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When I first read the news that London's Medicine Bar was about to undergo an expensive refit to emerge as new rebranded London nightspot East Village, I was dubious to say the least.

As the name might suggest, the inspiration for London's newest venue is New York's East Village area, which as a concept for a London-based nightspot seems bizarre - and ever so slightly theme pub-esque. Surely you are never going to create the stuff of new London musical legend by alluding to another city's nightlife, particularly when that city is famous for its lack of places to go dancing!

And with elder statesman of house Stuart Patterson at the helm, I could only envisage line-ups of a slightly too old school and dad-friendly nature. "The vibe will be quality house music all the way," the club's promotional materials ominously proclaim.

And lo and behold, we do indeed find names like Rocky, Clive Henry and Gilles Peterson peppered throughout the club's recently unveiled listings. Although I suppose the old-timers do need somewhere to go now that Turnmills and the Kings Cross complex of clubs have vanished from the clubbing map...

But in all fairness, I did find the odd morsel amongst the listings which might tempt me through the door: Andrew Weatherall may not exactly be the cutting edge of new music, but he will be unleashing his superior taste on East Village on Friday 14th March. Meanwhile, the Warm agency's bi-monthly residency looks very promising indeed, hosting Chateau Flight's first UK live show and Swiss techno maniac Deetron on March 22nd, whilst the DFA-centric line-up of Tim Goldsworthy and Tim Sweeney on May 24th certainly reads like something of a coup for the new venue.

East Village claims to be plugging a much-needed gap in the East London clubbing market for small venues with great soundsystems, a point which I have yet to be convinced on. But if you want to put that theory to the test yourself, a rather unfriendly sounding door picker does promise to keep out the suit-wearing city-boy locals, just in case you simply can't bear to drink in the same place as anyone less cool than yourself...

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The twin stars of electronica and art rock move into alignment this Friday 15th February to mark the onset of An Electric Storm, an unlikely but rather pleasing meeting of the minds at Elephant & Castle's Corsica Studios.

The now Chris-less Clark will be back on home turf and turning dragon for the evening: I am expecting a po-faced set of joyless, ugly hard techno aimed squarely at the males in the room, in-keeping with his most unwelcoming new album, but don't let that put you off...

Hopefully the pair of Berliners flown in for support should make up for the testosterone-fest. Khan last year pulled on a pair of rabbit ears and stepped up to the mic for latest album Who Never Rests, which receives a further flogging tonight; 2001's Say Goodbye with inimitable long-term collaborator Julee Cruise meanwhile remains a true blue anthem round these parts to this day. Hoary old Disko B rocker Electronicat will also be dropping by to peddle last year's Chez Toi album.

Throw in Minima's live band soundtrack accompaniment to the screening of the Cabinet of Dr Caligari, the Noise of Art crew's own audio-visual soundclash, and an extremely promising sounding absinthe den hosted by UK ambassadors for Krautrock the Kosmische DJs, and all in all you've got a perfectly valid way to spend your Friday evening.

Oh, and if you do happen to be in the neighbourhood, pop by the Corsica Studios again on March 12th for another evening in the company of the Kosmische DJs, joined this time by the fuzzy psychedelics of the legendary Silver Apples. Or else stay at home on a Friday night and catch the rather inconveniently timed Kosmische DJs radio show between 22.30 and 23.30 on the incomparable Resonance FM.

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It is the end of an era: Scala stalwart club night Popstarz is currently gearing up for the big move to new home Sin on Charing Cross Road, where normal service will resume on February 8th. The countdown clock currently shows just three more chances to relive all of your Scala memories before the dawn of a new age of Popstarz in the West End.

London's biggest gay alternative night is now over a decade old, working through a variety of venues before eventually settling into the Scala to serve up a weekly three room blend of indie, credible pop and classic disco. The move to the gothic ballroom of the Sin venue coincides with a subtle rebrand of the music policy, with the launch of a new electro room in a nod to new rave "fever", featuring DJs from The Cock and Frat Party nights at Popstarz sister venue Ghetto (also home to the infamous Nag Nag Nag) just down the road in Soho.

