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Move to the Grooves
He's probably more Chicago than his native Detroit, but SCOTT GROOVES' label is based in Glasgow. Words: Rory Weller
‘l was in the record store in Detroit. and a guy called Reggie was playing a Funk D‘Void record on Soma. And I was like. “What is that. it's soooo funky?" ' says Scott Grooves. remembering the first time he heard a Soma track. "l‘hey‘re cool and they've got a great label. I sent them some stuff and followed through. 'cos usually I lose numbers or forget about it. btit with Soma there was something more. Next thing I know. l've done a whole album for those guysf
Scott Grooves (real name Patrick Scott) isn‘t your typical techno beats Detroit May. Mills or Atkins. His is a pure ftiiik house sound. more Chicago than motor city. While we in Europe have a certain perception of Detroit as tough. stripped. searing beats. Scott says it's pretty much not like that at all.
‘We don't look on it as techno. just funky music made on more advanced technology than acoustic music.‘ he says. "l‘lie real hard stuff like UR doesn‘t get played here. the guys make it for export overseas.‘ He’d heard that some of the Detroit DJs were going over to Scotland. btit because they were playing techno. the place didn't hold anything for him. he thought.
His debut album Pieces (If A Dream — out on Soma at the end of this month — has a similar buzz around it as the little known two-piece French combo
72 THE usr 14— 18 May 1998
don’t gust wait". as a dance g}?{}i‘i?,.§iii? we éimited abiiities.’
Daft Punk had when Soma signed them in ")5. The
i
first single from it. ‘Expansions'. had the likes of ‘
Giles Peterson and Bob Jones going ballistic. Pete Tong made it one of his Essential New Tunes and Paul ‘Trouble' Anderson was so desperate to play it otit. he had an acetate made of the tape he was sent. Scott grew tip in an exceptionally musical family. His father was a jazz. musician. his mother a singer and various uncles and aunts were all involved. Picking tip the vibe by osmosis. he learned to play
keyboards. drums. guitar and how to get himself
around a mixing desk. His first love was rap. but figuring you couldn't play that at parties. he warmed towards the sound coming otit of Chicago. moving the 237 miles to. see Farley play. Then. moving further east. he started hanging out in New York. soaking up the vibe before coming back to Detroit to work in a record shop. DJ and play keyboards for the mighty Kevin Saunderson.
It was working in the Record 'l‘ime shop that he managed to build tip his huge list of contacts in the business. He reckons anyone who was anyone in Detroit came through the store. On the one hand. this explains how he got legendary jazz-funk don Roy Ayers to sing on the album and get personal
permission from Mr P-fiink
m iii: know-g: himself. George Clinton. lo
have a go at his back catalogue.
35~<>3H330<>V"5 ()n the other. it's his consummate talent as a
musician that gains the trust of such luminaries as these. Apart from a few of the specialist instruments featured on the album. he played and produced everything himself. He doesn‘t think he’s good enough quite yet. and wouldn‘t even consider getting any of his family into the project until he‘s taken a few music lessons.
‘I don’t just want to be known as a dance producer with limited abilities.‘ he says. Listening to the album. he‘s got nothing to worry about.
Scott Groove's Pieces Of A Dream (Soma) is released on Mon 25 May.
Club News i
THERE'S A BIT of confusion going on i in the Latin dance scene at the moment. Karen Pasi's Salsa Sabrosa, which was at the Lime and has now moved to the 13th Note, has nothing to do with the night Sabrosa at Havana organised by Shannon Shiel. And talking of Havana, that's another one in similar-name-confusion-shocker, as Glasgow’s DJ Jazz of Club Havana seeks legal advice on the naming of the Havana bar and chain of bars/restaurants. He reckons their name is perplexing people who associate the name with his club night. Got that? No-one has
anything to do with anyone else even if it sounds like it.
BENNETS ARE THE latest club to set up their own web site — http://members.aol.com/bennetclub /.htm is the location. It’s still kind of under construction, but great things are promised. We were visitor number six, so up their hit count and go check.
HUMBLE APOLOGIES TO the { promoters and punters of Red On ‘ Red at The Vaults in Edinburgh for completely cocking up information regarding their date with Dave Seaman on Sat 9 May. Apologies
also to anyone who went to Atomic Baby to hear Seaman when he was,
in fact, playing at The Vaults all
along. Sorry! Meanwhile, on a more positive note, Atomic Baby resident Zammo is jetting off to Hong Kong
for a week's worth of gigs with Lawrence Nelson. Those poor
people don't know what they're letting themselves in for. Who'd
have thought a man so small, and so I innocent-looking, could cause so ? much havoc?
Davie Seaman i