CityLife

Contort Yourself take on all-comers

SLINKY MOVES: A Contort Yourself party-goer

THE course of history is filled with great versus encounters: David v Goliath, United v City, Jordan v Peter Andre; each of them conjuring up images of titanic clashes between almighty forces.

The worlds of dance music and clubbing are no different, although here, head-to-heads tend to run more often along collaborative lines than combative.

Countless are the number of bootleg (copyright 1999) remixes that combine records by two separate artists into a new whole – an art perfected by Soulwax with the likes of their Nirvana v Destiny’s Child mashup.

Or those instances where a pair of acts get together for some super sassy mic-slinging in the guise of competition (usually to terrible effect – see Girls Aloud v Sugababes and their horrific rendition of Walk This Way).

Anyway. Manchester’s club scene has taken the Vs formula to new extremes this summer, with several nights – Revolver, Up The Racket, Brenda, Bollox, to name but a few – going versus-crazy, each lining up to hook up.

Perhaps the ultimate sequence of head-to-heads has been put together by Contort Yourself, who have spent the summer getting into bed with several other clubs downstairs at their Roadhouse base, not to mention a night cosying up with Dave Haslam in his MIF Pavilion.

On Saturday, August 15, it’s the turn of Naïve Melody to fill half of the Newton Street sweat-pit, as they and CY welcome Our Disco’s Rory Phillips to the decks.

Phillips was instrumental in the re-framing of London’s club scene when, alongside Erol Alkan, he shaped the sounds emerging from template-setting night Trash.

When that party ended, he went on to found Durr, which, via appearances from the likes of Late Of The Pier and Digitalism, has built up a reputation that does more than merely stand in the shadow of his previous venture.

We caught up with Contort Yourself main man Benjamin Perry to talk about versus nights, Rory Phillips, dream guests, new residents and the future of the club:

Hello Benjamin
Hello

How did you go about choosing the nights you wanted to go head-to-head with?
Well, there’s not really any kind of magic formula… the choices for us were fairly obvious. All the nights we’ve teamed up with have a similar aesthetic to ourselves with the passion and drive to bring Manchester the best in new music and they have all set themselves out as bastions in their own rights.

One of said bastions is Naive Melody. What attracted you to them?
Naïve Melody have always been streets ahead of the game in Manchester, with a constant barrage of guest DJs and live music of the highest calibre, not to mention their residents, who know how to juice the party good and proper.

Isn’t a head-to-head clubnight just an easy way of filling a venue?
Obviously, the two sets of fans it makes it easier to fill the club over these quieter summer months, yes, but the coming together also serves to cross-pollinate each others nights.

Cross-pollinate?
Our fans may not have been to any of the other nights we’ve hooked up with and likewise people may come to Contort Yourself for the first time as we’ve teamed up With Naïve Melody. Our hope is that it will broaden people’s outlook and open eyes to our city’s diverse and inspiring nightlife, but moreover, the two musical ideologies make for a killer night!

What is the most exciting thing about sticking two clubs in one room?
When two nights get together they both want to outdo each other and feed off what each other plays. These nights turn in to behemoths, each with their own atmosphere and identity.

Speaking of behemoths (in a purely figurative sense), you’ve got Rory Phillips playing at the club. Why?
Rory is one of those people we’ve had on our shortlist for ages, so when we got together with Naïve Melody his name came up straight away. Probably one of the most influential party starters there is. Plus, his production skills have come to the fore of late; he’s dropped some killer mixes for the likes of The Gossip, Franz Ferdinand, Little Boots, Alexander Robotnik and Chromeo, proving that he’s got many strings to his bow.

What are your thoughts on Trash?
I never had the opportunity to go, but it was definitely a big influence when we first started out.

Which act would you sell a kidney to book?
Tough question… due to the size of The Roadhouse we are limited to the guests we can get on; we have to get people on their way up and we’ve played host to most of the people we have wanted to. But we’ve always said we’d love to get Mr Oizo on, as he just such an influence on the music we play and such a character. Who knows, one day we might have a binge and just book him, because you know it would go off at the Roadhouse.

What with ‘the credit crunch’, swine flu, MPs expenses and – to top it all – the return of Mika, 2009 has been a terrible year. How has it treated you?
It’s been a bit of a turning point for us. The beginning of the year was crazy thanks to bookings in the form of Jack Beats, In Flagranti, Riva Starr, Drums of Death and that infamous debut show from La Roux. The rest of the year has continued in the same vein, with these summer events being particularly sick.

Let’s get philosophical: where is Contort Yourself (NB don’t say at The Roadhouse)?
I suppose we’re in the same place we have always been, just trying to stay ahead of the game, keeping our communal finger on the pulse, still bringing Manchester something fresh and original. The only major change that we have to come is that in September we’re building up our team of residents to include Will Tramp!, Natalie Esquire, The Oldboy and Team Yeah alongside myself and fellow founder GezMagus.

Anything else?
We’ll be trying to put more of the focus back on live music as that is what has come to set our night aside from the rest and we’ll also be involving the new residents team in the bookings. As our own tastes develop and mature so will the night, and hopefully with the injection of this new blood, things will continue to move from strength to strength. We’ll be capping off the year with a big one as we’ll be hosting our first ever New Years Eve night, so keep your eyes peeled for more info on that soon.

Contort Yourself v Naïve Melody with Rory Phillips is on Saturday, August 15 at The Roadhouse, Newton Street. 11-3, £4/5.