SEMI-DETACHED BBQ THIS WEEKEND

We had a cracking time playing at the Cognosco afters at Stinkys Peephouse in the early hours of Saturday morning last weekend and after a couple of days rest we now have our eyes firmly planted on the weekend ahead. After a couple of years in the wilderness we launch Kill The Disco again this weekend as we host the VIP room at Beaverworks for the first of Detached's summer BBQ parties.

Detached have really been on fire this year and have had the likes of Ben Sims, Oscar Mulero and Derick May spin some tunes at their wicked warehouse venue on the outskirts of Leeds. I've had the privelege of knocking out some disco in the backrooms quite a few times and each time I have thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

It' all kicks off around 10pm and there will be a BBQ in the courtyard for the first couple of hours - We have invited our friends from Filthy Habit to come and play after they hosted such an excellent boat party a couple of weeks ago. Full event details are here - http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=112753342088331&ref=ts AND HERE... http://www.residentadvisor.net/forum-read.aspx?id=102169

FULL LINEUP SO FAR..

Detatched residents in the basement___

Tony Adamson // Adam Rayner
Horror Brawl // Sputnik
Systemic vs Siege // Oriel vs Laura Hemsley
DJ Skirt // Lisa Woollard


Kill the Disco in the VIP room___

Marsden (Cognosco / Kill The Disco)
Filthy Habit DJ's
Sebastian Budniak (Kill The Disco / Farmhaus Records)
Adam Daniels (Kill The Disco)
Maverick (Kill The Disco)


room3 tba later this week.


only £5 on the door !
Free bus from Leeds city centre & hyde park from 9.45 until 1am.

HAPPY DAYS!

A TECHNO VALENTINES GIFT

Detached is hosting it's Valentines party and if you are searching the internet for that elusive romantic gesture for your special day then I don't think you can go far wrong with buying her a ticket for this event at Beaverworks on the 13th. The main room is hosted by Labyrnth Records but it is the basement that grabs my attention where Modern Love stalwarts Pendle Coven and Andy Stott headline; I love that warm dubby techno sound these two produce and an appearance from fellow Modern Lover Claro Intelecto would have been the icing on the cake.

Alas, it is not to be, but rather than getting saddened by this you can comfort yourself with the fact that I will be doing my disco/house thing in Room 4 alongside Errol Brown (Dirty Disco), Scott Broadhead (Detached) and Mundyke (Audio Punk Records). Should be a cracker as always and you can buy advance tickets for the event HERE or alternatively send me a message on here or Facebook and I should be able to sort out some kind of discount guestlist..

Full Details of the event:

In the warehouse: Labrynth Records & Guests____
http://www.myspace.com/labrynthrecs
REEKO - LIVE [mental disorder - spain]
http://www.myspace.com/mdlabels
EXIUM - LIVE [nheoma, labrynth - spain]
http://www.myspace.com/exiumlive
SUB SPACE - LIVE [mirage, axis records, labrynth - france]
http://www.myspace.com/subspacemusic
MILLER & KEANE [audiosculpture, holland]
http://www.myspace.com/millerandkeane
MICHAELANGELO [labrynth, portugal]
http://www.myspace.com/labrynthrecs
JON HUSSEY // RYAN BLACKMAN
with
visuals by JWILX

In the basement: Modern Love & Meanwhile_____
[deep techno, dub & minimalism]
ANDY STOTT - LIVE [modern love]
PENDLE COVEN - LIVE [modern love]
DJ MLZ [modern love / cache]
MURMUR [meanwhile]
BOVILL [meanwhile]
DEMDIKE STARE [demdike stare]
with
visuals by CODE FC
http://www.codefc.org/

Room3: Electro, Dubstep, House & 80s Synth Pop______
THE SOLITUDE SUITE [detatched]
HORROR BRAWL electro set [detatched]
SYSTEMIC electro set [jactation / labrynth]
RICH SMITH // SPUTNIK
ILLEGAL COMBATANT [detatched]
SUBSTANCE D [room303]

Room4: Deep / Tech House______
ERROL BROWN [dirty disco]
MUNDYKE [audio-punk records]
SCOTT BROADHEAD [detatched]
ADAM DANIELS [kill the disco]

Drinks £2 beers, £2 shots, £1 water
Cloakroom £1
Large covered & heated outdoor smoking area

£13 tickets on sale now@ http://www.ds2shop.co.uk
£15 otd.

