The Kult of ISSST continues its viral assault on London’s clubland and following on from the blistering success of the inaugural event on April 7, the second instalment will take place on Saturday, May 26 at a secret warehouse location in Shoreditch. Once again you can expect a very special night based on the ISSST blueprint of quality, innovation and downright hedonism. Expect two unique spaces with Funktion One sound throughout and May 26 is also another Bank Holiday weekend, so will continue the ISSST penchant for hijacking special occasions and ripping it up. What’s more, it’s also the ISSST 2nd Birthday so this one is really going to rock – check out www.issst.com to see a video of The Last Kult of ISSST in action.

Once again a genre-busting selection of modern electronic practitioners has been assembled for your raving pleasure including Black Strobe playing live on stage with a full band - think guitar, bass, drums and Arnaud Rebotini on vocals! Expect to hear songs from their forthcoming debut album, ‘Burn Your Own Church’, as well as new interpretations of classic Black Strobe tracks. Joining them will be a Klaxons DJ set from Jamie Reynolds – this man was one of the heroes of ISSST NYE and his return is eagerly anticipated – as well as French wonderkid Shonky, one of the coolest figures on the Parisian electronic dance scene. The ISSST residents Kevin Griffiths and Bobby M will be in full effect, of course, with support from some of London’s best young DJs including the Lost Souls guys Anthony Difrancesco, Dario Burelli and Chris Sandford; Kid Circus, Joe Le Groove and Lee Garner from Electro Me To Death, and John Donaghy. We’re talking the perfect acid house playground, in fact. Join The Kult of ISSST… before The Kult joins you.

To get you in the mood, we caught up with Black Strobe main man Arnaud Rebotini to get the heads up on the forthcoming live show and debut album. Arnaud is a superb DJ in his own right, of course, but for The Kult of ISSST he’ll be on lead vocals.

Let’s start by talking about their forthcoming show at The Kult of ISSST? Is this the first time Black Strobe have played live in the UK?

“Actually we’ve played live in the UK several times before including Fabric and also in Liverpool and Manchester. The live show is evolving all the time though and this will be a full live band with guitar, bass, drums, synths and myself on lead vocal. It works well so far and we’ll be playing tracks from our new album as well as reinterpretations of classic Black Strobe tracks. We’re really looking forward to playing for ISSST too – their parties always have great crowds and it’s going to be different playing in a warehouse. We’re planning something a bit special.”

The debut Black Strobe album, ‘Burn Your Own Church’, is forthcoming on Playlouderecordings and was produced by Paul ‘Phones’ Epworth who has worked with people like Bloc Party, Maxïmo Park and The Futureheads. Paul was also one of the DJs at the first Kult of ISSST party.

“When we first discussed who would produce the album Paul was at the top of the list. Luckily he was free – in fact, I couldn’t believe how easy it was to sort out and it all came together perfectly. To then have the album mixed by Alan Moulder who has worked with people like U2, Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson was even better and we couldn’t have wished for more. With this album we are also able to break away from the rigid structure that you have to work within for dance tracks and we were able to write real songs.”

Preceding the album will be a new single, ‘I’m A Man’, which is a cover version of the classic track from blues legend Bo Diddley. Black Strobe have turned it into a high-octane electronic monster!

“When we were preparing the album I always wanted to cover another song and this was the one. I have a very wide taste in music and love things like the blues, hillbilly, bluegrass and early rock ‘n’ roll. There’s a common thread that runs through this music right up to modern electronic dance music – you can trace its roots right back to the blues of the 1930s. It has the same energy and passion.”

The remix package for ‘I’m A Man’ includes offerings from rising techno star Audion, Black Strobe themselves and K37! who won an internet competition to remix the track. There’s quite a story here too.

“We had over 70 mixes of the tracks come in and after listening to them all we choose one by this guy K37! from France. Unfortunately he didn’t send his contact details with the mix and so we couldn’t contact him. By chance a friend of his saw that we’d posted on the internet that this guy was the winner, otherwise he wouldn’t have known. Apparently he didn’t believe it for ages.”

Arnaud is no great lover of music labels and only cares whether the music is good or not. He cites the Klaxons who will also be playing on May 26th as the perfect example – they were one of the heroes of ISSST NYE too, of course.

“I hear all this talk about rave or new rave, but when I hear their music they’re making really good pop dance records. I love what they do. These are just labels invented by journalists but I think they’re really cool and I’ll be interested to hear them DJ.”

Back to Black Strobe and what can we expect from their live show?

“It’s going to be a mixture of tracks from the new album and older Black Strobe tracks. It’ll be fairly uptempo and uplifting too, and we’ll be reinterpreting some of the tracks to suit a live setting. We’ve got a few special surprises lined-up and we’ll be playing our remix of the last single, ‘Shining Bright Star’. This will be the first time we’ve played the track live and it’s going to be pretty energetic. You’ll certainly be able to dance to it.”

With just ten days to go, there are very few early bird tickets left at £8 + b/f and standard tickets will be £15 + b/f. For advance tickets call 08700 600 100 or visit www.ticketweb.co.uk or Clubtickets at 0870 246 2020 or www.clubtickets.co.uk (buy 5 get 1 free at Clubtickets) or Viewtickets at www.viewtickets.co.uk – you can also download an exclusive Black Strobe remix of their own track ‘Shining Bright Star’ at www.issst.com/download

For more details visit www.issst.com or www.myspace.com/issst