South meets Nagano

Me n Dusk are reaching George Infinite's rave this week. Should be big. We might have to play "The Drumz of Nagano" just so we can say we dropped it at Drumz of the South. It's the drum thing, you know (sorry!).

I had a dream

Dublime @ Fabric Sunday 25th May featuring Lee Perry Soundsystem, Congo Natty aka Rebel MC, Dillinja, Loefah, Don Letts, Souljazz Soundsystem, MCs Pokes, Warrior Queen and Rod Azlan. Pole, Sleeparchive, Kode 9, Scuba, Pinch, Appleblim vs Peverlist, Downshifter with MCs Flow Dan and Rogue Star. Iration Steppaz, Moody Boyz, Anti Social, Dusk & Blackdown, Earl Gateshead and Jonny Trunk.

It was around the end of 2001 that I decided I wanted to learn to produce. The early Forward>> parties at Velvet Rooms had got me hooked and so I set myself some goals.

One of them was that I dreamt of playing Fabric. It seemed laughable at the time, in fact my friend, who I expressed this goal to (hey James!) definitely had a good laugh. Getting to a stage where I’d play the club seemed so impossibly far away that I couldn’t even see the steps required to get there. In fact they remained distant as close as this Christmas, over seven years later.

But I’m playing Fabric this Sunday. I blame the dream.

In general, I’m not overly mad about dreaming. The term seems synonymous with people of no action or direction. It conjures up suggestions of naivety, which won’t get you very far.

But there’s another kind of dreaming.

I guess I tend to focus on what’s possible, what’s real or what’s around me. Electronica’s headspace irritates me because it’s all plastic utopias, whereas dubstep’s bass is grounded in reality. But the key part of getting to where I’ve wanted to be has been allowing myself to not just accept what’s around me but to dare to imagine what could be.

The first time I mentioned the words “Dusk + Blackdown album” it was summer 2006 and I’d been on the phone to our (very understanding) distribution company. Just me saying the words out loud had left me shocked. I came away from the phone and thought “damn, I’ve said it out loud now, I better go work out how to do it.” I’d dared to dream.

So there we are: Dusk and I are playing Fabric on Sunday. Seems insane but it’s true. I for one won’t be taking it for granted.

"I'm not saying I'm big/but my face is in the Guardian..."

Mr Stelfox comes correct with a piece in today's Guardian about grime mixtapes. Thanks to Dave not just for the kind words about "The Bits" but for getting a massive shot of Trimbale into the paper, where he rightly belongs. "...Nan, thanks for the cardigan."

Rinse May this Thurs

RINSE

We were back on Rinse this week, Thurs 8th 11pm-1am rolling the grimey, wonkey and skippy. The lights blew out half way through, which actually added to the vibe.

Here's the offical download link.

Dusk + Blackdown Rinse May '08 show

United Grooves Collective ft Gods Gift "Mic Tribute" (Jameson remix) (United Grooves)
Craig David "Fill Me In (Sunship dub)" (Atlantic)
Darqwan "3 Note Blue" (Hospital)
Zoom & DBX "Coming Again (Tubby remix)" (white)
Sound of the Future "Sound of the Future" (SOTF)

Skream "Angry World" (unreleased)
Sully "Duke St Dub" (unreleased)
Shup Up and Dance "Epileptic (Martyn remix) (unreleased)
TRG "Sputnik" (unreleased)

Gemmy "BK To Tha Future" (unreleased)
Zombie "Revolution" (unreleased)
Joker "Snake Eater" (unreleased)
Doctor and Ny "Street Soldier" (unreleased)
Skream "Smokers" (unreleased)
Forsaken "Fighting Spirit" (Immerse)
Al-Haca "Kryptonite (TRG remix)" (unreleased)

LD and Cluekid "Not Gonna Cry" (unreleased)
Starkey "Gutter Music" (unreleased)
Doctor and Cotti "Temperature" (unreleased)
Martyn "Vancouver" (unreleased 3024)
Kosheen "Guilty (Plastician remix)" (unreleased)

Sully "Sleezy" (unrealeased)
Grievous Angel "My Dub" (unreleased)
shonky "Eternal" (unreleased)
Mavado "Dying (Blackdown refix)" (dubplate)
Dusk + Blackdown "Akkaboo" (Keysound Recordings dubplate)

Out to David M for saving our audio bacon with the recording of this one.

