Steve Lawler To Release “Viva Toronto”

Steve Lawler’s Viva series returns with an excursion to Toronto, taking you deep ‘Inside’ the club, then ‘Outside’ for one of his famed eclectic, terrace sessions…

Following on from the critically acclaimed debut of ‘London’, Steve Lawler returns with another snapshot of his global Viva residencies. This time he travels to Toronto, where his annual June event at the Guvurnment club has become a highlight date in the Canadian clubbing calendar.

“The set-up at Guvurnment is totally specific to them,” says Steve, “It’s a big venue; I usually play to around 4,000 people inside from 1-5 am, then go up on to their incredible roof terrace and 1000 or so party-on though the morning to midday. Dawn’s usually breaking as I kick-off, which makes for a very special moment”

And it’s these two unique sets that comprise ‘Viva Toronto’ as we follow Steve from ‘Inside’ to ‘Outside’. “The night and day concept at Guvurnment is brilliant,’ enthuses Lawler, “After 4 or 5 hours inside, we always kick things off slowly on the Terrace and then build back-up. In terms of the compilation it allowed me to flip the traditional formula of early doors to late night floors on its head, and so the first disc now represents the club, whilst the second embraces my eclectic take on the Terrace session.”

As you’d expect, the result is two very different mixes. ‘Inside’ fuses modern techno from the likes of TG, Patrick Zigon, Christian Smith & John Selway, Futureshock’s Alex Tepper and Joel Mull, whilst ‘Outside’ will have many salivating as Steve confirms why he is frequently described as the Terrace King. Starting with the down-tempo bliss of The Black Dog and Miss Fitz’ Nina Simone sampling ‘Drifting On’, Steve builds a Balearic house Masterclass, which includes luminaries such as Audion, Mathew Jonson and Clé. “It’s been great to produce two discs with this much variety,” he summarises, “People don’t often get the chance to hear me being this diverse on a comp’, which makes it rare and unique. I am both happy and proud of the result.”

Indeed, variety seems to be the current mandate for Lawler. If the album weren’t enough, he has releases slated on two very prestigious labels: Dubfire’s Sci-Tec and Josh Wink’s Ovum. Plus, to cap it all, makes a highly anticipated return to the residence he made his own – We Love at Space in Ibiza. There’s little question you’re going to be hearing an awful lot about Steve Lawler this summer!