Daniel Avery catches up with Beta & Kappa

Ahead of tonights dance Beta & Kappa managed to catch up with the man himself talking venues, radio shows,  Paris Hilton, Limmy & new material:

Beta & Kappa: Buono Estente, Dan Avery. Half of i AM have met you a couple times, once in a club called Trouw. If you owned a club with such a fucking wicked name, who would be on your fantasy lineup?

DA: Paris Hilton 8 hour DJ set, no question.

Beta & Kappa: You’ve been tearing up Rinse FM recently and we’ve been helping the team promo their last couple of parties up here. Why have they not booked you yet? Do you want us to get “the big man” on them? And what have you got planned for future shows?

DA: Yes please, if you don’t mind. I’m loving the Rinse shows. I’ve got some great guests coming up, some new artists I’m really into as well as a few legends. I’ve got Kolsch on next week.

Beta & Kappa: What are thee top three dancefloor weapons we can expect to hear on Tuesday? These are better gotten out the way, than having fandans (that’s another Glasgow phrase by the way) like us, Shazammin’ them while you play…

DA: There is a lot of great stuff about at the moment. I’m not going to give too much away but check “Call Me Ishmael” by Sisterhood. Big record. I’m also playing a lot of my new stuff at the moment which is a good feeling.

Beta & Kappa: We know you’re a fan of Limmy, so what are you’re top two sketches? Nae pressure bit Glasgow is listening…

DA: Smart Casual beats all

Beta & Kappa: Who will you be working with in coming months? Is there anyone who would you like to produce with, like will.i.am, or Chesney Hawkes, Aqua…

DA: I’ve got a big piano house number with Claire from Steps on vocals as well as a few other things I can’t quite reveal just yet, but some really exciting stuff.

Thank you for your time, Dan. But quickly, how about getting us (Beta & Kappa) down to support you in LDN sometime – nudge, nudge? I mean we don’t have the hair of Jackmaster or the gravitas of Optimo down there but we are bloody cheap and we’d kill a crowd (for better or for worse). Oh shit it seems the tape has run out on our interview, you’se will just have to wait and see if Dan and Beta & Kappa become pals or sworn enemies…

Closing note…

RETURN TO MONO TONIGHT WITH HIPP-E, HALO & SLAM

After the Friday night Slam Tent Session at the 20th edition of T In The Park, Return to Mono residents Slam, will be joined in the Sub Club by West-coast house duo Hipp-E and Halo.

Eric Galaviz (Denver, CO) and Brian Varga (San Diego,CA), joined forces 13 years ago after realizing they shared many common musical interests. Their earlier days of collaboration yielded some influential tracks like “Here Dis Sound” and “Tonight” from their famed “Environments LP” as ‘H-Foundation’

After years of collaboration with great success, the duo decided to shift their focus to their individual pursuits of personal life goals.
Reinvigorated, matured and inspired by the very interests that brought them together years ago, Hipp-E and Halo are once again creating sophisticated groundbreaking sounds that will influence the direction of organic house & techno in the years to come.

We felt it was right to post this Essential Mix from back in the day.  An Oldie but well worth a listen!

Entry for tonight’s event is £10 on the door from 11pm. 

Rubix – Bop Gun’s boogie weapons

Rubix’s homeboy Bop Gun, aka Smiddy, is a true connoisseur of trax from the grooviest, funkiest and straight up sleaziest corners of the musical spectrum.  He’s going to be whipping up some hot, creamy funk at their next party in the Sub Club this Thursday, 11th of July.  So in anticipation we got him to reveal five of his most dangerous boogie weapons…

1. Richard X – ‘Finest Dreams’

“Even though this one was made many years after all the other stuff I play and is a little different, it still tops the bill. Remade music from The Human League backed with Kelis singing a cover version of The S.O.S band’s ‘Finest’. It always goes off, it’s an absolute belter of a pop tune from the Noughties that people forgot they loved so much.”

2. Rick James – ’17’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OZ8C3T4kPs

“Rick James was 36 years old when he wrote this! The song is about his willpower to resist a 17-year-old admirer he’s befriended. Ridiculous chat goes down in this track, but no one can deny its raw FUNK!”

3. George Clinton – ‘Erotic City’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YPOHtVBtPA

“Everyone knows and loves Prince’s classic track ‘Erotic City’ but not many people have heard George Clinton’s excellent cover version. This one has better vocals and even more BASS!”

