Wax Works

In March

2012-03-01T23:17:00.000Z

For anyone who read this last year you'll know that I used to write up about what's happening in Glasgow over the coming weeks, but I didn't think it was too much use with the Slam Board, Resident Advisor & Facebook. But after giving it some thought and with the Slam Board closed, I guess a monthly post with what we think are the best parties/nights to go to could be pretty useful.

So here's the finest that Glasgow has to offer in March:

March 2nd - Four Tet @ Numbers

I can't really give any insight into Four Tet if I'm honest, the only stuff I've checked out have been the Burial collabs, but most of my mates are heading down for this one and they have stellar taste.. so I'll trust their judgement. It's Numbers though, so get the back packs & hats oot and bedown early as it'll probably be a sell out.

March 3rd - Sigha @ Wax Works

The first Wax Works of 2012 at our new home Chambre69, it's free entry before 12pm and the after party is only a fiver. Sigha will be playing1-3, and if you don't know what to expect you should check out his mnml ssg mix here. Bake from Glasgow's All Caps crew will be on the warm up and youshould check out his Boiler Room mix if you're not familiar with him.

March 9th - Basic Soul Unit Live @ Tribute

The canadian producer is in Glasgow to debut his new live performance. If you're reading this blog then you should definitely be aware of this guy, a highly skilled producer who has such a varied out put, but always delivers the goods. A top artist in a club that holds about 100 people.. nuff said.

March 10th Kyle Hall @ Deadly Rhythm

The wunder-kid producer turned superstar, who, according to internet forums, has so far failed to live up to the hype when he turns his hand tothe 1210's is back in Glasgow. He'll be dropping some excellent tunes on Chambre's F1 system from half past 1 onwards, before him you have the DR residents & Moxie.

March 17th - Skudge @ Animal Farm vs Subculture

Animal Farm are back at Subcultre, this time they're bringing Swedish analogue masters 'Skudge' - Their tracks have been cained by just about every house & techno DJ worth their salt and their live sets have been receiving nothing but praise online. Miss this at your peril.

March 24th - Cosmin TRG @ EQTV

Following on from their nights with Scuba & Huxley, EQTV bring Cosmin TRG back to Glasgow, he'll be playing @ Chambre69. An essential night out for anyone into their house/techno, check out his releases on 50 weapons for proof.

March 31st - Mike Dehnert @ La Cheetah

Finishing off what is an absolutely stellar month for techno and house in Glasgow is Fachwerk's Mike Dehnert, celebrating the Fachwerk25 release with a special tour, the top dog from the label will be bringing his trademark,punshing basement techno to La Cheetah.

Have a good one.

Sigha mnml ssgs mix

2012-02-27T22:23:00.000Z

Here's a link to Sigha's excellent mnmlssgs mix to get you in the mood for his set at Wax Works this weekend, he'll be playing 1am - 3am and if you're in before midnight it's free.

Download
Tracklist

1 - The End Of All Existence - Nowhere To Run (End Of All Existence)
2 - Psychological Scene Of The Imagination (Milton Bradley Remix) - Giorgio Gigli & Obtane (Zooloft)
3 - No Politic - The Gods Planet (The Gods Planet)
4 - Early Morning Lights (Marcel Dettmann Remix) - Sigha (Our Circula Sound)
5 - Cotton (Sigha Remix) - Cassegrain (forthcoming Mikrowave)
6 - Over The Edge - Sigha (Our Circula Sound)
7 - GT (James Ruskin Remix) - Planetary Assault Systems (Mote Evolver)
8 - Discipline - Silent Servant (Sandwell District)
9 - Finding Myself - Sigha (Unreleased)
10 - Reality Or Nothing (Silent Servant Mix) (RSB)
11 - Deep Blue Meanies (Robert Hood's Sci-Fi Mix) - Juju & Jordash (Dekmantel)
12 - Loneliness - Sigha (Unreleased)
> Light Swells (In A Distant Space) - Sigha (Hotflush)
13 - Interior - O/V/R (Blueprint)
14 - Losing My Faith - Sigha (forthcoming Blueprint)
15 - Closed TimeLike Curve (Marcel Dettmann remix) - Traversable Wormhole (CLR)
16 - Cleanser - Shifted (Forthcoming Our Circula Sound)

DJ Skirt Tracklist

2012-02-07T20:05:00.000Z

rrose - white/drip - sandwell district
samuli kemppi - metal space - komisch
mike parker - wanderer - labrynth
lucy & ercolino - so the nothing grows stronger (dadub remix) - stroboscopic artefacts
kalon - man is the superior animal - sandwell district
regis - blood witness - blackest ever black
sleeparchive - ronan point two - tresor
function - descending - sandwell district
regis - speak to me - downwards
ch - signal laboratories (8003 lucerne) - scale 1 - sandwell district
surgeon - the power of doubt - dynamic tension
AnD - untitled - horizontal ground
stanislav tolkachev - yes, today - pojhola
silent servant - the self - sandwell district
o/v/r - descending the left corner - blueprint
the fabulous sandra electronics - cubs do your best - downwards

listen again

Wax Works w/ Sigha & Bake

2012-02-02T00:00:00.000Z

Well the cat has most definitely been out of the bag for a while now, although I’ve failed to post up on here about it, but we’re pleased to tell you all that Sigha will be playing the first Wax Works party of 2012, on March 3rd. This will be his first gig north of the border, our first party in ages and you’re getting free entry before 12. What else can you want? You can get tae if you aren’t down.

Supporting Sigha on the night will be Bake from Glasgow’s All Caps crew and someone from the Wax Works camp.

Plus, after the club is shut we’ll be putting on an after party for anyone who wants to keep going until the early morning.

IF that wasn’t enough to wet your appetite then hopefully you’ll be into our guests for April, when we’ll be playing host to the talents of Kowton, Kassem Mosse & TVO

DJ Skirt - Wax Works Mix 05

2012-02-01T00:46:00.001Z

The next Wax Works mix is here and this time it's coming straight outa Birmingham, from Horizontal Ground's DJ Skirt. Skirt first came to my attention with her record Horizontal Ground 07 and with her being the first artist on the label not to be anonymous it made things slightly easier when looking to get in touch. Unfortunately we weren't the only ones after a mix and as such it has taken about 1 year to finally get it, but it was most definitely worth the wait.

Skirt has delivered an absolutely quality mix that is 1 hour of raw, purist techno that just makes you want to go out - there's no boring mechanical perfection here, no overkill effects, just proper good tunes. I love the fact that you can hear the vinyl going slightly out and back in, I think it really adds to the vibe & tension of the set, coupled with the tune selection and the fact she drops 'speak to me', it's just superb.

In a nut shell, this is a serious fucking techno mix. All on vinyl and representing Birmingham.
essential then.

Stream
Download

To keep up to date with what Skirt is up to, follow her on twitter

tracklist to follow.

Wax Works @ Loop

2012-01-16T20:04:00.001Z

This Friday (20th) we'll be making our first appearance at Loop and our first appearance at The Brunswick. It is only £4 on the door, but it's only on until 2 so get down early doors to make the most of it..

If you can't make it then there will be an online stream of the night, I'll update the blog with the details when I have them.

I'll post the set times with it too.

See you Friday then

EDIT

Set times are

Neill Murphy 10-11
Jamie Knox 11-12
Wax Works 12-2

You can stream the whole thing here http://www.waverplay.com/

Juho Kusti - Tracklist

2012-01-12T19:52:00.000Z

Here's the TL for mix 04:

1. Cio D´or - Wasserkraft - Prologue
2. Ventress - Untitled - Avian
3. Tacito - Lession (Giorgio Gigli Remix) - Micropunto Schallplatten
4. Mono Junk - Channel B - Styrax Leaves
5. Markus Suckut - Strength - SCKT
6. Session Restore - Warsaw Avenue (Markus Suckut Reconstruction) - Rauh
7. Unbalance - Legacy - Unbalance
8. Conrad Van Orton - Shattered - Key Records
9. Traversable Wormhole - Worldline - Traversable Wormhole
10. Jeff Mills - The Clairvoyant - Purpose Maker
11. Schatrax - Cartoon Motorway - Schatrax
12. Conceiled Project - Pattern 4 - SVEK
13. Rossella - Burning - Aimersse
14. Klockworks - Voyage One - Klockworks
15. Regis - Blood Witness - Blackest Ever Black
16. Roman Lindau - Sub Suggestion - Fachwerk
17. Aiken - Trust Ourselves - Semantica
18. Donato Dozzy - Eldera - Railyard Recordings
19. Powell - 09 (Karl O´Connor Remix) - Diagonal

Listen again here

Juho Kusti - Wax Works Mix 04

2012-01-08T03:34:00.000Z

Here is the very first Wax Works mix of 2012, this time the tunes are brought to you by Finnish DJ Juho Kusti. Juho featured on the blog before with his excellent 'Technofunk' mix and it was that mix which prompted me to ask him if he could contribute to our mix series, fortunately for you he was happy to oblige. The mix is 70 minutes of seamlessly mixed techno, all on vinyl - The tracklist will be posted up soon, so you'll have to listen without any preconceptions for now.

Stream
Download

Juho's RA page

Stasis is death?

2012-01-04T20:14:00.000Z

2012 has only just begun, but this weekend sees 2 of techno's biggest names playing the subclub. Function and Regis bring their Sandwell District live act to Glasgow again (fingers crossed Function makes it into the country this time) for the very first Animal Farm party of this year and what a party it will be.

There is absolutely no doubting the quality of the 2 artists, when Regis played here in July the recording of his set got mix of the day at Resident Advisor and it is still one of our most popular blog posts, their debut album sold out almost instantly a year ago and goes for silly money on Discogs, Regis' 3 x CD collection of his works sold out before any of us even saw it for sale and with news of an album in 2012 from Function - the hype surrounding them is huge, yet they manage to deliver every time and still maintain their credibility while doing so.

However, the big news surrounding them is that the label is no more - 'stasis is death' apparently. Personally, I think it was a matter of 'when' rather than 'if' they would end SD as a label, but the timing of it has surprised me - it was only in July last year when I put forward the idea of it finishing to Regis and he was quick to dismiss it, but perhaps phase3 didn't carry the same weight as phase 1 or 2. Certainly, towards the end of the year they were releasing music a lot more frequently and with a couple of their EPs being nothing other than standard techno, perhaps they were just another label going through the motions.

You can add to that the more abstract projects from Bob Ostertag & Yves De Mey, which will have certainly appealed to the purist of Sandwell fans, but would have definitely split opinion amongst the more casual techno fan. But, as always with Sandwell, details on their plans will be scarce and everyone will be left to form their own ideas and opinions on what will happen next - but instead of pondering what will happen to techno's most influential label & collective, why not celebrate? Considering it's only a fiver before 12 it would be pretty rude not to. A fiver to celebrate the brief yet distinguished reign of Sandwell District, the first Animal Farm party of 2012 and one of those rare occasions where you can hear techno in the Sub Club. Bargain.

The best of 2011 from The Techno Demon

2011-12-25T11:53:00.000Z

Here's what was doing it for the techno demon in 2011, maybe when 'it' can mix the identity shall be revealed.

Labels...in no specific order

Perc Trax - Been a strong year for perc trax. Definitely the new home of industrial techno. A solid album from Perc, and lots to look forward to next year with the FSG full length

Stroboscopic Artefacts - Dark, abstract, idm style, head fuck techno. Lucy's album 'wordplay for working bees' and xhins 'sword' have been two of the years best. Its not all about the 4/4 and SA has been putting out interesting, atmpospheric electronica that wouldnt sound out of place on a warp records release

Auxiliary - ASC'S new label. Been really enjoying the experimental/ambient stuff coming from ASC. His mix for mnml ssgs http://mnmlssg.blogspot.com/2011/03/asc-tracklist.html is an excellent example of the dnb he's familiar with, plus the more ambient electronics we're hearing from him

Broken 20 - TVO is a new name to me these past few months. His excellent mnml ssgs mix brought him to my attention, and everything i've been hearing such as his remixes of isodyne, perc, have done enough to strengthen the labels reputation. His set at the wax works nights was top drawer stuff and his mix for the wax works site i have listened to loads!

ALBUMS

Falty Dl - You stand uncertain - Planet Mu... More song based than any of my other picks. Some great melodies and vocals on this album. This album gets the girls dancing too. Very accessible and very funky!

Perc - Wicker and Steel - Perc Trax....Raw, abrasive, steely techno. Industrial techno never comes across that well on the album format, but this is a fine example of it!

Tycho - Dive - Ghostly International... Nice, relaxing home listening sounds that remind me of boards of canada.

Kangding Ray - OR - Raster Noton.... There's a big hype about raster noton. Im not gonna lie, im not keen on the vast majority of the stuff thats released on the label. Enjoyed Senkings, Pong from last year, but their a bit 'too ' experimental for my tastes. However, OR is much more accessible. Another home listening album, the sounds, melodies, moods created on this album are dark and brilliant

Lucy - Wordplay for working bees - SA... Shades of aphex and autechre and other early IDM artists with this album. Album standout 'Gas' is proper good head fuck material. This album is best played at 5 in the morning after the club

2011's best, courtesy of Truman Data

2011-12-21T00:44:00.000Z

Here's what was doing it for Wax Works' Truman Data in 2011 - watch out for his Live set which should feature on the blog in 2012.

Albums

1. Morphosis - What We Have Learned
2. Andy Stott - We stay together
3. Villalobos / Laderbaur - re:ECM
4. Legowelt - The Teac Life
5. Sandwell District - Feed Forward
6. BNJMN - Plastic Worlds
7. Steffi - Yours & Mine
8. Cosmin TRG - Simulate
9. Stereociti - Kawasaki
10. Deadbeat - Drawn and Quarterd

EPS

Acid Test 01 - Tin Man
Pinch & Shacleton - Boracay Drift w/ Morphosis remix
Omar-S - Here's Your Trance Now Dance!
workshop 12 kassem mosse
Miles - Facets

Labels

Delsin
Modern Love
Honust jon's
Absurd Recordings
Ethereal sounds

Next up we'll have Wax Works part 2, the picks from our own techno demon, the very best mixes 2011 offered and we will close out the year with Wax Works mix 04 (I think/hope).

Best of 2011 from Quail

2011-12-16T13:14:00.000Z

Here's a few things i've enjoyed this year…

Artists

Shifted - probably my artist of the year, coming from the relative unknown to become one of the most talked about and in demand techno producers is no mean feat, considering he's only released a handful of EPs.

Truncate - great moniker of LA's Audio Injection. The more stripped back style of his productions in no way hinders every track's ability to destroy dance floors.

