Read Luke Abbott’s interview with The 405: GO>>

Stream Luke Abbott’s remix of PVT’s ‘Vertigo’ from Soundcloud: Go>>

This year’s Border Community encampment at Amsterdam’s annual 5 Days Off extravaganza draws together the disparate threads of the UK’s burgeoning electronic underground, as Border Community goes head-to-head with Mr Gold Panda’s fledgling Notown imprint on Saturday 9th March, with a not inconsiderable contribution from Werk Discs‘ junior contingent.

Recent rearranger of Nathan Fake’s Paean Lone is our special guest in the Border Community-slanted The Max, where he adds his live stylings to the Border Community hardcore of the afore-mentioned venerable Nathan Fake, right honourable disc jockey Wesley Matsell, and of course mobile trance inducer James Holden.

Meanwhile, over in the Oude Zaal, fellow Fake-fondler Lukid lends his amiable DJ support to label hosts Notown, bolstering an in house cast that includes Luke Abbott (on special loan from Border Community), the sprightly Dam Mantle and brand new signing Hannes Rasmus, as well as solid home support from Amsterdam local boy Jorn Liefdeshuis.

Tickets are on sale now from Ticketmaster priced at 19 Euros: don’t delay!

Sneaky budget price early bird tickets have been doing the rounds on the web for a few weeks with the mysterious promise of a Border Community themed New Years Eve extravaganza at a yet to be disclosed London venue, but thankfully the time has finally come to lift the veil on the full line-up of hot-to-trot DJ and live act talent tasked with taking you safely through into 2013. Respect is due to the tireless efforts of the Broken and Uneven crew for managing to pin down so many lovelies in one place on such a prestigious night of the year!

Your hand-picked Border Community hosts for the evening certainly won’t disappoint, comprising the British-based dream team of our high priest of hedonism DJ James Holden, the respective live stylings of Norfolk smasher Nathan Fake and Norfolk basher Luke Abbott, and wizardly Welsh hard-disk jockey Wesley Matsell giving an airing to some of their latest greatest hits from the recent past and foreseeable future for the delectation of the assembled throng. Not to mention very special guest and top draw selector Ivan Smagghe who generously lends his peculiar blend of re-edit-heavy dark chunky no-wave funk to the cause of partying like it is 2013.

Room Two meanwhile expands outwards to reveal a pair of recent Holden-approved dancefloor exponents: the well-judged techno and deft melodic touch of Redshape, and the enveloping warmth of the raw analogue melancholics of Midlander Mark E, plus Fort Romeau and the Warm DJs crew. And journeying on into a third dimension the combined forces of south-of-the-river party people South and Pictures Music provide yet another dancefloor outlet, roping in the services of Koreless, Dauwd and Bobby Champs for the occasion. Phew.

Tickets are currently available for an extremely reasonable £15 from Resident Advisor for immediate consumption, with full venue details to be revealed nearer to the time: don’t hide away!

A pdf of set-times for Amsterdam’s perfectly poised Pitch Festival landed in my inbox this afternoon, so like all good Dutch fanboys I took this opportunity to plan out our full festival movements a good three weeks ahead of the event.

The city’s Westergasfabriek (already familiar from the Awakenings techno extravaganzas) opens its doors on 6th July, but as we won’t be arriving until the next day (Mr Nathan Fake for one has a date with London’s Bloc Festival on Friday 6th July) the first evening of festivities can be relayed in simple punch-packing list form: Martyn, The Gaslamp Killer, Mount Kimbie, James Blake, Azari & III, Kode 9, Jacques Greene, Modeselektor, Sbtrkt, Benga, Machinedrum, I-F and Maya Jane Coles. (If you need to know further specifics, the mother pdf has all of the answers.)

