Domenic Capello has maintained his weekly Saturday Subculture residency, the flagship night at
Glasgow’s Sub Club, since 1994. Subculture has thrived where so many house clubs have flagged
because the night has always embraced and sought out the most innovative and culturally relevant
electronic music - regardless of fickle fashions or commercial pressures.
Domenic’s refusal to compromise his artistic vision was apparent from the start. After getting into electro
and the break-dancing scene of the early 80s he became disillusioned with the lack of innovation and
turned instead to old blues records. His first residency was at a blues club just outside Glasgow, where
he surprised the grumpy old men with his encyclopaedic knowledge of obscure blues records, most of
which were recorded long before he was born. He was popular and was offered both the Friday and
Saturday nights. Alas, though, Domenic’s career as a blues DJ would be short lived. Acid House was
about to emerge. Going down to the late 80s warehouse parties where a young Stuart and Orde (Slam)
would play the music that was emerging from Chicago and Detroit at that time, Domenic realised that
he wanted to be part of the future - not the past.
After attempting to introduce acid house to the jazz club and he was sacked, but by 1993 Domenic was
guesting and regularly warming-up at the Sub Club’s early nineties Saturday night, Atlantis (Harri &
Slam’s massively influential weekly). He also had his own Glasgow residency at ‘Something Fishy’
promoted by Mike Grieve and Paul Crawford who would go on to own and run the Sub Club (which they
do to this day). When Slam started to move away musically from the Sub Club’s vibe, Domenic was asked
to come on board. Subculture was created and the ride has no signs of slowing.
Over the last ten years Domenic has established himself as one of the most credible and consistently
innovative DJs in the world. Regular headline slots at the UK’s most important underground clubs
including Back2Basics (Leeds), Fabric (London) and The End (London), have made Domenic one of the
most respected DJs by in-the-know promoters, crowds and fellow underground DJs. Domenic has also
played at around the world at such prestigious and credible clubs as The Rex (Paris); The Moog
(Barcelona); Deep (Madrid); Food Club (Brussels) and Propaganda (Moscow).
On the recording front, Domenic has released various material on different labels under several different
alter-egos including Urb’n’ri and Hutton Drive on Glasgow’s Soma label. His long term relationship with
Ralph Lawson saw him involved in the inception of the 20:20 Vision label and involvement in a number
of 20:20 Vision projects including their European tour of 1999. Since then, Dom has released ‘Push it’,
‘O.S.B’ and ‘324’ as Hutton Drive on Soma, Seventh Sign and Frantic Flowers, respectively.
Domenic’s understanding of the dancefloor, his ability to read a crowd and to build a groove, means that
he never has to resort to a succession of ‘big tunes’ to move a crowd. His sets are always fresh and
musically interesting, with the possibility of going anywhere. Unafraid to take it deep and dark, Domenic’s
sound represents a marriage between the underground house and techno sounds of Chicago and Detroit,
an imagined future that is both hauntingly beautiful and yet uncompromisingly intoxicating. Whether
it’s a 1986 acid house record, an Underground Resistance tune from five years ago or the current cutting-
edge gem, his sets construct a futuristic narrative in constant flux. Technically breathtaking, Domenic
has the ability to set any dance-floor alight, giving crowds the kind of clubbing experience that we’re
told doesn’t happen any more.