Den Haan are a live synthesised dance act – the conceptual disco duo of Matthew Aldworth and Andy Gardiner. Previous releases have brought the group critical acclaim and firm dj support from the likes of Optimo, Cosmo Vitelli, Headman, Ivan Smagghe and Mylo. Their debut album “Gods From Outer Space” will be released on Alworth’s Courier Of Death imprint today, March 4th 2011.

Den Haan are built for the rhythms of the night. Their releases are the spirit of seedy 70’s basement dives, a deco-greco roman blur of glistening bodies and dazzling lights, Criso on the wrists, spunk in the dark corners and sweat condensed on every surface while machine-made rhythms from some far-away disco planet send shockwaves of ecstasy across the dancefloor. Den Haan’s sound is knowing-humour with a hand-on-the-cock sexual swagger. They GET the cheap pop aesthetic built into italo and especially hi-NRG. The rhythms are dark, electronic, tribal, with vocals hewn from Anvil or Van Halen rather than from Donna Summer. They are popper-soaked macho guys barking out tales of stalking the night cruising for kicks, all backed by a chorus of booming sado-cybernetic vocoders. And there ain’t no Diva’s in the Den Haan sound – save maybe for a terrifying 26 stone dog-s**t eating drag colossal know as Divine.

Aldworth and Gardiner first met when they ended up djing together by chance, and soon bonded strongly over their passion for sounds born during a short period in the evolution of soul and funk at the end of the 1970’s when producers and artists were breaking ground in new forms of disco production. Den Haan’s compositions pay homage to these producers, writers and musicians, not with a lazy ironic shrug but with a genuine admiration for their skewed creativity, their imagination and ingenuity in adapting and experimenting with technology. That ability to create something slightly un-hinged – perhaps not the most polished of effort – but something with a killer synth hook that never the less makes you scream and throw yourself around the dancefloor.

Den Haan study their favourite productions and producers in forensic detail: Celso Valli (Azoto and Tantra), Franco Rago & Gigi Farina (behind the ‘Lectric Workers releases), the experimental excursions of Vangelis, the homo-disco cybernetics of Patrick Cowley and the atonal alienation programmed into the soundtracks of Claudio Somonetti and John Carpenter. Sourcing original instruments and production equipment the duo sweat it out in the studio striving to re-create as close to a version of this original approach to sound creation as possible, their only contemporary indulgence being a bang up-to-date studio mastering conducted by Austrian based producer Patrick Pulsinger of electronic label Cheap Recordings. This commitment to process brings not only an authenticity to the productions but also to their explosive live performances. As Optimo’s JD Twitch commented after seeing them on stage – “fuck, the sound is way better than an actual club”!

“Gods From Outer Space” has been designed to work as a complete listening experience, a journey through Den Haan’s fictitious universe;- titles like “Release The Beast” and “Nightshift” conjure up the sweaty nightclub scenes from “Cruising” all hyper-macho swagger and pungent sexuality, “Gods From Outerspace” recalls the endless cheap laser blasts of 80’s sci-fi also-rans, the pompous faux religiosity of concept prog synth albums, while interludes like “The Arrival” and “The End” give a sort breath of contemplation – BBC Radiophonic workshop interludes reflecting the dichotomous dystopian/utopian divide in their film soundtrack influences – before you are propelled back into an exhilarating votex of flesh and fantasy. The music may seem to have a parodic quality, an in-built “cheese” factor – but that is resolutely not its intention. Den Haan are deadly serious in celebrating their musical influences. Its camp undoubtedly, but HIGH camp – homage and ambiguity as opposed to parody and pastiche. Theirs is an aesthetic hip enough to appreciate trashy genius whilst simultaneously in awe of the craft and imagination that was employed to create it. This isn’t a just a game, it’s a ridiculous reality. They’re not afraid to get crazy and let their balls hang right out there. Thats what they are about.

They will play an official album launch show at Stereo tonight, Friday the 11th March, with dj support from RPZ, Wrong Island and David Barbarossa.

NIGHT SHIFT by DenHaan

On October 8th 2010 GmbH will open in the Modern Institute gallery space at 14-20 Osborne St. in Glasgow’s Merchant City.

The mission of GmbH is to create a vibrant resource space for contemporary cultural product and high quality specialist publications in Glasgow’s city centre, a space which can encourage and support the Glasgow creative community providing access to the best international print media of all kinds, from high-gloss print to fanzines. The project, created and run by enterprising young duo Jamie Kenyon & Neil McKie, is intended to fill the current gap in Glasgow for an experienced outlet for specialist print dedicated to art, culture and design.

