Positive Education producers Slam remain Scotland¹s biest known techno producers and DJs, running indie label Soma and DJing worldwide for over 10 years. The duo of Orde Miekle and Stuart MacMillan first stormed clubland in 1992, with breakthrough single Eterna, before releasing one of dance culture¹s genuine anthems Posiitive Education in 1993 ( they also discovered (and signed) Daft Punk around that time). Set to re-release Positive Education in the near future (with new mixes by Slam, Carl Cox and Josh Wink) Orde chatted to Mezz¹s Australian stringer Andrez Bergen,just before the holidays.

Mezz: Slam have been at it together since 1988, how have you sustained the relationship for so long?
Slam (Orde Meikle): “We’ve been ‘with it’ not ‘at it’ and maybe that¹s the trick. We know each other inside out and we can put up with each other¹s short-comings; just vibe off and augment each other. We record shop separately and end up with a lot of the same tunes, so our similar tastes help.”

Mezz: Do your girlfriends get jealous of your partnership?
Slam: “No – but our wives do! No, really, we’re the loyal types and Slam is one big happy family, thankfully.”

Mezz: How have things changed for you personally since ‘88?
Slam: “We’re older and hopefully wiser, with many more responsibilities like our families and the label. We¹re definitely not set in our ways musically and we still party, but maybe not so often. The music means as much now as then and it can still be just as exciting to play at a cool party. We even still get butterflies before the shows, and that keeps you fresh.”

Mezz: In 1993 you released ‘Positive Education’ for the first time, (Kenny Larkin described as Œone of the most perfect techno records ever made¹) was it difficult to follow it up?
Slam: “We excluded Positive Educationfrom the Headstates album at the time because to us it was a complete piece of work and had a mood across the entire LP. We went on to release material in the Pressure Funk guise and I suppose with hindsight there was a sub-conscious but deliberate move back underground, but with a view to growing in secret. We¹ll be coming back strong with the new album in May 2001, which ironically will include the brand new remix we¹ve just done of Positive Education. This started life earlier this year as a promo-only reply to a trance bootleg that R&S had the cheek to release at the start of the year. We felt we had to re educate the younger generation of clubbers, and at the same time re-inspired ourselves by how easily we managed to update the classic.”

Mezz: Is there a sense of rivalry between the music cultures in Glasgow and
Edinburgh?
Slam: “Not really – but you can have a better time at a funeral in Glasgow than at a wedding in Edinburgh.”

Mezz: Fellow Scottish producer Neil Landstrumm told me the last time we spoke that Scotland would eventually split from England politically, has there been any progress?
Slam: “Scotland has, and probably will always be, hardcore Labour, but at present New Labour are the new Tories (Conservatives) as far as decision making goes and back-downs on electoral promises are concerned ­ it¹s worrying but a signal that the lines of politics are increasingly blurred and people really don’t have any say in how they are governed here. But it¹s not quite so worrying as [George W] Bush (becoming US President): He¹s left America just twice in his life – and once was to go to Disneyland.”

Mezz: Does it really matter?
Slam: “Yes, but we can really only suggest that youth on a global scale are more connected than ever before and hopefully in the future people will see that they are really the same, and communication may help change more than politics ­ e.g. boycotting multinationals globally can effect change. Governments have less power than multinationals in many ways.”
Andrez Bergen
http://www.somarecords.com