A Love From Outer Space Hits Berlin

Written by Manu Ekanayake Tuesday, 13 December 2011 15:48

News -

Andrew Weatherall and Sean Johnston are taking their psyche disco & lo-fi house night on the road, as ALFOS pitches up in Berlin this weekend.

Sometimes even the biggest names want to fly under the radar and that’s just what Andrew Weatherall has done with his A Love From Outer Space parties, which combine his love of a good basement (this time in Stoke Newington’s The Drop) with his more recent yen to play some slower music for these increasingly fast times. Catch him DJing at the weekends and it’s a big room and some big sounds, but this monthly Thursday session is all about what he and his longtime disco associate Sean Johnston call ‘psyche disco’ – basically a mix of spaced-out disco and slower house sounds that might lack speed but never fail with the funk. Here's an ALFOS anthem:

The 18-month-old ALFOS has become an essential mid-week party in London, possibly the only one around at the moment aside from Boiler Room – and that’s weekly and with a changing line-up. But rather like the infamous U-Stream event, ALFOS is now taking its slo-mo show to Berlin, with its second appearance at new B-town joint the Flamingo this Friday. It’s an intimate bar-club venue where Brian Ferry has been seen recently, so make of that what you will. Suffice to say we’re not talking big Berlin techno-fest here, and that’s just the way the ALFOS boys like it.

Details are sparse about ALFOS Berlin (such is the way with all things Weatherall… there’s underground and there’s ‘in self-imposed exile in a bunker somewhere’ and that’s where he tends to reside.) But Sean Johnston did tell us, ‘On a personal note, I'd say that I approach any A Love From Outer Space with excitement and no small amount of trepidation. We certainly intend to rattle their windows.’

And the good Lord Sabre? Well, when we asked how he felt about taking ALFOS to Berlin, he merely replied that, ‘combined with the excitement of Jesus's Birthday I can barely refrain from exploding with delight.’ We're taking that as a good sign...