The free party bus will be picking up all night from the city centre.
rsvp as attending to receive bus pick up times and locations a few days before the event.

COGNOSCO WITH ALEX NIGGEMANN DECEMBER 5TH

Some of my friends are throwing a rather good party on the first friday in December at The Loft in Leeds, with Alex Niggemann headlining proceedings. I put together a quick press release for the night with a little help from Alex's Myspace and Resident Advisor profiles.


Cognosco

Friday 4th December 2009

Loft (Ground Floor) [Formerly known as Northern Light]
Cross York St, Leeds, LS2 7EE

ALEX NIGGEMANN (SUPERNATURE/2020 VISION/8BIT)

Paul Kaminski (mono_cult)
David Hulme (Resident)
Dan Hare (Resident)
Marsden (Farmhaus Records)
Luke Benson (Guest)

After the rip-roaring success of our first party at Oracle with Giles Smith, Cognosco returns in December at The Loft with another stellar line-up. There was more than a few tears shed when The Northern Light closed it’s doors two years ago, with many people proclaiming it to be one of the best club venues Leeds had ever seen. After much legal wrangling, cries of joy could be heard echoing around the city when the venue reopened again this autumn and Cognosco quickly stepped up to the challenge of taking the venue back to it’s former glory.

With rising star Alex Niggemann at the helm of the proceedings and support from some of Leeds finest purveyors of house and techno, the low slung ceilings and intimate surroundings of The Loft Basement (formerly The Velvet Underground) promise to make it the perfect venue for Cognosco’s December soiree.

Originally hailing from Dusseldorf, Alex relocated to Berlin in 2005 to study audio engineering and refine his knowledge in the art of music production. The move to the ‘Mecca’ of Techno proved a very successful one for Alex and before long he was DJ’ing in clubs all over Germany and had seen his remix of ‘Booka Shade –Darko’ released on Get Physical. Further releases in 2008 followed on the likes of Sport Club, Meerestief and Micro.fon and it wasn’t long before he was signed to Supernature Records, where his massive ‘Black Rose EP’ was released.

Nick Curly and Gorge immediately recognised Alex’s obvious talent for producing sublime house music and snapped him up for a number of releases and remixes on label of the moment ‘8 Bit Records’. With DJ requests coming in from all angles, a remix of Thomas Schumacher in the pipeline and forthcoming EP’s scheduled for release on Supernature and 2020 Vision over the coming months, Alex is someone pushing all the right buttons in the house and techno scene and it is an absolute pleasure to have him gracing the Cognosco decks in December.

Check it out here for more info - Alex Niggemann @ Cognosco

TIM SHERIDAN INTERVIEW

I recently interview Tim Sheridan regarding his forthcoming band project 'The Very Very Wrong Indeed Limited Love Orchestra' - quite a mouthful! Link is at the bottom to view on the brand spanking new Traffic website.

TIM SHERIDAN INTERVIEW – OCTOBER 2009

Tim Sheridan is someone who has never been afraid to try out new ideas and concepts when others around him are beginning to stagnate. It is this forward thinking attitude that has allowed him to remain a man at the top of his game for over twenty years. As founder of Kiss FM in the North, promoter and resident of the aptly named ‘Nastydirtysexmusic’ and ‘Veryveryveryverywrongindeed’ parties and member of both the Utah Saints and The Dope Smugglaz, Tim is someone who has had his fingers in a lot of pies.

After a hiatus of nearly ten years, Tim once again enters the live arena on November 7th when he launches his new four-piece band, The Very Very Wrong Indeed Limited Love Orchestra, at Matter in London. Traffic took ten minutes out of Tim’s busy schedule to find out a bit more about his new band project, his grievances with Johnny Laptop and why wearing a cape is the next best thing to a bottle of Vodka.

