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NEW NIGHT CRASH Club Java, Edinburgh, Fri 22 Jun.
Like the ugly duckling that grew into a feckin’ huge swan, Oxygen has grown beyond anyone’s expectations over the eighteen months. According to its promoters Chas Rose and Andy Mills, the secret to the hard house night’s success lies purely in lots of graft. ‘It hasn’t been easy,’ says Rose. ‘Oxygen has a great reputation down south from what I’ve heard, and now DJs are actually calling us up wanting to play, but it’s taken a lot of work to get to that position.’
Rather than rest on their laurels, the pair are running Oxygen at lbiza’s Nightlife this summer and are expanding their presence in Edinburgh with Crash, a brand new hard house residency at Club Java. ‘We’re aiming for a slightly more glam crowd and the different venue is something to do with that,’ explains Rose. ‘Studio 24, where we have Oxygen, is a dirty club and once you get there you just want to get dirty on the dancefloor.’ Club Java might have the opposite problem - its dancefloor is a little small to get dirty on - but if that proves to be the case, Rose plans to remove the
LIVE GUESTS
KHAN AND KID CONGO POWERS
Optimo Espacio, Cube, Glasgow, Sun 24 Jun.
line.
themselves.“
The techno Frank Sinatra
Khan is one of those maverick producers who record under a bewildering array of pseudonyms. releasmg a never-ending stream of leftfield hits. Since the early 80s. he's offered up everything from a bootleg recording of a not to dancefloor smashes. garnering wide acclaim for 7-QOO-GET-KHAN. a sleaze-drenched album With accompanying sex chat
With his latest long player. No Comprendo. Khan has rewritten the rules of artistic collaboration, giving a galaxy of leftfield star vocalists — from Diamanda Galas to Jon Spencer — the chance to interpret his studio efforts. “The idea was to produce tracks for people. to deSign them and JUSi go from there.‘ Khan explains. ‘lt's also abOut giVing them complete freedom; i didn't want to put some may filters on the vocals. or cut and paste them into my track. It's about the singers being able to really express
This approaCh to assembling an
Candy Girl Rachel Auburn
alcoves on the top floor to open the venue out.
Ensuring people do strut their stuff at the launch is Rachel Auburn. The one-time fashion designer got into DJing ‘almost by accident’; she couldn’t even mix at first. She’s since enjoyed chart success as part of the ‘Candy Girls’ duo, and gained an enviable reputation as one of the UK’s top spinners. But there is a price to pay. ‘I have no social life whatsoever,’ she reveals cheerfully. ‘In fact, I hardly have a life outside of the music.’
She may not have a great deal of free time, but the DJing profession at least gives you the chance to travel. Auburn was the first female DJ to play in China, back in 1998. The kids loved it, but the local press apparently had an interesting line on her profession. ‘l was asked to do some interviews and one of the questions was “is it true that all women in Western clubs are prostitutes?” They just had really weird ideas of what goes on in clubs, besides the dancing.’
Thankfully there’s no ambiguity about what Auburn’s going to be doing at the launch. ‘l’ll be playing anthems, big hard house tunes and we’re going to see if we can tear the place apart.’ Sounds like Crash might be opening with a bang. (James Smart)
album does not. of course, lend itself to touring. but Khan has re-worked the songs into a lo-fi cabaret spectacular. To that end, he roped in collab0rator Kid Congo Powers. a guitarist and vocalist who’s served time with The Cramps. The Gun Club and Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds.
‘The t0ur‘s been great so far,‘ he says. 'We've kicked a few songs out. tightened things up. We were doing some of the slower songs. but we just thOught. "Come on, let‘s iust go for a heavy metal show". l‘ve made some loops of old showtunes. and we talk Over those. You could say l‘m the techno Frank Sinatra. It gets really dangerous sometimes, I‘ve been wondering if people realise that it is supposed to be fun.‘
As for the cabaret element. the Khan live experience features the producer stripping down to custom-made pants. his name emblazoned on the seat. ‘I Just got hooked on taking off my clothes. it's so much fun.‘
(Jack Mottram)
ciubsOlist.co.uk
‘4‘" o ‘ ek‘ \ .
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The. (siesta/g news - - -
SCOTTISH SUPERCLUB Colours will be taking a month off from Its residency at the Arches In July. The night will, however, be going out in style with a Perfecto Records Party featuring Paul Oakenfold and Roman Cattaneo on Friday 22 June and coming back with a vengeance with its August date featuring the world’s favourite DJ, Sasha. SCOTTISH DANCE SS — The Beautiful Game meets The Truly Insane‘ has been rescheduled to take place on Sunday 29 July at Power League. Westbank Street. Portobello. The event includes teams from Scotland's leading dance labels. club nights and venues. kick off is at 2.30pm and spectators are more than welcome to come along and laugh at how unfit Our DJs are.
EDINBURGH LIVE MUSIC and club venue the Liquid Room will be opening a 200- capacity back room on Saturday 7 July, boosting the total capacity to 1200. The new room will be sumptuoust fitted out in white leather and will boast a massive video screen showing the main room action. Meanwhile, the venue’s Saturday clubbing mainstay, Acetate, has booked some great guests to appear in the coming months. These include Gene Farris and Rob Mello (pictured) both booked for a Festival extravaganza on 18 August and John Digweed booked for a one-off special on Wednesday 26 August.
IN MOlST ANTICIPATION of Nerman Jay coming to Edinburgh's Honeycomb on 6 July. we have a pair of tickets to give away abSO|uteiy free! To be in with a chance of winning them. simply answer the
folio Hing question: 'What‘s the name of NOrman Jay's sound system?‘ and send your responses to ‘duncan@honeycomb- entscom by Wednesday 4 July.
21 Jun-S Jul 2001 THI LIST 87