Popstarz' January closing down sale kicks off on Friday 11th January, where everything must go as the organisers clear out their store cupboard and offer the contents up for free on the night: DVD players, MP3 players, cameras, CD players, CDs, and all of the assorted promotional ephemera donated by guesting bands over the years. You can even get in for free before 11pm if you print out a copy of the flyer from the website, and you can't say fairer than that.

With bounty suitably offloaded, that just leaves the penultimate and last Popstarz nights at the Scala on January 18th and 25th before the bell tolls. Then on February 1st you will have to find somewhere else to go for the night, as the promoters take a well-earned holiday before reconvening at Sin for the all systems go February 8th relaunch.

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We all love the smell of free music in the morning. But preferably free music that someone else has already had to pay for somewhere along the way. Like the never-ending sale, music which has always been available for free just doesn't seem worth the bandwidth it is downloaded on... read more...

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Summer is now a distant memory (if indeed this year's effort even counts as a summer), and so too is the annual Cologne Summer Tunes homecoming party thrown by the Karmarouge team. But that doesn't mean that your chance to download the free Ton sur Ton Vol.II mp3 compilation released to commemorate the occasion has also passed - so get downloading from the mini-site while you still can...

Following on from the free mp3 selection offered last Christmas, the most recent Karmarouge digital compilation serves up some "sunkissed electronica" back catalogue treats from their roster, which includes Luciano (with his Vegetable Orchestra interpretation), Gabriel Ananda, Cio D'Or and Max Cavalerra (who sadly has nothing to do with the rather better known - and crucially lacking one 'R' - Max Cavalera of Sepultura fame). In the beginning there was minimal, runs the lesson from Daniel Mehlhart, underlining the central position the M-word had now assumed on the dancefloors of Europe with his "Am Anfang war es minimal" tribute.

To complete your Karmarouge education you will find yet more mp3 treats amongst the links on the left hand side of their skeletal weblog, making sure to absorb the stream of consciousness nonsense verse masterpieces of Denglisch that pass for press blurb chez Karmarouge as you go. Ignore the literal meaning and simply listen to the sound of the words, and the effect is positively poetic: "The interlocking master tunes are well fed by a smacking acidline and merge to a big fat groovebastard," they tell us of the Metope remix of Gabriel Ananda's 'Life is steadily breaking my heart'. "It's a snotty jack - your - body- track that sets the floor on fire." Indeed.

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The rowdily titled new album Oi oi oi from Boys Noize hits the streets at the beginning of October, but if you think you have seen the cover somewhere before, that may well be because it bears more than a passing resemblance to the OTT blingtastic $100 million diamond encrusted skull unveiled by Damian Hirst earlier this year. But as the old chicken and egg adage goes, which came first, the diamonds or the disco ball?

As this amateurish YouTube "video" rather clumsily points out, it seems that Berlin's rebel with a cause Alex Ridha has indeed stolen a march on old Hirsty, using the skull-shaped disco ball image as a logo for a considerable period of time before it graced the cover of his album, as any self-respecting electrotrash aficionado will know. "But I don’t really like the Damien Hirst skull, so I don’t care if he stole the idea," Ridha recently told the Montreal Mirror. "The one I use is a bit older, so he probably saw it and got inspired by it, but I think it’s just a big waste of money. Who needs this expensive skull? It’s just ridiculous, really.”

Hirst is presumably equally unperturbed (the phrase "laughing all the way to the bank" has surely never been more apt), even if the disco ball comparisons have dogged his latest extravagant work since day one. "I was worried it might look like a skull ring - spend all that money and you just end up with a disco ball, shock horror," he told The Guardian's Maev Kennedy at the dazzling White Cube gallery unveiling.

But for us, the now-classic Halloween Meathead creation will always be our favourite way to decorate a skull...

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The release of symbolically titled debut † has given Parisian princes Justice just the kick up the arse they needed to wheel out the full live show that their music deserved, so thankfully the greatest hits of pop-dance DJ sets are on hold for the time being.

