Blackdown's 2012 roundup

 

• ^^^ listen to a playlist of most of my end-of-year finalists while you read!

It’s that season when people do end of year round ups... err, well it was when I started writing this, but hey ho, better late than never. 

I’ve read some and been asked to contribute to a few: a couple of things struck me. Firstly I noticed how hard it is to summarize 2012 musically in 10 records, especially since I’ve released eight. Secondly I’ve noticed how many of the magazines’ lists didn’t reflect much of the music that excited me.

Now this is a theme that Dusk and I have remarked on many times last year, how that as DJs and label owners we’ve come to feel increasingly isolated from peers and contemporaries, while at the same time finding a closer bond & common cause with a bunch of under exposed people we collaborate with. But rather than worry about it, we’ve come to enjoy it.

That’s because last year was, for us at least, one of the most exciting years musically, one that returned a sense of focus where recently there’d been a dispersed archipelago of ideas. Every month it felt like we’d stumble across some exciting sounding new producer who was overlooked and underexposed in relation to their potential and more often than not we’d have found that producer by a recommendation from the producer we found last month. In other words, they were connected. But all that was fine; we’d just have a word and play their beats on Rinse.

So anyway, that’s a circuitous way of saying this is my end of year roundup as a DJ, as a label owner, a producer and as a blogger – pretty much in that order. I don’t think it will reflect much on where other scenes or sounds went to, but it’ll be where we’re at.

Implicit in all this is that I can’t really talk about 2012 without mentioning artists I’m actively working with or have released music by. Honestly, I only sign – i.e. waste time, money and love on – music I strongly feel. There will be records I am strongly connected to in this list and I’m flagging that loud and clear now but if that causes conflict of interest concerns, click away now.

If you are interested in hearing some of them, I added as many of the tracks as I could find into one playlist (above) to make it easy to. Enjoy.

Albums

LHF “Keepers of the Light” [Keysound Recordings]
Cooly G “Playin’ Me” [Hyperdub]
Mala “Mala in Cuba” [Brownswood]
LV “Sebenza” [Hyperdub]
Dusk + Blackdown “Dasaflex” [Keysound]

These are my albums of 2012. "Keepers of the Light" an  "Dasaflex" I don't know if I need say anything more about. For my thoughts on "Mala in Cuba" read the official boxset sleevenotes. My review of "Playin' Me" was published by Fact and "Sebenza," well it was my album of the summer, no question. Simply next level.

House & UK funky

House was everywhere in 2012 like it was a new idea. Like it had just been invented. Like it had something new to say! Sadly, as someone who first discovered house several decades ago (rather than just when dubstep fell off) none of these felt true and its stiff, stifling formula sleepwalked waves of former bass-heavy advocates into a sea of mediocrity.  Rather than drown in it, I broadly chose to swim elsewhere.

That said often the best DJ sets are about dynamic tensions and so it’s been fun to keep a touch of the straighter 4x4 in our spectrum to play off of, especially when the rhythms were suitably corrupted or there was something offkey about the textures. When that was the case then tracks in this vein injected a great deal of energy into sets. Zig zagging between groove and drop, between horizon rollout and negative sub bass implosion suddenly became possible again in the same tempo continuum for the first time since Mala v Loefah sets at DMZ.

So the three tunes that were closest to classic house & garage that made my end of year list were:

Moony “Borrowed Time” [Tenn Music]
Presk "Kook" [Fourth Wave]
Altered Natives "Allwhere" [Tenement Yard Volume Three]

Now Moony’s “Borrowed Time” might as well be called “Borrowed Todd,” such is the debt it owes to Todd Edwards’ (and hence MK’s) trademark vocal sample manipulations. But Moony does it well and it’s fun to play out – I mixed it out of “High Road” in Heidelberg late in December as the first two tunes of our set and it really worked.

“Allwhere” was a really pleasant surprise. I’d not played some of the earlier Tenement Yard tracks by Altered Natives, perhaps because they were too tracky for me but this one massively hit the spot, with its offkey sour Kode9esque synths and Richard Pryor sample. We played it on Rinse and one of our longtime listeners started freaking out in a hail of Tweets: it’s always nice to see actual debris of people’s heads imploding in real time haha - job done! Oh speaking of Tweets and make sure you follow Danny Altered Natives on Twitter. Recommended.

Finally there’s Presk’s “Kook,” the kind of house track that makes tens of thousands of house producers look like they’re stiff morons who aren’t remotely trying. The track’s genius is twofold.

Firstly there’s the sample, explaining the dammed-if-you-do-dammed-if-you-don’t paradox of teenage girls becoming sexually active. Actually the genius isn’t the sample choice, though it is pretty seductive, it’s flipping two tiny fragments of it after the drop as if the confused teen has made her call, and got, ahem, stuck right in.

The other touch of genius is the shaker. Now I’m no mnml fan but I’ve been at places like Sonar where after 8 mins of kickdrums the hi hat comes in again and everyone goes meeeeental but that doesn’t tend to do it for me. But 90 seconds into “Kook” the funkiest set of shakers skip in, riding off the stiffer groove, and its electric; fun like the biggest bass drop you’ve ever heard. So damn funky… speaking of which…

86 Baby "Word of Mouth"
Funkystepz "Bizzaro," "Royal Rumble" and “Shocker ReFix”        
Jook10 "Ghost Hunter" (Soulserious)
Brackles “Walkin' Out” [Rinse]
Mickey Pearce "Socks Off" (Swamp81)
Roska "You Dun Know" [Rinse]
Champion "1994" [unreleased]

Because it’s still the most interesting set of rhythmic ideas I’ve heard in many years, I’m sorta trying to pretend UK funky didn’t tail off and for people like Funkystepz from an artist point of view, they never did. This year’s seen them release a slew of bangers, my favourite of which were "Bizzaro," "Royal Rumble" and “Shocker ReFix”. The latter two are simply highly compressed synthy bangers but they do that so well – we added “Royal Rumble” on our RA mix.   

We also played quite a few Jook10 tracks this year, like “Ghost Hunter” but also "Funky Junky," "Jump Up," "Riddim Teacha", "Tribal Lord." His flex is route one dark and abrasive UK funky, a bit like Bogey Man’s (aka Twisted Individual http://www.discogs.com/artist/Bogey+Man)     early dubstep. Actually we found this stuff worked best for us on Rinse but in clubs felt too hard, too direct, if that’s possible. Funny how that plays out.

86 Baby’s “Word of Mouth” was probably too odd for the mainstream house & funky crowd, who by now had migrated to the linear tech house of the Circle/Mark Radford variety, but it’s strange dubbed out, almost 808-y skeleton with these playful samples of Murdz86’s guttural mutterings bounced all over it.

Champion had a great year but it’s “1994” – the refix of the jungle classic  - that we were still playing a year on. Roska seemed to take some flak for his second album (*cough* XLR8R *cough*) but I really liked a whole bunch of tracks off it, “You Dun Know” being one of them. Also inspired choice reaching out to UK dancehall and garage legend Sweetie Irie. And finally Brackles’s “Walkin’ Out,” and Mickey Pearce "Socks Off" both had the more most bonkers percussion in a really good way. Was it me or did the best bits of the Brackles album get broadly slept on?

DJ Pantha Ft Shantie "Love To The Max Hate To The Minimal" (Jackin) [weRBass]
Rudimental ft Shantie “Deep in the Valley (Woz remix)”

The jackin’ scene emerged this year out of the north of England, spurred on by Marcus Nasty’s support. I remain a bit on the fence about it: I can recognize the creative energy and irreverence to samples coming out of it and there are some decent bassy tracks on that thread but equally lots of stuff I’ve encountered is near indistinguishable from stiff, generic electro house – and it’s hard to get excited about a scene who’s key point of differentiation is it’s not afraid to remix Faithless or Gorillaz. But I’m keeping my eye on it: very early (US-reverent) UK funky wasn’t for me – and look where that ended up.

But this Pantha and Shantie tune is incredible; totally direct in its delivery but really fun to play out: “These shots make the ladies shake bum…” Apart from the rump shaking, I think it’s the old school analog bleepy bassline which does it most for me.

Walton "Cool It VIP"

Finally there’s Walton’s “Cool It VIP” which we released as a part of a Keysound Allstars 12”. I Include it here because its beat is pure UK funky, though given the Wiley sample is pure eski, it could well fit in another section – and that’s exactly why I rated it so much. Tracks like this were the tip of an entire new iceberg for us this year…

Dark 130

2013 => ‘013 => 130… too perfect right? 
           
Balistiq Beats “Concrete Jungle [Yardman riddim] (Beneath remix)”    
Bassjackers & Apster "Klambu (Beneath refix)"           
Beneath "Prangin'"   
Visionist "Just A Quick Reminder"
Visionist, Beneath & Wen "New Wave"            
Wen “Nightcrawler”
Wen "In"
Trevino "Under Surveillance" [Applepips]   
El-B Ft Juiceman - Buck & Bury (Caski Remix)   
Double Helix "LDN VIP"
Blackdown "Apoptosis"       
Facta "Montpelier"    
Mista Silva ft Skob, Flava & Kwamz "Boomboomtah (Hagan remix)"    
Epoch "The Steppenwolf"
Della "Young Kid"                    
Mumdance & Logos "In Reverse"
Samrai "Hear Me Now”
Bombé "Tell (Riffs Remix)" [Full Fridge]


This section was for me the real heart of 2012 and in truth it’s a flex I’d been long since feeling around for – check my remix of Bias & Gurley “Roll” which I did in 2010. This is because for someone who’d loved UK garage but loved it more when it became a bit darker (i.e. dubstep) it was a bit of a no-brainer that while UK funky was fun in that vibey way, people might want a darker take on it as an alternative – an alternative to both UK funky and to the dubstep that now was unlistenable – in the way that early dubstep was an alternate take on UK garage’s sonic balances. Now that neither dubstep, (ahem) post-dubstep or UK funky are providing huge returns, the darker alternative seems even more pertinent.

