Fatboy Slimmer.

When Hugh Grant, as lovesick William in Nottting Hill, rushes to London’s Ritz to hunt down Julia Roberts, playing the world’s finest actress Anna Scott in this particular movie, he desperately pulls out the names of several well-known ladies from fiction, finally coming up trumps and getting the girl who had checked in, and out, as Pocahontas.

So when you go by as many names as English DJ Fatboy Slim has done in a 25-year career (born Quentin Cook, spent a short part of his career as DJ Quentox although he is generally just known as Norman Cook these days), is there a real need to adapt a pseudonym? Apparently so, because Fatboy Slim had checked into room seven of a Rio de Janeiro hotel under the alias of a well-known BBC weatherman.

But it is as Fatboy Slim that Norman Cook will playing to around 30,000 electronic music fans tonight at Creamfields, and not just any old beeping music event — Creamfields Buenos Aires reaches double figures this year.

Speaking from Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday, where he was preparing to play a private gig for city mayor Cesar Maia that evening, Norman says: “The World Cup is in Brazil in four years and I have a sideline project of being the official World Cup DJ so we’re doing our preliminary rounds here,” he says. “I started in Japan eight years ago, and have just been to South Africa so we’re planning something really big for Brazil. We thought we’d hook up with some movers and shakers in the football and political worlds! It‘s a no brainer as they love me out here and I love being here!”

Norman Cook started off his career in Paul Heaton’s The Housemartins in the mid-1980s, a Hull-based guitar band which found fairly quick success with Happy Hour and Caravan of Love, the latter a woeful harmonic track ideal for drunken staggers home. But the Housemartins split up in 1998: Heaton set up The Beautiful South while Norman took the production route, forming Beats International, Freak Power and Pizzaman, all pseudonyms for his diverse projects.

The Fatboy Slim concept. “I have lost quite a lot of weight this year actually and I completed the Brighton marathon in under five hours,” he laughs. He was born in 1963, and just keeps on rocking. Now aged 47, with a 25-year career behind him and with a 10-month-old baby girl in the household as well as an older son, how much longer can Fatboy Slim keep travelling the world for?

“I reckon I’ve bought another five years since I stopped drinking, and I’m healthier than I ever was. At the moment we have such a banging show, with the visuals, I’m going to milk it until I have to retire. Look at the Rolling Stones, they can still do it. DJs were never supposed to be good looking in the first place and we’ve always been able to hide our paunch behind the decks, so I think we are allowed to get old and fat and bald, more so than pop stars.”

This isn’t the first time Fatboy Slim has played Argentina but that was a couple of years back. “I’ve played down on the beach before but what I notice about the Creamfields idea in South America is that it is tailor-made for it. Argentina is too far away to get huge line-ups on a regular basis so it’s a great excuse to bring everyone over and there aren’t that many similar events so Creamfields stands out,” Norman says.

“It seems to mean more to people here. I think the set-up works much better in a hot country — I’ve done the Liverpool Creamfields many times and it can be a bit of a chore depending on the English weather!”

Warning him that the long Buenos Aires nights can be a touch on the chilly side, and that perhaps a sweater is in order, Norman retorts: “I can cope with anything — I’ve just come from England!”

On a South American whirlwind tour taking in Peru and Paraguay as well as Brazil, one could assume all the DJs know each other and hang out. Who is he looking forward to seeing play at Creamfields Buenos Aires?

“Actually, I haven’t even had any time to work out who is on the line-up, but I know Carl Cox is playing. When you play three times a week, you just have no idea,” he says. “But I am looking forward to hanging out with Carl and David Guetta as we were together in Sao Paulo last weekend and they are old friends.”

What kind of mischief did you all get up to? “Well there was some that I can’t mention but I don’t drink anymore, neither does Carl. We’ve all quietened down and concentrate on the job rather than having a laugh.”

With a small crew in tow as opposed to the large entourage a live band usually brings on tour, Norman is very proud of the Fatboy Slim light show as it allows him to be a VJ as well. “We write scripts for the tunes I play most, but it’s great as I don’t have to stick to that — whatever I play comes up on screen immediately. But my lighting and visuals guys have to keep guessing when I go off piste!”

