Prins Thomas at Plastic People

Prins Thomas at Plastic People

24 June, 2009
by: Emma

I used to be incredibly narrow-minded when it came to dance music. It was techno or nothing; if it wasn't the likes of Villalobos, Luciano or Carl Craig I wasn't interested. What a fool! Recently I've fallen in love with a lot of funk, soul and disco and have begun to dread going out to techno nights with nightmarish visions of sweaty, intense ravers popping into my head. If that's not a sign of age, I don't know what is.

Disco has had a resurgence recently and it kind of makes sense that's it's so popular at the moment. It was originally born out of the economic recession the Western world experienced during the early 70's; a resulting factor of the oil crisis and for America, the war in Vietnam also. Now we are plunged into another time of economic and political instability and disco is the perfect music to escape from it all. It's uplifting and warm - all about love and having fun. Not what springs to mind when I think of minimal techno tracks like the Villalobos 'Blood On The Walls' mix (as deliciously dark as that may be).

It always surprises me how many people still think of disco as cheese like the 'Car Wash' and 'Relight My Fire'. There's so much good stuff out there that came way before Hollywood commercialised the scene with Saturday Night Fever in 1977. There are some excellent DJs that have been playing disco for a while now; from the contemporary rock sounds James Murphy and The Juan McLean belt out to original era classics played by the likes of Greg Wilson and Bill Brewster. One of my current favourites is Prins Thomas (AKA Thomas Moen Hermansen), labelled a 'cosmic' disco DJ for his penchant for spaced-out, dreamy music; all synths, percussion and four-to-the-floor drum beats. The truth is that you can't really define his genre; he plays so much eclectic stuff that you could be listening to Norwegian punk rock one minute and Detroit techno the next.

Tonight at Plastic People, Prins is due to play a whopping six hour set for Warm, Ali Tillet's hugely successful deep house and disco night which has seen the likes of Todd Terje, Maurice Fulton and Lindstrom play here in the past. We get there at about 11pm and the party is already in full swing. The crowd are level with the DJ booth and loving the grooves as Prins whips through some obscure vintage vinyl. A quick peek in the box reveals a Leroy Gomez record and plenty more afro-adorned sleeves where that came from. A DJ friend of mine is bemused by what looks like an old 80's microphone he keeps pressed between his right ear and shoulder blade throughout the set: "How the fuck does he hear anything out of that?!" We hear plenty of disco from the early 70's right through to more modern stuff with lots of bass guitars, pounding drums and percussion.

Listening to Prins' mixes can be something of a sonic journey; you listen to them and float away on a psychedelic cloud as each track flows effortlessly and almost unnoticeably into the next. Tonight however it's patchy; by 3am the set goes a bit noodly and starts to lose momentum. When we recognise a remix of Beyonce's 'If I Were A Boy' coming in, it's not long before we head off.  When your taste is as obscure as his must be, it's going to be difficult maintaining a peak for six hours straight and we are more than satisfied with how the evening went. As we race through the streets of London in a humdinger of a minicab on the way home, the driver blasts out some of the loudest techno I've ever heard played in a vehicle. Not only was it really good, it perked us up a treat. It just goes to show – no matter how old you are, you can never close the door on filthy music.

Click here to see more London Disco events
Click here to see all London events

Emma