If there’s anyone who can explain why Belgium has gone from being universally acknowledged as dull to having the most exciting club scene in Europe, it’s the Glimmers. “It’s always been really cool but nobody noticed”, laughs David Fouquert. David and fellow DJ Mo Becha have been playing together in their hometown of Ghent since the mid-Eighties so they’re in a position to comment. They are about to release their 18th mix album, the latest addition to !K7’s DJ Kicks series, which sees them bring together a choice selection of underground disco cuts from the past twenty years. It should also see them finally become better known outside Belgium.

They are the first to acknowledge this new-found recognition stems from the success of 2 Many DJs, who also hail from Ghent. “They were seen to be doing something ground-breaking, so then all the eyes were on Ghent and everyone starts looking at what clubs are like there. They find places like the Eskimo and Culture Club and we were at the centre of that scene”. While they don’t resent 2 Many DJs’ new-found wealth and fame, The Glimmers do feel they’ve succeeded for all the wrong reasons. “They had the luck with the [As Heard on Radio Soulwax] compilation that they did and they were suddenly noticed. People saying ‘those guys are doing something different’, but it’s really Ghent based culture. We feel they are using it as a marketing tool.” “That’s why it started for them”, adds Mo, “to be more in the picture, because the DJ was always well known. We come from dance music background. We like the Paradise Garage stuff and guys like Ron Hardy but if you mention those names to them it doesn’t have any meaning. It was fifteen years from Jive Bunny to them”.

There’s no questioning The Glimmers’ credentials. Friends since their teens, they began learning how to DJ in the mid-80s, and decided it would be cheaper if they bought records together. “If you’re in a store buying records and he like the same one as well, why buy two copies, you can just buy a different one. This is how we created our record collection.” David began playing in a club before Mo as he was too young to legally work, but they both soon became part of Ghent’s tiny hip-hop scene, thanks in part to Grandmaster Flash. “That’s what got us hooked onto the whole thing, the break-dancing, the graffiti and the music”, says Mo. “We had friends who did graffiti, others who danced. We did some dancing as well but it wasn’t that good. Nobody was doing the music so we started buying the Street Sounds electro compilations. It was a very small scene about twenty people in all, there was another gang and then our bunch of about seven or eight people. We were competing but it was all about who had the biggest ghetto-blaster.”

Then came Belgian new beat, a dark electronic music based around Ghent’s Boccaccio club. “Every Sunday night they’d play this strange music, then it started getting commercial and they were producing a lot of rubbish”, says David, “and then at the that time the first acid track came around. They didn’t play them that much at Boccaccios but we had a small club and went in that direction. We left New Beat and went the Chicago way”. “We are always looking for new sensations”, adds Mo, “suddenly you hear a Mr Fingers tune and you’re like, what’s this? It’s coming from Chicago, there must be more. You check out this label and that label, getting more into the house sound, all those strange acid tunes, 808 State in the UK, electro, techno, we were always looking for stranger and more exciting stuff”.

This endless hunger for new music and exciting new scenes explains the unique genre-blending, eclectic sound that evolved in Ghent. “We were always into music that was different to what was going on in the mainstream”, explains David, “if things are too boring, try something different, put some humour in your music, be creative”. It’s been their policy from the start, even if it was slightly forced on them by being part of the Belgian hip-hop scene. “In those days you didn’t have that much hip-hop”, recalls Mo “you couldn’t play just hip-hop so you had to play whatever. And there was a lot of great popular music that we loved, like Michael Jackson, so we bought a lot of 7”s because they were cheaper than 12”s”.

For all this, their new DJ Kicks mix is about as straight-forward a DJ mix as you can get, especially when compared to some of their Eskimo Records compilations that would lurch from Hall & Oates to Frankie Knuckles in one swift flick of the hips. They admit this was a chance to reach a bigger, international audience and they were going to take it. “We wanted to point out that we can also do this and play more straight-forward, quality dance music for 1,500 people.
It easier for people to get into this than suddenly having loads of guitars or something”. But it’s still an intriguing mix that swings from UK indie band Biz to house legend Kerri Chandler. “It’s disco in different disguises”, points out David, “we tried to keep the vibe but make the mix more straight-forward”. Mo adds, “It’s another part of our record collection getting into the spotlight”.

Their burgeoning reputation has come a price. The duo were always known as the Glimmer Twins, the name Mick Jagger and Keith Richards called themselves in the sixties, but they recently shortened the name in fear of litigation. “We’ve worked so hard to achieve what we have now and those guys don’t give a fuck what happens. If their lawyers see they have a chance to make some money because of all the press we have, so we changed. Like the Verve, their record went to no. 1 and they have to pay the Stones on top, it’s a nightmare”. “Everyone calls us the Glimmers anyway”, Mo adds, “so its not a big deal”.

They also operate as Dirty Minds, the name of their band. “It’s a virtual band because we invite a bass player and drummer and we record jams”, says David, “we play acid house records and try and incorporate the style”. “Not the record but the vibe”, interjects Mo, “we record them and get rough sketches that we work on”. But they insist they are not looking to pull the same trick as 2 Many DJs, whose DJ career helped propel their band, Soulwax to success. “It’s a side project”, says David, “we were working with those musicians and it had a certain feel, a space rock guitar style, so we thought we should give it a name. We have a project called Dirty Minds, but it’s next to our DJing.”

DJing remains their first love and they’ve had some memorable nights in the UK. “Manchester is amazing. We did Sankey’s Soap a couple of weeks ago and we played lots of old school acid house. They like it a lot.” They were also about to embark on their first trip to Japan. Like their endless search for new music, The Glimmers are always looking for new experiences and places to DJ. However successful their DJ Kicks record becomes, you sense they’ll remain two music fanatics always looking for the next big thing. Even if that is The Glimmers themselves.

words: Colm Larkin

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