Pressure: Code Red

The news of Adam Beyer’s forthcoming appearance at the first Pressure of the New Year will no doubt spark a fair amount of excitement amongst the posters and lurkers of the Slam Events forum. Fiercely loyal to the Slam-hosted evening, debates often rage on the website about the booking policies of the night, most notably the merit (or lack of, in some views) of Boys Noize playing in recent years.

It is, however, unlikely that such an argument over the quality of the output by Adam Beyer will take place. As one of the biggest names in Sweden’s already thriving and famous techno circuit, Adam Beyer began his musical career in Stockholm in the Planet Rhythm record shop, working alongside like-minded artists in the form of Cari Lekebusch, Joel Mull and Jesper Dahlback.

Beyer later launched the Drumcode label with the same motive of many labels, to allow the creator complete creative freedom and the need to answer only to themselves. Drumcode’s quick success owed a lot to the high production levels apparent on its releases. Following six releases on the label, Beyer launched his second imprint Code Red, which occupied itself with a slightly softer sound.

Soma’s Dave Clarke explains what attracted him to Adam Beyer for the next Pressure: “Adam leads the way with the Drumcode label and I think it’s safe to say he has become big on a global scale. I think he works hard and is very creative too, both with marketing himself and the label, and with music. As a DJ he is definitely getting up there with the guys at the top of the scene like Richie Hawtin and Jeff Mills.”

There is of course the issue of Pressure leaving the Arches for the first time; does Dave think that this will affect the night? “We really enjoyed the Vitalic and Slam gig at the Academy. It’s the first time we did it for a good few years and it worked well –the crowd were going daft. It’s obviously different to a normal Pressure where there are three rooms and the second room is very big with a capacity of 800. But it's great to have a change for us and the crowd and the big main room works well, especially with headliners like Adam Beyer and then for the Laurent Garnier on 5 March. We’re hosting Laurent Garnier's full live band and it’s coming to the end of their tour so it will be the last chance to see them for a long time.”