The audio and visuals all sound pretty fabulous but is there anything that hasn’t yet been invented that could take his show to a whole different level?

“I’d like the lights to come out onto the audience. The bigger the gig, the further away you are from the crowd so if there was a way that the DJ booth could hydraulically come over the top of the crowd, I would feel a lot more among everybody. Yes, hydraulics to bring the show to the crowd.”

Ravers shouldn’t expect Fatboy Slim to be flying through the air this time around, but as he says, give it another five years, technologically speaking, and who knows.

Where & when
Autódromo de Buenos Aires (Av. Roca and General Paz). Website: www.creamfieldsba.com How to get there: By subway E, Plaza de los Virreyes station combine with Premetro to Gral. Savio station or by bus, lines 21,28,47,80,41,101,114,117,141,150,185.

First published in the Buenos Aires Herald on 13 November, 2010

Now aged 42, one of Shem’s first musical ventures was while he was studying at university in Brighton. He says: “I was 18, which, was, well I don’t even want to think when that was, but it was at a pirate radio called Faze FM. There was an underground dance scene which was kind of linked to the university as well. Carl Cox and Norman Cook (Fatboy Slim) were also doing shows on this station — this was back in 1989 or 1990. I got gigs on pirate radio because I was a club DJ who used to do warehouse parties and I was known on the scene.”

Back in the day Radio Luxembourg was the most famous pirate station, and it was an outlet for clandestine creativity. But now in 2009 any old wannabe can set up shop on the internet and make themselves heard. Is there any point to pirate radio in this day and age? Talking about the UK, Shem says: “In London I know of a crazy pirate station in the East End which plays grime, a mixture of drum ‘n bass and house music. I suspect with the internet it’s not so necessary but when you’re driving about in your car you can’t pick up internet radio. I think it still exists but clearly it’s not as popular as it used to be. Pirate radio is like vinyl: it’s been edged out by technology.”

Shem doesn’t give off the aura of your average DJ who plays as hard as they work. Although he’s mates with some of SAMC’s other international artists such as Lee Burridge, he enjoys maintaining a low profile. “I just arrived in Buenos Aires and am here for a few days but prefer to keep myself to myself. Sometimes I like to keep quiet then be surprised by everything and not do too much research beforehand. Unless someone drags me off to the Pyramids, I’m not a very good tourist. I like keeping myself to myself. It sounds a bit boring, doesn’t it!”

The softly spoken Londoner left his home town two years ago for pastures new because he felt like he was drying up, professionally speaking. “I wasn’t happy in London or inspired to write music and was thinking that I might not write any more so I moved to Thailand. As soon as I arrived, I had a brand new life, and it’s a bit of a cliché really but started doing yoga, and just hanging out again, going out to clubs and bars and being with friends. I then got the inspiration to finish an album which I’d been trying to finish for 10 years. It’s all slower stuff, chillout coffee table stuff I call it, and it’s a departure for me but it’s more mature and it’s about my experience of moving to a different country. That’s what I’ve been working on for the past year and a half and I finished it four months ago.”

He adds that the music scene has changed so dramatically and that this new album has given him a chance to clear his head. “Making club tracks now is not the same as it was ages ago and I think my inspirational values have shifted. It’s a new era. It’s new music, it’s a bit more grown-up and I want to see where it takes me. I still play big club tracks in clubs — but making them, well unless the inspiration comes back, I’m not sure I will again.”

He hasn’t set up home on one of the tourist trap Thai islands such as Koh Samui but instead chose capital city Bangkok. “I like busy places and for me it’s so much more chilled than in London. I cleared my possessions and arrived there with two suitcases. I’ve got a very simple life,” he says. “In London everyone’s running on a treadmill to get somewhere, to earn a crust or to succeed, but the nature of the West is that you’re conditioned to keep doing stuff and getting stuff to be happy, but actually it’s rubbish. The more stuff I got and did, the less happy I was.”

This whole lifestyle change makes Shem sound a bit like the anti-DJ. “DJing, when it’s done properly, is all about good music and good fun. Over the past few years in London, I wasn’t listening to music for leisure that much. Making and playing music became a job and all that passion and joy was vanishing. As soon as I got to Bangkok I found I was chasing music again and started listening to pop and Thai music. If a DJ is loving music and wants to play it to people to communicate then it’s fine, but being in the business to get recognised and be successful, well that’s a problem.”

