T IN THE PARK
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(usually sometime early on Monday morning)? Making moves post-T Break is crucial. Louie’s tactic was having pre-emptive plans in place to keep the momentum l owing. ‘We launched our album in the weeks after and it was the i rst time we had ever sold out gigs in Glasgow and Edinburgh. We didn’t have any PR or marketing budget so used T Break as a springboard to launch the album. It gave us a reputation as a band who could bring hip hop into the festival circuit in a way it hadn’t existed in Scotland before.’ Tuff Love’s T Break turn gave them the motivation needed to start churning out belter after belter, including their LP Resort, an amalgamation of their three shoegazey EPs ‘Junk’, ‘Dross’ and ‘Dregs’. ‘Some people took us more seriously after it. We’ve toured loads, got to play lots of festivals, including Glastonbury, and now we’re working on new material, which is super exciting!’
Similarly, Hector Bizerk have hardly stopped since their time at T Break. They’ve been up to ‘hunnnnerz of stuff,’ according to Louie. ‘It’s been a slow burner because we never tried to write radio-friendly music to i t into any sort of pigeonhole.’ As well as their two LPs, four EPs and i lm with BAFTA New Talent winner Iain Henderson, Louie has also released three books of poetry and scored music for a theatre production. And there’s the small issue of that SAY Award longlist nomination (see feature, page 29). ‘We’re the only self-released album in the longlist which I think is a measure of the authenticity of the SAY Award in itself. Out nomination goes to show that it doesn’t matter where your record has come from, only what it sounds like.’
T Break, Strathallan Castle, Fri 8–Sun 10 Jul.
BANG THE DRUM
The Slam Tent at T in the Park is probably the best dance tent at any major festival in the land. Each year’s line-up, lovingly crafted by Slam (aka Stuart McMillan and Orde Meikle), offers a haven for house heads and techno addicts. This year’s bill boasts Len Faki, Richie Hawtin, Ricardo Villalobos and many more. Meikle talks Henry Northmore through his top i ve personal highlights from 2016: Local boy Jasper James is playing Thursday. He’s the son of our very good friend Harri, who we used to DJ with at the Sub Club. He’s taken his father’s taste one step further.
DVS1 plays Friday. A good friend of ours from Minneapolis. He plays things that you think ‘I couldn’t get away with that!’, either by speeding them up, slowing them down or mixing them with two or three other records. It’s not straight-up techno, it’s quite stripped, quite minimal. On the Saturday there’s Daniel Avery, an up-and-coming producer from London that we’re hoping to collaborate with. Very musical, sequence-driven stuff. He’s someone I’ve actually not seen DJ before, so I want to be around to watch his set.
Marcel Dettmann on the Sunday. One of the nicest guys you could ever meet. As far we’re concerned this man can do no wrong. He has a sound all to himself with a real vision; he kind of melts music together. I have to say Jeff Mills, who closes Sunday. He’s someone who has inl uenced us from the start of our career. He was called The Wizard. One of the i rst times he came to the UK was when we booked him at the Arches and seeing him perform for the i rst time made all the stories and folklore make sense.
24 THE LIST 2 Jun–1 Sep 2016