Welcome back GEECASTERS!!!
As always we keep our BLINDS OPEN to sounds we may not hear on a day to day basis!!
And as ever pushing this concept.. we have one of the UKs finest Techno & Hard Trance Djs & Producers..... The one and only
LOUK!!
As ever you have me playing some of my fav stuff!! This time im playing some classic 90s in one take from 170 upto 230ish! !!! as always I dont believe in sanitised nicely edited DJ sets. I press record and lets go!!!
And in hour 2 we have the one and only!! LOUK!!!
Now then LOUK!!
How are we doing on this weird year?!
Haha that's fantastic going from 170 to 230 in one take. Top man. Mate weird is an understatement and a half, in February all was good and I happily travelling to Reykjavik and planning what to do in the Summer etc and some forthcoming gigs we wanted to go to and then the whole lockdown happened a couple weeks later. Never expected it in the slightest, but I don't think anyone did for that matter. Anyway, aside from a global pandemic yeah all good cheers!
Hows you.. Missus and the new addition!?!
Ah absolutely lovely thanks, the past fifteen months have flown by and one good thing of lockdown was I got to see much more of my daughter growing up. My wife is working hard in her final year of Uni studying a degree in biomedical science that I haven't got a f*cking clue what the majority of it means but she is doing very well at it and my stepdaughter had her sixth Birthday today and is as usual very happy and full of the joys of life!
So of course many people know you from playing Techno & Hard Trance all over Europe! But were did this all begin for you?? What were your earliest memories of the rave scene?
I grew up listening to dance tracks on compilations and enjoying them and learned to make music on an Amiga 500 with an old issue of CU Amiga magazine. From there there were tracks on CDs I really liked. Cheesy to admit it but Now 26 switched me on to a lot of dance music as my parents had it and I remember stuff like Capella, Leftfield and The Good Men were on there. There was another compilation with Atlantic Ocean - Waterfall on that escapes me but I listened to that a lot. My cousin was going to a lot of raves in the early 90s and told me about some tapes to check out. I actually wrote to the author of the article in CU Amiga mag a few years back and looked him up on Facebook, said about the huge thanks I have to him for how my life turned out and he's very humble and still making music. He did a belting live version of Greece 2000 and Stella by Jam & Spoon. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlGZ8WXS6_Q)
Didn't start going out properly till I was 16 in early 2002, where I ventured from a pub that never ID'd me that I still occasionally drink in now, to a club called Dance Academy where my friends were running nights. Again, was spoiled rotten really as they did decent harder nights on a Fri (though I also went to a lot of wicked Drum N Bass ones too there) and on the Sat they had Mark EG and M-Zone down on a pretty much bi-monthly basis and a whole host of other decent DJs and locals. Most the time the locals played harder and darker than the guest DJs and I loved the fact there was a right mash up of music in there from house through to hardstyle on a weekly basis.
Can you remember the first rave tape you bought? Who was it?
To be fair I can't really, as I actually remember getting a tape pack after getting a CD pack and downloading mixes from DJs leaving a modem on all night in the late 90s. That was back in the days it'd take about 8 hours to download 1 mix. I remember getting a bollocking for us having a huge phone bill one month. Was worth it for the music to be fair! A year later IC24 came along and stupidly gave away 0800 internet subscriptions for something like £10 a month, they changed their policy after. I think I was partly to blame downloading as many mixes as I could and fair use went well and truly out the window. I listened to Radio 1 quite a lot and Beat 106 online in Scotland and I was into Paul Mendez from Jacob & Mendez's tunes and he did a show on there, locally there was a radio station called Plymouth Sound that had a belting dance show. I taped sh*tloads of them and met quite a few of the DJs on there over the years as they worked in record shops and the like or I DJ'd on same line ups as them. They had a strong influence on me too as well as the local nights as I was too young to be going out. Though not for that much longer as stated above thanks to very very lapse IDing going on, especially as I looked about 14 when I was 16. Many thanks to everyone who knew and didn't say anything as those years were f*cking amazing!!!
The Techno & Hard Trance scene has big roots in the UK from events like North, Uprising, Helterkelters Technodrome, Vibelite Tommorows World, Club Kinetic Digital & Djs like Mzone & Mark EG. Can you remember hearing them for the first time?
