Clubs

Tuesday 21 February was a very good day for Layo Paskin. ‘Time Out came out and that was fucking great news,’ [The End was voted Best Club in Time Out’s Live Awards], ‘Matthew [Bushwacka!] and I had a great day in the studio and then Arsenal beat Real Madrid.’

The duo, like so many DJs, are ‘massive’ Arsenal fans. ‘I was saying to my Dad all I needed to do was kiss Scarlett Johannsen and my happiness would be complete!’ It’s already clear that Layo and Bushwacka! are set to have a good year too. Their third album, the rather wonderful ‘Feels Closer’, is due out next week and they celebrate the release on Saturday by relaunching their monthly party at The End. ‘All Night Long has run for three years and we never do things forever,’ says Layo. They’re naming the night after their new label, Olmeto Records, to mark ‘a fresh chapter which reflects changes which have been happening anyway, but we will have the odd guest DJ in too.’ Feature continues

Layo is looking forward to being able to release ‘maybe one track a month’ on their own label. ‘People could be surprised when they hear how minimal some of our production is, but we’ve always enjoyed playing and making the most upfront electronica.’

While their new single, ‘Life2Live’ featuring Green Velvet on filtered vocals, is a chuggy, warm dancefloor beast, ‘Feels Closer’ is very jazzy and Brazilian-flavoured (like their DJ sets) – which must be partly what they intended when they took themselves to Brooklyn and Brazil to record it.

The recording experience was ‘as good as it could be,’ recalls Layo, as they worked with many different musicians and artists, allowed serendipity to play its part (their pizza delivery guy turned out to be a great sax player and they met world-renowned percussionist Mino Cinelu on the street) and ‘we pushed ourselves as producers.’ So which producers impress him right now; any tips for 2006? ‘There’s a never-ending stream of great 12”s!’ he laughs. ‘I’m spending a couple of hundred quid on records every ten days, on labels like Kick Boxer, Poker Flat and Get Physical, but there are many more too. Electronic music has rediscovered its confidence, and its roots.’

Layo and Bushwacka sound mighty confident too, so Saturday 4 could be another red-letter day.