Distortion

Distortion was Subcity's 2023 freshers event, held in the Vic bar of The Art School. It was part of a collaborative club night with Hill 52, called Dualism, in which Hill52 occupied the assembly hall upstairs.

The original concept for distortion came from a meeting with Hill52, in which they expressed a strong desire to name their room "Mirror Dance", with an emphasis on reflections, brightness, and music below 145 beats per minute. In an effort to compliment and contrast their room, Subcity suggested a dichotomy of reflection and distortion, with the GSASA proposing the overall name of Dualism to encompass these. While Hill52 did end up changing their minds, and their room would later be renamed Passages, Subcity stuck with the distortion concept, envisioning a dark and smoky room, playing fast and intense music, paired with glitchy visuals on screens chosen to avoid the ambient light bleed projectors tend to suffer from.

Originally Subcity hoped to display their visuals on a selection of TV screens, like at Pure Radio Cybersex, or even make use of a CRT stack, however liability concerns eventually resulted in the use of two LED panels either side of the DJ. These visuals were created live, on a setup devised by co-manager Ada, and multiple Subcity team members assumed the role of VJ throughout the night.

DJs

Tír na nÓg opened the night with an atmospheric selection of dark ambient, deconstructed club, and bass. Orla was originally meant to open Subcity's previous club night, Delirium, but was prevented from doing so by technical issues. They were followed by agglomeration with zolf, in a debut live appearance for the fresh-faced DJ. It was a breaks heavy night, with zolf providing a heavy helping of glitched out jungle, including multiple original tracks. Then came a set from fullt ös medvetslös, an art school veteran and fellow breaks aficionado, with Green Eggs and Ham on closing duty. It was a return to the Art School for Green Eggs and Ham too; Subcity legend Hamish Leeson last played the venue in 2019 for Ecotopia, under the same seussian show name.

While Subcity didn't get to book out the whole art school as they did 4 years earlier, there was still an air of nostalgia surrounding the stations first event on the premises post-COVID. Hamish sent the entirety of the Subcity team into hysterics with his penultimate track- the BRB - transitioning into the trap remix a minute or two later.