He adds: “All I’ve done is clear out the clutter and uselessness and then I had time to work on life. It’s simple; good health, doing yoga and being with good people, eating good food and enjoying a cheap lifestyle. It’s all about sanity. It takes a very strong person to be creative and be their own boss and I found it difficult to do all that. It’s a really good balance and I think you take stock at some point and unless you’re Sasha or John Digweed who have got millions in the bank, then why would you change?”

Back to this side of the world. This isn’t the first time Shem’s played here and he speaks fondly of Buenos Aires. “This is one of the best cities for clubs and gigs I’ve ever been to. I remember playing Pacha a few years ago and it was electrifying. I love it. I’ve played Argentina eight or nine times, and the guy who normally books me works for Pacha so I’ve played there several times. I’ve never had a bad gig here.”

Where & When: If you missed Slacker at last weekend’s SAMC, get a taste of his new material ‘Start A New Life’, which is now available on iTunes.

The SAMC verdict
Slacker: “SAMC was a real blast for me, I had a wicked time.The place was huge, and the crowd was really up for it. Even early on when I played the atmosphere was electric: it needed to be, it was bloody cold out there! Thanks to everyone who turned up and danced the night away.”
Ronan Portela (Unlock Recordings): “The event satisfied the expectations of plenty of electronic music fans because there was a wide variety of artists. And despite the cold and previous days’ storms people were entertained regardless. What personally emoted me was when I went into the tent where Alex Under had just started playing, he was putting on Beat Up, a track from my recent EP which was released just a few weeks ago.

First published in the Buenos Aires Herald in September 2009

The main problem emerged days before the event, which in previous years has attracted 60,000 revellers. Originally due to take place on November 7, the downsized event was postponed on October 28 by the Buenos Aires City government. The original line-up included Orbital, Armin van Buuren, David Guetta, Richie Hawtin, Hernán Cattáneo, 2 Many DJs and Danny Howells who had been booked to fly in and play alongside national artists such as Romina Cohn, Bad Boy Orange, Soundexile, DJ Paul and Deep Mariano.

The reason for its suspension? Apparently promoter 2NET did not submit the relevant paperwork therefore the City government could not authorise Creamfields taking place at GEBA.

SECOND DATE. Such issues can be resolved, however, and on November 4 2NET confirmed a new date, December 19, with a different headline act, but it was the promoter’s lack of communication that upset fans. In the week of silence that ensued (the promoter’s boss, Martín Gontad, told the Herald he had preferred not to comment until they had concluded all their inquiries), fans angrily posted messages on music web forums such as www.groovesite.com.ar and www.flowmi.com, saying “I only bought my ticket to see David Guetta”, “I am really indignant”, “why did they start to sell tickets if the paperwork wasn’t in order?” and “what an embarassment”.

So following all this fiasco, an alternative venue was eventually confirmed two weeks before the new December 19 date, and the one-dayer’s gates finally creaked open at 4pm Saturday afternoon.

Well, that was the theory, but it didn’t happen in practice. Tickets costing around $170 stipulated the afternoon kick-off, but further hiccups meant it was touch and go on the actual day, unbeknown to the hundreds queuing. Gontad said on Sunday: “We only received approval at 7.30pm to open doors from the City government’s Direccion de Habilitaciones. The event was almost about to be postponed again due to the rain consequences, and this was the only reason for gates opening later than announced.”

By 8pm the queue, which was worming its way round Parque Roca — and it was a grumpy worm at that, clapping and “oleing” its way along to the music in the distance — started to slither along. It was a substantial wait for hundreds in the damp weather and not an energising start for those already disillusioned with the date and line-up change — bear in mind only one of the international artists originally booked for the November festival, Richie Hawtin (besides Cattáneo who is a given at this annual event), made it to Creamfields Buenos Aires.

Although a silver lining was distinctly lacking on Saturday’s clouds, let’s look on the bright side. A new date means a new batch of artists coming to feed the 40,000 with their tunes at Parque Roca, and the trance DJ Tiesto was the star turn. The best of the rest included Jeff Mills, Tima Maas, Darren Emerson, Guy Gerber and M.A.N.D.Y.

