How did you get the name Hello Mozart? A nickname from others or did you name yourself kinda after the Motorola catchphrase?

I have to say I was always a Nokia boy. In all seriousness, I used to DJ with a really good friend Ben. He called himself Ben Goodbye and I took the Hello part. Mozart comes from Queer As Folk when the young kid Nathan shouts out “I’m Mozart! I’m fucking Mozart!”. I kind of liked the notion of doing everything when I was young. 

Can you tell us a bit about how you met The Lovely Jonjo and how you came to be part of Hot Boy Dancing Spot?

I met Jonjo when I was promoting a club night in Bournemouth called Big In Japan. We booked him and we got on really well so when I moved up to London it just made sense to work on something together. I really love throwing parties with him and we’ve got some pretty big plans for HB this year.

This Saturday sees you guys joining up with girl-heat extraordinaires JERK to create Hot Boy Jerkin’ Spot! How did this magical team-up come together?

We love throwing parties with other nights. There’s something about two different crowds getting together that makes it a really interesting night. We also really like girls and don’t really like it if there aren’t any at our nights. So this seemed perfect. JERK is also my favourite weekday night. Their parties are always amazing. 

Please do tell us all about the extra special guest you have brightening the basement this weekend!

We’ve always been fans of Little Boots. I’ve seen her live a few times and her sets are always really interesting. It’s definitely going to one of the biggest nights we’ve had in a while. Expect some pretty big things!

Who’s been your favourite guest you’ve had so far?

We’ve had so many amazing guests, but I do love it when We Have Band and Dan ‘Stopmakingme’ Avery play for us. Also TEETH! always put on an amazing show. We have a lot of rotating residents as well so it’s always fun when we play with them. 

Can you tell us your top three Hot Boy tunes?

Little Boots -  Shake (Azari & III Remix) 

This track had to be in here as standard. Expect to hear it this weekend. I don’t think Azari & III have ever done a bad remix, but this one’s especially great!

Cassius -  The Sound Of Violence (Aeroplane Remix)

This has been a favourite of mine for a while, but especially so at the moment after having a near out of body experience in a cab across Berlin after leaving Berghain to check out of my apartment. Too much.

Closer – Nine Inch Nails

Anyone who’s been to a few Hot Boys knows this is a favourite end track of Jonjo’s and mine. It’s great to play a night where you feel you can play anything, which is what Hot Boy’s about, and this has been a favourite track of mine since I was a teenager. What ever you do don’t make me cut the track short…

Hello Mozart! plays in the basement this Saturday 25th February at Hot Boy Jerkin’ Spot alongside The Lovely Jonjo and Little Boots, whilst Jeffrey Hinton and JERK residents Zoe and Keziah play upstairs from 10pm – 4am.

Which country’s cuisine has influenced you the most?

Italian food mainly. Italian and Middle Eastern. I used to be a vegetarian and I found I could be the most creative with those two types of food. You can’t be vegetarian and cook French food.

What is your favourite cheese?

I like washed rind cheese such as brie and milleens. Milleens is an Irish cheese which we happen to have on our new cheese board on the menu here at Dalston Superstore. There are some great Irish cheeses out there right now.

What’s your personal comfort food?

Anything rice based- Indian or Persian normally. Anything I can put together, leave on the heat and come back to several hours later and it’s delicious.

What was the first dish you ever mastered?

Goulash. I travelled around central Europe and I really liked the simplicity of the cuisine. It’s really hearty and a great winter warmer.

If you could ban any one food from all menus what would it be?

Cheesey chips. It shows a lack of imagination.

The kitchen is open from 10am every day for breakfasts, brunch, burgers, salads, homemade cakes, SquareMile coffee, TeaPigs, cocktails and pints plus FREE WIFI.

Hypercolour is a great up and coming British label but we have to ask- did you take inspiration for your name from the awesome ‘90s tshirts?

Yes, yes we did actually. I think it was more to do with coming up with something that sounded good. We deliberated on lots of names, concepts and ideas. It’s a direct reference, but it also has connotations of the music that we put out. We’ve recently looked into getting some Hypercolour business cards that change colour so watch this space!

Can you tell us a bit about the ethos behind the label?

We’ve stuck to our guns from the off as we’ve always wanted to put out slightly left-of-centre stuff. We started the label when minimal was at its peak, when Minus, and Hawtin, and his army of minimal soldiers were the top boys. Even at that stage, the early days of the label, the type of artists we were commissioning remixes from were all fairly new, bar Glimpse. The remixes that we got reflected where we wanted to head with the sound and that’s just kinda stuck really. DJ Koze is one of our high inspirations and he emulated for us what we wanted to do with the record label.

