Ahead of his Subculture DJ debut this coming Saturday, we caught up with Neville Watson to chat over his favourite music that’s came out of Glasgow…
Any serious music fan worth their salt will know that Scotland has always been a haven for great music. Glasgow in particular is as famous for it’s discerning music tastes as it is for it’s hospitality and architecture, most notably it’s taste for black American dance music. From jazz and blues to soul, disco and reggae through to house and techno, always eschewing fads and trends and focussing steadfastly on quality. No boring retro fetishism but instead a constant acknowledgement of lineage. It’s one of the many things that makes a night out in the city such a brilliant experience.
But it’s not just the consumption of music that is done to such a fine tee here, there always has been for me some of the finest music ever produced in the city. That same stringent quality control that goes into a night or record shopping also goes into production and running a label there. As a sassenach DJ I will automatically check any new record or label that comes out of Glasgow like some people do with Detroit. Here is a very small selection of some of my favourite jams to have come out of Glasgow…
1. Hutton Drive – Push It – (Soma)
This had to take the top spot as not only is it my favourite record to come out of Glasgow, it’s one of my favourite records ever! Sub Club’s own Domenic Cappello in his Hutton Drive guise, funked up rolling snares, subterranean chords and a Salt & Pepper sample. Doesn’t sound like much but the simplest ingredients are always the best, and when that change happens around the two minute mark, I’m ready to wet my pants. Then the strings come in and it’s game over as the track just continues to ascend. A criminally underrated record.
2. Muzique Tropique – Stella Sunday – (Glasgow Underground)
When deep house was more than just a chord stab with some delay on it over some whack drums. This is a proper piece of music, full stop. Kevin Mckay and Andy Carrick’s Glasgow Underground put out some stellar, pardon the pun, records in the mid to late nineties, but this under their Muzique Tropique alias is perhaps my favourite. All woozy strings and fizzy hats, perfect for when the sun is coming up or going down.
3. DJ Q – My Kinda House – (Filter)
Man, I could do a whole list and more of DJ Q records. For those who don’t know, this is Paul Flynn, the original DJ Q. He did so many killer records in the mid to late nineties and early 2000s that I had to just pick one quickly otherwise I never would have finished this little piece. Raw before it was the buzzword, and really raw too! A disco loop fed into a sampler and smashed to pieces over the top of crushing drums that just keep rolling and rolling, pure, unadulterated dance floor devastation. Also check his remixes too, especially Schlamm Me. You’ll have to dig for it though, as it’s not on Discogs. Not the one I’ve got anyway.
4. Slam – Stepback – (Soma)
Another from the behemoth that is the Soma stable. I could have been obvious here and chosen Positive Education, I’ve certainly had more mileage out of that over the years, but the dark brooding menace of Stepback sends shivers up my spine. Especially when I think of the lunacy that would ensue whenever I used to drop it at Checkpoint Charlie.
5. Jared Wilson – Challenging Shadows – (DABJ)
Some new(er) shizz here from the ever ace Dixon Avenue Basement Jams stable and the only one on this list not by a Glasgow producer. Lush sub bass tones and electro drums push and pull against arpeggios and a crystalline lead. Might not be directly from the city but it has the city’s vibe all over it.
6. Gypsy – Varisuvia – (Limbo)
This is an absolute monster of a record. Although Limbo were primarily known as a Prog House label, I would say this has a much darker New York flavour to it, not sounding a million miles away from some Xpress 2’s darker moments from that time. Thunderous drums and bass underpinning a phasing, filtering synth line and tasty little breakbeat, it’s a proper head melter. But whatever happened to Graham Drinnan (Gypsy)? He was rather prolific at the time, then he just disappeared.
7. Truffle Club – Gone Blue – (Dissident)
Italo leaning jam from Andy Blakes now defunct Dissident label. Always really love the bells and choir on this track.
8. Naum Gabo – Dino – (Throne of Blood)
The sound of Glasgow stretches to NYC with this beautiful piece of soundtracky ambience on Throne of Blood. From a duo that includes one half of the the mighty Optimo.
9. Butch Cassidy Soundsystem – Rockers Galore – (Fenetik Music)
Proving that the sounds of dub and reggae also pulse through the city. Reggae is never easy to pull off for white boys at the best of times – not everybody can be an Adrian Sherwood – but here dubbed out flutes and slick basslines leave you in no doubt that the person making this music has a deeper understanding of what they’re doing past just chucking a software delay over some samples they got off a covermount CD.
10. Leeon – Rest & Be Thankful EP – (Nord-Sud Recordings)
Brand spanking new label and this first release is faultless to me, it has a sound that I strongly associate with the house and techno that comes out of Glasgow. This is partly due to an Essential mix from Slam back in 1994 featuring tracks from Terrace and Carl Craig which I wore a hole in. It has a filmic quality to it yet is still perfectly suited to the dancefloor, it features the kind of dreamy synth lines that fire your imagination and the kind of bass and drums that feed your hips. Perfect.
Neville has previously graced the Subculture booth alongside sometime production partner KiNK, but this time he’s flying solo for your aural pleasure. Rounding out the first month of oh-one-five, this promises to be the perfect pitch-perfect DJ session to set the tone for the year ahead.
Entry tax is a January friendly £5 before midnight.