Ahead of our birthday bash on the 5th, we sat down for an elightening ten minutes with Dan Cat, to talk about how he got to playing for us, how he got into music, and a lot more in between. A lot LOT more. Here’s what he had to say:

Dan, you’re playing at Dropout’s 4th birthday on the 5th May at the Star of Bethnal Green. How did that come about? Guy Hornsby who runs the party is an old friend – he was one of the original Cheshire Street Session party heads. He’s also one of my production clients and an ex-student of mine. I don’t have to do a lot to his records – he brings me tracks that are 90% there – he’s a great musician (unlike most DJs hehe), I just warm up the parts with analogue gear, mix down and nip ‘n’ tuck here and there.

Have you played the Star before? It seems to be the perfect pub/club hybrid. This will be the first time I’ve played there, although I always seem to be there at a birthday party. Twice last month actually. Such a fun place! It’s in my manor so I’ve been a regular since it opened. Once I had to dash in there en route to the hospital to get ice – my girl Cordelia had scolded herself really badly and I was halfway in my car – she was screaming the roof off – and impulsively I stopped there. The staff were ace and jumped into action.

What can we expect from you on the night, music-wise? I play house music across the board. It’s gotta have funk though. Club music without funk is pointless. I’ve been hunting all over for new records recently for my weekly radio show on SDance 96.1FM (www.sdancelive.com) – wednesday evenings 6 – 8. Plug: done. It’s called ‘Dan Cat’s House Jam.’ A lot of my record recommendations come from friends whose tastes I vibe with.

In your spare time you’re a full-time producer, working from a studio in Hackney with bands, djs and artists. Describe your average week in the ‘office’? Hahaha spare time: what’s that? There really is no average week… which is one of the reasons I love it. All the bands and artists I work with are different. From established club DJs like Shane Watcha through to ‘tropical pop’ bands like Cable Street Collective. Bands like Cable Street make me feel glad to be alive – 25 year olds who have been learning their craft since they were 13. We’ve done one EP together: The singer Bianca from Miami really wasn’t feeling the vocal session so she asked me to get her a bottle of whisky. Half a bottle later and she did the tracks in one take. My kind of girl! One day we can have a four-man recording team and a 5-piece band set up, amps and cables everywhere, mics all over the drum kit, and it’s a rollicking rollercoaster of a session! And the next it can be a lone DJ and me making 4am club music in the dark. I love it all. Mainly I work out of Steve Ellis’s Planck Studios in Shoreditch www.planckmusic.co.uk.

You’re a convert to all things analogue and hardware. What’s so bad about digital? So you are going to take my warm pure analogue bass guitar signal and then… do a load of maths on it? No thanks. It makes it scratchy and harsh. Ideally, you need to put things through circuitry – old valve EQs and amps – add voltage to them. I don’t use software plug-ins anymore: they are banned in my studio. I’m actually looking into cutting straight to tape for the band work I do. Why do The Police’s and Fleetwood Mac’s records sound so incredible? Sure – they were talented musicians and super-tight bands – but one of the main reasons is because there wasn’t a computer in the studio.

You have fingers in even more pies, involved in a documentary, radio show, sitcom, and more. Tell us a bit about them, and tell us how you manage to fit that into 7 days every week! The documentary project ‘Me and My Third Eye’ is just about finished – it’s taken over a year – just some final post production bits – you can see the trailer here: www.meandmythirdeye.com. Really exciting. Can’t wait for the premier. The director Jon Kwan has done an amazing job.

How do I fit it all in? Aside from a couple of notable exceptions, I don’t watch TV. TV can go to hell. It’s the opium of the masses. These huge shiny things like so many altars in the center of our living rooms keeping you numb and trying to sell you crap all the time. Turn it off and CREATE something. As Bill Hicks said ‘I do not believe making money in order to consume goods is mankind’s sole purpose on this planet. If you’re wondering what I believe our purpose on this planet is, I’ll give you a hint… it has to do with creating and sharing.’

Having said that, I’m just about to make a sitcom. We shoot the pilot in July. It’s about a guy having a spiritual awakening… and Bill Hicks amongst other things. Oh, and it’s based on a true story that is still unfolding. Watch my show and then burn your TV. Ok?

