The Night Slugs imprint seems to have spent the year pushing boundaries that might have seemed imperceptible to unknowing eyes. As soon as these margins are crossed, however, it’s clear to see the magic formula label boss Bok Bok and his contemporaries share, and how they are applying it in their mission to take over gloomy, enigmatic dance floors worldwide. It’s an enormously innovative feat, which bodes well in a time in the UK when people are fervently dedicating their attention and curiosity to the new concepts and sounds that are changing the face of British electronic music. With over two years success on the party scene, an impressive roster of releases and the label’s first LP set for release in a couple of weeks, Night Slugs are at the heart of dance music influence right now.
While the label’s mainstays share various inspirations when it comes to their sound – the intricate beat building from the likes of Bok Bok, L-Vis 1990, Girl Unit and Kingdom often comprise strong 808 driven rhythms, dazzling neon synths, catchy melodic riffs and ridiculously contorted vocal samples – their tracks stand apart from one another, each with a unique sense of mystery which makes them addictive to dance floor residents.
Touching on everything from favourite club spaces to archaic philosophies on aesthetics, solidarity within the British scene to the guiltless pleasures of RnB, Bok Bok gives Data Transmission an insight into the mind of a night slug. Can I get a wut wut?!
Do you think your crowd has changed since Night Slugs started a couple of years ago? I speak to DJs who say they’re sometimes disheartened by newer crowds, and that they’re not actually listening...
I can’t really complain about our lot. Definitely new people have come and we’ve definitely grown since we started out, but at the same time from day one, people who come down to Night Slugs have always been about the music first and foremost. There are a lot of people who really closely follow mixes and they’re on the ball with releases and stuff like that. Without wanting to blow our own horn too much, I think what Night Slugs has achieved is a really nice balance between those who are kind of heads for the music and come and spot tunes with people who are just kind of a party crowd. It’s a great balance because it’s not a kind of trainspotter, boring, standing around night because the vibe is really powerful and tangible. The music makes people happy and they respond to it. The people are really open-minded as well; we can play all sorts of different genres to them and as long as we keep it cohesive, it works.
What is your ideal kind of rave space? It must be quite important to you when constructing a specifically “night time” music genre.
Me and the others have been talking about what our ideal club would look like, after having played in Amsterdam in this club called Trouw. It’s a really cool club, it’s my new favourite club actually. It’s got some really cool minimal neon lights in it and that’s it. They don’t have your normal cheesy looking lights which I hate. If you can’t have designer lighting I prefer complete darkness. In fact I think sometimes complete darkness works really well. So yeah, me and the others were talking about this, we came up with a few concepts. I don’t know if it’s installation art but it’s certainly really creative lighting.
The Night Slugs imprint seems to have spent the year pushing boundaries that might have seemed imperceptible to unknowing eyes. As soon as these margins are crossed, however, it’s clear to see the magic formula label boss Bok Bok and his contemporaries share, and how they are applying it in their mission to take over gloomy, enigmatic dance floors worldwide. It’s an enormously innovative feat, which bodes well in a time in the UK when people are fervently dedicating their attention and curiosity to the new concepts and sounds that are changing the face of British electronic music. With over two years success on the party scene, an impressive roster of releases and the label’s first LP set for release in a couple of weeks, Night Slugs are at the heart of dance music influence right now. 