Now it’s just veered off in lots of different directions. We’ve got a few sub-labels and I’ve got a few separate projects. There a strong thread through it all though, in that they’re all deeper and there’s a lot of melody. When we listen to demos there has to be something, it can just be something simple, something that stands out on a track that can completely change our perspective on what we thought about it. A friend of ours said recently that there’s always something interesting, something different, something to make you say “oh, that’s cool,” in our stuff. Which reaffirmed to me what I’d always thought. It’s just not generic stuff. It’s just got to have a bit of soul and a bit of depth and a bit of thought gone into it. I think we’re good at recognising that.

You’ve mentioned that you run quite a few sister labels to Hypercolour- how do you ensure they all differ?

We’ve always had a kind of tunnel vision of where we want Hypercolour to go, but what’s changed things for us along the way is basically down to the music we’ve come across. For example we received a demo from Jimmy Edgar, and it was really slow, really sexy; it was very much NOT club music. But it was still quite cohesive with what we were doing because there’s quite a strong after-hours vibe in our music. So that inspired us to set up Glass Table.

JIMMY EDGAR – HUSH / NSFW from GLASSTABLE* on Vimeo.

We were at a point then when we wanted to put together quite a nice product. Alex [Jones], who I run the label with, is a graphic designer and we were going through this phase where we wanted to strip things back and put out really nice physical products. Which is why that label is picture disc vinyl only now.

We had all this music that we couldn’t see fitting in at Hypercolour. So we just set up a new project for it. It’s been a similar story along the way. Losing Suki was originally a digital only project as it was music that was even more left of centre than the Hypercolour stuff. We just had all this amazing music but we couldn’t just put it out through one outlet. We’ve got a full schedule of releases this year and that’s across all the labels. If I had just one label I couldn’t release 80% of the music I’m releasing at the moment. I think it’s to do with the fact that we’re pretty on the ball with A&R and music and we have other interests outside of house music. All these labels are borne from the fact that we don’t like passing up on stuff that is excellent and interesting.

There’s actually six in total now, oh no wait, that’s a lie, there’s seven, as Alex and Ste (my two partners for Hypercolour) they’ve also just started up their own little project which was something that I was too busy to get involved in!

We’re actually just about to do Groove Armada’s new 12”! That’s a scoop for you there, nobody really knows that. Eats Everything is doing a 12 for us, Claude Von Stroke wants to do a 12; so all these artists that we massively respect are recognising what we’re doing, which is very humbling. So we’ve got a really great year ahead. We’ve even got Pariah and Darksky remixes coming up on a little 10” thing. It’s really crossing over and I’m excited about what’s happening in the UK at the moment.

You were saying you run things with Alex and Ste – how did you guys meet and eventually end up forming a label?

Alex was part of formidable DJ duo in the late ‘90s called The Insurgents who were resident DJs at Big Beat Boutique, and they used to book Tiga, and Diplo. It was kind of a Bugged Out of its time, although Bugged Out ran parallel. I was living in Oxford and putting on parties in East London. We met through a mutual friend and we just hit it off. He’s got very dry, slapstick, Alan Patridge type humour and makes me laugh a lot. As we became good friends, he would send me music he was making that I thought was good, and we proceeded to set up a record label off the back of the fact that he also had a mate who was doing stuff under the name Glimpse, who is obviously doing very well for himself now. So Glimpse was our first release, Alex was the second; it was just two young lads really, just having a punt at trying to do something with their lives. The relationship we have, he’s the creative one in the sense that he does all the art and he’s a dab hand in the studio and I’m the organised one with, apparently, not a bad ear for new music.

Ste kinda came further down the line. He’s based in Leeds, used to work in one of the key record shops up there and for a label called Immigrant. We just got on well with him so we brought him in as an A&R ear and scout. He’s actually also an excellent DJ, which is where the mutual respect came from. He’s just started making music and is doing a lot better than most people after a really short time! Watch this space! Ste Roberts!

You’ve talked about Glimpse being one of the first releases and you’ve got artists on your label like Maya Jane Coles and Jozif who’ve had great success lately. Who do you think is next from the Hypercolour family to breakthrough?

A lot of the forthcoming releases, as I mentioned earlier, are from renowned artists. From my personal point of view, I’m a lot more excited about what’s happening outside of house music. We’ve got this new artist called Last Magpie on Losing Suki. It’s not an easy craft to make effortless sounding music. Everything about that track sounds amazing to me. It’s a tried and tested formula but it’s executed very well. He’s a young artist and it’s just really impressive. It’s great to hear fresh talent making such mature music. It excites me as to what’s to come.

