Schools are out, Easter looms, a new era dawns and spring is definitely in the air in Disco Matt land as he draws a line under the stormy seas that marred his stepping out on the scene during January, February & March, taking a brief look back but a more significant stare forward of what’s to come for an April awash with activity.

If we had thought that 2011 was a rocky road & rollercoaster ride of a year, while 2012 got off to the best possible start we could have imagined, the year soon went seriously downhill, paling the previous year’s down’s in comparison, a whole host of superb soiree’s, prolific parties & magnificent meets passing us by while we continued to come to terms with intense personal & family issues affecting our enthusiasm & ability to step out significantly on the scene. But with a steadfast step in our stride along our determination to draw a line under the last three months, what better way to start than to highlight & then put to bed our relative anonymity in January, February & March and then look forward to an April awash with activity, so, not so much a monthly message, more a quarterly catch-up, a midterm report if you like,  driving home the “Must Try Harder” theme.

REVIEWS – Given that this is an acclimation of our activity, it has come as quite a shock that, as we look back over what had always been our core writing & publications, our reviews, we can only muster a total of five in the last three months, perhaps Beyond & WE from NYD being two highlights, although it is the former’s February foray that we lay our highlight hat on here, this exceptional event without doubt the most emotionally enthralling yet. But with no less than six reviews in the catch-up tank, while we may have missed out on the likes of Matinee “The Return”, we were there for the follow up, added to which we have reflections on Beyond at Fire, & a bunch of Profile & Lo-Profile outings to accentuate, that on top of seeing our beloved Area re-open just two days ago for Onyx “The New Era”, not to mention seven sorties over Easter that should see our review count quadruple just two weeks into April.

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PREVIEWS – With absolutely diddly squat to look back on, it’s best we simply look forward, the first feature planned is a preview look at new club “Covert” which is just weeks away from making a significant splash on the scene. Over & above that, we will be casting our forward thinking minds towards the return of Delooded, as well as a special preview look at international festival Delice Dream.

RECOMMENDS – While we made every effort to get our weekly newsletters back on stream, the plan to split our “Best Bites” & “Short Shouts” bearing a little fruit, the result was an all too erratic service which we intend to put right from April onwards, while our Weekend Focus features fared a little better, coverage extending to Matinee, Beyond, Trade, Casa Latina, WE Party, Room Service & Gigolo, perhaps our highlight pick being the feature we commissioned on “The Masked Ball”, although this one of many events we recommended but failed to review. So, having taken over in the quantity stakes as our most extensive activity area, it seems this part of our publications can only go from strength to strength in April, starting with a flood of Best & Extra Bites, Focuses & Short Shouts for Easter alone, while we are committed to those weekly newsletters in their split format.

http://discomatt.com/web/2012/03/recommends-dancing-in-disguise-the-wig-party-masked-ball-sunday-18th-march-weekend-focus-special/.

REPORTS – Like the majority of our activity, our reporting suffered a significant slide during January, February & March, although we did manage to ruffle a few scene promoter & club feathers when we looked at the suspension of “SuperSocial”, as well as what we saw as the uncomfortable bedfellow bringing together of Trade & Beyond for Ultimate, although we headed for calmer & less controversial waters when we looked at Room Service & the Boyz Awards. However, it is that “SuperSocial” post that is our highlight pick here, while as April opens out, we already have two special reports planned, the first, “I Would Like To Thank” looking at those Boyz awards results, along with analysing other scene awards such as Attitude & SeenQueen and giving our take on the winners & the losers in it all, while with the sad & shocking news of the untimely & premature passing away of the true gentle giant of the club promoting scene, we will be paying special tribute to the late great Steve Elliot.

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MUSIC – Much of our, it has to be said, limited activity was concentrated early on to looking back into 2011, as we picked out our top tracks, podcasts & sets in our most comprehensive Y.E. music review to date, a three part epic entitled “The Best Year Yet”, while there is no doubt that our new year has very much been dominated by one particular D.J./Producer, we devoting a special feature to the release of Steve Pitron’s prolific podcast “Jan 2012 Session”, this feature being our highlight pick here. However, with steadfast plans to get our music newsletters back on track stumbling a little, we can only boast one in the period, although our “Premier & Protégé Player Productions” first volume has paved the way for a series that will continue for the rest of 2012, side by side with our other series “Allsorts In the Mix”, the first of which will be out this week.

http://discomatt.com/web/2012/01/music-phenomenal-podcast-production-steve-pitron-jan-2012-session-wednesday-18th-january-music-is-the-answer-special-feature/

D.J.’s – Falling woefully short of expectations here, the “Must Try Harder” theme of this message rings ever so true for our D.J. devotions and so we aim to put the metal to the peddle in a big way during April with the return of our weekly focuses, planned inclusions being Guy Scheiman, Zach Burns, Elof De Neve & Paulo Moreno, while special features on Javier Medina, Brent Nicholls, The Oli & Gonzalo Rivas are also chalked for April. However, one chap that did get our focussed attention was Marco Gee & it is his that is our highlight pick here.