OHHHHH. It was a welcome return for the German-Swiss duo M.A.N.D.Y., Philipp Jung and Patrick Bodmer, who were booked to play Alsina club in winter but their international tour was cancelled thanks to the circulating H1N1 flu virus. Talking to the Herald back in July, Philipp said the pair were just as disappointed as their fans about not making it to Buenos Aires.

“We tried everything and we were in constant contact the whole time. We waited until the last minute and in the end, along with our agent, we decided it didn’t make sense if people were scared to go out,” he said.

“Also the situation wasn’t clear whether clubs would be open. We are terribly sorry for us, and of course, for all the people who bought tickets and were looking forward to seeing our show. But due to swine flu we also had to cancel a show in Thailand.”

But that silver lining is starting to shine a bit brighter. In town for one of those “in-and-out” jobs DJs are renowned for, Patrick and Philipp had an exclusive chat with the Herald prior to their disco siestas and 11.30pm slot on the Main Stage about horse riding, New York City and art.

Friends since they were 15, when M.A.N.D.Y. got the call from promoter Gontad they freed themselves up for the Argentina gig. Having played the music festival twice before, they were keen to return and more so following their winter cancellation — fortunatley Philipp managed to rearrange some solo dates, says Patrick. “He was booked in Tokyo but he already had plans to be in South America, so he cancelled Tokyo and it was a good chance for me to jump in as well.”

This third date is all about Creamfields — arriving last Friday, the pair played Saturday then left on Sunday — but Patrick has fond memories of when they played Córdoba. “We stayed in an estancia for a week, sleeping in the swine’s cabin in the middle of nowhere…”

“The swine was me!” chips in Philipp.

“The family showed us how to ride horses with nothing but a blanket,” adds Patrick. “It wasn’t very subtle and I left with a bloody butt. I got so excited about riding the horse that I didn’t think about the fact that I was wearing jeans. I didn’t have a mirror so I had to ask Philipp how it looked, and he was like ‘woah.’ It took some weeks to get over and it looked very weird, like I’d been involved in heavy gay stuff. I had to explain to my new girlfriend that it was only because I’d been riding horses in Argentina.

“And the next time we come here we want to go to Fireland,” he adds enthusiastically. Ah. Tierra del Fuego.

Holiday anecdotes aside, Philipp and Patrick are phenomenally popular as the DJs and producers M.A.N.D.Y. but also manage to stand tall separately, Patrick in particular, given that he’s the classic, leggy, blue-eyed Swiss blond. It’s been 17 years since they first started throwing techno parties in Frankfurt, seven years since they set up their Berlin-based record label Get Physical, home to 22 other artists including Booka Shade and Thomas Schumacher, and in October the duo released a mix album for Renaissance, a musical seal of approval from the British label denoting the electronic scene is theirs.

An additional sign of “having arrived” was Martín Gontad’s personal invitation to play the ninth Creamfields Buenos Aires so life seems pretty peachy for the duo, apart from the disastrous Buenos Aires weather. It’s tipping it down outside their Puerto Madero hotel. Patrick says: “We play the British festivals so our experience is that if it’s raining really heavily and you think no one is going to come, it will actually be quite busy. As long as it’s not cold, it’s often even more rock ‘n roll.”

Talking ahead of Saturday’s Buenos Aires experience, Philipp adds: “We’re really excited as it’s the first time we’ve played the Main Stage and we’re alongside Richie Hawtin and Tiesto. We want to see what Tiesto does and why he’s number one.”

The bad weather naturally affects their style, so with the clouds comes a darker sound, says Patrick. “Going from beautiful sunshine techno to heavy, dark electronic, rainforest techno — that’s what we’ll do.” Whatever the style, it’s got some stiff competition from the thunder…

WAY BACK WHEN. There’s plenty of banter between the friends, who met on the tennis courts 25 years ago, and although they have little time in BA they are keen to find out about the underground music scene and who they should be listening to. Taking them back to the astroturf, Patrick explains how it all began.

