Reopening the Star Dancer Portal: The GSA Reborn

This month the long process of refurbishment and re-modelling of the Glasgow School of Art Union comes to an end, culminating in a grand opening framed by interstellar themes and offering the kind of electrifying club programming that surely bodes well for the venue’s continued presence at the centre of the city’s vibrant music and art scene. 

The promoters tasked with ushering in the launch of a new era for the venue are self-described ‘post-DIY’ collective Croc v Croc, comprising Liam Casey, Laurie Pitt and Anna Schneider. Bringing together the beguiling sounds of acts such as Stellar OM Source, Svengalisghost and Murlo, and wafting them throughout a venue transformed by bespoke installations, the group have lined up an enticing evening. Taking a break from planning The Reopening of the Star Dancer Portal, the trio discuss their plans for the event, fully aware of its added significance. “There’s a sense of history around the reopening of The Art School,” admits Liam.

“Some of us studied at the GSA and we did a lot of shows there over the years. There's a pressure around the reopening to reconnect with the past, so we wanted to investigate that urge and that's why we're building a portal. But, instead of gazing back nostalgically we're using it to point to the future of dance music. The histories we’re left with are largely fictional and sensational, so we wanted to apply the same treatment to the future.” 

The team’s association with the venue goes back many years, during which time they have undertaken several cross-genre productions such as working on a free party showcasing William Bennett’s afro noise project Cut Hands, which featured the use of a massive foam machine – a delightfully odd marriage if ever there was one. “Our slogan is ‘Croc: Putting the Party in Party.’ So the opening night seemed the perfect opportunity to do exactly this,” explains Laurie.

Musically, the night promises the kind of innovation and variety that has made The Art School so beloved over the years. Christelle Gauldi aka Stellar OM Source produced one of the most impressive techno albums of 2013 with Joy One Mile and the classically trained Brussels-based artist seems to be enjoying her recent shift to more club-focused music. Her live sets tie together acid-embossed techno, captivating drum programming and are sprinkled with measured moments of sparkling melody. “Christelle is just making great techno,” says Liam. “We got onto her through Golden Teacher. She’s totally transtemporal and with a name like Stellar Om Source we just had to have her music bleed out of a massive portal.”

The portal will also emit the altogether darker, but no less invigorating sounds of Chicago-bred producer Svengalisghost. Marquis Cooper is an interesting character, who appears to have briefly toyed with the idea of releasing simple, hypnotic deep house – executed to great effect on his first EP for L.I.E.S – before promptly deciding to pursue a grainier, industrial-based sound that would feel as at home in B-movie horror flicks as it does in clubs. Increasingly making use of his own distorted vocal drawls and with a knack for laying down menacing bass hooks amid analogue hisses and penetrating drum loops, Cooper’s live set is a full-on performance. “He combines the fetish futurism of electronic body music with what sounds like decayed house music,” says Laurie. “He also really performs it with a microphone; it’s a sort of a direct proposal to the crowd.” 

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Just when you think The Art School’s rebirth will be dominated by analogue techno and the arrestingly gloomy soundscapes of Svengalisghost, the programme offers up yet more variety in the form of instrumental grime producer Murlo. As Anna explains, the Londoner laces his tracks with influences from dancehall and soca, bringing a distinctly different flavour to proceedings in the Vic Bar. “He’s not played in Scotland before but he’s indicative of a scene that traverses internet geographies and urban ones simultaneously – something young producers like Inkke in Glasgow are doing too”.

On the topic of Glasgow, it would seem misguided to re-launch one of the city’s most prized venues without the help of some of the leading local talents of the day. Thankfully, the Croc team have plenty of those lined up too. “CVNT TRAXXX is the moniker of our old friend Niall Connolly,” explains Anna. “He has been a massive influence on Croc with his nights Menergy, Tranarchy, and especially his old night No Rave which had a similar creative programming sensibility to Croc.” Connolly’s sound combines elements of UK bass music with the NYC style of ballroom/vogue house. “Then there’s Fem Bitch Nation,” Anna continues. “They taught us a whole new way of doing music over years of working together. Their stage shows are on a par with Lady Gaga and they taught us how a feminist praxis can transform club environments.” 

“A lot of what energises us are the often overlooked music practices that look at gender and sexuality,” adds Laurie. “For us they’re what clubbing comes down to – something that Sophie Reilly and Charlotte Prodger recognise, our two favourite DJs in Glasgow who happen to be women.” 

Completing the night’s lineup are post-punk group, Shopping, and two of Croc’s favourite Glasgow bands – Star Voyager and Sacred Paws. Fielding Hope of Cry Parrot and David Barbarossa will also be on hand to take care of proceedings in the third room so it would seem all bases are covered. As Anna explains, the programme clearly “cuts across genres.” 

“The bands, live electronics and DJs we’re working with look to a variety of histories and use them for their own purposes. We start with connections made through other projects – bands we’re in or discussions around sound and ideas. Unlike club nights that stay safely within the boundaries of one form, we want to make disparate music collide – open up a space of possibility, like free-jazz and manifold forms of improvisation – like smashing particles in the Hadron Collider. It’s an allegorical search for the unknown.”  

Such lofty ambitions for the evening’s musical programme could only be adequately served with the implementation of a similarly striking visual production and, as you may have guessed, that’s where the portal comes in. “We’re bringing in Zephyr Lidell, Casey O’Connell, Jack Wrigley and Robbie Thompson – our spiritual sisters from 85a – to do the visuals,” Laurie reveals.

“The Vic Bar will be turned into a glam version of Red Dwarf; a space vessel lost in deep-space-time on a post-historical mission to find the Star Dancer Portal. The Assembly Hall production will involve a specially commissioned installation involving a massive laser and a programmed LED wireframe above the crowd.” 

And if that all sounds a touch ostentatious, it’s worth pointing out that club nights often lack imagination and character. With a musical programme truly worthy of praise and the prospect of a captivating visual element, The Reopening of the Star Dancer Portal seems exactly the kind of production the Art School should be hosting after its long hiatus. Above all else, the Croc team see their task as honouring the past while pointing to a new era. “For us it’s about picking out what we want to bring with us into the future”, says Anna. “The old venue had its limitations and recent press has focused on a largely male history. We think it’s critical to think about music as a historical process and, if history never did you any favours, then place yourself in the future.” 

Liam chimes in: “That's what Sun Ra did. That's what techno does with us. We truly believe that the rhythm of music is the beat of history. And if history beats you down then, in the spirit of Chumbawamba, 'get back up again.'”