Horse Meat Disco: Get Mucky

If you found yourself appalled during the earlier part of this year as the seemingly endless scandal in which cheap, European horse meat was found unlabelled in all manner of everyday food products, then we're afraid you may have to set your face to stun once more. This sort of thing has been happening for years. London-based DJ James Hillard should know. He named a clubnight after it.

In mid-00s London, in the wake of a wave of funky house and at the peak of trend-conscious electro, Horse Meat Disco set up shop one Sunday evening in a pub, armed with a crate of classic disco records and an eyebrow raising name. “There was another scandal back then, but while it was really insignificant, it stuck out to me. There's something sleazy and wrong going on with the name,” he agrees.

Since then, HMD as an entity has expanded both its appeal and its roster of DJs, with Luke Howard and Severino Panzetta joining Hillard and co-founder Jim Stanton. They've found international success, with the core crew sticking to their ethos of unearthing exciting records old and new to keep a room going early into a Monday morning, and the party has chalked up a loyal following everywhere from Glasgow to Barcelona, as well as birthing three expertly selected and eclectic compilations.

Given the natural underground roots of disco and the gay scene, has Hillard ever been conscious to avoid the club drifting into the realm of ‘the brand’? “A lot of people say it's a ‘brand’, but I don't know what that means,” he counters. “I mean, we do a few parties, we've put out a compilation, but we haven't got a clothing line... We like to do parties and have a good time. My idea of a brand is making shitloads of money, and we're not making shitloads of money.”

Severino Panzetta, who will be joining Hillard for an HMD appearance at 2022NQ in Manchester this month, began his career as a DJ engrossed in the vibrant Italian club scene of the 90s – but also worked as a record buyer, regularly flying to London to find gems to take back home, and vice versa. He was also a rather good oboe player in his youth, but can’t think of much oboe/disco crossover, aside from a few Culture Club singles. Panzetta's background is quite the contrast to that of Hillard, who spent his childhood in Somerset, the son of a local butcher who just so happened to moonlight as a DJ.

“When I moved to London, there wasn't a scene like in France or in Scandinavia, as people weren’t sticking together,” Panzetta observes. It took a few years for him to make headway with London promoters before becoming part of HMD – but of course, much has changed since then and, away from the club, he has become a cross-Atlantic ally of the likes of Luke Solomon and Derrick Carter. The latter even asked Severino to mix a Through The Eyes Of compilation for his Classic Music label – and an original track will hopefully follow later this year.

With DJs nationwide currently fending off a barrage of requests for Daft Punk's ubiquitous Get Lucky, and almost as many columnists and promoters trying to jump on a very particular groove train, Hillard in particular is cautious about the return of disco, noting that it seems to be back “every other year or so,” and adding that he's seen more disco revivals than horse meat scandals. As well as keeping their weekly Sunday shift at Eagle London in constant action, the crew are currently working on new, original music – vocals and all – as well as their Rinse FM show. Two hours of disco and funk on what was once a pirate radio station dedicated to grime, their Rinse broadcast is indicative of Horse Meat Disco’s continuing success and relevance in a constantly evolving UK dance music scene. Don’t tell anyone, but disco never dies.