Skudge - raw, analogue techno at it's best. Some amazing live set recordings have been floating around all year.

Markus Suckut - excellent, upcoming German producer. Ticks all the boxes in terms of production. Great first release on his own imprint due soon, the future is bright!

Shed/EQD/WAX/Head High - Mentioned by Iain already but definitely worth another shout. This man can do no wrong as far as I'm concerned. With a multitude of different aliases each with their own unique take on the techno/house aesthetic.,

others….Milton Bradley (Do Not Resist The Beat), Mike Parker. Forward Strategy Group, Marcel Fengler, Youandewan, Italojonson, Marcellus, Deepchord, Frozen Border/Horizontal Ground, Jonas Kopp….2011 has seen some amazing releases from this lot, too many to mention :(

A special shout to Mr Copy who provided me with three edits of some well known tunes that I haven't stopped playing this year!

Labels

Stoboscopic Artefacts
Mote Evolver
Deeply Rooted House
Sandwell District
Our Circula Sound
Analogue Solutions

Lastly…My favourite compilation/collection of music this year has got to be Regis' Adolescence : The Complete Recordings 1994 - 2001. 3 CDs chronicling the rise of the Birmingham sound, loving hardbound in a linen cloth book. Essential.

All the best for 2012!!

Quail

* Animal Farm have Roland at the Sub Club on December 28th & Sandwell District on January 6th - not to be missed.

Best of 2011 from TVO

2011-12-14T20:00:00.000Z

Here's TVO's selections on what's been doing it for him this year.

top5 LP (techno-ish)

Surgeon - Breaking The Frame
P.A.S. - The Messenger
Alva Noto - Univrs
Perc - Wicker and Steel
Spatial - Spatial

top5 LP (not techno)

Oren Ambarchi/Jim O'Rourke - Indeed
Hive Mind - Elemental Disgrace
Roly Porter - Aftertime
Tim Hecker - Ravedeath 1972
Demdike Stare - Tryptych

top5 EP

Leyland Kirby - Intrigue and Stuff vol 2
Mark Fell and Peter Rehberg - Kubu/Zikir
Shifted - Control
Sigha - The Politics of Dying
Emptyset - Altogether Lost

Best of 2011 Part 1

2011-12-13T21:09:00.000Z

So this is the 1st part of our end of year lists, up first is yours truly followed by the choice cuts from a few of the Wax Works crew, TVO, Quail (Animal Farm) and an unidentified techno demon. We'll also close out the year with a post featuring the very best mixes from 2011.

As always, if you're into the music on here please buy it.

Albums

Soft Kill - An Open Door

I doubt this will feature on many lists and many of you probably wont be into it, but I stumbled upon them while checking out some Tropic Of Cancer tunes on YouTube and I was hooked straight away - since then I've played their album almost every day, way more than any other piece of music I own, so for that reason it has to be my number 1 for the year.

If you're into the Tropic Of Cancer stuff then I think you'll like it and I think they share a similar kind of aesthetic to Joy Division.

Soft Kill - Feral Moans

John Maus - We Must Become The Pitiless Censors Of Ourselves

An album that provokes academic discussion and deep thought.. Well, that's what I've read - tbh I bought into the hype, checked it out and just really loved the tunes. Do the same.

John Maus - Cop Killer

Planetary Assault Systems - The Messenger

The only 'techno' album on the list, but it is an absolute monster of an LP. Plenty of tracks that will just destroy dancefloors, I have to think that after this album PAS must be the most exciting techno live act around. Has there ever been an artist name that fits so perfectly to the music? These are tunes that are made to soundtrack intergalactic wars and the destruction of worlds - proper techno.

Planetary Assault Systems - Rip The Cut

AraabMUZIK - Electronic Dream

So I took a bit of hassle from some of the crew for this one, but fuck them. It is Trance/Hip-Hop and probably the last thing you would expect to find here, but it is just a collection of fun, unpretentious tunes made by a guy and his MPC.

AraabMUZIK - Golden Touch

EPs

Time To Express - Labyrinth EP

There's not a single release that comes close to this one in 2011, 4 excellent tracks (although I wasn't feeling the Parker one as much as some) that will be a mainstay in my record bag for years. The pick of the bunch for me is Giusy, absolutely killer tune.

Peter Van Hoesen - Rites De Passage-Naeba Variant

Kassem Mosse - Workshop 12

Another absolutely essential record from Kassem Mosse on Workshop. A monster 14 minute long A side is the standout track for me here, check it out and buy it if you can.

Expecting big things from this man in 2012, let's hope someone brings him to Glasgow.

A Side

Burial - Street Halo EP

It was massive news when the new Burial EP was announced and rightly so, there's lots of people who imitate his sound but absolutely no one who can create the same feeling and emotion from their music. You can still grab a copy of the vinyl at Boomkat and I would recommend doing so if you don't have it already - superb music from one of the UK's most amazing producers

Burial - Stolen Dog

Sigha - Politics of Dying

Absolutely solid techno EP here from Sigha which features a brilliant original mix from the man himself, a very cool dubby-ish remix of 'over the edge' from Shifted and a remix of the title track from James Ruskin. This is a must own record for any techno DJ as all 3 tracks are of the highest quality.

Sigha - Politics Of Dying (Ruskin Remix)

* we have rescheduled the party with Sigha, he'll be at Wax Works in early 2012.

EQD #5

What can you say about Shed's music that's not already been said?
Listen to it and buy it.

B Side

Finally here's my favourite labels from 2011

Delsin/Ann Aimee
Idle Hands
Prologue
Sandwell District
Semantica

Feel free to leave your thoughts on my choices and/or what records/artists were doing it for you this year.

See you in 2012

IK

Goodbye.. For Now

2011-12-09T15:20:00.000Z

So this Saturday we'll be playing our last gig of 2011, it's a pretty low key affair in a REAL hairdressers that'll hopefully finish our year of ups and downs on a high. Now you may have noticed that the blog has been neglected somewhat recently, but that is all set for change as of 01/2012 - we're upping our game in our attempt for world domination. So expect more exclusive mixes, more interviews and plenty of moans, plus we're also going to feature more regular mixes from the Wax Works crew and close affiliates.

Now forgetting about next year for now, I just want to thank everyone who has been involved in or supported Wax Works over the last 12 months, all the DJs who have played for us or recorded mixes, everyone who helped out with the parties, all the people who have taken time out their lives to read this pish, listened to the mixes and/or attended our parties - thank you. Also massive shouts to our friends at Animal Farm, No Sleep, Bigfoot's, Loop, Broken20, Point4, Code, Jak & Scenic Tones (sorry if I've missed anyone) - we appreciate all the support and have you all to thank for improving the scene in Glasgow..

2011 may be drawing to a close and you might be short on cash due to Christmas, but there's still plenty of great records being released that you need to buy (Mike Parker on prlg & DNRTB07 especially), excellent parties to attend (Robert Hood, Rolando, Patrice Scott) and there's the always contentious end of year lists to disagree with, of which we'll be doing our own with the inclusion of the selections from a few of Glasgow's finest techno minds/selectahs.

But, for now, consider this goodbye from us for 2011 and hopefully we'll see you at The Halt on New Years Day where we'll be kicking 2012 off in forgettable fashion.

Cheers

TVO Tracklist

2011-11-15T01:18:00.001Z

Here's the TL to one of my favourite mixes this year, massive thanks to TVO for this.

Check it out again here and catch TVO @ Wax Works this Saturday, he'll be playing tunes from 9pm until 12am. Aye.

Angel - Paradign Shift (Editions Mego)
Byetone - Topas (Raster-Noton)
Nanorhythm - Continental Breakfast (TVO For Thor mix) (forthcoming Broken20)
Mark Ernestus - Meets BBC (Honest Jon's)
Perc - You Saw Me (TVO Cherry Ripe mix) (Perc Trax)
Sigha - Politics of Dying (James Ruskin mix) (Our Circula Sound)
Midland - Bring Joy (Youandewan Warehouse dub) (More Music)
Redshape - Shaped World (Delsin)
Emptyset - Altogether Lost (Peverelist edit) (Caravan Recordings)
Cyan 341 - Disconnected (See The Road mix) (Uncharted Audio)
Ike Release - Outrun (Infrasonics)
F - The Untitled Dub (7even)
Plastikman - Tom tom (1995) (M_nus)
Vince Watson - Pressure (Steve Rachmad Stripped edit) (Bio)
Terrence Fixmer - Dance Like Paranoid (Marcel Dettmann mix) (Electric Deluxe)
Obtane and Giorgio Gigli - Social Deconstruction (Zooloft)
Lucy - Tetrad (Stroboscopic Artefacts)
Mike Dehnert - Minimum (Fachwerk)
LB Dub Corp - Native Dub (Mote Evolver)
Ventress - AVN002 A1 (Avian)
Matt O'Brien - Without Warning (Off-Key Industries)
Marcel Fengler - Thwack (Mike Parker mix) (Mote Evolver)
Dax J and Chris Stanford - Programm (Shifted remix) (Ear To Ground)
Cio D'Or - Wasserkraft (Silent Servant remix) (Prologue)
Pacou - Response (Tresor)
Planetary Assault Systems - Function 4 (Marcel Dettmann remix)
Octave One - The Greater Good (Luke Slater remix) (430 West)
Isodyne - Uillean Drone (Broken20)
10-20 - Magnetic Marsh excerpt (forthcoming Broken20)

Wax Works meet TVO

2011-11-08T17:13:00.002Z

The 19th November sees us return to one of our favourite spaces in Glasgow 'The Old Hairdressers', situated on Renfield Lane opposite Stereo it's a place for those who know. This time we have Glasgow's own TVO down to play some tunes, and before he melts our brains with some future music he kindly provided us with a fantastic mix and interview.

Full details for the party are on the artwork above, but I can also confirm that anyone in attendance will get a discount on the entry to CODE w/ Perc @ La Cheetah that evening.

Anyway, hope you enjoy the insight into TVO's world.

From our perspective this year seems like it has been a success in the world of TVO, with a Resident Advisor feature, a fantastic contribution to the mnmlssgs mix series, excellent gigs at the likes of Plex & BLOC and also some fantastic EPs on your label Broken20. It's strange then, that your gig at Wax Works will be your first in Glasgow for almost 2 years - why do you think that is and what is your opinion on the current scene in Glasgow?

Things were static for a while in Glasgow I guess, but there's a lot of new-ish nights coming up that seem to be booking some good artists - Mount Heart Attack, Animal Farm, yourselves, Tribute etc. - plus some of the nights that were putting on heavy stuff all night like Code are booking some really interesting guests. Techno-wise it's gone from a year ago there being a dearth of decent bookings to this period at the end of 2011 when there's FSG, Sigha, Shifted, Perc and Lucy all playing within a few months; that's some of the best artists of the year.
However from the more experimental side, the city is extremely poorly served. In London for example you can see dubstep, techno and experimental stuff all in one night in one venue; whether there's no appetite for that here or it's down to the restrictions below, I'm not sure

Glasgow, largely due to the ludicrously inflexible licensing laws and tied to a lack of multi-room club venues is really still caught up in the idea of booking only 'headliners' as the restrictions put the emphasis on spending money to get a big name for the end of the night. It means that local producers, or people who don't have a 'big' release out, or artists that straddle the middle ground between peak time and more thoughtful stuff, definitely have an uphill battle to get dates on their own turf. In addition unfortuantely I think that as media attention turns to Glasgow as being somewhere 'cool', the emphasis falls on putting night on that will appeal to the majority.

The Sub Club is regularly heralded as one of the best venues in the country, but would you agree that techno doesn't really feature on their agenda and with the demise of the Soundhaus, Glasgow doesn't really have any medium/large venues that are suitable for a techno party?

The Sub is defintiely an amazing venue to play at, but certainly doesn't feature nights that I'm that into - the exception being Highlife, who seem to be doing something quite interesting, and the occasional Animal Farm night there. I don't think that the sort of nights we're talking about are necessarily suited to the Sub though. For my money the best venue in Glasgow for that sort of night was the old Art School, provided you brought more sound in; 2 floors, a good size, chep drink etc. Hard to think of anywhere of a decent size that fulfills that now.

You were a 'Numbers' resident DJ for 7 years, what are some of your favourite memories of being involved with them?

Meeting and playing alongside my heroes, really; Surgeon, Errorsmith, DJ Pete both alone and with Vainqueur as Scion, Actress, Autechre, Monolake, Pendle Coven, Sleeparchive....the list goes on. Playing test presses of my new 12"s to 800 or so people before Moderat in the ABC was pretty good. Playing before Squarepusher. DJ Funk live, anytime he played. The last Numbers I went to was the one with Robert Hood, Levon Vincent and Jus Ed and was a good way to leave, all three were amazing.

Your label Broken20 has 4 full releases to its name with a 5th on the way in the near future, what made you decide to start up the label, how has the experience been and what advise would you give to others who want to set up a label?

I always said I wouldn't start a label, that headaches/costs/admin etc always seemed like the least fun part of it...but people kept sending me great music, and I was feeling limited in what I wanted to do. I knew that Highpoint Lowlife, who had been the home for my more experimental stuff, was going to be closing, and Stuff Records who I'd done a couple of 12"s for were merging into the Numbers label - which had a pretty different sound - so I thought I'd have a go. The response to the first release was overwhelmingly positive, and got me making connections with other artists, djs etc...so I figured I'd keep it up.
We (I run the label with Dave Production Unit, who handles press and PR, and Dave Erstlaub, who's our Art director) made a concious decision after the massive ressponse to our last release (from FSG's Isodyne) that we would ramp things up, get more releases out, do some different things with it.
It's been really rewarding but a lot of hard work. The best thing though has been discovering that lots of people will help with advice, or doing a remix, or just doing their bit to get support out...I've been nice to people in the past, mainly because I'm a nice person (ha) and that definitely comes back to help when you're asking for a magazine fetaure or radio play! In particular Richard from Stuff/Numbers and Thorsten who ran Highpoint Lowlife have been a constant source of advice and help - my advice would be to always speak to people with experience in runnign a label before making the jump yourself. Also, having something to make you stand out...our first release was quite unusual, a combined EP and album, and we've got some different formats, interesting remixers etc coming up. There are hundreds of releases each week coming out and unfortunately you need something to stand out from the crowd - an anonymous techno 12" will probably get lost in the sea of the rest of them

So far all of the releases have been digital only, what was the reasoning behind this decision and is a vinyl release something that you hope to do in the future?

rrr it's purely on the basis of me having a family to feed! I'd love to do vinyl, of course, but the cost is prohibitive. We're doing ok sales-wise on digital, and we have a couple of DVD releases and a casette sub-label coming up. A physical package is definitely important. I'd love to get our 06 release out on vinyl as it's really string with two amazing remixes - need to see if i can scrape the finances together. A few more gigs would certianly help that!

