Preview: Chow Down Presents Joy Orbison and Damu @ Joshua Brooks

The basement of Joshua Brooks has recently seen a real revitilisation of appeal, with hundreds of in-the-know Manchester clubbers descending the stone staircase to see increasingly fresh names in house, techno and dubstep, such as Deadboy, Kink, and now, perhaps one of, if not the most important figure in UK house and bass music, Joy Orbison.

Brought to you by fresh, enthusiastic promoters and DJ collective Chow Down, Joshua Brooks proves to be a unique and genuinely ‘beneath the streets’ venue for a DJ playing bigger and bigger events.

This will be, as they say, a roadblock, and in my chat with Chow Down head honcho Pauper, it’s clear that if the crowd are as up for it as those behind it, we’re in for a very special Thursday night indeed…

The Joy O show is a big booking, but when did Chow Down begin, and what was the catalyst of the night?

Our first event was in February of this year, with our Bok Bok event, but we'd been organising and planning since before Christmas just gone. The catalyst would be the growth of the genre itself I think and its rise in popularity. We've always loved and played the more garage/UK funky side of things and I guess we just wanted to help push it even further

Can you remember a key moment where you felt that genre was really what you wanted to go for? What was the big tune?

There's a lot for me personally, but I'd definitely say when we discovered labels such as Night Slugs. I remember hearing Mosca's EP and knowing this is definitely the route I want us to take. There are a lot of others that have really made me fall in love with this genre, but I'll say Joy Orbison - Hyph Mngo for obvious reasons. It’s still a stunning record.

Who've you had on so far at Chow Down?

Well we opened up our first two events with Night Slugs' Bok Bok, then we had Lil' Silva and both events were really well received. UK Funky still seems pretty new to Manchester so it was good to see people take interest in the Lil' Silva one especially. Our third event we had Rinse FM's Oneman and the reception was pretty crazy, that one was an amazing night.

Tell me about Damu...

We had Damu play our Lil' Silva event back in March and he really smashed it. We pretty much knew from then we'd want him back again as soon as. This time round he's offered us his live AV set. I think he's done it a few times in his recent gigs but i've not managed to catch it yet, all I know is that he wants a screen and he's gonna be playing a lot of tracks off his upcoming album on Keysound.

And Joy O, obviously a massive name now but keeps teasing us with stuff, why do you rate him so highly?

I'd regard him as one of the most pioneering artists in recent times and yeah, his locker of unreleased gems seems endless. He's just one of them few artists that everyone seems to be waiting on their next move. His DJ sets are top drawer too.

Who is the Chow Down crew made up of?

There’s me, Pauper, and my friends, who behind the decks go by the names of Sicklips and Legoboy. We’ve been DJ'ing together for around four years, before now we just played in a few small town clubs and stuff. Then through our friends at Banana we met our newest resident - Baixo - he's a young talented DJ from Manchester and has settled quick into swing of it.

What are the biggest tunes for you at the moment, and what are you dying to play in the warm up?

I'm really loving the ModeSelektor remix of Radiohead at the minute. I also grabbed the new T Williams today so that's definitely on the agenda (I think).

Words: John Thorp

Catch Joy O at Joshua Brooks for Chow Down this Thursday night. Tickets are available here or below. 

Tickets are no longer available for this event