Positive Infusions: Enzo Siragusa

London-based Enzo Siragusa’s been at it for a long time now. "There’s a lot of rave nostalgia in what I do," he cheerily admits, which makes perfect sense given that he’s been raving for over twenty years.  "Usually when I’m giving interviews or making music, I’m thinking about raves I’ve been to, like my first time in 1993."

Shall we talk about his first rave then?

"Oh god err, it was Dreamscape, in Milton Keynes. I remember driving for two hours to get there. I was young. Back in those days I had a paper driving licence I could use. It wasn’t mine, it didn’t even have a photo on it, but man it got me in – 15 years old and I was in, and it was incredible! Back then it was all hardcore and jungle, mainly hardcore, that typical rave sound. I’m bringing it back! Come to Fuse man!"

Anyone’s who’s been to Siragusa’s long-running and much followed club night might be faintly surprised to hear this, characterised as it is by a very particular dub-house sound. Deep, warm, and stripped-back, it doesn’t much resemble the grainy footage available from the era of wide-eyed youngsters in ill-advised bucket hats. In fact though, Fuse was born out of one of rave culture’s defining characteristics, i.e. its nigh-on insatiable appetite. Original instances of the club in 2008 kicked off at ten o’clock on a Sunday morning – an after-after-party, that’s brought Siragusa to the attention of clubs Europe-wide.

This month sees him making his first ever trip to Edinburgh, where he plays alongside Chicago’s DJ Sneak and globetrotting house and techno don Nina Kraviz. The night is among the first of the Nightvision series put together by Edinburgh promoters Musika and Explicit, who over the course of the next few months will bring names like Joy Orbison, Skream, and Levon Vincent to the capital. It’s never easy for Edinburgh clubbers, forever in Glasgow’s shadow, but the Nightvision series looks set to lend life to the already solid local scene that’s been ticking over for some time now.

"I come from an era when every town had a nightclub" – Enzo Siragusa

Of course, with rents forever too-goddamn-high and the barely veiled aggression of gentrification encroaching on spaces throughout the UK, all clubbing scenes face challenges. Siragusa has seen the electronic landscape transform over the course of his career, and laments in particular the decline of local scenes outside of the major cities. "I come from an era when every town had a nightclub. When I was growing up, I used to go to a place called the House of Windsor. Dance music culture exploded in the early 90s, it was easy for young people everywhere to just go out and rave. Now that’s dwindling, even in major cities like Manchester."

You won’t find the House of Windsor anymore, and recent years have seen a spate of further closures. "When we started Fuse in London, it was at a time when clubbing in London was taking a major hit. We lost nightclubs. We lost The End, we lost Turnmills, we lost The Cross, The Key, all of a sudden the scene had shrunk." Of course, the vast majority of clubs work on borrowed time. Clubs like The Cross and Bagley’s were caught up in colossal regeneration projects that would see them transformed into restaurants and boutiques. Turnmills was later demolished in what Kentish Towner blog described as a ‘brutal act of vandalism’ against the area’s industrial history. The End club, a former postal-office sorting vault, was snatched up by an unfortunate developer mere months before the global economy came off the rails.

None of this deterred Siragusa however, who recognised the work that needed to be done to keep the local scene going. Like many, his night exists between shifting cracks – with serious, long-term residencies a luxury granted to few these days, the night has seen various venue changes. This has done little to slow it down. "We had to focus on the party itself, with a big emphasis on the sound, particularly in the booth – a good booth system is what allows DJs to truly express themselves. We also wanted to bring through a lot more local artists and London-based DJs. We built up a strong crew of residents, and I think that was really important. It’s about encouraging the DJs available."

Of course, that’s not quite what Nightvision are doing, with their emphasis on outside guests. I run this by Siragusa. "We did the same thing. You have to entice people to come out, especially if you’re looking to get people in from surrounding towns – you need a line-up. You can’t pretend you can do it yourself."

That said, Fuse do appear to have managed a great amount of it by themselves, having effectively built a brand tied to a hyper-specific dub-house sound and even hyper-specific type of raver – in an interview for Resident Advisor, Siragusa discussed his night’s super strict door policy, arguing that it’s unsustainable not to be selective on the door when you run a night that’s dependent on a core crowd – "otherwise, they don’t come back."

Is it difficult exporting that hyper-specific sound on tour? Does he feel he faces challenges that other DJs with more quote unquote "universal sounds" might not face?

"Not really," says Siragusa. "Once Fuse took off I was getting a lot more gigs outside London. Fuse was essentially an after-party, and my sound was very stripped back, so yeah, some people wouldn’t necessarily get it. You realise there’s certain sounds for certain times of day for certain dancefloors, you pick up on the vibe and energy of a crowd very quickly. It’s cultured that way, I mean, I come from the dancefloor… you can’t just turn up at the club and play an after-party set for a bunch of people who’ve just shown up and are ready to party, and it’s great getting to play a lot more house and techno. So no, I don’t think there’s any challenges exactly…

"I’m having a lot of fun though!" he adds, and it certainly looks that way. Fuse re-opened in May, and his touring schedule has taken him all over Europe, including his familial homeland, Italy. "I seem to have struck a chord with my compatriots, they’re very excited about me. Someone recently listed me as one of Italy’s top DJs, which was nice – it’s totally wrong of course, I was born and raised in London, I’m a UK artist, but it’s still nice!"

There’s also been action on his Infuse label, with upcoming releases under his new Kilimanjaro handle, a duo featuring Siragusa himself and Alex Kidd. Despite the noticeable presence of a whole host of different influences, Siragusa doesn’t view it as any sort of digression from his earlier work – "Twenty years of DJing means I’ve been through house, hardcore, jungle, techno, many different genres, and Kilimanjaro is me reflecting on that. Much of it’s come from my jungle/drum and bass days in the early to mid 90s. There’s a lot of different sounds in my bag, and this is just one of them. It’s very natural."