Lukas Wigflex is somewhat of a figurehead within the Nottingham area. Aside from drawing stuff, making beef jerky and eating pork scratchings, he is also well known for being the man behind the killer Wigflex label and party. For the last decade, Wigflex has been one of the region’s most buzzed-about parties, providing heterogeneous sounds and monster themed audio visual installations for the close-knit Nottingham community.
His sharp ear for mucky and eccentric sounds has been a driving force in the progress of the city’s underground music, giving local talent a platform to release music and bringing significant and influential DJs to local dance floors when others wouldn’t dare or have the inclination. Before the busy Christmas period for Lukas and his Wigflex parties, he has taken time to answer some questions and record a mix that reflects his mind boggling but inventive club sets and is also peppered with a number of unreleased tracks from some of Nottingham’s finest producers.
Wigflex bring in the New Year with a Hessle Audio Cage Party, feat. Ben UFO, Pearson Sound, Pangaea and Call Super.
First of all, is there a specific tune or experience that helped shape the way you do things musically?
I guess like anybody it’s just an amalgamation of my various experiences and the medicines I’ve consumed throughout my life. If I had to mention one moment that stands out, I’d have to say the first time I met Sidney and went to this festival called Antiworld. Holden was playing so my mates and I were there with bells on. Once we got there we realized a majority of the artists we wanted to see had been cancelled and all we were left with was six stages of various psytrance and hardstyle sounding rammel. Without being too disheartened we cracked on into the swing of things and got into the festival spirit. I remember wondering into this tent on the Saturday and hearing a DJ who’s name I can’t even recall playing one of the best sets I’ve ever heard. Minilogue – ‘Elephants Parade’ came on and the breakdown on that tune changed my life. I had always DJd and was into the same sort of stuff I am now but back then I used to approach my sets like a turntablist; scratching and chopping between different styles. That tune and that DJ changed the way I construct my sets to this day.
You’re well known around the Midlands for being the founder of the Nottingham based party and record label, Wigflex. What’s the story of how Wigflex came about?
I created a mixtape and called it Wigflex 2000. It all just evolved naturally from that.
Can you give us a run down on the philosophy behind Wigflex?
Louis Van Gaal showed us all that philosophies don’t work. I just hope people have fun and hear something that deserves a rewind.
What are some of your most inspirational records from this year?
Been playing and the new NHK YX KOYXEN LP on Diagonal and the SHXCXCHCXSH on Avian quite a bit recently. Also, anything Whities is usually killer.
Which record would you bring out to save a dancefloor?
William Onyeabor’s ‘When the Going is Smooth and Good’ always works. That or some Bodzin.
Wigflex has been going strong in Nottingham for 10 years now, what is it about the city that you love the most?
Whether you’re rich, poor, white, black, tartan, gay, straight…in Nottingham you will find all manner of creatures sweating it out alongside each other on a dancefloor. I love our Halloween parties the most, we have a real community of freaks up here but that one seems to bring the best of them out.
As the locals of Nottingham know, the place used to be big for clubs and record shops, but they’re now in short supply. What else do you think the city needs to help drive the music scene?
A couple of decent 200/300 capacity venues with exceptional sound. Also keep an eye out for Where-Wax, a new record shop my good pal Declan Shuttlebless is opening soon.
Who’s doing good things for Nottingham music at the moment that you’d like to shout out?
There’s a really close knit, diverse community of like-minded artists about at the minute. The left back crew put on some killer parties and release some cool records. I’m really into Congi. We had the boys perform their debut live show supporting Lone the other week and they smashed it. Then you have the MCs. People like Scorzayzee, Juganaut, Cappo and the Space City guys are all doing their thing. Then there’s the Notts grime contingent. Mez, Snowy, Youthoracle, Shadow, Window Kid are all doing bits, as are producers like Killjoy, Lenkemz, Sergic and Saulya. Gotta big up my sultry soul sisters Yazmin Lacey and Natti as well. Saw Yaz and her band The Echoes at a gig recently and it was of the best live performances I’ve seen for a while. Daudi Matsuko also knows how to pull on those heart strings and I’m really feeling Shelter Point as well.
Are there any young, exciting DJs, labels or producers in Nottingham we should be paying attention to?
I’ve found a couple of local youngers by the name of Medicut and Croft that I’m pretty excited about. Medicut also makes tunes with a talented dude called Prole under the joint alias of Blades that are also pretty dope. OG’s Hizatron and Metaphi deserve more attention as well. Then you have Oscilla Sound, Perspective, Baines & Morey Cillar who also deserve a mention. All the unreleased stuff on the mix I gave you is from Notts.
Having that Nottingham Boiler Room back in May was huge for the scene. How was it playing at that and have you felt much of an impact?
It was a real honour to have been asked to play. I can’t thank Lone, Westy and Gabriel enough for the opportunity and invitation. Had a few gigs off the back of that so there’s definitely been an impact.
Some of us are familiar with your former alias, Spam Chops Sound, but can we expect to see any forthcoming sounds from Lukas Wigflex?
I went to live with a shamen in Peru last year for a little while and recorded my time with him. Been slowly working on the sounds I got while I was out there. You never know, you might hear something at some point in the future from that.
Away from that, what else is coming up for yourself and Wigflex in the coming months we should look out for?
Felix, Tom [Blades, Medicut] and myself have just found a studio that we will be turning into our little creative hub, combined we have a shit load of gear so it made sense to pool it all together and get something professional set up. Really excited to be joining forces with them both so we have somewhere we can be loud and bash music out 24/7. In terms of parties, we’ve got some big’uns coming up. For New Year’s Eve we will be following on with another of our infamous secret party installments, which we traditionally hold in venues off the beaten track. This time we will be building a caged wrestling ring and sinking it into the middle of the secret space, surrounded by all the dancers and throwing in the Hessle Audio crew with Call Super to fight it out for the flexmania championship belt. It’s going to be a really fun one that. The first party of 2017 is on January 27th, I’m very excited to be bringing back the ever so mucky Helena Hauff alongside Powell live and Randomer.
Tracklist
Croft – The Solution (Unreleased)
Mattheis – Blablavism
Croft – Midnight (Unreleased)
Stephan Bodzin – Blue giant
Gladio – Gladio will survive
Luke Abbott – Without aim
Breaker 1 2 – DMT
SHXCXCHCXSH – SsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSs
Minor Science – Naturally Spineless
Junq – From below
CO/R – Gudrun
Rrose – Omertà
Fango – Cerebellum
Robag Wruhme – Bleche Buele
NHK yx Koyxen – L
Hizatron – Full on ruff (Unreleased)
DJ Bookworms – Photogenic
Metaphi – Solid Froth (Unreleased)
Sterac Electronics – Keep on running
Croft – Alphabet (Unreleased)
Lorn – On the ice
Reckonwrong – Hansie
Medicut – Red Shift (Unreleased)