I feel a bit fried occasionally with the amount of stuff going on but I was a lazy bum for a couple of years after the Cheshire Catz split up so I’m making up for lost time. I was on a slippery slope of not really working and borrowing more and more money to keep my life and studio business afloat. It sends a shiver down my spine to think of that time now. What turned it around for me was discovering meditation. It’s mindblowingly powerful. Just a few minutes a day gives you tremendous positive energy to get on and actually work towards your dreams. Spirituality is the missing element in modern life. You feel more balanced, grounded, happy – at one with the universe – in tune. Why have we forgotten who we are as humans? This is the whole reason I wanted to make a documentary about it. To spread the message.

Your DJ career started back in the 90s. What first got you into house music? My Dad used to send me tapes from America of early Detroit and Chicago house music in the late 80s. To a young lad growing up in a tiny village in Yorkshire it was like parcels from Mars. All around me friends were into Def Leppard and Whitesnake and I would be alone in the corner with Streetsounds Electro and early US hip-hop and house.

You’ve played all over including the End, Ministry, Ibiza, France, Canada, Germany, across the UK and the legendary Cheshire Street sessions at your flat back in the naughties. What was your favourite regular slot? In the latter stages of our partnership my favourite regular gig with Jon Cat as Cheshire Catz was Le Prive in Avignon in the South of France. It was carved out of the bottom of a quarry – Daft Punk and Carl Cox played there. It was like the bat cave. The DJ booth was in the middle with people dancing all around – the bar staff would stop serving to dance on the bar. Spine-tingling. Followed by an after-party in a chateaux where the girls refused to listen to our minimal insisting on disco instead. They were right.

Finally, give us 3 words to tell us what to expect on the 5th at Dropout? ILL HOUSE BEATS. My friend Devin Dirt from NYC, who I met on a tour of Canada, has just moved here – he’s shipped a ton of equipment including a Roland 303 and a Jupiter 8 we are making some acid house together which we are going to perform live – he talks like an old school rapper and it’s catching!

For more info about Dan head to his Facebook or hit up his RA page:

www.facebook.com/dancat
www.residentadvisor.net/dj/dancat

If there’s one thing we think we can guarantee at our 4th birthday on 5th May it’s the absence of snow. Though it played a hand in giving us an unexpected push in February, and our biggest party yet, we’ll be looking to beat the weather by welcoming one of London’s most enduring talents to the Star Of Bethnal Green in Dan Cat, bringing over a decade of DJing experience to Dropout and a bag of production tricks that’s seen him release on a host of labels since his debut in the mid 00s as one half of the capital’s party starters The Cheshire Catz.

Dan’s DJ career goes back over a decade, and by the early noughts, he’d bagged residencies at legendary venues Turnmills, Ministry Of Sound and The End. Surfing a weekly gig schedule that would sink lesser mortals, production work followed on Berwick Street, Playtime, Whoop, Blufin and their own Catzmuzik imprint bringing fans from across the house music spectrum. Now as a solo artist, full-time producer and sometime filmmaker, the new decade hasn’t dimmed his energy, and we’re expecting big things on the 5th May. Stu Hirst’s farewell set has set the bar high, but we’ll be throwing everything at it as we enter our fifth yearn in style, with a few surprises thrown in. Expect house music of the highest order alongside residents Guy Hornsby, Jamie Richards and Stef Lesik.

As ever, the serious effort goes into Dropout’s commitment to shit-hot music, free from big club pretention. It’s all about getting down in a venue that cares more about the dancing than the denim. So come and celebrate with us at The Star Of Bethnal Green on the 5th May to turn on, tune in and Dropout.

Dan Cat (Catzmusik)

It all started with a DJ duo, the Cheshire Catz, and a set of legendary house parties in Cheshire St, London – hence the “Catz” name – that exploded to 1500 people trying to cram into four adjacent flats. Moving ‘legit’, the Catz did six “At Night” parties and scoring the Catz gigs at nearly every major London club. At the same time, Dan and Jon moved into production, with their first tracks earning raves from Claude von Stroke to Sasha, Radio Slave to Audiofly.

