As they were in a tour for promoting their recent compilation, we manage to see Slam in Madrid in a Friday, on December 23rd, where they had a consistent gig of almost four hours. The club that hosted the two Scottish guys is called Macumba, and the night was named Danzoo Tematik.

As the minimal sound didn't penetrate so strong the Spanish club scene, or at least the one from Madrid, many have anticipated the event as a failure. To be mentioned that the night after it was expected in Madrid Roger Sanchez, a DJ who gained an impressive number of fans in the last years. So we entered the club around 1 o'clock, and as it was anticipated, the venue was almost empty! On the decks - Jav. Y Union (a Spanish Dj that we've never heard before), and before him, the club's resident, Tony Mendez. In short time, the third Dj called Mar. T made his appearance on the decks. This one is the resident Dj from Amnesia, Ibiza, a guy with a pretty solid musical background...For about two hours, the sound has been in a constant crescendo, from tech-house and electro to techno. Curious, about 2:30 the people start to come, so at 3 most of half of the club was filled up! Slam were expected to enter at 3:30, and this is how it was – the guys didn't make any delay, so in 15 minutes two laptops with Ableton Live and a Midi Controller were installed. The start wasn't really a specific Slam sound, since the Dj before them, Mar T., rouses the tempo pretty much, so the guys started their set with a dynamic techno. They didn't play together as it was expected, because it was planned to play one by one and after that two hours together. The first one who started was Stuart McMillan who kept a constant bpm for one hour, with an aggressive and dynamic vibe. In the meantime, Orde Meikle was seldom intervening, mostly for introducing some effects, a track or just a few samples... After the first hour, the set was continued by Orde, more powerful and tougher than his mate, featuring some varieties between techno, acid house and tech-house. After another hour of pure madness, the guys started to combine and to play both together and one by one; some mellow minimal tunes were being introduced from time to time, but quickly the tempo was rousing again, so the set was built somehow spontaneously. To be mentioned, Adam Beyer's "A Walking Contradiction (Part 2)" was one of the highlights as well as some of their own productions, reedited and filtered with effects.

It was a relax atmosphere in the club, the people have bounced most of the time during Slam's gig, a few guys have been surprised to know we are hailing from Romania, hehe. Some things that were missing? We haven't seen too many persons who came there just for showing off, most of them coming to have fun – well, I'm not sure how many of them came at the event strictly for Slam. The guy who was in charge to take care of the guys said that this won't be our last Slam event for sure. So, I'm pretty sure of that too, since their performance was simply astonishing.

For that night Slam meant first of all energy, their music was alive, and even if they don't have anymore that age to bounce, laugh and scream at the crowd, the guys managed to make people dance and feel good, which is after all, the most important task of a DJ. As a short last word, Slam is a name to be followed in the future, because a night with them in line up it is for sure not a boring and simple one. What else should be said? The pictures from the event speak themselves...


Photos: Slam @ Danzoo Tematik (Macumba) - Madrid (Dec 12 2005)