The Loft
Club, Razzmatazz, C Almogavers 122
C Pamplona 88, Barcelona, Spain
Razzmatazz is five clubs in one: Downstairs
there is indie rock at the Razz Club, upstairs there's techno
at The Loft and Lo*Li*Ta. The Pop Room and the Rex Room are
more chillout spaces booking pop, electro & disco acts.
Razzmatazz is located in an industrial part of Poble Nou,
a five minute taxi ride from downtown Barcelona.
The Loft, together with the smaller Lo.Li.Ta attached to it,
is situated in The Razzmatazz. Similar to an amusement park,
club goers wander through the various areas and levels of
activity, in effect trying out the different kinds of rides.
The Loft specializes in techno, be it Detroit, electro, or
from the Ed Banger DJs; whereas Lo.Li.Ta tends to provide
the latest in minimal techno and house, or italo techno when
DJ I-F is holding his residency.
DJ Mag
Club Review...
As one of the T-shirts that's a guaranteed
sight every year at the Sonar festival reads: 'Fuck Berlin.
Barcelona's got a beach.' But it's not just during that weekend
in late June that the Spanish city rivals the German capital
as Europe's centre for electronic music as - in the form of
Razmatazz - it also boasts a club easily the equal of anything
in its colder competitor all year round.
Or maybe that should be five clubs,
for Razmatazz is really five venues in one building, all specialising
in different forms of music but all with the same unparalleled
atmosphere. The enormous Razz Club itself hosts indie and
rock bands, as well as DJs like The Chemical Brothers and
Howie B pumping it out into the cavernous ceilings, and arrayed
around and above this space are the other rooms.
Lo*Li*ta has become the Barcelona base
for such British club brands as Chew The Fat! and Bugged Out!,
whilst the smaller Pop Bar sees them squeezing in for nights
hosted by the likes of Sonic Mook Experiment and Modular Records.
Meanwhile, the long stretched-out Rex Room is like a little
bit of Berlin done Catalan-style, with an electro-heavy soundtrack
from DJs like Alexander Technique and The Glimmers.
But it's The Loft space that has really
cemented Razzmatazz's reputation thanks to the bang-on booking
policy of local label Factor City, who have invited everyone
from Andrew Weatherall to Richie Hawtin and Felix Da Housecat
to play here. In fact, if it wasn't for the knowledge that
there's so much going on elsewhere you could well stay in
that room with its hi-tech sound and lighting system and spacious
dancefloor well past dawn.
But that would be missing both the value and the point of
Razzmatazz, for it's all the contrasts here that make the
club what it is, from the glamorous sign outside that acts
as a beacon in this otherwise pretty unedifying part of Barcelona
and the interior decor that combines industrial minimalism
with a warm edge, to the sight of the indie kids that gather
here for the guitar bands getting it on to the sound of techno
white labels in The Loft later on - and vice versa - as the
club kids attempt to get their gravity-defying haircuts around
this whole 'moshing' concept after wandering into Razz Club.
There really is something for everyone here, but the layout
means it's neither difficult to find what you're looking for
or accidentally stumble over something you never even knew
you'd like, which Christian Smith believes is one of the secrets
behind the place's success.
"The layout is wicked because it's a big club but it
always manages to feel quite intimate," says Smith. "But
what really sets it apart is the energy level of the clubbers.
I've been fortunate enough to play in The Loft a lot and I've
had some of the best gigs of my life there."
