Watching a 15-second clip of your favourite DJ on social media, often not even mid-mix, can bring about an anxious feeling. Without sounding like too much of a gatekeeper here, how can these snippets cultivate so much traction? Being a good selector is commendable, but praising the DJ without any indication of how they got the crowd from A to B seems a little perplexing. 

How can an engagement be authentic, watching remotely, when you aren’t part of the original soundscape? The importance of the dancefloor itself was summarised by The Loft’s pioneer, David Mancuso, who believed that the DJ’s role is only possible through ‘a unique situation where the dancer becomes part of the whole setting of the music being played’. However, there are several hoops to jump through here when commenting on our participation with dance music today. It’s not as easy as isolating the DJ or the consumer, both parties now coincide with social media’s existence. There appears to be an urgent demand for clubs to respond to this changing landscape; it might just look something like Manchester’s new 1000-person-capacity venue, Amber’s. 

Just a 3-minute walk from Oxford Street Station, you'll find the doors to Amber’s. The well-lit and polished high-rise backdrop of Symphony Park provides an oxymoronic setting for the basement club. On its opening night, dancers appeared eager to experience what was in store, as the dancefloors began filling as early as 10pm. To be true to the club’s aim for open mindedness, I’m going to keep things ambiguous and avoid creating rigid preconceptions by listing genres and name-dropping DJs. If you want that, it’s been published elsewhere. The club excelled with its no-phone policy and unannounced line-up. My senses were awakened, and I had a bigger appetite than ever to find out what sounds were going to prevail throughout the night. This felt closer to the underground festival experience, losing track of time and navigating with your ears. The dance floor felt the most free when it was at its darkest, and you could lose visual awareness of the scale of the space, and its tiered levels. Most surprising of all, was the genuine promise of affordability and safety. Their £5 house lager and present, but not overbearing, welfare team made Amber’s feel authentic in its mission. Writing a detailed account of this space, destroying any mystery would be no different to filming it on my phone and posting it so I’ve refrained from doing so. 

Ahead of the night, we caught up with one of Amber’s co-founders and directors, Hutch. Boasting residencies at fabric and Rinse FM, the DJ is now furthering his repertoire, heading up the music curation and becoming a resident for the Manchester venue. The anticipation just one week ahead of the launch was clear, as he told Dance Policy over Zoom,  “It’s just genuinely being hands-on, making sure things happen at the club, liaising with the sound team or builders or whoever, you know, just to get everything over the line.”

“Some of the DJs I look up to the most are not very social-media active, like Josie Robelle, who doesn’t have Instagram or any form of social media, yet plays all over the world, turning down gigs, playing Berghain, she’s one of the best ever.”

Despite the advantages of years of experience behind the booth, it is clear that Amber’s demands priority of the dancefloor instead. “Me and Jeremy [one of Amber’s other co-founders] have had so many moments on the dancefloor together.”. Speaking of moments that inspired the new venue, he said: “The first time you see certain people on the dance floor, you don't necessarily know who they are. So it's super easy to look at someone and go, who is that? What's that sound? Who is that DJ? What is this sound like? And then you go away from that and then you go, I'm going to dig into this now. And then that's kind of that journey of discovery, which is something that we wanted to bring back and make for people time and time again.”. Echoing the sentiment behind Mancuso’s words, Hutch lays down the importance of sound in “making or breaking any club”.  “But at the end of the day, if the sound isn’t there, then it’s not going to stick.”. 

Another non-negotiable brought to the forefront of the club’s agenda is a no-phone policy. It’s a policy that is becoming more common and perhaps is the only available response for promoters to curb the increasing threat that social media poses to club-culture. Phones are creating self-consciousness and at their worst, illuminating (often with the flash left on) what has long been regarded as an underground space where self-expression and anonymity flourish. Hutch mentions allowing people to “feel a bit freer to be themselves and feel safe”, as he describes the difference in atmosphere in no-phone venues such as Manchester’s ‘The White Hotel’ and London’s ‘Fold’. “You’ve got all different types of people dancing, really going for it and looking out for each other on the dance floor.”. He talks about its benefits for engagement and energy, “rather than just, like, look at this drop on their phone”. 

Asking dancers to distance themselves from their phones, does however seem like a slightly ironic one when a lot of DJs and even Amber’s immediate success owes itself to carefully curated social media posts. Hutch spoke about the requirement for the club to have a digital presence, but make sure to “have a voice of their own, not forcing it or being disingenuous”. Speaking about his role in Amber’s he said, “For me, I don’t look for DJs on social media when going to book someone. It’s not a measurement of success for me. That’s not how I gauge how good a DJ is…Some of the DJs I look up to the most are not very social-media active, like Josie Robelle, who doesn’t have Instagram or any form of social media, yet plays all over the world, turning down gigs, playing Berghain, she’s one of the best ever.”. Having a digital presence is almost inevitable for most in the industry. Hutch mentions it being a “great tool for getting your music out and getting people aware of you.”. 