When is the next release out, where can we buy the current releases and what can we look forward to in the future from Broken20?

All our releases are available both direct from the label at http://store.broken20.com , or through Boomkat/Juno/Rubadub/Zero" as standard. Current release is the Isodyne EP, 4 tracks of dubbed out Chain Reaction sounding techno from Forward Strategy Group's Patrick backed with a remix from me...then at the end of November there's a debut EP from London's Nanorhythm, which is more in a classic electronic vibe, which comes with 2 mixes from me and a great experimental garage sounding mix from Infrasonic's Spatial.
Following that, there's a DVD/digi release of noise/drone/experimental from a guy called John Cohen, which we're really excited about - the DVDs look beautiful, i'm busy hand stamping them just now!
Next year our cassette sub-label, broken60 starts; it's helmed by Production Unit, and the first release is from 10-20 who did stuff for Highpoint Lowlife. It sounds like dancehall recorded underwater in a metal pipe, it's completely mental and lush. Finally the next two B20s are out in Jan/Feb next year - a Production Unit EP which will undoubtedly be our biggest release yet, as it has mixes from Perc and Paul from Emptyset accompanying it, and an album from a guy called Penalune from the States, which we're in the middle of trying to sort out a rework from Leyland Kirby.

As for new releases, you have 2 excellent remixes coming out on Perc Trax shortly I believe. Can we expect anymore solo material from you and will there be any further involvement with Perc?

I'm working on a new album just now, probably for B20 or B60, which is back to an experimental vibe - it's tying in with two shows we're doing as a label showcase in Brighton and London next year. Nothing planned with Perc Trax but i'd obviously love to do something else with them into the future. It's great that Ali Perc is so open-minded as to release some pretty experimental mixes of his album as well as more straight-up dancefloor ones

You recently played live at Plex in London as part of one of the best techno lineups I have seen in a long time, what was it like to be part of an event like that and can you give us some insight into the TVO live set?

Yeah it was an incredible night really; unfortunately my set time clashed with Surgeon so I only caught a bit of him, but Peverelist, Andy Stott, Perc and Neil Landstrumm were all amazing. The Plex guys shave been incredibly supportive of me and I've played a fair few times for them, and Colony (who were co-promoting the event) as well. It's a real honour to be involved in nights like that.
Live in a club it's obviously straight up dancefloor stuff; i use Ableton and an NI Maschine to rework stuff on the fly, along with an array of wee effects boxes and noise makers for adding live textures and loops. I always play that sort of set through a dj mixer rathe than a studio desk - it makes it more immediate and dynamic for reacting to a crowd and giving you hands on control over eq/kills/punching in and out - sometimes live techno suffers a bit from 'fader fatigue' as everything gets slowly brought up and down.

At Wax Works you're playing for 3 hours, do you approach your live set differently from a DJ set and what are the main differences between them? Also, do you have a preference?

I like them both, but for obvious reasons i do find playing live a lot more stressful - there's simply more that can go wrong. After playing out for a good 10+ years solo you'd think I'd get over the nerves, but unfortuantely not...Djing means you can do a lot more with the time, and obviously 3 hours is a total gift for covering a broad spectrum of stuff. An hour live set pretty much has to go in a linear route from A to B...a 3 hour dj set lets you bring in peaks and troughs.

Social Networking plays a huge part in the world of electronic music these days, as a frequent user of Twitter, how important do you think it has become for artists/labels/record shops and do you think the changes it has brought have largely been positive?

It lets you connect to other like-minded people - promoters, other artists, etc - that just wasn't possible before. I can't begin to list the benefits of being able to get bookings, promote releases, directly interact with people who're into the music, or simply to chat to other djs etc. It's transformed the way musicians/labels etc interact.

The ever increasing popularity of the digital artist has seen the arrival of large scale online piracy, where music is shared freely across the internet. Why do you think so many 'fans' are quite happy to download the majority of their music for free and what, if anything, do you think can be done to combat piracy?

Nothing. It's going to happen, it is happening. I've got half my bookings from people who openly admit that they've heard my stuff from d/ls, and so we as artists and labels need to try to get people to purchase through other means - physical packages, deluxe art, or whatever - or find other ways to make money. It's depressing but there's no point getting hung up on it - it's a fact that will never go away

Do you think services such as Spotify are any better than downloading the track illegally? As the money received from Spotify is next to nothing and the listener will never need to buy any of the music as long as they are a subscribed member.

Got to be honest and say i know next to nothing about Spotify, so lets skip this one : )

Finally, what artists are on your radar, but need to be on ours and what can we expect to hear from you on the 19th?

You'll hear a range of stuff from me, from Raster-Noton style minimal beats, through dubstep and electronics into techno. But to me, pretty much everything is techno : )
Artists: Kwaidan is a new neame, making techy bass music with a dark edge. Abdullah Rashim is a name a lot of people seem to be buzzing on - Chris from the mnmlssgs blog sent me some of his stuff and it's really good, advanced minimal gear. It's getting some buzz already, but the Ventress record on Shifted's Avian label is absolutely killer - every track is a keeper. The Container album on Spectrum Spools - usually an experimental synth label - has some lo-fi drum machine jams on it that sit great next to more conventional stuff. There's a guy called Mick Finesse from the States, who's doing a release for Perc Trax and a couple more soon I think, who's sent me some stuff - great doomy techno that has an experimental twist to it. And on the experimental side, Tengui, who's just remixed Perc, looks like a force to be reckoned with in the drone/dark ambient side.

Massive thanks to TVO for the in-depth response and the fantastic contribution to our mix series, we'll see him and you on the 19th.

Check out the mix HERE ---- Download HERE

Wax Works Tracklist

2011-10-31T21:17:00.001Z

Here's the tracklist for the latest mix.

Pendle Coven – IAMNOMAN
Monolake – Reminiscence
Delta Funktionen – Nebula
Relay – Untitled 2
Furesshu – Downstate
Redshape – Plonk (Dub)
Back Pack Poets – Objective g
Abdulla Rashim – Asayita
Mike Parker – Acromion
James Ruskin – The Divide
Planetary Assault Systems – Angel Stree

Listen again here

Some Records

2011-10-27T19:42:00.001+01:00

Here's a couple of records, released in the last few months, that we recommend you check out. There's Regis' first techno EP in 10 years on the highly limited label 'Blackest Ever Black', An excellent double EP from Time To Express plus new music from Sheffield's finest 'The Black Dog' and Luke Slater [With ASC] ahead of their forthcoming albums.
On the house front - the Rawax EPs and Mark Ernests meets BBC on Honest Jons are both doing the business for us.

Check out some of our favourite tracks from the records below and as always - support the artists, buy the vinyl.

Regis - In a Syrian Tongue

The Black Dog - Liber Kult

ASC/LB Dub Corp - Parallel 1

Various - The Labyrinth

Various - Rawax part 3

Mark Ernestus meets BBC

New Wax Works Mix

2011-10-25T20:11:00.000+01:00

Here's the latest mix from the Wax Works crew, enjoy!

Soundcloud
Download

Forward Strategy Group Tracklist

2011-09-19T22:10:00.000+01:00

Here's the tracklist for the awesome FSG mix.

peter van hoesen // desay duty
hula // freeze out
gideon // mr gust
shifted // structure
zadig // CRF001
soul capsule // waiting for a way
heiko laux // dubfix
grovskopa // atopic // delta funktionen mix
shifted // drained
r.sawlin & subjected // untitled 01
mike dehnert // montage
gideon // need no permission // extended mix
teste // praecox
dj qu // juicyfruit
gideon // fair trade
analog solutions // 001 b1
w-moon // top of bottom
andy bowman // yance
dino sabatini // modulation a
mada // micron // niereich mix
tommy four seven // g // regis mix
perc // my head is slowly exploding // ancient methods mix
ade fenton // broken // chris mccormack mix
female // backlash // female edit
forward strategy group // arcnet
phantom regiment // breaking earth's atmosphere
traversable wormhole // superluminal // sleeparchive mix
casual violence // dense // walker fsg uilleann drone mix
forward strategy group // machine drone 07

If you haven't checked it out, you can do so here.
And you can see them play in Glasgow on the 7th October.

Wax Works on Subcity radio

2011-09-19T22:01:00.000+01:00

Tomorrow night we will be appearing on the Animal Farm radio show, tune in here @ 9pm.

Forward Strategy Group Interview & Mix

2011-09-12T15:18:00.002+01:00

It's just under 4 weeks until Forward Strategy Group are back in Glasgow, so we got in touch to ask the UK techno duo some questions and to see if they could provide us a mix.

For those who don't already know, FSG consists of Smear & Patrick Walker aka Isodyne and they have been releasing music under the FSG banner since 2007. Their records are popular with DJs like Regis, Surgeon, Marcel Dettmann & Norman Nodge and anyone who has an interest in labels such as Downwards, Blueprint or Ostgut should definitely check these guys out.

Anyway, here's what they had to say..

It's been a few years since Smear moved to Leeds, what made you leave Glasgow and how did this impact on your music and FSG?

Smear : I played Detatched for the first time about 2 years ago, then later that week we played our first FSG set to an empty room elsewhere in Leeds. The first FSG gigs usually ended in one of us kidnapping someone for the rest of the weekend, in my case in Leeds it was my future fiancée, in Glasgow Patrick kidnapped the promoter(male).

Hard to say what the impact in moving to Leeds was, it’s been great living in the same city as Detatched, having a place where everyone knows everyone else where you can hear great music all night. The main impact is that I had no speakers for the first year. Our last EP for Perc Trax was mixed and pre-mastered entirely on broken headphones.

How do you work around the obvious difficulties of living in separate cities, and what sort of effect does this have on producing music as FSG and preparing for gigs?

Smear : It's a problem that's been there from the beginning, but the internet provides lots of ways around it. When I lived in Glasgow we'd spend about one weekend a month just jamming and exchanging loops, and in between we'd spend every day exchanging things online. That was a really crucial thing for us I think, spending such a long time throwing ideas around without thinking about an end product. It's helped us lay a pretty strong foundation for how we approach our music, and we're now comfortable working as equals on a track, or just one of us making something and the other saying 'yeah, that's good, let's use that'.

The UK is famous for it's role in dance music, especially in techno, but recently the scene in Glasgow has faded whilst the popularity of commercial,tech-house Ibiza parties continues to increase. Is this something that is reflected in Leeds & Edinburgh? and how do you feel about the scene in your respective cities?

Smear : To be honest I've not been to many techno nights in Glasgow! I went out more in Edinburgh purely because I had mates there that didn't travel through much. I know with Monox ending and Optimo rebranding itself there's probably a bit of a lull there, but it happens every few years everywhere. Leeds seems to be on the rise at the moment, there's quite a few new venues and nights who get some really good acts over. All 3 cities are luckier than most in that they have a bit of history, they've always had good record shops, good producers etc, so if there is a bit of a cultural dip, it won't last long.

Walker : Edinburgh has an up and down scene, we have had some landmark nights like Sativa, Pure, Scratch and Tribal Funktion and when those ended, other things have popped up to keep things ticking over albeit not reaching such infamy. We visit a lot of different cities and there seems to be quite a buzz on with a lot of exciting music happening most places we've been, I've really not noticed the mainstream for a long time, so couldn't tell you if it was any better / worse.

Your first releases were on netlabels, such as avionix, do you think this is an ideal starting point for a new producer? and what benefits does releasing on a netlabel have as opposed to a digital label with a low profile?

Smear : A lot of digital labels sell zero units, and that's for various reasons coupled with he fact you're charging money, whereas a badly run netlabel should still be able to clock up a few hundred free downloads. Avionix hasn't had a website or any publicity for years and on archive.org alone it's still clocking up 100 downloads per week, and it's had nearly 100,000 altogether. That's the main difference for a new producer, a well organised free label gets you out and about immediately, in its own space. Your music isn't buried under thousands of other releases on an mp3 store, doomed to be completely ignored. There's also a kind of stigma attached to the words 'Out Now on Beatport!', it always makes me think of bursts of white noise and over-compression. Free labels tend to have a lot more character than that, because they're not trying to make money.

Walker : The netlabel thing kicked off right when people were beginning to see a slide in vinyl sales and more DJs playing digitally. There was a bit of a stigma from people who might have preferred things to stay on vinyl and I can remember a certain hostility towards netlabels for a while. I think now that people have accepted digital more fully, it's a good time for people to experiment with netlabels, it certainly is a good breeding ground for collaboration and feeding in new ideas.

It has been 4 years since the release of FSG01, and since then your releases have mainly featured on other labels, most notably 'Perc Trax', was this the route that you had wanted to go down? What do you see as the main benefits of being associated with a label like Perc Trax, as opposed to doing it on your own?

Smear : Not initially, no. I always figured we'd just release on our own label, but Ali asked us for a remix and it felt right, and now we're very much part of the label which is great. It's obviously a bigger label than ours but we'd never have worked this closely with a label we didn't feel an affinity with, and didn't allow us to take a few risks. I really like the ethos of Perc Trax, it doesn't adhere to a narrow section of music. The focus is more on bringing togeher a group of very distinctive individuals, which is much more flattering to the artists. It's less like Postcard Records and more like Rough Trade, other techno labels tend to be the other way round.

Walker : Releasing on other labels is definately less hassle and things seem to have worked out well so far. Though running our own label is very rewarding and allows us to translate our full vision including the presentation / artwork it can get in the way of spending time in the studio and working on fresh material.

Do you have any plans to release on FSG again? And do you have any interest in releasing the work of other artists?

Smear : Definitely. It's partly getting together the money to do it, but working regularly with Perc Trax means that FSG 003 would have to be something that wouldn't work on Perc. That was always the thinking with the label, to release material that doesn't belong anywhere else. It's difficult though because Ali lets us get away with quite a lot. I don't think anyone else would have touched Tayo Olowu for instance, but we had no fear in giving it to Ali.

On the whole we tend not to think about releasing other artists. Occasionally we have an idea to release someone else but it passes. When it's a smaller label that doesn't release often there's not really the room for other people, you'd much rather release yourself.

Walker : As soon as it's viable to do another FSG release on our own label, I'm sure we will do it. And as for other artists - I keep an open mind, if there's artists that can widen our horizons in a mindblowing way, sure, if not, we'll keep doing it between ourselves.

