Ears Have Eyes rears its musically affected head overground to give East London a serious beating.
Chameleonic clubnight Ears Have Eyes is brought to you by the creative passions of three DJs with a vision, with a common desire. Self-confessed 'massive music nerds', the EHE trio is M.S.S.S, (Miles Davies) Joe Europe (Joe Brooke-Smith) and Mr Jack (Chris Jack). It's not a new night. They’ve been kicking it for about a year in London – but you probably haven’t heard of it yet because they are part of that family of promoters who begin life underground.
They have a history of throwing parties – were all born to do it you might say – but only came to it in London when someone dropped out of a venue they liked and they were asked to step in. Not many promoters can say they "reluctantly fell into the promoting game" but it's simply true. However, these three have always been involved in throwing parties, and you get the impression that once they hit London it was only be a matter of time before they returned to their old, late night ways.
"We cut our teeth before we hit our 20s in football clubs, fields, community centre’s and Wolverhampton clubs." Says Joe Europe. Joe and Chris - two of the three - were responsible for the infamous Shine nights – always rammed drum 'n' bass, house and techno nights in various Midlands based clubs. Miles' party history includes trying to put on a party in a zoo. "They said no - said that it would excite and frighten the animals." Musically Ears have Eyes is a difficult night to categorize. Yes, they end the night with high-class four to the floor, but between the beginning and the end there is no predicting what you will hear. "Everything from funk and hip hop to techno and worldwide breaks. We call it rotating grooves – it’s a bit of everything but all groove driven – our party music has always been groove driven.”
So-called because of the visual element present at every party, (Miles produces visuals as well as music) Ears Have Eyes is unique. It’s not just a house night, or a techno night – it’s more like a house party with a selection of your mates who happen to be really good on the decks. It’s inclusive – you don’t feel out of place if you’re not a techno geek, it’s fun, lighthearted, musically adventurous. After finding the club scene ‘a bit impersonal’ the trio set out to throw a party their own way. “We wanted to do something that fulfilled a niche. To throw parties that never stopped being enjoyable for us. Fun parties with an intimate vibe that didn’t take themselves too seriously.”
They started out at an under-the-radar venue in Whitechapel. It’s a great, intimate space, but not quite what you’d call legit. It has the atmosphere of raving in someone’s living room – because that’s exactly what you’re doing. Every single one since they started in early 2009 has been sell out, packed to the rafters, so their ingredients of varied tunes, a relaxed schedule and word of mouth promotion obviously worked. It’s a formula they have decided more or less to stick to for their first foray into London clubland proper. They are holding their night at the excellent Shoreditch venue Sosho. The benefits of having a state-of-the-art sound system and proper toilets are obvious. But with the move to a proper club comes certain other advantages. The party will be elevated to a ‘proper’ clubnight. The move will give them the necessary clout to book the headliners they want, and the soundsystem will in turn do their music the justice it so deserves.
“Doing it in a legit club gives us the freedom to book bigger names" they say. “But if we stuck solely to club nights it would defeat the object of why we started – we want to do something alternative. When you’ve grown up dancing in fields – it’s a big jump to throw parties in clubs. We want the best of both worlds – London has a great club scene but also a wealth of underground venues. You turn up at a place and think 'is this really legitimate?’ there’s so many great underground spaces.”
Not prepared to abandon their underground side entirely, the three have decided to continue their Whitechapel endeavors, to keep one foot in a proper club and several toes firmly entrenched in the underground. They intend to alternate, perhaps on a monthly basis. They have the freedom to experiment at the underground venue, and the opportunity to reach out to a new crowd at the club night.
For their debut at Sosho they’ve booked Trimsound head honcho Leif – a half-Swedish DJ who plays stripped down minimal house with a jackin, Chicago feel. This really will be worth checking out. The three residents are absolutely first rate DJs all – with very different styles. When asked: 'Where would you pitch yourselves?' Joe Europe is decidedly tech house, M.S.S.S – 'psychbeat and weird' stuff and Mr Jack – ever the diplomat - says he plays 'whatever the ladies want'.
By the end of the night in pretty much all cases it’s house and techno – although the residents always close the night – they like to put a final stamp on it, take it back to their roots and remind people what they’re about. Last time they closed with ‘Love is In The Air.’ Their eclecticism and idealism is displayed in the choices they make for their heavenly, money-no-object EHE line up:
"Derrick May, DJ Sneak, Derrick Carter and Kraftwerk back to back to back in the house and techno room, with Jive Bunny as an extra. The lounge would be presided over by Billie Holiday and Fats Waller on rotation. In the live music room it's Talking Heads, Sparks, Jimmy Hendrix, The Yard Birds and Django Reinhardt." Wow.
Ears Have Eyes is this Saturday at Sosho.
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