Mansfield. A market town but without remarkables. At least that’s what economic journalist, spy and Robinson Crusoe novelist, Daniel Defoe said in his book ‘A Tour Through The Whole Island of Great Britain’ in the late 1700s. But things have changed a bit since the late 1700s. Now Mansfield has a town, a theatre, a population of 99,300 and Alvin Stardust. Mansfield also used to play host to Venue 44, birthplace of the ‘Renaissance’, ‘Hot to Trot’ and ‘Vibealite’ club nights, and happy hardcore launchpad for the careers of Sasha and John Digweed. Advertised as Mansfield’s Superclub (the only other club at the heart of ‘Chav Vegas’ being something called ‘The Palais’) Venue 44 is now closed due to excessive drug abuse. Not that Digweed is likely to care either way as he and his mate Sasha have been enjoying a two-and-a-half year old residency at Manhattan superclub, Twilo. New York, New York. A helluva town. The Bronx is up. The Battery’s down. Unlike Mansfield, where the battery’s simply flat.
Following the demise of Twilo (‘closed due to excessive drug abuse ‘) and the 10th anniversary re-release of the now legendary ‘Renaissance – The Mix Collection Vol.1’ Dickweed releases ‘Transitions‘, a single disc compilation based around his globally syndicated radio show promoting all manner of trance/house style shenanigans and this time pulling stunts from the likes of Partial Arts, Popnoname, Tigerskin, Dringer, Rocco and Dana Bergquist.
True to form it’s fairly sparse, bright, bold and expansive, but it’s also fairly smooth. Light, frothy melodies bounce to the fore and a stuttering electro pulse provides the bodywork, with Digweed’s own take ‘Warung Beach’ and Dringer’s ‘Flake Escape’ providing just a touch of rubbery funk.
As one half of Bedrock with Nick Muir, Digweed, tracks in the bag for ‘Trainspotting’ and already stitching stuff together for the movie adaption of Irvine Welsh’s other best-selling novel ‘Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance’ any success enjoyed by ‘Transitions’ is likely to be incidental, but not without incident, naturally.