One thing that strikes me about many of your tracks is how powerful they are, similar to artists like Ancient Methods or Surgeon, can you give us an insight into your production process? What equipment do you use, do you have any preference with Hardware or Software and what are the most essential parts of your studio?

Smear : I use all software, and occasionally the microphone of my cheap mp3 player. I've been glued to a computer from the age of 6 so I don't miss the whole hands on thing. It's all very very basic software too, the fanciest thing I use is a fequency shifter. The sound comes simply from processing and re-processing sounds. It's pretty labour intensive at times, but I've been working like that for about 15 years. Back when I made hardcore and industrial music, it was mainly EQ, pushing it to hundreds of dB in frequency ranges that aren't present in a sound makes for some pretty interesting results. For me EQ's definitely the most powerful creative tool there is.

Walker : The most important thing for me has always been a sampler and a basic sequencer. I started with a yamaha SU-700 and ended up running a range hardware samplers including the A5000 which was one of my favourites. I still fire it up and program loops using a QY700, there's nothing like hardware for noisy, loose arrangements with a bit of punch. Nowadays I use a combination of pro-tools, ableton, soundforge and a couple of different Korg synths, I have a huge library of recorded and synthesised sound and it's the backbone of everything I do. I think that helps give our sound a bit of roughness and with Smear's attention to detail when it comes to EQ means we have quite a rough but pronounced sound.

Retail & Leisure 01 is one of my favourite records from the FSG camp, but I believe that this was also one of your least successful. Have you had a chance to reflect on this release, and is there anything you have learned or would do differently? Taking that into consideration, is there a future for R&L?

Smear : It's actally one of my favourites as well, so I've learned that if I like it, it won't sell! Nah, I've just figured out recently from experience playing that record out why it didn't do well. FSG records tend to be pretty versatile, as long as it loosely fits rhythmically and tonally with the rest of the set then it'll work pretty well. With R&L 01 you really need to establish a mood in your track choice leading up to it, and very carefully build out of it. It's a bit of a specialist record.

I'll probably dip into R&L in the future, in fact our new EP has an R&L remix which is much more friendly without straying too far from the first EP, so lessons have definitely been learned.

Patrick previously collaborated with Inigo Kennedy, how did this come about? Are collaborations something that you would like to do as FSG? Are there any artists that you would particularly like to work with?

Walker : I've known Inigo for a while and I've followed his music since his releases on missile / fear of music and Zet. We've been trying out ideas for a while and hopefuly we'll have some more of the material out soon. As far as artists I'd like to work with - Orphx, Surgeon, Kit Clayton, Silent Servant and Moritz Von Oswald.

What's next for FSG and/or your solo projects?

Smear : Mainly we're concentrating on finishing our album off for Perc Trax. We're pretty much finished with most of the tracks, it's just mixing down and assembling we're doing now. We've also done a remix for Donor, more info on where and when coming soon. And hopefully this year our remix for Miller & Boex on Labrynth should surface. It's the only track we've ever made in the same room, and probably the best thing we've done so far..

Walker : We have also been working on some projects for TVO's Broken20 imprint, and have a few other bits in mind for various labels. Once we've got this album out, all will hopefully be revealed ;)

It's now 3 years since you last played in Glasgow, at the time you played live on 2 laptops, how has your set evolved since then? what is involved in a FSG set? You recently recorded a CLR podcast which contained all of your own material, was this just to showcase your music or do you prefer to restrict FSG sets to your own original material?

Walker : Our setup hasn't changed that much, it works best for what we do and trying to add a lot of hardware would largely be cosmetic and difficult to transport. We've added in extra controllers, such as Novation's Launchpad, which works very well for triggering macros, loops and sounds, so thats jazzed things up a little. Other than that we now use audio interfaces with nice analogue to digital conversion meaning that the sound is a little bit more defined.

Smear : Initially we were very ambitious with live sets. They were about 80% improvised from loops, building tracks from scratch. It was a bit hit and miss until the Glasgow gig, that's where it really started to come together. Since then it's actually become a bit simpler, and it's more of a DJ set. There's a lot of edits, improvising and some live FSG stuff going on, and there's still an element of unpredictability since we can't rehearse much together, but we're much more comfortable now, we've got a good balance between straight DJing and a complete live performance.

Can you tell us a bit about the process behind the mix you have recorded for us, and what we can expect from you in October?

Smear : Patrick recorded the set, I contributed tracks and recorded a bunch of mini-sets about 8 minutes long for him to play around with. It's pretty representative of the kind of thing we'll be doing in October.

Walker : The set was made up from segments Smear sent over, I mixed it down as a live session in a studio up in Edinburgh using a nice digital rig including SSL emulation on each channel. I picked out some extras and jammed them around the pre-prepared segments and yeah, it's pretty representative of our combined sound. This mix is quite diverse and I expect in October I'm guessing there might be a bit more of our own material.

Check out the mix HERE

RA event
Facebook event

Regis Live @ Sub Club

2011-08-31T19:29:00.002+01:00

This is a recording of Regis at the Sub Club in July 2011, massive thanks to Animal Farm for this one.

Enjoy

Part 1
Part 2

Some Thoughts On 'Clubbing In.. Glasgow'

2011-08-30T13:47:00.001+01:00

It's not often Glasgow gets featured on an international music site, but when it does, it's usually the Sub Club, Numbers, Pressure or Soma that's making the news.. It's interesting then, that the recent feature on Resident Advisor has nothing more of a passing reference to them, much to readers dismay, although, the same can be said for most of the nights in Glasgow, as almost all of them got a shoutout at the least, and a sentence at the most.. Except from the Artschool, a club that didn't really appeal to me, and although it had a diverse selection of nights and a varied crowd, it isn't deserving of the praise it's receiving here.

It wasn't changing the face of clubbing in Glasgow, it didn't put Glasgow on the map, and it wasn't on everyone's go to list. It did host many excellent parties, and a lot of the worlds most popular DJs have played here - but the importance placed on the Art School is misleading at best, for someone who isn't from Glasgow. It was an opportunity to put more deserving nights and clubs in the spotlight, that was squandered due to the writers personal taste.

Many people have complained about the lack of a mention for various nights, clubs or labels, but I genuinely think it's refreshing to read something on Glasgow that isn't dominated by Sub Club, Pressure or Soma (Numbers too now). There's no doubting their importance, and the fact that they have been going for so long is only testiment to their love and dedication to what they do, but there's more to Glasgow than them and that is this article's greatest failing. It made a statement by only briefly mentioning big nights like Pressure and leaving out the likes of subculture completely, but it didnt do nearly enough to justify that.

I doubt their was ever anything malicious about nights not being included, you could argue that too many nights have been mentioned, but I don't think that any night has a divine right to be included in a piece like this - so it's a bit of a shame that the comments section on RA is littered with people who are criticising for one reason or another, if you draw comparisons from another 'Clubbing In' feature then the difference is remarkable for a 'friendly & forward thinking scene'

I do however, find it interesting that the writer barely mentions anything techno related, which I think draws an interesting parallel with the lack of good techno nights that are on in Glasgow on a regularly basis.. Certainly in comparison to the overwhelming amount of nights that feature beatport house & minimal artists, or the weekly nights at subclub (that feature no dedicated techno night). There's Animal Farm at the subclub every so often and CODE now at La Cheetah on a bi-monthly basis.. it's not much, and it puts doubts into my mind about the artists that we would like to book.. Is there still a techno scene here?

I hope there is because Glasgow, for me, is techno.. and it's sad that the city has a feature on RA, with Techno nowhere to be seen.

Wax Works & Equalised @ The Old Hairdressers 10th Sept

2011-08-30T10:21:00.001+01:00

This September sees the return of our all day party, and after months of searching for a suitable venue we're hoping that we have finally found one. (lets hope we can make it a bit more regular)
The space is located in the upstairs of The Old Hairdressers on Renfield Lane [opposite Stereo] and we will be setting up the 1210's and hoping to fill it with good folk who like good tunes.

It's kicking off at 12pm and will go on until 12am, so if you're looking for somewhere to keep going from the night before, get a few drinks before the Electric Frog or simply party all day with us.. then there's probably not going to be a better option.
Guests Steven Coyle & Russell Ventilla will be playing, as well as regulars Wax Works, Bobby Wilson & a Live Set from Truman Data - so expect the best house/techno/downtempo records we've got.

Set times will be something like

Wax Works 12.30pm - 3.30pm
Bobby Wilson 3.30pm - 6pm
Truman Data (LIVE) 6pm - 7pm
Russel Ventilla 7pm - 8.30pm
Steven Coyle 8.30pm - 10pm
Wax Works 10pm - 12pm

We'll have copies of the exclusive new Wax Works mix from Forward Strategy Group to hand out, and we'll also have some discounted tickets for their gig on the 7th October for sale.

See you there.

CLR Mixes

2011-08-17T20:02:00.002+01:00

Here's downloads for the CLR mixes from both of our next guests - Forward Strategy Group & Sigha. They play in Glasgow @ Wax Works on the 7th October(FSG) & 2nd December(Sigha).
The mix from FSG features all of their own stuff and showcases their sound perfectly, whilst Sigha's mix is a perfect blend of contemporary techno.

Miller & Boex - Relevance (Forward Strategy Group Alt Remix) [Labrynth]
Forward Strategy Group - Applied Generics C [Forward Strategy Group]
Forward Strategy Group - Signal Path (Early Version) [Perc Trax]
Forward Strategy Group - Anti-Concern [Unreleased]
Forward Strategy Group - Applied Generics A Acapella [Forward Strategy Group]
Patrick Walker - Phase Linear [Dynamic Reflection]
Smear - Inert [Dynamic Reflection]
Forward Strategy Group - Use Your Delusion [Unreleased]
Adrian Ross - Forward Strategy Group Loop 14 [Unreleased]
(i)sodyne - Answer To No One [Broken20]
Adrian Ross - Forward Strategy Group Loop 13 [Unreleased]
Smear - Means Of The Now [Unreleased]
Forward Strategy Group - Signal Path (Smear Mix) [Unreleased]
Forward Strategy Group - Rundes Leder Part II [Unreleased]
Forward Strategy Group - Token Ring [Perc Trax]
Forward Strategy Group - Tayo Olowu [Perc Trax]
Forward Strategy Group - Arcnet [Perc Trax]
Patrick Walker - Alchemy [Unreleased]
Smear - Transect Acapella [Forward Strategy Group]

Download here

Surgeon - Whose Bad Hands Are These (Roly Vexd Remix) [Dynamic Tension]
Silent Servant - El Mar (Sverica Remix) [Symantica]
Skirt - Ikaros [Horizontal Ground]
Traversable Wormhole - Untitled [Traversable Wormhole - 06]
Marcel Fengler - Thwack (Mike Parker Remix) [Motevolver]
Mike Parker - Subterrainian Liquid [Prologue]
Lucy & Xhin - LX2 [CLR]
Sandwell District (Feed Foward Test Session Recorded Live In Berlin) [Sandwell District]
James Ruskin & Mark Broom - Hostage [Blueprint]
James Ruskin & Mark Broom - Pigeon [Beardman]
Pacific Blue - Industry Part 1 [Pacific Blue]
Traversable Wormhole - Exiting The Milky Way (Surgeon Remix) [CLR]
Samuli Kemppi - Heat Of 1000 Degrees [Perc Trax]
Mondo - Work Me Baby (Marcellus Version) [Deeply Rooted House]
Sigha - Untitled (A2) [Hotflush - HF029]
Shifted - Control [Motevolver]
Silent Servant - Untitled (A) [Sandwell District - SD17]
Ventress - Untitled (A2) [Avian - AVN002]

Download here

Gravitational Singularity

2011-08-15T15:48:00.002+01:00

Download

Exclusive mix for Trax86

Do Not Resist...

2011-07-29T16:02:00.000+01:00

Here's a new mix I highly recommend checking out, it's a recent recording of Milton Bradley's live set, and it features mostly unreleased tracks with a few parts that will be recognisable to fans. I think the set really shows off Milton's talents as a producer, and gives you an idea as to what he is all about. He is one of the most interesting and unique techno producers around, and he manages to maintain such a distinctive yet versatile style, without ever compromising his ideals. More people need to listen to this guy.

* Check out the interview too, inspirational words for anyone who struggles to balance the need for vinyl and wanting to produce music.

LWE - Interview & Mix

Nights out would be a lot better if more DJ's didn't resist the beat.

zzzZ

2011-07-15T19:05:00.000+01:00

So techno is boring. Or atleast that's what I'm hearing..

mnmlssgs probably present the best or most indepth argument, and although I agree with a lot of what they say, it doesn't mean that techno is boring or bland or uninteresting.
They are right about many things, but I just don't reach the same conclusion as them. So this is my personal opinion on why some artists/djs/writers are a bit fed up with things..

I only buy vinyl, I only listen to vinyl and I have no interest in any digital releases - I couldn't care less if my favourite artists are now on bandcamp, or if they are giving their music away for free, I just don't see the point in having mp3s/wavs on my computer.
If you're digital and that works for you then that's cool, but I think by not exposing myself to every single release, and every piece of information, it helps to keep things fresh.

I buy most of my records from record shops like Rubadub, Clone or Hardwax, they represent high quality labels, and are famous for the quality of music that they stock and distribute. It's not exactly a struggle to find interesting, new music, and more often than not I find myself removing up to 20 or so records from my crate due to financial limitations.
How can techno be boring, when there's more good music than most people can afford being released?

I'm not saying that being a digital DJ or artist is causing the problem, but the exposure to higher volumes of music, in a market that is oversaturated by similar sounding tracks, makes it harder to find the quality. The amount of new releases in somewhere like Hardwax just doesn't compare to Beatport, so looking for good music quickly becomes a chore and something that isn't enjoyable..
I can't imagine how many new releases there must be on Beatport in 1 month, how is it possible to listen to them and to find stuff that you like, without going back to tried and tested labels or artists? How do you find new artists?
Do you rely on charts/top 10s? Just the thought of looking for good new music on Beatport is enough to put me off techno.

Then there is also the dangers of promo, where people are receiving hundreds of tracks each week via email. There is absolutely no quality control over the releases you receive, and you have to spend you're time downloading them and perhaps reading the PR bullshit that comes with it - then skipping through them all until you find 1 or 2 that you actually like. Of course techno is going to be boring if that's what it involves, how can anyone go through that process on a regular basis and maintain enthusiasm for it.

