N A L L M C M N L O C
I I
Clubs INTRODUCING . . .
Foamo
The best new nights in town. BAD MOUTHIN’
Residents: Million Dollar Disco’s own Al Kent and Rahaan. Guests: ‘Rahaan’s our resident DJ, but he’s actually based in Chicago,’ says Kent (real name Ewan Kelly). ‘Naturally he won’t be able to make it every month, but when this happens we’ll make sure we have a big guest booked. We want people to get their money’s worth.’
Music policy: ‘All disco,’ says Kent, ‘although everyone has their own idea of what that means. We don’t play disco-house, I’d compare our sound more to the early days of the house boom in Chicago, when people were editing old disco records rather than making their own. We’ll play classics, we’ll play funk and soul tracks that would have been played in the discos of the 70s, and there’s no restriction on tempo. But we absolutely won’t play commercial disco, no Boney M or Village People.’
What they say: ‘I’ve always done Million Dollar Disco Presents nights as one-offs, but I had such a good time when I brought Rahaan over as a guest recently that this seemed like a good idea. He’s such a laidback guy and a great DJ too, he really knows his stuff. I played once at the Studio Warehouse years ago and it’s a great venue, it has that real underground warehouse vibe. This isn’t something we’re doing to make money, it’s a real labour of love.’ What we say: Between them, Al and Rahaan have half a century’s experience as purist disco DJs, and with the style very much back in fashion this promises to be a bloody entertaining history lesson. (David Pollock)
■ Bad Mouthin’ is at SWG3, Glasgow, Sat 26 Feb and then the last Sat of every month.
38 THE LIST 17 Feb–3 Mar 2011
ANNIVERSARY PARTIES CABARET VOLTAIRE 6TH BIRTHDAY Bedbug, Slap Bang, Sick Note, Sugarbeatclub and Karnival at Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh, Fri 18–Sat 26 Feb
Six years ago, when Sarah David moved from the manager’s job at the Liquid Room to strike out on her own by taking over Cabaret Voltaire, did she see the place making it this far down the line? ‘Always,’ she says confidently. It figures. Back then, Edinburgh was crying out for a credible nightclub run by people who put the music first, and these days it still needs as many as it can get. Although its brief position as pretty much the small
venue in which to see live music in Edinburgh has been diluted by the return of the Liquid Room and the opening of Sneaky Pete’s and Electric Circus, club nights with exciting new names and the occasional big
name are still as much a forte of the Cab’s as any other club in Scotland. For this birthday week, they’re taking all their best shots at once: Diplo-approved young bassline producer Foamo is appearing at Bedbug, Glasgow disco head and Solardisco label boss Maelstrom will be guesting at Slap Bang, Italy’s party prince Reset! takes over at Sick Note, Cab’s debut night Sugarbeatclub celebrates with Jack Beats, Krafty Kuts and residents Utah Saints, and Karnival welcomes Funk D’Void and Aqua Bassino. ‘The last six years have been great,’ says David. ‘The
hardest time was when we extended the place to include our Speakeasy room, it was stressful but I wouldn’t change it now it’s done. In fact, there’s a lot more room to extend into down here – maybe we’ll be see something like that happen later in the year?’ (David Pollock)
BEATS/BASS WONKY Bongo Club, Edinburgh, Fri 25 Feb Asazi Space Funk Explosion
Wonky is the latest club night to come from the Trouble stable, which also brings you Limbo and Devil Disco Club, and grows from its much respected, now defunct, Trouble night. ‘Devil Disco Club is a streamlined version of what we were doing at Trouble, in a more user-friendly format, focusing on disco, house and electronic stuff,’ says promoter/DJ Hobbes (aka Andrew Richardson). ‘We had the idea of starting up a night like Wonky for all the more hip hop, broken beat, dubstep, Afrobeat and drum & bass-type sounds from the other side of the Trouble coin.’ With a core DJ team of Hobbes and WolfJazz (Trade Union and
StepBack among others) running as a semi-regular night dependent on guests, this February’s double bill of live acts is a perfect showcase for what Wonky stands for. ‘Asazi Space Funk Explosion’s frontman is from South Africa, he’s very much the real deal when it comes to African music,’ says Hobbes. ‘He really brings that authenticity to the band. It’s a cosmic- rock-jazz-freakout. It’s quite psychedelic, but it’s still got that Afrobeat edge to it, which is the hook for the dancefloor.’
They’re joined by rising electronica star Dam Mantle. ‘He has a really fresh contemporary style,’ says Hobbes. ‘It also reminds me of early Warp Records and Detroit techno, but with a new-school, new-generation producer. We see the two of them together as a really nice contrast like in a DJ set where you’ll mix roots with contemporary tracks.’ (Henry Northmore)