Influences: Glowing Palms

When I switched this on aged 13, I knew absolutely nothing. OK I had a few cassette tapes and I’d seen “DJs” on Top of the Pops, but this was like a portal into another world. This was a guy staying up all night every weekend making people dance to music I never knew existed. He had a bunch of mates who made their own tunes that were amazing anddd they were all becoming famous in Japan?!! Plus their manager is funny as fuck. Mind = BLOWN.

I used to wake myself up at 2am every Sunday morning to record the Essential mix. This Carl Craig mix is a standout because it was a bit before my time and my mate Kempo recorded it but he was worried about it getting broken and wouldn’t lend out so we only ever heard it with a brew and digestive biscuits in his living room. Blade Runner soundtrack as the first track I mean come on .. it was like fireworks going off inside my head m8.

My mate landed a job a Vivienne Westwoods and met some cool gay people so she invited me to a night called Homo Electric. The club was like a maze with loads of little rooms with weird porno movies and all the bar staff were topless blokes with pierced nipples. When I got to the main room, Mu was performing with Maurice Fulton. She was swinging from the roof screaming down the mic wearing an outfit made of really thin strips of white silk oh lordie.

My friend Michael Holland who runs Ono records used to get the same bus home as Miles as in MLZ / Demdike Stare. Miles is a lovely guy and he would plant seeds about which artists to check right across the board from like Alice Coltrane to Basic Channel. One of which was Moodymann. Michael picked up a few pieces though bartering and swapping (they were expensive even then) and when he played them to me I couldn’t believe the raw funkiness of it all.

By 2006 I considered myself pretty knowledgable about music (I wasn’t). My pals were off watching a band my parents liked called Chic and I was trying to quietly (and studiously) watch Isolee twiddle his 303. My phone kept going off and my mates were texting me with increasing desperation how I had to stop whatever I was doing join them. Slightly annoyed I trudged over to the main room. I looked up and there was this gigantic disco ball and all my mates were dancing in a circle to the funkiest guitar licks and most soulful shit i’d ever heard.

Another Michael Holland link this one. He was given a mixtape called “Black Heart Disco” by the guy who runs New Religion records and this one was of the tunes. It was the first Italo record I’d ever knowingly heard and I was just mesmerized by the slightly wonky lyrics and music that sounded like prototype House (little did I know this was the very shit that Frankie Knuckles and those guys were listening to when they fired up their machines).

This was the tune that launched Ruf Dug’s career basically. He was planning to go see Trus’ Me DJ so decided he’d have a crack at a disco tune to give to him. I think Trus Me had to cancel the gig so he never gave it to him but Ruffy sent it to a couple of people via Myspace. It got pressed up on and made good noises in the clubs. When I heard it playing at a festival in Croatia I was like woooahh my pal made this!! BIG moment!

Modern influence this one. If the Wet Play DJ plays my demo and Bathislav Tubovic gets up on stage with his shades on that’s a fully tucked, double thumbs up to get that tape to the pressing plant. STAT.