Hi Fidel Cartel have hosted a monthly night at London's Cafe 1001 since 2005. Having moved to the English capital from their homes in Portugal, Kmag finds out more about the foursome...

 

Please introduce yourself...

Hi Fidel Cartel are an electronic music production DJ and MC collective made up of Unfixed, Broken, Ziggi and MC Intruzu. First as a production core, we began DJ'ing in Portugal back in 2002 and flew off to Spain and the UK where we've made a name for ourselves on the DJ'ing front. Ever since we have been regularly playing around Europe and hosting a monthly night since called The Whole Spectrum early 2005 at Cafe 1001 in London.

 

Where and when do your nights take place?

Every second Friday of the month in the main room of what has become one of the hot spots of London's nightlife and drum & bass scene - Cafe 1001 in the heart of Brick Lane. We also co-host a dubstep night entitled R.E.N.E.G.A.D.E alongside DJ Slauka running every third Friday of the month in Cafe 1001's front room since early 2007.

 

What's the night all about?

As the name suggests, the night is a celebration of the whole spectrum of drum and bass. To move away from the segregation into different sub-genres, the idea is to run a night that doesn't box itself in and the line-ups always reflect this. We tend to invite international guests every other month and showcase our own music on the remaining nights.

 

How would you describe your crowd?
With the cosmopolitan character of Brick Lane and our line-ups of international DJs, our crowd tends to be a peculiar mixture of international students, Londoners and city workers who love to get down on the dancefloor.

 

 

Who’s played the best set at your night in the last six months?
The last six months were amazing in terms of quality, we've had Lofty from Brighton, Lups Digga and Mixim from Mallorca, Benvinda and MC R-vee from Barcelona, but one of the memorable ones was when Dj Baz from Liege, Belgium was on. It was one of those nights where the place was absolutely rammed and the people just wouldn't leave when the lights came on.

 

What are your plans for the future?
We've always been wary of giving our music out until we know it sounds right and we feel we are almost there. We have recently released a single on a Bulgarian label called BassHeads and have a couple of forthcoming bits on a renowned UK label from the Midlands. We are really looking forward to exposing our music and getting more involved with the scene as well as continuing to run great nights to showcase ours and other up and coming talent.

Anything else you’d like to tell us about?

We are always looking for new people to DJ at our nights so if you want to get involved send us your music to or via soundcloud.

 

Broken - Volatile by Hi Fidel Cartel

 

Related Links:

• Knowledge Is 15
• BarKnowledge @ Cafe 1001 Video
• G-Shock East Sessions
• G-Shock East Sessions
• Review: Playaz Tenth Anniversary At Fabric

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