(Now I know all the critical arguments around this issue, indeed against this parallel path, but… I don’t care. In fact I do care, and enjoy that it’s divisive: you’re in it or you’re not. I really, really don’t buy the line that you should over-ride what your heart tells you just because someone else’s critical head tries to tell you. So I make absolutely no apologies for liking underground music with a sense of darkness and edge: it feels so unequivocally right to me in the way that tepid tech house or bait electro house remixes of Faithless sound so wrong, that everything else is pretty unimportant to me right now. This is where Dusk & I are going; this is our flex. If people want to tell me this is UK funky but worse they're missing the point of what I'm saying.)

This sound - this collection of sounds/producers/ideas - centered around 130bpm is THE most exciting space for me right now and has been all year. It’s getting ignored by large sections of the club going public – looking at the techno dominated end-of-year-charts – and yet it feels more cutting edge and has whiff of mutating danger and possibility (rather than predictability) about it. Anyway its tiny and it’s early days but Dusk and I are up to our necks in it right now, dealing with VIP versions and funneling dub after dub by a hungry new wave of producers through our Rinse FM show, many of who seem in part to hark back to the early Forward>> and Sidewinder times we lived through.

But wait, hang on: looking backward, that’s hardly progressive is it, no better than those re-making tech house? Well, I think the nuance is these new producers are aspiring to the values of those earlier eras, an era that is now tantalizingly just out of reach. They’re aspiring to an era of experimentation but also of constrained dynamic balance in the tracks: dubstep tracks that sounded dark and heavy but contained their range within certain tensions rather than coming across like a toddler having an uncontrollable flailing hissy fit. Grime tracks whose deadly unstable synths exploded in a direct blast radius, rather that trying to be brostep or the next top 10 hit.


This past/present, old school/new school set of paradoxes is most apparent in the producers involved. On one hand you’ve got the new wave of Beneath, Visionist, Wen, Facta, Etch, Macker, Brunks, Batu, Hagan, Epoch, Caski (not to mention the more colourful/synthy/grimey producers like Logos, Fresh Paul, E.m.m.a. and Moleskin). Then you’ve got more experienced guys like Double Helix (LHF), Threnody, El-B being remixed, ourselves and Trevino (i.e. veteran d&b player Marcus Intalex… I’m not sure how much of his techno fits here but "Under Surveillance" is pure Metalheadz ‘95). Sure the bulk of the output is coming from the new wave but there’s an interesting sub-interplay between those who hark to the past by imaging the values or learning about them through archive material and those who are making beats and were actually there. But the fact that a significant part of the new generation are seeing past the releases in their immediate surroundings/timeframe, past the formula DJs getting hundreds of bookings playing generic euro tech house to euro tech house clubs (+/- some token trap) to seek the future half of the roots & future dialectic, well that’s really inspiring.

So, who’s with us?

(One aside is Mista Silva ft Skob, Flava & Kwamz "Boomboomtah (Hagan remix)". Hagan is someone recommended to us via Beneath, but this is a remix of an afrobeats track. I’m not immersed in afrobeats but I’m pretty curious and would welcome any additional interplay between the UK funky & percussive 130 stuff we play and afrobeats, it sounds fun and fits nicely with LV’s output).

Eski Grimey ish

Terror Danjah "Dark Crawler feat Riko Dan" [Hyperdub]   
P Money "Dubsteppin (Club mix)" [Rinse]
Davinche "Eyes on U (Moleskin edit)" (unreleased)           
Bloom "Quartz"  [Gobstopper]
Slackk “90 Years” (from Raw Missions EP)” [Local Action] 
Samename "Okishima Island"    
Rabit “Satellite”
   
In previous years in our Rinse shows and club sets, we tended to have a UK funky/130 plateau and a grime section and they were distinct. This year there have been some great grime records, not least “Dark Crawler ft Riko” and and P Money’s “Dubsteppin’” but what’s become most exciting for us this year as the line between “130/uk funky” and “grimey” has totally blurred, in an interesting way. As grime began to solidify into a genre, it began becoming more and more suited a concert or a show, rather than club music. And as MCs focused on mixtapes, back when that was the thing, the halfstep beats became more prominent. It’s around this point that some of their early audience, brought through from UK garage, began to migrate to house (which would go on to become UK funky and then the minimal tech club circuit we see now). At this point it was clear that “danceable grime” might be a useful thing. In essence this is part of what Elijah and Skilliam have been doing, making grime work in club contexts again (with or without MCs) but this year we’ve found a bunch of records that fit into the 130/UK funky groove but are overtly grimey. Now I’m not saying this is some grass roots uprising comparable to grime itself, but its undeniably grimey 130.  These include…

D Double E and Donaeo "Not Having That"            
Logos "Kowloon"
Gremino "Rupi VIP" [Keysound]   

To me this is another piece of the puzzle we’re enjoying putting together right now, another style and flavour we can blend into fluid coherent sets. Because the wider the diversity of the sounds – as long as they are wanted sounds (bun out trance, yeah?) – the more interesting, diverse, evolving and ultimately hard to define they are.

What’s also fun is that the 130 grimey stuff blurs nicely into the synthy stuff…

Synthy ish

Walton "All Night"     [Hyperdub]   
Mr Mitch vs. Clipse "It's the First Time" (free DL)   
Swindle, Toddla T & Sam Frank "Need to Know" [Forthcoming swindle productions]   
Fresh Paul "Sunblazed"
Scratcha “Polyphonic Dreams"    [Hyperdub]
E.m.m.a. “Dream Phone” [Wavey Tones]   
Moleskin "That Time we…”            
Benin City "Baby (LV remix)"        
Girl Unit  "Ensemble (Club Mix)" [Night Slugs]           
Evian Christ "Fuck It None Of Ya'll Don't Rap" [Triangle free download] Damu "Echelon (original & vocal)"        
Jam City ft Main Attraktionz “The Nite Life”


Now hopefully with this cluster you can see how on one end of its spectrum it connects with grime (Fresh Paul, Swindle, Mr Mitch, Walton) yet the synth space is wider and more expansive such that you can soon find yourself sweeping through epic vistas into tracks like LV’s “Baby remix” or Evian Christ’s "Fuck It None Of Ya'll Don't Rap." Damu’s “Echelon” is pretty much house – Dusk thinks of it as a Balearic record. But it’s all synth ‘ish – and that’s the fun of this space.

There’s some belters in it: Scratcha took it there, beyond there and way out there with “Polyphonic Dreams" [Let’s review that sentence eh Scratch? 7/10 shall we say? Nice.] Walton’s “All Night” is a masterclass of tough Wiley snares and cascading euphoric arpeggios. Swindle’s “Need to Know” is a sexual Rodger Troutman jam; the perfect balance between sleaze and comic genius. E.m.m.a and Moleskin are on some next kind of plane.

Finally a word about the Jam City track. I know a lot of people loved the album this year, from within the Keysound camp Logos especially felt it. But I suffered from expectation alignment issues. The two early Jam City mixes – for Fact but especially for Bok Bok’s old Dot Alt blog – were perfection to me. The later remains one of my top 20 podcasts: like kwaito, Rapid, UK funky and screwed and chopped rap tunes in a blender. Oh and that Ecstasy refix! There was something so euphoric about his work of this ear, beyond their obvious freshness and abundance of ideas, that I fell for so hard.

Now artists move on, I know this, but I couldn’t get out of my head what I wanted the Jam City album to feel like. Yes he’d upped his production game, I could hear that but he’d also lost some of the euphoria and melodic joy. Instead it was cold – well made & cold – but cold nonetheless, and that didn’t hit me as hard.

For some reason it got stuck as one of the three albums on my iPhone, so I’ve come back to it this year and the one track “The Nite Life ft Main Attraktionz” really hits the spot. Like the devil mixes of Roll Deep vocal tunes, there’s something amazing about how the voice interacts with the synth when they’re left space to breathe. For me this bonus track was the album’s standout. Well worth a listen.

Dark & percussive 140ish
       
Djrum 'Turiya' (Tessela Remix) [2nd Drop]           
Tessela "D Jane" [Punch Drunk]   
Kanvas "Forget The Future"                    
Mickey Freeze "Carbon"       
Oris Jay "Heavy ft Rodney P"    
Buzzin10 "StringTing" [Frijsfo]
Sepia "Observer"    
(see also the Mala in Cuba album, above)

This year we found ourselves pitching 140bpm dubstep down, a strange state of affairs compared to some of these faster-harder-more-compressed wobble bros, but the dark 135bpm cluster of beats had some quality (if not quantity) stuff in it. Most of the dark dungeon halfstep didn’t do much for me this year – it’s not better than Loefah’s “Mud” in ’06, sorry – but people who did some interesting percussive stuff included Tessela, Mickey Freeze, Sepia, Kanvas and of course Mala.

I said my piece on “Mala in Cuba” on the official CD/vinyl sleevenotes, so you should check them. I still think my favourite Mala work is his 12” tracks like “Learn,” “Forgive,” “Neverland” and “Chaimba” but “…In Cuba” works so well as a longplayer.

Other madshit

Carrion Sound "Channel" (unreleased)               
MssingNo "Skeezers"            
Octaviour v LDM (LHF) "Retitled"            
   
I’m not sure where these records fit… and that’s why I like ‘em.

PS Carrion Sound is someone you may know already… ooooops did I say that out loud?!

160 ish

Dizzee Rascal “Brand New Day (Murlo Remix)”
Om Unit ‎“Traum” [Om Unit Edits Vol.2]           
Sully "Simple Things"
Patrice & Friends "Patron on Deck" [Free download]   
Joss Ryan "Melancholy Dreams (Slick Shoota remix)" [DVA Music]   
Octa Push "Glimpse"
Deft “Eskilusive”
Danny Scrilla "Hunch (feat Om Unit)" [Cosmic Bridge] 
dÉbruit "Ata (LV Remix)" [Civil Music]           

After the 130bpm pocket, I’m most excited about 160bpm. In the era of Serrato, or in our case CDJs, you can do some pretty large tempo changes in sets without it sounding terrible (pitch bend). Gone are the days of being constrained to vinyl’s +/-8.  So it’s fairly easy to edge up the energy levels.