My solution is to stop wasting time with all the digital promos, the ridiculous PR, and the absolutely worthless comments from DJs A,B & C saying how great the record is. Stop looking for music in the wrong places, get back to record shops, and pay £8/£10 for an EP.
How many mp3's do you own that you would pay £8 for? Or How many do you own that you would have never paid £8 for?
People need to learn to take criticism or simply avoid complaining about it publicly. Too many times you see arguments on RA about what rating a record got - who gives a fuck? Atleast it's getting reviewed.
The embarrassing fanboys on RA are another post entirely, but I think there's a lot of people who are *into* electronic music that could do with growing up a bit and learn to take things with a pinch of salt.

And lastly, support your scene, get involved, run a night, run a label and go to parties. Make things happen.

Techno/electronic music is to be enjoyed - by all means take it serious, and be hardcore/purist/whatever, but enjoy it.

Black Country

2011-07-14T15:39:00.001+01:00

Moving on from Cloutier, July is all about 1 man, Regis. Tomorrow night he will be back in the subclub, after last years performance, but this time he will be playing as Regis. With Regis you can expect uncompromising, purest techno - which, since Monox has stopped, has been way overdue in the subclub.

It's such a shame that nights like tomorrow are not the norm for the subclub, and that the majority of the time we are offered watered down house, or irrelevant has beens. It's out of touch, and it gets by based on the appeal of the club, it's repuation and the lack of any worthwhile competition.. It doesn't lead the way with forward thinking bookings like it could or should.

It's the best club in Scotland, but it could do so much more. It is so far behind the behind the leading clubs like Fabric, Trouw, Berghain and even now to an extent with places like Corsica Studios, with their adventurous line ups and up to date booking policy. I only hope that artists like Regis, Lucy & Shifted become a bit more regular, and that the DJs and artists who are leading the way in Techno and House start to frequent Glasgow a bit more often. Techno & House have a wealth of talent that just isn't respresented in Glasgow, and there's no better place for them than the subclub.

If you don't have plans for tomorrow and if you are even slightly interested in techno, then you must go to the subclub. If someone like Regis can't get a good turnout, then I'm afraid we are doomed.

And if you're up for it, Regis is back in the UK on Sat 30th July @ Fabric. We are getting a 20hour round bus trip, with the mega bus.. Which will be pretty tough going, but you can't argue when it only costs £16.

Room 2 features Terry Francis, Sandwell District & Sigha. I honestly cannot wait for it.

"Club or Country? Black Country"

What Went Wrong?

2011-07-04T19:07:00.000+01:00

First off - sorry for the lack of info here and the delay in posting it, but we wanted to be sure that the information we had was correct.

Secondly, we sincerely apologise to anyone who was looking forward to seeing Eric, and had made plans to go and see him. We were completely gutted about what happened, but it was outwith our control.

As for the reason as to why Eric didn't play - it turns out that Eric got himself a visa for his tour, which he believed covered him for the duration of his time in Europe, but it actually only lasted 3 days. So when he arrived in Glasgow, he was detained by customs, and as the visa was not valid he was held in solitary confinement and deported the next morning.

There was nothing that we could do about it, and we didn't get a chance to contact Eric to find out exactly what happened until he was back in Berlin.

I want to say thanks to everyone who still came down, and by all accounts seemed to have a good night - we really appreciated it.

Also thanks to Animal Farm for having us down to Substanz, it was a pleasure to be playing there again, and was a great end to what had been a pretty stressful day & night.

As for what's next - we have Forward Strategy Group booked for 7th October & Sigha for 2nd December.. thankfully they're from the UK.

Regis @ subclub

2011-06-24T18:42:00.000+01:00

About time.

Wax Works & Equalised Present.. Eric Cloutier

2011-05-27T07:21:00.002+01:00

In 2006 Eric Cloutier decided to leave Detroit for pastures new, but I doubt that even he would have imagined that within the next 5 years he would become resident at New York’s most important techno club, a mnmlssgs favourite and one of the fortunate few people who gets to play records across the world.

We caught up with Eric to find out how things are going in New York, how his production is coming along, why he has decided to withhold tracklists and what he has planned for his European Tour, which sees him play Glasgow on July 1st.

Firstly why did you decide to leave Detroit? And what made you move to New York, at a time when many of your peers had already made or were making the move to Europe instead, is this something that you considered?

The thought of moving out of Detroit was in my head for quite a while, as I'd always been fascinated with NYC, and eventually living in Europe, so that was one factor. A second was just that musically, in Detroit, I had kind of hit a plateau, and in order for me to take the next steps with my career in music, I needed to get out of there and get some new insight on to myself and the scenes abroad. Though most of my friends were moving to Europe, I never really saw iHt as a viable option that early on, and was fine with staying stateside for a while longer to build more of a name for myself.

The attraction of living in a city that never sleeps is obvious, but how is the electronic music scene there at the moment? And what role has Bunker played in this?

The scene in NYC is really great. There's a fascinatingly diverse group of people that not only attend but throw events, and there's never really a weekend that there isn't at least one thing to go to, regardless of what style of music you're in to. The Bunker definitely has a huge impact on the city, as we're one of the only parties around doing the kind of techno and house that we do. Most others are a bit more mainstream where as we're catering to the true heads and presenting new music and artists all the time.

New York has a rich history of great techno DJs from natives like Adam X and Function to Jeff Mills’ residency at Limelight, are there any producers/DJs we should keep an eye out for?

Fred P and DJ Qu aren't new names to the scene, but they should always be on the watch by people. They're constantly creating and DJing insanely good music, so if you see their name on anything, you can almost assure quality will be the standard.

Bunker recently celebrated it’s 8th Birthday with special 8 hour sets from Donato Dozzy, Optimo & Derek Plaislaiko, how was the party? And do you have any personal highlights from the 5 years of which you have been a part of Bunker?

The anniversary party was, without a doubt, absolutely amazing. I can't speak for how Optimo did because i spent the entire night in the back room listening to Dozzy, but from all reports, both rooms were completely rammed the entire time, with nothing but quality music pumping through the speakers for all eight hours. My highlights of the Bunker are too numerous to mention. Every party is a great one, every guest DJ is a joy to hang around, and every chance I get to play as a resident is completely amazing to me. Its just one of the places I feel damn good at, month after month.

Donato spent a few weeks in America after the party, playing a couple more gigs alongside you and Spinoza, did you have an opportunity to get some advice or tips from him in the studio? How is your production coming a long? What software/hardware are you using in the studio? And when can we expect to hear something from you?

Wasn't able to pick Dozzy's brain much while he was here, but we do talk on the regular and he's always giving me a pointer here and there. My production's, however, aren't going as well as I'd like them to, but that's all part of the learning curve that I've mistakenly taken too long to jump in to. I'm mainly using Ableton as a scratch pad to get ideas out quickly, and then I eventually bring things in to Logic to warm them up a bit and lay things out with their far superior sound engine. As for when I'll have something done...who knows. I'd like to get an EP out this year, maybe a remix of someone, but I'm having a hard time getting the proper amount of time to sit in the studio and work.

Many of your friends started producing years ago, is this something that you wish you had been more active about or does it provide you with some extra satisfaction that you are one of the very few modern DJs who has made his name as a DJ?

If I could have another chance, or go back in time, I'd have started much sooner than I have now. I really wish I'd have made something and been constantly working on things for years, because I know that would help me a lot with where my career is heading. But its also nice knowing some of the amazing gigs that I've obtained have come solely from my DJing and nothing more. That's a feat not many people can accomplish these days. Its a small group of people that are in that group.

Your European tour starts in a couple of months, which sees you visiting Glasgow on the 1st July – where else are you playing? And do you have anything planned besides your gigs?

There's a whole slew of dates that I'll be doing, including the Toi.Toi 1yr Anniversary in London, playing at Cookies in Berlin with John Osborn, and playing an awesome open-air party in Paris for my good friend Celine called Sundae...but more dates are being added all the time, and I'm hoping I have an exceptionally full schedule for the three weeks that I'll be overseas.

You also return to Japan this year, playing alongside Peter Van Hoesen in May, is there any chance you will be making another appearance at Labyrinth in September? Can you describe your experience of the festival, and what was it like to play in such a unique environment?

No word on a return booking to the Labyrinth festival itself, but I just returned from my trip to Tokyo to play "Enter the Labyrinth," also thrown by Mindgames, as a pre-party for the festival. Without getting in to too many details, the gig itself was an absolute blast, and the entire night was filled with incredible music. Peter and I had an absolute blast, and I must thank both him and Russ from Mindgames for the chance to make it to Japan again. But regarding the festival...all I can say is its the best party I've ever been to in my life, filled with some of the greatest people I've ever met, which created some very long lasting, very strong relationships with many people, and I would absolutely love to do it over again - both as an artist and as an attendee.

mnmlssgs are huge fans of Labyrinth, and are also keen admirers of yours (Eric is one of the few DJs to provide 2 ssgs mixes), can you tell us how your ssg mix came about and if you have a personal favourite from the mix series?

Chris from ssg's had heard a few of my podcasts, and I was a pretty frequent commenter on the blog, and eventually we struck up a good friendship and he asked me to do a mix for them. It took me a while, as I wanted to present something really special to them, but once I did, myself and others were extremely happy with the results. The second one came about after I played at Labyrinth in 2009, and it was really meant to just be a continuation of the festival in some ways, highlighting some tracks heard while there as well as from what I learned being a part of Labyrinth. Too hard to pick a favourite, though - almost all the mixes are so solid you can't narrow down to one.

You mentioned recently that you are no longer providing tracklists for your mixes, is this something that you have been considering for a while and why have you made this decision?

I've always tossed about the idea of not including tracklists, but for the longest time I always did because it really helps people decide whether or not to download the mix. Everyone scans the tracklist, and if it seems interesting, everyone downloads it. That being said, though, I'm also a bigger fan of people just taking a chance - quit checking the tracklist, and just expand your mind for once, without having some pretense as to what the podcast may or may not sound like based on the song selection. I've been spending even more time hunting down quality music and spending hours a day on the hunt for new tunes that I don't want them to be easily picked up by sniping poseur DJ's and kids who just want to undercut me and what I've worked so hard to achieve.

Your most recent mix was a vinyl only, dub techno mix, why did you choose to record this strictly on vinyl? And is this something that is being reflected in your DJ’ing at the moment?

I chose to do it strictly on vinyl because most of the tracks that were used in that mix are vinyl only and impossible to find on digital. I don't see the point in encoding a record to play with Traktor Scratch when i have the physical vinyl in my hand, so I wanted to prove a point that not everything needs to be on Beatport's Top 10 to be good. But I've also been using more and more vinyl in my sets because the overwhelming amount of pathetic and mediocre music that comes in to my inbox was just becoming frustrating and tiresome. I'd rather ensure I'm buying and performing with the best music I can find, so eliminating one of the repeat offenders - shitty promos and underproduced / overthought techno and house - isn't clouding my judgement or taste.

Many DJs have been extremely open about their dislike for digital DJ’ing, as a DJ who utilises both vinyl & digital, what stops you from being exclusively digital?

Well this is not only a tired argument, but its also open to interpretation by all. "Digital DJing" to me is using Ableton or Traktor to autosync things, not using an encoded vinyl solution like Traktor Scratch or Serato, so firstly I have to address that separation. That being said, I don't really see the point in having the argument - if you're playing a set that makes me move, then you're doing something right. I don't really care how you go about it, playing good tracks in an intelligent manner is far more important than the avenue you take when presenting it. I've heard DJ's that can't beatmatch to save their lives play some of the most amazing records I've never heard, and that will be more important to me, every time, than if you can be rock solid behind the decks and play terrible music for ten hours. I'll never stop using vinyl in my sets, and I always like to surprise people now and then with a vinyl only situation, so it really depends on my mood. Very rarely do I ever perform with only my laptop...probably closer to never.

Can you tell us a bit about the mix you have recorded for us, what we can expect from you on the 1st? and what your plans are for the future?

Not really much to say about the mix - I'll let it do the talking. Its typical of me, though - deeper, slower, slightly darker, a little dubby, with a dash of house on the side - so it should fairly accurately represent at least one portion of the night when I play there on July 1st. Since I'll be doing the entire evening again, from start to finish, you can expect this to be a warmup to my warmup. As for my future - make a damn record!

It’s unlikely, but if we ever get the opportunity to visit New York, where’s the best place to get some Pizza?

Ahh, the standard "I'm visiting NYC..." question. Its impossible to answer who has the best pizza because there's so many pizza places. But if I had to shoot for two in my neighborhood, Roberta's and Grandma Rose's are pretty hard to top.

Check out the mix from Eric HERE

RA Event & Tickets
Facebook

Massive thanks to Eric for thi and I hope you all enjoy the mix.

See you on the 1st.

Native Rhythm Electric

2011-05-16T19:46:00.002+01:00

Less than a week to go until Norman Nodge plays the sub club for Animal Farm, so I thought I would share my favourite Nodge mix with you to get you in the mood.

You will have probably heard it as it's mix 02 from the legendary mnml ssg series, but if you haven't then you're in for a treat!

I think this is the best representation of what Nodge is all about - grooving, purist techno expertly mixed. The mix is 3 years old but it still sounds just as good now as it did then, which is testament to his taste and ability.

Get it HERE.

And if you still need convincing, here's the tracklist:

01) Ron Trent / Dark Room / Balance
02) DJ Joey Anderson /Thee Analysis/Strength Music
03) Peter Van Hoesen /Trusted (Norman Nodge Reconstruction) / T2X
04) Add Noise/ Handwerk 3 A/ Handwerk
05) Baby Ford & I-Fach Collective/Tea Party/Klang
06) Shamus Coghlan/5000 Miles/ 807 Rec.
07) Sian/Wear Your Scars Like Medals / Aus Rec.
08) Robert Görl & Karl O'Connor/The Right Side Of Reason/DN
09) Reeko/The Gravedigger And His Bitch /Mental Disorder
10) Equalized/ Equalized # 1/ Equalized
11) Corrugated Tunnel / My Machine Code/Nightvision
12) Pacou/ Tangent / Cache
13) Marcel Fengler / Friction / Ostgut
14) Jeff Mills / In The Bush / Axis
15) The Mole / Baby You're The One / Wagon Repair
16) Superlova / All Night / Raw Elements
17) Punisher & John Overfriend /Thermal Underwear (John Selway Remix) / Hej Rec.
18) Leonid / Mora / Statik

Enjoy & see you Friday!

May I recommend?

2011-05-10T19:20:00.000+01:00

Okay, not posted up some records in a little while so here's a few that I have been playing recently, a couple that are just out and 2 that you may have to go to Discogs for.