“I was interested in getting connected with Philipp as he had a bike, and I wasn’t allowed to ride one. I thought ‘he’s a very good contact, he’s got a nice bike’ and then when I was 18 I had a bike and he didn’t. And you crashed it,” he indicates to Philipp.

Despite this upset, they remained close with Patrick, grandson of an artist, treading that career path for several years to pay for his studies. Success came quickly for the teenage painter but one day he decided he liked music and it was all change. “I just can’t do both at the same time so I am very limited creatively,” he says. So should the former German judo champion (aged 10) who was awarded a medal by Frankfurt city for outstanding sporting achievement fancy a change, well, he can always invest in a new set of paintbrushes.

In fact art played an important role for the duo in the early days. Patrick’s studio was the venue for techno parties in the early 90s in Frankfurt. “My art studio was a brewery so we’d combine my painting with techno parties with Ricardo Villalobos playing there, for example. We mixed it all up a bit! We’d give everything away for free, let nice people in for free — we weren’t very good businessmen!”

Philipp adds: “When we were young, we had these underground arty guys behind us and they always supported us and helped us to find spaces. It was very natural, it was never about having to do something.

“We used to give out flyers personally so we could explain the concept to each person, and we’d walk around for three weeks before the party promoting it. You might only find one person all night who might be the right one for our party. It was very hand selected,” he adds.

RIGHT HERE. Back to the present. Philipp has recently transferred to the US, while Patrick remains in Berlin, so this means both are playing individually (although as M.A.N.D.Y.) more than ever. “We don’t have side projects but we do play separately,” clarifies Philipp, “and more so as I just moved to New York.” The change took place two months ago, because, he says: “I wanted the energy from new people and it’s nice to do that. There was a chance so now I’m living in Chelsea. I’ve got everything I need and all the galleries are there. If you’re lonely, there’s always something to see.”

In addition, the Renaissance mix album is out, and although it’s been a difficult year, according to Philipp (“it’s been hard for everyone in music and we’ve been trying to survive as well”), they’ve just completed two new tracks with label mate Booka Shade. With Philipp producing in New York and Patrick in Germany, the plan is to bring everything together to release an LP in April 2010.

“It’s been three or four years since we joined forces with Booka Shade so we want to do that again, and come back to the family idea. It’s time to write the next chapter,” says Patrick.
http://www.buenosairesherald.com/BreakingNews/View/20654

Akufen played Brazil and Chile before heading to BA

In what has turned into an artists’ exchange festival similar to Trimarchi — which took place this week between South Africa and Argentina — one French-Canadian artist here for the second time is Marc Leclair who goes by the working name of Akufen.

Recently suffering a nasty bout of flu that he caught in Japan — and who hasn’t? — Akufen, the pioneer of the micro-sampling sound, played in Mar del Plata and has squeezed in a few dates in Chile and Brazil before headlining Micro Mutek.

Having seen around 10,000 attend the tenth anniversary in Montreal this year, Argentina’s satellite affair is celebrating a respectable five years.

Akufen has been part of this event, which originally aimed to bring new medias to the forefront but morphed into a music festival, since the beginning. Mutek is very much a community project, started by a group of friends, he says, and that much is evident as Akufen is staying with Polee, the local event’s organiser, at his home.

“I’ve known the founder of Mutek, Alain Mongeau, for 15 years and we’re very close buddies. I was witnessing a lot of very talented artists producing music in Montreal, and along with Alain and other local artists, thought it was time to find a way to expose ourselves. It was originally a film festival so I’ve seen it develop as a natural process,” he explains.

What with Trimarchi and Mutek taking place almost back to back in October, just how easy is it to organise such similar, independent events?Akufen says: “It wasn’t so easy all the time for a succession of years and we’ve been struggling to make it happen each year. We never really knew. But now we’ve got a more stable schedule so we can think five years ahead instead of just one. It’s a lot of energy and sweat and not many people behind the scenes get paid. But what makes this stand out from other festivals is the strong community behind it. I think a lot of festivals are faceless but with regards to Mutek, it’s a life-long love story, and it has nurtured us while we nurture it. It’s been a give-and-take relationship between the community and Mutek.”