• The news of the Very Very Wrong Indeed Limited Love Orchestra has come as a bit of a welcome shock to me! Can you tell me a little bit about the band and how long you have been keeping this a secret from us all?

Haha! It's been a shock to me an' all. I tend to launch into things rather than plot and plan as you seem to get more done when things are in motion rather than fannying about being over-cautious and worrying about being cool. So it kind of all happened in a matter of weeks. It's not been a secret at all, we've been chatting about it quite publically on our forum for about 3 weeks, which is about exactly as long as we've been at it.

There isn't much to tell as it was a fairly simple thing. For, ooh I dunno, about 5 years now my DJ sets have mainly comprised of my own tunes, the rest being stuff off my label. I kind of live in a self-imposed vacuum way, way far away from people, so I don't often hear other people's music. I just found when I lived around music a lot, particularly in Soho, Shoreditch and Ibiza, you end up trying to fit in a bit, whether consciously or not you end up involved in trends. So I tried to kill that by becoming a hermit. Also you get a bit jaded, so when I do get out and hear stuff now it's nice. I'm not kidding about the hermit thing! I moved miles from anyone in Ibiza and the deep north of the UK. Anyway... what I am trying to say is I ended up playing mostly my own stuff when DJing, so it became a simple case of "why not play my stuff live?". I couldn't bear to do that "decks 'n' FX" thing, for my own conscience really, good luck to them that do that. I always used Pioneer gear since it came out in the mid 1990's, so I sort of assumed everyone did "decks and FX". But I wondered what stopped me playing live properly in the first place? As I was a live performer for... Oh Lord, at least from the mid 1980s to 2000. The DJ thing very sneakily took over, as it was a sort of parallel thing that I always did and very subtly became the main event over many, many years. All I am doing really is going back to what I did for ages. So now I mention it... and to be frank I haven't had the time to reflect on it much as this is the first interview or even proper conversation I have had on the subject... it's a no brainer innit? So no, not so much of a shock really. It's no different from maybe a footballer coming back from abroad to play for his home team again or something.

• It has become something of a trend in recent years for a number of British electronic music producers and DJ’s to temporarily put the turntables to one side and try their hand at incorporating the talents they have honed in electronic music into a live band setting. Ralph Lawson with the 2020 Sound System, Adam Freeland with his band Freeland and Atomic Hooligan are examples that instantly spring to mind. Do you think it is a natural progression for DJ’s? Are they sick of playing other peoples records or do you think there might be some childhood aspirations creeping back through?

Dunno about a trend. I would say considering the huge amount of DJs around lately it's very much a minority if not a rarity. As I said it's perhaps more the other way around. I'm just returning to my main occupation. I have to embarrass myself and say I've not seen any of those chaps you mention perform in the flesh. Are they 100% live? I really don't know sorry. I'd have to see them from the side of the stage. "Live" to me is playing the stuff with nothing pre-recorded. Musicians playing the parts or at worst, building the loops in front of you.

It might be a natural progression for DJs who are sick of playing other people's tunes but that has not been the case for me. Maybe subconsciously I am sick of playing my own tunes hahaha! I started as a live performer and had a ten year gap so it's a bit different for me. In a what... twenty six year career? Shit. But yeah... I was a musician first, then a producer. DJ’ing is what we did in the 80s for laughs. Something we never got paid for. God I mean people used to dance with each other and they didn't even LOOK at the DJ when I started. Sometimes we played in a different room! Anyway... I am dating myself badly now!

• And what was your inspiration to start the Very Very Wrong Indeed Limited Love Orchestra? Inspiration?

I think and I don't want it to sound negative but I was becoming a bit sick of Johnny Laptops hahaha! Both booking them as well as seeing them. Being a promoter as well as a performer I was finding acts billed as live were asking for more money but not really bringing anything to the table that justified the price or the description "live". Know what I mean? For me, and it's my own opinion only, you don't have to agree... but "Live" has to have musicianship, some skill that is a bit "above and beyond" what most can achieve and ultimately... I think unless it can go terribly, awfully tits-up at any moment... unless every single beat is a risk... then it's not what I consider live. I think the Musician's Union agrees hahaha!

