Throwback Thursday: Layo & Bushwacka - Night Works

Image: Layo & Bushwacka!

This weekend sees the end (pun intended... we'll get to that in a bit) for one of the most loved DJ duos of recent years, Layo & Bushwacka! Since the early nineties, the tag team of underground electronic music have been omnipresent choices in the tastemakers of many across the globe, their productions and DJ sets etching the pairing into the consensus of any dance fan worth their salt.

It was seeing their frequent sets in the Annexe of Nation at Bugged Out! where my early electronic music tastes were formed, full throttle blends of house, techno and breaks that proved to be one of the most talked about offerings amongst pretty much anyone into electronic music at Liverpool University at the time. One record pretty much summed up how huge they were, an anthem not only at Bugged Out! but also Chibuku in it's nascent period.

That record was 'Love Story', an awesome slab of melancholy tech house that would become an end of night classic for a wide ranging ensemble of selectors and later a chart hit once the acapella from Julie McKnight's vocal from Kings of Tomorrow's 'Finally'. I was in the minority in thinking the vocal made the track better within my friendship group, but there's no denying which had the better video - just watch the weirdness on the original below.

'Love Story' appeared on the duo's album Night Works, which is the source of this week's Throwback Thursday, which you can stream via Spotify towards the top of the page. It had the skittering breaks of 'Shining Through' and 'Let the Good Times Roll',  the downbeat 'Sleepy Language' and the otherworldly electronica of '2mrw', and showed how the duo managed to skirt between four to the floor beats and breakbeats when the genres were still happily colliding. Even now, to these ears, it's great. 

Separately they were pretty nifty too, Bushwacka's cheeky re-rub of Micheal Jackson's 'Billie Jean' cained by everyone from Judge Jule to Carl Cox at the turn of the century, whilst Layo also ran legendary nightclub The End alongside Mr C. That bid farewell with a misty eyed finale a few years ago, leaving an indelible legacy that still runs true in London nightlife to this day (I'm still in awe from a Laurent Garnier set I witnessed there in 2007).

That heritage has been upheld in recent times by their infrequent Olmeto parties at Egg London, which take place for the last time on Saturday 19th October, pulling the curtain on the duo's djing career together (both will still stay active on the solo tip). I, for one, will miss them.

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