But that’s exactly why this area is so fun, because like ‘06 dubstep you can do intensity switches while keeping the groove. Then it was 70/140bpm whereas now it’s 80/160bpm. Now I haven’t given it that much thought but anecdotally it feels like 80/160 is more extreme a shift. I’d be hard pressed to tell the difference between 70 and 80 bpm – it’s essentially mellow hip hop speed, but 140 -> 160bpm is the difference between uptempo and explosive hypeting!

Anyway moving past the DJ tempo nerdery, on a dancefloor this 160 stuff has amazing energy and people are building on the framework laid down by juke producers to do some parallel creative things. Really enjoyable are the 160 eski flavours like Deft’s “Eskilusive,” Danny Scrilla "Hunch (feat Om Unit)"and Murlo’s refix of Dizzee’s “Brand New Day” (we played the original on dub on Groovetech fresh from Belly of The Beast Studios… yes I’m hyping and wot?!!!).

Then there’s the juke/jungle dialog that rides the tempo/intensity flip perfectly. LV’s “Ata” remix is insanely powerful, I think that got slept on and has hype snares for days. Sully’s “Simple Things” is a dub we’re playing and is pure ’93 choppage; Dusk does this great key-mixed blend with Octa Push’s "Glimpse" that works time and again.

And finally Patrice & Friends aka Slackk’s sleazy alter ego. I think my favourite is "Patron on Deck," both for its name and vibe.  What I like about this stuff, apart from it’s comic value, sense of sexual drama and total irreverence, is that it re-connects – via sampling – with black music’s history in a context that’s more interesting than Dilla clones or yet another disco house, yawn, “re-edit.” These days so much music is built using synths and has this really inorganic, inhuman quality – which I really like in a myriad of cases; eski to name but one. But Patrice raids black music’s slinky ‘70s and ‘80s wardrobe and it sounds almost alien it’s that differentiated from today’s compressed, synthy soundtrack.

Offkey songs

Zebra Katz “W8WTF”       
Brenmar “Comatose”       
Tinashe "Boss (Ryan Hemsworth Remix)" [RCA]   
Funkineven & Fatima "West 2 East" [Eglo Records]   
Jeremih "Fuck U All the Time (Shlohmo remix) (free DL)       
Destiny's Child "Say My Name (Palace remix)"
Luna Beduin (LHF family) "The Island"    

This lightly random final section is where you’ll find my favourite “songs.” I say “songs” because in many cases I need a twist or dash of weirdness to counterbalance full vocals but when you get those delicious contradictions and oppositions, like a ruff bass with a smooth vocal, or a mandem stab with a seductive temptress pad it’s near perfection. “Boss (Ryan Hemsworth Remix)" was one of the most asked about records of our recent Rinse shows, “West 2 East” sounds like 80s New York but feels so London. "Say My Name (Palace remix)" is twisted in a frankly unhealthy way (it sounds like a man) and as for Zebra Katz well that has a very healthy dose of “what the f…” factor about it. The sense of waking up cuffed and full of utter dread because he smelt a wiff of “c*nt” on him is… utterly striking.

   

Rinse FM Keysound Christmas 2012 special

Keysound Christmas specials

2012: Dusk & Blackdown + Wen + Gerv LV + Logos + Visionist + E.m.m.a.

Download 2012 HERE.


Set list:

Dusk + Blackdown

Dusk + Blackdown + "High Road"
Double Helix (LHF) "LDN VIP"
Blackdown "Apoptosis"
Beneath "PVO"

Wen

Wen "Hailstones"
Epoch "Bodywash"
J-One "Platinum"
Wen "Patwah"
Facta "Kobra"
Lex "R1"
J-One "Lost Focus"
Facta "Loveless"

Gerv LV


LV & Okmalomkoolkat - Sebenza (DJ Clock AM:PM Mix)
Big Space - Coco Savage
Mogrigo - Heavyweight
LV & Okmalumkoolkat - Animal Prints
DVA & Big Space - Long Street
Brandy - Baby (Walton refix)
LV & Ruffest - Siyavaya


Logos

KW Griff "Bring in the Katz (L-Vis 1990 dub)"
Logos "Untitled"
Mickey Pearce "Socks Off"
DJ Funeral "Last Breakfast"
Youngstar "Pulse X (Logos Steel Pulse remake)"
Mumdance & Logos "In Reverse"
Jam City "The Courts"
Logos "High Station demo mix"

Visionist

Total Freedom "Surgeon Luv"
Biggie Dan "DTM Gone Mad VIP"
MssingNo "Loose Bally"
Visionist "Cant Hurt Me No More
Filter Dread "Garage Falvas"
Timbah "Lady Rainicorn"
Samename "Mishima Curse"
Dark0 "Violate"
Visionist "Cant Lose This Shadow"
Visionist "Pain"

E.m.m.a. showcase

E.m.m.a. "Encarta Intro"
E.m.m.a. "Cherry Favour"
E.m.m.a. "Dream Phone VIP"
E.m.m.a. "Untitled"
E.m.m.a. "Shoot the Curl"
E.m.m.a. "Mood Ring"



Missed our previous Christmas specials?

2011: Dusk v Blackdown v Amen Ra (LHF) v Vibezin v LV v Logos v Visionist.

Download 2011 HERE.

2010 Dusk + Blackdown Rinse FM Christmas "vinyl only" <<< BKWD special

Download 2010 HERE.

2009: Dusk + Blackdown ft LHF, Kowton, Joy Orbison and El-B

Download 2009 HERE.

All tracklists here. Photo by Nico Hogg.

Beneath: sub zero rollage

 
Blackdown: OK so to start off, I'd like to go back to the origins of how you found your sound, this dark rolling flex. Can you tell me how you got to that?

Beneath: It was getting into Funky I think. I was making tracks before around 134ish and that, trying to make dubstep really. But then when I got into funky properly I sort of saw it as a template for what I wanted to do. Which is something dark and UK.

Blackdown: Why do you like dark as a musical flavour?

Beneath: It just suits me, the kind of person I am I guess. It's a good soundtrack for thinking about things. I used to walk round my estate at night smoking spliffs listening to Youngsta sets from '04-05 and I'd just think about loads of shit. The kind of stuff that you start to think about as you become an adult. Worries, paranoia, questions.

Blackdown: Let me flip the question: fundamentally, why don't you make gloriously colourful, happy, euphoric music?

Beneath: Cus I'm not a happy person? I dunno I guess some people make that kind of music to express themselves and make themselves happy but I just bury myself in this dark kinda vibe, its the only thing I know really. The way I see the world is pretty dark, I mean look at the world today, its fucked. I think of happy europhic music as being quite escapist as well but with darker stuff I feel like its more about facing your fears, sort of, you know what I mean?

Blackdown: Totally. My take on the appeal of darkness in music is that there's a reality to it. Years ago, a friend of mine described what it was like becoming depressed. She said she'd fall through this state from being optimistic to where suddenly she'd see things as they really are. The problem with full depression of course was that she'd then fall too far and be unable to see anything but the worst in everything nor be able to come back.

To me I think I relate to darkness in music as it has an honesty to it, that things aren't relentlessly upbeat or positive and people who act like that seem delusional. So it's not that the music is depressed or negative, but it's honest and real and as a life choice I'd rather know the truth than be deluded but "happy".

Beneath: Yeah exactly man. Like when I was listening to those Youngsta sets I was maturing as a person, seeing the world through a new perspective and the music fit so well with what I was thinking about. It made me happy listening to it because I understood what they were saying, the producers that is.

Blackdown: Happy is a funny word in that context though right? funny/strange not funny/haha.

Beneath: Yeah I guess so.

Blackdown: So you said "dark and UK", what is it about being UK that's important to you too?

Beneath: Well before I was into the UK stuff, jungle, d&b, dubstep etc, I was into like house and techno but it was pretty bait stuff to be honest but when I got into the UK stuff it just related to me so much more cus it was coming from where I was from, it resonated with me more. And whats the point trying to sound like your from Detroit or Berlin or somewhere else if your from the UK, thats just bait. We have a great history of music in this country, I wanted to add to it.

Blackdown: What I think's interesting is the issue of music from your local tradition being something you more strongly relate to, as if it taps into something more fundamental in you than something, say, from further away... does that make sense?

Beneath: Yeah definitely. All the music that I was listening to before wasn't really making me feel or think anything that strongly but the UK stuff just tapped into something in me

Blackdown: Did you feel you were part of something broader or going your own way, when your mentality changed to knowing where you were going..?

Beneath: Well I was listening to people's music and watching there movement/scene whatever you wanna call it but I wasn't really part of it personally but on a broader scale I probably felt I was part of something because I understood their music and what they were saying and how they felt.

Blackdown: It's a funny balance though, right? Because on one hand you talk about being part of a broader tradition (UK), on the other you found your own way, your own path, during periods of essentially solitude (walking round the estate.

Beneath: Yeah I've never really noticed it though. I just thought maybe if I can do something in a similar vein maybe I can become part of something or make my own thing.

Blackdown: For the record I don't think this is a binary, either collective or solo, scenius or genius, I think it's both - and stronger for it - though people differ on where they fit on the scale. Some artists argue that they work alone and their ideas come from their own personal source of talent, in isolation: they are a genius. Whereas people (Eno and more recently Simon Reynolds) argue for "scenius" within dance music scenes that there's a collective exchange of ideas, that they come from a pool & community of people who bounce off each other.

Beneath: I think your right it's both. Although I don't really feel like a belong to a scene I've taken a lot of inspiration from what other people have done or doing but I haven't tried to replicate them exactly, I've tried to do something different.

