Jim Masters talks techno at Glade

Jim Masters talks techno at Glade

27 July, 2008 | 2.05AM

• Written by: Lee Smith
• Filed under: Music News:

He’s been around the block at least a few times, but when he’s not DJing across the globe, Jim Masters is still instrumental in promoting some of the finest talent in the techno world.

This year, he played a big part in programming the Vapour tent at the UK’s Glade festival, so we caught up with him to find out why he thinks Glade continues to thrive in today’s tough festival market.

Tell us how you came to be involved with Glade, and what your role in the programming of the techno stage is.

I first got involved last year, initially after speaking with Biff - who works for them - about doing Hi-Tek-Soul [Jim’s global club night] at Glastonbury.

At the time, they were thinking about having a dedicated techno stage at Glade, so the timing was perfect.

The Vapour stage was born with Richie and the Minus crew on the Friday and we hosted the Saturday night with Derrick May, myself, Black Dog live and Vince Watson.

At the start of this year we made contact again, and Glade outlined their plans for the Vapour tent.

The plan was to have a UK line up on the Friday, and someone like Jeff Mills on the Saturday.

I was really happy that we got Surgeon and Ben Simms as Frequency 7 for a rare UK festival appearance, and then to get Jeff was the icing on the cake.

My involvement is a combination of being an artist - I love playing at Glade - and support with programming and bookings through my friendship with a lot of the artists Glade want.

Glade have a good idea of what they want, especially Mark, who’s bang into his techno.

I guess I bring something a bit extra to the party.

I’ve worked with a lot of festivals around the world and these guys are really good to work with.

How did you enjoy it this year? What were your highlights?

After the mudbath of last year, this year was wicked.

I was busy quite a bit with Vapour, so didn’t catch as much as I wanted to, but highlights this year included Autechre, Garth, Friction, Billy Nasty, The Orb, Rob Hall, that whole mental bangfish thing, topped off by a 15-minute 909 virtuoso solo performance by Jeff - awesome.

You’ve been promoting for a long, long time. Tell us a bit about your earliest forays into techno, and some of your proudest achievements as a promoter.

Fuck, what a question!

Early days (before Base, The End etc), I was running Open All Hours at the Ministry and involved in the Drum Club.

We were the first to bring over a lot of people to the UK - Carl Craig, Claude Young, Ken Ishii, Green Velvet and that whole Relief crew, Sven Vath, Tenaglia and a whole lot of other more underground types that I can’t remember!

I think it was great that for over 10 years I was running at least one, if not two, weekly clubs in London, promoting techno and quality house music - I’d like to think I left my mark…

You’re also DJing round the world every weekend - where are your favourite places to spin right now?

I still have a close affinity with Spain and Portugal.

Love the far east, especially Japan, and recently have discovered half-decent scenes in Bahrain and Dubai.

To be honest, pretty much all over the world there’s great techno scenes that I’ve had the pleasure to enjoy.

A lot of British festivals have suffered this summer. Why do think that is, and why do you think Glade hasn’t been afflicted?

I think they made a good decision not to overstretch themselves, unlike a lot of the others.

This year has seen a lot of festivals be canceled - the really bad weather last year and the lack of money have definitely contributed to that.

Also, there’s been a lot of clubs that, after last year, thought they could get away with booking a lot of club-based artists to attract their core crowd - most of whom who would actually rather be in a nice warm, clean club.

Big mistake.

Good festivals attract a certain crowd, and I think that’s why Glade works - it started small and they haven’t forgotten about what they were, and who their core crowd is.

Do you think techno is in good health at the moment?

I think it’s in fantastic health.

The minimal tech scene has helped, but in a way it’s introduced people to the the delights of proper Detroit and European techno.

Saying that, I recently moved my records out of my apartment in London.

There was so much amazing music being made 10 years ago, it almost makes me want to cry about where all that creativity went - blame the fucking laptop studio and digital download generation for that, in my opinion!

If house and techno music disappeared off the face of the earth tomorrow, what would you do instead?

Spend the rest of my days in a fine wine cellar!

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