Kenyon and McKie realised that after the demise of the large Borders outlet on Buchanan Street there was no decent place to purchase a wide range of fashion, arts and culture publications. The high street outlets that remain do not stock anywhere near the volume of specialist publications that Borders once did.

This left a vacuum in the cultural market for a dedicated publication outlet, which provides an expansive range of contemporary magazines, journals and periodicals. A destination which would reach further in specialisation than Borders ever had, focusing on bespoke publishing, art, fashion, design, film and music as well as covering lifestyle, culture and affairs.

In addition to this, Kenyon and McKie intend the GmbH project not only to provide a dizzying variety of specialist publications, but also in-store expertise: friendly, enthusiastic and knowledgeable staff who can advise interested readers on titles to complement their interests as well as being able to source publications from across the world that maybe be difficult to find.

Though the Internet now provides easy access to art and culture information, as well as to on-line versions of print editions, there is still no substitution for the enjoyment of a beautifully printed publication, nor the satisfying sense of completion in reading one magazine from cover to cover. There is a real tactile pleasure to be taken from a loving created magazine that cannot be duplicated on a computer screen. Many publications and limited edition art materials are not able to be found on the web and therefore can only be an accessed and enjoyed upon the printed page.

Neil McKie has been involved in the music and event promotion industry since 2003. While working with PCL Concerts he produced citywide music events and festivals.
Jamie Kenyon graduated from GSA in 2007, since he has worked in curatorial roles with SWG3, Tate Britain and is currently Programmer at CCA.

The GmbH opening event takes place on 8th Oct at 4pm until 9pm – we would like to invite you along to see the project in action.

For more information please contact gmhbshop@gmail.com

This very night, thursday 24th June, RPZ present their final night in the Vic Bar and bid farewell to the Art School for EVER.

It has been just over 8 years since RPZ (formerly Record Playerz until 2007) started their night in the Vic Bar in the Glasgow School Of Art. Since that time, the night has grown to be one of the largest and most successfully weekly club nights in Scotland. There have been a great many fantastic nights in that time, many firm friends have been met and been made over the years and the club has been, and continues to be, the blue-print for many many other nights that have come in its wake.

But really its not the end, it is just the end of RPZ’s residency in the legendary Vic Bar.   We’ll move on and change the dynamic and the destination, we love the music too much for it to be over.   But lets say a set of final thank yous and farewells, to those delirious times, those fantastic guests that we brought to glasgow almost always for the first time, and those f**ked up crazy dancing girls and boys who REALLY made our night the success it was.

Cum and danse in the Vic Bar under those neon projections and spinning lights one more time…

Electric Frog Carnival is a uniquely programmed urban & electronic micro-festival which has be created and curated by bewteen Liquid Events, Optimo and SWG3.    The festival takes place over one full day in the heart of Glasgow’s cutting edge arts scene at the SWG3 studio’s on Eastvale place.    Its a collaboration between the very best of Glasgow’s musical and artistic communities with a diverse programme of live performances, installations, graffiti art, face-painting, break dancing and deejay performances.

The programmed acts for the event are a cherry-picked international selection with exclusive appearances in Scotland by Liquid Liquid, Simian Mobile Disco, Felix Da Housecat, Planetary Assault Systems, Trus’me and Alter Ego. While complementing this international gang will be a host of familiar faces from amongst the ranks of Glasgow’s own live and club scenes –  Optimo DJs, Sensu, Simon Cordiner (Melting Pot) and Billy Woods (Supermax).

All these attractions take place both indoors and out, around a massive street party, across three specially programmed stages with five bars and a food court.   Electric Frog Street Carnival promises something entirely bespoke  - a cutting-edge urban micro-festival – where a collection of exceptional summer festival talent can be easily accessed and experienced in the very heart of the city.

Sunday 1st August 2010, 3pm – 11am (*subject to license). Admission price £32 (+ booking fees)

SWG3, 100 Eastvale Place, Glasgow.

Optimo (Espacio) Marquee :- Liquid Liquid, Simian Mobile Disco, Alter ego, Optimo, Factory Floor.

Sensu Room :- Felix Da Housecat, Planetary Assault Systems, Cottam, Sensu(live).