• I read on the press release that the other band members that make up the Limited Love Orchestra all came from the Leeds College of Music. Can you tell me a bit more about the other guys involved? Were you all friends before the band came together?

No. It's work, to be brutally frank. The thing about bands from my experience is that if you work with friends you always end up at that "musical differences" point. Which is industry code for "hating each other's fucking guts" hahaha! I was very determined about it. I wanted the best people I could get, set up within a very professional framework. I have been on the other end too. So I very much sympathise with the musician. You end up deep in the "favour bank". Knee deep in real debt and overdrawn in the favour department. You get taken advantage of really... and end up playing for chips and a pint for so-called-mates. I'd like to give you a romantic tale about getting the chaps together but there isn't one. I want to deliver the best sound I can and for those involved to get treated properly and respect their skills. So I went to the best I could. The LCM is actually a really very highly respected school. I say that 'cos I am a bit of a stranger to Leeds having been away for so long and I had no idea it even existed! But it is one of the top places in Europe I understand. But I didn't hang around outside like an old perv or something hahaha! I sort of stumbled across musicians through work and ... God I have to 'fess up here... at Jazz gigs. There! I've said it. I go to Jazz gigs! I go to Classical gigs too while we are getting things off the old chest hahaha! In a nutshell you have to be at the top of your game to play the same groove like a metronome for hours on end. Only musicians who are, let's be frank, a bit overqualified for the job... only they can play electronic music live. By that I mean have the skills to go shoulder to shoulder with machines. You've seen Terminator. They don't get tired, the shiny bastards!

The other lads are all really top blokes. I have a "no tossers" environmental workplace policy hahahaha! Craig West is a really young fella I ended up doing some studio work with and it made sense to involve him as he is young, which is very important, as I am not! He is acquainted with my music and he is a total machine in terms of being a qualified Apple Mac teacher and all round super boffin. Plays Piano too.

Emlyn Vaughn on Bass was recommended when our original Bass man had to pull out. I sneaked out to Dirty Disco to check out his band "The Evil Mambo Band" who were playing outside at the last Kerbcrawler gig in Leeds. I saw him surrounded by technology which was a great start and he not only plays acoustic upright Bass, which I needed, but he has a 6 string electric which has very low notes that a normal 4 string can't reach. There is a lot of Sub-Bass in most modern music but particularly in my stuff. So I was sold on him immediately by his set-up, before I even listened.

Rob Lavers is probably the most hardcore member, meaning he is a real top pro. He is a highly sought-after Jazz player and based in Paris. He plays Alto and Soprano Sax. Flute too. However we often get him to sound like a synth and he really understands the odd-ball element. I said to the lads two main things by way of explanation ; firstly that "no fish is too strange for my aquarium" and "I hope you are good at counting, 'cos you will need comfy shoes and sandwiches for some of the long groove sections" hahaha!

We are fully digital like. It's not been easy. But everything goes in to a computer... actually it's 3 computers! And then it comes out as just two little output leads at the back. I really had to go back to school with all the tech stuff.

• Some of our older readers may recollect that this isn’t the first time you’ve entered the live band arena. You had a remarkable amount of success with your band ‘The Dope Smugglaz’ in the late nineties up until the turn of the century; you even scored a number 1 hit and appeared on Top of the Pops! Are you aiming for a similar crossover appeal with the VVWI Orchestra?

Oh dear! "some of our older readers!" is it?! hahaha! So we won't even mention The Utah Saints then!? I also played in quite a few Acid Jazz bands and with Jerry Dammers so... I dunno, Dope Smugglaz was just a small part of things really. Certainly deliberately designed for that thing. To crossover. In fact it was made for the charts quite deliberately.

• Can we expect to see you sitting pretty at Number 1 come Christmas time then?

I'll be brief on this one. No. I can't see a ten minute long monologue about circus freaks fucking each other being on telly before the watershed at Christmas hahaha! Oh dear no.

