New venue, komunal, to open in Birmingham

A new community music space is set to open in Birmingham.

Opening in Digbeth on 15th August, komunal is dedicated to “high-quality electronic music”, and promises to provide a platform for “thoughtful programming and independent global voices”, according to a press release.

The komunal team space will also house the karavan, a livestream booth inside a converted caravan, where regular sessions for the new komrad online radio station will be held.

komunal will host a launch party on 15th August with Berlin-based Croatian DJ Dea Dvornik, part of the duo ERIS.

Further down the line, the komunal team have described their programming as “a rotating line-up of carefully curated selectors and DJs, each bringing a distinct perspective on contemporary club culture”.

Check out the komunal Instagram page for event updates. You can also join the club’s WhatsApp group for updates here.

In other Birmingham club news, a new 2000-capacity club was opened earlier this year by the same team behind Forum Birmingham, which shut down permanently in April.

December 2024 also saw the arrival of a new “back to basics” underground club in the city called Colette.

These new venue arrivals bring a welcome note of optimism to a landscape in which cultural institutions in Birmingham have recently faced major funding cuts and grassroots venues around the country have faced closure due to soaring costs.

Last October, the UK’s Night Time Industries Association (NTIA) warned that UK clubs could be “extinct” by the end of the decade should the rate of closures continue with such intensity. In the past four years, approximately three late-licensed music venues have closed each week.

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Jialing announces new EP, ‘WUPS!’, on Sorry Records, shares ‘NINE OH NINE’: Listen

Jialing is releasing a new EP, ‘WUPS!’.

The four-tracker lands on 8th August via New York’s Sorry Records and is described as a “floorshaking exploration of big room Latin house, queer vocal slammers, and plenty of breaks and bass in between”.

Check out the first track to be shared from the EP, ‘NINE OH NINE’, below. You can a pre-order a copy of ‘WUPS!’ from Bandcamp here.

Announcing the release in an Instagram post, Jialing wrote: “I wrote these demos after I lost my laptop and harddrive on the MTA (big WUPS!) and wanted to quit but then realized that life’s too short so f it I just wanna have fun and release music every month. Oops I’m really not perfect. I’m sorry.”

The new EP follows the Baltimore-born, New York-based Taiwanese-American producer’s recent single ‘SETMEFREE’, the fifth edition of their ‘CLUB TOOLS’ series, and the ‘BLIZZARD’ EP from earlier this year, as well as last November’s collaborative ‘WOE’ release with Kade Young.

Last July, Jialing dropped the ‘FREAKY HORNS’ EP on Clasico Records.

Read our review of Jialing’s collaborative EP with Farsight, ‘WHISTLE TIP’, here. Revisit the artist’s Selections feature from 2024 here.