Clubs
PROFILE Caspa
R E K C A H
CHASE & STATUS Occupation Drum & bass/dubstep rabble rousers
So where are they playing in Glasgow? Jungle Nation has been running for 13 years in Aberdeen and started operations in Glasgow’s Arches this year. Tell me more about the headliners Chase & Status will be DJing. It’s the biggest guests that Jungle Nation have had in their Glasgow incarnation. The duo started out as drum & bass producers and then made, or arguably, led the transition, into dubstep. Collaborations with grime’s Kano led to the Apache- sampling ‘Against All Odds’ and other tracks such as ‘Saxon’ and ‘Eastern Jam’ from debut album More Than a Lot, have made it onto many a DJ’s mixtape, while hitting crossover chart success with ‘End Credits’ from the soundtrack to Harry Brown featuring Plan B on vocals. Recent work has included production for Rihanna and their second album featuring Dizzee Rascal and Wiley is due out in November. Performing alongside will be MC Rage, a veteran of the London drum & bass scene.
What should we expect then? Big wobbly basslines, dashes of breakbeat and yet more bass.
How’s the support line-up shaping up? DJ Tez, who has been running Jungle Nation in Aberdeen since back in the day and DJ Amba who promotes the Hush Hush and Everything Else Sucks nights in Aberdeen. MC AC, resident at Edinburgh’s weekly drum & bass party, Split, will also be on hand to help out on the mic.
Just the one arch open then? Nope, there is a second one headlined by Nero, another drum & bass-turned-dubstep double act. Best known for their remix of The Streets’ ‘Blinded by the Lights’, they have also reworked tracks by Deadmau5 and La Roux. Supporting them will be Giles Walker (Hush Hush) and local boy Jongerre, playing garage, UK funky and other house derivatives. (Pete MacLeod) ■ Chase & Status headline Jungle Nation, The Arches, Glasgow, Fri 15 Oct.
40 THE LIST 7–21 Oct 2010
DUBSTEP/ELECTRO/HOUSE ANNIE MAC PRESENTS Ocean Terminal, Edinburgh, Sat 16 Oct. Annie Mac’s Radio 1 show has certainly helped break plenty of electronica acts over the years, and her refusal to stick to any one genre means she has championed beats from across the spectrum of dance music. ‘It really is an explosion of all things electronica, showcasing everything from house to electro and dubstep to drum & bass,’ says promoter Simon Xplict who’s helped bring the travelling ‘Presents’ roadshow back to Edinburgh with ‘yet another ridiculous line-up for all your skanking needs.’ She certainly has the clout to assemble an impressive bill of DJ talent to grace the decks at Ocean Terminal. Joining Annie herself will be the jackin’ electro of Felix da Housecat, the jump-up dubstep of Caspa and the MC skills of Rod Azlan.
With dubstep making tentative steps into the
mainstream, it’s names such as Caspa (aka Gary McCann) and frequent collaborator Rusko who are leading the charge, as witnessed on their double DJ mix CD FabricLive 27 and on his own solo album Everybody’s Talking, Nobody’s Listening! Caspa is also championing the sound with his Dub
Police and Sub Soldiers labels, recently telling MTV: ‘I love all the different styles within dubstep at the moment and I think that’s what makes it attractive. There’s something in it for everybody no matter what other styles of music you listen to. I think at the moment I’m the happiest I’ve ever been. I’ve got so much good music in my record bag and the best thing is that 90% of it is from myself and the Dub Police artists.’ (Henry Northmore) ■ Caspa also guests at Mixed Bizness, Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow, Fri 12 Nov.
SEMINAL INDIE CLUB REVIVAL A SPLASH ONE HAPPENING Flying Duck, Glasgow, Fri 15 Oct.
Track back over the last decade or so, and the Scottish clubs which have truly captured their times are still familiar names to most: Optimo, Manga, Pure, etc. Yet head back two and a half decades, and the scene is like a foreign country. Still, anyone with an awareness of Glasgow’s rich indie history should know the name Splash One. Active for just a year between 1985 and 1986 at 46 West George Street, it played host to bands such as Sonic Youth, Primal Scream (Bobby Gillespie was one of the eight-strong committee who ran the night), BMX Bandits, Wire and The Pastels, and also such cultish names as The Loft, Submarines, Jasmine Minks and Shop Assistants.
‘We all had different musical tastes,’ recalls Derrick Louden, one of the
night’s founders, ‘and we were all really opinionated about music. It was a completely DIY thing. We’d book the bands ourselves, make the posters, choose the soundtracks and make up the tapes.’ No such high-falutin’ niceties as vinyl and turntables for the Splash One
team, it was pre-recorded mixtapes all the way. And so by extension Glasgow’s indie music culture as it exists today, was born.
Originally the plan for this 25th anniversary tribute night, conceived by Iain Baird of the Flying Duck and other definitive indie haunts like Mono and Stereo, had been to play music in tribute to Splash One. When Louden was contacted, though, he was happy to get involved by making up a mixtape bearing 100 psychedelic punk rock classics. ‘Why was the night so successful?’ he ponders. ‘It was in no way a business. It was just music fans doing whatever the hell they wanted.’ (David Pollock)