• Matter in London is perhaps the most talked about club in the UK this year and you launch the band there in a couple of weeks time. Is it possible for someone with such an illustrious career in dance music to still get butterflies over such an event?

Oh fucking hell yes! I've been having a three-week long cardiac ever since I got the proper musicians on board. I can play... but I've not done it for about ten years! So I have to stand on stage in front of 2000 people in between top session players and step up to the plate. So I have been basically practicing every day. You know that bit in "Rocky" where he is beating the meat? Hahahaha! Not knocking one out! But whacking sides of beef in preparation for the bout? Well I am a bit like that but practicing scales on a bit of frozen chicken in the garage. It's not every day a band that has never performed in public gets to debut like this, so I imagine some readers will be curious. Essentially I went to and spoke to the guys at Matter, some of whom are old mates from Fabric when I think about it. I asked them if we could play and obviously there was bound to be an element of "why on earth would we book that?!" Hahaha! Naturally.

However I sort of explained that they had booked me enough times as a DJ, and in terms of music it would not be that different. If they could book me to play my own tunes then why not to play them live? So full credit to them for accepting us and giving us this unique opportunity. I think one of the many reasons Matter is so successful and talked about is that they would do something like this. It's a credit to the character of Will, the boss, and testament to the ethos of the Fabric family in general. All round good eggs!

• What would you recommend to get over any pre-gig nerves?

I do have a plan to eradicate the pre gig nerves, which by the way started weeks ago. Basically I can't drink, as the playing of drums and doing vocals at the same time is 100% about physical co-ordination. So I just can't have any Dutch Courage at all. So the plan is to come onstage in a full length opera cape. You just can't be scared of anything in a cape. Ask Darth Vader, Jack The Ripper, Florence Nightingale.... I mean in his later years Elvis always came onstage in a Cape. Say no more! Hahaha!

• Where is next on the tour list?

Again... I've really not thought that far ahead. The idea is that this one gig at Matter will be recorded and used like a trailer for a film if you like. I use that comparison rather than use the word "demo" as only the film industry spends so much on a trailer. We plan to film and record it and use that to put together a tour for next year. As it stands it is the only gig. Our first... and who knows... maybe our last! Christ I've jinxed it now!

• So would it be fair to imagine that there are plans for an album in the pipeline?

Ah you see you are assuming again that I've thought that far ahead! Bzzzz! No! Sorry. All that and more it is fair to imagine absolutely... but honestly? Not thought about it at all. I have blisters and backache to worry about. 90% of the stuff we are playing is already released on VVWI records. So that is a consideration for the future but it would be nice to get the chaps recording some new, original Limited Love Orchestra stuff for sure. Eventually I'd like to hang up my tattered DJ Cape and go full time in the new Cape if it's possible. I don't really put mixes out, as I like people who pay money to see me DJ to be getting something not easily available... as with this I think I'd like to keep it live for a bit... to encourage not just everyone out there but ourselves in the band to enjoy the live thing and keep it special.

• A lot of electronic music producers tend to go through a number of styles they perhaps are not normally renowned for when producing an album. For instance, watching Andrew Weatherall under his Two Lone Swordsmen guise for the first time was a real departure from what I had come to expect from his DJ performances and not at all what I had imagined I would be listening to. Will you be incorporating lots of different genres into the band’s album or can we look forward to the similar sorts of sounds that what we would see you playing in a club setting?

Well I'd have to say first and foremost that making a record and playing records are totally different things. I don't expect a producer to make a record for home listening that resembles a track made specifically for dancing. I guess for us it is the opposite. We get confused that people can't get their head around the fact that when you DJ you are doing a specific job of making people dance. As a Producer the whole world of music is open to you really. I understand that some DJs-stroke-producers are sort of a one-stop-shop. They make records for DJs and dancefloors and the two are sides of a single coin. Some of us have many hats for as many heads. I have made Radio Jingles in the past... music for TV and much more leftfield projects.

