Kev'Laa Builds The Devil's Disco Around a Dark Organ Motif and a Halloween Guest List
A Clubber Shaped by Liverpool’s Cream Era Turns Funky Tech House Into Horror-Comedy
Two versions make up The Devil’s Disco by Kev’Laa: a 5:27 original and a 5:41 Evil Edit. The release carries one idea, a dark organ motif and evil laughter over a driving, funky tech house groove. Kevin Allmark, the North West England producer and DJ behind the name, released it on 2 October through Kevinho’s Records. The track also scores a horror-comedy short film in which the Devil throws a Halloween party.
Kev’Laa’s Devil’s Disco is in the playlist below, next to the house and tech house this desk keeps on rotation, and Kev’Laa’s artist profile gathers the rest of the coverage. The Devil’s Disco came to this desk through PopHits.Co Music Charts, which verifies independent artists and places their releases across its network of music news desks. Press play, then read on for the clubs and the characters behind it.
Tech House Grew Up in British Clubs, and Kev’Laa Made The Devil’s Disco as a Cream-Era Clubber
Tech house took shape in England in the mid to late 1990s. Wiggle, a night run by Terry Francis and Nathan Coles, was one early home. By the late 1990s, London’s The End, owned by Mr C and Layo Paskin, had become its base. The sound paired techno’s shorter, darker kicks and quicker hi-hats with the swing of house. Since then, DJs have judged it by what it does to a room at two in the morning.
Liverpool, meanwhile, ran its own version of that education. Cream held its weekly house night at Nation, in Wolstenholme Square, from October 1992 to June 2002. The building came down in 2016, but the name carries on through Creamfields each August in Daresbury, Cheshire. Kevin Allmark is a lifelong clubber shaped by the Cream era, and it shows in how Kev’Laa assembles The Devil’s Disco. The groove comes first. Then the organ motif, the laughter and the horror details sit on top of it. As a result, the track wears its Halloween identity without tipping into novelty.
Halloween gives that kind of record a narrow window, so Kev’Laa has filled it. Do The Demon Dance is already out, and Lycan Lass arrived on 23 October with a heavier Big Dog Edit. Next come Sandman, Franken Funk, Wake The Dead and Freddy’s A Nightmare, between 27 and 30 October. After that, Acid Corruption versions of Dawn is a Blade, Lycan Lass and Be Pennywise run to the 31st. His own Halloween DJ sets, from Ghost Mansion to Acid in the Afterlife, draw on the same catalogue of original tracks.
Kevin Allmark Waited Years to Make This Music, and The Devil’s Disco Shows Where He Landed
Kev’Laa is Kevin Allmark’s project, and the back story is plainer than the records. He wanted to be a DJ and producer when he was younger. However, the bills needed paying, so the music waited. A career in strategy, behavioural science and technology took the years in between. Now he has more room for creative work, and new tools have opened doors. So he makes the records he always meant to make, and he mixes his DJ sets from his own releases. He also wrote and produced Devil’s Disco himself, and Spotify’s credits list him on synthesiser too. The release went out through DistroKid under the catalogue number KEVLAA042.
He follows ideas rather than genres. Some of his tracks are dark, some are emotional, and a few exist only because the idea was too ridiculous to leave alone. In fact, the catalogue is full of characters. His site bills Hugo and Lola as the secret rulers of the Kev’Laa universe. There are also tracks for a Disco Goose, a cyber-cat in Terminator Stew and an ice-cream van in Mr Whippy. The Devil’s Disco sits at the darker, more theatrical end of that world, while Kev’Laa plays the horror for laughs instead of menace.
A Mansion Party With a Difficult Guest List
The short film widens the joke. Kev’Laa posted it on his YouTube channel on 7 October, and it runs just under seven minutes. It follows a mansion party from the invitation to the last dance. On the way, there is a no-requests rule nobody respects, a guest who is not on the list, a parking problem and a trip back to the cloakroom. Familiar horror characters turn up for a night out, while a DJ spends the whole film trying to keep the party going. Allmark set out to make something playful and slightly sinister. He also packed it with small details to catch while the track keeps the room moving.
Claptone, Fisher and Black Devil Disco Club Sit Closest to Kev’Laa’s Dark, Funny Tech House
Claptone is the nearest neighbour for an artist who builds characters. The German tech house act performs in a golden, beaked plague doctor mask that hides the identity behind it. The act also titled a 2016 album The Masquerade. Kev’Laa works the same seam from a darker, funnier angle. In the film, the Devil who hosts the party is another of those characters.
Fisher shows how far humour can travel in tech house. The Gold Coast producer came to the genre from professional surfing. He gave his early records titles such as Ya Kidding and Stop It. Later, Losing It earned him a Grammy nomination for Best Dance Recording at the 2019 awards. Kev’Laa titles his records in the same spirit, from Disco Goose to Tronald Dump.
Black Devil Disco Club is the older reference for the dark disco side. Its title figure is the same one Kev’Laa puts in charge of the dancefloor on The Devil’s Disco. Black Devil Disco Club began with Disco Club, a 1978 EP that Bernard Fevre made near Paris with synths, tape loops and a drummer. The record only found a wider audience after a copy turned up at a car boot sale for 20 pence. Then the Rephlex label reissued it in 2004.
Who Should Play The Devil’s Disco
Devil’s Disco suits DJs programming a late October set. It also suits tech house listeners who like a little theatre with their groove, and anyone who enjoys a horror film more when it comes with a dancefloor. Two versions mean a DJ can play it early and still keep the Evil Edit for later in the night.
ElectronicMusic.News’s curator team:
“Organ has been a horror cue since the silent era, and Devil’s Disco hands that cue to the dancefloor. A crowd reads the theme the moment the motif appears, which spares the DJ from reaching for anything sillier to make the point.”
Where to Hear Kev’Laa’s Devil’s Disco and Follow the Rest of His Halloween Run
Play The Devil’s Disco on Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer and SoundCloud. You can also watch the two-minute visualiser on YouTube and find his releases for DJs on Beatport.
Follow Kev’Laa across platforms: Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, SoundCloud, Audiomack, YouTube channel, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, X and elasticStage. The full Halloween run and his DJ sets live on the official site.
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