Yep, mates raved about Mark EG and M-Zone and I used to listen to their mixes on the german trance website and Mark's blackout audio website in real audio format. That takes me back. A year later mark was playing here every month and so was Mick and not just at Dance Academy but other awesome nights like Premonition, Hindsight in Exeter and others. So I saw them sh*tloads! Both have been not just hugely influential but highly supportive over the years. I was a bit jaded with how everything was going in 2014 musically and took a much needed break and rethink, Mick very kindly rang up to see if all was OK. Nearly everybody who plays hard trance in the south west owes inspiration to these two. How mark mixes it up starting with techno hugely influenced too as I've always been into it as much as I have hard trance. Mark and Mick often played at the Country Club here, and I had a lift ready for me to go to the last night but went to a small prog night in Plym instead, I did have school on Monday and thought a hangover the size of sussex miles from home wasn't a good idea. Country Club reunions are always a decent laugh though!
Who is the most savage Hardcore Dj you have heard?
HMS for me haha!?! Pure brutal!! RIP HMS!!
Haha heard a few. I DJ'd after The Speed Freak in Sc*nthorpe for Hard Drive once. Thought I'd be clever dropping more purist techno after a gabber DJ and crowd parted like the red sea when I put my first tune on. S.W Cooperation - Get To Your Place. Everyone's place was to f*ck off of the dancefloor that night DJing after Gabber. Found out he was behind Biochip C though and he did some mental slower tracks as well under that guise, very talented.
Whats the best gig youve ever played and why?
Had some absolutely mental ones but easily my first ever international gig, that fell on the date of my 24th birthday and was for Q Dance for Defqon 1. Everyone was really supportive and I had lots of new material to play, and was nice to drop Shogun 1 to the Dutch. What a birthday.
Whats the strangest thing youve ever seen at a rave?
Someone on the dancefloor at The Grove in Seaton turning their keys with their eyes closed thinking they were unlocking their front door. I asked "You alright mate?" to get a reply of "f*ck me mate I thought I was unlocking my front door". That has to be up there. Also my (lack of) attempts at mixing in the early days were pretty strange as well... least I can admit it.
What is the rave scene like down on the south coast?(pre covid)..
There's loads of music enthusiasts, very talented producers and DJs here so there's still some nights, but sadly there aren't that many venues that can hold the capacity so like anywhere sadly the scene is a fraction of what it was when I started going out. Even more so now post covid!
Your well known for your collabs with Nick the Kid... How did this come about?
Met Nick at a free party near Exeter in 2002 called Lunatech, liked the set he played and then went on my own to his Hindsight night in Exeter that Dec. Got the coach up and it finished at 1 so I went to dance academy after when I got back to plym at 2. Really enjoyed the music, so went up with some mates from Plym often to Hindsights, met nick a few times, gave him some of my very early really ropey tunes and we liked a lot of the same music and were both cubase users so worked with each other. Dreams was made, and somehow ended up getting signed to Drizzly one of our fav labels so we were mega stoked. This was actually before I started mixing as that came after Production he was one of the first to book me. I worked with Nick lots over years and we've played a lot of sets b2b and had a hell of a lot of fun in doing so. Every time we meet up we always have a laugh. His HTE label is going strong and fair play he works his socks off.
So your quite a well known and skilled producer... When you go into the studio.. can you talk us through your process? Do you have ideas down before? or is it a more organic scenario?
Ah thank you, It varies on my mood that day. Sometimes I listen to music before I go in, but then find I end up taking influence from what I listen to and go 'ah what can I do to sound like track X today' works. When I engineer for others I ask them to bring 4/5 tracks that they like so I can get a similar vibe and listen to their ideas. For my own stuff it could also be I buy a sample pack and cut up some loops and play with some synths. I try to get the best out of very limited equipment and some very bodged set ups. You should have seen the laptop I made some of my biggest tunes on that make me cringe now. It would take 30 mins to export a track then i'd forget to unmute a synth. Everyone here took the piss out of me for about 4 years for making tracks with some decent synths on a monitor that had a cone that was bent and a monitor screen that was so small. You'd be surprised at the tunes that somehow come out of it but all I can say is many thanks to Jon Doe for turning my premaster WAVs into something amazing. He's saved the day a good 300 times now.
Many people know you in the Hardcore scene, even though you dont produce straight 170+ bpm stuff..... what draws you to this side of things?
Probably how pitched up I play things, I used to tweak my decks to go to +16, also enthusiasm and how fast I talk. I'd say it's more likely the latter.
So whats going off in the world of LOUK? I suppose you have 100s of tracks ready to go since lockdown has hit right?!
I did produce a lot during the first lockdown but now my daughter has my studio room and old office as her bedroom I haven't hardly made anything at all. I bought a Polyend Tracker recently and made some techno jams but after making about 200 tracks in the past 5 years I'm glad of the break.
The last question was abit of a joke tbh... covid has probably hit the scene hard in that people aint meeting up and sharing ideas and concepts. But we must take the positives yeah?! tell us a positive thing from the last 6 months!?!
