Now in its fifth year the Berlin Festival is alongside amazing techno and dirt cheap rents just another reason for our German friends to look all smug.

This years looks event (10th – 11th September) is looking quite spectacular with appearances from what appears to be half of hypedom from LCD Soundsystem, Soulwax and Hot Chip, through to Caribou, Fever Ray and Gonzales playing.

Now wouldn’t it be nice if someone had a pair of tickets to give away, what’s that? We do? How handy!

You’ll have to make your own way there and find somewhere to stay (unless you just dance for 48 hours solid or already live in Berlin, both perfectly feasible) but if you fancy giving it a shot, answer the question below, email us by noon Friday 27th and we’ll randomly pick one winner.

Q) Which big furry animal is the symbol of Berlin?

The next couple of weeks sees the grand finale to the Beck’s Vier Music Inspires Art Tour. Having toured the country showcasing the best new art, music, film and design talent around they’re ending their sojourn with two weeks of parties at The Lock Tavern in Camden and The Rest is Noise in Brixton.

All events are free and you can see the full lineups below, looks good yes! Even better we’re giving away some Becks art glasses and a free Sunday lunch at the Lock Tavern this weekend (on Sunday obviously). Just email us here before Friday midday (please put ‘Lock Tavern Om Nom Nom‘ in the subject header) and we’ll randomly select a winner.

Right here’s the lineups…

22 – 25 July - Lock Tavern, 35 Chalk Farm Road, London NW1 8AJ

Thursday 22 July (8pm – 12am) The Hundred In The Hands, Men, Squeaky Hill fun and games, SEXBEAT DJs
Friday 23 July (8.30pm – 1am) O Children, Metronomy (DJ set), Dam Mantle, The Eyes in the Heat, Leather Boy DJs, Modern Romance DJs
Sat 24 July (8.30pm – 1am) Deadboy, El – B, Rockwell, Pariah. Benedict Bull.
Sun 25 July (3pm – 11pm) Caribou (DJ set), These New Puritans (DJ set), Lukid, Casper C, Civil Civic, Flash Fiktion, Sunday Girl DJ set, David Lyre

29 – 31 July - The Rest Is Noise, 442 Brixton Road, Brixton, London, SW9 8EJ

Thurs 29 July (8pm – 1am) These New Puritans (DJ set), Gold Panda, Standard Planets, Hoodlums, The Eyes in the Heat, SEXBEAT DJs
Fri 30 July (9pm – 2am) Untold, Ben UFO, Work It, Envy (LIVE MC SET)
Sat 31 July (9pm – 2am) Jimmy Edgar (LIVE), Hundreds in Hands (LIVE), Ocelot (LIVE), P45
Sun 1 Aug (3pm – 12am) Shunda K, Lady Chann, Dels, Lixo DJ set, Ghostpoet, United Vibrations, Sunday Girl DJ set, Squeaky Hill Arts Collective

Ok so we thought we’d kick off our birthday competition spree with something close to home. As you know we also run a small but perfectly formed little label Hot Pockets, and to date we’ve released three 7″s, all on lush coloured vinyl, and one digital release.

There’s some great releases lined up and we’re giving two of you the chance to not only get copies of the first three 7s but we will also send you all our releases over the next twelve months, to enter simply email us here (please put ‘Hot Pockets Competition‘ in the subject header) before Friday midday with the answer to this question.

Q: The very first release on Hot Pockets by Line was a cover of whose song?

Good luck and we’ll announce the winners on Friday Afternoon.

There’s always been something about Untold that screams Essex bank robber with a scratch card addicition, not sure why….

Anyway the Hemlock boss sits atop a mighty lineup at Feeding Time in the basement of C.A.M.P. this Friday evening, supported by the flexing biceps of Night Slugs acolyte Jam City, Dam Mantle (live), D/R/U/G/S (live), Radiant Dragon and Young Turks DJs.

For a kaleidoscopic sonic boom of what to expect you need look no further than this Radiant Dragon remix of Mancunian ambient haus tykes D/R/U/G/S – last seen answering the serious questions in life as posed by  Scottington Pinglewood.

Download: D/R/U/G/S – Rings of Truth (Radiant Dragon Remix)

And look we even have a pair of tickets to give away to whatever lucky reader knows the answer to the following question and has enough nous to use email.

Which xx track did Untold remix?

The winner will bechose at random on Friday afternoon at 3pm!

