Yuksek

During the month of August Edinburgh comes alive as the population of 20 somethings doubles and seemingly every singer-songwriter in the UK comes to Edinburgh to act as objects in the assault course of the Royal Mile. However, in the months leading up to this plethora of festivals Edinburgh becomes a sleepy town, devoid of students or any decent bands to see. You can therefore imagine the surprise I felt when I saw a poster in my local chippy advertising Yuksek, a French electronic DJ, producer and recent record label owner, playing at Cab Vol which happens to be one of the best clubs in Edinburgh, boasting a large selection of House/Electro/Disco and Techno. For those of us unlucky enough not to escape the Scottish “summer” Yuksek promised to provide some digital sunshine to a slightly subdued pre-Festival Edinburgh. As I entered the venue, feeling comparatively sober considering the amount of right-angled jawlines I could see frantically mashing on sad and flavourless sticks of chewing gum, the basement club had a definite electricity to it as the crowd danced and boogied around to the warm up DJ. The hall, a dimly lit vault in the heart of Edinburgh’s Old Town, was filled with smoke just as Yuksek took to the stage and launched off with an 80s disco banger which helped everyone loosen their hips and begin to really get down and dirty to some electro-grooves. Yuksek played a variety of old and new, some tracks penned by himself, some remixed by fellow French electro DJ Breakbot, and some classic disco tunes that are guaranteed to make any audience shake around. 2014 has definitely been the year for house music, with a huge number of very successful YouTube channels dedicated to it, not to mention the hundreds of Boiler Room sets allowing every generic 2014 teenager to keep up to date with their favourite DJs. Yuksek obviously recognised this, rather boring, new trend and very nicely slipped from his usual disco mixes into deeper, more aggressive, house tracks and naughty techno beats, proving once more the unnerving French ability to get a crowd dancing. There has been much talk recently that the genres of electro and techno are in decline, with Ed Banger records not as prestigious as it used to be back in the naughties and artists like Justice taking long breaks in between records. However, Yuksek was a reminder that all is not in vain as not only did he put on a great set but he has successfully started his own label which has some very promising electro DJs showcasing their new material. Perhaps he and Breakbot, side by side, could be the electro torches that light the French techno scene alight once again.
Check out Yuksek’s banging Boiler Room set, and soundcloud, below: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziTnM8OinxQ https://soundcloud.com/yuksek