Music : Jackin House, Electro House, Dirty House, Latin House, Deep House, Progressive House, Tech House, Tribal House, Old Skool House, Acid House, Electro, Big Beat, Breaks, Minimal Techno, Detroit Techno, Funky Techno, Acid Techno and Electro Techno
Friday 25th May 10- 4am
Bank Holiday Special
Room1
Pete Heller (Phela Recordings/Junior Boys Own)
Richard Carnage (Empathy Nu-Breed Winner)
Residents
Stuart Wilkinson
Jim Rivers
Jay Russell
Room2 hosted by Bete Noir
Rich Weller
Greg Matthews
Formless
Empathy welcomes one of the most prolific and highly regarded producers this country has ever produced, Pete Heller has produced some amazing records and has remixed some of the biggest names in dabce music and has also known as a top dj. This is the first time Pete has played in Bristol for a very long time, so catch him while you can.
Alongside Pete is Richard Carnage the winner of the Empathy Nu Breed Mix Competition which was held earlier this year, his style and choice of tunage stood out a mile and this set is well deserved.
Room2 this month we welcome Bete Noir from London, they will be making the second room their own with some twisted hypnotic beats with residents Rich Wellor and Greg Mathews plus special guest Formless.
Pete Heller - Biography
From childhood marching bands to disc jockey and dance music producer: Pete Heller knows a good drum when he hears one. Boom-boom. Out go the lights.
Born in Brighton, Pete Heller was a music nut right from the get-go. The Clash, Psychedelic Furs, Jam and Madness as a kid and then discovering nascent hip hop at a Clash gig in London. “I was sitting at the back before the Clash and this band came on,” remembers Pete. “I’d never heard of this music before. It was very rhythm-based. It was Fab Five Freddy doing a hip hop show. I thought, ‘I’ve got to get into this’. Found out about Groove Records, went up there and the first import I bought was Davey DMX ‘One For The Treble’. It smelt different.”
Things were different in the 1980s before house arrived and shocked our system to its core. Dance music was a minority interest, like clay pigeon shooting or wine tasting. There were few magazines documenting it, and no-one wanted to be a DJ. It was like dreaming of being a gas fitter. But when Heller discovered clubs (thanks to an older sister), he was smitten. “There was no DJ culture then. They were just blokes who played records. But I found them intensely glamorous. That whole music and club scene was very other, then.”
At Manchester Uni, he got a break DJing and started to promote parties all the while travelling back to London where the early house/Balearic clubs were mu-Shooming out of from nowhere. “It was the maddest place I’d ever been to,” says Heller of Danny Rampling’s now-famous Shoom. “It suited my aesthetic completely, because all I did was take acid, and lots of it. I’d go straight to the dancefloor and that was it.”
Against the odds for such a young shaver, Heller was handed the warm-up slot when Shoom relocated to Busby’s. Aside from the instant kudos of playing at the hottest club in London, it was a satellite around which half of London’s club faces revolved. Introductions were made, friendships were sealed, including those of Terry Farley and the Boys Own crew. Heller worked in the studio on the first Bocca Juniors single (he played guitar) and somehow found himself producing The Farm alongside Terry and Madness’s Suggs (“We spent most of the time playing Subbuteo, although I did programme a little beat!”, laughs Heller)
When the cheque arrived for Heller’s contribution to Altogether Now, he bought studio gear and started making proper house music with Farley (as Roach Motel and Fire Island). Lots of records, one club hit after another. DSK’s What Would We Do: massive tune at the Sound Factory. Happy Mondays’ Stinkin’ Thinkin’: ditto. Eventually the records were big everywhere, remixes, original productions, funky, deep, guaranteed floorfillers the lot of ’em.
In the mid 90s, the pair had an unlikely crossover hit when a rejected remix, Ultra Flava, suddenly became the hottest track in Ibiza and went top twenty n the UK. Then, in 1998, Heller produced his biggest hit yet, with Pete Heller’s Big Love. “Terry went to see Chelsea in the European Cup Winners’ Cup final in Stockholm so I went in the studio on my own. I knocked it out really quickly. In a day. Actually 12 hours. After I’d done it, I thought it was going to be a demo so I edited it down to ten minutes and that became the final release.” It reached number 12 in the UK pop charts in May 1999.
Since then, he’s continued to produce more club monsters: Sputnik, Stylus Trouble, remixes of Cevin Fisher, Inner City… and endless list. And now - in the wake of JBO’s recent cessation - sees the launch of Phela Records. His own baby, though not literally. More music, big plans (well medium ones, but big eventually), a nice website, direct interface between man and machine and man (and woman). More stylus trouble, in fact.
Bete Noir - Biography
The dictionary definition for ‘Bete Noire’ reads; (n) something or someone a person views with particular dislike – from the French meaning ‘Black Beast’…. With a string of fantastic nights and gigs behind them (most notably playing this years Issst NYE bash in London and John Digweed’s Bedrock night) Bete Noire aka Greg Matthews and Rich Weller, are proving that their deep, hypnotic, tech house….dare we say it….minimal sound…is actually very much ‘liked’.
In early 2006 Bete Noire was launched as Greg and Rich teamed up and decided to create a night and DJ partnership, under the brand of ‘Bete Noire’. It was the perfect platform for Greg and Rich to play the music they believed in – be it the ‘progressive house ’ influenced melodies of Loco Dice and the haunting strings of Rekleiner, to the ‘techno/tech house’ influenced sounds of Blackstrobe and Michael Mayer.
In 2006 alone, this resulted in gigs and Bete Noire nights at Inigo, The Custard Factory, Turnmills, Hidden, Departure and Med Bar, playing alongside the likes of Rui Da Silva, Anthony Pappa and Hernan Cattenao. They also managed to secure a monthly residency at Charterhouse in London, on the last Saturday of every month. The year was capped off, however, when they were asked to play at the Issst NYE Warehouse bash and the subsequent after party with Tiefschwarz and the Issst DJ’s, Bobby and Kevin.
Both, Greg and Rich, have also had Bete Noire mixes played on internet radio shows Proton Radio, Danceradio.Gr, Audiolive! (Express FM), Loop Music and a pod cast released by the influential Progressivehouse.com website. With their Bete Noire website (www.bete-noire.co.uk) and myspace page (www.myspace.com/betenoirelondon) getting over 20,000 hits a month and their own pod cast up and running, 2006 was a hugely successful first year.
2007 has also started extremely well for Greg and Rich, either as Bete Noire or individually, with slots at Empathy in Bristol at Timbuk2 (with a return trip in May), Modernism @ Turnmills (Stacey Pullen, Silicone Soul), Twisted Audio @ The Edge (Luke Fair) and a further night with Twisted Audio in the Soundshaft at Heaven for John Digweed’s ‘Bedrock’ night. The Charterhouse residency continues in 2007 with special guests planned, including Punchfunk in April as well as a regular residency spot at a new night called Microcosm in London. However, on the horizon is perhaps one of their biggest night’s yet……Bete Noire at the Ministry of Sound, with Twisted Audio kindly inviting them to play in the Baby Box..………Bete Noire; (n) something or someone a person views with particular dislike…. nothing could be further from
Timbuk2, Small Street, Street, Bristol, BS1
£6/£8
Tickets available from
Bristol Ticket Shop, The Arcade, Broadmead, Bristol
www.bristolticketshop.co.uk 0870 444400
Rooted Records, Gloucester Road, Bristol
www.empathyclub.co.uk
Event info – 07799745870
empathy_bristol@msn.com
Links
www.peteheller.com
www.bete-noire.co.uk
www.myspace.com/betenoirelondon