Mike Parker: Geophone 16

Unique, warehouse techno - a new Mike Parker record means a new essential purchase, this time we're treated to 4 tracks which will seriously mess with people's heads in the club. My pick of the bunch is probably B2 , it's not for the faint hearted but it will sound unreal on a good system. This is going to be in the bag for a long, long time.

Also, I think it's worth mentioning Mike's amazing artwork which is all done by him. Talented guy.

Analogue Solutions: Analogue Solutions 1

Sample heavy house & techno that just rocks on a good system, there's something for every set in the Analogue Solutions series and if you can, I suggest getting all 6 of them - my choice has to be 001 from the records so far, 3 absolutely killer tracks that will go down well anywhere - one of the highlights of the Electric Frog was Ben Klock dropping this.

Donato Dozzy: Acid Test 03

This didn't get the thumbs up over at LWE, but I really can't see where Richard Brophy is coming from when it comes to Dozzy. His Album 'K' was one of the best records last year, and tracks like 'Your Eyes' & 'Menta' are absolutely essential. Granted these are collabs, but I think you can definitely hear the influence Dozzy has had on the them.

As for Acid Test 03 it's a warm, relaxed acidic number that was made especially for Dozzy's set at Labyrinth, and on remix duties is Tinman in a role reversale from Acid Test 01 - The remix is my favourite track out on the EP, dark, trippy techno with a haunting vocal, if you were a fan of Acid Test 01, this will be right up your street.

Atom TM & Pink Elln: Live Volume 12 - 15.11.2009 Berlin Berghain

This is one of the best records in 2011 for me, over 20 minutes of analogue, hypnotic, acid-techno. A & B are both of the highest quality, don't miss this.

Get the B Side FREE - here. Rubadub did have this in stock, but it's not on the site.

The Secret Initiative II

Another white label, another anonymous producer, another fantastic EP.

I missed out on the first Secret Initiative, but on the strength of this release I will be purchasing that when I can. Both of these tracks are ambient/droning/spacey techno with a bit of melody that adds just enough light to the tracks, pick this one up if you can.

Relative 003

This isn't the most recent release from Relative, 4 & 5 are both out and I think you can still get them in most good record shops, but it's my favourite from this label so far.

It comes with 3 raw, analogue house bangers with 'Play Records' being my pick, it just destroys, it's a massive, massive tune.
I think this is one of the only tracks that has been played twice at one of our gigs

For those who don't know, Relative, Appointment, Restoration & Live Jam are all the same crew - and they are making some of the best house music around right now.
If you like your house to be a bit rough around the edges, then this is for you - all of the tracks are recorded on analogue gear, probably in 1 take.
These records just have so much more feeling and warmth than the majority of what is being released today, absolutely essential in my eyes.

* Don't wait around on these records because they are limited, vinyl only pressings and when they're gone you're looking at about £20 + for these on discogs

Also - I highly recommend checking out this mix from ISM if you're new to these guys

The Verve(ine)

2011-05-08T14:48:00.000+01:00

It's a rare surprise when a new Verveine mix goes online, but to get 2 in such a short space of time.. Well it just doesn't happen, or does it?

The first mix is a 5 hour set back to back with Julietta, it's a bit of a marathon in terms of listening at home - but if you're having a BBQ or some friends round for a few beers, this is all you need. 5 hours of the very best house music.

The 2nd mix is about a year old and it's as techno as I've heard Eli, but still stays true to what she is all about. It's refreshing to hear a mix from her that varies from what's been before, so many DJ's are great at one thing but struggle when they get out of their comfort zone, this is further proof that Eli can easily hold her own with the best.

If you're into these then I also suggest checking out her Kapterka radio show mix, it's top class.

I don't know what it is about Eli's mixes, I don't if it's just the records that she's playing, or the way it's recorded but her mixes just have this really warm, raw, vibe bordering on distorted, but not going far enough for it to become uncomfortable or detract from the music. Whatever it is, it's quality and I hope that more and more people start to realise it.

Be Deep

2011-05-06T14:29:00.000+01:00

It's 1 week until Margaret Dygas takes over the decks in The Admiral for the evening, and if you have yet to make plans for what you are doing before it then look no further.. Dan Hedley[Hotbox] and I will be playing some records at the pre-party (9pm -12pm) in The Admiral, with fresh wax from Analogue Solutions, Relative & Luv Jam in the bag, you can be sure that the tunes will be of the highest calibre.

Here's a couple of my favourite mixes from MD, if you don't know what she's all about then download these and hit play.

Bodytonic
FACT

* I also highly recommend her LWE mix

Solomon Cain-ing It

2011-05-05T21:24:00.001+01:00

In 2011 being a DJ is tough, there's only been a handful of DJs in recent times who have made the journey from resident to international star. 3 that are well on their way imo are Eli Verveine, Eric Cloutier & Jackmaster (if you know more then please share them) but they're a rare breed and still, if they really want to take their career up to the level of their peers, they need some records out. The DJs at Berghain/Pbar are probably the best example of this, a few years ago many of them had never made a record, now they are international artists with albums to their names - maybe it was a natural progression from DJ to artists, maybe they're just DJ's who want more gigs.. based on the standard of the albums, I would go with the latter.

It's a shame, but that's the way it is.. Promoters want something they can sell to people, and having a hit record or being attached to a reputable label is going to help considerably if you're wanting more gigs, and to ultimately make a living from music.

Personally, I don't think it should matter who you are, what label you're on or who you're friends with.. if you're music is good or you are a skilled selector, then your talent should be shared.
So here's a mix from the latest DJ I have stumbled upon, Andrew Solomon. He has 2 mixes on his page, but I think the stronger of the 2 is definitely the December mix. The November mix is good, but it's just straight up techno, where as the December mix has a bit more to it and is a better mix to get an idea of what Andrew is all about.

If you're a fan of Milton Bradley, Sandwell District, Prologue etc.. I highly recommend checking this guy out.

Wax Works Loopcast

2011-05-01T17:20:00.002+01:00

Brand new mix from us recorded exclusively for the Loopcast.

Here's the tracklist and download link for it, and if you enjoy the mix then make sure to check out mixes 1 - 4 for some excellent music from Glasgow's finest.

1. Inward Content – Continuum Mechanics (Meanwhile)
2. Atheus – 02 (Metrolux)
3. Deepchord – Grandbend - Echospace Edit (Echospace)
4. Tremsch & Metzler – 20 Toes - Salz Dub (Telrae)
5. Knowone – 004 A (Knowone)
6. Artist Unknown – Transit Ways (1XA)
7. Resoe – Minus - Sigha remix (Echocord)
8. Nax_acid – The Soul Trap (Aconito)
9. Donato Dozzy, DJ Say – Tutto Positivo (Mental Groove)
10. Plastikman – Helikopter (Novamute)
11. Giorgio Gigli – Chemistry of Life - Mike Parker rmx (Zooloft)
12. Milton Bradley – The Path to the Mathematical Truth (DNRTB)
13. Lucy – Krishnamurti Acapella Extended (Stroboscopic Artefacts)

Download HERE

Death Is Not Final

2011-04-28T20:07:00.000+01:00

Easter is over, the electric frog is not back until July and the highlight of this weekend is techno's poster boy, Richie Hawtin, playing @ Pressure, but that doesn't mean it's all bad news.. May is shaping up to be an excellent month for nights out, and hopefully it sets the tone for the rest of the summer.

On the first Friday of the Month we are playing Point 4 @ The Soundhaus with Neil Murphy & Jamie Knox of Loop. We will be taking over 'The Wee Room' for the evening, with Nomad & Tronic playing the 'Main Room' & 'Mirror Room' respectively. There's an afterparty for the night too, which will be hosted by Hotbox and will feature Mr. Copy & Turtle from Animal Farm.. After playing at the afterparty for the last Point4, I can honestly say that this will be wild and if you miss it, then you're missing out.

The Saturday isn't really up to much to be honest, Melting Pot is always going to be a good night, but apart from that it's uninspiring.

The week after has Dygas at The Admiral, Steve Rachmad at La Cheetah & Agoria at The Arches. Plenty to choose from on this night, so hopefully they are all pretty busy.

Again not much happening on Saturday, but I will be going to Loop at The Brunswick. Andy Gilbert who played at the last Wax Works party is playing, so I'm sure the tunes will be good, entry is cheap and Andy will have the vinyl out - more than enough reason to be in attendance.

I recently posted about Shackleton playing on the 20th May, and I was looking forward to this party the most out of all the ones I have mentioned, but the 20th May just got absolutely massive..

After having Kenny Larkin over to play, and playing 3 times in the one day with Ben Klock at the Electric Frog - Animal Farm have gone and booked Berghain resident Norman Nodge to play the subclub. But what looked like a nasty clash has actually turned out perfectly, as the Shackleton gig ends at 10:30pm and the subclub opens at 11pm. It's not often that you get a night of top class music starting 7pm and going on until 7am in Glasgow, this is essential.

The last weekend in May is pretty quiet Deadly Rhythm have Martyn & Braiden booked, but that's not really my cup of tea so I expect it will be a weekend of rest before Steffi in June.

A little bit of Wax Works related news if you're interested..

We recorded a mix for the 'Loopcast' recently, and it should hopefully be online within the next week or so - it's only an hour, but the tunes are excellent and it's all vinyl as always.

Not sure when the next Wax Works party will be, but we have recently teamed up with the lads from EQD to put on a couple of parties later in the year. The 1st July should be in your diary, we are hosting one of mnmlssgs favourite DJ's, Eric Cloutier - who will be spinning alll night in The Admiral.. There will also be an exclusive mix from Eric, we're hoping to have some CDs in and around Glasgow in June, give me a shout if you want one.

Also, I think we will be playing an all day party at The Halt Bar - this will either be at the end of May or the first weekend in June. I will keep you posted.

Rule 51

2011-04-27T18:31:00.000+01:00

"Never stop using vinyl"

Mr.C's 50 rules to live by

RSD, New Mixes & Some Worthwhile Reading

2011-04-17T16:52:00.000+01:00

So, Record Shop Day...

I went down to Rub A Dub at about 4pm and the shop was packed, there was plenty of beers going round and Stephen Brown was playing a great live set, this was followed by more beer, sets from The Blessings & Instra:Mental amongst others and a fantastic selection of house and techno records to check out, plus some exclusive RSD records.

The one criticism I do have is that it was only at 8pm, when Dan Monox went on the decks, that I saw a record being played, but apart from that it was excellent and in RAD's case, certainly proved that it is worthwhile and long may it continue.

I was surprised by a lot of the negativity towards RSD over the last few days, culminating in this feature from 'Digital DJ Tips'. What I really fail to understand is why anyone who loves music or Djing (in any form) would want to discredit RSD. Who cares if it won't save vinyl? Surely the longer that vinyl is around, the better it is for all of us? Can you imagine Glasgow without Rubadub? Berlin without Hardwax? Rotterdam without Clone?

Is there anything positive about that?

MP3s are cheaper, they are more convenient and you have almost every tune you can think of available instantly, so just be happy with what you have got. Live and let live - as a DJ, regardless of what you play, it's in your best interest to support vinyl and to support the scene, it's small, it's not in great shape and we won't always have it, so make the most of it while you can.

It wouldn't take much effort to shop at your local record shop more often, even if it's only for the latest software.

Kinda related to this is an article over at LWE from Stefan Goldmann, it's pretty long but I highly recommend reading it the whole way through as it is spot on, although slightly depressing. The future looks bleak (for most of us).

On a slightly more positive note, I think that everyone with an interest in techno should read this feature over at RA. It's a very interesting piece on the London techno club 'Lost', it's extremely well written and it makes you wish that you could have been part of it.

The description of the Mills/Basic Channel set really puts a modern 'live' set into perspective, true masters of their craft.

On the mix front, there's a couple of new ones that I think are worth sharing.

The 1st mix is from Juho Khusti, who has featured here before, with a mix for the Zombeats blog. Hypnotic techno is the order of the day, and if you're into this then please check out the Deep Space Helsinki radio show and look out for a very special mix later in the year.

Get it here.

The 2nd mix is from Yuka who is signed to Dasha Rush's label Full Panda, this is a vinyl only mix of otherworldy techno that was recorded for Nutation Records.

Get it here.

Also, for those who missed out on the vinyl release the Sandwell District album has now been released on CD and is available at all good record stores.

Lighter Nights

2011-04-12T22:29:00.000+01:00

Just a quick update for some of the parties that I recommend checking out over the next 5 or 6 weeks.

Easter weekend is shaping up rather nicely, on Friday night you can catch Detroit's DJ/Comedian Kenny Larkin playing in the sub club for Animal Farm.

Saturday & Sunday is the Electric Frog, last year was easily one of the best parties I have been to in Glasgow so here's hoping for more of the same. I will be heading down on the Sunday, see you there.

Kicking off into May you can see us play with Loop @ Point 4 on the 6th. There will be some more details for this nearer the time, but get it in your diary because if it's anything like the last one, it will be wild.

On the 13th May La Cheetah are hosting Steve Rachmad which is where I would have been if Perlon's finest female, Margaret Dygas, wasn't playing @ The Admiral for Be Deep. I will need to hope I can catch SR another time.

Here's a great set from Margaret Dygas, recorded at Bar25's closing party.

Finally..

On the 20th May, Shackleton is playing @ the Art School. This is ESSENTIAL.
Shackleton is simply on a different level from 95% of the people making electronic music, no excuses for missing this one. Proof here, if it's needed.

Record Shop Day

2011-04-11T20:19:00.000+01:00

This Saturday the 16th April is Record Shop Day, as good an excuse as any to spend a day listening to tunes and socialising with some like minded folk.

Check here to see if your local store is getting involved - as for the lucky ones who stay in or near Glasgow, Rub A Dub have got a top class lineup and a selection of exclusive music only available in store.

Here's the details..

Sets in store from:

Instra:Mental (Nonplus Recordings, Autonomic, Apple Pips)
Edit Select (Edit Select)
The Blessings (LuckyMe)
Koreless (Pictures Music) - Live

Exclusive releases from these artists:

Floating Points
Flying Lotus
Clark / Bibio
Spark (w/ Ramadanman Remix)
Some classic New Order

& more

The shop is open from 10am until 8pm.

Unfortunately I am working on Saturday morning but will be heading down for 4pm, anyone who wants to check it out and get a beer let me know.

RG

2011-03-26T16:22:00.002Z

Don't want to overload you all with mixes, but this is one is worth it.

It's recorded by a DJ named Ciaran Hansen, he resides in Newcastle and frequently spins at the Detached parties in Leeds. Ciaran has a great selection of records and if you are a fan of DJs like Eli Verveine, Jane Fitz & Jus-Ed then this will be right up your street.