4. DeBarge – ‘You Wear It Well (Club Mix)’

“Absolute killer pointed out to me by this guy called Redux The Elephant on Facebook earlier in the year. This one’s a tribute to all of the fly looking girls out there. You wear it well!”

5. Brides of Funkenstein – ‘Disco To Go’

“This one is a lot slower in tempo than the other stuff I play, but I always end up reaching for it and cutting it into a set. George Clinton’s girl group ‘Brides Of Funkenstein’ laying down some serious FUNK!”

Sub Rosa chat to Mia Dora

Mia Dora have been keeping themselves busy of late. But you can’t be playing Fabric every night of the week so they had just enough time to squeeze in a quick Q&A session at Sub Rosa HQ, ahead of their appearance at the Sub Club Tonight.

Who are Mia Dora?

Mia Dora is Al Quinn and Rob Etherson, both from Glasgow.

What have been your highlights so far?

We’ve had the chance to play some great clubs and meet some great people. DJing in Fabric back in September with PBR Streetgang, Shadow Child and Jaymo & Andy George in December was definitely a big highlight. It was daunting at first but there was such a buzz in the club. Timbuk2 in Bristol in February was another; it’s a great club. We’ve also played some great gigs in Manchester, Derry, Aberdeen, Edinburgh…. but there’s nothing quite like playing on home turf. Can’t wait to get behind the Sub Club decks again.

Where do you want to be next year?

We’d love the opportunity to play abroad next year. We’ve played some great gigs since we started Mia Dora but we’ve yet to play outside the UK. It’d be great to play somewhere sunny; we’ve both got our sights firmly set on Ibiza.

When did you start, and when did things start gathering momentum for you?

After meeting working in the same nightclub, we’ve been producing together for about 3 years. At first we we’re just making the odd hip-hop or garage bootleg for a laugh, but after doing this for a year or so we started to take it more seriously. Things started to really pick up about a year and a half ago when we were given the opportunity to remix Roots Manuva – Get The Get. The track was released on Big Dada/Ninja Tune to a pretty positive reception, so we started lining up releases of other tracks we’d been working on. Our first EP being with Glasgow’s High Sheen.

Why the name Mia Dora?

It doesn’t actually translate as anything. We liked it because it sounded a bit like ‘I love’.

How do you make music and how do you play it out? I.e. what programs and set up.

We don’t have any set process for writing music. We tend to find the more ridiculous the better, it gets the creativity flowing. Sometimes setting up a mic, raiding the kitchen for pots and utensils, and just making drum sounds by bashing different kitchen utensils together can be the start of a great track. We’d then start building on top of that.

When playing out our live setup and our dj setups are very different. Recently in our DJ sets we’ve been using laptops and CDJs, but our live setup involves keyboards, a guitar, drum pads and various other little bits of gadgetry. We try and make it as hands on as possible.

And here are three tunes Mia Dora have been playing in their sets recently…

Lake People – Kmmk

Marco Bernardi – Unknown Promise
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDjk6Qx6_FQ

Simon Baker – Hideout (Thermalbear remix)

Beta & Kappa Vortex Funk

Tonight is all about a ‘vaguely specific sound’ as determined by Beta & Kappa. Hard hitting, cosmic-galactic, psychedelic funk with some classic’s fired in for good measure. The i AM selectors picked out ten from across the spectrum. Have a gander….

1. Dexter – D-Funked.

A 2008 classic electroid funk ensemble injected with a dose of inspiration from the Analord series.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoKeNvgvdoU

2. Liquid Liquid – Optimo (Optimo Remix)

Sub Club legend’s remix of the 1983 post funk classic that inspired the monster into action.

3. Space Dimension Controller – Kaleidoscopic Ecstasy

Remember reading this review of it on the Quietus, sums it up perfectly. “Wide and galactic. It’s built of a certain funk-come-space matter that exudes astral navigation through every pattern in the way that Drexciya cast themselves on the thudding sea floor of Neptune’s Lair.”

4. Daniel Avery – Drone Logic

The tune that inspires the best visuals in our heads of the journey through a vortex. Been shaping our sets for a long time and its perfect for tonight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ova5cpl4JDc

5. Jessie Saunders ft. The Badd Chicks – Funk You Up

Horneeeey early-house funk from Saunders.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKSfm0MWYt4

6. Doubleheart – Ghent

A stand out track from our guests of last month. A thumping’ & goovin’ new beat infected banger from Keith & Neil. Hypnotising.