Hearing Daisy say 'Dada' for the first time is up there.
So how healthy is the Techno/Hard Trance scene at the moment?
Aside from the lack of venues, both are very healthy. I'm sending out lots at work from both genres. Quite funny actually as some EPs have crossed over and I've sent techno to hard trance DJs and vice versa. I spoke to Justin from German Trance this week who's setting up his labels again, that's welcome news. I'm still pressing vinyl on my Syntax Error label (albeit techno) but from some old hard trance producers. Release 001 had a track from Michael Wells/Technohead/GTO and 002 had a track from Andreas Kraemer. There's one on 003 by two friends from Rotterdam called Erik Pijl and Stephanie Noordermeer that everyone likes in the feedback because it's proper trancey. Check it out!
Further on that tip - which producers are doing it for you at the moment?
I've got my crossover head on here so from the techno world Surgeon, Dax J, Stranger/TAFKAMP, SHDW & Obscure Shape and in the trance world Renegade System, Scot Project, Stoneface & Terminal, Tasso. JK Walker is back producing stuff again which is amazing news too!!
Also to new producers... what tips and advice would you give them?
I have 3
1) Don't be afraid to take inspiration from others, as everyone does and if you are stuck for an idea and want to learn your Sequencer (I hate the term DAW). I spent hours in the early days copying Out Of The Blue by System F, and Junk Project - Beats Bring Silence, Pablo Gargano - Everyone's Future etc to learn from for my own tracks.
2) Also there are a bunch of free plug ins that I use on nearly every tune, have done for years. You don't need to spend thousands! When lockdown happened I linked to a load of resources for producers, here you go: http://www.louk.co.uk/selfisolation/
3) If you are having a day where what you are doing sounds sh*t, take a break or even return at another day. I've done it many times. You'll thank yourself.
If your were stranded on a desert island and could only choose 5 records to take... which would these be? Can you explain why and provide links for our listeners?
Depeche Mode - The Singles 81-85 - Huge fan of Depeche Mode but most importantly their early work.
Madness - It Must Be Love. Mine and my wife's first dance, and plus what a band.
Sunbeam - Outside World - A track that's brought happiness to so many people, next level.
Vapourspace - The Cold Air / Gravitational Arch Of 10 - everyone loves Gravitational Arch Of 10 (even though it was meant to be called Gravitational Arc Of Io), and it's a belter and a half but I love the ambient tracks on the other side, especially this one. Synths are unreal!
Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works 85-92 - I'm stuck on a desert island may as well enjoy the weather and chill out!!
Putting all those in youtube will provide links to listen.
Of course up North (dj sets wise) we know you from Uprising... Can you remember the first time you heard an Uprising set? Of course the mid 90s sets from Kenny Sharp must have made an impression?
Yep. I did my foundation year at Bradford Uni, but spent nearly every weekend in Leeds going to nights like Cypher, Tekfresh, Northern Lights etc and for various other reasons as Leeds was 100000x better and like a fiver to get to. Sadly I just went there the year The Orbit closed which was a f*cker. The record shop there The Disc sold Uprising CD packs and I bought one with M-Zone and Frantic on it and another with Topgroove and Jon Doe. Listened to those lots and got more over the years. Kenny is someone I heard a bit later on but he's played some absolute beasts over the years, and made some gems and is again another legend!
Your good mates with Uprising resident Jake Nicholls.... How did this develop?
A mutual friend (DJ Invader) told me years ago I play similarly to Jake, and in the days of Myspace I looked him up and followed him. We sent each other many mixes. He put me onto Brian and very kindly sorted out a booking and that was the first of many. Still remember my first set at Uprising in 2008, where my mate Ralph drove up to Sheffield in his 106 and it took about 6 hours from Plymouth. Made it just in time. Jake is without a doubt one of the nicest people in this whole scene I've met, he is ridiculously knowledgeable about the music scene and I love his influence from many genres. He DJ'd with me in Holland and at Nature One oozes enthusiasm. He's become a really good friend coming to my stag do in Berlin and also we went to each other's Weddings and I mished all the way to Doncaster to play at his 40th. Wouldn't do that for many people. His mrs always says she gets lost when we talk to each other as we both speak 1,000,000 miles an hour about music.
Alot of people say an Uprising crowd is abit... shall we say... rough... Is this true compared to other events you have been too?
