You might not know them, but Halo have been bubbling away on London's house music underground for 8 years now, putting on rocking parties at The Cross, rocking Room2 for Circo Loco at The End, parties at Ministry of Sound and even in Miami. No hyperbole - it's just house music in all it's glorious forms with a few carefully chosen special guests and a great team of residents. We got the lowdown on Halo from promoter Ali ahead of their event at The Cross this Saturday with Pokerflat's Dan Berkson & James What...

Who are you and what do you do?

We are Ali, Sam and Gareth and we run Halo Promo. Our parties have been going for over 8 years now. Our current residency is at The Cross where we support a wide spread of dance music across 4 rooms.

Room 1 features a Minimal Tech music policy with bookings such as Pokerflat Recordings’ Dan Berkson and James What (live) this month and Clive Henry in November. However the driving force for this room comes from the superb up and coming underground DJs we book month in month out such as Neil Parkes, Tom Craven, Johnny Blanco and Tom Roberts.

Room 2 features a jacking house and electro policy bringing a high energy vibe to our nights. Think Justice, Ed Banger Records and Simian Mobile Disco and you get an idea of the vibe.

Room 3, the Live Lounge has a smoother more soulful vibe to it and features residents Loud Minority (Goodtimes) (Notting Hill Carnival) and Jason Sears (DJMag Millennium DJ competition winner). This is a room for those who still love it funky and nothing else.

The 4th and final room is the Grotto which showcases music for true aficionados. Think Lindstrom, Todd Terje, Eskimo Recordings and Rub N Tug and you’ll get the drift.

How did you get into dance music in the first place?

As music lovers it was a natural progression really. We have always tried to immerse ourselves in cutting edge music with regular trips to the Miami WMC, Ibiza and the Sonar Festival every year and before that simply going out in one of the best cities in the world, London. We started to build up a following throwing huge house parties based on the music we were hearing on the London scene and soon we realised that we could easily translate this into a club based night.

Which clubs inspired you to set up your own?

Malibu Stacey at Hanover Grand was where it all started for us. At the time, clubland was a glammed up affair and you really had to make an effort to get in. This exposed us to some seriously hedonistic parties with a rich mix of large-than-life personalities. It was so different compared to the sort of clubs you go to when you are younger it gave us instant inspiration.

What’s your party all about?

Good music. Good people. Good Vibe. We pride ourselves on our crowd and atmosphere. We like to think that our parties transcend some of the pretentiousness that can be associated with certain music scenes. You wouldn’t usually find a soulful room at a tech house party for example. Each room has it’s own following and although people will generally stick to the room with the music they are into, the bars, walkways and gardens of The Cross all act as social melting pots bringing the very best of each scenes crowd together under one roof. This is consistently the biggest compliment we are paid with many people commenting on how friendly our nights are and how they meet people they wouldn’t normally meet.

How did it start and was it a banger from the off?

It all started at a club called Bar9 in Kensington. The venue held about 200 people at capacity and we filled it first time by twisting the arms of everybody we new between us. The music policy was enough to keep interest in the night and with an organised data capture policy we outgrew it quickly. After a year we moved our night to the Baby Box at The Ministry to maximise our exposure.

If budget was no matter, which DJs would you book for Halo?

Tech house wise there’s no contest…Narod Niki, the 6 piece laptop based super group that counts amongst its revolving members the likes of Richie Hawtin, Ricardo Villalobos and Luciano. As a live performance they are incredible.

House wise I think it would have to be Daft Punk...however Justice are really pushing them at the moment and it’s a tough choice.

If it was on a soulful tip, then we would probably like to book Simon Grey or Masters At Work as their production pieces are second to none.

For the Grotto room my number one booking would be Prins Thomas. He can play deep bassline disco and electronica with the energy of Tech house and is a truly great producer to boot.

And which venue would you use? In London or otherwise?

That’s a difficult one, with a line up like that you would have to come up with something better and bigger than a club. If we booked everyone listed above we might have to go down the festival route to cope with demand. Move over Glastonbury.

What was your most rocking party to date and what made it so?

Our most rocking parties always involve being outside. When we host our alfresco terrace parties in the Gardens of the Cross it always goes off. The last one was truly reminiscent of the DC10 terrace as everyone got a chance to bust out their big frame glasses and get down to some serious deep electronic beats. Weather permitting we are hoping for a repeat performance this weekend.

What are Halo’s top 3 all time anthems?

This is so difficult.

Masters at Work – ‘To Be In Love’ for back in the day when everything was funky…

Booka Shade Vs M.A.N.D.Y – ‘Body Language’ - a true landmark record for electro house....

Loco Dice – ‘Seeing Through Shadows’ in recent years was huge in the minimal tech room…

What can we expect to hear from you on the night? Both behind and infront of the decks...

Underground music in all forms behind the decks, Moogs, drum synths, laptops, live guitar, sax and percussion in front of the decks and the sound of a seriously good night on the dance floor. Done and dusted!

Check out full details of Halo @ The Cross this Saturday here:
http://www.dontstayin.com/uk/london/the-cross/2007/jul/21/event-129235