Blackdown: Let me ask about another binary: the past/present. One of the things I love about your music is the sense of rhythm & the focus on interesting percussion and I see such a strong contrast between it and so many flavours right now. With the exception of maybe juke, many current popular or emerging styles (brostep, dungeon halfstep, tech house, minimal, trap, grime, road rap, jackin' etc) don't prioritise interesting percussion. OK yeah so you could find the odd exception in each of those scenes but generally the drum patterns are not the focus, rhythmic simplicity is more important as they foreground other elements. But your sound is different and seems to draw from older ideas, maybe from ones that are obscured to people if they only consume current music..

Beneath: I dunno, I just like drums. I love jungle, I love funky. Both have great drums. Yeah, drums are an important thing to me. That's what I loved about funky so much coming directly from a long period of listening to dubstep, the halfstep stuff anyway. When I got into funky I got more into the earlier dubstep/dark garage stuff as well

Blackdown: The roots of dubstep stuff?

Beneath: Yeah. All the early stuff that had more percussion in, I'd heard it before but I started to appreciate it more after funky.

Blackdown: Do you think good drums are a dying art?

Beneath: Nah not really but there might not be as much as emphasis on "different" drums at the moment

Blackdown: Right. So, who are your all time drum programming heroes and why?

Beneath: Erm, Source Direct. Sometimes in their tracks that rhythms are hard to get into but when you do they are fuckin' amazing and they jus roll oooouuuuuttt.



Blackdown: Hahah I always was a Photek man m'self...



Beneath: Similar vein tho. All the DMZ crew, maybe less Coki but Mala and Loefah, "Jungle Infiltrator," "Indian Dub," "Conference," "B", "Chaniba," "New Life" etc. Even the halfstep stuff; Loefah "Midnight", everything is so rigid but it still has a sick groove. The hats are amazing in "Midnight." The drums in "Conference" are uplifting to me, bare hyperactive and meditative at the same time.



Blackdown: That's quite a pair of differing emotions to achieve!

Beneath: Also with Mala tracks it can take you ages to actually hear all of what the drums are doing, he brings stuff in and out all the time, it's so free. Cooly G: she's my favourite drum programmer from the funky end of things, really raw, tough, hard but lots of groove.



Beneath: Ricardo Villalobos: not always but when he gets all funky and weird he's next level. Even the simple stuff is good to be honest.




Beneath: Amazing really. Danny Native. I think I prefer him over Cooly really, both different sounds tho, but he has amazing drums.

Blackdown: Danny's drums are great but his arrangements need to develop more for me. We've been battering "Allwhere" recently though. Amazing, sour and rolling with an awesome set of vocal samples.

Beneath: Yeah they could do with more development, they are great for mixing with though. I could go on for ages.

Blackdown: Five more?

Beneath: Well there's Shackleton, I haven't listened to alot of his stuff to be honest apart from a few Skull Disco bits and the new thing he did but yeah his drums are next level, I don't listen to alot of his stuff 'cus Im scared of it, it's too good to listen to you know what I mean; makes you realise how far you away you are from reaching his kinda level. Gotta say El-B 'cus before I got the roots of El-B, garage and swing was lost on me and that was a revelation listening to him. Proper club drums, but not bait club drums.

Blackdown: Yusssss.

Beneath: El-P: but that might be just his tracks in general, he has really weird off drums tho but somehow retain a groove.

Blackdown: That's interesting, since I'm not sure i've heard you talk about hip hop much before...

Beneath: I love hip hop, I'm just picky about what I listen too, like most things and its only recently that I've got back into it through being obsessed with Company Flow/Cannibal Ox. I know the drums aren't off in this one but I do love El-P's drums, sounds like Loefah to me.



Beneath: I think it might be just hip hop drums in general, when done well anyway and he's my favourite producer from that scene.

Blackdown: So you know around the time of "Horror Show" i.e. Loefah coming up with halfstep, he was sharing studio space with Spacek/Morgan Zarate. I always felt there might have been some kind of imbibing of that hip hop vibe from that proximity.

Beneath: Yeah there probably was… Theo Parrish. The release he did last year or early this year called "Shut the Fuck Up." Drums are sick.



Beneath: And the fact that you know he's mixing it all down live, just jamming at his desk, bringing the drums in out, changing up the processing, make me appreciate them ever more.

Blackdown: So, do you think of yourself as a perfectionist? I sense a level of standards from you, or concern around sonic standards, that's rare in people relatively early in their production career.

Beneath: Yeah definitely. I want to be the best at what I do and I always try and do things to the highest standard that I possibly can. I'm not ultra critical of other peoples stuff though like I am my own.

Blackdown: You reserve the biggest criticism for yourself and your productions?

Beneath: Yeah but I do that for everything I do. All the work that I did at uni I was like "thats shit" cus I was comparing it to other works of a really high standard made by professionals. So when I'm trying to mix stuff down I'm comparing it to producers who have really good mixdowns but I'm obviously a long way of those kinda standards I think

Blackdown: The concern I have is, while I'm all up for agonising about mixdowns - and me and Dusk do it a lot too - there is a stage you can go beyond that where you edge into paralysis and all you hear is the mixdowns not the emotion the music is trying to evoke. I'm just hoping you never get there!

Beneath: I'm like that now with some tracks to be honest. I just get sick of them though and scrap them.

Blackdown: Be careful!

Beneath: Yeah I know the dangers but I cant help myself

Blackdown: Futility! OK, lets take a different line: how do film and music interact for you?

Beneath: Good one. I never really thought about it before how they interact for me personally. I remember the music bits were my favourite parts or at least the ones that I would remember the most when I was younger but even when I studied film at college and uni, music didn't really interest me that much, I was more interested in sound in general; music can be a bit bait in films I think. For my final work in my degree I designed the sound for two films but I didn't use any music in either of them cus I thought it was a bit obvious.

The films could have had music in them but worked a lot better without any music. I hate music when it's not needed in films, like it's just been put there to help the viewer feel what they are supposed to feel. I guess the film I worked on were pretty empty though in their feeling, they weren't exactly happy films, so the exclusion of music helped to emphasis that sense of loss and confusion that they were trying to convey. They have a lot of similarities though in their form and function. Like how they are structured, what they leave out and what they pull apart. Writing a film and writing a song are similar I guess. You have different sections and you can manipulate each section to take the listener/viewer where you want to take them.

Blackdown: What films have especially good soundtracks for you and what is it about the soundtrack that is so effective?

Beneath: Well I think David Lynch's films always have great soundtracks but not for the musical moments where a track is played, I cant really remember any moments like that to be honest, its more for the overall vibe he creates through sound. He uses a lot of low frequencies in his soundtracks, just rumbles and stuff; a lot of eerie sounds. Yeah his films are eerie themselves but I love how it sort of sounds like there is nothing to it when there is, you really need to watch them in a cinema where you can feel it rather than hear it. It's like the big sound system, dark room club thing. Darkness and low frequencies, the womb and all that.

Taxi Driver for the parts where the taxi is gliding through the street of New York at night and you have got those big cascading sort of drums and that soothing saxophone of whatever it is. I cant remember any other musical moments in that film apart from that, those images and sounds are so strong they have written over everything else in my head about that film.

Clockwork Orange is pretty fucking amazing as well for its sounds. I think Delia Derbyshire or Daphne Oram did some sound design for that or something but yeah. It mixes up alien sounds with like classical music, they blew my head when I watched it the first time. Film and music really interest me when there is a strong juxtaposition between the image and the sound, when it makes you think. To be honest I cant really call of the top of my head that many cus I think music and film isn't that important to me. Yes when its done right it can take moments and images in films to new levels but a lot of the time music doesn't work for me in films. Its information that I don't need. You'd think I'd know where I'd stand on it after years of studying it but I don't.

Blackdown: You say "I think music and film isn't that important to me" but your sound is cinematic in a way: stripped back, spacious...

Beneath: I think those sort of influences come from the part of UK music though rather than films.

Blackdown: Ah OK, despite your degree?

Beneath: Yeah, I mean a lot of stuff that I learnt on my degree was more theoretical I guess, like when I make sound design for a film, I'm influenced by certain music, not from films but like Source Direct. Obviously it depends on the film

Blackdown: Can you tell me about you slowing the bpms down, from 126 to the 110bpms, as your newer unreleased material has, and why you feel the urge to head down there and I guess by implication, where do you see your sound going now?

Beneath: I ain't gone as low as 110 yet, well I've done a few things but Im mainly finding that tempo interesting cus theres more room for experiments cus generally there ain't alot of music being made at them slower tempos on a darker kind of vibe.

Blackdown: Is it important to you to have your music somewhat isolated from others?

Beneath: Yeah was just about to say I kind of feel the need to move away from the 130bpm thing cus its a thing already. I'm not looking to create a thing or anything tho but I just felt a bit more comfortable making stuff at that slower tempo at the beginning of this year.

Blackdown: Your music has a huge emphasis on drums. At what point, when you drop the bpm, does the sense of momentum or energy implode?

Beneath: It doesn't, I think. It can but its just like any other tempo, you can make stuff sound fast or slow. Remember "Internal," I think thats like 116bpm but to me there's more energy in that than the 5 snare funky thing I've been making at 130bpm.

Blackdown: So it's about drum density rather than tempo?

Beneath: Yeah exactly. I think another thing about moving down tempo is that less people are likely to play it cus there ain't as much variety of music at that tempo. I suppose that can be seen as backing yourself into a corner though but at the same time it gives you room to breathe I think. I'm all about pushing new stuff anyway so if I've got people making new music at that tempo I'm sound.

Blackdown: You say "less people are likely to play it" - does that appeal to you? Many producers, who crave attention or recognition, would find that an alien position to take.

Beneath: Maybe yeah. I keep saying to myself when Im writing stuff, this definitely ain't career music.

Blackdown: Maybe or definitely?

Beneath: Well yeah it does appeal to me that less people are likely to play it 'cus then I can just play it myself. Or maybe a few others who are on the same tip.

Blackdown: The glorious thing I've noticed over time is that the more people want to make music to be accepted the less it often means or stands out, whereas those who go their own way regardless of what people think - people see that for what it is and believe in it. That's how I've felt about artists I believed in anyway

Beneath: Which artists?

