Domenic Cappello

Domenic Cappello is a Glasgow DJ associated with the city’s Sub Club, where he has held the weekly Saturday Subculture residency since 1994. Subculture grows out of the early-1990s Sub Club Saturday night Atlantis, where Cappello is already guesting and warming up by 1993 before being asked to join the new night when Slam move away from the club’s direction.

Early musical interests and club work

Cappello first gets into electro and breakdancing in the early 1980s, but then turns to older blues records after becoming frustrated by what he sees as a lack of innovation. His first residency is at a blues club just outside Glasgow, where his knowledge of obscure blues recordings earns him popularity and both the Friday and Saturday nights. He later tries to introduce acid house to a jazz club and is dismissed, before becoming involved in the warehouse-party scene in the late 1980s, where he hears music emerging from Chicago and Detroit and decides he wants to be part of that future.

Subculture and DJ career

At Subculture, Cappello develops a reputation for playing innovative and musically varied electronic music rather than relying on standard crowd-pleasers. He is described as a DJ with strong crowd-reading skills and a set style that can move between deep house, techno, acid house and newer underground records from Chicago, Detroit and beyond. His work takes him to major underground clubs in the UK, including Back2Basics in Leeds, Fabric in London and The End in London, as well as venues in Paris, Barcelona, Madrid, Brussels and Moscow, including The Rex, The Moog, Deep, Food Club and Propaganda.

Recording projects and aliases

On record, Cappello releases material under several aliases, including Urb’n’ri and Hutton Drive. Hutton Drive releases include “Push It” on Soma, “O.S.B.” on Seventh Sign and “324” on Frantic Flowers. He also has a long-running connection with Ralph Lawson and is involved in the formation of the 20:20 Vision label, along with work on a number of related projects, including the label’s European tour in 1999.

Style

Cappello’s sets are rooted in the underground house and techno traditions of Chicago and Detroit. He is known for mixing older acid house records with more recent underground selections and for building sets as a continuous narrative rather than a sequence of obvious big tracks.