Name Switch
Occupation DJ/Producer/Remixer
What’s his sound like? Well he's a hip hop lover with a taste for all things house and electro. His DJ sets take in every genre under the sun with a nod to SOul, funk and hip hop with some good old fashioned jackin‘ house and dub step thrown in. Plus he keeps the electronic heads happy to boot.
How many pies has this man got fingers in? If we are talking pies. this man is the baker. Mr DaveTaylor aka Switch aka Solid Groove is Uber busy at present. He's just putting the finishing touches as producer to MlA‘s new album Kahla, he's DJing the length and breath of the country and beyond every week and is also churning out his own records and remixes by the bucketload.
What Switch records do I want to listen to then? Well according to Solemusic's Geoff M. who has invited Switch to play in Scotland, his favourite Switch track is under his Solid Groove moniker entitled This is Sick. He says. “i remember hearing this at T in the Park (Bacardi B-Bar, DJ Heather) and the place went bananas.’ Other gems include Making Me Money and Get Ya Dub On.
Who has he remixed? Who hasn't he remixed might be a better question. Basement Jaxx, The Chemical Brothers. P Diddy. Plan B. Busta Rhymes, The Futureheads. Fat Boy Slim, Armand Van Helman, Medhi. Blaze. and Roots Manuva have all undergone the Switch treatment.
Anything else I should note? Well he also has his own label Dubsided which is hell bent on releasing records from the brightest young things in house music. Label signings include Jesse Rose. DJ Fame, Herve and Speaker Junk, whose fabulous Foxxy turns the Hendrix classic on its head.
I Stereotype, Ber/in, Edinburgh, Sat 30 Jun.
30 THE LIST '21 Jun-6 .Jul 2007
ELECTRONICA SLAM ALBUM LAUNCH The Arches, Glasgow, Fri 29 Jun
Slam launch their fourth studio album, Human Response at the Arches this month. A melodic twist on their favoured techno style, it takes the listener on a hypnotic journey starting with the haunting electronica stirrings of Subject Invisible and ending with the climatic darker edged Memoir.
Orde Meikle, one half of Slam comments on the flow and the journey aspect of the album. ‘It’s safe to say on the last album Year Zero, we had a whole load of tracks we had done with people and a few we had done ourselves but it was a little bit problematic piecing it together at the end because we all had
DANCE ROCK
X-VECTORS
Dfrnt Trouble, The Caves, Edinburgh, Fri 29 Jun; Reconnaissance, The Ferry, Glasgow, Sat 30 Jun
Although Edinburgh's X-Vectors are among the most deserVing rising
stars of the UK dance, rock Crossover scene — their single on Optimo's label OSCARR. the excellent 'The Winter of our
Discotheque. was named in Mixmag's hundred best of last year. while they've just finished a Europe-Wide tour With Klaxons — don't
even think of calling them New Rave.
'We always wanted to write songs that were based on the dance
music that we loved. but with guitars.‘ says the band's Paul
different ideas of the way the album should flow. 80 we resolved this time to write the abum as a kind zero to 60 minute type piece of music.’ The journey was definitely intentional but the way in which the individual tracks were concieved was a different matter. According to Meikle, ‘A lot of the time it’s happy accidents. You start off with a melody and then you start firing it through different keyboards, just really muck around, really try and rip it this way and that and you just don’t know what the machines might throw back at you. You can do something by accident you never planned to and it throws back something which is just fantastic. You are always looking for a little type of spark to help you on your way.’ (Sandra Marron)
Maceachan. ‘That's the muSic we were listening to at the time — we weren't going to gigs. we were geing to clubs. The thing is. there weren't many bands deing that a few years ago. and now it's become incredibly popular to have sequencers and laptops onstage. even if you're four white guys making guitar music.
‘So now a lot of the other bands we meet are locked in With a scene like New Rave. whereas I think the only band who really play that are Klaxons. who we've got a lot of time for. They first used the term as a joke and now regret saying it more than anything else. I certainly don't want to be lumped in With someone like the fucking Sunshine UndergrOund. and I find it interesting that most of these bands don't know anything about labels or DJs when you ask them'.
Unlike X Vectors. whose early ambition to record a version of Jamie Principles “Your Love' has since been brilliantly realised. and who are new recording a Six-track mini-LP for Blast First. As long as they never utter the words New Chicago House. they should stay scene-free for the foreseeable future. (David Pollock)