Alex Smoke: Getting The Balance

Everyone has an opinion on the Edinburgh versus Glasgow argument, but apart from the most fervent, residents will admit both cities have their advantages and disadvantages. However there is one area where things have become worryingly skewed in recent years: clubbing. Since the turn of the century the general trend in the capital has been for the closure of popular nightclubs, with the loss of Wilkie House, The Venue, and The Honeycomb to the endless desire for lucrative central property; whereas Glasgow boasts some of the best clubs in the country, such as The Arches and The Sub Club, as well as new venues opening all the time. To give an interesting view on the situation we talked to Alex Smoke, a 'weegie' born and bred, but whose music has taken him to many of the world's best venues, and is soon to play the launch night of new Edinburgh club night, Kapital.

An interesting anomaly that has grown out of the cities' differing trends is that whilst there may be less big venues in Edinburgh there seem to be new nights popping up all the time, whereas Glasgow's few expansive, and therefore expensive venues make such diversity difficult, something Alex has recently experienced: "We're trying to put on a night, and the thing is there's not that much choice, there's been stuff closing down recently as well, like the Liquid Lounge. So it's a mixed bag, at the moment Glasgow is the place that's doing well but in terms of smaller nights it's actually not so easy to find venues."

Currently in talks with the Sub Club about putting on a regular night to promote his new label Hum+Haw, it's clear he hasn't rested on his laurels after the success of second album Paradolia. Created with Soma label mate Jim Hutchison, Hum+Haw intends to follow the successful mould made by Slam:

"In a lot of ways Soma's not really what I'm aiming for, but in other ways Soma have it sown up by having Pressure, and building it up through the Sub and through the Arches, and having the label represented that way." Hum+Haw aims to be a creative outlet for a range of styles from hip hop to techno, with the first few tracks representing much of the work Alex hasn't been able to release elsewhere. One of Alex's most recent releases was for Vakant, one of a bevy of Berlin labels hemorrhaging good music these days, with Alex citing it as one of his favourite places to play. "Berlin is such an epicentre at the moment, it's a snowball effect, the more hype there is about it, the more people go there, every month there's more and more producers moving there from all over the world. The fact is that the rent's cheap, and that it's central in Europe, so it's great for travelling for DJs."

The release of his last album at the peak of last year's minimal house boom saw his productions lapped up by his peers, and has kept his touring schedule busy ever since, but 2007 has seen the inevitable backlash towards the genre. He sees this kind of pigeonholing as unimportant though. He explains: "People will go with the trend, but those who like good music, make good music - and they're not particularly bothered whether it's called this thing or that thing. The minimal backlash really just refers to like the middle ground of popular stuff; the good producers like Villalobos, Luciano, etc, will keep on producing their kind of sound and carry on being popular because they're the people doing the real thing. All the rest will just start to switch, that kind of big sound is really becoming very popular again, you know people like Justice, Simian Mobile Disco, and the minimal thing is still carrying on and it will continue to do so, but it'll just steadily become less and less fashionable." While Glaswegians are regularly treated to fresh European underground sounds courtesy of the nights like Pressure and Subculture, only Edinburgh's We Are Electric occasionally delves into the deeper, darker side of house, techno and electronica. Hoping to redress the balance, down in the often overlooked and recently redeveloped Caves, Glasgow's own Alex Smoke will be bringing his unique live set of minimal tech and twisted electronics to the Kapital. The Skinny can't wait. Keep tuned to The Skinny for further features with Alex Smoke later this year.