As a DJ, producer, and perhaps most importantly, as co-owner of
The End, Layo Paskin has been at the cutting edge of British dance
music and club culture throughout the 90s.
Launched in the mid 90s, The End remains London’s finest club
venue, combining intimacy and style with a sound system to die for,
the hallmark creation of two DJs - Layo and partner Mr. C - who
have been around long enough to know what clubbers want from a club,
even down to the water fountain just outside the dancefloor. No
wonder then, that The End has won award after award, for both design
and content, Mr. C and Layo attracting the very best club nights
and DJs from every area of the dance music spectrum. To this day,
the weekly and monthly events at The End blow every other club line-up
in London away: drum and bass monthlies from True Playaz, Full Cycle,
and V, UK garage from Twice As Nice, forthcoming exclusives from
Soma and Mo’Wax - all testimony to Layo’s direction of
club policy and his day-to-day involvement in the business side
of affairs.
Most popular of all The End’s nights has been the crew’s
very own techno / future house monthly, Sub-terrain, attracting
the best techno and tech-house DJs in the world, with Layo himself
as resident, playing a heady mix of tech-house, breakbeat techno
and drum & bass. Darren Emerson (of Underworld fame) is also
resident in the main room, assisted by a steady stream of techno
luminaries including Dave Angel, Colin Dale and the odd epic set
from Laurent Garnier.
Indeed, the Sub-terrain format has proved so successful that last
year they packed their bags and took it on tour around the globe
as The End Sound System with the whole crew - Layo, Matthew B, Mr.
C and Darren Emerson - indulging in some four-deck wizardry. Back
in old Blighty, the Bullet night has also been a storming success,
again with Layo as resident, attracting star guests like Danny Tenaglia
and Cajmere / Green Velvet.
In terms of production, Layo has also been the End Recordings’
most prolific artist, collaborating with Mr. C under the name Killer
Loop to produce tech-house and releasing a string of twelves, including
‘Someone’, ‘Keep On’, ‘Broken’ (with
DJ Sneak), ‘The Blue Hour’ and ‘Music Inside’.
But he is best known for his work with fellow End DJ and Plank label
impresario Matthew ‘Bushwacka’ B, as both Layo & Bushwacka
and The Usual Suspects pseudonym. (The Usual Suspects twelves -
‘Breaking & Entering’, ‘Nightstalkin’’
and ‘She Disrespek’ me’ - and all the productions
mentioned here are all still available via The End.)
Since 1999 however, the duo have dropped the Usual Suspects moniker,
prefering to produce under the Layo & Bushwacka names, unleashing
two twelves last summer to widespread critical acclaim. First came
‘Deep South’ (b/w ‘Dead Man Walking’) in July,
closely followed by ‘Ear Candy’ in September. Both were
excellent tasters for the album to follow, the recently released
Low Life, which the duo have recently promoted on a US tour. Combining
electro influences, new and old school breakbeats and dark and funky
house, it’s an uncompromising and quite exceptional long-player,
thankfully more concerned with creating a unified vibe than lumping
together an incoherent mass of stand-alone tunes.
Layo will continue to DJ at Sub-terrain and maintain his other
residencies at The End. Later this summer, expect to find him touring
all over Europe. Meanwhile The End Recordings label has notched
up over 30 releases to date, while the club itself continues to
expand, now incorporating the AKA bar and restaurant.
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