The Ketoloco Story

As every Mixmag reader knows, it's all about the afterparty. And when your actual party has a line-up that includes Justice, Timo Maas, Chase & Status, Frankmusic live and more, the after party has to be something...

Alex Jukes

Date published: 24th Nov 2008

KeToLoCo Feature (The Ketoloco Story)

So weve turned to the experts. Helming rooms in the Egg rave warren after Mixmags Christmas Party on 5th December are Leeds party outlaws Ketaloco, fresh from a summer throwing amazing raves at the abandoned zoo in Ibiza, Londons undead dawn chasers Zombies Ate My Brain, the Eggs own Always Fridays and underground techno and electro night Maximalism. Oh and the incredible Timo Maas and Santos will also be staying on after the main event to make sure that you remember the Mixmag mission statement: Bed is the enemy.

KeToLoCo Feature (The Ketoloco Story)

20 years ago three chancers returned from a boys' holiday on the White Isle. Unbeknownst to them they precipitated a club land revolution with their newly acquired Balearic tunes and hedonistic attitudes. The rest, as they say, is history. But history can be a little dull: what are the cool kids up to now?

Well, another group of nine-to-five dodging twentysomethings returned from the same Isle a few years ago, drifting in on what would become the zeitgeist: a penchant for all nighters, unhinged techno and boundary bulging parties. Since then, they have rocked disused Ibizan zoos, boats, a fully functional garage and, of course, they painted their basement red and threw the sort of parties that dribbling ravers will bang on about in thirty years' time. Until, that is, someone in a Policeman's outfit turned out not to be in fancy dress after all. Bummer.

The 'Loco crew now wrap themselves all round the country, enveloping after-hours clubbers from Manchester to Preston, London to Belfast, in a warm, pulsating blanket of techno. Be it the eerie soundscapes of an Audion style wonkathon, the experimental techno of Villalobos, or the pure minimal of a M_nus release, a Ketoloco party takes the atmosphere and family values of a an old school rave and soundtracks it with razor sharp electronica.

A host of semi inducing talent invariably accompanies the techno rebels on their cross-country crusades: Lutzenkirchen, Shonky, Ralph Lawson, Dave Beer, Zoo Brazil, Clive Henry and more have all had their cake at a Loco event somewhere.

Kristan Caryl [DJ Magazine]

Its time you had yours

Your story is pretty unique, from an after party in your student house to an international club night. so, tell us how it all came about?

The idea initially was just to host after parties for our friends, we never imagined wed be throwing warehouse parties up and down the country, and even across Europe 2 years later! (Well by Europe I mean Ireland and Ibiza! So far anyway!) I think the first time we spoke about it was whilst sitting on the rocks outside Kanya Bar in San An, Ibiza we wanted the DC10 vibe back in Leeds, it was as simple as that really. So we painted our basement red and called our club DC15 after the house number purely as a homage to our then favourite place on the planet. Circoloco at DC10 was a religion for us every Monday that year, the same became of Ketoloco in Leeds every Sunday morning once we were back in Leeds, and things just went on from there really. Parties, parties and more parties but what else are the weekends for?

Ketoloco is a pretty interesting name, whos idea was that and where did it come from??

It was Chriss, and at the time it was simply a reflection of what was happening in dance music. Ketamine really exploded on to the Leeds and Ibiza scene in 2006 especially in the Techno clubs. Even producers such as "Butane" and "John Dahlback" were calling records "on the ket" and "lost in a k-hole". In 2006 record shops such as "Tribe" aka "The Loft" in Leeds even had a section called "Horse House" where the wonky style of minimal was situated! To be perfectly honest, none of us ever imagined the name would leave the red walls of DC:15! Its definitely grown on me though, my weekends wouldnt be the same without a Ketoloco party!

Holding an after party DC10 style in your own house must have been pretty risky, did you ever get any problems with the landlord or police? Any moments you thought, Shit, we need to get everyone out! ?

Errrr yes, yes and yes! Sometimes people didnt leave till Tuesday, sometimes we opened the door to people on a Thursday night before being asked if we were open tonight! And sometimes the door just got knocked down, well that only happened once. All the police had to do was knock, instead they bash the door in! The basement actually flooded once, and still no-one would leave - people just carried on dancing in 3 inchs of water. That was the Grannies and Granddads Ketoloco of January 2007, a personal fave of mine!

How did it all come about that the night would be run in a club for the first time?