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DOES… & DISCO MATTERS – Two other sections of our website, like Previews, that saw no activity during the first three months, although we will be starting our spring season as we mean to go on, planning one “Does…” & one “Disco Matters” feature a month, the former likely to be on Paris, as we are right now planning a weekend trip for the end of April so will be digging into our archives to post our feature from last February, while with the launch of new club  Covert, just weeks away, we will be commissioning a special feature on this new & smart addition to the scene, which will include an exclusive interview with the clubs manager, Tom Fuller.

COMING UP – Naturally we have set the benchmark quite high for April, but with that spring back in our step, plus with plans to devote a whole day a month on top of our weekend work to our writing, we are determined to keep track of our timetable. And with the focus now clearly on the upcoming Easter weekend, watch this space for our special feature on “The Big Easter Ticket Trio”, as well as Extra Bites Special combining alternative antics Discotec, Fiction & Dish, that on top of the return of our two part recommends newsletter, “Best Bites” & “Short Shouts”. Plus with a weekend full of activity, there will be reviews a-plenty, with much of that music activity we promised, slotting in as well.

KEEP UP – One part of our activity that has literally soared both in substance & popularity are our infamous “Nibble Size Tweets” which now not only just extend to those events we are reviewing, but to ALL our steps out on the scene. And with our following gaining momentum with every turning week, our tweets are one of the best ways to keep up with our activity, which you can follow at http://twitter.com/discomatt. Twitter aside, we continue to use Facebook as a major broadcast medium, the changes to FB causing a few hiccups during February & March, although with timeline now bedded in on both our profile & our page, plus Disco Matt’s group restored, there are three additional gateways to keep up with our activity, so please check out our group at http://facebook.com/groups/discomatt/, press the “like” button at http://facebook.com/pages/Disco-Matt/112730602119746, or simply follow our profile at http://facebook.com/discomattlondon, while please feel free to post/plaster our walls with your podcast links, event details or even comments on our tweets, reviews, reports & recommendations. Plus, don’t forget that you can keep track of us via your smartphone, by simply bookmarking http://discomatt.com  & benefit from both an iPhone & android friendly layout. 

CONTACT US – Very simply, just drop us an e-mail at matt@discomatt.com , or fill in a contact form which you can find at the bottom of our website, a hint of which can be found in the main body of our website. That aside, you can send us a message via Facebook, or even more simply, just plaster our walls or send us a tweet.

SUPPORTING THE SCENE – Having established the “Supporting” section as an integral part of our website last summer, we have slowly increased capacity to include well over twenty promotional banners covering clubs, events, businesses & music producers in London & internationally. In addition we recently introduced a “Best Bite Choices” interactive section, along with “Pick Of The Day” & “Podcast of The Week” banner sections, these also being promoted via our Facebook Page & our Tumblr site (http://tumblr.com/blog/discomatt), this part of our activity having proven most effective in keeping you updated with the best places to be & be seen on the scene, links to websites, event & ticket pages complimenting the visual images. And with these continuing to be updated daily with broadcasts going up on Facebook once or twice a week, we now consider these promotional banners as a cornerstone of our activity and are grateful to support a wide range of clubs, events & businesses, so if you are a club promoter or event organiser & fancy having your club or event promoted, then just drop us a line at matt@discomatt.com including the relevant artwork and we will do our best to include you.

DISCO DIARY DATES – With Easter very much dominating our immediate diary, we have already committed to a number of events this coming weekend, including “High Society” on Thurs (5^th Apr), A:M “Easter Headliners” on Saturday morning (7^th Apr), and then a fifteen hour marathon on Sunday/Monday, which begins with Beyond and then encompasses Later,  WE “Fluro”, Dish, As One & Orange, while we will be making every effort to pop into Discotec & Fiction too, so it certainly looks like we will be spreading ourselves pretty thin which will no doubt produce a plethora of “Bite Size” rather than “Full Size” reviews. As for the rest of April, well we will be making successive trips to Gigolo & Room Service, as well as aiming to fit in a visit to East Bloc so as to fly the Shoreditch scene flag as well as the Soho & Vauxhall ones.

Well that’s about it for this midterm report and with the line now very much firmly drawn under the first three months of 2012, we can look forward to the new era in Disco Matt land awash with activity throughout April, meaning spring has definitely sprung in our world,  even if there is snow on the way for the UK. (DISCO MATT)

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