Analogue: @ Micro w/ Alex Downey, Lee Smith + more

Underground House & Techno in Brighton, first Friday of every month. No gimmicks!

Music for your head as well as your feet.

Joining residents Cedric Maison & Paul Church are 2 of the biggest contributors to the Brighton underground.

Alex Downey
Those proper DJs out there who use vinyl will remember Alex from the hugely missed – Covert Records. Alex had been peddling vinyl for the best part of 10 years to any DJs who were into ‘proper’ House & Techno.

As a DJ Alex has shared the bill with some of the biggest acts in Techno – Richie Hawtin, Jeff Mills, Josh Wink, Carl Cox, Carl Craig, Derrick May, Surgeon and The UR posse amongst many others.

Alex’s style behind the turntables defies categorization. For him techno isn’t a dogma so much as a spirit of electronic freedom to adapt and embrace new styles. Where techno can drift into boys own head-nod territory, Alex makes the girls forget its a techno night and get wigglin’, and lets the boys dance instead of shuffling or pogo-ing. Tech-house, techno, deep house, minimal, electro, yes, they’re all in the mix, but were talking a serious throbbing rhythm, not bang-bang-bang; were talking disco-dancing with attitude. “The original Detroit techno guys wanted to make computer music that had warmth, humanity and soul”, Alex explains, “and I think sometimes DJs today can forget that. Its a very forward-thinking music and its about to have a renaissance”.

Lee Smith
A permanent fixture on Brighton’s club scene, Lee Smith is one of the UK’s foremost supporters of minimal house and techno. Cutting his teeth at Eddie Richards’ famed Dy-Na-Mix DJ agency at the age of 16, he went on to bag a coveted position at Brighton’s esteemed Covert Records upon moving to the city to study. Along with Mark Lerman, he founded Hideout at Brighton’s dingy Volks in 1998, where he booked and played alongside guests including Dave Clarke, Derrick May, Carl Craig, Green Velvet, Richie Hawtin, Magda, Anthony Rother, Billy Nasty, Ben Sims, Colin Dale, Eddie Richards and Dave Mothersole.

In 2003, he started Kliks as an outlet for the emerging sounds of so-called ‘minimal’ European labels and the night rapidly established itself as one of the most exciting underground parties of its kind. Booking DJs and acts who (at that time) could only be heard at a handful of clubs throughout the UK, Kliks went on to provide numerous UK debuts and exclusive performances from guests including: Tobias Thomas (Kompakt), Mia and Falko Brocksieper (Sub-Static), Beatschubiger (Boxer Sport), Heib (Auftrieb), Jake Fairley, Triple R and Steve Barnes (Traum/Trapez), Jeremy Caulfield (Dumb-Unit), Steve Bug, Alex Smoke, Metope (Areal), Craig Richards, The Modernist (Kompakt), DJ Koze, Frivolous (Karloff), Nathan Fake, James Holden, Konrad Black (Wagon Repair), and Magda.

Lee is currently residing in Berlin so this short trip back could be a rare opportunity to catch one of Brightons ambassadors of real music – back in town.

07/11/08 Starts at 11:00pm