WHEN Denis Sulta plays the Riverside Festival this weekend, it's likely the 26-year-old DJ/producer will have an experience different to his first appearance at the country's biggest electronic music festival, held in the grounds of Zaha Hadid's dramatic Riverside Museum.
Back in 2015 Sulta – also known as Hector Barbour – had already put out a couple of productions on Dixon Avenue Basement Jams, the label run by Dan Monox of Glasgow's Rubadub Records.
Melding the edginess of the underground with a love of goodtime disco, those original releases currently exchange for a fair bit of cash. That summer also saw Sulta dropping It's Only Real into sets, a euphoric, breakout banger that was quickly taken up by the likes of Four Tet, Bicep and Jackmaster and would go on to be released by Numbers – another world-renown, Glasgow-grown dance institution.
While his music, parties and regular sets at the likes of the SubClub would have pulled in a considerable crowd, Sulta's set at Riverside in May that year was witnessed by a very select audience.
“I was first on,” he recalls on the phone from the US west coast where he has high-profile slots at prestigious clubs in San Francisco and Los Angeles before Riverside.
“It turned out the timings were a bit out and to make it work I ended up playing to the bar staff, the security guards and a couple of scaffolders. But it was a massively great event, really good fun.”
Now this bank holiday weekend – the seventh time promoters Electric Frog and legendary techno night Pressure have allied to put on the festival – Sulta won't just play a headline set, he'll curate one of five stages at the two-day festival.
The Sulta Selects stage will feature a live set from Germany's Fjaak, Norwegian legend Todd Terje, rising Dutch DJ Job Jobse, Peach aka Canadian DJ Serena Passion, Sofay from Glasgow and HAAi (pronounced “Hi”) aka Australian 30-something Teneil Throssell.
Throssell will join Sulta for a post-festival afterparty at Glasgow's Berkley Suite.
"She's is one of my very good friends," Sulta says of HAAi, noting the Australian's acclaimed residency at London's Phonox club and her debut Essential Mix for BBC Radio 1 being named the Essential Mix of 2018. She also joined Jon Hopkins – who also plays Riverside – on his recent European dates.
Sulta continues: “We both missed our flight to Italy a couple of weeks ago basically because we were laughing. Musically, she's doing something really interesting and she's going to be perfect for Riverside.”
Also performing at Sulta Selects will be Little Gay Brother, a flamboyant troupe of dancers who helped Sulta give Edinburgh's Usher Hall its first club night last Christmas.
“They are hilarious, the best fun ever,” he says. “They're about breaking down barriers between the
artist and the crowd, and they do it so well. They're so animated and friendly and give off a really great vibe.”
Not one to dourly stand behind the decks himself, Sulta enjoys his uplifting, joyful sets, grinning and fist-pumping along with the crowd.
Having recently moved back to Glasgow after a spell living in Berlin, he's been working on new music in between playing landmark clubs such as New York's Good Room and festivals from New Zealand to the Netherlands.
The Riverside is the start of a packed UK festival season for the DJ.
“We've got a bit of a massive surprise for everybody,” he says, excited. “There's all these festivals and we've been working really hard on making it a good show. And it will be aired for the first time at the Riverside Festival.”
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