Circulation at Club XIII

On September 21, the iconic British collective Circulation will perform at Club XIII, a meeting point for several of the most relevant trends in dance music.
Circulation is music that represents an intersection of dance genres from relatively hard tribal and funky to deep house. Circulation is a team whose members can’t agree on how to name tracks, so they simply label them with colors. Circulation consists of Matt Jackson and Paul Daives.

The brief yet glorious history of Circulation's creation begins at the Kingston store Creative Sound, where the founding fathers of the world’s most creative dance team met. Before the historic meeting with Paul Daives, Matt had managed to work with Farley Jackmaster Funk and Jazz & Groove and released several of his remixes on the labels Multiply, Champion, and The Ministry of Sound.

Their first joint set was presented at the Elements club, the second at Fabric. "And then we played absolutely everywhere," Paul Daives recalls the beginning of their illustrious career. "At first, Matt and I worked under the Resolve label and released about 10 releases, but it wasn't right. All because we were doing what sells, what the audience wants to hear. Circulation, however, is what we primarily like."

The duo's debut record was a double album Colors of Circulation, a dense cocktail of house, techno, and breakbeat melodies that immediately attracted the attention of the club community: they are already used not only by such record industry giants as The End, Smile, and Hooj Choons, but also renowned DJs like Lee Burridge, Craig Richards, John Digweed, and Dave Mothersole. A contributing factor to the album's success was that all its tracks did not have conventional titles, but were tagged with a color code.

When asked why this happened, Matt says: "We use color codes because we can never think of a regular title that we both like. Moreover, we create Circulation not with just a single track but a whole range of feelings."

"Now we are working on a new album," Paul Daives says. "We have already recorded about 20 tracks and also plan to layer vocals on them. People who have heard these works say that we could reach great heights, like Basement Jaxx. We specifically don’t want to sign contracts with big labels right now because our new album will cause a real stir, and sharing our fame with someone else, you know, is not something we want..."

Currently, early house, Funky 80s, and Kraftwerk are the main sources of inspiration for Circulation. Among contemporaries, Peace Division and Carl Craig are highly valued. "As for labels," says Paul Daives, "it's currently hard to find anything that truly deserves close attention. Every label has a couple of good releases, but no more than that. A lot of good things are coming out, but it’s not super."

The upcoming trip to Russia, as it should be, is perceived by the group members rather as an exciting journey: "We have played in Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia. Now we will be playing in Russia. It’s also a kind of exotic..."