About Me
This page is my outlet for and about music, so everything you read on here is geared towards that.
Music has been a strong influence in my life from around the age of 6, it had always been in my home. Teen years were spent listening to the Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, Inspirals and Charlatans and wearing baggy jeans and long moppy hair. From there I can remember looking upto the older boys who could get into the raves all I could do was to listen to the tapes of the nights they went to. My favourite was DJ Harri, such brilliant house music, changed things musically for me. I would listen to my class in school with one ear and the other would have DJ Harri.
Before long I went to my first rave/club, I was 17, so impressionable, so gullable, so F-ing excited! I was very lucky/spoilt because the people putting on nights at that time put sooooo much into it, Visually the place was unrecognisable, at first I would get lost in the place, and enjoyed doing so. They used black drapes to totally change the dimension of the place, even the roof was lowered using cammo nets and drapes, giving me the sense that I was high already. Breaking the darkness was amazing artwork, usually lit with blacklight, nothing of the original venue was recognisable, a huge effort by the club. Then the music, this is where I was first introduced to techno by the likes of Andrew Weatherall, Billy Nasty, Craig Walsh, Josh Wink, Ralph Lawson, etc. These nights would start, dark, spacey, cool and moody and end sweaty, colourful, claustrophobic and loving it.Sadly this club finished and although another took its place, it wasnt of the same calibre, this could be because the experience was'nt new to me, but I have never seen any club put as much into one/each night as they did in Blam Blam. After a couple of years I ventured down to the Arches in Glasgow as this is where my new sonic heros resided, Slam. Although I said that no other club had made as strong an impact on me as my first club, the Arches in Glasgow would be runner up, What a brilliant venue, located in old tunnels under Central Station not much else was required to give it atmosphere, loads of character eerie/dark/dingey and menacing with tough, jacking, snarey Chicago beats which led to late bleary nights. But not too bleary that I could forget about the Talents of, Green Velvet, Glen Underground, Boo Williams, DJ Sneak, Daft Punk, Derrick Carter, Gene Farris etc.
By now I had a collection of records, which was begging to be played out at volume, but would there be anough interested invernessian ears for the likes of: Louis Bell, Boo Williams, Dajae, Paul Johnson, DBX,DJ Deeon, Lil Louis, Robert Armani,DJ Rush, Laurent Garnier, Plastikman, Dan Bell, Carl Craig, Jay Denham, UR, Robert Hood, Moodyman, DJ Sneak that was the big question?
So me and two other boys scraped together some money and bought some lights and had some effects done on Canvass and opened our own club, which we ran for two years, it was a great way to play out what we loved so much. But it was difficult to get a venue that would allow us to do what we wanted. I wanted to get abroad to Canada and needed quick cash so I sold my Turntables and bought a one way ticket to Canada. I turned my back on clubs and music for a couple of years and was more interested in mechanics and building a car. I still listened, I still had one ear listening just like back in school but not with the same enthusiasim. By now I would listen to Funkadelic, Rage against the machine, Vangelis, Aphex, JJ Cale to Pole etc all sorts really. Then, just over a year ago I went to See Ritchie Hawtin in the Arches and Instantly I remembered how I had missed that bass, that dark yet uplifting funky sound, the light through the smokey shadows, the blearyness and how I was left wanting more.
Shortly after, I booked a 3 night trip to Berlin and since then Its relit my love for the machine music. The sounds coming out of Germany at the momment is astonishing, in fact make that Europe in General. For me though, Germany is doin it the best, it seems to just oooze funk, its nail on the head funk. For a while I thought that things were dying out, but you would only have to go to Rex in paris, Fabric in London, Watergate in Berlin, Womb in Tokyo to know that the techno sound, the underground club, the rave is very much alive and kicking hard and all I know is I want to be a part of it. Im really enjoying this new Korg mixer, and still love making mixes with all the amazing sounds out at the momment, music production is next.