Dave Beer gave us a life changing opportunity to host a room at his legendary Back To Basics night in Leeds pretty much as soon as we had started to throw house parties. We didnt really have time make the transition from the house party to the club party. Perhaps why thats why everything works so well, the people just party like theyre at a ketoloco afterparty, even though theyre not, so actually that doesnt make much sense, arrrr well. Anyways, are you trying to say that DC15 and DC16 werent clubs?!?

How do the early days differ to now at a Ketoloco party? In 3 words what can people expect from your night?

Early days as in acid house raves? Or early days as in the days when we danced around in a 15ft x 10ft red painted basement until our heads fell off? Either way, everythings still pretty similar to how it was back in the day as the Beero aptly puts it Ketoloco every time, for their sheer audacity and for the spirit of acid house! ;-)

Have you had many big names play for you? And who would be the dream booking that you think would really sum up Ketoloco?

Ralph Lawson, Paul Woolford, Mistress De Funk, Bigger Than Jesus, Dave Beer, Buckley and Audiojack amongst a host of other top names all managed to join us for sets down in the basement as some point, and sometimes youd even spot the likes of Big Brothers Kate Lawler getting her groove on down there! Happy days indeed.

For me personally, my dream booking would have to be Luciano. After all his presence on the DC10 terrace is what started this whole craze off. For him to play at one of our parties would be a dream come true and hes even actually told us he will one day, so hopefully our dream booking isnt actually that far fetched! Funnily enough we met him in a restaurant out in Ibiza last year and his comments were ketoloco for sure, youre the crazy guys from Leeds who love to dress up!

You are involved in the official Mixmag Xmas party Afterparty at The Egg, are you excited? What delights do you have planned for the possibly tired clubbers?

Yep, were all looking forward to it massively the last Mixmag party was absolutely superb. The finale of the night was especially crazy, we were turned into a living jukebox hammering out requests like Joe Smooths anthemic Promised Land whilst the crowd chucked fivers at us and chanted One more tune! haha. After 5 last tunes and a few extra quid in our pockets we were finally dragged out from the dj box!

Haha, our clubbers dont get tired! We dont, or rather Fisha doesnt let them! We tend to build things up gradually over the course of our sets, always saving some nice surprises and ketoloco anthems for the final hour. I love firing out one or two acid house crackers in my sets, as do Chris and Eddy so our crowd are never short of a few classic jump up tunes to see them through till daftoclock closing time! In our experience, after parties always tend to be the highlight of the weekend you never know who or whats going to balloon next!

This must have been an amazing adventure for you all, is everyone still involved that was originally? Has it opened doors for you all to do things in the industry alone?

Yep, were all still alive and kicking. Chris and myself both live and work down in London now (Shoreditch), so were both right in the thick of it so to speak. Cookie, Hedley, Eddy & Olly are all looking after things quite nicely in Leeds our monthly party at Kerbcrawler up there is going amazingly well the huge new main warehouse has just opened (a converted car garage) and weve got some really cool guests lined up for early next year including Martin Eyerer and Butch over from Germany, and from Well also be holding our new years eve Ketoloco in Leeds this year, and not London, which should please a few people you know who you are!

The music industry is getting harder and harder to crack, so obviously its always going to be a pretty difficult ask making a career alone out of what we do, but obviously the dream is still there for us all but for now were all just happy weve got this opportunity to be able to throw mad parties every weekend where we get to bounce around for hours on end with the soundest people in the world! Doors will open, doors will get knocked down thats ketoloco!

Things seem to be moving pretty fast for you guys, what do you have planned for Ketoloco next year?

As well as our monthly warehouse party in Leeds, were also currently working with Corsica Studios down at Elephant and Castle in London, which is another excitingly quirky and fun warehouse space that has got us all more than a bit moist. Were next down there on the 29th of this month for an Arctic Polar Disco party in conjunction with Back to Basics - bloody northerners, we get everywhere! Well obviously be over in Ibiza getting up to no good next summer at some point, and after our recent crazy Dublin invasion, I suspect a few more tour parties will be on the cards too

Danny Raper (Ketoloco Resident)

YOU CAN CATCH DANNY RAPER AND THE REST OF THE KETOLOCO DJS AT THE MIXMAG XMAS AFTERPARTY ALONGSIDE TIMO MASS & SANTOS.

CHECK OUT KETOLOCO'S LATEST DJ MIXES

- KeToLoCo @ Kerbcrawler - November '08 - Buckley [Live]