The Noise gate caught up with underground house duo Leftwing & Kody after their thumping set at For The Record in La Cheetah Nightclub one of the Glasgow club scene’s best kept secrets.
While last Friday night saw the big room commercial sounds of artists such as Tiesto and Calvin Harris blasting out from Radio 1’s Big Weekend speakers, accompanied by standard, over-the-top stage production with lights, lasers and pyrotechnics illuminating Glasgow City centre’s George Square, a far more underground yet no less impressive electronic musical event was taking place across the street in am intimate 300-capacity venue, as Leftwing & Kody made their Glasgow debut.
The small, dark basement club below Maxi’s bar is a paradise for musical hipsters and independent promoters alike. Neatly kitted out with a booming, crystal clear Funktion One sound system, the venue provides Glasgow’s clubbers with a great alternative to the city’s legendary venues, such as The Arches and the Subclub, who often dominate the club scene; for good reason, by continually securing big name bookings and killer line-ups.
For The Record are a relatively new night however, with some high-calibre bookings for previous parties including Low Steppa, Dale Howard and Ejeca – the promoters are set on their way to establishing this event as a welcomed and favoured edition to Glasgow’s ever vibrant clubbing scene.
Friday’s headliners Leftwing & Kody have had a meteoric rise to success as of late, riding high on the crest of the Deep House tidal wave that has swept through mainstream culture on a collision course with commercial and underground charts and playlists alike. Solid, grooving EP’s and releases such as Bump N Flex, I Know and Lost have been championed by massive artists such as James Zabelia, Dusky and Hot Since 82 and off the back of Friday night’s performance it’s plain to see the duo’s success has been undoubtably justified. Thumping out their own infectious brand of deep, energetic, swaggering house they produced a quality set jam-packed full of their own material and remixes that had the small but packed out room rockin’ n fist pumpin’ till the early hours.
Here’s what the pair had to say afterwards…
Great set on Friday guys how was your first experience playing in front of a Glasgow crowd?
It was a great debut for us in Glasgow the crowd were amazing and the energy and response was what we’re after every time we play. 4 The Record have got a really great party going on in Glasgow we suggest everyone goes and checks it out!
The last couple of years have seen you quickly rise to the forefront of the house scene with EPs and sets gaining massive support from dance music fans and DJs alike. Are there any special moments or memorable nights that have stood out for you along the way?
The most memorable set for us was closing Watergate in Berlin last year we played from 7am to 12 pm the crowd wanted us to keep going but we had to stop because we had a flight to catch at 2pm! That was a great experience because it allowed us to go through the whole spectrum of music from house to techno and some really melodic tracks as well.
Also being nominated for Best British Newcomer by DJ Mag last year was pretty special. It was really unexpected and although we didn’t win just to be nominated was such an honour for us
What are your thoughts on the electronic scene at the moment? with with the deep house sound becoming ever more mainstream and dominating day time radio do you think it’s healthy for the scene in general or do you feel over commercialisation is having a negative impact on credible underground house music?
I can’t say it’s a negative thing, music always moves in cirlcles and when things get popular it becomes more mainstream purely because the number of people that consume the music is on a much larger scale then when things are underground. But the underground and overground is a symbiotic relationship one can’t exist without the other
What can fans of your music expect from you next in terms of sound and direction and can you share any info on any upcoming releases they should be getting excited for?
We are creating music that we would describe as more “heads down”. The tracks are not using a lot of vocals and stripping the production back to give it a darker rawer feel. Our next EP will be released on Suara on the 30th of June we also have remixes we have done for Todd Terry, Roger Sanchez and Pete Tongs label FFRR which are all coming out over the summer
Summer is here and the festival / Ibiza season has officially kicked off – do you have any events booked in to play you are really looking forward to?
Yes we are really looking forward to playing at Found Festival on the 14 of June and we are also playing at Sankeys Ibiza in September which should be a blast! And hopefully we will be back in Glasgow at some point this year too
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