Believe it or not, clubland’s new fangled fascination with ‘electro-swing’ – that nifty dancefloor marriage of contemporary dance beats (be they house, drum & bass or dubstep ones) to early 20th century jazz and swing - has its deepest roots in the 1990s; not long, in fact, after those heady, acid-fuelled ‘summer of loves’.
Producer, promoter, DJ and multi-instrumentalist Nick Hollywood takes up the story: “I guess you could say that I put on the very first lounge and Burlesque nights. Years ago when rave was massive we wanted to give clubbing a twist and re-create a fifties nightclub experience but we simply couldn’t compete. The expense of those lavish old clubs was huge, so we decided to take simply the spirit of vintage and adapt our plans. That gave us flexibility.”
Club Montepulciano was born in 1993 and quickly became a regular fixture on the London club circuit – flaunting its attractions everywhere from Turnmills to the Brockwell Lido. The playboy influences of the 1950s and 60s were noted but so too were the swinging traditions of the 20s, and the early 20th century penchant for burlesque and risqué cabaret. Time Out dubbed Montepulciano an essential London experience; stars including Little Britain’s Matt Lucas and The League Of Gentlemen attended, and the teams behind major nights such as Torture Garden and White Mischief came to “swot up.”
Montepulciano was, in effect, mixing retro vibes with a contemporary club sensibility to distinct and rather dazzling effect; and the rest of clubland was sitting up and taking notice. Here was a springboard to the future. Next would come imprint Club Montepulciano Recordings, releasing various genre-defying compilations, artist albums and EPs in line with the club night’s unique mantra, and then, in 2005, Freshly Squeezed Music; another label with the same long-standing musical strategy.
Which returns us to the present day, a day on which Nick’s status as king of electro-swing is beyond question, and Freshly Squeezed (from whose Brighton offices Nick is speaking) has never been in such demand. “There have been a few dance records in the last five years or so incorporating those jazzy, swing sounds from the 20s and 30s,” he explains. “They resonated with me, and my background, when they were released and so I thought about bringing them together on a compilation.”
The compilation, released in 2009, was called White Mink: Black Cotton and officially confirmed electro-swing as a sonic genre and tour de force. Indeed, dance music magazine Mixmag described it as ‘electro-swing’s first landmark moment’.
White Mink: Black Cotton rounded up those early one-off swing cuts (tracks such as Waldeck’s Memories, Caravan Palace’s Jolie Coquine and Jesse Rose’s bouncin’, brass-sampling Touch My Horn) and included them with re-mastered versions of original 78 vinyl ‘speakeasy jazz’ classics by Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and Benny Goodman.
“I was going to pair the electro-swing CD with one based on 50s R&B but realised that the sound had been done to death on compilations,” Nick reveals. “In the end I decided to tackle those original jazz 78s instead. It felt like a great way to introduce clubbers to the roots of the music they were getting into.”
There are other isolated dancefloor moments to consider in terms of electro-swing’s gradual evolution and arrival into the mainstream – everything from turn of the century material by hip-hoppers Jurassic 5 and Mr Scruff to chic-house instrumentals from St Germain and relatively recent chart-scaling hits via Serbian DJ and producer Gramophonedzie (the Peggy Lee and Benny Goodman-sampling Why Don’t You) and Yolanda Be Cool & Dcup (We No Speak Americano.)
“It all just needed bringing together. A lot of people were having the same thoughts and inspirations but they were all working apart” Nick explains. “Once the music was joined up it was easy, I think, to get behind. Having all this old, old music meshed to sharp club beats gives dance music a real freshness that’s really hard to outdo. It really appeals.”
Inevitably, a second volume of scene standards appeared last year and generated more strong sales. Hollywood is currently organising a third instalment and busy planning his other electro-swing commitments for 2011 which, it must be pointed out, are vast - spanning everything from consistently sold-out club nights to lucrative film and TV soundtrack licensing. Electro swing has gone global.
“The third compilation is proving a right bugger to sort” Nick says. “It was easy with the first one; electro swing hadn’t been coined as a scene and I had the pick of tracks to use. Today, everyone has jumped on the bandwagon and there are a million other albums. People are all over it, but then that’s how the music community works isn’t it?”
Indeed, clubland has well and truly embraced this flirty retro-modern mash-up sound. Renowned French label Wagram has contributed a number of swing compilations (plainly titled Electro Swing), as well as Munich label Jazz & Milk, and other set-ups across Europe including those in Poland and Austria. “There’s actually an electro swing night in Austria now called White Mink” Nick laughs. “It’s like come on guys… surely you can find your own name?”
After all, one of Nick Hollywood’s own insanely popular nights is already dubbed White Mink. Based in Brighton, where Freshly Squeezed resides, it compliments monthly London affair The Electro Swing Club; something Nick launched in late 2009 – in the zippy slipstream of White Mink: Black Cotton’s debut release - alongside Chris Macmeikan, Director of events company Continental Drifts at Shoreditch’s The Book Club.
It’s still there now, running once a month and continuing to attract ever larger numbers of dressed-up revellers – dressed-up in the authentic swing bling of spats, waistcoats, ball masks and fluttery feather boas. “There’s an amazing atmosphere” Nick beams, “the nights have really just taken on a life of their own. Of course, the electro swing label has become so big now that our London night risks losing its identity; it’s a bit like calling your drum & bass night ‘Drum & Bass’ but we’ll see how we go. Hopefully we won’t need to rebrand; people know we’re the original place to be….”
Meantime, there are further one-off, quarterly London gatherings planned – “including a full big band, the works” – and a wave of high-profile festival appearances at Meadowlands, Secret Garden, The Big Chill, Bestival, Camp Bestival and, impressively, SONAR.
On top of all that, Nick is putting much time and effort into finalising the 2011 release schedule for Freshly Squeezed. It’s not simply a front for quirky comps but, rather, HQ for several diverse and forward-thinking bands and artists – acts like The Correspondents and Jem Stone (co-founder of Finger Lickin’ Records and Soul Of Man producer) will drop new albums over the coming months which are closely aligned with the whole electro swing thing but can confidently proclaim their own visions. Or so Nick promises….
“I think dance music is in a healthy state right now” he concludes. “I mean sounds go round and round, old then new, old then new…. But I think the beauty of electro swing is that it connects to so many other genres and audiences. I mean, it is by its very nature live or live-sounding, and that is an exciting angle for the club scene. And it’s being used with dubstep, breakbeat, house, drum & bass, even minimal tech; everyone can access it, work with and appreciate it. That’s the secret to its success.
“I think this year is a big year for electro swing but I also think it will run well beyond it. In the past clubland has used vintage sounds in a very traditional way and that leaves you no room to branch out and expand. This is completely different.”
The fact that some of Nick’s Freshly Squeezed ‘juice’ has already transcended clubland onto huge global TV properties like Ugly Betty, and major Hollywood soundtracks like those for Seth Rogen comedy Knocked Up and Ben Stiller flick The Heartbreak Kid seems to bear that out.
You only swing when you’re winning….
White Mink: Black Cotton Volume 3 will be released on Freshly Squeezed this summer.