In the meantime, you can still download the last show from the Rinse podcast (via iTunes) or from the Rinse blog here. You can still download the February show here.

Sonar

Photo by infinite

I'm going to reach Sonar for the first time this year. Mary Anne, Mala, Shackleton, Flylo, Diplo and some sun, sea and pedalo seemed too much to resist.

Now, I could just as easily pack a few dubs with me. You know from our Rinse show we've got a few.

So if you're in Barcelona and looking for some bass pressure around the festival, give me a shout.

The flow dan

Photos by Alex sturrock

It goes without saying how much I love grime MCs but there’s something unique about the delivery, the local information in the encoded in the tone, nuances and flow of grime MC bars, that – in my experience – often get lost if you try and write them down on “paper.”

Recently I noticed Trim’s bars are an exception to the rule: playful, coded and layered. So here’s a breakdown of “The Low Dan” a “talking ting” aka spoken dis-dub that is the highlight of his recent “Soulfood vol 3” mixtape…

Trim
"The Low Dan"
(Soulfood Vol 3)

Alright, lemme tell you the Low Dan, haha…

Trim sets out his stall on this dis-dub by taking the classic grime route of attacking an opponents’ identity by abusing his (brand) name. Hence “Low Dan” is a play on both the explanatory term “the low down” and Roll Deep’s MC Flowdan’s name, the crew Trim is now an ex-member of, which this dis-track is aimed at. The fallout of Trim’s exit from Roll Deep dominates this track and many others on his recent mixtapes.

Lemme tell you the saga,
I’m ape-looking and marga,

Marga is Jamaican slang for skinny, Spaceape explained to me once. I found it funny, given there was an MC called Marga Man and another called Skinnyman.

Trim’s also has an odd obsession with monkeys and adorns the Soulfood artwork series with artwork that apes (sic) the film “12 Monkeys.” Oddly, he regularly talks about monkey business and various ape analogies, despite the historical use of this metaphor (i.e. looking like a monkey) by racists.

Came in this game for a laughter
I’m a monkey that will split your banana

Here he replaces the word “laugh” for “laughter” for rhyming sake, before using a variation on the monkey theme and twist on the usual MC boasting-as-pre-emptive-threat bars, which together make comical bedfellows.

Look!

Grime MCing isn’t that profitable. It’s pretty risky too. It is however, all about peer group visibility.

Lemme tell you the Low Dan,
They should have called me Flowdan

Grime MCs are obsessed with status through identity and vice versa. Trim promises to tell the truth but re-appropriates Flowdan’s name: a direct attack on the MC’s identity, suggesting that his bars (flow) - and by inference not Flowdans - are so good they should have called him a don, a term that’s often altered in urban slang to “dan.”

Look! Talking ting.

Grime MCs “spit bars,” but sometimes the anger on dis-dubplates overwhelms them, such that they speak. Sometimes people involved with the scene but who aren’t MCs need to visibly, make that audibly, retaliate to war that concerns them. The upshot is a “talking dub,” a spoken word diss-dubplate.

Volume 3. I am Trimothy.

In a scene dominated by identity-based status, Trim plays with his name: Trim, Trimbale, Trimothy, Trevan, Shank-van … bouncing his name, bending his brand, expanding its worth with each transformation.

You’ve got the wrong end of the stick.
The wrong person: I ain’t him.
All this talk about… like… all this talkin’
Wrong end of the stick, wrong person, I ain’t him.
All this talk about slappin’ like I’m scared to clench my fist…

Much of MC bars are advanced bravado. I had this explained to me in the early days of grime by the Dizzee’s manager, yet I’ve always found it hard to qualify how much to believe, how much to take literally.