Blackdown: Oh just the ones I've banged on as my musical heroes for ages: El-B, Kode9, Mala, Burial etc

Beneath: Yeah all legends.

Blackdown: Sure, but I guess they share the trait that they went their own way. And that can mean a lifetime of obscurity, or sometimes, paradoxically, the opposite happens.

Beneath: Just noticed that the people you just mentioned are all apart of one thing though really

Blackdown: Well how about Wiley too or even the experimental jazz guys from the Impulse Records era like Coltrane in the early '60s.

Beneath: Did they do it consciously though or just naturally?

Blackdown: It's a good question, probably hard to generalise but I do suspect built into those who wish to innovate is the urge to find clear water between themselves and others, no?

Beneath: Yeah I think so. Dont you think that kind of thing with Keysound?

Blackdown: Yes, increasingly I think keysound is isolated but I don't seek it out overtly - whereas I think some label owners like say Kode9 do - but now it's happened I've come to see it as an opportunity.

Beneath: How did it happen with Keysound then?

Blackdown: Well… I'm a stubborn fucker, I know what I believe in and feel strongly and if fashions change and people go another way and I try that and really don't connect with it, then… I don't care - I will go our way anyway, rather than seek validation from others or follow fashion.

Beneath: Is that why you're not releasing house/techno stuff lol?

Blackdown: YES. Unless it's got some dark rawness and the beat is corrupted and funky i.e. you or Kowton, but Joe's even stuff wasn't straight techno to be honest, it had that dread. He too was massively into early Youngsta - that's how I first got to know him, he was sending me his dark halfstep dubstep as Narcissist, back in like 2005.

Beneath: It was interesting what you and Pinch were talking about on that Fact interview. I can't decide who I agree with.

Blackdown: Which bit?

Beneath: "tempo or mood"

Blackdown: yeah I want various moods within the same tempo/genres, diversity within a coherent community but not chaos.

Beneath: What would be chaos?

Blackdown: "Eclectic" DJing? Randomised selections? 1. UKG track -> 2. random d&b; 3. r&b -> 4. funk etc. It'd be jarring.

Beneath: yeah that is all over the place...

• Beneath's "Illusions" doublepack is out on 2x12" and digital on Keysound Recordings now. Download his production showcase mix for this blog here. Main photo by Elliot Holbrow.

Rinse Nov

Dusk + Blackdown Rinse FM November show DOWNLOAD HERE.

Tinashe "Boss (Ryan Hemsworth Remix)" [RCA]

Brenz "She Got Them Super High Blazed Green Eyes" [It's A Bass Thing]
Moony "Borrowed Time" [Tenn Music]
Walter Ego "Rebound" [Unreleased]
Funkystepz "Vice Versa" [Unreleased]
Batu "Rope" [Unreleased]
Facta "Montpelier" [Unreleased]
Paleface "Dark Skunk" [Mischief Music]
Mumdance & Logos "Drum Boss" [Unreleased]
Lakosa & iO "Home early (Pedro123 remix VIP)" [Madtech]
Mumdance & Logos "In Reverse" [Unreleased]
Macker "Evolution"
Double Helix "Love Zone" [Unreleased]
Eomac "Space Hopper" [Unreleased]
Wen "Commotion VIP (unfinished version)" [Unreleased]
Octa-Push "Green Limo"
Trevino "Under Surveillance" [Applepips]
Octa-Push "Kate Push"
E.m.m.a. "Untitled" [Unreleased]

Mickey Freeze "Midnight Walk" [Unreleased]
D Double E and Donaeo "Not Having That" [Unreleased]
Wen "In" [Unreleased]
Wen "Swingin (Darktime Refix)" [Unreleased]
Fresh Paul "Satyr" [Unreleased]
Alex Coulton "Too Much Talk (Beneaths 350 Remix)" [forthcoming 92Points]
Walter Ego ft Trim "Set Off" [Girls Music]
MssingNo "Skeezers" [Unreleased]
Luke Leadbelly "The Tale of Kukulkan" [Unreleased]
Pedro123 "Slush (Checan Remix)" [Get Some Records]
Sines X Lockah "Jeans Tight, High Heels" [Unreleased]
Sepia "Observer" [Unreleased]
Tj The Jackal ft. LenZeZ "Window (Bonus Track)" [Free mixtape DL]
Rude Kid "Pure Garage" [Unreleased]
Eomac "We are all going to die (Beat Mix)" [Unreleased]

Sully "Simple Things" [Unreleased]
Octa-Push "Glimpse" [Unreleased]
Patrice & Friends "Patron on Deck" [Free download]
dÉbruit "Ata (LV Remix)" [Civil Music]

• All our shows are archived here.
  

DJ Graphs

DJs: they like to "take you on a journey," or so the DJ cliche goes. But what kind of journey?

It's a good question and one I suspect many DJs would struggle to articulately spell out to you. Perhaps then a picture would tell the story better.

I forget when I first thought about it, but for a while its been in the back of my head that you could plot the different types of DJ sets as graphs, with x = time and y = intensity.

So I finally got round to having a go on the tube the other day and got a little carried away. See what you think... did I miss any?

• Haha people keep asking what graph our Rinse sets are. Download them here and work it out for yourselves! 

RA.336 Dusk and Blackdown: mix

RA.336 Dusk and Blackdown

Dusk + Blackdown ft Farrah "Lonely Moon (Android Heartbreak) (demo version)"
Beneath "Prangin'"
Beneath "Blonde"
Double Helix "LDN VIP"
Logos "King Mob VIP"
86 Baby "Word of Mouth"
Wen "Road"
Wen "Nightcrawler"
Wen "Persian"
Dusk + Blackdown "We Ain't Beggin'"
Balistiq Beats ft Jamakabi "Concrete Jungle (Yardman Riddim) (Beneath's 350 remix)"
Blackdown "Apoptosis"
Visionist "Dangerous"
Walton "Cool It VIP"
Gremino "Rupi VIP"
Logos "Error 808"
Blackdown "Ridge"
Walton "All Night"
Cooly G "Trying"
Seany B "Klambu refix"
Mella Dee "Confetti"
Dusk + Blackdown "Dasaflex"
Mista Men Ft Detboi "I Move Closer"
Funkystepz "Royal Rumble"
Champion "1994"
Blackdown "Wicked Vibez"
Logos "Kowloon"

In addition we've given a full interview to Rory Gibb over at The Quietus, check it here.

And ahead of our Fabric date, badman Wen has recorded a mix and chatted to Sonic Router. See you on the 16th!

Rinse October

Dusk + Blackdown Rinse FM October show DOWNLOAD HERE.


Carrion Sound "Channel" (unreleased)
Marcus Zimmerman "Bastian" (Sound Pellegrino)
Jeremih "Fuck U All the Time (shlohmo remix) (free DL)
Amen Ra "Star Body" (Unreleased)
Mella Dee "Play With My Emotions" (unreleased)
Caski "Buss It" (Unreleased)
Jook10 "Tribal Lord" (Soulserious)
Bassjackers & Apster "Klambu (Beneath refix)" (free DL)
Mista Silva ft Skob, Flava & Kwamz "Boomboomtah (Hagan remix)" (unreleased)
Hagan "The Music" (Unreleased)
Beneath "Prangin'" (Keysound Recordings)
Jook10 "Riddim Teacha" (Soulserious)
Dusk + Blackdown ft Shantie "Next Generation" (Keysound Recordings)
Mite "Stuck in the Floor" (unreleased)
Disclosure "Boiling (El-B remix)" (unreleased)

Sepia "Because Of Me" (unreleased)
Mickey Pearce "Socks Off" (Swamp81)
We Sink "Cat o' Nine Tails" (Symbols Recordings)
Della "Young Kid" (unreleased)
Fresh Paul "Polite House" (unreleased)
Etch "Take Me" (unreleased)
Slick Shoota "Glory Days (Ovrkl Remix)" (Hyperboloid)

Gremino "Monster (130 VIP)" (unreleased)
Sublo "Snow Blind" (unreleased)
Unknown "Untitled" (unreleased)
Breen "Walk" (unreleased)
Visionist "Just A Quick Reminder" (unreleased)
Bloom "Zing Panther" (unreleased)
Bloom "Maze Temple" (unreleased)
Manikan "Tequila Jackson (Original Mix)" (forthcoming Seclusiasis)
Samename "Devil Eyes" (unreleased)
Taal Mala "Solar Orbit" (forthcoming Tenn Music)
Samename "Okishima Island" (unreleased)
Sublo "Sweet No. 9" (unreleased)
Rabit "Avatardub" (unreleased)
Mr Mitch vs. Clipse "It's the First Time" (free DL)
Dexplicit "Bullacake (Samename refix) (unreleased)
Roachee & Trim produced by Starkey "F64 (Remix)" (taken from "The Nangest EP Vol 1")
Davinche "Eyes on U (Moleskin edit)" (unreleased)

• All our shows are archived here.
  

Blackdown v Pinch Fact TV

Me & Pinch having a natter for Fact TV. 

Keysound Takeover

Robyn Travis and Patrick Regan

They say one of the biggest issues in helping keep young inner city men on the right path is positive male role models that they can relate to.

Raised in part in the Tiverton Estate, by all accounts Robyn Travis lead a pretty road early life - he came from a family of drug dealers so those were his role models - so perhaps you might not think he makes an obvious candidate for a role model, But he's changed and after that change, he can speak from a position of both experience and reflection.

His life is outlined in his book, "Prisoner to the Streets" the launch for which is tomorrow at the Bernie Grant Centre. Its powerful message is: "DON’T LIVE THE LIFE I LIVED."

On a related note, I heard youth worker Patrick Regan by chance on local radio during the riots last summer and bought his book "Fighting Chance." 

Like Travis, he also has direct experience of people growing up in difficult situations and he also wants to get a different point of view out there. In the face of negative media coverage over gangs and the cultures that surrounds them, his book is the stories of those who began in those situations but found themselves a better path. They never make headlines of course, but their struggle and stories deserve to be heard.