Street Party :- Simon Cordiner (Melting Pot) & Billy Woods(Supermax), Teamy & Dirty Larry (Wring Island), Deman & NIce (Freakmenoovers) Craig Moogroove & Kev Stevens.

www.electricfrogcarnival.com

An especially disco-fied affair at Death Disco this month. The Arches was paired down to two rooms, with italomatic warm ups from myself and Josh Jones, a live performance from Australian trio The Swiss, while one half of current nu-disco darlings Aeroplane headlined with a formidible dj set.

The Swiss and their laconic but energised live show was however the highpoint of the night.   Tremendously satisfying and irresistibly danceable, The Swiss members executed a faultless, muscular hybrid of jazz, disco and late 70′s funk streaked with fantasic euro-diso synth stabs and more neon pow-pow-pows than Patrick Cowley’s entire back catalogue.  This might all sound like rather unpalatable Swiss cheese, but these guys come down heavy on the the right side ‘disco’ and with actual instruments (played with impressive skill).  It is a sound that harks back to classic era disco acts like Musique,  Kano and Cerrone, with a knowing and impressive nod to the inspirational jazz funk of late-era Passport and Herbie Hancock.

WCNS caught the guys back stage afterwards, interrupting a post-show critique of their own performance (despite a brilliant show they were being pretty hard on themselves) and grabbed this cheeky shot of the band before we knocked back a few iced beverages and talked fusion jazz albums and Doobie Brothers tracks.

I urge you to check out the current Ep Bubble Bath out on Modular and pump up the volume on the tracks nesting on their Soundcloud.

The Swiss DJ mix for Studio Brussels by The Swiss

Nick Van Woert is a sculptor from Brooklyn, NY. His astute interpretation of contemporary sculpting has produced some impressive and striking works. He has exhibited all over America in the past five years and has a solo exhibition in Amsterdam this year.

Sundays at the Sub Club will now be the home of HUNG UP! a new weekly event curated by Optimo – deejays JD Twitch and JG Wilkes.

HUNG UP! has been born out of the extraordinary explosion of affection that greeted the final ever Optimo (E!spacio). An evening where Twitch and Wilkes experienced the admiration and sheer, sweat-blinking euphoria of the Glasgow clubbing community for 12 years of dedicated, genre-defying clubbing. Inspired with that energy, filled with fresh ideas and a renewed excitement, this brand new night launched on Sunday the 16th of May.

Keen to inject their new energy and ideas into a fresh Sunday venture, Twitch and Wilkes intend to hand over the deejay duties and the direction of the party groove to a series of their contemporaries. Hung Up! will be an event based primarily on a rolling billing of guest djs drawn from Optimo’s djs friends and peers in the Glasgow clubbing community and augmented by live performances from bands selected by the Optimo team.

The intention is for Twitch and Wilkes to curate and cultivate a new event, one which will rarely include the two of them djing together. HUNG UP! will evolve through a looser, varied and rotating line up of guest djs and live performers where Optimo drop in individually to play with – or indeed hand over the night entirely to – these guests.

↑ Chrome Hoof

This will include not only regular invitations to well known faces of the club scene:- including in the opening month Jackmaster (Numbers/Dress to Sweat), David Barbarossa (Fun Size/Night Dreams) and Hushpuppy (RPZ). The “no guest djs” policy of the previous Optimo (E!spacio) years gives way to a desire to invite some of the friends they have met all over the world back to Scotland to host a sunday night Glasgow party, so expect a line-up of exception British and international guests in the coming months.

The music, the decoration, the image, the sounds and the ethos will be changing on Sundays as Optimo explore the possibilities and opportunities that creating a fresh start brings. But the one thing that won’t change is the quailty of what will be on offer. The party lives on.

“Fuck shit up!”

Sunday May 23rd – JG Wilkes & Hushpuppy (RPZ)

Sunday May 30th – Chrome Hoof (LIVE) & JD Twitch.

***PLEASE NOTE – prices will vary from week to week for live shows and guest dj promotions.

Coming soon – KXP, Peter Digital Orchestra, MMM and many more…

Scottish artist, Susan Philipsz was this week announced in the shortlist for this years Turner Prize.   Known for her sight specific sound installations, Phillipsz commission for the Glasgow International Festival Of Visual Art – Lowlands – was a favourite in the festivals 2010 programme, and one of the most emotive and affecting of the festivals attractions

A recording of a traditional lament sung by Philipsz herself, the piece played every twenty minutes amplified from speakers under the two bridges on either sides of the Central station Railway bridge. Lowlands brought a spectral and haunting beauty to unsuspecting passers by, who made their way along the river front at the George V bridge during the 2 weeks of the installation, facilitating moments of meditation and quite contemplation in the otherwise bustling heart of the city.