Our next event -
- is already being discussed! You'll hear about it here first, so watch this space (or join our email list to find out as soon as we announce it).
A huge thank you to everyone who made Rumble in the Jungle such an amazing night! The pictures are now up, so see if you can find yourselves...
This is Andy aka 'Therapeutic Indecks' a mostly harmless happy go lucky individual. Used to be a regular on the Cardiff clubbing scene but in recent years has turned into somewhat of a hermit crab after bombdiving a year on his course. This gave him the realisation that in order not to enjoy a staple diet of tesco value beans when he was older, he had better get his arse in gear and do some work!
Andy really enjoys daydreaming and through this became one of the 2 founders of CLUD, (the other being Rob aka 'Brother Bear'). After being blown away by the immense atmosphere of Tribe of Frog in Bristol, which he was introduced to by Dan, he agreed with Rob that Cardiff was seriously in need of a regular psytrance night. This decision was followed by an agonising venue hunt and organisational effort. Many times Andy would wake up during the middle of one of his CLUD daydreams and wonder why there had to be so many lamp posts in Cardiff, and why were they had to be so hard.
Many of these daydreams were played out at the launch party "Rock the Dinosaur" in the Owain Glyndwr (because he liked the balcony) last year despite many warnings from well informed people that it would not work. The result was a very enjoyable party which has since seen its cast swell in numbers of enthusiastic people who have joined on the strength of that night.
Andy is a DJ of all kinds of music, from ambient, trip hop, breaks, house and electro, to drum and bass, world music and psytrance. Some of his best sets have been a mangled eclectic mismatch which work on variation.
Andy is a passionate music producer and although he has not sent any of his tunes off for release, he very much enjoys learning about sound in all aspects. Recently he has started producing with his fiancee Laura, who is a very talented violinist.
This is Rob, the other founder of CLUD. We asked him a quite a while ago to write something for his website profile.
Rob is a creative genius.
We love Rob. :-)
(Incidentally he does write some mighty sick tunes, check them out here!)
This is Dan aka absorbentgnome. He is responsible for the technical aspects of CLUD which include maintaining the forums and website as well as ensuring all electrical equipment is raring to go at CLUD parties. He also provides technical support throughout the night when his background in electronic engineering comes in very handy.
Dan produces his own music that mainly falls into the categories of trance and psy-trance - you can check out his tunes at http://www.myspace.com/absorbentgnome. All thoughts and feedback welcome! When clubbing Dan prefers to go out to nights that have a psychedelic or uplifting edge. He particularly likes getting wrecked in small dingy clubs or at large outdoor parties, especially ones with high quality visuals and loads of UV decor - no wonder then that he's involved in the colourful, psychedelic, UV mayhem that is CLUD!
Josh is an occasional student who came to Cardiff in 2005. He fell in with the Clud posse after meeting Andy at a festival the summer before he came to Cardiff. After being part of the decor rigging crew at the first Clud he was dazzled that a psychedelic night so rudely, fantastically against the Cardiff grain, and so spectacularly good could happen. So much so, that by November 2006 he was welcomed to the high Cluddites council (after an unspoken and possibly unspeakable feverish initiation ritual in a sweat lodge in the woods of Caerphilly at 4 am one clammy autumn morning).
Within Clud his main areas of responsibility are promotional groundwork (lit fly-postering and pestering people with flyers) and arranging the stall-holders, artists, healers, performers, fairies and other festival detritus which Clud attracts. He is possibly the most visible member of the Cluddites, and can be seen at every event of every description in the weeks leading up to Clud, flyering and motor-mouthing about Clud to all and sundry.
Crispin (aka Sideshowbob) first discovered CLUD in March 2006. He decided it was one of the best club nights he'd ever been to, and certainly the best in Cardiff. It was so good, in fact, that as of the next day his live electro-house project (in which he plays keyboards) became a live psy project instead, soon involving Andy, Rob, Laura and Amy. We hope you'll be hearing some spontaneously improvised psy from us some night soon.
Crispin now does various random technical things for CLUD, including the website, and works on top secret plans for the future which we can't tell you about just yet! He is a proponent of long days out mountain biking after a big night out, and long days out climbing after a quiet night in. He also produces music under the name Oscillicraft. For altitudinal reasons he is unmissable on the dancefloor.
Former team members
Mav v2.0 (aka erm... Mav) was created by the happy scientists behind CLUD in an attempt to design the perfect psychadelic being, needless to say their experiment went horribly wrong!
In reality Mav accidentally stumbled across the last years CLUD launch party with a group of his tribesman and discovered the unending joys of psy-trance. After a year's involvement in the Cardiff based Critical Mass collective the CLUD chorum asked Mav to come on board for some reason.
Mav v2.0 plays world music, dub and chillout as well as a spot of live and is looking forward to finishing off some electronic music.
This is Lou aka Lil Fairy Lou. When she is not at work being a pastry chef, she is buzzing around showering everyone with fairy dust!
Lou is responsible for the decor - it's her job to plan and hire everything artistic. Lou works closely with Sam, and together with the help of others, they have designed and made all that you will see on the night.
Lou became part of CLUD when her friends from Andover played at the first party. It had such an impact on her that she needed more
Lou's addiction to a good stomp and determination for everyone else having a good time has been the driving force for her and the decor team.
Lou will obviously be there on the night, and she will be the Lil Fairy thats buzzing around, so smile and give her some fairy love!