Eventually the Catz had to split, citing “artistic differences” way more extreme than the average, from a near car crash in France that almost took out a writer for DJ magazine, fist fights in Ibiza and a few hundred too many Sundays spent by Dan at London’s endless afterparty scene. But thankfully Dan proved that you can’t keep a good producer down. He vanished for a couple of years, went travelling, found love and a new set of influences, built a studio and now he’s launching into a set of new releases.

Today, with fans for his house tracks ranging from Slam to Luke Solomon, Shir-Khan to Severino, Dan Cat is one of London’s quirkiest additions to dance music. His hardware-chocked Shoreditch studio takes in singers and songwriters as well as engineering projects with DJs, his aim to make his bands sound as good as records did in the 70s and 80s. And as if music isn’t enough, he’s involved with a documentary on mediation filmed in Spain, and co-writing, directing and starring in a sitcom pilot. With such a busy diary, we’re pleased to have just got 2 hours of freetime to invite him down to show his expertise on the decks.

Guy Hornsby (Dropout/Sideways Recordings)

Guy’s twenty-year love affair with house music has taken him on a winding path from a house music epiphany at university in Sheffield to London, through sub-genres, numerous fashion crimes and many of the country’s best-loved dancefloors. In the fourteenth year of his DJ career, while not scribbling about everything electronic, the Londoner’s firmly settled on a blend of deep, groovy and techy house, always aimed at moving feet, not stroking chins, and has put needle to vinyl at almost every one of the capital’s major dancefloors.

After ten years of promoting everywhere from SeOne to Ministry, he’s settled on the less suffocating surroundings of Shoreditch as one third of Dropout’s laid-back posse, bringing forward-thinking music to Saturday’s demanding hordes. In 2009 he took in the sunny climes of Croatia’s Petracane at the Airbound festival alongside London dates. With a number of productions under his belt on Landed, Drag’n’Drop and L:Music, and last year an EP and remix out on Sideways Recordings, it’s a production career that’s slowly gaining momentum and garnering him attention in the city he calls home. It is, as they say, a marathon, not a sprint.

Jamie Richards (Dropout)

Jamie Richards has covered a good deal of ground on his electronic odyssey so far – relocating to Leeds in his late teens and forming StefJam with partner in crime Stefan Lesik – Jamie rocked a plethora of dance floors throughout the city. Then, returning to the capital as a resident at DropOut, a forward thinking party focusing on good sounds, good times and a no pretension mentality.

2009 was a frenetic and exciting year for Jamie, holding down a full time career, a residency and a number of guest sets at parties across London. Over the next two years Jamie has been tinkering in the studio, working on a smorgasbord of deep, warm, rhythmic house that is ready for a full dancefloor assault as summer edges into view. Watch this space….

Stefan Lesik (Dropout)

From rocking the dancefloors at his home town in Cambridge at the age of 17, to holding down a number of residencies in Leeds and London, Stefan Lesik has continued to take on slots at some of the country’s most established venues.

Teaming up up with Jamie Richards in 2004 to form StefJam, the rumbunctious duo hit on a winning formula providing Leeds and beyond with a fresh and vibrant approach to house music. Now living in North London, web designer and music lover Stefan is concentrating all his might on Dropout – based in Shoreditch and is guaranteed to make a lasting impression…

Early bird tickets can be bagged for only 4 quid, so get in early via the RA ticket link.

Dropout 4th Birthday feat. Dan Cat

Saturday 5th May 2012
The Star Of Bethnal Green,
359 Bethnal Green Road,
London E2 6LG
9pm-4    am
£4 early bird/£5 after and on the door

www.dropout-london.co.uk

www.facebook.com/events/272091812865041/

www.residentadvisor.net/event.aspx?349758

We get to listen to so much music at Dropout Towers, but every so often a label stands out above the rest, and in the last year we've come to love Berlin label Lucidflow. Run by Nadja Lind and Helmut Ebritsch, it's been putting out some stunning house and techno over the last three years with a clutch of local artists and established remixers, with Steve Rachmad, Silicone Soul and Terry Francis sitting alongside the likes of joining Klartraum, Terje Saether, Lind and Ebritsch.

Berlin may be more famous for uber-labels like Mobilee, Minus and the like, but Lucidflow is proof that amazing music can come out of the city without A-list DJs behind it, and they're on our 'must-listen' list for 2012. Check out their website and their brilliant new EP, reviewed below.

