Believe the hype
A highlight of this year’s Festival nightlife is sure to be the Convulsive fortnight at The Calton. Joe Lampard spoke to .John Bains of Convulsive Communications and Jason Young of Parallax, one of the exciting acts that have been booked to
play.
‘lt's going to be a hectic fortnight.‘ suggests John Bains. ‘l had the chance to bring so many new and exciting things up to Edinburgh. a lot of which have never been here before.‘ Some of those making their debut include Credit To The Nation. Gunshot. Killa Instinct, GTO. Mixmaster Mon'is, Drum Club and Club Dog.
Meanwhile a couple of acts are making a welcome return. namely Test 5 Department and Parallax, who kick off the fortnight on Saturday 14 Aug.
5 Parallax are Mute Records‘s excellent 3 new signing. labelled ‘young techno
' rockers‘, which is a bit of sore point with frontman Jason Young.
‘I don‘t mind the “techno rockers"
l label as, in essence, that‘s what we are. but the “young” label is another matter. the industry is pretty ageist and
a lot of people don’t take us seriously because we are so young. We’ve had problems with the press and stuff, not particularly major problems, just stupid things like being called the alternative East 17. things like that ljust don‘t understand it at all.‘
This is certainly no ‘altemative East 17’. They have a raw energy and power in their music. reminiscent of the late eighties underground/acid/techno boom which was a big influence for Jason.
‘For about three or four years in my life techno and dance was about the only music that i could sit down. listen to and be inspired by. Not to go away and do a techno track myself, it was just something that made me feel good to be alive. the rawness of it all. it wasn‘t packaged. You buy a samr er these days and you get a little sound library and on the sound library it‘ll say house and you'll hit the key and you‘ll get all the house songs you've ever heard, it wasn’t that kind of packaging
like it is now. it‘s been around for a few years, but at the time it was very raw it was very pure, l found it really enriched with energy. That’s where a lot of my energy comes from, from those places and points of time in my life.’
Parallax have recently released their debut, ‘Push For The Love Of Life’, on Mute. supported Sheep On Drugs and supported Depeche Mode in Leven, France. Their EP ‘Bullet Proof Zero‘ is due for release sometime in late September or October and the band certainly seem to have a positive attitude and a bright future ahead of them.
‘The more we’re around and the more we put out. then the more people will listen to the music rather than reading the hype and judging us on that.’
Believe the hype.
Parallax play The Calton. Edinburgh. on Sat 14. See listings for details of all Compulsive events.
_ Take your
pick
For three weeks, at least, Edinburgh’s clubland goes into overdrive with regular club runners going for broke trying to keep up with the influx of festive one-offs.
One old favourite making a most welcome return to Edinburgh during the festival is The Mambo Inn from Brixton, which is running for three consecutive Saturdays from the 21 Aug (see hltllst). As well as the club, keep your ears open for the ‘Mambo Inn show’ (Saturdays 5—7pm) and ‘lt’s a small world but I wouldn’t wanna have to paint lt’ (Sundays 4-1pm), both on Festival FM, presented each
week by one of los Mambistos Trio. Shaft, too, is back again in it’s
Festival home of Adam House and runs
every night apart from Mondays and Tuesdays, expect it to be as busy as ever. The Convulsion fortnight is probably the best thing to happen to the Festival club/gig scene for a good few years, check listings for up-to- date details (also see preview). Three nights of Cavalcade madness descends upon Ex-S with sounds Including house, funlr, soul and
garage, complemented by some demented avant-garde theatre, performance art and other such weird happenings (see hitlist).
Other mentions go to Pure which celebrates its third birthday on Friday Aug 13, and still leads the way in Edinburgh’s dance scene. A new club opens in La Belle Angele on Saturday Aug 14, naner Vegas, with the lovable Mark and Adrian from Luvllup (Manchester). Mo' Flavour is at The Citrus on selected Fridays with some excellent guest lids and live appearances lined up during the Festival. Finally the 99 Club is on at the Music Box every night and could well be one of the busiest and most popular clubs with Festival visitors, which oi course has absolutely nothing to do with the ridiculously cheap entry and outrageously cheap bar prices, honest. (Joe Larnpard).
ITLIS
All trlnged out? let Joe Lampard take you on a tour of the best of the Festival clubs.
I Pure Tribal. dubby. acidic. thrashy, techno house at its best. Happy Birthday.
The Venue. every Friday. llpm-late. I Squid Strange, hypnotic music, building up to funky, housey, hip-hop, with impromptu performance and surreal goings on.
[a Belle Angele (Venue 42). every Friday. I 0pm —3 a m.
I Cavalcade House. soul, garage and funk with performance art. stalls and some weird happenings.
Ex-S. every Wednesday. llpm—4am. I And Away They Co A night of musical mayhem from the Finiflex lads and collected friends.
The Caltan. Wednesday. Aug [8. lOpm—late.
I Carbolick Frolick Ooh er missus, cavorting clubbers writhing wildly to a masterful mixture of delectable dance tunes.
Ex-S, every Saturday. llpm—4am.
I Chocolate City Edinburgh‘s best laid-back funk night, with an appearance by those mutoid musicians, Papa‘s Magic Beard, all the way from planet funkety funk.
The Venue. Thursday, 12 Aug.
1 [pm—late.
I Space Every night apart from Thursdays. atmospheric night with guest DJs from almost every other Edinburgh club imaginable.
The Caltan, nightly. 10pm—5am.
I The 99 Club Cheap entry, cheap booze and no doubt good fun.
The Music Box. nightly. lOpm-late.
I Ambient Tea Party Relaxing Sunday afternoon with guest DJs, the perfect way to end a horribly hectic weekend. The Caltan. Sunday. 15 Aug. Noon—9pm.
I Strait Festival party time is back. with tacky sounds and rare grooviness in full effect.
Adam House. nightly. [1.30pm4am.
The List 1539133385593 85