Slam interview

Stuart McMillan talks about their 'Year Zero' album

Slam, aka Orde Meikle and Stuart Macmillan, are known and loved by many as the Scottish techno legends responsible for unforgettable tracks like 'Positive Education', as the head honchos of leading label Soma, and as a killer DJ duo. First up, Slam's Stuart McMillan talks about the influences that shaped their new album Year Zero, and then has a chat with Bugged Out!'s Johnno before their set in November '04.

'Year Zero' Influences:

Prince
'Sign O' The Times' (Paisley Park 1987) was a big record for us. He's a genius of pop. His songs can be sweet but the production's really twisted. You can hear his influence on Chicago house like Jamie Principle's 'Baby Wants To Ride' which has his sleazy feel. Tom Tom Club Orde's got loads of records from that early eighties period. I was one of the only guys around that seemed to be into early house, funk records or hip hop, and he was the only guy I'd met who knew about this stuff. That's why we got together.

Tom Tom Club
Were a spin-off from Talking Heads and had a heavy New York disco influence. 'Wordy Rappinghood' and 'Genius of Love' (Sire, both 1981) were really strange records. There's a lot of humour to what they do.

Early hip hop and electro
Man Parrish 'Hip Hop Be Bop (Don't Stop)' (Polydor 1982 ) and Grandmaster Flash' 'The Message' (Sugarhill 1982) are brilliant. 'The Message' was a mainstay at the time but we dug it out and listened to it again and the production's brilliant. You could tell by the way they dressed they were probably into Funkadelic but maybe Kraftwerk too. If you were to ask what Slam's vibe is: it's electronic funk. These records have that space funk feel and these records shaped us.

2004
We are inspired by a lot of things at the moment. If we get the chance we play quite a varied set (as they will do at Bugged Out! - Johnno). There's things like Brett Johnson, I love everything he does, he has that proper Chicago feel. We really like what Tiga's doing at the moment and Alter Ego too, 'Rocker' is really off its head. The techno-house stuff from Alexander Kowalski and the French techno from artists like Oxia and Vitalic rarely disapoint.

Bugged Out! ask - Slam answer!

Bugged Out!: Now you've lived with it for a few months what are your favourite tracks from Year Zero and why?

Slam: This album has surprised us both, I think because we made this album quite quickly by Slam standards most of the tracks are still doing it for us both, but if we had to choose favourites they would be. 'Ghost Electric' because its just eerie electronica that sounds like nothing else. 'Human' because it rocked in our live and DJ sets, and the computer vocal experiment worked so well, it just enhanced the general darkness of the track so it sounds sinister and we like sinister things. And finally 'Bright Lights Fading' because in principal it's a cold electronic track that has real emotion.

What can we expect from you guys at The End on Nov 27th?

Rocking bottom end wealthy tunes with more than a hint of electodiscintechnstraza.

You've been at the cutting edge of club music for 15 years now. What/who is motivating you right now?

Jesper Dalhback and John Dalhback (Hug & Pepp) their remix of 'This Word' is amazing. DJ Koze on Kompakt, Vector Lovers on Soma, Suicide Android rocks. Matthew Jonson is on fire at the moment. There's lots of German stuff that's really excellent at the moment, Freestyle Man, Wighnomy bros., Smith & Hack, Beroshima...the list goes on.

You take it in turn to DJ so when one of you has a moment who else will you be hoping to check out?

I will be checking everyone out especially Tiefshwarz. We played a great gig in France with them, M.A.N.D.Y and Matthew Dear and only managed to catch the last bit of their set. What I heard sounded really good.

When was the last time you heard/played 'Positive Education'?

Hear it a lot actually. Last time was three weeks ago in a club in Berlin we play, called Polar TV. The resident was playing it on our behalf because we were playing live that night, it was the first record we heard when we walked into the club which was a good omen because it was a great night.

Published: 15/11/2004

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