I first listened to the mix about 2 weeks ago when Ciaran sent it to me on Facebook, since then I have played it countless times and it gets better with every listen. Whether you are just up and going to work, wanting some good tunes before heading out or are in the zone at the after party, this mix works. It has a very deeep vibe, but plenty of groove, the highlight for me being Lazy Fat People - Club Silencio, which plays at around the hour mark.

Ciaran Hansen - RG4

There is no tracklist for the mix but if you put a comment on Ciaran's Soundcloud then he will sort you out with and ID.

Enjoy

* I think it's worth adding that I talk regularly with Ciaran and I would call him a friend, but this mix is here purely on merit and not because of my friendship with the DJ.

I think that electronic music really suffers with the circle-jerkin in the scene, as pointed out numerous times by the ssgs. A great example is that FACT magazine gave 'Blackest Ever Black' a massive push, and helped create lots of hype, but they didn't mention that the vice president(I think) had a major role in the label. I guess what I'm trying to say, is that I will always try to keep this blog free of bias and my opinion will always be an honest one.

This is a fantastic article that explains what I'm talking about far better than I ever could, please check it out.

The Climate Of Electronic Music

Sorry!

2011-03-24T23:30:00.001Z

First off.. really sorry about the lack of updates this month, I have been on holiday from work/music/life, but I am getting back into the swing of things and will be keeping you in the loop for the foreseeable future.

I guess now is a good opportunity to say thanks to everyone who made it down to Wax Works on the 6th March, it was an excellent party with great tunes from start to finish. Big thanks to Davie Barr and Andy Gilbert who both played excellent sets, towards the end of Andy's set things got a bit blurry but the place was groovin' - so thank you :)

We are working on another date for Bar Petite, I will keep you posted on that one.

Our other gig this month was at the Point4 afterparty with Simon Stokes & Animal Farm. Point4 was a brilliant night with standout sets from Mr. Copy & Bobby Wilson (there were others playing, but I only saw these 2) the crowd was fantastic and there was a really good atmosphere about the place. The same can also be said for the afterparty, which was wild. If you were there, then you know.

Thanks to everyone involved in putting on the party, it was a pleasure to be part of it.

On to some music.. There has been plenty of top quality mixes uploaded recently, probably too many, so I have whittled it down to just a few in particular that I recommend you download, set aside some time and give them your undivided attention.

Here goes...

Eric Cloutier - Dub Explorations

I don't want to go on about Eric too much just yet, all I will say is check out this mix and be in Glasgow on the 1st July. A quick description of the mix - vinyl only dub techno from the man.

Alan Backdrop - Anecumene

I first came across Alan Backdrop via mnml.nl where he posted up a mix, it was described as ambient/droning/techno (I think) - I also knew him from Discogs as he is/was selling a record I'm after for about €500, but this was the first I had heard him mix. The mix itself was exactly what I am into and I was seriously impressed by the structure of the set and some of the records that were played. Alan is not a man for tracklists though, and I can completely understand why.

As for this mix, Brian over at SCA has put up a nice article which gives you a bit of background on Alan, I recommend having a read at this before getting torn into the mix, which at just over 3 hours is a bit of a marathon for a podcast. but please, check this out.

As for a quick description, I doubt I can do better than the man himself.

"An atmospheric journey that starts slowly with ambient/drone music and fades into a frantic techno gear. It evolves constantly, scoring several moments of wonder, suspense, fear, peace, frenzy and mystery. I hope that listeners can feel strong emotions, equal or different from mine."

and last but by no means least...

Eli Verveine - Kapterka

Eli is without doubt my favourite house DJ, I haven't heard anyone else who can make their set seem so.. personal? Her sets just have such a warm, inviting vibe and every track just works - I feel like she is a dJ who could play for hours and hours and you could just get totally lost in the groove.

As for the mix, it's warm, groovin' house music that will be on heavy rotation all summer long.
At only 1 hour long, there really is no excuse not to be all over this.

Hope you enjoy.

warming up

2011-03-10T18:05:00.000Z

The warm up. That all important, under appreciated set at the start of every single club night. It's an unpopular job and these days I'm surprised if I hear a warm up at all when I'm out. Perhaps that's due to the fact that it's the most difficult set to play? or maybe it's because the DJ just isn't good enough to do it...

Personally, I think the main part of the problem lies with the promoters, too often you see a party that has at least 6 different DJs playing, leaving it almost impossible for there to be any kind of musical direction throughout the night. I also think that they could choose their warm up DJs better, the job requires someone who knows how to complement the act coming on after, and who has the records to do so but it's not often what you get.. Although this is almost pointless when you are playing for 1 hour to an empty club.

So why do promoters choose to have an night with 6 DJs playing, where the night ultimately suffers rather than having 2 or 3 DJs play? Having one DJ tasked in building a good atmosphere and getting the alcohol flowing makes the headliners job a lot easier, and probably more enjoyable too, so imo if your priority is the music and having a night that flows well, as many DJs playing as possible isn't the best option.
One thing I have considered is that clubs shut at 3am in Glasgow, so this really limits a promoters options, and it is understandable when it's 1 hour sets all round, but it would be nice if they showed a little more trust in their DJs and gave them a few more hours.

Out of interest, are there any promoters who think having as many DJs playing as possible is beneficial to the night?

Now in saying this, it's not all the promoters fault, DJs are to blame too. Regularly the DJ who is on first will play a set consisting of massive tracks (turned up to 11) to try and impress his mates, which is good for those involved, but it's not going to do the DJ any favours and for anyone in the club wanting to have a few drinks and meet up with friends, it can make for some uncomfortable listening.

Maybe it's a lack of understanding and they don't get the concept of warming up, or they don't have the records to play any differently, it could just be a fuck you to the night for sticking them on first - whatever it is, I don't think that it creates a better night and won't do you any favours in the long run.

but whether you agree or disagree with me, it's no secret that all the best DJs are quality warm up DJs, so if you want to be a good DJ...

What's All The (Boys) Noise?

2011-02-27T22:19:00.000Z

Been reading quite a few interviews lately, but one of the ones that I found the most thought provoking was the Boys Noize interview at RA. It's not a particularly long or in-depth interview but it had it's moments, one thing that stood out for me was when Boys Noize mentioned that he would like to make a record (probably under a different name) for Ostgut Ton in the future. wtf.

Now I'm not a diehard Ostgut fan, I think a lot of the records they release are weak and the mix cds are decent (I've heard better podcasts)... but, no one does it like them, they are vinyl, the artists are vinyl, they are all top class DJs, and although they have a lot of hype surrounding them, they still manage to stay credible. They are techno.

You only need to read the Ben Klock LWE interview to understand where I'm coming from, these guys are massive but they won't sell out.

So I find it strange to hear Boys Noize talk as if a release on Ostgut would be possible. He comes across as extremely knowldgeable about music, and he is a very talented and successful individual, but he is the exact opposite of what Ostgut represent. His music is fad music, the artists on his label are not techno artists, his fans are not fans of Ostgut and I expect that at many points in his long career he would have had the opportunity to change direction or to do things differently, so why now? why have a sudden interest in releasing techno? Is it possibly due to the fact that techno is more popular than it's been in a long time?

Boys Noize has more than enough talent and skill as a producer to make some great techno, but that is not the point.. He ditched house because he wasn't getting anywhere, so is he just going to continue latching on to the most popular music in order to stay relevant?

I wonder how the Boys Noize fans feel, he is a mega star off the back of their support, and now he wants to go in a completely different direction.

We need less producers who make 'on-trend' techno and more who make their 'own' techno.
Less like Boys Noize, and more like Alva Noto.

Saturday Night Set Up

2011-02-26T17:40:00.001Z

Here's a new mix from one of my favourite DJs, Mike Parker. If you have been reading the blog then you will know about Mike so I won't go into detail here - The mix was recorded on the 14/1/2011, and as you would expect features some proper, raw, menacing techno. Turn the lights off and the volume up.

Download it here

Mike has a couple new records coming out in 2011 - Geophone 16 & a release for Semantica, he also has a remix on the upcoming Zooloft 12".

What We're Feelin'

2011-02-26T14:38:00.006Z

After a pretty quiet start to the year things seem to have picked up, there's been a lot of great music released, some fantastic mixes and podcasts, and also some worthwhile features & interviews, here's what I recommend checking out.

RA 245 - Traversable Wormhole

I haven't been blown away by any of the RA podcasts so far this year, but Adam's is the only one that has done it for me. It's a solid mix of current techno, it's definitely worth an extended stay on your ipod. I was a bit disappointed with the tracklist as there's not really anything new here, but that doesn't stop it from being a really good mix.

There is also a great interview over at LWE with Adam X.

Adam has a lot to say, and his story is extremely interesting, I admire the way that he stuck to his guns and didn't compromise his sound to try and be popular.. Which can't be said for a lot of artists.

Seeing as we are on the subject of LWE here is another interview I recommend you checking out, it's with Ben Klock. It's probably the best interview I have read with anyone associated with Ostgut or Berghain, and it's reassuring to read that they are aware of the hype, but they will carry on doing their thing the way they always have. It's also no surprise to see that he is sick of receiving promos from producers saying 'This is Berghain techno', I think this sums up a lot of producers right now.. Especially those who have hopped on the bandwagon, and started making harder techno.

There's a really nice feature with fellow Glaswegian The Village Orchestra over at RA. It's a nice insight into an artist that I don't know enough about, but it's also good to see people from Glasgow get some recognition.

Another mix I seriously recommend checking out is Anatomy 7, this was recorded by Patrick Walker (one half of FSG), and has a nice interview from him too. The Anatomy series features a lot of interesting mixes, with one from Smear as well (other half of FSG). So if you're into this one, then I suggest checking out the rest.

Some records I recommend are... the Desolate album, which got a great review over at RA and is probably my favourite LP in 2011 so far. Shed - Well Done has been repressed recently, and is a great record to have in your bag. Raw grooves from one of techno's most important producers. Incidentally, this was the first Shed record I ever bought.

Another essential re-press is Tulkinta, this features some of my favourite tracks from Mika Vainio and it's incredible to think that this music was being made in 1993. Inspirational stuff from possibly the best techno artist there is.

Ø - röntgen

Last but not least is the new FXHE release, and in true Omar S fashion it's £10 for a one sided 12". Just as well it's a belter then.

Have a good weekend everyone.

wxwxmxik tracklist

2011-02-23T21:24:00.002Z

I decided in December that I was no longer going to release tracklists with my mixes, this was mainly down to the fact that people judge a mix before they have even heard it, but also because my tracks are all that I have as a DJ, and it's hard to share records you have spent ages searching for.

but, I think it would be wrong to encourage people to buy music and to buy vinyl, whilst keeping the tracks/artists/labels that I am playing and supporting private, so I will try to provide tracklists for all of the mixes that feature here.

1. Oskar Offermann & Moomin - Hardmood [Aim]
2. Kink - Rachel [Ovum]
3. Tyrez - Functional Love [Dolly]
4. Omar S - Flying Blind [FXHE]
5. Falko Brocksieper - Frantic Formula [Triebstoff]
6. Donato Dozzy & Exercise One - United Elements [Lan Muzic]
7. Delta Funktionen - Eruption [Ann Aimee]
8. Giorgio Gigli & Obtane - Unvulnerable Prototype [Zooloft]
9. Sendai - Below K-Pun One [Time 2 Express]
10. Brando Lupi - Attitude [Dozzy Records]
11. Reality Or Nothing - Untitled (Silent Servant Remix) [RSB]
12. Brian Sanhaji - Cortosis (Chris Liebing Remix) [CLR]
13. Mike Parker - Compressor Blades [Aquaplano LTD]
14. Nuel - Untitled [Aquaplano LTD]

Listen again

wxwxmxik

2011-02-16T23:21:00.002Z

enjoy

The February Selection

2011-02-10T22:45:00.002Z

I think one of the most important things when looking for music is that it must have a timeless appeal to it, I really want the records I buy to still sound fresh and interesting in 5 or 10 years time, but it's a difficult task. Every week there are so many new releases that it can be hard to keep up, it can seem so much easier to turn to your favourite artist's chart or to buy your releases from dependable labels such as Ostgut, Blueprint or Stroboscopic.

Now these EPs are important, as they are recognisable and they work, but I think that all too often you hear DJs play for an hour and hammer it out for the duration. This doesn't do much for me and I don't think it says much about the DJ in question, I personally don't think it takes much effort or skill to put together a mix of the latest big tunes.

So I thought I would give you a few records that I think are a bit different and stand out from all the dross.

Workshop 12 - Kassem Mosse

Slow, killer house grooves from the bosse! Every record from Kassem is one worth owning and after a fantastic 2010 I wasn't sure if 2011 would be as prolific, but so far he has maintained his momentum and I am really looking forward to hearing what he does next.

I have also heard some rumours of a possible Glasgow gig later in the year, I really hope that this one materialises.

The End Of All Existence

I must admit, I am extremely surprised at how underground Milton Bradley seems to be. I think he is one of the most interesting producers in techno right now and this EP serves to back up that claim, but still there appears to be very little interest in him over here.

*If anyone wants to get involved and book Milton Bradley then drop me an email.

As for the record, this is music for the end of the world - not really much else to say.

Skirt - In The Meadow Under The Stars

I was pretty surprised when this was released as it was the first time that HG announced the name of the artist, a strange decision but one I am glad they made.

This is the only record I have heard form Bethany Skirt but I am seriously impressed, menacing industrial techno straight out of Birmingham, what more do you want?

Mike Parker - Subterranean Liquid EP

Mike is on a roll right now, Vesuvio Tremors, Acromion & now his debut EP on Prologue.

I hope that this leads to more European dates for Mike as he is such a fantastic DJ, with so many mental records.

The record itself is top class, and features a massive remix from Donato Dozzy. This record is way ahead of 90% of the techno out atm, it's also head and shoulders above the last few releases from Prologue whom, although are very reliable seem to have been going through the motions of late. I hope this is signals a return to form.

If you enjoy the music then please buy the vinyl, these are all still for sale so no excuses.

February Parties

2011-02-02T20:15:00.000Z

I thought I would leave this post a little later seeing as my January post had to be amended when everyone started promoting their parties, but finally... here are the nights that I think are worth going to this month, and things have certainly picked up.

Underground Quality @ subclub 4th February

It's not normally I would really care about a Numbers gig, their music really doesn't appeal to me and although they have a very talented DJ in Jackmaster, it's just a shame the tunes are... not for me.

But, they have got 2 of the best house DJs about, booked to play alllllll night long (3am finish) in the subclub for what will be a night of top class tunes from start to finish.