Of course Huxley. That release came out this week. Again, it’s just an effortless sounding house record. I think it’s going to divide opinions as it treads the peripheral line of cheddar. I think it’s bloody wicked. It’s the type of track that people walk away from a night out and they’ll remember. The vocals, y’know, they resonate with a lot of young lads. We’ve said it’s the tune that young men will put on before they go out on the charge looking for young women. It’s just fit.

Huxley – Let It Go

Which other labels do you find inspiring?

I’m a massive Hyperdub fan. Especially loving that new Burial release. I like the whole concept, what they stand for, the fact that they’re really daring, putting out stuff that is unusual but staying cohesive with the UK bass scene, south London in particular.

And I’m a huge Warp fan. Warp is what I aspire to in terms of quality and outreach. They’re an institution.

On a house tip? I’m going to big up the Bristol posse here. I think Futureboogie are doing some really cool stuff, some really interesting releases. I went to one of their parties a few weeks ago and it was probably the best rave I’ve been to in about 10 years! It was held in an old coroners court and they still had all the old docks, and the booth was up where I imagine the judge would have sat. So it looked very surreal. Four or five hundred people were there. It was quite inspirational really.

You’re playing at Wet N Wild on Friday in the lazer basement. What kind of things can we expect from you?

Wow. It’s called Wet N Wild? There’s a theme park in Florida called Wet N Wild. Just thought I’d mention that….. Well as Superstore is a gay hotspot, I think I’m basically gonna pull out some Patrice Rushen type disco stuff… maybe some Hypercolour bits if that’s of interest to the crowd. It all depends on what whoever’s playing before will play. It’s so cliché but you have to read the crowd.

What one tune just won’t leave your record box at the moment?

There’s one that’s back in my box after quite some years, a tune by Kerrier District, who is Luke Vibert, and it’s called Yesco. I’ve been playing it the last couple of months; in fact I’ve even been listening to it today! It’s got the funkiest sound, and it’s got elements of darkness, it’s heavily sampled and the melodies on are just awesome. If you haven’t heard of Kerrier District I would just buy everything you can. And Luke Vibert, he’s a hero of mine. 

Kerrier District – Yesco

Cedric Maison plays Wet N Wild in the lazer basement alongside a very special guest, Deepgroove, Sam Wicks & JT, with Shay Malt and Emma Rudge in the bar next Friday 24th February from 9pm to 4am.

What with Sunday being the Out And Out Fierce day, the main stage sees a spectacular lineup consisting of Holly Johnson of Frankie Goes To Hollywood, the legendary Chic with Nile Rodgers, Swedish witch-pop duo Niki And The Dove and drag superstar Jonny Woo. 

Elsewhere in Victoria Park our naughty disco sisters Trailer Trash go head to head with Gutter Slut in the Big Top laying on an epic bill of DJ Hell, Tiga, Ivan Smaghhe, Hannah Holland and more. Whilst Horse Meat Disco host the NYC Downlow area with HMD residents, Andrew Weatherall, Tim Sweeney and Optimo.

Lovebox tickets are notorious for selling out quickly so we definitely recommend looking into it now. See you at the front!

Sir Rocky was kind enough to lay down a hot mix for Superstore boss Dan Beaumont’s radio show Rhythm Connection with Nadia Ksaiba which you can listen to in full right here.

1. Robert Owens – One Body (Kaine Interpretation)
2. Fun Boy Three – Faith, Hope and Charity
3. Blunted Funk Project - Think Twice
4. Dr Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band – Cherchez La Femme
5. Volta Cab – Be Madly In My Love (Daniel Bortz Remix)
6. Rare Earth – Happy Song Or Dance (Remix)
7. Yello – Lost Again (Greg Wilson Re Edit)
8. Eddie C – Dub Up The Edit
9. Badder Than Evil – Hot Wheels
10. Looped break
11. Janet Jackson – When I Think Of You
12. Jack Frost & The Circle Jerks – Shout

We are honoured to have him is guesting at Robert Owens’s residency at Society at Superstore on Thursday Feb 23rd and he was kind enough to take the time to answer a few questions for us…

When did you first get bitten by the house bug?

I remember first hearing house around 85/86. There were very few DJs playing exclusively house but a few guys were starting to mix the odd track into their sets. I can remember being on the dancefloor at Delirium and Nitro Deluxe Let’s Get Brutal pumping out of the system. Half the floor cleared but there was a hardcore that got with it. It sounded like music from outer space and you could definitely feel a difference coming. I also used to listen to a lot of pirate radio back then. Particularly LWR. I would listen to Jazzy M’s show and write down any tracks of interest. I’d then go to Groove in Greek St and spend my hard earned. The point where I knew everything was going to change was when I went to Shoom at the end of ’87. That was like the turning point. 

