What better way to honour the anniversary of D-Day could there possibly be than to get mashed to the latest French house and techno on a balmy Saturday night? Forget those dismal ceremonial affairs they were showing on telly, just dancing like a twat was all that was needed to maintain those all important trade links to our Gallic neighbours.

What better way to
honour the
anniversary
of D-Day?

Playing a euphoric mash up of Grace Jones and LCD Soundsystem the local Chaos Rocks boys evoke the spirit of famed Glasgow nightspot Optimo without the pretension or posy clientele. Their early 80’s and 00’s set, featuring a great electro version of Talking Heads classic 'Psycho Killer', helped to bring the punters away from the walls onto the floor. Their no frills psychedelic pixel backdrop may have been reminiscent of Saturday morning TV’s ‘The Chart Show’ but who was really watching it?

My eyes were pretty much closed the whole night but I did manage to see local dance rockers Mula, their baggy aspirations somewhat against the rest of the evening. A skuzzier version of The Rapture, they built a strong motorik synth groove that seemed to last a devastatingly long half hour. One which received a surprisingly loud ovation. If it was all a little too Happy Mondays for you, relief was to be found by the main bar where the Fuck The Pain Away DJs were playing the weirder more vocal electro acts like Chicks On Speed and Sigue Sigue Sputnik.

Tonight was ample
opportunity to
convert any
unbelievers

The Hacker, along with collaborators Miss Kittin and Felix Da Housecat, was at the forefront of the second wave of 70’s influenced dance sounds to emerge in the last 5 years from France. Their combined love of retro vocals and dark squelchy beats, now so integral to the now booming electro scene, helped them to stay in vogue whilst already established acts like Air and Daft Punk became just another dinner party mainstay.

Tonight may have been a solo DJ set but it was ample opportunity to convert any unbelievers. The faceless nature of his show may not have brought him celebrity status, but it was hard to find a face in the audience that wasn’t smiling or an arse that wasn’t shaking.