The University Precinct Centre on Oxford Road is not exactly the sort of location you would associate with a hotbed of clubbing. More commonly known as a dreary shopping centre that houses nothing more than a Spar of Eastern Bloc proportions, that place where you bought those student textbooks you never read, and the bizarrely-names University V Grills.
However, for some years now The Phoenix has been rather unquietly building a reputation as home to one of Manchester's dance scene stalwarts, Tangled, which this week celebrates its seventh birthday.
Tangled takes place in a suitably subterranean atmosphere above The Phoenix, a venue you probably wouldn't notice during daylight hours and whose It's A Scream theme bar probably has tortured soul Edvard Munch spinning in his Norwegian grave.
Despite its inauspicious surroundings, The Phoenix has become synonymous with credible dance nights. As a result of its slightly out-of-town location, it is a place that has to be consciously sought out, unless you happen to be a drunken student swaying back to your halls or residence (although students are by no means the club's sole clientele).
Phil Morse, one of Tangled's resident DJs, explains: "We get a very mixed crowd with everyone from dressed-up clubbers to the not so dressed-up, which makes the whole night feel like an underground house party."
Tangled plays music with a slightly harder edge, music that seems increasingly popular on the Manchester scene - venues like the formerly handbag-happy Paradise Factory are pulling in DJs from clubs such as techno-phile heaven Trade to sell-out acclaim.
Tangled too is basking in a little of that glory, having recently been described in clubbers' bible Ministry as 'the best resident team in Manchester'. On this note, Morse is suitably immodest: "'Well, I don't think it's far from the truth to be honest, but then I would say that.'
This Saturday sees him and fellow long-serving tenants Terry Pointon, Steve Thorpe and the delightfully Manhattan sounding Herbie Saccani serving up their usual pumping mix of house and techno but with a few surprises to boot. 'We always do something special for our birthdays but I don't want to give too much away.'
When not being so coy, however, Morse does let it slip that there will be a showcase for TCR Records in the upstairs bar featuring breakbeat protégés Subsonic and a few special guests who still remain a mystery.
Whoever they may be, you can rest assured that Saturday night's extravaganza will not be one for fans of Debussy who like a mug of cocoa before bedtime. Tangled is rapidly becoming an institution in Manchester, especially for those who like to see in Sunday mornings with ringing in their ears. Loud, hard and blessed with an all too rare longevity in the world of clubland, Tangled is very definitely seven years old.
PAUL MAHONEY