Proper Techno: Slam on returning to the Arches and their new LP

When Police Scotland drug complaints and a Glasgow Licensing Board midnight closing time abruptly forced The Arches into administration in 2015, the city lost one of its great nightclubs. Among the nights unable to have a proper send-off was Pressure, run since 1998 by Stuart McMillan and Orde Meikle. 

So almost a decade later, when new management of the space – now named Platform – opened the door to a series of events under the New World banner, the pair better known as Slam plotted their return. 

“We’re not that into nostalgia, but The Arches is such an integral part of us, to have that prematurely taken away, it felt like unfinished business,” says McMillan. “Initially we were testing the water and only planned one party – but that sold out in a few hours – which just blew our minds.” 

That five-hour, one-arch set of Pressure classics at the end of October was followed by another in-between Christmas and Hogmanay, which has led to a third open-till-close party this Easter Bank Holiday weekend. 

“We weren’t sure about how it was going to pan out, but it was a pleasingly diverse demographic – and it gave us a chance to explore a lot of the older music that we’d played there over the years,” added Meikle. 

When pushed about what this might all mean for the resurrection of Pressure proper, it’s a tight-lipped “watch this space,” but McMillan does point out that putting on multi-arch, multi-DJ nights monthly might not be financially viable in the current climate.  

“Logistically, with what DJs charge these days, I think what was possible ten or 15 years ago is really only feasible at larger one-off events and festivals,” he suggests. “If you want to go in there and make a really special production, you can have maybe part of the lineups that we’d put on before – but many are asking too much in fees.” 

Slam are still out on the road regularly though, and it’s been this post-COVID reconnection with the dancefloor that has inspired their eighth album – Dark Channel – out 9 May on their long-running label, Soma.

Slam. Image: Lewis Smith.

Where Slam’s previous LP outing was an ambient affair, this is unapologetically club-focused from start to finish. “It's a homage to that space, which is somewhere people can get together and forget division,” explains McMillan. “We’re living in a horribly fractured world, so more now than ever we have to celebrate that; it’s a thing of beauty.”

Meikle reckons the record only took a couple of months to put together, starting life as a few rough tracks that worked while touring. “One track inspires the next, so we got on a roll and it felt quite effortless, which is not often the case.

“But I’m aware that in terms of the fragmented nature and the way people play music, most will just pick out their favourite moments from it.” 

The sound is unmistakably Slam: raw and industrial, but with a percussive groove honed from their more than 30 years together making people dance. More so than many, they’re able to assess what techno actually means these days, given how ubiquitous its variants seem to be. 

“The music has changed a bit post-pandemic, you often see OG guys moaning about the state of techno, but I’m of the opinion that young kids need to find their own sound,” says McMillan. “What they don’t need is someone like me telling them what they can and can't listen to.  

“Having said that, I do think ‘proper techno’ is back, as while there’s a much more hard and fast commercial sound at the moment, it seems like many young producers are moving away from that and appreciating slightly deeper forms.”  

A European tour, followed by trips to North and South America in the coming months, is something that clearly enthuses the duo, despite their advancing ages. They’re quick to dismiss any talk of retirement, mostly because the word suggests they had a real career in the first place.  

McMillan is forthright: “The way we got into this, we never perceived it as a job – those hours behind the decks just fly by – so any talk of ‘career’ seems a bit weird; this is a passion, a hobby – so I suppose it just highlights how some people focus on that side of the scene.  

“It’s fair to say that perceptions have changed; DJing might be seen as a desirable or attainable lifestyle, but that just didn’t exist in the early days. There was no obvious endgame or career path, you just had to be genuinely into music for the love of it.” 

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Slam: Return to Source [Easter Weekend], New World at Platform, Glasgow, 18 Apr, 9pm-2am
PRESSURE Yard Sessions #01, SWG3 (Galvanisers Yard), Glasgow, 31 May, 2-9pm

Dark Channel is released on 9 May via Soma