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Going Global
Top London DJs get caught in the Net

As nightlife venues go, the Global Cafe in Golden Square may seem pretty insignificant. It's only open until midnight and the people hanging out there are more likely to sip cappuccino, browse around the art exhibitions or surf the Not than throw themselves about on the small dancefloor. Yet this is the nerve centre for the Global Channel, an internet pirate radio station on which many of the capital's best breakbeat, house and electronica DJs broadcast around the world.

DJs like Jumping Jack Frost and Bryan Gee of the drum n' bass label V Recordings, AndrewWeatherall, Red Rice, Carl Cox and Jim Masters of Ultimate Base, The Merry Pranksters (Melting Pot), the Jedi Knights (Universal Language) and the Clear record label's smoothly soulful techno technicians play on the station every week. The list of guest mixers is even more diverse; everybody plays for free and are free to play what they like.

This freeness is catching: there's no admission charge at the Global Cafe either. The Global Channel has been based there since its launch last summer, and a very pleasant place it is to check out their radical rhythms. It's a cyber-spacious, hi-ceilinged room overlooking Soho's airiest and most peaceful square, just a couple of minute's stroll from Piccadilly Circus. "I just think it's cool. I like the place and I like the vibe," said Jumping Jack Frost when I asked him why he and Bryan Gee wanted to play on the station. Like many radio DJs, Frost enjoys DJing without the need to keep people dancing. "Ive oven done a hip hop set on there, man. At any given time we can just change the programme... It's another outlet for us," he added, "and there's a lot of good potential there for the future."

It's a potential which is being realised in a hurry. The Global Channel website claims an average of 80,000 hits a day and they're 'on air' from 5pm to midnight from Sunday to Friday. But they're not the only pirate radio station sending the sounds of London out to whoever wants to listen on the Net. interFACE has been on air since January 197, and broadcasts for much longer (rocking right round the clock from Friday afternoon to Sunday night, and from 4pm to 2am on Monday through Thursday) and uses DJs who are even more underground than those on the Global Channel. The antics of the DJs in its graffiti-decorated Farringdon studio are filmed and shown on the website, but there's no public access as such. Consequently, in spite of InterFACE having logged on a regular audience of over 200,000, it's still possible that these stations may be better known In Rome, Tokyo or Uttle Rock, Arkansas than they are in London, where people have plenty of alternative ways of hearing the latest dance music.

Clearly, the main aim of the stations is, as Global Channel's co-ordinator Plug Lazonby puts it, 'to get it out to places where they can't get this stuff', but clubbers or radio hams who don't own computers shouldn't stop reading right away. After all, there aren't many clubs which have the kind of relaxed atmosphere of the Global Cafe where It's so easy to go and chat to the DJs. Meanwhile, interFACE are building on their myriad connections in clubland by hosting their own monthly nights. They're back at the 333 club on Friday 6 for their second monthly showcase. The Hub is a three-course dinner, with Muzik magazine's Rob Da Bank presiding over the breaks'n' beats starters on the top level, future Garage in the middle layer and heavyweight drum'n'bass from interFACE label boss Mad Ash and his Compression crow (who play out at HappinessStan's) ensuring that you go home more than satisfied. And it will broadcast live on the Net, natch. And one week later they launch a second monthly session at the Complex which they've dubbed Frequency (geddit?). All of which should do their home-town profile no harm.

Back on the air, the real fun of being involved is the instant, sometimes outlandish feedback. There are requests coming from all corners of the globe, stories of KRS-One or Dimitri from Paris e-mailing to say they're enjoying the shows and the strange case of the grateful listener in Nashville, Tennessee who had only ever heard country and western and rock on the radio. And he'd simply never imagined that so much musical divemity existed... Dave Swindells The Global Cafe is at 15 Golden Square, Wl (0171 287 2242). The Hub is at the 333 on Sat 6. See listings for details or visit theglobalchannel.com or pirateradio.co.uk