Reiss Johnson from Rotation MCR is at the helm for this fortnights mix. Recorded live at one of his Rotation MCR record fairs (more on them in the interview below) it’s a thumping two hours of disco lovingly put together on strictly vinyl at Manchester venue Behind Closed Doors. Check out our interview with Reiss below.
Hey Reiss, thanks for coming on the blog. Can you tell us about Rotation MCR? How it started and why you got involved?
Basically Rotation is the brainchild of Paul ‘Dig Deep’ Thornton and myself. I first met Paul while he was running a monthly record fair in the basement of Behind Closed Doors. I asked him if he needed anyone to play some tunes whilst the fair was on and he said it was cool & then we just got chatting from there really. I started to get a little more involved with the record fairs, helping out with bits and bobs, booking DJ’s & organising events etc. We managed to get one going at Nam and then Ancoats General Store too & we decided we’d run them all under the Rotation banner & I guess the name stuck!
We’ve just had our 2nd birthday and we’re still going strong at BCD. We’re now in the position where we’re able to get a little money for some of our fairs which we can pass forward to the DJ’s that play for us, which hopefully keeps everyone happy!
Rotation has a pretty busy schedule, you’re popping up all over town. Can you give us a quick rundown of all the places your currently setting up shop.
Yeah, it’s kind of a strange one, we’ve toned down the record events recently. We went a bit mad at the start trying to do a few a month but we kinda figured out they had a bigger impact if we just did one or two tops. We’re currently down in Behind Closed Door’s basement on the 1st Thursday of the month with Sellers & DJ’s from 5pm right through to 2am. This one is very much a social affair, and conversing about music as well as listening to what the DJ’s play is just as important as the tunes on sale themselves.
We’re also at Ancoats General Store the 1st Sunday of the month from 12pm-8pm!
All our sellers rotate & stock is constantly changing so different stuff is in the crates each time. We encourage our sellers to bring a different selection each time too.
There must be some pretty unique challenges that come along with running your own record fair. What are some of the tougher things you’ve had to manage?
Yeah there can be the odd annoyance. The constant carting of records up and down stairs can be one. Making sure we have an outlet for people to listen to the records they’re browsing is another. We always try to get listening stations at each of our fairs as well as WiFi if people wanna use Discogs / Youtube to check stuff out on their phones.
We’re also just as much as an afterparty as a record fair too so we have to deal with all the usual gubbins of putting on a night as well as all the fun feedback & turntable related stuff that comes with playing rekkids!
Moving on to your mix, how did you put it together. Did you approach it with a theme or idea or did you just rock up to the turntables and feel it out from there?
Well I recently did a house mix for Manchester titans Eastern Bloc which I was stoked on. But for this one I wanted to do something a little different, so I just recorded myself playing at Behind Closed Doors one night. It’s pretty much all OG disco stuff I recently picked up on a trip to the states. So yeah this is me & a stack of records live from Behind Closed Doors one rainy autumn evening. And if you ever find yourself at a loose end on a Thursday eve come & hear it in person!
Are there any standout tracks in the mix you wouldn’t mind sharing with us?
Yeah, there’s a couple of tracks here that rarely leave my bag. I’m bang into all the Prelude records stuff so standouts in here are like Lorraine Johnson’s “The More I Get” as well as “Disco Circus”. Prelude aside there’s CJ & Company – “We’ve got our own thing” which is another fave as well as some other golden bits in here designed to make the hairs on ya neck stand up! Oosh!
Finally is there any big events in the calendar for yourself or Rotation, any fairs or gigs coming up you could share with us?
Nothing massive in the works as of yet, we’re hopefully looking at starting a bigger fair at a new venue as well as some further improvements at our existing ones. We also run a night called Fourth City every couple of months at Eastern Bloc which basically celebrates all things Detroit/Chi-Town/NYC & MCR. We play everything from ghetto house to uptempo soul as well as bone shattering acid & loadsa bits inbetween! So keep an eye out for that. Our instagram is @rotation.mcr and all our events & stuff go on there!
Thanks Liam for the opportunity to do this mix & interview & happy diggin in the crates!