Tickets are a tenner + BF over at RA

Notable mention for Slabs, who have booked Lone to play La Cheetah on the 5th. Doubt my finances will stretch far enough to do both nights and sorry guys, but UQ wins every time for me.

The 6th should have been all about Wax Works, but thanks to the Old Firm this day is now all about getting your Ricardo Villalobos ticket. Good luck to everyone trying to get one, I would be surprised if there are any left at all on Monday.

Craig Richards @ subclub 11th February

Craig really is a class act, probably the best resident DJ in Britain and I honestly can't recommend him enough, but he is here pretty much once a year so I wouldn't lose sleep if you can't make it.

My only gripe is that it's not Craig playing all night!

So instead, if I have the cash, I will be here..

Stay Plastic @ La Cheetah 11th February

Stay Plastic are kicking off 2011 with Detroit's Patrice Scott, who will be playing Glasgow for the 1st time in his career, expect high quality house music all night. on vinyl.

And if you can keep going, there will be an all day session at The Halt Bar on the 12th, featuring some of the residents from various nights in Glasgow (more info over at RA)

And finally the last party worth your time in February has to be Ramadanman @ No Sleep on the 26th

A lot of hype surrounding Ramadanman right now, and I am really looking forward to seeing if he lives up to it. I was a bit disappointed to see so many DJs listed, which leads me to believe he is unlikely to play any longer than 2 hours, it's not the city of the long set...

Promo Fail?

2011-01-24T21:26:00.002Z

This is something that I'm sure everyone is aware of, and I know that we get a pretty good laugh at most of them, but I think that it's about time someone asked 'what the fuck is going on?'

Far too often now, when a new night is announced, someone releases a record or has recorded a mix, you are greeted not only by the essential details of what's on but you are given a free history lesson on the DJ/Producer. Now this would be okay-ish if it gave you some interesting information but it is always the same generic, meaningless background story (filled with superlatives), and it keeps getting worse..

Now I'm sure that the majority of folk who do this, care about their nights and invest a lot of time, effort and money to put them on.. Why then, do they have absolutely no pride or shame when it comes to promoting it? Does it really mean THAT much to get more views on the forum?

Do they really think, that having a 2 page essay on DJ A is going to convince you to spend your money?

Maybe you think differently, but if I haven't heard of a DJ, a page of generic text is most definitely not going to change my mind about going to the gig, never mind the cringeworthy drivel that you get from some promoters.

So have a read at the next few quotes and decide for yourself. If you read this, does it have you convinced? or does it leave you wondering what the fuck they were thinking?

* All of these are real and relate to house and/or techno, and can be found online

"Both DJ's displayed a fantastic knowledge of tracks when they last played ?, so we couldn't think of better pair to link together to kick start the night"

And how did they display this knowledge? A quick Q&A? I think that displaying a fantastic knowledge of tracks is a little bit misleading...

"Glasgow based DJ ? is rapidly gaining a reputation for his talents playing tech music. Possibly the most versatile and technically talented DJ we've come across, able to play a set seamlessly, combining a variety of different styles, with ease. Be it techno, minimal, tech house or deep house, he'll play it, if the time is right, and the crowd wants it. "

I'm almost certain that was written by the DJ, but if it wasn't - why would you even think about having it on your profile?

"Sometimes, no introduction is required."

This preceded 4 paragraphs about Ricardo Villalobos... c'mon?

"The ? lads have been putting in a sterling shift on the local club scene around Glasgow and have hosted some great nights around the city. Bringing something different to every night, the resident DJs mix it up with anything from Upfront House to some nice Techno beats adapting to give the crowd what they want. With their early success they have a promising future ahead, being booked to DJ at nights in 2011 such as ? & ? and supporting Stereofunks monthly residency @ Level 2."

I would read that one a few times..

"? talent knows no bounds, and musical knowledge is unsurpassed. To add to all this, his DJ talents are as impressive as his productions - can anything hold him back in 2011?!"

How can people write this and expect to be taken seriously?

There are tons of nights & DJs doing this kind of thing, most of them far too long to post on here, and I think it's getting out of hand... Seriously, get it together, it's embarrassing.

Wax Works 6th March

2011-01-15T18:00:00.005Z

So... As the old firm match was on the 6th February, Bar Petite asked us to move the party and we obliged.

You can still expect cheap drinks, good pizza and a decent soundsystem all day, you just have to wait an extra 4 weeks.. Hopefully everyone can still make it down and make it a good party!

Wax Works RA listing
Facebook event

Machine Language

2011-01-09T23:15:00.001Z

Didn't plan on posting for a few days, but a massive new live set from Skudge was uploaded today and I wanted to share it.

Live sets are not generally what I would look for, but these guys are all hardware and their label is a vinyl label - so that is good enough for me and I'm happy to make an exception.

The set is brand new, recorded on the 7th Jan @ Culture Box in Copenhagen and is absolutely groovin'. Culture Box has a lot of fantastic artists playing in 2011, so I can only hope more of them get recorded and that they are just as good as this.

Check it out.

Skudge LIVE

January Picks

2011-01-08T17:29:00.002Z

I plan on putting together a small post every now and then, updating you on some of the records I have been buying, it gives you an idea what to expect if you come to one of our parties, or download one of the mixes from the blog.

It's not a chart,I won't be putting up anything that is unreleased and I am not using this to hype up certain records, it's just an insight into my record bag.

If you like the music, then please support the artists and buy it.

Iain

Demdike Stare - Liberation Through Hearing [Modern Love]

This is the latest album from british duo Sean Canty & Miles Whittaker and it is excellent, if you are not aware of these guys then you should be, ambient/droning techno cuts of the highest quality.

Function - Variance 1 - 3 [Sandwell District]

I was a bit skeptical when I saw this was getting released, there is only so many times you can sell people the same track right? But, after Adam told me to check out the EP I must admit I was pleasantly surprised.

A lot of hype(too much?) surrounding Sandwell, and I think that their popularity and success puts them in a difficult situation regarding the ideals and ethos behind the label.

Still, killer EP and I recommend getting this if you can... It's not in stock at Rubadub yet so I imagine they will have plenty of copies within the next few weeks.

V/A - Superlongevity 5 [Perlon]

Sure, it's £60+ and yes the samples for the tracks were not great, but this is a killer compilation and IMO is better than Funf. Perlon had a good year in 2010, Cassy had a strong EP and the Portable EP was a nailer, they also released Ark's album and the Harmonie Park EP that I really wasn't feeling, but RA had some nice things to say about it. So I'm really looking forward to hearing what Perlon do this year.

Giorgio Gigli - Skulking In The Shadow [Zooloft]

Great atmospheric techno from Gigli here on a pretty cool gold vinyl, limited to 250 so your best bet is probably Discogs. Perfect for fans of Prologue, Dozzy etc...

There is also a new Zooloft coming out shortly with a remix from Mike Parker! Really looking forward to that!

A few more tips regarding Mike Parker - he has a new record coming out on Prologue with a Donato Dozzy remix, which is probably going to be massive, also he has a record coming out on Semantica later on in the year.

Semantica is a label that is really worth checking out, all the records are limited so move quickly - if you can I would recommend picking up the Silent Servant EP - El Mar

Mix Up

2011-01-08T14:58:00.001Z

It's Saturday afternoon, so if you need some new music to relax or to get you in the mood for whatever you are doing tonight then you can find the best right here.

Plenty of high quality house music from 2 of my favourite DJs, check them out!

Cassy @ Voltt, Paradiso, Amsetardam 26th Dec 2010

Margaret Dygas @ Club Der Visionäre, Berlin 20th Nov 2010

More January Parties...

2011-01-08T14:24:00.002Z

It looks like I was a little hasty in denouncing January as a month with nothing on, so here is a quick update on the nights that I will be attending...

Point4 @ The Soundhaus

Point 4 is a night run by promoters for promoters, the aim of the party is to bring a lot of the smaller nights together, under one roof and to create one great party together - there is also bound to be an after party too!

Point4 is something that I hope sticks around for a long time, and I think that if more promoters work together then we can make up for the lack of venues in the city, and make some really cool parties happen!

So if you have no plans for the 21st, then get to the Soundhaus - it's only £6, nae excuse.

Neil Landstrumm LIVE @ La Cheetah

I mentioned this in my previous post but it has been confirmed that Neil Landstrumm is playing live @ La Cheetah on the 28/01, Data Rape will also be playing live on that night.

£10 entry and it's payday, so I expect this to be a busy one.

Technofunk

2011-01-03T00:43:00.004Z

I first came across Juho Kusti last year through a mix he sent me over at mnml.nl, and to say I was impressed would be an understatement. In a little over an hour Juho had flawlessly worked his way through 23 essential cuts of techno and house, all on vinyl.

Since then he has celebrated the 2nd birthday of radio show Deep Space Helsinki (which I suggest you tune in to) with Samuli Kemppi, and kept his Technofunk series going strong. The latest instalment in this is a killer so get this downloaded while you can as it only has a limit of 100 downloads. And for those of you who still need convincing, we have included the tracklist (which really speaks for itself).

Technofunk7

Tracklist

Rasmus Hedlund - Opasiteten Saknas - Ljudverket
Giorgio Gigli - Hidden In The Darkness - Zooloft
Lucy - Kalachakra (DVS1 Eyes Open Mix) - Prologue
Marcelus - Perception - Deeply Rooted House
G.I.O.N. - Haze - Human Race Nation
Samuli Kemppi - Välitila - Pakkas Levyt
Nuel - Untitled - Aquaplano LTD
Giorgio Gigli - Self-Reflection - Prologue
Mike Parker - Bleep Gate 2 - Geophone
Marcel Dettmann - Unrest (Norman Nodge Remix) - Ostgut Ton
Samuli Kemppi - Dark Matter - Mote-Evolver
Traversable Wormhole - Where 2D Meets 3D - Traversable Wormhole
Ben Klock - Static Test - Ostgut Ton
Population One - Rush Hour (Rolando Remix) - Rush Hour
4.26. - Unknown - Frozen Border
Milton Bradley - Desperation - Do Not Resist The Beat!
Millsart - Gamma Player - Axis
Reality Or Nothing - Unknown (Function Remix) - RSB
DJ Qu - Somethin' Ta Feel - Strength Music

Nights Out In January

2011-01-02T23:21:00.001Z

January isn't a great month for parties and if, like me, the festive period involved spending far more than you planned to, then you will be glad to know that you won't be missing out on a great deal if you are not out that often this month.

It's not a very long feature but it's a pretty weak month in Glasgow. Still... I'm sure there are plenty of people who will be glad to have a few weeks of rest.

Neil Landstrumm might be playing La Cheetah on the 28th January but there seems to be very little about this online, so I can't be sure that this is going ahead. (If you know more about this then please get in touch)

The only other night that I think is worth some space here is bi-monthly party Loop.

January 15th - Loop @ La Cheetah

Resident Advisor

Loop has been running for a little over a year now, and to kick off 2011 they have booked Scottish producer Polymath. Polymath's music really isn't for me and I have never seen him play so can't comment on that, but residents Neil Murphy and Jamie Knox are both rock solid and play some serious techno at times, so if you are out on the 15th then I would recommend heading here as it is always a great party.

Favourite mixes of 2010

2010-12-30T21:12:00.005Z

One of the issues I have with dance music, is that every week there are
countless podcasts and mixes released on tons of websites, blogs and
soundclouds. So many that it is impossible to even download all the mixes,
never mind listen to them.
 
The ssgs touched on this recently when posting their favourite mixes of the
past year, and I have to agree with them, I think if websites such as RA or
FACT didn’t release new mixes so relentlessly then perhaps we would have more
time to really listen to the mixes and be able to appreciate the better ones.
 
Anyway… Here is a list of my favourite mixes from 2010, I hope you find the
time to enjoy them.
 
DDKH
 
This one was posted up on the ssgs blog in the summer and with no artist
name or tracklist, it received little attention… Which is a shame, why do
we need a name, label or tracklist before giving something our time?
 
It reminds me of Adam X’s recent interview where he said that no one had
time for the TW stuff when he gave it to them under his own name, it’s a
strange world.
 
But the mix is fantastic, and you can find an incomplete tracklist for it
online if that’s your thing. Also the final track (Mike Parker – Acromion)
has just been released on Aquaplano and I would recommend picking this up,
move fast though as it is limited to 300.
 
Eric Cloutier Music Aus Strom
 
Eric is one of the most under appreciated DJs about, he is simply on a
different level. The guy knows just knows, and every mix by him is pretty
much guaranteed a lengthy stay on my ipod.
 
The mix that I have chosen to feature here is his most recent one for Music
Aus Strom, but it was a toss up between this and his Globus mix (promomixes.com)
for his mix of the year, so I would recommend you check that one out too.
 
P.S Eric is coming to Europe in the summer of 2011, so if you can make it
happen, then get this guy booked. I’m fairly certain he is coming to Glasgow
so we will definitely keep you all up to date if/when we know more.
 
Mike Parker @ Warehouse702
 
A new Mike Parker record or mix is the kind of thing that just gets me
going, it’s pretty much buy on sight when it comes to Mike’s music and the
same applies to his mixes – They are essential.
This mix is only a few weeks old, but it more than deserves it’s place in
this list.
 
Ancient Methods FACT Mix 188
 
Ancient Methods released what I think is their best record so far in AM05,
and judging by their FACT mix their live set is absolutely storming.
 
I think they are easily one of the most exciting acts in techno right now
and the future is looking very bright with these guys around.

Eli Verveine Rawmance
 
I am a massive fan of Eli, she is easily one of my favourite DJs and I
really hope that 2011 is a killer year for her, all of her mixes are just
so smooth and they are absolutely timeless.  I really owe the ssgs on this
one, because if it wasn’t for them then I would never have heard Eli when I
did.
 
This is just one of many fantastic mixes from Eli and you would be
doing yourself a huge favour to check them all out.

Silent Servant Tresor Promo Mix
 
Silent Servant is the unsung hero of Sandwell District, and he just owns
with this mix. The mix is from promomixes.com and it is based on Tresor 1996,
it features some of the finest techno from the early nineties and one of
Wax Works all time favourite tracks in ‘Speak To Me’.  I think this mix
really highlights the quality of the music from that period and you can still
play these tracks today and have people going crazy.
 
The mixes on promomixes.com are an education and I would recommend spending
sometime checking them out.  His recent remix of Claudio PRC is Also really
worth picking up and if you can get a copy I would recommend this. 
 
Thanks to all of the people who were involved in making these mixes happen.
 
Iain