The DJ talks about Mutek reaching double figures in 2009 as if it were his daughter. “The tenth anniversary was magical as 10 years is quite something. A lot of the artists have been there from the beginning so the idea especially about bringing them back. Every year it’s a get-together between people who appreciate each other’s music, even if they’re not playing.”

Micro sampling isn’t your average electronic sound but Akufen is a passionate collector who takes inspiration from the 6,000-plus vinyl records he owns. “It’s hard to define but it’s definitely coming from Afro-American music and a lot of my inspiration comes from funk, soul, jazz, blues and Motown. Micro sampling is a way of fracturing sound and is about doing some sound recycling from the TV, the movies or the radio, cutting tiny slices of sound element and pasting them together to make a continuous flow.” He makes it appear so simple… “It’s quite rough actually! It’s a difficult method I’ve put together which involves a lot of research. There’s a lot of musicality and I never repeat the same sound twice. It’s like doing a collage.”

Although it’s micro sampling that has given him a name, Akufen admits that his sound is changing. “I’m slowly shifting away from it as I never wanted to rely on a formula and I want to do something more soulful. Before it was more of an exercise with a more conceptual approach, but now it’s about the music.”

He readily admits that music, after his daughter, is his life and for pleasure Akufen tends to listens to jazz, although he says: “I can listen to anything, country, bossa nova. I love music. I can say I’m a musicologist as I research it, read about it, about where it was coming from and the social context in which it was happening. Any kind of music can be interesting. I’m listening to a lot of old French singing at the moment, like Edith Piaf.”

His passion extends to instruments as well. “I’m studying piano right now, and play the guitar. Music is part of my life and I cannot spend a day without listening to music. I can live in silence, and enjoy it, but music for me is the spice of life.”

http://www.buenosairesherald.com/PrintedEdition/View/14165

Poncho is led by Zuker, centre

Just as the mix of clubbers skirting the age of 18 mixed with overly bleached blondes taking full advantage of free entry on Ladies’ Night had been lured to the outdoor stage, the power went down. Did a fuse frazzle, was it the over-exuberant smoke machine, or was it the inability to handle the enormous three-screen lights show behind the four-piece band? Would anyone be sacked later on for this electronic oversight?

Unlikely, if Zuker has anything to do with it, even though this is one of the first shows he has done live as Poncho, a project he is really excited about. The laid-back DJ who has been spinning discs since the 1980s (“I didn’t even know how to mix back then,” he admits) started the band about a year and a half ago with Leandro Lopatin and Fabian Picciano, and although they were aiming to release their first album in April, it came out last week.

So, the lights returned and the crowd wandered back. Poncho’s feel is very 80s, the vocals are morphed and reminiscent of Kraftwerk, and although some of the set must be pre-recorded, the need to produce live music, via percussion, guitar and keyboards while incorporating decks, comes across because the energy the band creates is infectious.

Is this electro rock? Is it indie electronica? Hard to define, Poncho took samples, such as Technotronic’s dance classic Pump Up The Jam and Guns ‘n Roses’ Sweet Child o’ Mine, and added such extreme bass it clarified why the electricity decided to take a break three minutes into the set.

Later that night, mainly because she turned up late, techno DJ Romina Cohn took to the decks and was accompanied by VJ Miss Toia. Appropriately on Ladies’ Night, young men in tight tops danced atop small cubed stages and although one young girl was carried out at 5.30am, the other 2,000 clubbers, many sporting sunglasses, took full advantage of Romina, Argentina’s best-known female DJ, until 8am.

Plaid played the 2009 Personal Fest

The British Council has started an incubator project aiming to help Argentines in the music industry forge links with their British counterparts and this just happens to be loosely tying in with the twentieth anniversary of Warp, an independent record label that has brought the likes of Aphex Twin to our ears.

Warp has been taking its celebrations seriously, with dance music nights taking place in Paris, New York and Sheffield, the original and now spiritual home of the label, with events in Tokyo, London and Berlin to follow.

Over the past few days, All Tomorrow’s Parties has been screened (a rockumentary featuring live shows from Sonic Youth, Patti Smith, Portishead and Yeah Yeah Yeahs; last night Tom Panton, head of live events, hosted a workshop in San Telmo and two intelligent dance music (IMD) acts, Plaid and Bibio, play the Personal Fest.

