Hard Workin’ Trax: Rushmore goes Global

Anyone with any semblance of interest in raw UK dance music knows Matt Thomas aka Rushmore. As a promoter, DJ, producer, and designer, the impact that he’s had on UK clubbing in the last few years has been quietly immeasurable. He’s the driving force behind Rhythm Talk, House of Trax, and Trax Couture – parties and labels that were, and are, dedicated to forging a genuine sense of community from the potentially disparate set of heads into ghetto house, Jersey club, booty bass, juke, footwork, vogue, and percussion heavy militant workouts. 2014 has seen Rushmore’s label take a global approach with the release of the World Trax series – a collection of EPs from similarly minded bass-headed producers from far flung locations. 

Last week I saw Thomas spin a set of prime G-Funk as part of his residency at new London night Passions, an event which encourages DJs to play the kind of shit they want to hear, rather than what’s expected of them. That night we were treated to Chicago legend Traxman laying down vintage soul and upfront funk. Passions is what he’s all about: exuding endless enthusiasm about every minute facet of music he’s interested in. 

When I spoke with him shortly after the event it made sense to rewind a bit. We started by discussing his earliest forays into promotion. “Me and Fools used to run a party called Rhythm Talk. They were completely illegal shindigs in basements dotted over Dalston and Clapham that we’d fill with this massive sound system.” As these things go in London, a city more dedicated than ever to the eradication of an underground, thriving, independent nightlife, the pair knew that their setup would just lead to closures and frustrations. So they switched it up. House of Trax was born. “It was almost the bad bitch cousin of Rhythm Talk. We had a more legitimate venue but our music policy changed slightly. We wanted it raw, really honing in on the US/UK ghetto club sounds we love and are obsessed with.”

Anyone who’s ever attended a House of Trax party, one of those sweaty nights where you can see DJs as diverse as “unspoken resident” MikeQ, Tyree Cooper, Paul Johnson, DJ Earl, Jam City, and DJ Assault play to intimate crowds will know that dancing isn’t optional. That focus is something that Thomas is keen to point out. “We’ve always been super interested in the dancing aspect, and I suppose the more flamboyant element and showmanship of dancing, which I think is becoming less of a ‘weird’ thing now, what with every fucker out there in the world of house shuffling.” 

As seriously as the dancing is taken and for all the great groundwork they do in terms of giving unheralded DJs a chance to build a British profile, Thomas is keen to note that the parties aren’t meant to be viewed as totemic statements of some cultural shift. “House of Trax is rawkus, it’s fun, it’s new and it’s old, and nobody else seems to be doing it and we stuck with it, whether we made money or lost money, it was just about giving a stage to something that deserved it and didn’t exist in the UK”.

The record labels that last, the parties that stay fresh and always feel good, the producers who never grow old, are the ones that consider the unified whole of the elements they string together when putting anything out there in the world. The aesthetic needs to be a totality of effect, a symbiotic relationship between the aural and the visual. Trax Couture, as the name suggests, haven’t just stuck to dropping 12″s and FLAC files. Thomas’ line of club-friendly streetwear is something that comes out of his passion for “sneakers/trainers, high fashion, NBA, porn mags, drug culture, club culture, sticker books, trading cards, graffiti.” Even the typography is inspired by “old rave flyers, old Chicago flyers, early disco flyers”. 

His productions as Rushmore, for his own Trax Couture label and also DJ Haus’ Hot Haus imprint, are stiff, dry, rhythm heavy functional chunks of effective and affective genuine club music. So it’s no surprise then that the artists he’s working with for the World Series, err, series, are as committed to the dance as he is. Vol. 3, produced by Parisian head-knocker Sylvere, is an austere set of hard riding club constructions. Thomas founded the label and approached the artists he found himself playing out “in the club or on the radio – people who fitted the vibe of what we were doing.” That kind of DJ to producer conversation made things slightly easier when it came to approaching people for music. 

It wasn’t initially planned as the globe trotting affair it’s become. “So the plan for 2014 was always to switch the focus onto the label which was launched in Feb last year. I wanted to flesh out the roster and had been swapping music, speaking to people online and things had just connected as my releases got a little bit of attention. By about July, I’d secured a good five or six EPs worth of material. I stepped back and was struck by the physical distance between the people involved. World Series was born right there.”

What does that say though about the current state of international dance music? Is the spread of vogue, or any other music that originated from a specific geographical and cultural context, around the world a wholly positive thing? “You know what, I am all for protecting and trying to preserve cultures or try make sure they are perceived in the right way,” he begins, “but I think everyone should have access to something, whether the outcome is good or bad. It will inevitably happen. I just think as long as you can do your best and do right to cultures where you are able to, then that’s the limit, right?” 

We ended on a potentially tricky subject. What about the accusations of cultural appropriation that come with people from the UK or Chile or Australia making music like this? “It’s a ballsy move to produce music that might belong to a certain culture and try make it your own. I think the important thing like I said earlier is that you try pay homage to the culture which you’re inspired by and do right by it. We decided to book MikeQ and have quite a strong affiliation with that  [ballroom]culture from a UK standpoint and hopefully we’re doing all we can to promote it properly. We’re not out there saying we invented it. We make sure we give the originators their props.” Can dudes from Essex make decent footwork? “Sure… I’m sure it’s possible… they just have to have the right balance of inspiration and originality.”

If they can, Rushmore will find them.

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