drumro[ll] presents...Robert James & GrowMore tickets and listings

Dance music has rediscovered its soul.

The functional techno of the 00s has fractured. Down one path lie the industrialised sounds of Dettmann and Klock, where the kick drum rules and atmosphere trumps melody every time. Down the other, a new strain of house where the song is the all.

This is music that owes as much to Prince and Funkadelic as to Carl Craig and the Detroit first-wave. At the forefront of this scene, Seth Troxler is dancing naked on the ashes of minimal techno, to a tune that marries rump-shaking basslines in a polygamous carnival of broken rhythms, sinister synthesisers and vocals that drip with sex.

At the heart of this revolution is Jamie Jones fledgling label, Hot Creations. In the year since its inception records from the likes of Burnski and Lee Foss have pushed house and techno in exciting new directions, understanding that a nightclub is a place for hedonism, not trainspotting. From this fertile stable we are beyond excited to bring one of dance musics brightest lights, a Yorkshire lad whose records are in the boxes of the great and the good. One of the most exciting talents in house music, we give you


Robert James [Hot Creations / Crosstown Rebels]

What words describe the rise of Robert James? Meteoric? Incendiary? Usain Bolt-esque?

It must be tricky being a wunderkind, an overnight sensation when your success is based on years earning your chops in clubs up and down the country. A regular fixture in Leeds Mint Club and My House, his summers have been spent plying his wares around the White Isle. The result? A residency at the infamous Zoo Project, sets at the biggest clubs on the Mecca of dance music, and a bag of skills that make Santas sack seem barren.

Sleep Moods, Roberts first release on Hot Creations, was a barn-stormer; a bassline that envelopes you like a St Bernards embrace and a malaria-infectious piano line combined to slay dancefloors worldwide. Malibu, in collaboration with fellow Yorkshire lad Burnski, picked up Mixmags House Tune of the Month tag and found its way into the boxes of the great and the good.

Collaboration is the name of the game at Hot Creations. As part of Pterodcatil Disco, or teaming up with Lee Foss and Art Department to remix Clockworks latest offering, Robert James is rubbing shoulders with the brightest stars in the house music firmament, and producing records that get played by as diverse a set of artists as Teki Latex and DJ Yellow.

A DJ through and through, Robert James annual excursions to Ibiza have created a house music magician, an unmatched understanding of dancefloor dynamics that abandons pretension of favour of deep-ass funk. Prepare to be educated.


GrowMore (Cargo)

Local lads GrowMore have been running parties in Sheffield for years. As residents at the exemplary Cargo, their own night Subject* or laying down sound across the Sheffield warehouse scene, their take on deep house and techno has seen them play alongside the likes of Subb-an, Glimpse and Swayzak.

They recently broadcast live as part of Radio 1s In New DJs We Trust show at Sheffield University. On that night they warmed up for our esteemed guest, so who better to bring in to get things moving. With a calendar rapidly filling with dates, were very glad to have them onboard for our wee shindig.


Opening things up will be drumro[ll] resident SixFootSick, while Up and Atom bring the heavy artillery for our closing barrage of military techno.


Tax is £4 on the door but only £3 if you get down before midnight