I will go out on a limb and suggest this issue of perception is one that I don't share and understand less. Why should your DJing be connected to your productions or vice-versa? Wevvers is a pioneer in the studio and I think what we are talking about here is ability. Lesser artists than him are only capable of one hat. He is able to make more extreme and interesting music than just DJ tools. So he does. I don't understand why that is odd? I think that the job of DJing is very clear. But it is also restrictive by definition. For example you can't make people dance by straying outside of expectations; when they are expecting 4/4 of a certain tempo, you can't play Trip Hop or 3/4 at a House venue. Not if you want people to dance! And that is your job! To make people dance and tread the line of doing that, but in a new and interesting manner but it must be said... within a restricted zone. Well you could do 3/4 if you want to bring back the waltz hahaha! I might do that. Anyway, sorry. I digress. We are performing my music live, so it's certainly danceable. The tracks have already been released for DJs and used for that purpose. We are operating within that area... but at the odder end of the pool. The live element will add to that... er... danceability? Is that a word? but we hope to add a melodic dimension as well as make it a fatter, wider sound. Plus there is the car crash factor. Come see us explode in a massive spastic fuck up hahaha!

• Comparisons are inevitably going to be drawn to the 2020 Sound System because of the affiliations you share with the city of Leeds and Back to Basics, as well as your reputations for playing good quality house music. Have you had a chat with or received any advice from Ralph Lawson on the formation of your new band? Do you hope to achieve success on the same kind of level that the 2020 Sound System has enjoyed?

It's not totally fair on either Ralph or us to do that but it is perhaps likely to be said. To be honest I've spent the past 20 odd years mainly in London and abroad so perhaps that is your perception from being based in Leeds. I have less connection than you think perhaps, or let's say I have many other strong and long connections in Ibiza and London as well as Leeds, which is still my favourite party town in the UK I must say.

I was playing live on stage, at Basics for example, long ago. We did New Years Eve at Basics at Mint in what... 1999? As a live band. Ralph was very complimentary I recall, which was kind of him. We've been mates a long time. Ever since he came to work for us at Kiss FM in fact. When was that? 1996?

I'd like to, at this early stage, say our influence is far more like The Bays. Not only are they a fully live electronic act, maybe the only one that I know of... I also played in a band with their drummer, the amazing Andy Gangadeen. So if I had to say we were compared to any act it would be them. Although to be fair we are, like the 2020 lads, more inclined towards the dancefloor than The Bays. We do have Jazz players but we are all about the funk! The Bays improvise on the hoof and it can meander. We are very prepared and rehearsing like mad. Ideally we want it to be so you can't tell when a DJ ends and we begin. "Ideally" he says!

I chatted with Ralph at his Birthday recently as it happens and mentioned it to him. I have a pic of him when he was a nipper playing the drums in his room in a lovely jumper! hahaha! So we were chatting about drumming and stuff and I mentioned the band but no... I didn't seek any advice, Ralph is aware that this is my 4th electronic live act or something. It's weird but... I suppose I'd better get used to it, in Leeds anyway. I can't speak for Ralph but people often ask me if I am pissed off about there being loads of afterhours now... considering in the past my afterhours were often the only ones in a town. I'm always like "why!?" I didn't invent the afterhours! I'm positive Ralph doesn't claim authorship of electronic bands. That's what I mean by it being a bit unfair. Anyway! Your "older readers" may have heard of other live electronic bands hahaha! Now if we could be compared to Kraftwerk! That would be ace if not highly unlikely. I'd be dead honoured to be compared to Ralph and the 2020 chaps though. Truly.

• Can we expect to see you grabbing a microphone during your live performances? If not, do you have any guest vocalists lined up for the shows?

I've done all the vocals and instruments on the recordings so yeah. On our forum they were taking the piss that I'd be a one-man band with a bass drum strapped to my back and bells on my knob end and that! I learned early doors to delegate on this thing. I was going to play both the Piano and Drums and do the vocals but the pressure was too much! There is a rich heritage of drummer-singers. Karen Carpenter, Don Henley... er... Sheila E... hahaha! Phil Collins! Oh dear! Brilliant! Ignore all that actually. It is actually quite rare though. Something to do with using all four limbs. Mind you... Bach could improvise four part harmonies on a pedal organ when he was spunk or something equally precocious hahaha! A monkey could do what I do! DJs have no idea how hard music can be I suppose. Your average classical musician is a fucking Ninja compared to playing two bits of plastic together. Anyway... it's all about the Monkey not the Organ Grinder in our band hahaha!

