PRESSURE FUNK
Out of the ashes of Slam
rises PRESSURE FUNK, Orde
Meikle and Stuart McMillan's
latest dancefloor venture -
a straight-up club sound that
means the success story continues. Wards: Rory Weller
RELEASE THE
ESSU.
A YEAR AGO. SOME TIME AROUND 4.30am on the morning of 11 April. Slam — one of Scotland’s most famous and influential clubs — came to a close. As Orde Meikle walked from the decks. the look on his face was palpable. More or less. it said ‘Oh shit'.
Glasgow had never seen a night quite like it. Sure. the first time Laurent Garnier played was pretty special. there must have been a few sickies pulled the weekend after Daft Punk appeared and I personally couldn't see for a week after the celebrations for the Sub Club’s tenth birthday. The last night of Slam. though. this night of triumphant ballisticism. appeared to be the end of an era. You could hardly hear the last record. ‘Strings Of Life‘. for the cheering. clapping and stamping of feet as the crowd enjoyed the last seconds of this truly seminal club.
.\'o wonder .Vleikle looked a little shell-shocked: he and Slam partner Stuart McMillan had potentially made the worst move of their careers. The words goose and golden egg must surely have come up at the party afterwards.
Now. twelve months later. we ser there was sense to their madness. Free from the shackles of running the weekly night. they've been concentrating on Pressure. their monthly blow-outs. and with more time on their hands they've finished
10 THE “31' ‘53—29 Am 1999
an album called Twisch Funk as Pressure Funk.
For many. the sound of the Pressure Funk project is what they would more readily associate with Meikle and McMillan rather than the deeper work heard on their debut Slam album H(’(l(1.S'I(ll(’.S‘ from ’96. ‘It‘s kind of designed for that last hour at The Arches. to be honest.‘ says McMillan. ‘Pressure Funk is more straight-up club stuff than the Slam work. which is more intricate. It‘s quite raw and spontaneous. not too laboured upon and not too thought about.‘
Pressure Funk began at the tail-end of 1997. when Meikle was in Australia and McMillan took some studio time with Jim Muotune to make tracks specifically for the dancefloor. As .‘Vleikle was away. it obviously couldn’t be called Slam. so the new name was used. and when he got back the project continued. Using a pared-down studio set-up. tracks took only a couple of days to complete. rather than the months they usually spent working on material. and they cut acetates (one-off records) to play out at clubs and get an instant audience reaction.
‘I‘ve been listening to dance and
club music for ten years. so a lot of
different things like that come into the Slam Hem/status album.‘ says Meikle. ‘At the time of that project. we didn't
.r ,1.
'Pressure Funk is more straight-up club stuff than the Slam work. It’s quite raw and spontaneous.’ Stuart McMillan
Orde Meikle
want to go for straight-up 4/4. every track a winner. But with Pressure Funk.‘ he says laughing. ‘that definitely is it. They've been rocking the house. yeah.‘
Now they‘re concentrating on some pretty high profile remixes for the likes of Underworld. Orbital. Iain Pooley and Dot Alison. and are halfway through a European tour with their Pressure Funk live show. which combines decks with samplers and sequencers. not unlike the way that Daft Punk construct their infamous ‘Daft Mix’ gigs. And there's also the matter of programming the Slam tent for the duo‘s third T in the Park.
They reckon they couldn't have done so much in the year if they still had the weekly night to work around. but with the monthly Pressure. they’re keeping their hands in.
‘We were going to leave it a bit longer before starting another night after Slam.‘ says McMillan. ‘To be honest. though. we really missed DJing in Glasgow and we just couldn't have not done something here. Travelling round all over. you do realise that Glasgow is a pretty happening place.‘
In many respects. it‘s down to them.
Misted Funk by Pressure Funk is out now on Soma. Pressure Funk play ‘live' at Pressure, The Arches, Fri 30 Apr.