Breed EP by Terje Saether reviewed on 4clubbers.net: http://www.4clubbers.net/2012/music-reviews-23/

Lucidflow's website: www.lucidflow.de.

So, you’re hanging up your cans for the last time on the 4th. What’s the next chapter for you in music?

I’ve achieved everything I wanted to in dance music, and then some. I never dreamt at 17 that I would get to do some of the things I have, and i’ve only scratched the surface. I don’t feel I can contribute a huge amount any more as a DJ. I still plan on continuing to produce dance music, as I am still hugely passionate about the music, but I have loyalties elsewhere now.

I am a guitar player of over 15 years, in fact, it was my first love before electronic music. I have always wanted to be a drummer and am investing the next 2 years in learning the drums to a level that I can play in a gigging band. I get such a buzz out of it and it has given me a new lease of life in music. One door closes, another opens. I can’t say I will never DJ again, if the opportunity presents itself, but I am no longer represented by management nor am I actively seeking gigs. I’m glad i’m bowing out with friends and choosing to call it a day on my terms, rather than fading into obscurity and clinging on for dear life.

Who would you model yourself on drumming? Dave Grohl? Mick Fleetwood? Chad Smith?

If I could get to even 10% of their ability, i’ll have done well! Dave Grohl and Joey Castillo are probably my favourite drummers. Neil Peart can do some incredible things.

Over the years, what have been some of your favourite music gigs?

Wow, i’ve been to some amazing gigs. Fleetwood Mac’s reunion tour, Foo Fighters at Wembley Arena, U2 at Glastonbury, Eric Clapton & Jeff Beck – i’ve been to hundreds and hundreds of gigs, big and small. I really enjoyed Cast’s reunion gig in London last year; I got to see the band soundcheck and have a beer with them in the dressing room before the gig! Top lads.

What’s been your most memorable nights behind the decks?

I can’t give just one, but I can give you the best 4; the first time I played The Arches in Glasgow, first time I played Global Club in Lithuania, the 2^nd night of playing La Mania in Romania and headlining the Friday of the Baltic Beach Party. They were all a riot. Happy days.

You’re a massive football fan. If you could score the winner in the Old Firm derby to win the league, or make a seminal record that’s remembered for 20 years, which would you choose?

With the state of the Old Firm these days, I could probably get a game! If you were to change that question and put “score the winner for Leeds to win the league”, then it would be that every time, no question. It’s every schoolboy’s dream to score for his team isn’t it?! Sadly it will be a long time before my lot are challenging for the league again!

Where would you like to think you’d be in a year, musically? Drumming regularly and writing music with the band?

Perhaps a year is a bit soon, but certainly within two, I would like to be a competent live drummer and hopefully find a band to gig and write with. Even if it was just the pub circuit, one step at a time!

Are there any nailed-on records you can confirm for the set on the 4th?

As with any gig, I will adjust according to the night and the crowd. While it’s my last gig, what I play has to be in keeping with the ethos of the night. I’m sure there’ll be a couple of oldies and a surprise or two, but I’ll be keeping the set as ‘current’ as possible.

Anything else you’ve got up your sleeve for the night?

I’m going to DJ naked with David Guetta’s name drawn on my cock.

Head to www.stuhirst.com if you want more, and just come down on the night and see him in the flesh.

Stu’s been DJing for over a decade and releasing records almost as long. His breakout track – Rhythmique – caught the attention of Steve Lawler and Pete Tong, and landed on Lawler’s Lights Out compilation in 2005 and since then he’s released on some of the scene’s biggest imprints, from GU Music to Harlem, Baroque and Viva to Cr2 and Plastic Fantastic. He brings a pedigree of music with a party-starting character that fits our template perfectly. Ben Gomori will be a tough act to follow, but we’ll be throwing everything at it as we enter our fifth year. Expect house music of the highest order alongside residents Guy Hornsby, Jamie Richards and Stef Lesik.

As ever, the serious effort goes into Dropout’s commitment to shit-hot music, free from big club pretention. It’s all getting back to good quality music in a venue that cares more about the beats than the boat shoes. So welcome 2012 in style at The Star Of Bethnal Green on the 4th February to turn on, tune in and Dropout.

