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P a i HOUSE
REBEL WALTZ
We Are . . . Electric, Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh, Wed 12 Nov
It’s been to Barcelona, to Shoreditch and even to Brazil, but Rebel Waltz co-founder Murray Richardson finds much amusement in the fact that his club, which celebrates its tenth anniversary here, will be happening on the very same street on which it was born. Back then he began with a low key residency at 02, as the basement of the City Café was known, and it was one of his earliest guests who would help define the future direction of RW.
‘I first met Stuart [Patterson] when he brought his Soulsonic album launch party to Rebel Waltz,’ says Richardson. ‘We met a few times after that when we played in London together, and when I moved to
Jamanta Crew
Barcelona I invited Stuart to play Rebel Waltz once it was set up out there. He did, and that night we played the whole set together, back to back, tune for tune. It was so successful that it became the formula of Rebel Waltz from then on.’
It was the pair’s shared taste in music (Devo, The Clash and The Specials as well as soul, funk, electro, reggae and classic disco) that got them working together across the world for the best part of a decade, and it’s their fluency in working these back to back house sets for up to five or six hours at a time that makes their partnership so special. While Patterson now runs East Village in London and Richardson - also a prolific producer — is back home in Prestwick, the Rebel Waltz duo still take their sound around the globe, with a month’s worth of dates in Brazil lined up for early next year. (David Pollock)
PREVlEW HOUSE TELEFUNKEN The Caves, Edinburgh, Fri 8 Nov
Telefunken is a proper house night. its music jacks in all the right places. its residents know how to mix without molestation and its guests are great. You can tell residents Alan Gray and Nick Wilson come from the right sort of background because they're confident enough in the roots of their music to leave its inherent sense of humour intact. This is a tradition from which Mark Farina. Derrick Carter and DJ Sneak come: where fun. and not pasty-faced trainspotter-ism. is always de-rigueur on the dancefloor. Alan Gray describes the dancefloor at Telefunken as an unpretentious place for people who 'want to get down'. and the organic growth of the club from its roots as a pre-club jam in 2004 indicates the popularity of that simple approach.
This month's guests should fit right in. Jamanta Crew from Brazil have found their way into the hearts. minds and record bags of all of the aforementioned house legends. and. as resident Alan Gray says. their style should work in Niddry Street's famous Caves: “The Jamanta Crew live PA seems like the perfect follow-up to the night with DJ Sneak. They've been causing a big stir with their bumpty. jackin'. techy live show. which is full of fun and irony. I'm sure we'll see a lot of happy faces in the Caves when they‘re doing their thing.‘ With Jamanta Crew's sound referencing everything from Latino carnival music. hip hop. post-punk, glitch and booty, it would appear that Telefunken have called it right again. (John Regan)
Name Umek
Also known as Uros Umek Occupation The biggest name in Slovenian techno, whose reputation is growing around Europe and even further afield. Where is he from? Ljubljana. where he was born 32 years ago. A teenage devotee of the transistor radio. Umek grew up on a diet of Michael Jackson and various of-their-time European pop acts, including Germany's Modern Talking and Austria's Falco. Around the age of 17, he recalls telling his mum he was off to midnight mass on Christmas Eve. when in fact he was heading to the K4 club in the city. Thus was his clubbing cherry broken.
What happened next? Umek and a bunch of friends. inspired by what they saw and heard at K4. decided to get involved. Of course. Slovenia isn't exactly at the forefront of the international dance music scene, but Umek and friends' devotion to the Slovakian techno scene — fuelled by exposure to British pirate radio stations — meant they soon were the scene.
What might I have heard? Any number of releases on his own Absense (championed by Laurent Garnier and Sven Vath in the mid-90$). Consumer Recreation, Astrodisco. 1605 or Recycled Loops labels, or a clearly almost workaholic level of productions for various other imprints. These include last month's ‘Generation After‘ EP on Itan Business and forthcoming releases on Terminal M, Audiomatique, Italian Mantra and Fergie's Excentric. He's also a big enough name back home to headline huge. annual outdoor festivals.
Any other business? Although this is Hell's first birthday party, it 's only their second date at Byblos since moving from their previous home at the Classic Grand. Umek will be supported here by his Berlin- based fellow Slovenian Matthew Hoag. (David Pollock)
I Umek plays Hell at Byblos, Glasgow, Fri 37 Oct.
30001—13 Nov 2008 THE LIST 33