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LABEL SHOWCASE
Vapour The Arches, Glasgow, Fri 2 Feb.
Clubs are so boring. You know the drill: big name guests month in month out, one-track mind residents, no need for innovation when the kids will happily fork out their hard-earned to be spoon-fed a familiar routine. Thank goodness, then, for Vapour. The Arches’ new monthly party aims to cock a snook at the conventional tenets of nightclub promotion with a series of genre-unspecific parties, with name and ethos in common, but no residents and no set music policy.
’In 1988 dance music was united under one banner,’ says co- promoter Cymon Eckel. ’But since then it's dissipated into different genres. We were also interested in the way people went clubbing in
Pressure Drop let off steam at Vapour
the early 805 as well, where you
might go to a goth night on Wednesday, then a funk night on Saturday, so we wanted to set up a regular party without a genre.’
No mean feat, you'd have thought, but Vapour has a trick up its sleeve: each night will be in collaboration with a different record label, launching with Leftfield’s independent Hard Hands, home to Pressure Drop and the Leftfield Soundsystem in the form of Nick Rapaccioli and Paul Daley. ‘Labels always have a culture around them,’ Eckel explains. ‘Obviously the music is at the centre of that, but there are sleeve designers or video directors who create this sense of a label and we want to respect the label as a whole. Each party will have a sort of digital multimedia grab of the label with sleeve artwork, videos and photographs being projected and that will build up with each event we do, so eventually we’ll have a record of the nights that reflects each label.’
’lt’s also about having the labels programme their room
themselves,’ says fellow promoter Marcus Weedon. ’lnstead of us saying "We want this person and that person", we collaborate with them, using the big stars of the label and their profile to get people through the doors then having the less well-known people as well, so there's always someone you wouldn't normally see. The next event is based around KMS, Kevin Saunderson’s label, and he’ll be bringing his view of the future of Detroit music as well as representing the past, so you might not know some of the names but you get a better idea of a what a label’s doing.’
As well as taking a label-centric view, and trading in pointless projections for a genuine cross-media snapshot of an imprint’s ethos, Vapour is worth keeping an eye on thanks to a commitment to change. ‘Six months down the line everything we're saying about Vapour now might go out the window,’ says Eckel. ’The last thing we want to do is get stuck in a set format or a rigid cycle of running things the same way every month.’ (Jack Mottram)
RELAUNCH
Boogie Mo Dynamo Wilkie House, Edinburgh, Sat 3 Feb.
\ . x', v:-
Break heaters Smack, Wreckage and Believe
Like a bulging throb of masculinity that's got too big for its trousers, Boogie lvlo Dynamo became simply too large for its former residency at The Bongo Club. Or as resident DJ and promoter Smack more delicately puts it 'Our nights Just got bigger and bigger and turning people away ain’t cool‘. After extending many thanks to the crew at The Bongo, the decrsion was taken to find a space that COuld accommodate more of the fun-lovrng folk that conSistently go wrld for the Boogie Mo blend of beatfreakery.
As luck would have rt, around the same time as the unsightly bulge at the Bongo became apparent, Smack had Just finished fine tuning a new sound system at Wilkre House. Loaded With l30db of ultra sound, the sheer terrifying force of the system seemed strangely appealing to the promoters of the long-standing residency and a new venue was immediately secured. With more room to move and with a PA so loud ’it wrll make you feel Sick’, the priority now is concentrating on the club night’s cosmetics.
’We want to concentrate more on
the show,’ says Smack, adding that it's specrfically the 'Twisted Disko' back room element of the night that's set to blossom in the new space Launched some months ago at The Bongo, ’Twrsted Drsko’ is a hot to trot hybrid of funk, soul and disco and its popularity With the female freguenters of the night is something Smack arms to encourage, 'lt’s very popular wrth the ladies which is good because that gets all the guys dancing. The girls are all grvrng rt large and the guys revert back to the old courting rituals to try and impress them,’
The main room meanwhile wrll be earmarked as an arena for the distinctive mix of breaks, tech house, trance, house and nu skool grooves that the reSidents Smack, Wreckage and Believe hold dear to their hearts Big-name guests are expected in future from the ranks of Wall Of SOund (the pioneering big beat label that Wreckage himself is signed to and which is due to release hrs debut album later this year), but it's Lee Coombs, the star of breakbeat label Frnger Lickin’, who is set to relaunch the night in style. (Catherine Bromleyi
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Word up
AS SLEEK AND SHINY as it is, finding out what’s on at MAS in Glasgow has not been made as easy as it could be since the club venue opened last year. This is set to be remedied however when the management get a website up-and-running in the near future. Currently in a rather frustrating state of non-development, www.masclubbing.com will soon include full listings, a mailing list, a message board and a photo gallery. To save you time and angst though, forthcoming highlights at the swanky venue include Jacques Le Cont (23 February) and Jo Mills in a Scottish exclusive at High (28 February).
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AS FOR NEW nights in Edinburgh, the team behind glam house soiree Oxygen are planning to launch a new hard house showcase (yes, another one) called Crash at Club Java in June. With celebrity residents Andy Farley and Rachel Auburn already secured, the team are searching for a warm-up DJ for the night and this will be run as a competition with heats taking place at Java on Thursday 25 February, Sunday 4 March and Sunday 18 March. If you want to be in it to win it, call 0131467 3810 or 07941471218.
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fellow in May, July, October aw: December Happy days ahead for Scruff
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l—TS Feb 2001 THE lIST 69