Haha no not in the slightest, i've been to moody raves at Slammin Vinyl where in the DnB arena knives were being pulled and people were being mugged, And when I lived in Birmingham people were getting shot outside nightclubs. What the f*ck is that about on both counts?! Plus I've played in the Ukraine, don't think that will happen again in a hurry. I will say this the Uprising crowd know their music far better than most in Europe. I remember playing there once and someone asked me if I was going to drop my new tune I had made and uploaded to soundcloud that afternoon that night, and said they listened to a mix of mine and could ID the really rare tracks.
So what equipment are you using these days? what djing and studio gear do you use?
Of course! My studio equipment is currently at a few friends houses as I've let them borrow synths and speakers as they are learning to make tunes while I take a much needed break from engineering. But it was an Access Virus Ti Snow, A Roland JV2080 I borrowed off my mate, An SSL2+ Audio Interface, A Behringer Pro-1, Behringer TD-3, An M-Audio Oxygen 49 Controller Keyboard, Alesis M1 MK1 Monitors, A TC Electronic June 60 and a Midas DM:16 Desk. That and a PC running both Cubase 9.5 and Renoise. That's all I used for production really. DJ wise both my wife and I mix and we have a pair of 1210s and a Behringer Mixer. When I play out I mix on CDJs though.
What are your thoughts on vinyl vs cd/mp3? I love having hard copys of tracks but you cant beat having a stick full of tracks verses lugging a crate of vinyl around yeah?
Mate i'm still pressing vinyl and still buying records on discogs when I send out pretty much everything on MP3/WAV and probably will never play a vinyl out again except for at home. You can't beat it. Like both formats to be fair but agree I can pick up a record and tell you pretty much where I was when I first heard it/bought it and something about it. Hard pressed to do that with an MP3!
So can you talk us through your mix? why did you pick these tracks?
Yep, many tracks on here greatly influenced me but quite a few of them I haven't put on mixes. Or they were tracks that were on tapes/sets I donwloaded and listened to repeatedly the last 20 years and only recently found names. One was from a Mauro Picotto mix from 1998 that got ID'd the other week. Also I put the last track of my first ever Uprising set on there (High Voltage - Bombs Away), and I tried to do a mix of various tracks in the hard trance world that just blew me away, it includes early productions from M.I.K.E/Push and Vincent De Moor under other names. Plus Sunbeam still sounds great the 908,000,000th time I listen to it. Hope you all enjoy!
Awesome dude!! Many thanks for your mix! Shout outs here please?!
Yeah of course, to yourself for doing this interview! To Sammy, Darcie and Daisy for always being there, to Jake & Hannah, Mark and Mick, Nick and Flick, Tony Horgan, Bri, Kenny, Ben Invader and to all my friends and family, to Tom, Ian and all the promoters who first gave me a chance and anyone who has taken the time to get in touch over the years, who've let me release their music and/or put up with my dodgy mixing.
LOUKS Trance & Techno mix from 90s to present!!
Kai Tracid - Tiefenrausch (A.S.Y.S Remix) [Tracid Traxxx]
Ricky Le Roy - One Day (Big Bass Mix) [BXR]
Marco V - Tolerance [Free For All]
2 Emme - Colours [Underground]
V-One - Dead Cities [Bonzai Trance Progressive]
Lars Hohler - Dreamland [Planet Earth Tunes]
Sidewalk - Oasis [Funny Vinyl]
Repulsor - Double Action [Drizzly]
Mr Hyde & Joe-X - Oxygene [4th Dimension]
Oliver Lieb - Subraumstimulation [Data]
Dual Mount - Touch Me [Tesseract]
CJ Bolland - See Saw [Mole]
Next Generation - The Earthquake [Ipnotika]
Marcos & Jay Walker - Night Finder [Active Media]
Zombie Squad - A New Decade [Zombie]
Sunbeam - Outside World [Suck Me Plasma]
Maurizio Braccagni - Megamix Maranza [Brainstorm]
High Voltage - Bombs Away [Sys-X]
Les Diaboliques - Querelle [Lunatec]
Quick Reverse - God's Reason [Bonzai]
Kev Gees 90s Tehcnodrome 2 fingered salute tracklist!!
Negative Burn - Gates Of Hell
The Raven - A New Hope!
Don Diablo Vs The Raven - The Arrival
The Brutalist - The Voice Of Your Conscious
Mastervibe - Friday
Matrix & Wargroover - Neutron Bomb
Tieum - You LMA
Mastervibe - Alienz
The Outside Agency - Break It Down
Mastervibe - Power Of The Herb
Tieum - HP
Hellfish - Techno City
Tieum - K1000 Vs Ner
Clarkee - I Am God Here
Diplomat - Cool & Deadly
Technological terror Crew - The Ripper (Remix)
Men In Black - Guitar Man
Overcast - Attack