Stu Hirst (Global Underground,Gung-Ho)

Stu Hirst is one of the hardest-working producers around, an artist that’s appeared on an avalanche of labels since his first EP on Harlem in 2005, and continues to do in 2012 with recent work out on Gung-Ho. With close to fifty releases over the years, his appetite for making music is undimmed and it’s a passion that’s evident in his DJ sets over the course of his career, with Stu always showing his character behind the decks, the epicentre of each energetic gig, whether he’s playing at Space in Ibiza, festivals in Eastern Europe or one of his many gigs in the capital over the last ten years.
We’re honoured that he’s chosen Dropout to hang up his cans after over a decade playing music to clubbers across the globe. With his bi-weekly Global Underground radio show on Ministry and a slew of tracks on the go, (not to mention fitting in time to be a drummer in a band!) his career will continue to flourish, but we can be sure he’s going to give Dropout a send-off set to remember, so we can’t wait to get the Scotsman down to lift the roof off one of East London’s best venues. One of dance music’s good guys, Stu Hirst should ensure it’s one of our best ever parties.

Guy Hornsby (Dropout/Sideways Recordings)

Guy’s fifteen-year love affair with house music has taken him on a winding path from a house music epiphany at university in Sheffield to London, through sub-genres, numerous fashion crimes and many of the country’s best-loved dancefloors. In the twelfth year of his DJ career, the Londoner’s firmly settled on a blend of deep, groovy and techy house, always aimed at moving feet, not stroking chins, and has put needle to vinyl at almost every one of the capital’s major dancefloors.

After ten years of promoting everywhere from SeOne to Ministry, he’s settled on the less suffocating surroundings of Shoreditch as one third of Dropout’s laid-back posse, bringing forward-thinking music to Saturday’s demanding hordes. In 2009 he took in the sunny climes of Croatia’s Petracane at the Airbound festival alongside London dates. With a number of productions under his belt on Landed, Drag’n’Drop and L:Music, and an EP and remix out on Sideways Recordings last summer, it’s a production career that’s slowly gaining momentum and garnering him attention in the city he calls home. It is, as they say, a marathon, not a sprint.

Jamie Richards (Dropout)

Jamie Richards has covered a good deal of ground on his electronic odyssey so far – relocating to Leeds in his late teens and forming StefJam with partner in crime Stefan Lesik – Jamie rocked a plethora of dance floors throughout the city. Then, returning to the capital as a resident at DropOut, a forward thinking party focusing on good sounds, good times and a no pretension mentality.

2009 was a frenetic and exciting year for Jamie, holding down a full time career, a residency and a number of guest sets at parties across London. Over the next two years Jamie has been tinkering in the studio, working on a smorgasbord of deep, warm, rhythmic house that is ready for a full dancefloor assault as summer edges into view. Watch this space….

Stef Lesik (Dropout)

From rocking the dancefloors at his home town in Cambridge at the age of 17, to holding down a number of residencies in Leeds and London, Stefan Lesik has continued to take on slots at some of the country’s most established venues.

Teaming up up with Jamie Richards in 2004 to form StefJam, the rumbunctious duo hit on a winning formula providing Leeds and beyond with a fresh and vibrant approach to house music. Now living in North London, web designer and music lover Stefan is concentrating all his might on Dropout – based in Shoreditch and is guaranteed to make a lasting impression…

Dropout feat. Stu Hirst

Saturday 4th February 2012
The Star Of Bethnal Green,
359 Bethnal Green Road,
London E2 6LG
9pm-2am
£4 early bird/£5 after and on the door

www.dropout-london.co.uk

Dropout feat. Stu Hirst - 4th Feb 2012

Ben Gomori

Seeing as we’ve got another sterling guest down at Dropout Towers we thought it’d only be right to big up Ben Gomori. The Londoner’s done it all really, resident at legendary venues like Turnmills, The Key and the Cross, but outlived the lot. He’s been producing for a few years now, with tracks across Black Sheep Trax, Baker Street, Berwick Street, Seamless Black and Plastica amongst others, and sets at the Secret Garden Party, Escape In The Park and recently, Oxjam.

He’s a man about town that knows how to bring his party with him wherever he goes, and we, for one, can’t wait to have him down on Saturday night.

