Making the garage revival hip and fun, Hot City are hot property at the moment.
The duo, comprising of DJ Haus and DJ Benz, have been quietly – even accidentally – helping to carve out a modern garage-rave niche, subtly drip-feeding it to the electro-obsessed masses, even if the duo themselves are not convinced of its existence: “Well, if there is a garage-rave niche I guess we fit the bill! We see it more as urban techno though, as the basic underpinning of a Hot City track is techno, and then we glitter it up with R‘n’B samples.
Whatever it is, it’s bold and infectious as crabs, but a lot more fun. Take, for example, their track ‘Another Girl’, a razored two-step/techno hybrid strewn with soulful vocal splices, or current single ‘Twist’, an insanely catchy nu-garage rip-up featuring none other than MC DT, of Pied Piper ‘Do You Really Like It?’ early Noughties notoriety. Lovin’ it.
As for the future, the duo are working on their debut album (featuring VV Brown and members of Slow Club) and, unsurprisingly, have been offered a multiverse of tour and remix opportunities, but are intent on keeping themselves grounded and having a bally good time doing it: “We’re trying to just keep it fun, and make sure we enjoy what we are doing.”
This party-centric attitude is then neatly summed up by the duo’s response to the hackneyed ‘describe yourself in ten words’ probe: “BANG! KAPOW! CRASH! BOOM! SMASH! WALLLOP! ZZAP! SCORCHIN’! INCENDIARY!”
Couldn’t have put it better ourselves. Hot City will definitely be lovin’ it for a good while yet.
Words by Tristan Parker
WHERE: London
WHAT: Pumped-up nu-garage hedonism
UNIQUE FACT: Both of Hot City love a good Korean BBQ
GET 3 SONGS: ‘Another Girl’, ‘Hot City Bass’, ‘Twist’
