Scottish DJ Mylo is all but living up to his ambition to destroy rock and roll if his recent Dublin date is anything to go by.

On Saturday 11th of November Mylo (a.k.a. Miles MacInnes) gave a ground-breaking performance as part of the winter Bud Rising festival. - The Temple Bar Music Centre played host to Mylo’s epic DJ set, with support from Simian Mobile Disco and Nightmoves. The DJ, who hails from the Isle of Skye, gained much notoriety with the 2004 release of his debut album Destroy Rock & Roll. Re-released in 2005 with the remix Dr Pressure, the album drew comparisons with Air and Röyksopp. Mylo’s sound is a blend of French house and dance with an ambient easy listening vibe to it: Destroy Rock & Roll is certainly a soul satisfying record. Since Mylo’s explosion onto the dance scene, he has been proclaimed the ‘Saviour of Dance’ and his DJ set at the Bud Rising festival was certainly a testimony to Mylo’s rightful accession to that title.

The gig kicked off at 11pm and was witnessed by a good two hundred lucky Mylo enthusiasts, with many disappointed faces turned away after queuing to buy the last of the much sought after tickets. Happily, I instead wandered around by the bar for a while as Nightmoves entertained the rest of the punters. At the main stage, things were really kicking off with Simian’s DJ support set which took fans clear to 1 a.m. Time flew by as Simian aptly laid the rhythmic ground work for Mylo, with memorable mixes and a rendition of his own tune, ‘We are your friends’ to the delight of the enthused audience. Simian also made good use of some Chemical Brothers’ samples in what seemed like crescendo after crescendo of rhythmic gems.

At about 1 a.m. Mylo took control of the mixing decks to begin asserting his supremacy as a DJ. His DJ set differed from that of his live performances in that it didn’t contain much material from Destroy Rock and Roll but instead a harder mix of house and electronica. As I looked around during his set, all I could see was a sea of bodies swaying and energetically contorting to the beats that Mylo dropped. His mixes pumped out eurhythmic hardcore beats with pulsing synths and samples looping over, climaxing in an all-out frenzy which saw dance fanatics struggling to keep up as they sweated profusely.

The gig was orgasmic at the best of times as everyone pushed their bodies to keep up with the beats of Mylo’s debaucherous mixes, leaving muscles aching and limp but determined to keep up. A mix of Holiday by Madonna also featured in the set, Mylo’s version fitting seamlessly into the mélange of beats that followed and preceded it, giving a funky edge to his predominately harder mixes.

Drop the Pressure was greeted with an outburst of screams from the adoring fans who immediately took things to a higher levels with hands stretched skyward. This is the song that was mashed up with Miami Sound Machine’s Dr Beat to create the remix Dr Pressure propelling Mylo to even further critical acclaim and it was certainly a hit this night. Drop the Pressure was directly followed by a digital explosion of heavy bass samples and block beat rhythms. The night progressed into remixes of the Chemical Brothers’ track Believe in such a manner that would make Aphex Twin proud.

In My Arms, the massively successful single from Mylo’s debut album, was played as his set neared an end, receiving an immediate welcome from the dancing adrenaline junkies. He capped off his set with Hey Boy Hey Girl by the Chemical Brothers, one last classic for the dancers to go all out to. At the end of the gig I was left with the feeling that Mylo has a lot more to offer us in the future as a modern musician and performer. Whether you agree with the title of Savoiur of Dance or not, he’s raising the bar for other djs, and making dance music accessible to everyone.

Originally published in Trinity News.

Brendan McGuirk is the editor of Analogue, and former Chair of Trinity FM.
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