Why did you you form X-Press 2?

Well we’d started remixing tracks and it was a natural progression to start making music. It was Terry Farley that suggested we make a track for his label, Junior Boys Own, so we teamed up with Ash (Ashley Beadle) and the rest, as they say, is history. 

Can you describe your first trip to New York when you heard your own records in a club?

We went to the New Music Seminar in the summer of 1994. We’d already heard that Junior Vasquez had been playing our tracks, mixing 2 copies for 20 minutes! For us, the main purpose to that trip was to visit the Sound Factory on the Saturday night. We went to Sound Factory bar on the Friday for Louie Vega but had an early night to be on good form for Saturday. I can remember having butterflies in the queue outside Sound Factory but once we got in, we were blown away! Everything about it was just perfect. The sound, the lights, the space, the crowd and the DJ. We found a little plot on these big white steps in on corner and made that our base. I don’t remember exactly which track Junior played, but Danny Tenaglia came running over and said, “Come with me, I’ll take you to meet her.” we went up to the booth, which was amazing (carpet, art on the walls and a kettle!) and stood there like a couple of dumbstruck schoolboys. I think we managed a “Thanks for playing our tunes mate”, and that was it. Quite simply, the best night I ever had in a club. At that time, no club in the world came near to the Factory. 

Why is house music as exciting now as it’s ever been? 

I think because of its ability to constantly change and evolve. 

What is your favourite Robert Owens vocal?

One Body was my number 1 tune from last year. So I’m going to go with that. 

Can you name three records that you wish you made? 

Isolee – Beau Mot Plage

Afrika Bambaataa and the Soulsonic Force – Planet Rock

Mr Fingers – Can You Feel It

Rocky plays next Thursday 24th February at Society Presents: Robert Owens from 9pm – 3am.

Chris Flatline takes a break from the industrial rhythms of Endurance to provide a dancefloor soundtrack more in keeping with the cosmic synthscapes of his remixes and own tracks, while artist and printmaker Jonas Ranssøn plays a mix of original minimal synth records and his own custom edits and remixes. 

To find out what they have in store for all the jilted lovers this Friday 17th Feburary we caught up with Chris to get his anti-Valentine’s tracks…

The last BRAIN WAVES fell on Halloween weekend, right up our street, meaning we could pull out all the stops for a blood soaked Horror Disco special… this time however we’ve landed on a much less horrible holiday!

I’ve decided to completely ignore what Valentine’s is meant to be about and shoehorn in some cosmic horror. The name is taken from one of my favourite authors, H P Lovecraft, master of ‘weird fiction’, combining elements of of science fiction and horror, something I try and do with my DJing and music!

Here’s a selection of weird wave hits that are either recent discoveries or have become BRAIN WAVES classics over the last year at Superstore. I’ve tried to pick some half decent videos – no pictures of record labels!

In no particular order…

Nightmoves – Transdance

Quite an obvious classic to start with but this is one of those songs you kind of forget about and don’t play for ages, then rediscover it again a few months later, over and over and over. Very minimal, very mysterious.

Pink Project – B Project

Stefano Pulga, one of the original italo disco producers, formed Pink Project to release what were very early ‘mashups’. What’s impressive is that all of their songs are very accurate cover versions, nothing at all is sampled, showing some real impressive musicianship behind it all – unlike most modern mashups. What’s also impressive is the monster costumes.

Brassica – Lydden Circuit

This was a bit of an unexpected hit the first time I played it and has since then become a bit of a BRAIN WAVES classic. It’s kind of like italo-rave… or something. Hilarious video as well.

Ali Love – Smoke & Mirrors

It’s actually the Bottin remix that has become another regular choice for BRAIN WAVES, but this is the video version. If this one’s a bit ‘pop’ for you then check out the other.

Gatekeeper – Giza

This one is an absolute monster and went down very well at the Halloween Horror Disco – in fact the opening of the video is what it was like walking into the downstairs of Superstore that night, what with all the fake blood everywhere.

Charli XCX – Nuclear Seasons

It’s always nice when some proper modern electronic pop comes along and whilst it’s true that this video seems to be trying to cash in on the whole weirdo tumblr / witch house / triangles thing… so what?

Com Truise – Brokendate

Forget the stupid name, unlike a lot of new acts producing wholly synthesized music, Com Truise is in no way a ‘retro’ synth act. Tracks (and videos) like this are just timeless and B E A U T I F U L. Yes, the video is very Blade Runner, but then that’s a film that still hasn’t dated – in fact I think it looks more and more like the present as time goes on.

