Clubs@list.co.uk
HOUSE
DJ SNEAK
Do This Do That at the Honeycomb, Edinburgh, Sat 24 Jul
In the world of house music, there are cruiserweights and then there are heavyweights. And to take just one look at don of the genre DJ Sneak, it should be obvious which category he falls into. Yep, we’re talking the Tyson of the turntables here.
Born in Puerto Rico, Sneak (real name Carlos Sosa) moved to the city of Chicago 21 years ago, right, as hindsight will tell us, into the breeze that would soon blow up into a storm. The following year, Chicago DJs like Frankie Knuckles were inventing the raw, charging, bass-heavy house music that would come to be named after the windy city. Two years after that, the first intrepid European DJs were bringing the sound back home, and a further two years down the line in 1988’s second summer of love, it had become a mainstream concern, pillaging the youth of the day’s ears and galloping up the populist charts. House music had arrived and nothing would be the same again.
Although Sneak had grown up in Puerto Rico listening to salsa and Latin orchestras, he was thrilled by the warehouse party culture in his new home, and would find inspiration in the bootleg tapes of mixes by the likes of Farley Jackmaster Funk and Steve Hurley that were doing the rounds. Thus fired up, he started DJing at local nightclubs while working day jobs
in record stores, and would eventually do something that set him apart from many of his contemporaries — setting up his own label, Defiant Records. In 1994, this brought him to the attention of Curtis Jones (AKA Green Velvet) who signed him up to make a couple of tracks for his own Relief label. Widespread attention had been achieved and with it the career of a
superstar DJ.
Yet Sneak’s influence was to extend further. Taking
LCLt—(ZIIC
PERIOD
The Sub Club, Glasgow, Wed 28 July
Marnstrean‘. cluhhrng III the /l)r/a Uncovered. Dave Pearce. ‘lar‘grn' rt' sense has been rn rapid decline since the late 90s and one of the symptoms of this rs a proliferation of small. left of centre (IltIIJS; y/rth something
tit! i 1 DJ Sneak: Big man, big sound
Chicago house as its template, yet melding a good deal of the organic, soulful properties of disco, Sneak's records were to add impetus to the whole concept of house. Artists from Basement Jaxx to Daft Punk owe him a debt, while his own 1996 ‘You Can’t Hide From Your Bud’ has approached classic status. In short, he’s part of the reason we dance to what we do
now, and this three-hour set will be nigh-on
Girls just wanna have fun: Lena and Gill Mills
interesting to say. Midweek clubs. such as l’er‘rod at the Sub ()lul). are on the rise. and they're not afraid to rnluse their celehratrons wrth a sense of humour. It's hard to imagine a clul) like Period haying emerged III the shrny. compilation heavy days of 1990.
Period rs a rnenstrually therned clul) night hosted by lrn their own ‘.'/()l(l3;r
unmissable. (David Pollock)
'Ukrarnran Superwarf l ena and Radio 1's Mancunian Supermouth Gill lvlrllsf It's a big. messy and unrepentantly ll(?(l()lllf§li(: midweek party. Musically. rt doesn't care where rt goes. and the set lrst rs as erratic as a menstrual mood. Mills descrrhes the organic nature of Period: 'lt's an ethos rather than a set house style. The rnusrc rs dornrnated by the hand that we have playing on the night. and if you look at the hands we've hooked so far. you'll realise that rt changes all the trrne. The records we play aren't entirely ‘.'/I£I_l)l)(}(l up III the identity of the DJ.' llie allure of l’errod rs Its at)rasr\.reries$-;. If you‘re not interested rn taking chances. then srt at the side or don't come at all. It's an erwrroriment III which the making of statements rs encouraged. ‘lt's not for out of towner's who only come rnto the crty at the weekends. it's not for office Workers getting trolleyed and jumping aroundf says Mills. 'lher'e's more of a lernrnrne approachf (Johnny Regan)
WORDUP
The latest club news
DESPITE WHAT YOU MAY HAVE read in other publications, we’d like to assure you that Massa in Edinburgh is still up and running. It is true they suffered a fire, but it was a very, very small fire and they are open as per usual. Not quite the inferno you may have read about elsewhere.
LOCAL RECORD LABEL
Restless Natives is stepping up to the plate with another cutting edge drum & bass release. Influenced by the more intense side of breaks and big beats and taking cues from everything from metal to R88. DJ Kryptik gets set to unleash ‘Going Down'/‘Sundown' 12 inch which has already picked up Support from 0&8 luminaries such as Grooverider. Peshay and Bryan G.
THE FIRST LADY OF HARD dance Lisa Lashes is bringing her Lashed night to Scotland for the very first time at the Arches, Glasgow, 14 August. It’s legendary for its hedonism as much as its take no prisoners musical muscle, and the lovely Lisa (who will also be putting in a ‘dirty breaks set’ in the back room as well as her usual set in the main room) will be joined by Anne Savage, the Tidy Boys and the best in local stars. Plus the whole event will be recorded for her forthcoming DVD and album release, Lashed Around the World.
AND FINALLY. IT'S TIME FOR another competition as Cream have sent us five copies of their new Cream Classics 50 track triple CD. featuring “the biggest Cream tracks ever' including Alison Limerick. MAW. BT. Layo 8. Bushwackal, Armand Van Helden and shed loads more. To win a copy please send and email marked ‘CREAM' with y0ur name and address to promotions(a)list.co.uk by no later than 5 August and the first five out the hat will be winners.
“(1‘
DJ Kryptik
“;" Jul :5 Aug) 200-1 THE LIST 67