Clubs
TECHNO ELECTRIC FROG WAREHOUSE PARTY SWG3, Glasgow, Sat 22 Jan
Glasgow’s more tasteful clubbers might have been forgiven for thinking that two of the finest events in the city had gone down the tubes this year. With everyone wary of the uphill financial struggle which pervades putting on a club these days, the non-appearance of either the Wee Chill or Electric Frog seemed to suggest they’d both come to an enforced premature end. Not so, says Brian Traynor, promoter of both. ‘They’ll both be back next year,’ he says confidently,
referring to both the Wee Chill and the full-blown, multi-stage Electric Frog weekender, ‘but they’ll both be outside Glasgow city centre. Trying to get a proper outdoor entertainment license in Glasgow is just becoming more and more difficult.’ He’s certainly no fan of an application system which apparently doesn’t grant permission or otherwise until long after DJs have to be booked and paid for. He has venues in mind for the revival of both, with Easter weekend 2013 a target date for Electric Frog’s full return, but can’t divulge any more info at present. In the meantime, fans of the Frog will be thrilled to note its
return to SWG3 in scaled down indoor club form, with big- name guest DJs in the main room and local talent playing the Jim Lambie-designed Poetry Room downstairs. This first date has been prepared in conjunction with Glasgow duo Slam, who will be appearing alongside the city’s own Animal Farm and big techno guests Adam Beyer (head of the seminal Drumcode record label) and Surgeon (one half of the British Murder Boys). ‘We’re going to do this monthly until Christmas and see how it goes,’ says Traynor. ‘We haven’t confirmed the other dates yet, but we’d love to get guys like Optimo and Synergy Concerts involved in helping program DJs and bands again.’ (David Pollock)
Adam Beyer Jared Wilson
TECHNO ALBUM LAUNCH GARY BECK Compakt at the Annexe at the Liquid Room, Edinburgh, Fri 21 Sep; Pressure at the Arches, Glasgow, Fri 28 Sep
‘It’s not a bad CV to have, is it?’ laughs Glaswegian DJ and producer Gary Beck. ‘If I was to have seen it six years ago I don’t know whether I would have believed it myself.’ He’s talking to The List about the roster of labels he’s been on in his half-decade plus recording life, which includes names like Drumcode, Edit Select, Perc Trax, Saved and Richie Hawtin’s M_nus. He describes the phone call from the latter as a career high so far. That list also, of course, includes Glasgow’s own Soma, through whom he’ll be releasing his debut album Bring a Friend this month. ‘I’ve always been a big fan of them and their history,’ says Beck, who also runs his own label Bek Audio. ‘The album’s been in my head for three years, although initially I did something that was maybe more suited to a TV soundtrack, something more down-tempo. But I spoke to people who suggested I should keep it a bit techno, so I kept chopping and changing, and eventually it came together quite well as a mix of everything.’
Its release is going to be a highlight in the career of an artist who started as a DJ until he realised production was ‘the way to progress in this game’ after hearing so many big names at the Arches. The investment in time and hardware clearly paid off for Beck, because that’s where he’ll be playing himself this month. (David Pollock)
50 THE LIST 20 Sep–18 Oct 2012
NEW CLUB NIGHT BASEMENT JAMS La Cheetah, Glasgow, Sat 22 Sep
Long-running Glasgow techno club Monox might have ended more than 18 months ago, but the team who used to run it found it hard to stay away. ‘I didn’t miss it when it first finished, believe you me,’ laughs Dan Lurinsky, aka Dan Monox, ‘but after a while I did, yeah. Besides, there have been a few good things happening in Glasgow, but not so much that there wasn’t room for us to come back and put our own slant on things.’
He describes Basement Jams, the new club he’s set up alongside fellow former Monoxian Kenny Grieve (aka The Wasp), as a house and techno night, although this time it’s ‘more of a house vibe than Monox, which was always quite bangin’.’ As well as the debut party for the new night, September’s date will also be a launch party for the pair’s new label Dixon Avenue Basement Jams, with a special guest set from Jared Wilson, the Detroit acid house producer behind their first 12” release ‘Unknown Desires’.
‘The name of the label comes from our old flat on Dixon Street,’ says Lurinsky. ‘We had a basement there where we’d throw parties. It would always get a bit messy.’ Now the pair will have to make do with this monthly party in La Cheetah’s own basement room, with guests for the future already lining up: in October they’ll welcome Sex Tags Mania’s Madteo and in November it’s Delsin’s Gerry Read. (David Pollock)