Back in April of this year, a mysterious new techno party sprung forth from London’s clubbing underground. Closer was the name and the premise beautifully simple; take real techno music back to raw, intimate spaces. We’re not talking about trendy minimal techno or grubby acid techno here though, we’re talking Detroit, we’re talking tribal rhythms, we’re talking electronic soul music. We spoke with Matthew Duffield – director of Sedition DJs and promoter of other parties such as UP^^ and Going Places – and Paul Jack – promoter of Party Proactive – about the much acclaimed event they helped to create.

“It’s always been my dream to put on a techno party, simple as that,” states Matthew. “Techno has been the style of dance music that has inspired me most over the last few years and in many ways it was a logical progression from all the experience we had gained putting on other events. There has been a general resurgence of interest in the music too and demand from a new set of clubbers to get involved – Paul has proven that by introducing techno into his Party Proactive events – and we wanted to create a party where people could hear the music and the best DJs in an informal, friendly setting.”

The idea was to move away from the London’s usual club spaces and into more underground settings – warehouse spaces, for example – and to combine heavyweight, pioneering DJs with the most promising up and coming talent to give the whole affair a healthy mixture of old and new. As for the music policy, while it’s true that there is a lot of great material on the more minimal side of the techno world at the moment, these guys were more concerned with bringing back the more traditional, somewhat meatier style of the genre. “Minimal is something everybody seems to be doing and I certainly feel there are way too many serious events out there,” says Paul. “The roots of minimal lie in techno,” adds Matthew, “and it’s only a matter of time before people want to start checking out where it all came from. Detroit producer Robert Hood recorded his ‘Minimal Nation’ tracks back in the mid-90s, for example.”

Given their desire to place Closer in more unusual spaces across London, the guys have had their fair share of difficulties in trying to secure venues. The first party took place in the art gallery-meets-warehouse space Corsica Studios, filling it to capacity with bass-hungry techno enthusiasts with the surroundings suiting the night to a tee. The second party proved a little more trying with legal complications meaning that the warehouse venue that they had chosen had to be pulled at very short notice, but Hidden in Vauxhall served as a very worthy replacement. “Venues are the key to a good techno party and this has proved a real challenge,” Matthew tells us, “If the music is great and the crowd is vibed up, it’ll work anywhere and the last party at Hidden proved it’s the music that really counts. Once the kick drum took hold the setting soon became a formality and people got stuck in. Techno heads love their music with a passion and are an inspiration in themselves, so you can take it pretty much anywhere, but its natural home is still the underground.” That night in August at Hidden turned from potential disaster to one of the year’s most memorable parties as 450 of London’s finest descended upon the small-but-perfectly-formed confines to witness techno originator Kevin Saunderson leading the charge …and drinking a LOT of neat tequila. “I was actually very happily surprised at how well Hidden worked as a venue for this type of event,” says Paul, “and the outside area was a godsend. It proves that Closer is an awesome event that works in any location – the people are up for it, the music rocks and the lighting looks fab!”

Venue sagas aside, booking big, legendary DJs to play at a small party with only a short history is not the easiest of tasks. The approach these guys have been taking so far has been to decide on a preferred headliner – and then decide on the date of the party accordingly – giving the raison d’être of the party somewhat more backbone. “These guys are in demand all over the world so just getting a free weekend can be a mission in itself,” Matthew explains. “We managed to get Kevin Saunderson because he was playing at a festival in Spain the next night and basically flew out from Detroit a day early to play for us.” Of course when you decide to do a New Year’s Eve party, you don’t really have that option. For their third party, Closer are taking over a warehouse space in Central London and once again enlisting the services of the mighty Luke Slater who tore the first party to shreds, with ample support from James Ruskin, a regular at the recently relaunched techno institution Tresor in Berlin. After having landed some very exclusive appearances from techno legends like Kevin Saunderson and Slater, Paul and Matthew are keeping their sights aimed high for future parties. “Slam – the Glaswegian duo are top of my hit list and they remain true techno pioneers,” says Matthew. “They were the first artists we considered and we’re still trying to get them down – they would tear it apart. Len Faki is a new talent from Germany we’re very keen to bring out sometime soon too – there’s a real buzz building up about him. Of course, if Derrick May and Laurent Garnier fancy coming down sometime I’m sure we can sort them out a set!” Paul’s hit list doesn’t mess about either: “Dave Clarke, but if you’re being really silly Richie Hawtin or Sven Väth!”

“I see the party as something that is constantly evolving,” Paul continues. “I am keen to see us do both large scale events and the more intimate parties, but always maintaining a close contact between the artists and crowd.” This is part of what has set Closer aside from other London techno events – seeing Kevin Saunderson play to 300 people in an intimate, sweaty room is certainly a different kettle of fish to seeing him play to thousands in Ministry or Fabric’s main room. “As the names suggests, Closer was designed to create a more intimate style of techno party that we felt was missing in London at the time,” concludes Matthew. “Never say never, of course, and I’m keen to go wherever it will take us and I would like to team up with some of the best European events if that was ever possible. Clubs like Tresor in Berlin are back firing on all cylinders, for example, so Closer is really just a small part of a general resurgence of interest in techno generally and we’re keen to be part of that. Who knows where it will lead but as long as we can maintain the friendly vibe of Closer the sky’s the limit basically.”


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