Slam: Exclusive mix and interview

The legendary Soma Records’ label owners and founders, Slam present their exclusive mix for Juno Plus. Kicking off with Bart Skils aka District One’s remix of Mark Broom & Mihalis Safras’s “Crabsticks”, their mix also features Ramon Tapia and Gel Abril Remixes and Alan Fitzpatrick alongside their own “Hot Knives” track as remixed by Gary Beck, taking us through a journey of driving tech-house and groove-filled techno.

Bearing a clear relation to their own signature sounds, Soma Records has long propagated this strain of tech-house, putting out releases from the likes of techno kings Adam Beyer and Jesper Dahlback, to ‘everybody’s favourite DJ’, Luciano. A huge variety of producers like Ewan Pearson, Lee Van Dowksi and Massi DL aka 90s house reviver Horacio have all released on Soma, shaping the brand’s sound as versatile yet distinctive.

In terms of their own productions, the Glaswegian duo made a name for themselves with tracks like “We Doin’ This Again?” on their Paragraph label and have since gone on to release their fourth album Human Response. They have travelled across a spectrum of sounds from more acid, 90s Chicago house and Detroit techno influences, to deeper Dubfire-esque sounds circa “Hot Knives” whilst the more recent remixes for Mihalis Safras, Samuel L Session, and Josh Wink’s “Everybody to the Sun” showed the new Slam sound appeared to be going with the flow of current techno trends, concentrating on a groovier style.

The duo themselves, Stuart McMillan and Orde Meikle, take a break from producing, mixing and running their Return To Mono residency at Glasgow’s Sub Club to speak to Juno Plus about their past and future.

Your sound has changed quite noticeably over the years unlike a lot of DJs who continue to remain quite repetitive… whilst your early stuff was influenced heavily by Detroit techno, do you feel this still the case today?

Slam’s sound has always morphed, around a central core of musical values.  Electronica in its very essence has to change – absorb, assimilate and re-interpret – Detroit is one of many influences.

What influences the changes in your musical output?

Software and hardware advances have had a big influence on our productions and sound.

How did you first meet? Have you always worked as a duo?

We first met in 1987 – working in a student bar in Glasgow’s West End and have worked as a duo pretty much ever since – with a few collaborations and solo projects thrown in there along the way.

Who would be your dream collaboration?

The list is endless….

What are you listening to at the moment?

Promos – lots and lots of promos – and then some more promos – and our new Slam Monopod 6…

Having compiled a mix for them before, you’ve just played Fabric in London.. where are your favourite places to DJ?

Oh, favourite places… Fabric is one of them – Judy, Craig and Terry have a fantastic thing there, Sub Club and Arches in Glasgow – Womb in Tokyo , Pacha in Buenos Aires, Space Ibiza , D Edge in Sao Paulo, Rex in Paris, Berghain and Watergate  Berlin… there are lots of great nights.

Soma has had a huge amount of artists involved, what do you expect for the label next year?

Soma has some fantastic new artists and projects in the pipeline – most of it top secret, but I’m looking forward to Gary Beck and Hatikvah new albums and some great new tracks and stunning remixes from our Paragraph label.

Interview: Flora Wong

SLAM – EXCLUSIVE JUNO PLUS MIX – DOWNLOAD HERE – (mp3)

Tracklisting:

1. Mark Broom, Mihalis Safras – Crabsticks (District One Remix) [Material]
2. Marc Miroir – Polyplot (Ramon Tapia Remix) [Paso Music]
3. Slam – Variance (Gel Abril Remix) [Paragraph]
4. Raditz Room – Simply [Android Muziq]
5. Thinkfreak – Hack [Soniculture]
6. Fernando Sanz – Sazonando [Unlock Recordings]
7. Mike Wall – La Salida [Lordag Norway]
8. Uto Karem – Homebase (Rino Cerrone Renovation Mix) [Agile Records]
9. Alan Fitzpatrick – Paranoize [Unknown]
10. Stefano Calonico – Reload (Tony Dee Remix) [Capsula Digital]
11. Alan Fitzpatrick – Payser (Uto Karem Remix) [Sprout]
12. Slam – Hot Knives (Gary Beck Remix) [Paragraph]
13. Shades of Gray – Whispers in the Dark (Ramon Tapia Remix) [Flow Records]
14. Sami Wentz – Mi Filosofia [Globox Records]
15. Slam – Collecting Data [Paragraph]