Rinse September

Dusk + Blackdown Rinse FM Sept 2012

DOWNLOAD HERE


Da Altered Natives "Natural Freak" [Tenement Yard Volume Three]
Hagan "Malfunktion" [unreleased]
Funkineven & Fatima "West 2 East" [Eglo Records]
LV "Siyevaya Rev" [unreleased]
Da Altered Natives "Allwhere" [Tenement Yard Volume Three]
Detboi "Sliding Floors" [unreleased]
El-B Ft Juiceman - Buck & Bury (Caski Remix) [unreleased Ghost]
Pangaea "Middleman" [forthcoming Hessle]
Dubchild "Don Dadda ft Creed (dub)" [DPR]
Sepia "Look Around You" [unreleased]
Brunks "Untold" [unreleased]
Enyo "Poltergeist" [unreleased]
Emma "Untitled" [unreleased]
HXDB "Up (Bassmynt remix)" [SoundsOfSumo]
LV "Come to me" [unreleased]
Detboi "Different Techniques" [unreleased]
Mavado "Dem A Talk (Marcx Dub)" [unreleased]
Macker "CCCP2" [unreleased]
Major Notes "O'Beasity" [Holy Rollers]
Visionist, Beneath & Wen "New Wave" [unreleased]
Epoch "The Steppenwolf" [unreleased]
Parker "Frost" [unreleased]
Moleskin The fantasy between (y)our lips [unreleased]
Logos "Steel Pulse" [unreleased]
Macker "Fifth Element" [unreleased]
Fresh Paul "Blaster" [unreleased]
Amen Ra "Testament" [unreleased]
Epoch "The Avenue" [free download]
Rabit Satellite [unreleased]
Facta "Kingdom (dub)" [unreleased]
No fixed abode "Certified" [unreleased]
Logwad "Bump" [unreleased]
LV "Izibozl" [unreleased]
Chesslo Junior "Alpine Riddim" [forthcoming WotNot]
Carrion Sound "Channel" [unreleased]


While you're listening to the show, read this interview with us.

And catch the Keysound family back together again, Nov 16th:


Fabric Room 3

KEYSOUND
Dusk & Blackdown
LV
United Vibez (Amen Ra LHF & Vibezin)
Logos
Beneath
Visionist
Wen

Dusk + Blackdown "Apoptosis" Video

What if cell death isn't just inevitable, it's also healthy? Apoptosis.

Gilles Peterson on Mala in Cuba

Over the summer I chatted to Gilles Peterson for the "Mala in Cuba" sleeve notes...

Blackdown: Hey Gilles, great to chat to you. So first of all, I’d love to know, really, about the beginning of this project. I didn’t raise it with Mala, I didn’t know whether it was appropriate or not but the funny thing is back in the day he always really wasn't sure about albums. And maybe he got over that with “Return II Space,” but what’s so great about this project is that Mala really seem to be comfortable with the album format for so many years, and it’s like, even in some of the interviews I’d done with him, it’s apparent on the record why he’s really resistant to it. So, I just think it’s fantastic that you got something of that length out of him.  

Gilles: Yeah, yeah. Well, I’m delighted as well. I don’t think there was ever any sort of definite concept to the album. I mean, I was a fan of him and what he represented for many years… and his aura. In a way I just I went to the club…

B: Yeah, I remember seeing you there!

G: …Well, yeah, so that’s good because I only ever went once. Yeah, so, I went to the club and I remember Mary Anne Hobbs was at the door (laughs). It was probably about four years and it had been going for a while but… but it was quite a big deal for me because that was a Saturday night, and I work every Saturday night. So I really made the effort to go to Brixton.

B: And cancel a gig!

G: On a Saturday and all that. Anyway, the point was, I was discovering his music through Soul Jazz really because they were pretty quick at stocking that kind of sound. And I just kept an eye on him all that time really, and played the odd record on the radio that I liked and stuff. And then the Cuban project sort of came along and I wanted to have a second “alternative” approach to the project, just to make it more exciting for me really because, obviously, these projects that I do, under the Havana Cultura banner, they’re actually quite an amazing opportunity for a label like mine to be able to go and do something that’s funded by a brand. It reminds me a little bit of when Island Records used to do weird concept albums and stuff. In those days labels used to throw money at fusion projects or world music… like Kip Hanrahan or Bill Laswell.

So, for me, it was brilliant to work with an initiative like Havana Cultura, run by a French guy called François Renie, out of Paris. Fundamentally, for him, it was about me guiding people towards their website – havana-cultura.com. Havana Club is jointly owned by the Cuban government and Pernod Ricard, which is a French company, and the deal seems to be that they have to give something back and promote Cuban culture. So, they have a website called Havana Cultura which is a really passionate sort of guide to all things Cuban and cultural.

So, whether it’s art or dance, or music... They basically gave me carte blanche to go over there and discover what is currently happening in Cuba. So, I went over there, recorded an album – ‘Havana Cultura: New Cuba Sound’ – a few years ago, and we did a remix version of that too. And then for the second album – ‘The Search Continues’ – which we went and did last year, I was very keen to have a twist, and to be able to do my straightforward version, which was kind of me taking rappers, singers and musicians and having a nice platform for them. But, equally, I wanted to do something a little bit more experimental and just out of the blue, which was basically this kind of clash, this sort of Britishness and…

B: I’m glad you describe it as a “clash” because it’s interesting for me to find out if there is some kind of overlap between Mala’s take on sound system culture and Cuba’s roots. And maybe there are, like overlaps but maybe there aren’t. It’s not the first thing I’d think of for Mala to do, so yeah, “clash” is maybe a good one for it.

G: Yeah, I mean, I just wanted to have fun. I’m in such a good place to do this sort of project, I wanted to throw more things at it just so that there’d be more surprises to be had. I’ve always been a believer of just throwing stuff in… even some things that you just don’t think are going to work at all… and then, usually, things come out of negatives, as such. I knew that.

Anyway, for me, I just had an instinct and I just thought it would be really good. I wondered if Mala would try it because dubstep is a big part of British music culture over the last however many years and on one hand you’ve got the success of the Benga’s and the Skream’s, and the Skrillex’s, and whatever, and then you’ve still got this kind of foundation which belongs to Mala and what he has kind of created.

I’d done interviews with him on the radio and for a lot of reasons I was impressed by him and I thought it would be really interesting to see how he would react as a sort of Jamaican Englishman, coming from all that culture that we come from, who didn’t know anything about Cuban music, just throw him over there and see how he responds to it. And like I’m sure some people would have just gone: “Oh, where’s the local McDonalds?” and “I just want to stay there for three days and I’m actually not at all interested in the culture or anything.” Whereas, obviously, Mala was fascinated.

I mean, on one hand it was kind of like he’s an intelligent guy and he’s interested in the world… and the fact that he was from Jamaica, which is the island next door and Cuba’s there and it’s just so different, and they speak a different language and they’ve got different roots and stuff. But I thought, “Let’s throw him in”. So, I actually went over there, with him, just to sort of test the waters and see, just as a sort of holiday really. I was like: “Oh, do you want to come over to Cuba for a few days and see what you think of it? I’m not asking you to make an album or anything, I’m just I’m going so maybe there’ll be something in it”.

B: See what happens...

G: I was in such a privileged position to be able to offer him that haha. Which is great. And then he came over and for a couple of days we hung out and it was great. And then I had this studio booked with Roberto Fonseca, who’s kind of really important to the new Cuban sound because, I mean, on one hand he’s a pianist who’s world renowned as a jazz sort of prodigy. He came and played with Buena Vista Social Club, so he’s obviously touched that huge kind of Cuban heritage side, but then on the other hand, he’s totally young and modern, and interested, and global and worldly, and fascinated by everything. So, he’s just an incredible person. So, it’s been great.

B: So have you known him a while?

G: I met him on the first record. I was just really lucky that I just happened to… when I went out there to do my sort of checking-everything-out-before-I-make-the-record-type-of-visit, I was doing interviews for the radio as well and I was doing two or three things at once and when I interviewed him, I was like, “Actually, this is the guy to make the record” because he speaks good English and he gets, I mean, he doesn’t fully get my scene, but he definitely knows the difference between…

B: He’s open to it?

G: Yeah, he’s open to it and he was fascinated by some electronic music, and by dance music in general. So, it was like, “Oh, wow!” So he realised that certain people have heard of me… so, he was a bit fascinated by me. So, in a way, we kind of got on really well because we both worked it. So, for this new record I didn’t use Roberto as much because he was kind of quite jazz. Almost too jazz. It was good for the first record but for the second record, I wanted it to be a little bit, slightly different. I didn’t want him to kind of monopolise it because he’s so… because he is so prodigious he tends to almost frighten people, a little bit haha. He was that good.

So, I didn’t want him as involved in the making of my version of the album this time, but I did have him for a day, on that little testing visit with Mala. So, I introduced them. We went to the studio and I just thought it would be really good to ask Roberto… because obviously I wanted to start working on ideas for this… my version of the album, and so, I wanted to take rhythm tracks back to London with me, so that I could start working on compositions around them. And I thought, “This is quite good for me to kind of explain to Mala about the heritage of Cuban music, by asking Roberto play different Cuban rhythms to Mala”.

B: So, when you talked about a culture clash, I guess, in the back of my head I thought, on the other hand they also share a sense of importance of rhythm.

G: Yeah. I mean, between Jamaica and Cuba you’ve got a lot of different rhythms that have that – whether it’s mambo or cha cha cha, or Mozambique or descarga or the gun shot rhythm (laughs), or whatever, this is basically where it’s all from. So, I kind of wanted to explain to Mala about the essence of what makes Cuban music and how Cuban music has had such a huge influence on a lot of other music around the world. So, that’s where we went in the studio and I just asked Roberto to record, with a trio, and we had a couple of other instruments that we dropped in there. I can’t remember what else we had, but we had a couple of more traditional instruments in the studio as well, and literally recorded like twelve or thirteen rhythms.

