Search

Fresh of touring with Pryda Friend Fehrplay, opening for Eric Prydz on his EPIC 2.0 dates, Jeremy Olander is still on the move. He recently...

DJs are at heart music lovers. Dedicating your life to sharing and mixing a superior taste in tunes suggests a serious passion for sound. Most...

Michael Woods is no regular dance music artist. He is classically trained, describes playing the piano as being ‘as natural as speaking English’ and puts...

With no shortage of dance events on Croatian soil, the new boutique festival from the makers of Hideout, Field Day and the Warehouse Project is a difficult one to resist. We get to know Unknown Festival...

Maidstone's party massive are out in force for Random at Source Bar, where hyped houser Huxley is holding court. We join the fray and get random...

Miss Bee is the honeysweet go-to house vocalist of the moment

An extraordinary amount of hype has accumulated quite the patriotic stir across social media platforms in the last few weeks and it’s present on punters' faces tonight. In a nutshell, anticipation and excitement don’t quite cut it — the air of emotion seething from this gargantuan queue is incredulous.



After a year that saw him kicking all sorts of professional goals, and inching ever closer to the top-billing house jocks who’ve been playing his records for years, Germany’s Thomas Gold saw it fit to close off 2012 with a bang

Sometimes you can palpably feel the buzz surrounding an artist, like the charged air before a thunderstorm, and having heard the monsoon of releases about...

Icicle and Distance drop their last deliciously deep, dark dubplate as the crowd

gratefully grumble with appreciation for the last hours tantalisingly fresh set.

Weaving...

Words: Bianca Mitchell

This May bank holiday weekend sees the international festival of hip-hop dance theatre popping and locking its way back to London town....

The brainchild of DJ Cosmo (Colleen Murphy) the Boston-born, New York raised, London dwelling disco / house music legend, and infamous leftfield guitarist Gary Lucas, who's played with Captain Beefheart, Lou Reed and Jeff Buckley, they make the kind of funky psychedelic rhythms that can only emanate from maverick minds. First single 'Musical Blaze Up' traverses the dub country route, while new cut 'Purple Somersault' is a bizarre and brilliant collision between cranked Kraut-rock drums, wigged surf guitar and scratchy funk. DJmag beckoned Murphy away from her surf board for a minute to talk names, grooves, and grand plans…

So why the name Wild Rumpus?!

"It's from a children's book called 'Where the Wild Things Are' by Maurice Sendak which I loved as a kid and which I read to my daughter. There is a great part of the story where the little boy and his monster friends are about to have a manic dance party underneath a full moon and it says, 'And now let the wild rumpus start'. It just had to be used."

It seems to be quite an unusual hook up, between you Cosmo, and Gary Lucas. How did you come to be working together?

"Gary and I have been friends for nearly 20 years and have talked about working together for ages. I used to do a few different radio shows on WNYU in NYC and had him up when he was relaunching his solo career in the late '80s. As most people in the UK know me for being a 'dance' DJ, many may think it is quite an unusual collaboration. However, most people don't know that I was first and foremost a rock chick and founded the first psychedelic / progressive rock show on my radio station and I was a huge Captain Beefheart fan before house music even existed!"

You seem to have a diverse taste - one minute dubbed out beats and rhymes, the next Krautrock surf music... Is there a grand Wild Rumpus plan?

"Wild Rumpus is about fusing different styles but in a way that works. It's also about having fun and being irreverent. And finally it's about being different. I spend a few hours at the record store and find that 99% of the music to which I am subjected to is derivative. It's so boring. Gary and I both have musically diverse backgrounds and we are able to use our musical heritage in a unique way. This is all music we love!"

What's a 'Purple Somersault'?

"It's a 'term' my daughter came up with. Her favourite colour is purple and 'purple' has also become an adjective that means something that is 'the best'. She likes being flipped upside down and would ask us to help her do an orange somersault, a black somersault (very sinister), a yellow somersault (happy!), etc. But the best was always the 'Purple Somersault'. Also, as this is a surf tune, the somersault refers to the somersaults one does underwater after a wipe-out."

Is there an album in the works? What can we expect?

"There is an album in the works. We have a lot of Gary's guitar tracks that we have recorded and now it's up to me to put it all together so I have quite a job in front of me. Gary is the most original guitarist and can do anything. When we're in the studio it's just so easy but the problem comes with the editing and arranging as sometimes there is almost too much! All I can say about the album is that it will be diverse but always psychedelic and soulful."

What's next for Wild Rumpus?

"Right now we're getting our live show, The Wild Rumpus Experience, together for the summer. We have performed in some wild places including India and are hoping to for some of the UK festivals. We work with visual artist Rob Rainbow who works with The Light Surgeons and Nitin Sawhney amongst others and have also worked with percussionists and a poi fire dancer! We have a show that reaches people on many dimensions so the visual element is really important. We just want to do something that is a bit different."

M-Audio Xponent integrated Midi controller and USB sound card.

Words: David Eserin

2007 is going to be the year of the PC...

San Fran's Loveparade will not take place this year

Loveparade's Berlin-based parent organisation decided to concentrate on the parade's return to Germany

San Fran Loveparade...

Listen

Graeme Sinden DJmag mix Listen to Graeme Sinden's exclusive DJmag mix!

Graeme...