If you want to get stuck in even more, here’s some more of Ben in various forms:

www.benzmixes.com
http://www.residentadvisor.net/dj/bengomori
http://www.myspace.com/bengomorimusic
http://twitter.com/#!/bengomori

Seth Troxler - The Lab 03 - NRK Records

We’re big fans of the Visionquest crew, with their take on house that wobbles from disco to full-on rave, and their main man, Seth Troxler, is about to release a new compilation for the legendary NRK imprint. Lab 03 is a two-disc album of weird and wonderful house music and it’s out this week. For all the info, have a look here:

http://www.nrkrecords.co.uk/thelab/

and there’s a recent review of mine up on the 4clubbers.net website here:

http://www.4clubbers.net/2011/music-reviews-12/

Enjoy!

Ben’s had a string of releases recently on the likes of Black Sheep, Baker Street and Bigger Deer and we’re delighted to get him down for what will be our second last party of the year. After last time’s 3rd birthday highpoint we’ve got a tough act to follow, but we’ll be filling the Star with all the four corners of house music as we enter our fourth year. Expect house music of the highest order alongside residents Guy Hornsby, Jamie Richards and Stef Lesik.

As ever, the serious effort goes into Dropout’s commitment to shit-hot music, free from big club pretention. It’s all getting back to good quality music in a venue that cares more about the beats than the boat shoes. So welcome the summer in style and come down and help us blow out the candles at The Star Of Bethnal Green on the 11th June to turn on, tune in and Dropout.

Ben Gomori (Baker Street/We Love…. Fresh Blood)

And for broader horizons, we’ve got a guest that’s more than a match for the new venue. Dean Muhsin is the man behind Bearweasel. One half of a production duo that’s had deep and hypnotic tracks and remixes out on the likes of Murmur, Soma, Steadfast, Classic and most recently on Tsuba’s 5 Year EPs, and 100% of the DJ, with recent gigs at Fabric, Harlem Nights and in Oslo, and upcoming gigs at Weekend, Cargo, 333 and Cable, we’re drooling over the prospect of having him down to grace the decks at our birthday. Expect house music of the highest order alongside residents Guy Hornsby, Jamie Richards and Stef Lesik.

As ever, the serious effort goes into Dropout’s commitment to shit-hot music, free from big club pretention. It’s all getting back to good quality music in a venue that cares more about the beats than the boat shoes. So welcome the summer in style and come down and help us blow out the candles at The Star Of Bethnal Green on the 11th June to turn on, tune in and Dropout.

Bearweasel (Tsuba)

From the early days lapping up UK rave on tired old cassettes via pouring over every last word in Future Music Magazine and perennial weekend sessions soundtracked by the likes of Newcastle¹s Shindig and master jocks including DJ Sneak, Stacey Pullen and Green Velvet, music has always been Dean Muhsin¹s porn of choice. Now one half of production duo Bearweasel alongside Louisa Page, Dean has quietly gone about his way, earning the respect of his peers and the love of those he plays to courtesy of consistently classy DJ sets and tracks and remixes for the likes of Tsuba, Supernature, Classic, Soma, Brendon Moeller and Stevie Kotey’s Hairy Claw.

Whilst the chirpy Geordie may deprecatingly refer to his own musical taste, those who embark on a sonic journey with him will always disagree: it would be foolish to undersell considered and carefully crafted sets which balance progress with precision, subtlety with style. Much more so they’re tasteful excursions into the deepest caverns of house music which attack both the head and the heel, and do so without unnecessary fuss. Striking such a balance is what Dean does best; his obsession with residencies and the demands of such a job show a dedication to his art and to the music he plays.

£4 Early bird / £5 Second release 

Buy tickets for this event

It’s hard to wade through the new music that hits Dropout’s inbox some weeks, but then others it’s a mountain of amazing tunes.

Magicbag’s may only be a few releases old, but the Leeds label’s put out some brilliant music so far, from their own Death On The Balcony, to dOP and Youandewan. This month is all Ewan Smith’s, with the fantastic Meet Me In Teufelsberg EP, a four tracker that’s got everything from downbeat electronics to euphoric techno.

‘One to watch’ is often overused, but in this case, Youandewan, and Magicbag will be fulfilling this in 2011.