After  releasing a quite fantastic album earlier this year, Connan Mockasin has branched out into the luctrative world of designer apparel with a distinctive custard coloured teeshirt replete with a rather crude depiction of Connan smiling. These tshirts are now availble for purchase via Phantasy daddy Erol Alkan’s webstore.

(The Stokey dwelling parentals amongst you be sure to check out the Erol baby grower too)

Phantasy were so delighted with our words of praise back in May for the album they gave us one of these distinctive t shirts as a competition prize for the fashionista readers at Slutty Fringe!

For a chance of winning you need to form an impressive answer to the following quandry and direct it here.

If you possessed evil super powers what would you transform young Connan into instead of the requested Snat?

Competition closes 5pm Wednesday 14th July with the winner notified shortly afterwards.

If you weren’t one of the lucky ones who won tickets in our Dour Festival competition last week then never fear as we have another chance to enjoy a weekend of free al-fresco musical delights, this time courtesy of my own favourite UK festival Standon Calling.

Taking place 6-8th August in, you guessed it, Standon in Hertfordshire I’ve been going for about 5 years now (in fact me and Tony have DJ’ed in the cowshed a couple of times) and is about the only festival in the UK I’d even consider going to and camping at these days.

The line-up is always great, especially considering the festival only has a capacity of a couple of thousand, and this year sees the likes of Etienne de Crecy, Metronomy, Liars, Efterklang, Pantha du Prince, Fucked Up, Gold Panda and Factory Floor strut their stuff on the various stages.

Best of all (for me at least) it’s only about 40 minutes away from London, small enough to actually see everyone you might want to and well let’s just say you’ll be hard pressed to find a more relaxed festival.

If (like me) the tv coverage of Glastonbury just left you astonished that people would willingly intern themselves in a makeshift refugee camp the size of a small county then trust me this is the festival for you.

And so we have a pair of tickets to give away… Simply answer the easy question below and email us the answer before Friday 9th July for a chance to win.

Q: Standon Calling started as a birthday BBQ for the festival’s founder Alex Trenchard, but how many friends were invited along to that first party?

Good luck, and we’ll see you in the cocktail tent.

Being a stupid Englander for years I assumed the Dour Festival was some kind of mass goth/Smiths gathering. Of course Dour is actually one of the biggest and best festivals in Europe, 4 days, 6 stages and 220 acts ranging from Faith No More (yay!), Errors and Monotonix to Carl Craig, Chris Cunningham and Simian Mobile Disco.

Now in its 22nd year, Dour takes place between the 15th and 18th of July in, you guessed it, the village of Dour in Belgium. It looks amazing, my Belgian (yes, that’s how cosmopolitan I am these days)  friends are always raving about it and now we’ve got a handful of tickets to the festival to give away.

Unfortunately this competition is only open to UK residents, and you should probably scope the T’s & C’s (basically you’ll have to sort out your own travel and camping) but the long and short of it is we have 5 (yes five!) pairs of tickets to give away.

Take a look at the question below, email your answer here (before Friday 11th June), and we’ll randomly select 5 lucky winners from the correct entrants.

Q: Name one of the acts who played at the first Dour Festival in 1989?

Last week we posted up an amazing mix from Chrome Hoof’s Milo Smee and mentioned they’re holding a ridiculously heavy looking launch party for their new album this Friday at the Bocking Street Warehouse.

With a line-up that includes Chrome Hoof themselves plus Andrew Weatherall, Simian Mobile Disco and David Holmes on the decks, you know it’s going to be special.

This week we’re giving you another super fine mix from the Dollop DJs, also playing on the night, and offering you the chance to win a pair of tickets to the party. To win simply email us the name of the new Chrome Hoof album, out now on Southeren Records, by Thursday 1pm and we’ll randomly select one winner.

In case you don’t win tickets are still available priced at a more than reasonable £11 from here, here, Phonica, Soul Jazz and Pure Groove.

Download: Dollop DJs – Crush Depth Promo Mix

Track Listing
Andrew Weatherall – Selective Walking
Pollyester – German Love Letter (Permanent Vacation Mix)
Pilooski – AAA
Sidwho – Pay for Love (Jamie Paton Acid Mix)
It’s a Fine Line – Do the Hot Tar
Betty Botox – Voodoo 2
Ruf Dug – 1 4 Ron
Chrome Hoof – Vapourise
DJ Hell – U Can Dance (SMD remix)
Stimming – Melodica
Fuck Buttons – Sweet Love for Planet Earth (Andrew Weatherall Remix)

Not the prestigious film festival but the Modular Summer Party on this Saturday at Cable… South London will have never heard such epicly tropical jams before. There will be Tensnake. There will be Norwegian popstar Annie. And there will be dancing.