On to the Saturday 7th when our flight gets in from London, though sadly not in time to catch the head-to-head clash between congotronic superstars Konono No.1 on the 150 Stage and hi-fi hedonists Blondes in the Transformator Huis. That difficult decision gives way to sure thing Nosaj Thing and his video-art-gasm at 17:30, leading on to fellow LA-LA-lander The Gaslamp Killer’s second psychedelic appearance of the weekend:

Austria’s Elektro Guzzi are on hand at 20:00 to give their personal take on the electronica-with-live-instruments brief, followed by a healthy portion of visceral physicality from our favourite London-based synth-and-drum duo (and former Luke Abbott-fiddlers) Rocketnumbernine over in the Westerunie at 22:00, putting up a noble fight in the mammoth soundclash against noisy comedian Mr Oizo’s coincimental 150 Stage set.

Past midnight, things get serious as names like Mala, Mosca, Jackmaster and Kutmah make a brave bid for your attention, but our loyal Netherlands massive will surely be firmly planted in the Gashouder for the remainder of the night, as local manchild Jorn Liefdeshuis‘ DJ bricolage leads into the music-for-dancing-to dream team of Ghostly apparition (and fellow addition to the Luke Abbott-fiddling register) Gold Panda, Iceni warrior Nathan Fake, and our in-house primal reprogrammer James Holden holding forth right through to the early hours.

Looks somewhat unmissable from where I am sitting, so it is lucky that there are still plenty of weekend and day tickets available to buy via the Pitch website. Alstublieft.

It is no secret that we are quite possibly the biggest fans of the Etienne Jaumet-shaped half of French electricity-and-drum beat combo Zombie Zombie, having called in his truly cosmic remix services (complete with bonus saxophone!) on fellow Etienne-fancier Luke Abbott’s spinetingling Brazil single. And we just can’t resist inviting the lovable synthtopian along in the flesh for special guest performance duties whenever we are able to squeeze him into one of our infamous Border Community nights, like the forthcoming get-together for Paris’ ME.006 Rendez-Vous festival on 28th June, when Etienne provides local support to a core Border Community cast of James Holden, Nathan Fake, Fairmont, Kate Wax and Wesley Matsell. (Tickets for the Cabaret Sauvage event are, incidentally, on sale now for 28 Euros from Digitick).

But we also have a lot of time for his undead partner-in-crime, fellow vegetarian Zombie Cosmic Neman (they only eat humans, apparently), who splits his drumming energies between his twin duos Zombie Zombie and Herman Dune. And today it is the selections of Neman that are filling our ears via his recent contribution to their home label stable Versatile’s occasional podcast series, a suitably eclectic yet undeniably motorik affair that hovers effortlessly between the twin monoliths of rock and electronic music, earning the Border Community stamp of approval right next to Versatile’s unwavering open-minded affirmation. Head on over to Soundcloud for your free download:

Simian Mobile Disco include the ‘Slow Version’ of Luke Abbott’s Brazil in their DJ mix for Mixmag’s May 2012 covermount CD: GO >>

Australia is long overdue a fix of the Border Community good stuff, which is why come March we’re sending three of our brightest Commies down under equipped with the finest in music-for-dancing-to, as Luke Abbott, Fairmont and Avus make their collective Australian debuts as part of Border Community’s first ever Australian tour.

Norfolk’s premier synth nerd Luke Abbott will be taking the lush organic textures and pagan hypnotics of his Holkham Drones debut for their first Ozzie airing, buffaloing the dancefloor into submission with his own idiosyncratic take on the electronic brief. Canadian troubadour Fairmont will also be making the journey down under for the first time with a live set stuffed with the premium produce from his ten year plus career, where his expanding list of Border Community anthems (his most recent Velora EP contains no less than 4!) rub shoulders with the future delights of releases yet to come. Finally, providing his most able DJ support to this live act doubleheader is the UK’s acid house obsessed Avus, leaping upon this welcome opportunity to stretch his DJ legs overseas, with all of his latest greatest Avus Moog workouts (including the afro-kraut-tastic Poppy EP) stowed safely for the journey.

First stop on Friday 23rd March is Melbourne’s Brown Alley, and then on Saturday 24th the trio head on up to Sydney’s Chinese Laundry. See the Novel tours website for more details.

