When fashion presses its contrived edginess into the hot and sweaty recesses of the dancefloor, clubbing loses. Subsumed into the overwhelming march of cool, it loses a dimension, loses its meaning and its passion and its immediacy, becomes simply another form of posturing. Directional youth culture, essentially, breaks down into the difference and demands of a thousand juxtaposed microtribes. But whilst those defined by fashion savour the most obvious power, it's the ones driven by the unconscious, shared energy of the dancefloor who enjoy the substance. And guess which tends to last longer?
In Manchester, at some time or other, many people have chosen Tangled. Mentioning Manchester's evergreen house and breaks session in this context is perhaps a little unfair, since it only gets dragged into this debate by certain corners of the Northern Quarter. But the category it falls into is obvious. Tangled, outside of fashion, on the edge of town and time, gets quietly on with the business of changing lives.
"A lot of the 'in crowd' have never liked us because we just get on with it," says DJ/promoter Phil Morse. "We run a busy weekly club night with an uncompromising music policy, and we've built it up from nothing by being good at it. We are more real than their snobby little back room events can ever be, because we quite lterally sometimes give our clubbers something to live for."
Phil isn't exaggerating. Tangled 'officially' began, after a year of private parties, at the Old Steam Brewery on 23 July 1994, moving briefly through UMIST Club Underground and the Thirsty Scholar before a year at the Boardwalk led it to settling in current home The Phoenix in 1998. Along the way it became home to the oldest - according to regular guest Rennie Pilgrem - breaks room in the country, and champion of some outstanding underground house, breaks and trance. At Tangled the music, and the crowd, come first. Which isn't rocket science, but it is what makes it so consistently special, and is probably the key to its longevity.
This weekend, the team throw their own party, with Friday (25 July) looking back on their decade of trance, while Saturday's all-nighter celebrates 'Tangled Future', with Lange joining the residents downstairs, and Mekon taking on the Beats Bar alongside Nick Dent and Malinna.
"Tangled demands commitment," says Phil. "You can't half enjoy it - you either love it or hate it." At some point in their journey through club culture, most young Mancs have - and will continue to - oblige.
ALEX EYRE