7.Djedjotronic – Uranus

Aptly named for its sound indeed. Soaring beautiful detuned synths, acid lead and polished Electro beat

8. Jimmy Edgar – This One’s For The Children

Jimmy’s great for that sleazy sexed-up electrofunk sound. TOFTC is a perfect example.

9. Superlife – Go Bananas (Original Vocal Mix)

Mad vocoder vocals paired with funky & twitchy rhythms. The reissue of this has some great mixes but the original is the one for tonight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ucyMyMb7z0

10. Underground Resistance – Timeline

Turning again to the Detroit classics tonight. The era’s hit the nail on the head for us on astral pads and gliding leads. First record Kappa purchased, Timeline’s up their on our top 10 all time, not just this chart!

Jah Rastaferrari Fae Harri

In true Reggae styllee – a day late, Harri put a mix together to celebrate Jamaica Day. All killahs no fillahs !!

Focus on Legowelt

As part of the Dimensions festival launch Sensu are gatecrashing Harri & Dom’s Subculture Tonight and bringing with them, one of the most exciting electronic music live acts of recent times. Danny Wolfers, aka Legowelt recently described his style as “a hybrid form of slam jack combined with deep Chicago house, romantic ghetto technofunk and Euro Horror Soundtrack.” It’s hard to top that so we’ll leave it there!

With this in mind, we’re all very excited at the thought of witnessing his debut live set at the Sub Club. His distinctive melodic take on electronic music is gaining him fans throughout the world of dance music so as the night approaches, we thought we’d get to grips with some selected highlights from his musical career, some mixes and sounds from his remarkable back catalogue of studio albums and snippets of some recent content and chat from the man himself…

Since first investigating synthesizers back in the early 90s, Danny Wolfers has produced music under at least 25 aliases – and that’s only as a solo artist! He has recorded on such renown labels as Ghostly International, Clone and Cocoon.
Influenced as a school boy by the sounds of Detroit’s Underground Resistance, Model 500, Blake Baxter, and Chigago’s Farley Jackmaster Funk, Armando and Larry Heard (Mr Fingers), the young Wolfers then discovered lo-fi punk experimental house and techno outfit Unit Moebius who he was amazed to discover hailed from the same town as himself.

Signing to Bunker Records in his home town Den Hague, his first output, the Italo/Chicago influenced Pimpshifter EP, came out on vinyl in 1998.  The 6-track waxwork combined a wide range of sounds touching on “crossover” genres, way before this was “cool.”  This release became an instantaneous cult hit with “Total Pussy Control” which helped shape his almost two decades in the music industry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUU2R7fol_0

Legowelt sat down with our good friends at the Red Bull Music Academy Seattle in 2005.  In this interview he covers his hometown, the local music scene, his extensive collection of super stimulating synths, with some mentions of an 808 vibe, horror films and how one album was based on a 70s Japanese animation about a little orphanage girl…

https://vimeo.com/29652228

His mix for Melbourne Deepcast is a favourite of Subculture residents Domenic and Harri – we have had this mix blasting at Subbie HQ for the last two weeks…

Less than 24 hours ago, Danny uploaded this special mix, aptly title – Flat Earth Program…

Telford’s set from Subculture 8/6/13

Earlier this month when Harri & Domenic were playing up at RockNess we left Subculture in the capable hands of our own man of many talents Telford.  Here is a recording of his set as he warmed up for Silicone Soul.

Thunder Disco Club’s Acid Shhelector

With the impending debut of underground acid house rebels Paranoid London at Sub Club this Friday, Thunder Disco pulled some 303 fuelled tracks out their bag to mark this occasion. Get busy!

Tin Man – Absudrist Acid – Smart Casual.

https://soundcloud.com/absurd/d2-absurdist-acid

Adam Sparkles – See You On The Rebound – Flashy

Kool Rock Steady – I’ll make You Dance (Discolores NYE Edit) – Struttttter!

Boddika – Acid jackson – Filth

Omar Souleyman – Shift Al Mani (Crackboy Remix) – Savage

Legowelt – Melbourne Deepcast

Sensu join in the fun alongside Harri & Dom for Subculture on Saturday 29th June and the boys have invited innovative Dutchman Legowelt to come and lend a hand with his 1st live performance at the Sub.

Just last week Legowelt took a few moments out of programming the newest addition to his insane studio at his home in The Hague in Holland to answer some questions and supply Melbourne Deepcast with their latest episode. We have been blasting this out at Subbie HQ since it went live…Enjoy!