By popular demand we are finally bringing the full Border Community experience to Italy this March with a 3 city x 3 artist tour featuring live shows from Kate Wax (live band) and Luke Abbott topped off with our noble leader James Holden on DJ duties. The tour kicks off at Rome’s Lanificio 159 on Thursday 15th March (tickets from Greenticket), before motoring on up to Florence’s Viper Theatre on Friday 16th (try Boxol for tickets), concluding in Foligno for one final blowout on Saturday 17th March at the city’s Serendipity club (see the venue’s own website for ticket details).

Packing into a mini van for the experience we have the breathtaking full vocal live show of Swiss songstress Kate Wax, complete with a typically stylish set of visual projections to fully transport you to the dark musical universe that was unleashed by her Dust Collision album of late last year. Norfolk ruffian Luke Abbott will also be hitching a ride along with a snapshot of the analogue wonders of his synthtopian home studio, wherein there lurk his finest idiosyncratic anthems like the recently massive dancefloor optimised slow version of Brazil. Last but of course by no means least the inimitable James Holden makes up the DJ numbers, layering and daring as only he knows how with a choice selection of Traktor tools that meet with his current conception of music-for-dancing-to.

Visit the DNA Concerti website for more details.

Next week we’ll packing three of our finest off to a land down under to make their respective Australian performance debuts as part of the Border Community tour juggernaut, which makes its first scheduled stop at Melbourne’s Brown Alley for promoters Electric Owl on 23rd March (tickets available now from the very Australian sounding Moshtix):

Stowed on board will be Norfolk’s premier synth nerd Luke Abbott, all psyched up to give the organitronic delights of his Holkham Drones debut album their first ever Antipodean airing, as well as a tantalising sniff of some future release action soon to come. Canadian troubadour Fairmont will also be present on live vocal electronica duties, slipping seamlessly back into his solo incarnation following his decidedly Manc-tinged band Bishop Morocco’s Texan excursion to this week’s SXSW newmediapocalypse. And finally, hitching a ride in the tour DJ seat is resident selector extraordinaire Avus and his bulging record bag, his own latest greatest Moog anthems (his recent Staring Into One Eye EP for Shabu, say?) nuzzling up against the choicest acid and tech produce that his local wax dealer Vinyl Underground has to offer.

And the next day (March 24th) the whole tour shebang motors on up to Sydney’s Chinese Laundry, to do it all over again:

Realistically, even the most dedicated of Border Commies (and in this field there is quite some competition!) isn’t going to make it over to Australia to follow them, but that doesn’t stop you from taking advantage of the free Avus mix which the Novel Events crew have been spreading across the internet in tour anticipation, downloadable from Soundcloud or streamable right away from our own Mixcloud profile as befits your own personal audio predilections. A veritable Border Community bonanza awaits, featuring Oz-bound tour mates Fairmont and Luke Abbott, Welsh white wizard Wesley Matsell’s contribution to Petter’s party-minded Studio Barnhus outfit, an Extrawelt salt rub of Bomb The Bass and of course the freshest meat from Avus himself:

Tracklist:
1. Avus – Falcon Special [CDR]
2. Wesley Matsell – Mind Vs Mind [Studio Barnhus]
3. A Different Kinda Brother – Tracy’s Revenge (String Remix) [Nice and Nasty]
4. Klartraum – Unique Shadow (Klunk and Zilly Terry Francis Remix) [Lucidflow]
5. DJ Koze – I Want To Sleep [International Records]
6. Lake People – Rusty Clockhands [Musik Gewinnt Freunde]
7. Luke Abbott – Brazil (Slow Version) [Border Community]
8. Avus – Staring Into One Eye (Wesley Matsell Remix) [Shabu Recordings]
9. Legowelt – Disco Rout (Deetron Remix) [Cocoon]
10. A Jackin’ Phreak – Acid Sex (Gay Fornication Mix) [RZ Records]
11. Scuba – Ruptured (Surgeon remix) [Hot Flush]
12. Bomb The Bass – Infinity (Extrawelt Remix) [K7]
13. Fairmont – Ununoctium [Border Community]
14. Avus – Volt [CDR]

Luke meanwhile has promised me pictures and a tour diary guest blog upon the intrepid trio’s safe return: watch this space.