Unfortunately Tim Exile, who was due to play, hasn’t come as, according to Panton, “he got really ill. Tim’s been touring intensively this year, going between time zones in the US quite heavily, and it got to a point where it caught up with him last week. It’s a real shame, but I think it’s for the best that he didn’t come on this tour, otherwise it might have made him very ill.”

He adds: “Bibio will do a fine job stepping in for Tim, and he’s actually as big as him in the US at the moment.”

Despite this upset, the celebrations continue and Panton, who is here for the second time in Argentina, talked to the Herald last night prior to hosting the workshop about the label and new music. “Warp was founded by Rob Mitchell and Steve Beckett in Sheffield and I’ve been at the label since 2001, just after they moved to London.”

The live events head honcho, from a personal viewpoint, is most proud of this year’s anniversary achievements. “We’ve held a series of events around the world, but being in BA isn’t strictly part of Warp 20. However, the Council’s project is about bringing very independent record labels to South America to help cross the connections with promotors and build a relationship, which is why we are here. It wouldn’t have worked combining it with Warp 20, which is a series of events led by us, as we’ve only got two artists here!”

The label isn’t only making new contacts but Panton has also been discovering new styles of Latin music, and one in particular has caught his ear. “There’s bits of cumbia which we get in the UK which everyone’s latched onto. I actually like the older styles such as tropical music as well as the more psychedelic Argentine stuff but Brazilian favela music is good as well.”

This trip is also proving beneficial for the label’s artists, he adds. “They are really into it as they get to travel to Santiago, San Pablo and Buenos Aires. Normally it’s a fly-in, fly-out kind of job playing at a big festival, which they have done in BA before, but it’s really hard for them to tour these sorts of cities without this kind of support from the British Council.”

2008’s Personal Fest was guitar-focused whereas 2009 is showing a whole lot of electronic love. Panton’s point of view? “That’s good! I’ve seen the Pet Shop Boys before, they are what they are and they’re interesting musically. But dance music is as big as it’s ever been and big acts are still coming through. You could say the experimental electronic music that was pioneered in the 1990s hasn’t got the market it did have, but it’s still there. Dubstep is really big in England at the moment, and that’s being mixed with techno to make a new exchange. London’s really vibrant and loads of African beats are coming through. It’s racially mixed and exciting.”

The Warp posse aren’t hanging about, however, so you should see Plaid and Bibio now or… another time, when they’ll hopefully get to make use of their new Argentine contacts.

It’s been a busy old European summer for tech house DJ Paul Woolford and he shows no signs of letting up. Releasing various tracks including Pandemonium/Prune Juice and Timebomb/Coitus, Paul also had his residency at Ibiza’s Space club, and according to head honcho Mark Broadbent: “Paul brings an energy like no other DJ currently working the scene.” He plays Pacha next Saturday, October 17 and this is his Top 10 for the Herald.

1. First track I bought: Wham! / Fantastic I was eight…

2. First place I played: My auntie’s infamous family New Year’s Eve party when I was about 15…

3. Best gig I’ve played: Either my Saturday evening set at the Benicassim festival in Spain this year or my 2007 set at Serbia’s Exit Festival. Too hard to choose!

4. Best gig I’ve been to: A gig The Orb in Leeds in about 1994 or 1995. They had a warm-up DJ called Lewis but he ended up playing techno and it was the first time I heard Basic Channel through a huge sound system. Life changing!

5. Favourite national artist & album: Currently it’s Massive Attack / Mezzanine but it changes regularly.

6. Favourite international artist & album: Steve Reich / Music For 18 Musicians.

7. Your number one DJ: I don’t have one, but the people I am most interested in at the moment are Mathias Kaden, Raresh and Ricardo Villalobos.

8. Place to escape to for the weekend: Aix-en-Provence.

9. Never leave home without: Blackberry and a spare SIM card.

10. Ritual before a set: Think about what kind of system is in the room, the location of the speakers, the location of the people, how many people are there, is the equipment set-up correctly, open a bottle of water… and begin!

Darren Emerson kindly bought a couple of rounds of London Pride in The Sun & 13 Cantons in London's Soho

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