Best of all we have a pair of tickets to give away, just email here before  Friday 1pm and we’ll randomly select one winner.

Ok see that? That bag is literally your ticket to PARTAY, as of last night three of these bags have been squirrelled away in ‘naughty’ locations around London.

Your mission, should you wish to accept it, is to hunt down the bags, retrieve the cubes inside, and then come join us for some VIP treatment at the Subject60 Launch party in London on June 2nd, where Lykke Li, Face Hunter and Queens of Noize will be holding court.

London is of course a fairly big place, so we’re not just going to send you off blind, oh no. Instead we’re going to get all hi-tech and Mission Impossible on your asses.

Below is a map giving you a rough idea of where the bags are hidden, looks great but on it’s own still probably not much help.

But follow these six steps and you too can soon be living life high on the hog.

1. Go to ‘Click to Start Search’ on the map.

2. Download the LAYAR app to your Android Phone or iPhone 3GS.

3. Go to one of the three locations on the map. Open this link on your phone: http://subject60.com/c/?sluttyfringe to activate LAYAR (TIP – don’t forget to bookmark the link in LAYAR)

4. Start searching for the hidden cube.

5. Register the 6 digit code once you’ve found the hidden cube.

6. Party Hard.

Simple isn’t it!? Though I’m afraid that if like me you have a prehistoric piece of shit for a phone then you’ll just have to start your own blog, write about nonsense and music for four years and then you’ll probably get invited to these things anyway.

Actually, on reflection, finding cubes hidden in London sounds like a lot more fun and much less hassle. I’m led to believe the map will update itself as the cubes are found and registered so keep checking back to make sure you’re still in the game.

Throughout May and June the Subject60 launch party will be touring 5 European cities: London, Berlin, Paris, Milan and Madrid, to promote the new Volvo S60. Each event will be attended by a handpicked, select guest list and hosted by Lykke Li and Face Hunter.

So far, so interesting, but I’m guessing what you want to know is how do you get to go… Well I’d like to say it’s simple but I’m afraid you’re going to have to work for this one.

Somewhere right now in London 3 bags are being hidden in ‘naughty’ locations, each bag contains two cubes, and it is these cubes that are your tickets to a night of VIP treatment.

Tomorrow we’ll be posting up the map that combined with one of those fancy mobile phone app things (don’t ask me, my phone’s about 8 years old) will help you find the cubes and get your party on. Hold tight!

The inexorable rise to global gutterhaus dominance mapped out by Night Slug boffins Alex Bok and Jimmy 1990 comes a step closer on Monday with the much anticipated 3rd release on their imprint from Girl Unit (seen above tweeeting his fave meatball recipe)

To celebrate this they are running a competition that retains the dublate culture of the music they grew up on with the title track IRL having been pressed up on a 12″acetate dubplate by Bok Bok yesterday (watch the video here) and given away to the person who is brainsmart enough to know

WHAT DOES “GIRL UNIT” STAND FOR ?

Answers to nightslugs [at] gmail [dot] com

Good luck comrade.

If one of your all time fantasies involves a soho basement, lots of alcohol, live music from Eel Pie Island’s finest, risible yoof tv personalities and a car that moonlights as a DJ booth, then you my friend are in luck.

Thats right, this Thursday 8th April sees US car types Chevoret unleash Spark, their entrant into the European market, on an unassuming audience at the Vinyl Factory (rumoured to be where Phonica press up all those disco edits) before doing a series of popup events across the UK (more info here)

Playing live are Mystery Jets (seen above sullenly sharing picture space with the aforementioned motor turned DJ booth) with the added comedy bonus of a DJ set from Nick Grimshaw alongside selections from Merok Records and Sth Ldn afrobeat fopp Jack Penate.

Kate Moross will be stationed behind her laptop providing some concentric circle visuals and the girls from WAH Nails (best website ever btw) are also on hand to provide a neon tinged manicure.

Chevrolet have given Slutty Fringe 5 pairs of VIP tickets to this event – for a chance to win just email me with the answer to the following quandry:

Who designed the Chevrolet Spark Tour logo?

a) Jimi Crayon

b) Jimi Mistri

c) Jimi Hendrix

(Apparently clues are on hand at the Spark facebook page)

Competition ends Thursday 12pm

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