• If you could be in any band for a week past and present (other than the Limited Love Orchestra, obviously!), whom would you choose? And which member would you most like to be?

Oh actually that is really easy. I'd be Maurice White in Earth Wind and Fire. Ah right! There is a drummer-singer! And he was the bandleader and songwriter. Mind you I was obsessed with Stuart Copeland from The Police. I copied him terribly! Mind you I couldn't be in the same room as Stink... I mean Sting! It would have been funny to be in James Brown's band I reckon. I'd quite like to have been one of those in-house session fellas for Motown Records. Like Uriel Jones or Benny Benjamin. To have been a fly on the wall for some of those sessions must've been really something. Never mind playing with so many weirdos and legends on so many ace tunes. Many like, in one take you know? But I suppose bottom line is if I was in Earth, Wind and Fire I'd get not only to wear a cape but to be a proper Alien Space Egyptian, which was their look. What's not to like about that? Yeah... although we'd have to rename it Earth, Wind, Fire and Timmy. Which would totally ruin it! Hahahaha!

The Limited Love Orchestra performs their debut live on the main stage of Matter, The Millenium Dome, London on Saturday the 7th November with Trentmoller and support. VVWI Recordings also takes over Matter on 28th November with Blackstrobe, Vitalic, Guido Scheider and VVWI DJs.

Get involved in their forum at : http://vvwi.forumotion.com/

check out Jazz Master Rob Lavers at : http://roblavers.co.uk/

Read the full article on Trafficmag.org HERE

SIX MONTHS BEHIND BARS

I pieced this little rant together around a year ago for a free local dance magazine.

A change had finally occurred. After many tiresome years of spending what little money I had on vinyl, churning out mix CD after mix CD on my beloved 1210’s and bending many a promoters’ ear with tales of how I seriously was the next big thing, I had finally made the transition. I was no longer just another fervent punter in the crowd. I had taken a step back from the dancefloor and crossed the seemingly impenetrable boundary. I was finally on the other side of the…………………………… Bar.

Okay, let’s straighten things out somewhat. The lofty ambitions I once held as an overly enthusiastic teenager to have 2000 people eating from the palm of my hand as I teased my latest production offering through the speakers and onto a packed out dance floor may not quite have been reached, but for most young twenty somethings’ associated with the electronic music scene, you would imagine that a few hours spent pottering behind the bar in your favoured techno spot would be the ideal part-time job.

I analyzed the pros and cons in my head as I slouched against the rattling window on the late night bus darting towards the city centre for my very first shift many moons ago, and, at least in theory, it did appear to me like a dream job for my current situation. I would still get to go to the nights that more often that not I would be paying homage to anyway, the same DJ’s would still be playing and I would make just enough money to prevent the landlord from turfing me and my 1210’s out onto the streets of Headingley for at least another week. And because I am, just as so many others boldly proclaim to be, in it ‘for the music’, then the fact that I would not find myself a gurning mess on the dancefloor come 6am and instead remain (relatively) sober wouldn’t make the blindest bit of difference. Would it?

Now, I may be getting old and cynical (most definitely the latter) and could be accused by some of techno snobbery, but why is it most promoters and DJ’s do not have the first idea when it comes to promotions or music? The vast majority of DJ’s play the same churned out rubbish and top ten Beatport tunes week in and week out. I swear if I hear that fucking Crookers remix of Day and Night one more time I will take out that rusty pair of scissors from the first aid kit and cut my earlobes off. It does not make you a superstar DJ simply by mixing the same predictable tracks in the same predictable order EVERY SINGLE FUCKING WEEK. Nor does it mean you can suddenly act like one. Please give your head a gentle shake and remove yourself from your one man ego crusade. You are not a superstar DJ simply because you can cycle through the effects on a DJM 800 one by one every 4 bars, despite your bleach blonde hair and ripped jean wearing mates telling you otherwise. Despite these misdemeanours, these aforementioned promoters then wonder why their night has less life in it than a graveyard for the fifth week in a row when they are knocking out the ‘filthiest dirtiest sexiest electro’ on a Wednesday night, at three times the volume you would expect on a Saturday at 4am in the morning. Wearing a pair of white pumps and a Jesus loves you belt does not automatically qualify you as the best new promoter since Dave Beer. Please do us all a favour and fuck off back to Bar Risa.

