A certain French DJ has developed something of a cult following in the dear green place that is Glasgow over the years, having appeared sporadically at the infamous weekly Subbie Sunday party ‘Optimo (Espacio)’ over the years and being one of the very few dj’s to have the honour of playing a whole night there in the absence of Twitch and Wilkes. He last showed face at the Sub in 2012 when he helped us celebrate our 25th birthday, but with his last Subculture appearance way back in the nineties, his much anticipated return this Saturday suggests we are in for some pretty potent party madness, Parisian style.
Regularly labeled as the gallic answer to another Sub Club favourite, his good friend Mr Andrew Weatherall, Ivan is renowned on dancefloors worldwide for being able to play records in a raw and enthusiastic, sometimes obscure fashion, whilst effortlessly introducing his own personality and style into every mix. For almost 20 years he has been representing and working the circuit, and has often been critically acclaimed as being a member of that “oh so select” group known as “dj’s dj’s”, all the while gathering heavyweight support from the likes of James Murphy, Trevor Jackson & Subbie stalwarts Optimo. With his somewhat bohemian and slightly avant garde arty, glamourous je ne sais quoi, Ivan is expert at creating a multi dimensional soundtrack for a party.
Many would say a career behind the decks and the subsequent success was meant to be. His father was a dedicated record collector, so throughout the early days of childhood, music was a massive part of his upbringing. In adolescence he began his labour of love with some time spent working at the Bastille branch of seminal London record store ‘Rough Trade’, which for him was an unofficial inauguration to the French music scene. Looking back, his job in the record store probably funded his record buying compulsions and, like many great djs, he became a record spinner pretty much by default. In his own profound words “It just happened.”
Things kicked off in the mid 90’s when Radio Nova came calling, asking Ivan to broadcast four days a week for four hours a day. At this point the weird and wonderful world of Smagghe was presented to the public at large via the French airwaves for the first time, the listeners unaware of what would follow. His selections were made up of psychadelia and post-punk underground electronic vibes like these…
Word of his groundbreaking genre challenging ‘mash up’dj sets was spreading across Europe, and were once described as ‘a blueprint for what a post Millennium dj might sound like’. In 1997 Smagghe collaborated with Arnaud Rebotini and their brainchild Black Strobe was born. This was to be a monumental landmark not just for Ivan’s own career but also an instrumental milestone that prompted the rise of the Electroclash movement. Their UK breakthrough single ‘ Me and Madonna ‘ put things on a whole new level, and going forward Smagghe spent a decade as a recording artist under the Black Strobe guise.
Since the early 2000’s, Ivan has sustained his A & R role within the Kill the DJ record label. Significantly in 2010 this imprint released the first EP from RMVN, which is his collaboration project with Roman Flugel…
Aside from making music and in true Parisian style, M. Smagghe is a very cultured individual who has dabbled in the art of silent movies and whose love of books has also sent him in some different vocational paths. For a short spell he plied his trade as a music journalist and was guest columnist for a few much-admired French publications. Remarkably the sensation of his musical blog ‘a few things from Ivan Smagghe’ created a compilation series of edits for French fashion house Colette. This RA podcast was released around the same time as the mix for Colette sold out within a couple of weeks…
Ivan Smagghe RA podcast.228 – 2010.10.11 for A Night With… Ivan Smagghe by Anightwith on Mixcloud
On a production level, Smagghe’s latest project with Tim Paris ‘It’s a Fine Line’ is already turning over some releases on a remix tip, working with artists as diverse as ‘Superpitcher’ and ‘The XX’. This Fine Line version of Dark Knight is a favourite of those in the know at Subbie HQ…
With their studio in full swing and big things expected of the Paris pair, there are whispers of more solo work lined up as well as some exiting hook ups with some other hot production outfits.
Ivan is a bit of a connoisseur when it comes to edits, being somewhat of a pet project for him over the years. Ahead of his return to Subculture he fire-wired over this exclusive edit to Harri & Domenic. EXPREZZ OR DRUE FILLINGS (IS DUB)…
In between holding down residencies at the likes of Fabric, Bugged out, We Love Ibiza and festival appearances worldwide, Ivan has given his musical insight along with some interesting chit-chat about life experiences, from darkroom basement parties to Australian beach raves, with some entertaining and memorable anecdotes thrown in along the way. Here he is on the couch at the Red Bull Music Academy for a Fireside Chat talking about how he is still pushing the boundaries of electronic music.
At the end of last year, he was invited to step up to the Boiler Room session in his hometown. What follows shows exactly why he is held in such high regard by music fans across the globe…
In summary, we are hyped for the return to Subculture of a guy who as well as being a long time DJ and producer, has managed to stick his ground and not follow mass trends or buckle to the pressures of ‘making it’ in the world of dance music. After almost two decades in the industry, his integrity remains intact, along with his creative ability and dancefloor know-how, making him an obvious pick to join Harri & Domenic this Saturday. As he has on most weekends around the world over that period, Ivan can be relied upon to keep Subculture on it’s collective feet from start to finish on Saturday!
£10 Advance tickets for Saturday are available from Resident Advisor.