"This is the third week running we have had only the residents on," shouts promoter/resident DJ Phil Morse in my ear, but the club is packed out all the same with its loyal regulars as we look out over the small, studenty venue. The crowd and the DJs are all mates - that's the secret of Tangled's success, it's one of those very special clubs where everybody really is friends. It's still rare that you see promoters/DJs walking around the club stopping every five paces to have an intimate chat with clubbers they have got to know over the years, but here they do.
Through the waves of hands-in-the-air on the downstairs dancefloor beam smiling faces, glowsticks, dummies, those weird letters puinned on girls' tops and one Zippy bag. Co-residents Phil Morse and Terry Pointon whip the crowd up into frenzies of euphoria with real trance, progressive house and the occasional slip into hard house - the Gatecrasher of Manchester you might think - but you'd be wrong.
Upstairs the other co-residents Herbie Saccani and Steve Thorpe seamlessly mix cutting edge nu school breaks, ripping garage basslines, bits of drun 'n' bass and the odd classic. With not a glowstick in sight, the atmosphere is still great. Herbie and Steve do a small personal claokroom too, if you ask them nicely. No back room at Tangled, though, only the chill out room which has no lights, no seats and no music!
Tangled is now seven years old, they do like to have guests occasionally, Lee Burridge and Anthony Pappa were guests here over two years ago, but more recently the crowds have been loving James Holden, Guy Ornadel, Hybrid and Renegade Soundwave. With two rooms of friends and family, getting tangled up in their web could become a seriously addictive thing.
TOM CAMPION