One of the downsides of working in a techno club is that invariably the midweek voids are filled by the dreaded student nights (I did once visit a club in Barcelona that played minimal techno seven nights a week, but then Leeds, despite its many appealing qualities, is not quite Barcelona). When I was an 18 year old I was as guilty as the next soap dodging first year of going out several times midweek and consuming my own bodyweight in cheap alcopops, but now that I am a few years older and supposedly on the way to becoming a sensible and mature adult, a sense of dismay overcomes me as soon as a Monday night rolls around again. Students in general annoy me; I too am a student yet I’m sure I don’t try and con drinks everytime that I go out, but then again, I don’t have a pair of boobs I can stuff into a top two sizes too small for me. Don’t flutter your eyelids at me in your posh Southern accent and pretend you fancy me. ‘oh pleasssssee can I have a free vodka and coke… pleasssssse’. Please. Fuck. Off.

The booming sounds reverberating from the bouncer’s lips as they clear the last few bedraggled souls from the club on a Thursday night can’t come round fast enough and as the weekend descends upon us once more I openly embrace a return to half decent electronic sounds and hiked up drinks prices. Apart from a few overly keen techno enthusiasts who appear at the bar the moment the doors open, the first couple of hours on a weekend are usually quiet and offer the chance to actually pay attention to a warm up set. This is something that in my many years of clubbing I haven’t done enough of; Pre-midnight was usually spent jostling for space in Wetherspoons type places, pouring cheap pints down my neck to avoid spending a small fortune on £4 bottles of beer later in the night. Like clockwork the club begins to gradually fill, and without the intoxicants needed to keep both the awareness of time and reality at bay I often experience a sense of detachment from the events taking place on the other side of the dance floor. It can sometimes feel as though I am stuck in an interactive video game that I have completed numerous times before, as I go through the same protocol of actions that I replayed only the previous Saturday. Club opens. Stock bar. Club fills up. Serve drinks. Mop up sick. Beerboys go home. Pilled up guy decides you are his new best friend. Club empties. Sweep floor. Repeat to Fade. Game Over.

My initial hypothesis that working on a Saturday night would guarantee that a Sunday morning would be less painful has also been proved incorrect. As 6am dawns and the club closes up, crawling into bed and catching up on much needed sleep is always the last thing on my mind. Having witnessed what seems like the whole world dance the night away in front of you for the previous eight hours, it is collectively determined that the party has simply been postponed rather than missed out on altogether - queue the search of four of five sleep deprived workers for an after party venue to visit clutching 8 tins of red stripe, taken on the premise of returning it next shift EVERY SINGLE WEEK. This is quickly followed by the dreaded walk of shame and the shameful realisation that half a week’s wages have disappeared less than five hours after finishing work.

This kind of lifestyle definitely isn’t for everyone; I do feel pity for the poor souls I work with who have no more than a passing interest in dance music and wonder why they would subject themselves to this form of torture every single weekend. If the sounds emanating from the club sound system were anything other than wholesome electronic music then there would be no way you would find me performing this role. With such awkward and long hours, a constant exposure to incessantly loud and repetitive music and all the excesses and forms of escapism that go hand in hand with the scene, it does feel as though I live in a little bubble world, a million miles away from the humdrum existence that the 9-5 job would provide. Still, for the time being at least, it certainly beats sitting in on an uncomfortable chair in an air conditioned office, drinking lukewarm machine coffee and debating which member of Big Brother should be cast aside next. Even if my eardrums don’t quite agree.