underground talent on the bill too.
Meanwhile, “A City Comes Together” is the latest event being run by the Electronic Music Council of Cork, who are at the forefront of pushing the scene here through workshops, talks, parties and multi DJ co-operation.
Tomorrow’s event is divided into two different venues, starting in the Roundy with “The Art of Sampling” at 4pm. I’ll be doing a talk and possibly playing some of my own favourite samples, before Sklerotix does a live vinyl sampling workshop.
Later we move to the Spailpín Fánac, where Cork jungle legend Dave Sully will be joined by Crux for a full vinyl set till just after midnight – plus there will be a record fair too!
