Kinky Malinki is certainly one unforgettable name. Not only are people all over the world talking about it, they're busting moves at their parties from here to Switzerland. The music policy of 'sexy, uplifting house' has translated into over five different languages and counting, making them major international party purveyors. PlanetNotion caught up with the man behind it all, Paul Crane about where Kinky Malinki is heading on the eve of the release of their second compilation…

Kinky Malinki has always been about good music and atmosphere without the need for big name DJs. Has that changed in any way at all?
It has changed quite considerably. The move to Turnmills has definitely paved the way for the evolution of KM. The venue itself gives us so much more opportunity to do more things musically, offering more rooms and therefore enabling us to get DJ’s in who we really admire in the scene. Rest assured what hasn’t changed, apart from getting better and more refined, is the good music and atmosphere that will always be the core of KM.

Dubai is always a good place for a Kinky Malinki party. Is it still going strong at Zinc? Where are the other places that KM is really taking off?
We have recently celebrated our second birthday in Dubai and if you know the Dubai club scene you will understand that that is some achievement. Dubai is, of course, our jewel in the crown but we have regular and extremely successful events both in the UK and across Europe. My personal pick of those would be our Marbella events, where we are celebrating 4 years this summer! Slovenia is hitting its second birthday and Switzerland which is quite a new event for us, but hopefully we’ll be celebrating birthdays there in the future.

Mark Robinson recently joined the team and is working on the next Kinky Malinki release alongside Grant Richards. Could you tell us some more about that? What can we expect from it?
Mark is one of those guys that have sat in the background as an integral part of the scene doing what he does best - A&Ring and DJing. He has worked with KM on a few things in the past and I really wanted him to be part of what I do, so with the KM series albums Mark can fully utilise his skills and bring something refreshing to the table and working alongside Grant can make the KM Series Albums a house music compilation’s to be reckoned with.

In association with Company Magazine, you found KM’s first female DJ. Why did you think it was important to hold a competition like this? How is Miss Mindy fitting in with the KM family?
Firstly, Mindy is fitting in fine. I think I can speak for all the judges on the night that we all felt we made the right decision actually on the night of the final and now 6 months on I’m really proud to have her on the team. The whole thinking behind the competition was that a) we didn’t actually have a female resident and we wanted one and b) whichever way you look at it, DJIng is still a male dominated arena and it shouldn’t be, every other area of the working world has a higher percentage of chicks in it, even truck driving, so why not DJing? We were just trying to do our little bit.

Who are your favourite DJs at the moment? Is there anyone out there that you would really like to join the KM team?
I’ve got a bit of a soft spot for Gordon Edge at the moment - he played for us recently at Turnmills and not only blew me away, but most people I spoke to also. I’ve managed to successfully get a trio of DJ’s I dig for various reasons a couple of times this year anyway, they are Jon Ulysses, Jason Herd and Simon Dale and I’ve even managed to get both halves of Soul Central, Timmy Vegas and Andy Ward playing together for us too. As far as my hit list goes I’m doing OK at the moment but I’m sure I’ll find someone else soon who’d I’d love to have playing at KM.

The night has always been associated with sexy and uplifting house music. Do you think that will ever change?
Nope. It’s the roots. Never forget your roots! It’s the same with the good atmosphere and music thing you mentioned earlier, these are the building blocks of Kinky Malinki and this is why I’m sitting here being lucky enough to be looking at releasing 2 albums this year, celebrating 9 years of running KM and holding from 10-20 parties a month, oh and doing this interview with you guys!

Kinky Malinki are holding nights all over the place during June and July. Which events are you really looking forward to this year?
It’s often the new events or the second parties that excite me the most, not because the regular events don’t interest me but because the new events always teach me something new about what I do - promote parties. New events mean that I can never rest on my laurels as they always bring new challenges, one I’m particularly looking forward to though is Pacha Sharm.

Do you ever follow trends musically? When electro-house started to become really popular, did KM take that on?
Ha ha, you should’ve asked Grant about this question - that’s his favourite word alongside ‘funky’! I think he is currently trying to create a new scene ‘funky, electro house’. I shan’t be adopting that at KM though. In all seriousness I think that the fact we ignore the trends adds to the other major factors in a KM event. You know what you are getting then. Yes, music changes and yes, we’ve tried a few different things in the past but we stick with our ‘kinky, uplifting house music’ tagline and that’s that.

Are you going out to Ibiza this year? What do you love and hate most about the island?
Unfortunately we aren’t going this year. If I had a quid for every time I’ve been asked, I could buy myself a club over there. What I love about Ibiza is the chance for me to take my promoter hat off for a little while and go and check out some of the best DJ’s, music and clubs in the world and I really don’t like the whole club politics thing but I, guess you can’t avoid it though really which is a shame.

Tell us about any new projects you have coming up?
Well, aside from the compilation series we are setting our targets on getting involved a little on the festival scene and bringing some ‘kinkiness’ to them, as I think our atmosphere and music could lend to them well. We are also trying to nurture our record label too, it is a bit crazy in this domain these days with the whole digital situation but we are still looking to bring out several tracks a year and we have a nice little catalogue that we will be releasing over the next year or so, so keep your eyes peeled for all that.

Get in on the Kinky Malinki action at Turnmills with Lenny Fontana, Soul Central and Wei Shen Mak on Saturday 21 July.

The latest Kinky Malinki compilation mixed by Grant Richards and Mark Robinson is out now!