Hiyaaa,

It's been a dead busy month for me, moving house, doing a lot of writing and also cramming the gigs in! I had an amazing time playing all night with Clemency at SOUP - she's a phenomenal DJ, absolutely slammed it from the sluggiest of chuggers to a breakneck final hour with many twists and turns and much needed wubs along the way. And last week, Jodi and I debuted a live AV drone / sound collage set at the first Morsel event, with a stacked line up of really wonderful experimental artists from the North West. The whole thing came together from an idea within a few days but it turned out really well, we absolutely loved it and hope to do a lot more...

Here to shout about something big and wonderful this weekend though :)

Half Edge x Partisan w/ Bruce

Half Edge began as an idea while I was studying in New York, missing Manchester a lot. It's named after Half Edge Lane, the road in Eccles where I grew up, and the idea was that it would always be a Manchester party, a home to return to from wherever I might end up. 

At the time I was already more interested in booking my friends and peers than named DJs. I was beginning to suspect I didn't have to look beyond the people I already know to get a better experience than with whoever had done the latest Boiler Room, or was playing at Dekmantel (although some have gone on to do both...). I was right and these days, with a couple of exceptions, all my favourite DJs are my pals.

Bruce is a bit different. The year I moved to Brooklyn he released his second Hessle EP, Steals, his first on Timedance, the techno-stomper I'm Alright Mate, and a heart-rending deep house 12" for Idle Hands. All stunning records and wayyy out there for the time. Steals especially felt like a perfected refinement of the formula he'd established with Not Stochastic. A fully integrated bit of music that holds together extremes with an alchemist's precision for balancing elements: playing with noise and with silence; groove and abstraction; syncopated UK rhythms and the never-ending roll of Detroit and Cologne minimalism; emotion and functionality; heads down experimentalism and a lively playfulness; all with a sound-designer's attention to detail that never compromises on the demotic, somatic soundsystem umph of UK hardcore. And listening to his mixes at the time, like his guest slot for the Hessle show with Pearson Sound, showed this all-encompassing approach in macrocosm. We're in a great place with dance music at the moment, 'experimental' and 'hybrid' are the bywords of the day, no tempo is off limits, and exciting and unthinkable new sounds are appearing prolifically, most of them from the global south, so it's quite hard to imagine now what an impact these records had. Hard to imagine as well that he was only just getting started. The twists and turns he's taken since have been dizzying and every vital lesson I've learned from him has been swept away by his next manifestation. This year he's stepping back from DJing to focus on a live show that debuted in Bristol last year and I am so excited to witness it! 

All of this is to say, Bruce was already my favourite producer and DJ when I spotted him on the way to a Groovy Groovy rave he was playing at in Ridgewood, buying a pack of crisps and a drink from a bodega. We had mutuals (notably the much missed Alex T) so I introduced myself and his immediate response was something like: 'mate, why didn't you hit me up? I've been wandering about here for three days on my own.' My time in the US was punctuated by Larry's visits and each one was gorgeous and memorable, including a night mixing tunes in Significant Other's living room, where the vibes were exceptionally high. So when it came time for me to move home and I started making plans to set up Half Edge, I asked if he'd be my first guest. 

Mixcloud

It's been five years since that first party now, at The Peer Hat. It was a huge vibe and an amazing reintroduction to the city for me; I met many friends either that night or in the wake of it. I'd originally hoped to do it at Partisan, and we couldn't make it work at the time. But the following February, more or less our shared birthday weekend, we played all night together in the old Cheetham Hill venue. Still one of my favourite parties ever and one I've been hoping to reprise from the minute the lights went up. 

If you've spent any time around the Mutualism crew you might have been asked who your Gary Oak is. The DJ rival who does what you do, always one step ahead. Jury's still out on who mine might be but in that framework Bruce is my Professor Oak. An unparalleled inspiration, a mentor when I needed it, and a great friend always. I'm doing my own thing in my own way these days, but nobody's been a bigger influence technically, stylistically, and in terms of attitude and approach. 

I'm incredibly excited to see how this plays out. I couldn't imagine a better way to celebrate the 5 year anniversary and my birthday, than partying with Bruce in the new Partisan, which was so formative from the beginning. Stoked doesn't cover it.

Get your tickets here

Mike xxx