Legowelt – Do You Really Care 

There always comes a point in a set where you think “some Legowelt would fit right in here!” Every single Legowelt track is solid but I’ve chosen this one because of the video – ‘do we really care’ any more about space exploration? It seems to me a shame that we all appear to have forgotten that a man actually stood on the bloody moon not so long ago.  

Micro Chip League – New York

I’ve been getting very into this kind of late 80s ‘heavy synth’ kind of sound recently – you can really hear where Gatekeeper took their influences from. Incidentally who do you think would win in a fight between Robocop and Terminator? 

Chris De Burgh – Lady In Red

I will not be playing this.

Chris Flatline and Jonas Ranssøn will be playing all sorts of anti-Valentines muzak and cosmic horror that will chill your loved one more than the freezer you shoved them in this Friday 17th February from 9pm to 4am at BRAIN WAVES.

“Tutti Frutti is becoming one of the best Sunday Socials in Dalston; a place where you can detox or retox your weekend. We are dedicated to playing you a fine selection of musical genres both old and new. Our sound has become synonymous with remixes & re-edits including our very own brand of mashups, which are born from the live sets at the club.

Soul, funk, r’n’b, rare groove, pop, country & western, disco, ’80s, breakbeat, indie, hip-hop, tech and authentic house are in the mix. All tracks have been Squeaked and Tweaked in the true TUTTI FRUTTI style.

Artists on this mix are Tom Tom Club, M.I.A, Labi Siffre, Carly Simon, R.Kelly ft Jay Z, Missy Elliott, Amerie, Snoop Dog V’s Jackson 5, Chakachas, Kelly Rowland, Sahara, Dee-Lite, Michael Jackson, Dolly Parton, Anane, Depeche Mode, Claudja Barry, Hercules & the Love Affair, Rick James, Lolleatta Holloway, James Curd, Kylie, Leftfield and of course Madonna!”

Tutti Frutti is every Sunday night from 8pm to 2am. Visit their Soundcloud profile for more mixes and their Facebook group for more info.

David Hemmings stars as music teacher Marcus Daly who witnesses the murder of a famous psychic. After realising he might hold a clue to the identity of the killer, he obsesses over this, not realising he’s endangering his own life and that of his friends and family. He, his best friend Carlos, and feisty reporter love interest Gianna must then try to evade the attempts on their lives by the hatchet-wielding figure. 

Aside from its lengthy scenes of violence, Argento adds a sense of realism and everyday nature to Profondo Rosso, which even extends to his portrayal of gay characters; something almost unheard of in ’70s Italy. As Josh from Cigarette Burns tells us, 

“Sex and sexuality run deep through Dario Argento’s films, from foot fetishes to strangulation, but against the stereotypical ideas of a conservative mid 70s Italy, Argento’s approach to the revelation of Carlos’ homosexuality is shot through an almost indifferent lens. As we find him hiding away in his gay lover’s flat, half passed out on the bed, David Hemmings hardly notices his best friend’s sexuality. While as an audience, we veiw it as a plot device, a red herring, but regardless of that, Carlos is a frightened yet comfortable gay man, hiding away in the safest place he knows, in the arms of the person who loves him, not some aberrant beast. Even 30 years later, it’s still difficult to find such portrayals grace our screens.”

Profondo Rosso screening by Cigarette Burns Cinema at The Rio on Saturday 18th February at 11:30pm. Tickets are 7.5 and can be bought from The Rio’s website.

Resident Kezokichi has kindly provided us a warm-up mix and even a full tracklisting for the night which you can download for free.

Tracklist:

1. Jokers Of The Scene – Black Mountie (Daniel Avery Remix) 
2. Agoria Feat. Scalde – Singing (Dixon Dub Mix) 
3. Gunnar Stiller – Tiagos Destiny (Emerson Todd Remix) 
4. Andy Martin – Telekinesis 
5. Clement Meyer – Making Moves At Random 
6. Marc Houle – Undercover 
7. Camel – The Square 
8. Insignificant Others – Me And Silver T 
9. Niko Stojan – Dusty Fingers (Meyerdierks Remix) 
10. Octo Octa – Memories

Kezokichi plays alongside Alex Who? Bi-Bop and PressPlay PLUS a secret special guest over from Berlin this Friday from 9pm until 3am at Back To Back.

Ralph Tresvant – Sensitive

Aaliyah – Hot Like Fire

T-Boz – Touch Myself

Patra – Worker Man

Josh Caffe plays alongside residents Zoe and Keziah at Love Jerk! this Thursday 9th February from 9am – 3am.