FESTIVAL CLUBS
ITLIS
Quite simply the hottest, chic-est and fullest nightspots to shake your stuff in this Festival. See Venues on next page for addresses and phone numbers.
I Big Beat Crazy abstract jazz fusions and a laid-back posse of beatniks. hipsters and Adidas-clad goatce types. Dope. Fridays. The Assembly Rooms I Pure Celebrating four years of techno. erm. purism. Still the best place for electronica of the cutting edge variety. Dress down and grab a member to sign you in. 12 Aug. 4th Birthday special. Many happy returns. Fridays. The Venue
I Sativa Hardfloor mayhem from underground electro-head Mike Dred on 12 Aug. Catch him now. fresh from his kickin‘ debut on R&S. Spiky techno. chunky dubs. dreads. zippies and a loved up atmosphere. Fridays. The Vaults
I Joy Scotland's answer to Heaven with a far superior playlist. Maggie and Alan throwing down the inspired mix of house and garage and Edinburgh‘s loved up queer-core going for broke. ()ut ‘n‘ proud. .S'aturdays. The (.‘alton I Ylp Yap Gareth Somerville — Scotland's answer to Graeme Park on the decks and a down-with-it crowd jacking their bodies to old-schoolhouse expressionist garage and screaming disco. Go deh! Saturdays. La Belle Ange/e
I Blue Room Lie back and contemplate the next week of mental (lancciloor action at this dreamy night of chilled delights. l4 Aug. Chris Madden guests (Soundclash. Leeds). Fluffytastic! .S'undays. The Venue
I Divine Inspiration Scotland's fittest l)J's showcased each and every Festival sunday. This week llarri (Sub Club) and Gareth Somewrville (Yip Yap) spin a house-stomping and soulful soundtrack. Sundays. [11 Bel/e Ange/e I (lit The Hill Post-Acropolis hocdown with a top-name line-up. This week. Vasquez-worshippers Tribal Funktion work up the New York-styled house beats Mondays. The Venue
V
I Festival FM One-off party night featuring the [Ming talents of Gareth Somerville and Peter Ellen. Expect bitehin' house along with fresh ‘n' funky hip hop cuts. (100.7FM)
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56 The List l2—l 8 August 1994
_ Total tangent
DJ Rap, one of Jungle’s true innovators, speaks to Bethan Cole.
DJ Rap's Spiritual Aura was the second biggest selling jungle track of 1993. A perfectly judged partnership of beauty and bass. it charted the interaction of sensual breathy tracts with the roughest muscular snares. An apt mUsical arrangement. perhaps. from a woman at the forefront of the male-dominated jungle circuit.
At 25. Rap — real name Charissa. has been DJing for over four years. Starting off on London pirate stations Fantasy and Rave FM in the twilight days of acid. she moved on to Suburban Base and Dee Jay Recordings in l99l. ‘l’ve certainly had to earn respect like anyone else. Being taken seriously has been difficult. Promoters are more likely to give you a hard time if you‘re a woman.‘
Now with three releases behind her on her own label: Spiritual Aura. Digahle Bass and Total Tangent. a studio in her Walthamstow home and a manic schedule of London‘s top drum and bass nights she can afford to pick and choose. ‘l'm lucky because now I can pick my gigs. I used to have to play happy stuff. I was too scared to lose what I had. now I can play what i want.‘ Making her own records was simply a natural extension of this ethic.
,, ’ if”. 4 I, . 'r '4 ‘Obviously there‘s good stuff: Danny Breaks and Goldie but I was fed up with the lack of strings around generally.‘
Rap prides herself on selectivity in her sets ascertaining that just because the jungle scene has exploded. the quality of many tracks put out hasn‘t automatically improved. ‘When i make a track myself it‘s for the heart. the feet. the hips and the ears. The strings are for the heart. beats for the feet. bassline for the hips — that‘s the sexual bit and the ambience and melody is for the cars.‘
You get the feeling that it's this latter arnbience and melody that interests her. Currently working on an album. Charissa has future plans beyond jungle. ‘The album‘s going to be different. slower. quite an ambient feel. all the beats under 140 BPM. Hopefully it‘ll be finished in three to six months. After that I wanna make something really different. proper listening music
that you can just pop on in the car.‘
At the moment she‘s concemed about the way jungle has broken commercially. Despite the fact that Goldie (in many people‘s eyes the right person) has garnered the first major album deal. Rap is worried about the pretenders: ‘What really upsets me is that of all the massive records on the jungle scene it had to be General Levy who made the charts. Hardcore‘s an underground thing. people like Foul Play have been around for years and now he’s claiming that he invented jungle.‘
But Rap doesn‘t really have to be wary. Jungle may be suffering from a frenzy of media attention but it can only mean long overdue appraisal for the scene‘s true innovators. And make no mistake DJ Rap is one ofthern.
DJ Rap is on The Weekend Rush programme. Fridays. / lptn-I ant. Festival FM ( l ()0. 7 FM ).
:— Big Beat/ Club
Latino
Festival 94 and Edinburgh positively overflows with a multitude of nightlife options. The best places to catch the buzz are often those that manage to combine an indigenous Edinburgh following with the energetic influx of the Fringe. Where better then, than Big Beat and Club Latino, coaxed out of their monthly home at la Belle Angele to take up a hectic three-week residency at The Assembly Rooms. Chasing the purist jazz vibe and mashing up the best fusions of hip hop, funk and Latin, Big Beat has firmly established itself as one of Edinburgh’s hippest monthly shindigs. With a sophisticated and chilled-out clientele, from older beatnlks to wild young things who like to scuff their
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shell-toed Adidas, it should transfer gracefully to the elegant halls of the Assembly Rooms.
Simon Hodge, Big Beat and Latino jock, enthuses about some of the iazzual sounds that’ll be hitting the decks. ‘There’s been a glut of very good releases lately, particularly from Japan: DJ Krush and Mondo Crosso are both putting out stuff we really like. Stateside there’s exciting stuff coming
from Brooklyn Funk Essentials and Groove Collective.’
0n the Latino front it’s the hip- grinding sounds of Brazil that are getting feet moving on the dancefloor. ‘Samba is very fashionable right now,’ says Simon, ‘we’ve been playing it since the club started in February and before at Big Beat and Thelonious.’
The Saturday Club latino nights will also feature the live talents of Salsa Y Ache, whose driving mix of salsa, cumbia and blistering female brass section has been driving crowds and critics delirious with enthusiasm. Watch out for Cuban five-piece Buendia Havana delivering a jazz- infused dose of Radical Rumba during the week too. Simon himself concedes, ‘lt’s an incredible line-up, we’re really looking forward to these three weeks.’ (Bethan Cole) Big Beat is at The Assembly Rooms, Fridays 12 Aug—2 Sept. Club Latino is at The Assembly Rooms, Saturdays 13 Aug-3 Sept. Salsa Y Ache play on 27 Aug. See listings for details.