And so, we recorded all that and that kind of, obviously, made Mala quite interested. He was like really fascinated by all that. And then we kind of had something to take back to England with us, musically, which he could then kind of live with and give himself time to try and understand it. We threw a lot at him in a very short space of time out of nowhere. And you’ve got to remember as well, that this is Mala, who’s somebody who’s got his labels, and he’s DJing and so I’m sort of, actually, throwing a lot at him in one go. And he’s going to need his own time to kind of to kind of put it all…

B: Mala is somebody who really does take his own time and feels his way through things, he feels, a way that things feel right or not to him.

G: Yeah. And that’s I suppose, that’s the other reason the project kind of ended up working because I don’t think I ever made him feel pressure in any way, I mean, apart from the fact that, well “You into this?” I didn’t kind of go, “Okay. Well, I’ve taken you to Cuba, now I want you to make me two tracks in two weeks time”.

B: And that’s one part of the process that I’m quite curious about your input and methods because obviously, I can see you’re doing this pretty amazing way of sort of pulling different people together, and sometimes, I guess, you might need to be really proactive in some, in other scenarios you might need to be a bit more, 'sit back and let things happen.' How do you choose what to do and how to be the person that, either actively or just subconsciously gets things together?

G: I don’t know. I mean obviously, I’ve been doing this for thirty years now, like A&Ring or being on one hand I’ll be headlining gigs myself, or on the other hand, I’ll be interviewing people, or I’ll be interviewed, or I’ll be A&Ring or I’ll be mentoring, or whatever I’ve been doing all aspects of the sort of music thing for quite a while. So, I’m still a mad music fan. I’m still somebody who’ll go and buy magazines and read them, and, not because I want to read about myself, but because I want to kind of find out about things. I’m still a fan in a lot of ways. And I think that with someone like Mala, or someone like Roni Size or groups like Masters at Work when I do the records of all of those people, or Carl Craig I think that I’ve found my place because I could talk their language, in a way. I wasn’t competing with them, as a producer, there was no sort of rivalry there, which is weird. I think that’s probably helped me slightly… I find myself in quite a good place that is close enough yet not too close.

B: So, does that mean, if you have this, a position that’s slightly removed, that you can, they’re open to like overt persuasion and more subtle persuasion, or that it’s just the balance sits right and you don’t really need to think about either really?

G: Yeah, I just think the balance is right. I think that I think that with all these things, I mean, I think persuasion is probably quite a good word because I mean, with Mala, actually, to be honest with you, I wasn’t thinking, okay, I’m going to do it in such a way that in a year’s time I’ll have this great album that could be a Mercury Prize winner.” I didn’t think like that haha. Obviously not to say that it’s going to be that, but, I just, I don’t know. The other thing is with the music industry these days, I mean, of course, you’re thinking about running your business and you’ve got people, who work for you and all that stuff, and you want it to work well, but I think that, equally, there’s so little to gain in the music industry these days. You can only do things and enjoy them, almost. Because if you’re going to try and deal with it to make money or whatever, I think you’ll be fucked really.

I don’t, so, for me, I’m just trying to have fun really. And I just wanted to have fun, I wanted to get to know Mala better and I wanted to… I thought he was a really interesting guy, and I thought and I thought, “Let’s just try…” I mean, really it isn’t any more complicated than that. I mean, literally he’s a really cool bloke, and I really respect what he does, I think he’s really relevant in terms of where he fits into this history, whether it’s sound system culture, club culture, or whatever.

B: He did sound like, talking about it, that he has really been through hell and back to do it, that he struggled, and it was a complicated thing for him to go through.

G: Definitely, definitely. When I spoke to him a couple of… just after he delivered the final record we went out, and he was like, “I was so close to saying that you can have your money back and here’s the record I got. I can’t keep with it” haha. But I kind of sensed that was happening anyway, a lot of the time, so I just left him to it really. And then, I think we were quite lucky and I think Simbad helped a lot as well…

B: Yeah. He said that Simbad was really crucial at a key point.

G: Yeah, he was crucial at that key point because he could just give him a little bit of that more traditional production value, and lessons about arrangement and this and that. He’s a musician so, actually, I think that was really… and Simbad is… Simbad is a mad guy so, I don’t know if you’ve met… have you met Simbad? Do you know him?

B: I haven’t, no but I feel like I must have heard his stuff before.

G: Everybody loves Simbad. He’s one of those guys who’s just totally, he’s so pure. He’s such a pure person. And especially in England, everyone’s like always after something or they’ve got another, they’ve got their own sort of agenda or whatever. He’s just totally honest and pure, and a nice bloke. I mean, I know that sounds weird, and people actually find him, they find that disconcerting because they think he’s got to have another agenda, but he’s not. I mean, I’m overstating it, but he’s one of those really unique blokes haha. Does my head in sometimes haha but he’s too nice. But, anyway, yeah, he came in good because he understands… he, because, again, he’s another one he’ll have the Koli Geet album, or he’ll listen to a new thing on Hyperdub and he’s right on top of that culture, musically. So, he can have those conversations with Mala. So, those two elements together and at a time when Mala was probably going through a moment of doubt, definitely gave the record a boost.

B: He sort of described it as getting himself into a maze or like fifteen different mazes at once, and couldn’t find his way through. And it sounds like a little bit of classical training from Simbad allowed him to see the route through.

G: Yeah. Yeah. I’d say that. I think that definitely I mean, I, again, I had absolutely nothing to do with any of that stuff. I literally let Mala get on with his stuff, send me some demos, I thought they were sounding good. It didn’t sound like it was quite, kind of getting to the next level two months later and I thought these guys get on really well, let’s send Simbad over there. That is probably that’s what good A&R is, I suppose.

B: It’s like a really great England substitution.

G: Yeah, it is hah. It was a good substitution.

B: You send Walcott on.

G: I send Walcott on, and exactly. So, yeah, and that’s what’s come out and we’re there.

B: I think what’s most amazing about it is, just as, definitely as somebody who’s listened to Mala’s music right from well, dubplate really, so before “Pathwayz,” it was just that, I think it has a uniqueness of the sounds he’s chosen, because they are all organic instruments and all Cuban organic instruments, that like having that number of tracks with the same, or related instrument families, and then Mala’s approach to each of them, musically differently, but like with different melodies and so on, it makes it really coherent and also really unique because it doesn’t entirely sound like anything Mala’s done before, but there are elements that are very familiar to what he’s done before.

G: Yeah, I mean, it’s all of that. I just love watching people… I just love the spell that he casts on people when he’s either DJing or when that record goes on. People who don’t really know whether they like that music or not… Mala’s got an incredible… he gets everybody with his music. It’s very… it’s hypnotic.

B: It’s a very direct extension of who he is inside. That was the funny thing was that, Emily, who works for you, asked me to write a biog for Mala the other day and I wrote one and it didn’t feel like… I couldn’t write a normal biog for him, like a normal 'list of achievements' type thing. I wrote really what I felt was the essence of Mala’s music.

And then after that Mala reminded me on the phone that I’d done one for him about five years ago, he’d compared it to that and they were very similar. And it was like, it’s because that’s in essence still who he is, like that sense of trying to generate unity and connection through - in a positive way – his music. And I honestly think people connect with that in a way that subconsciously they don’t realise what he’s trying to do, but it’s very powerful. And I don’t know if all musicians have that kind of message sometimes. Maybe they should do but…

G: He found his reason for being, that’s for sure and he’s advancing it. And, I think, this project is coming at a very interesting time as well because, of course, of where that movement has gone, and all the different directions it’s gone and also I think a lot of people missed what he was doing five, six, seven years ago because it was too ahead and they weren’t ready for it. And now… they’ve subconsciously heard that sound, and now, when we go and drop this record, I think a lot of people are going to be ready for it. More than they would have been at the time. And I think the dubstep movement, whatever, if you want to call it that these days, I think it could kind of give it some new sense of… well give it that direction again. Or I mean, I don’t know if you want to call it dubstep, that’s a bit of a weird term, but it’ll be interesting to see… it’s just funny to hear the likes of Skream and Benga and those people, because they all really love him, don’t they?

B: Totally, yeah.

G: I mean, he’s really important to them.

B: He’s revered.

G: Yeah, revered, so, it’s going to be it’s kind of making everybody go, “Hang on a minute. Where are we coming from?” and that’s quite… I’m really interested in all that.

B: Yeah, and I think it’s true… I think there is a danger that dubstep will make itself irrelevant, or what most people think is dubstep, will make itself irrelevant. And maybe, arguably, already has sort of en masse perhaps already has and so, I think an album like this could be, like you say, influential in that direction. And the best thing about it, is though, that it still maintains a lot of the sound system values and the intensity from that culture. The impact of his music rather than it just being really mellow and not having the counterpoint of the bass or the drums and so on. It’s got that both sides to it.

G: That’s why I was really pleased when I heard the record it had, it does get rude and naughty at times. I was really pleased he didn’t make because it’s very easy to sort of make a record, ‘oh Gilles Petersen is involved and it’ll end up becoming a little bit jazzy, oh, here’s a trumpet or whatever’ that’s easy, I’m very aware of that with some of the projects that I’ve done and tried to keep them as dark as possible.

B: You go round telling people to be ruder haha?

G: A bit because that’s what I love about it. That’s why I love Masters at Work because Kenny Dope’s going to get dirty and that’s always been my thing. Roni was another example of that, when we did Reprazent. It was just fresh at the time, but it still had a big essence of the ruder side of drum & bass at the time. So, with this record, I was just delighted that it was just the right amount of melody arrangement but without forgetting what it’s about and where it’s coming from. So, I think that’s the most satisfying part of this record because it doesn’t ever really go into a kind of cool sort of lounge music thing. Because it could so easily have become that.

B: Totally. Well, sort of. I mean, except, of course, it’s Mala and Mala being Mala, it never would have. But, yeah, yes, I totally mean that you could see how a lighter dubstep remix could have gone in that direction. But, yeah, it’s brilliant that it didn’t, and it’s much stronger for it. It didn’t make as much sense to me the first few times I heard it, and so I had chance to listen to it loud and with the bass properly up, and suddenly you hear both working together and in harmony rather than the upper registers by themselves.

