CityLife

Music's all about the mix

WHEN most people talk of mixing it up a bit they do mean just a bit. Mixing a bit of electro with a bit of house, maybe.

When Gavin Wynne talks about mixing things up a bit he means taking things to a whole new realm.

Take his night Shuffled, for example, tomorrow night at Relish in the Great Northern Warehouse.

"I really enjoy going out in the city," he says, "but I found a lot of the music I like means that clubs are approached in the same way.

"Take most of the indie nights - people tend to dress in the same way and you guarantee what music you're going to hear. We want to break away from that." Shuffled, named after the random function on Apple's iPod, blurs the line between musical genres, sticking indie rock next to hip hop which, in turn, sidles up to folk music as it hugs leftfield electronica.

It sounds like an accident waiting to happen, perhaps, but the results, according to Gavin, have been gently surprising.

"This is only our second event at Relish," he reports, "but it's been great fun so far.

"We used to do the night at the Frog & Bucket in the northern quarter but, even though we are trying to break away from what people expect of a night, people were understandably expecting comedy. So we moved."

Persuasions

Gavin's night has, over the last year or so, put on live bands and DJs of all persuasions, creating a new type of audience that you perhaps don't find anywhere else in the city.

"It's a bit like a less organised version of Jools Holland's TV show," he says. "Artists and DJs get to showcase themselves and you can't assume that the following artist will have anything in common with the previous. We've had burleque artists and magicians; even Frank Sidebottom made an appearance."

He's also showcased bands such as Marie Tueje, singing folk, followed up by hip hop from Surreal Knowledge and Moth Hifi, playing electronica. Tonight's show is a singer songwriter by the name of Doug Walker - already covered in Manchester Evening News - who Gavin describes in glowing terms in the same breath as Jeff Buckley.

He's been played on Xfm, complimented on his art by the aforementioned Jools Holland, and even played at the Royal Albert Hall backed by a 90-piece orchestra. Likewise, the setting for Shuffled is a little out of the ordinary, swerving dingy gig and club venues in favour of more upmarket surroundings of Relish.

"The whole point of moving somewhere bigger is to give people better surroundings to experience the night," says Gavin. "You can get a good cocktail at Relish and even eat while the night goes on.

"We're really keen to make the whole experience as unique as possible and get people from all musical backgrounds to just come down and see what's out there."

A new form of cabaret, perhaps? This time without the chicken in a basket.

For more information visit myspace.com/shuffledclub.