In the effort to hunt down track-id’s and relive our favourite moments, there is an increasing demand for DJs to record and publish their sets. At its most extreme, the appetite of onlookers stretches to wanting to watch an hour of their favourite DJ navigating the decks. Perhaps we can blame Boiler Room for granting DJ’s cult status. Once again, we are reminded of the sobering effects of having a digital footprint. “It puts pressure on you to live up to something that people think you are.”. Hutch spoke about the struggles to contextualize his sound, upon being asked to publish a set from Lost Village Festival. “I’m listening back to that and I’m thinking, is this like me? Should I put this out? But in the moment it felt right and everyone was having a great time and it made sense.”. Here, dance music seems to flourish within the circumstantial ecosystem of sound, setting, and crowd. Amber’s believes its space encourages pushing boundaries in the moment, through their choice to keep line-ups unannounced on Saturdays. Speaking of the benefits for the DJs, he says “There’s no expectation on them. They can come down and feel free to play whatever they like or play a bit more true to themselves if they feel like they haven’t already been able to.”

The club already boasts 5 consecutive sold-out unannounced nights. Hutch denotes this success to mystery and intrigue. “People don’t know who they’re going to get. They’re excited to see someone and potentially discover someone who they’ve not heard of before, and that’s exciting. It’s kind of telling that people are actually wanting to get away from their phones and go to a place with other like-minded people and get stuck in. It’s not all about that headliner. It’s about it being affordable and being really, really good music. We’re grateful to people for trusting us with that. It just shows that once you put something out there that everyone can see, like line-ups, people can turn it down. It’s just another night for them. It’s unannounced and much more special.”.

UK club-culture has been under the microscope for quite a few years now as we are seeing an increasing number of venues closing their doors.  The difficulties are particularly prevalent for small clubs, due to the increase in utility and alcohol costs, alongside the demands to book competitive names. Many spaces are running at a loss as they are driven to provide for an increasingly selective consumer that now has the ability to scope out its options, often opting for bigger, more “trendy” names. Amber’s provides a compelling solution to avoiding this challenge with its unannounced nights. “But the best DJ doesn't always mean the most expensive. And where there are DJs who have a bigger following and are more expensive, we are asking certain DJs to take a slight reduction in their fee, which in turn allows us to charge less, transferring that savings to the raver. You know, there's no way we can charge five-pound tickets and pay 20 grand for a DJ. No way.”.

On the other promoter takeover nights, Hutch talks about reducing financial risk whilst delivering their promise of spreading the underground sound. The pressures of club ownership became evident, as he tells Dance Policy: “It’s tricky figuring out what external promoters to work with, there might be a point where we actually take it all in-house and do everything ourselves. You obviously are not paying for the DJs on your side. They’re just hiring out the venue… We’re learning as we go, as we are figuring out what nights represent our ethos as well.”.

The space is important, however, Amber’s contribution in changing how we participate with underground music seems to highlight the conversation we should really be having about club-culture. 

Their 1000-person-capacity venue now sits on the larger side capacity-wise of what Manchester has to offer, not including the vast 10,000 cap of Warehouse Project.  Speaking on the benefits, he says “I feel like there's been like a ‘Sankeys’-shaped hole that we've kind of slotted into.”. “In terms of an agent’s point of view, it helps in growing their artists. There are smaller clubs which are good for people to start out in and do smaller underground shows. It’s a good environment for artists to go into as they grow, without being such a stark jump from a smaller club to the massive shows.”.

It cannot be ignored, however, that many question the sustainability of nightlife and in doing so, have put bigger venues up against the smaller ones. DJs themselves often contribute to this narrative in a bid to rescue small clubs. Answering how Amber’s is going to combat the observations that smaller clubs are providing better atmospheres, Hutch says: “with the feel of the space itself, and through programming”. “It’s an underground club, but it is also underground. It’s moody. The sound is really good, the lights come down a bit lower so it doesn't feel as big as it is. We’ve got the DJ booth on the floor as well, everyone’s at crowd level.”. Yes, the space is important, however, Amber’s contribution in changing how we participate with underground music seems to highlight the conversation we should really be having about club-culture. 

Amber’s legacy is yet to be up for contention, but their strong agenda and ethos raise important questions about the entire ecosystem of underground music. Feeling the magnitude of their mission, Hutch humbly told Dance Policy ahead of launch night,  “I think I'm just looking forward to the last DJ being on, on the opening night, and then I can kind of have a little go on the dance floor and just kind of soak it all in for a few minutes.”. 

Written by Issy Green

Photos by Shaun Peckham and Khris Cowley