G: That’s important. That’s really important. I mean, we did this party in Paris last week. We did a listening party there, and the sound system wasn’t right. So, we had to go and get a sound system at the last minute, into the venue. But, it was great, yeah, we were really lucky, how it was, definitely the spirits were with us, and we had like forty, fifty people in there, and it was amazing because it sounded great. And we just listened to it from the beginning to the end, and everybody got it and it was really important. So, we’re doing one here, in London, in a few weeks time as well. We’re going to do one in New York. So, it’s really important for us to kind of present the record to the people who are going to be the tastemakers, and the people that are important, and the journalists and all that stuff. And we really want them to listen to the record the way it should be heard because, in this day and age I mean, I’m getting all this music sent, I’m just I’m making my decisions over my little, shitty little laptop speakers. And so it’s important to try and make sure people can experience it in full sort of three hundred and sixty degrees.

B: It totally didn’t make sense to me, entirely, until I’d heard it up with the bottom end properly so I can see why you want to present it in those environments rather than somewhere else.

G: Yeah. So, hopefully, people are getting that.

B: Cool. Well, I mean, I think that’s most of the picture of… as I need it, unless there’s other bits that you think we haven’t covered?

G: No. I’m delighted, I mean, one of the nice stories, actually, it was… I don’t know, I’m sure he told you about it, was when we went over there on the, I think it was the first visit as well, he did a party. We got him to DJ over there. So, that was… he kind of did the first official dubstep party in Cuba, in Havana. And at this event, which was kind of this the cool kids were there, the ones that the little the sort of the, like in any society, it might be communist but you’re still going to get your cooler kids and your so that kind of nice venue, pretty girls and good crowd and stuff. And he was banging it out, and they were kind of they were… the crowd was kind of hip to the music, they were very interested by it all. And literally, I don’t know if he told you this, but suddenly there’s this bloke who starts playing the trumpet, and he sounded brilliant. I was like, “Well, I got to get him in the studio tomorrow”. And that’s a really nice sort of… nice moment in the record, and it’ll be great when he comes over to play trumpet when they’re doing some shows, hopefully, in the autumn.

B: Are they going to do a live project out of it?

G: Yeah, yeah. We’re going to do it. I mean we’re going to, I mean I say live, in my head, I’m seeing the Roundhouse, I’m seeing Mala, some percussion I’m seeing Changuito playing congas, who’s like a proper legend, Cuban musicians, some wicked visuals, a bit of piano, maybe, with Roberto just coming in for a couple of but I’m seeing the kind of sound system, but with Cuba, and three thousand people bouncing like it was, like DMZ. I’m seeing that for sure. I think that’d be amazing. So, yeah, I think, I think Mala’s going to be… in a way Mala’s quite modest, isn’t he? He doesn’t quite realise, in a way, who he is, and I think that he is not far from being able to… I mean, I saw Nicolas Jaar last year at the Roundhouse and I was like, “Oh, God!” This is sold out on a fucking Wednesday in February, snowing outside. I was like, “My God there is a world for this”… Mala would just murder this. So I’m hoping that he’s going to be really up for doing all that stuff.

B: Well, that will definitely get to a new audience as well.

G: Nice one, Martin.

B: Alright. Thanks, Gilles.

• "Mala in Cuba" is out now: A&R by Mr Gilles P, music by man like Mala, sleevenotes by me. Read my 2004 Digital Mystikz interview here and 2007 Mala interview here.

My Roots of ( gratitude to) Gilles Peterson

So... it was fun interviewing Gilles because he, alongside others, really influenced me back in the day. Around '98/99 if you got a remix for Talkin' Loud you were obviously hot property, and the album projects were all serious business. So here's a bunch of tracks Gilles released, compiled or first lead me to. Respect.

Roni Size / Reprazent "Brown Paper Bag"



Nuyorican Soul "I am the Black Gold of the Sun (4hero remix)"



Krust "True Stories"

 

MJ Cole "Sincere (2000 dub)"

 

Incognito "Out of the Storm (carl craig planet remix)"



Soul Dhamma "Flower (The Underwater Garden Dub)"



The Isley Brothers "Ohio"



Joyce "Aldeia De Ogum"

 

John Martyn "Solid Air"

 

Bigup Tasha, James and Mark who remember these times too. Memory flood...

LDN033 Dusk + Blackdown Dasaflex

Well, it took us four years, lots of tea, pizza and tired nights but it's out on digital, CD and vinyl. Hope you like it. To celebrate the occasion I'm giving away a track that was made during the process (~2010), called "Ridge."

The thing is, when people talk about Wiley’s eski sound, as they have been recently, they mention his glacial square waves – and that’s cool. But what’s utterly cold is his merging of a track’s elements. In his anthem “Eskimo” the bassline is both the melody and the rhythmic driver, it’s EQed so it provides bottom-end momentum but also catchy, sing-a-long mid riffage.

With “Ridge” - which I named as a contraction of the slang “garridge” - I’d been sampling hundreds of UKG tunes in 2010, especially the donk-y marimbas, and wondered ‘what would happen if you applied Eski-think to them?’ What was the minimum number of elements I could reduce the track to and it still sound “garage-y?” How many could you merge and it still worked? The result is “Ridge.”

UPDATE: DiS have done a Keysound profile and given away a mashup dub I did with Durrty Goodz.

Win tickets to Forward

So, we're releasing an album and having a party to celebrate, at the club night that made us first want to make music over a decade ago and in the venue we most like playing.

Keysound, well as the saying goes, it's a family affair so we'd love you to be able to join us, Sully, LHF and Beneath. To that end I'm giving away 5 pairs of tickets to the party. Want some freeness? This is how you enter.

Imagine you were playing Plastic People, what one record would you like to hear on that system?

What fresh MP3 would you draw into the Serrato, what upfront CDr would you slip into the Pioneers? What untouchable dusty vinyl classic would you pull from its sleeve or 10" dubplate would you like to see spinning on those decks?

Leave a comment below (I'll publish them as soon as I see 'em) and 5 of you will win pairs of tickets. It'd be nice to see ya. You can enter as many times as you like, that's cool.

[UPDATE] Winners

OK so the winners of the +1 each are...

• Kate Phillips 
• Kieran Swain 
• Ash Oglina
• Smoove Kriminal
• roshman111 

Please get in touch!

• Dusk + Blackdown Facebook event here.
• Download Blackdown v Wen v Beneath v Visionist on Rinse 

How do genres get named?

So last night I was a guest on Will LV's NTS show to talk with Laurent Fintoni and Rogues Foam to chat some waffle about genres.

Some articles that brought this debate about here, here and here. Rory Gibbs' thoughts were fantastic.

And while you're here, LV's siiiiick new album for Hyperdub is here. Loving the videos too...

 

Rinse August: Blackdown v Beneath v Wen v Visionist

Blackdown v Beneath v Wen v Visionist Rinse FM August 2012

DOWNLOAD HERE

Dusk + Blackdown "Lonely Moon (Android Heartbreak) ft Farrah" [forthcoming Keysound Recordings]
Bias & Gurley "Roll (Blackdown's 'a debt repaid' remix)" [Keysound Recordings]
Blackdown "Apoptosis" [forthcoming Keysound Recordings]
Dusk + Blackdown "We Ain't Beggin'" [forthcoming Keysound Recordings]
Blackdown "Untitled" [unreleased]
Blackdown "'Ridge" [unreleased]
Blackdown "Wicked Vibez" [forthcoming Keysound Recordings]
Blackdown "R in Zero G (lost mutant cousin version)" [unreleased]
Blackdown "R in Zero G" [forthcoming Keysound Recordings]
Dusk + Blackdown "This is London (2011 riots remix)" [unreleased]

**Beneath in the mix**

Beneath "Wonz" [unreleased]
Beneath "Illusion" [unreleased]
Beneath "Tribulation" [unreleased]
Beneath "PVO" [unreleased]
Beneath "Future Shock" [unreleased]

**Wen in the mix**

Wen "Untitled" (Ft. Dot Rotten) [unreleased]
Wen "Lo-Fidelity" [Forthcoming South Fork Sound]
Wen "Swingin'" [unreleased]
Wen "Takin' Over" [Forthcoming South Fork Sound]
Wen "Nightcrawler" [unreleased]
Wen "Spark It" [unreleased]
Wen "Walk Tha Walk" [unreleased]
Wen "Empress (130 Mix)" [unreleased]
Wen "Commotion" [unreleased]
Wen vs Epoch "Hydraulics" [Forthcoming Egyptian Avenue]

**Visionist in the mix**

Visionist "Control This" [unreleased]
Visionist "Revolt" [unreleased]
Visionist "NGF" [unreleased]
Visionist "2 Sides 2 Every Coin" [unreleased]
Visionist "Mr.67" (klp edit) [unreleased]
Youngstar "Pluse X" (visionist remix) [unreleased]
Visionist "Snakes" [unreleased]
Visionist, Beneath & Wen "New Wave" [unreleased]

Double Helix "LDN VIP"[unreleased]
Double Helix "Illusion of Time" [unreleased]
LV "Animal Prints (feat. Okmalumkoolkat)" [Hyperdub]
Balistiq Beats "Rise of the Machines (Yardman riddim) ft Riko (Sully remix)" [unreleased]
Emma "Marina" [unreleased]
Luna Beduin (LHF family) "The Island" [unreleased]

LDN031 Keysound Allstars

 Keysound Allstars vol 1: Walton, Gremino, Visionist  & Vibezin
[Keysound Recordings]
LDN031

Out now on 12" vinyl and digital. Hear the entire EP here:



The 12” is illustrated by specifically commissioned photos of the tower block grime godfather Wiley grew up in Bow by London Nico Hogg (read more about Nico here).

Shout to the original “Allstars” dons: the Allstars label releasing incredible under-cover remixes by former jungle don and proto-dubstep godfather Steve Gurley with Chris Mac. Also the seminal Tempa label, who continued the “Allstars” tradition with cuts from El-B, Artwork and Geeneus.