If your respective paths have not already crossed at one of the summer festivals, there comes an opportunity to worship at the altar when the noisy blasphemous bastards take on rock venue Koko on 6th September. Expect glowing crosses (not quite burning, but close), walls of amps and free glowsticks when the cult of Justice is in town, and leave your po-face at the door.

Justice apparently have the power to strike the fear of God into the dance community (if Pitchfork are to be believed), although you would struggle to find evidence of that on the internet where the album seems to have received good reviews across the board. For those still not with the program, fellow French gentleman Jackson preaches to the converted and unconverted alike with his remix of single D.A.N.C.E., where the brief gets ever so slightly warped into a kind of greatest hits of Justice medley that also serves as a handy guide for beginners...

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I have always thought that the 't' in Shoreditch's T Bar ought to stand for "too good to be true": a policy of club-quality line-ups and no entrance fee could surely only last for so long. But although they have had to tighten up the door policy a little, and Michael Mayer has now packed in his big gun Stink collaboration with Damian Lazarus, the success of the T Bar ploughs on undeterred.

T Bar continues right on course this Thursday 8th August, when the free top drawer talent comes in the shape of minimal princess and rose amongst the thorns Magda, guesting at the monthly Haywire Sessions. Sure to be a full on scene clusterfuck if ever there was one, but if you can bear the backpadders then the T Bar is your oyster, as they (don't) say...

And if that wasn't enough, tracklisting junkies can now stream every DJ set which graces the T Bar's decks from new website T Bar Music, including mixes from Magda, Andrew Weatherall, Ivan Smagghe, Superpitcher, Michael Mayer and James Murphy. The phrase too good to be true springs to mind once more!

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I honestly never saw myself getting into world music as I got older, but however I resist, I find myself liking it more and more. Like wrinkles, it seems it comes to us all. And no sooner do I get into a conversation dissing the Cargo venue for its general worldly-wise worthiness, the next week I find myself considering heading to said venue to watch a Balkan brass band...

Of course I am sure that my new-found susceptibility is in no small part due to the accessible and indie-friendly version of Eastern European folk music delivered up by bands like Beirut and A Hawk and a Hacksaw. But however much admiration I might have for the exposure-bringing achievements of the latter, for me the highlight of their May Bush Hall appearance was definitely the boundless enthusiasm and diverse musicianship of the Hun Hangar Ensemble, the cute band of Hungarian musicians who the Hawk and the Hacksaw had brought along for the ride.

There is more of the genuine article at Cargo this week, when the Kocani Orkestar from Macedonia bring their gypsy tune based brass band antics to East London to celebrate the release of the second Gypsy Beats and Balkan Bangers compilation. Oh, and they also had the dubious honour of having a track featured on the Borat soundtrack...

The first Gypsy Beats and Balkan Bangers compilation meanwhile is of course still available. Think of it as a kind of sanitised beginners guide to the gypsy sound for anyone else whose curiosity has managed to overcome their ingrained world music aversion...

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With a name like that, he was just born to be booked by Circo Loco, so it was only a matter of time before the Ibiza cult would book Switzerland's finest Mirko Loko for one of their London sessions at The End. He may not be a Lazy Fat Person any more, but the resident and program planner for Lausanne's excellent Loft Electroclub will be showing off his impeccable taste on August 18th.

Helping to recreate the DC10 vibe in WC1 will be the unofficial queen of Ibiza Tania Vulcano, whilst Cassy finds herself in the midst of a London love-in in the lounge with djscandance's Jamie Jones, Secret Sundaze's James Priestley and Phonica's Hector. Although someone really needs to tell both Tanya and Cassy (hey, it might as well be me!) that describing yourself as a 'DJane' really isn't a good idea: it is like implying that either you aren't really good enough to be a full-blown DJ like the boys, or else you want some kind of special dispensation for being a lady DJ...

With AKA also thrown in and promising more of the same, a night at Circo Loco can feel a bit like Groundhog Day, as you move between rooms but the music seems to stay exactly the same. But if you are sincere in your minimal über alles sentiments, then you certainly aren't going to be put off by a thing like that...