Name: Bad Company Occupation: Drum & bass collective consisting of Vegas (Michael Wojicky. speaking here for the group), Jason Maldini, Fresh (Dan Stein) and D-Bridge (Darren White). famed for their hard take-no-prisoners approach to the jungle format. On their Infamous sound: ‘Our productions are deep with a filmic soundtrack ster that's quite hard. It's not always but it is what we're known for. Kinda sci-fl. We like to be almost futuristic.‘
On the early days: ‘There were four of us that started Bad Company. Everybody learnt quite young on really old equipment and we just followed the road to create computer music. We all started about 12 or 14 years ago. so it was all completely different back then. just on old Ataris and sequencers. I used to live in Japan and I met Dan at a party out there. He'd been brought over from the UK to play, and he knew the other guys down at Renegade Hardware. None of the artists wanted to be there any more so we just thought. “Let's get a label together.” So all four of us ended up in the studio together and made tunes and ran the record label back in 98.’ On the label: ‘Drum & bass is a very personal thing to anyone who owns a label and it's nice to have control over the artwork and where it's going. You deal with everything from DJing to production. It has put out a lot of different stuff but there is a definite BC sound even in other people’s tunes. There's definitely a fingerprint across the label: deep dark and heavy.’
So what should we expect on the night?
‘Loads and loads of new stuff. We're constantly trying to find the newest, most forward thinking stuff, and a proper party atmosphere.“ (Henry Northmore) I Bad Company and J-Majik guest at Xp/icit, the Honeycomb, Edinburgh, Sat 29 Oct.
30 THE LIST 20 Oct—3 Nov 2005
HOUSE
KINKY AFRO
Sub Club, Glasgow, Fri 28 Oct it’s not easy hanging onto a Friday night spot, even at one of the best club venues in the country. So, when a Sub Club Friday nighter celebrates its sixth birthday, respect is due. Kinky Afro survived the Sub Club fire (just), its subsequent period of itinerancy, dodgy crowd numbers, resident line-up changes, musical transformations and a whole lot else besides in its six year journey. Where does the Afro stamina come from? Resident DJ Matthew Bennett has the answer: ‘We’ve just been really into the music, and running the club, from day one. It was never something that we got into on a faddish front, and our love has sustained us all the way. When I first got to Glasgow, l spanked my overdraft and had to get a job in the Sub Club. I did every job in the club: cloak room, bar, cash desk, everything. Now it still feels like a privilege to be
VENUE PROFILE RED
Red, Edinburgh, various nights
‘We're really trying to get the word out there that we have an excellent selection of stock and a very nice venue.‘ explains Charlie Prince, general manager of Edinburgh‘s Red. ‘lt's just unfortunate that when people see a Cowgate address on the flyers you automatically lose a bit of kudos.‘ It certainly is. especially when so many of the bars and clubs on the famous Edinburgh street are making a real effort to veer away from the unappetising
stag-and-hen image of old.
Already the previously ill thought-of Subway Cowgate has diversified towards quality band nights and more fonNard-thinking clubs, and rock bar Opium at least offers a late-opening alternative to chart'n'house hell. In this respect. perhaps it‘s best to think of Red (its name now contracted from the previous Red Vodka Club) as a spiritual companion yet polar opposite to Opium. It might be subterranean and snug. but a broadening portfolio of adventurous. dancefloor-orientated DJ nights exemplify the management's commitment to using Red's underground ambiance to the full. Wednesday to Sunday have an eclectic mix of house. hip hop. drum & bass and electro. while Trouble offshoot Shake Your Rumpa offers funk on selected Fridays.
‘What's been happening here lately hasn't been so much a relaunch as a rethink,‘ says Prince. 'We've moved away from being just a bar for passing trade towards being a small, independent club. and given our capacity it means we can afford to try out the sort of independent niche nights that you might not necessarily find in a larger venue.’ (David Pollock)
I Check listings for details of individual nights at Red.
spinning in one of the best clubs in the country, every time we put our club on.’
Their sixth birthday bash does the honourable thing and puts the onus directly on the music. They have enticed a rake of DJ and production talent from Ghostly International and Spectral Records, including Brian Aneurysm, Lawrence, Geoff Whyte and Aeroc (live). Bennett effuses about the guests in prospect: ‘The Ghostly imprint shows real savvy, as does their sister label, Spectral. They’re very much underground labels, but their branding and general approach is very much together, in line with the way that the Sub Club does business. Aside from this, they consistently put out amazing music.’
The theme on this date is ‘Murder Ball’ to coincide with Hallowe’en, and Bennett encourages everyone attending to dress up like they’ve had a rather nasty run-in with Charles Manson at a Hollywood bungalow. (Johnny Regan)