Five on Friday with FC Kahuna

FC Kahuna are one of those acts whose name carries three decades of dancefloor history without needing to shout about it. The story starts in the mid 90s with promoting and DJing at The Big Kahuna Burger, the now legendary party that became shorthand for a certain kind of forward-thinking electronic music. A three-year residency at Turnmills followed, sharing booths with Andrew Weatherall, Dave Clarke and most of the acid house and electro names worth mentioning during that venue’s most fertile period.

In 2002 came Machine Says Yes on City Rockers, the album that still gets pulled out of the racks by anyone who was paying attention to what that label was actually capable of in its early run. Around the same time, they took up a short-lived but properly memorable residency at 21st Century Body Rockers alongside Erol Alkan, 2 Many DJs and Damian Lazarus.

Post-pandemic, Dan took stock. Inspired by the slower, darker, older dancefloors coming back into focus and the new wave of crate-digging DJs reshaping how London hears its weekends, he linked up with Jamie Reynolds, formerly of Mercury Prize winners Klaxons, and started FUZZ. The premise was straightforward and refreshingly unfashionable: the world is going to shit, so let’s do something wholly positive, altruistic and community focused. They found a proper boozer in Bethnal Green, charged as little as they could on the door, talked the best DJs they knew into playing for the love of it, and put the whole thing through a sound system they had no business affording.

The bookings tell their own story. Danny McLewin of Psychemagik, Logan Fisher from Tryouts, Rosie Ama and Richard Sen have all stepped up, drawn by the same instinct that built FUZZ in the first place: a room that puts the music and the people in it ahead of anything else.

Which makes FC Kahuna a fitting pick for this week’s Five on Friday. Three decades in, still digging, still building, still asking the right questions about what dance music is actually for.

This does something to me. It feels powerful but effortless – dark and distinctive but alluring. Really reshapes the vibe on the dancefloor.

I’m a long time admirer of Serge, especially when he goes Italo Disco, so i was very happy to stumble across this. 

Distinctive, undeniably hooky and fun.  Plus Its the kind of thing I think some people would hate which makes me love it a bit more.

Supreme psychedelic machine melodies. A bit like a danceable Boards of Canada track. 

I’ve run out of daft things to say about great weird tracks which is fine because there’s not much I can say about this one other than it feels like maybe three genres in one track and it’s kinda nuts.

by Damo Red Telephone

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