Anything goes
“Tirk grew from the ashes of the legendary Nuphonic label and boasts a very eclectic back catalogue,” says Ben Terry, resident spinner for Tirk who take up a monthly label residency (on 25th July, 22nd August, 26th September) at Sunday’s We Love... Space this summer. “Greg Wilson, Chaz Jankel from The Blockheads, Sorcerer and Martin Rushent, Human League’s producer, have all released material on the label.”
Unafraid to experiment with Italo, cosmic and even the borders of kraut-rock, it’s a far cry from the main room fare being spoon-fed in Ibiza’s less adventurous venues. “I think this sense of variety is something that will be
reflected in the music you’ll hear at our dates in El Salon this summer,” he adds, with guests like Padded Cell’s Richard Sen and Manchester’s crate-digging Phoreski (making his island debut) booked for their wide-ranging musical knowledge. “It’s a party so there will no doubt be some amazing house music, deeper analogue sounds, a lot of unreleased stuff and bumping underground disco all spliced together.”
According to king of the re-edit, Greg Wilson, it’s no surprise that old tunes from the soul, funk, disco and 1980s boogie era continue to be re-worked and re-hashed by music fans today. “The thing about this new disco scene is that it encompasses so many other things apart from 1970s disco,” says Greg. “I remember when I started DJing in the early 1980s people used to refer to disco music not as a specific genre but just the music played in clubs and discotheques which was predominantly soul and funk. Saturday Night Fever changed things and put disco music into a different context; taking it away from the black side more. People talk about punk as a movement, they say how big it was, but it was tiny in comparison to what disco was — it was massive.”
One of the tunes Greg is playing non-stop at the moment is an edit of William DeVaughn’s old soul classic ‘Be Thankful For What You Got’ by an unknown Turkish producer called Onur Engin. “I picked up that track originally on Soundcloud,” says Greg. “If it wasn’t for Soundcloud I would never have been able to find that re-edit, and I would never have been able to make contact with someone like Onur. Now the possibilities are endless and I do think that’s what’s pushed the whole re-edits culture that’s been a huge driving force in this nu disco scene. It’s all about young people interpreting old sounds with a fresh, future twist. That’s what makes it such an exciting fresh scene rather than just an exercise in nostalgia.” It’s this maverick, feisty, old-meets-new eclecticism that’s back with a vengeance and taking over clubland. Wind back ten years and the thought of combining a mid-tempo house tune with a techno cut, then a hip-hop tune with a bit of funk, soul and filter disco would have been unheard of but now, walk into any club anywhere in the world, and you’re more likely to hear a DJ mixing it up than boshing out five hours solid of techno. It’s anarchy; not just in the UK, but on dancefloors all over the world.
Freedom “I think it’s more about freedom than anarchy,” says The Revenge, aka Glasgow-based producer Graeme Clarke. “Most DJs play using a laptop now and crowds expect a DJ to have loads of music with them, so they expect to hear a wide variety of tunes when they go out dancing.” Graeme’s label Instruments Of Rapture has been key in supporting this nu disco scene and, according to him, DJs are starting to realize that they’re now playing to the iPod and
048 Tensnake
iTunes generation of clubbers who have shorter attention spans. These clubbers, he says, are used to picking and choosing what they listen to and have developed musical tastes that aren’t restricted by genre.
The Revenge started doing re-edits of tunes over a decade ago; using them as DJ tools to bridge the gaps between genres. “For me, the whole re-edit thing was just about making DJ secret weapons for myself to play in my sets and bridge the gap between the hip-hop, soul, disco, house and funk that I was playing in bars and clubs around Glasgow,” says 31-year- old Graeme. “That’s what DJing has always been about for me: you’ve got a room full of people and a whole load of tunes and you’re just trying to tie it all together and make everyone dance.” In 2007 his re-edit of Hot Chocolate’s ‘Cadillac’ got so much attention on the blogs (with Todd Terje bigging it up all over) that it got picked up by Jiscomusic for release. Since then Graeme’s been putting out his own music through his own Instruments Of Rapture label and is working on a full-length production album for Jimpster’s Delusions Of Grandeur label; yet another imprint that’s pushing this eclectic, nu disco sound.
Back in March this year Graeme DJ’d in Miami at New York DJ Tim Sweeney’s Beats In Space party. “Seeing and hearing Harvey DJ there was amazing,” says Graeme. “For me the spirit of disco is that eclecticism and that’s what Harvey does. He played for five hours; playing everything across-the-board and keeping everyone in the palm of his hand, dancing and having an amazing time. I’m not old enough to have been to the Paradise Garage but I’ve read about it and seen footage and I think that’s really what this nu disco sound now is about. People make the mistake of thinking that disco music back in the 1970s and 1980s was all about what was going on at Studio 54 but it wasn’t; it was just about people dancing in clubs and losing their minds
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through an eclectic mix of music played by DJs who didn’t stick to one genre.” Ibiza has traditionally been the stepping-stone to the mainstream when it comes to what’s hot in dance music. That’s why, this summer, it’ll be this nu disco sound you’re going to hear creeping further into the main room line-ups in the clubs; not just from DJs such as Tensnake or the Disco Bloodbath crew but also in the sets of traditionally house orientated DJs like new DC10 resident Jamie Jones or Zev, from New York’s Wolf + Lamb, who hits We Love... on the 1st of August. “It’s just because people are fed up with the minimal sound and are hungry for something new,” says Tensnake. “They don’t care if it’s cool, or if it’s right or wrong, really it’s just about having fun.”
Nu Disco podría convertirse en el sonido de Ibiza en el 2010, ahora que el minimal está fuera de juego y con el espíritu del todo vale que trae música alegre y revitalizante a las pistas de baile. DJMag informa…
E
n todo el mundo hay un sonido fresco que se está abriendo camino desde las salas traseras a las pistas principales de las discotecas. Y es este sonido de house musical con base groove
cargado de vocales que ha estado desplazando al sonido minimal aburrido y sin alma mientras ataja hacia el lado de la pista iluminado por la bola de espejitos. “Estoy muy contento
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