When I find myself wandering dark parts of London trying, as I have recently, climbing into places where I don’t belong to try and locate Trim (long story, will tell you later...), I hear these words again. People with me, who haven’t listened to as much grime as I have over the years, don’t seem so as affected. How much is bravado, and how much is … real?

…and tump someone in the face.
Listen, I got magic tricks,
Like: now you see ‘em, now you don’t
No matter how small the hat the rabbit fits.

Nice magic metaphor from Trim.
“Tump” is a corruption of “thump.”



I smoke weed.
I’m from E14

Almost more prevalent than status-related identity, are location-related identity bars. In grime, disputes over tiny disparities of turf are the be-all and end all. Roll Deep got angry at me once when a sub changed an intro to say that their Baring House/West Ferry/Lime House aka “Whilehouse” (“because it gets so wild”)” was “proper east end like the Isle of Dogs.” I.o.D is where Trim, now ex-Roll Deep, is from, and it’s little more than a mile or two down the road: yet it made all the difference.

I slip.
You got a squeeze on Vol 1 & 2.
About you telling police about what I did.
But I ain’t Flowdan:
I ain’t gonna hold my mouth while you’re hyping.

This in essence is the root of the dispute between Trim and Roll Deep, and why he’s no longer a member: that when things got serious (“hype”) between him and the owner of a certain other crew in Napa, he wasn’t stood by.

Look. Listen.
You can only talk so much Vol 3: Soulfood, Soulfood.

Trim calls his mixtape “Soulfood,” because “because there’s drugs out there that fuck with people’s souls.”

It’s me, Trimbale,
And I’m on the streets, in the area.
Aks for Trim, aks for Trimothy

Trim’s got an amazing way of pronouncing “ask” like its written “aks” or “azk”.

Between his corruption of pronounciation, his road slang and wordplay, Trim’s got an amazing grasp of the Queen’s English. It makes me think of all those stuffy, establishment grumpy bastards like John Humphrys, who use their expensive educations to write books bemoaning the demise and diversity of the English language.

I don’t buy it.

No one complains as business dullards invent and distribute Corporate Inc-speak or countless meaningless acronyms. And these establishment guys are the ones who celebrate those that recite past variants of the language like Chaucer or Shakespeare. Yet when young people use text speak or their own slang, it’s an attack on the Queen’s finest, not a celebration of diversity. Sure I appreciate the value of one, standard common language, to promote common understanding, but meaning is so easily conveyed by nuance or inference, why should we accept that language is static or centrally owned, by the Queen or those mistakenly defending her. I’d prefer to aks for Trim.

And what’s worse about the establishment claiming definitive ownership of the English language is that grime so clearly cherishes it too. Look at how expressions are overtly created and propagated by its key players through mediums like mixtapes or pirate radio. Take Flowdan’s use of “NASA” last year or the current row over “it’s a lot”.

And you know when you used to look up to certain man, doe?
And you just… y’get me.
But I don’t look up to no one, in that term
But I just thought certain man were real, get’me?

Grime’s always had an obsession with reality, with being “real,” despite much of it being bravado or an over emphasis on aggression. In many ways that’s what set it apart from both the escapist, dance-focused UK garage scene and the hyper-surreal riches of this decade’s US rap.

Within this real aggression, the currency of war is reputation. Slewing, clashing, parring: they’re all methods of damaging an opponent’s most important asset, their standing within a peer group. And while this is something Trim specialises in, it’s still not to be taken lightly, hence the culture of the “indirect” bar where an opponent is alluded to but not directly named. “Call out me name/call out me name…” spits Trim elsewhere on “Soulfood Vol 3,” daring other MCs to abandon indirects.



He’s on his last legs,
He ain’t got a leg to stand on, he’s past dead.
I can’t wait to hear the album,
You should have called it “Past Tense”
Big for nothing, some say coward,
You’re having a bubble bath about shower.

This final bar is the most incredible line on the whole of “Soulfood 3.” It’s proof that Trim’s bars are absolutely leaden with complex meaning and delicious wordplay.

Trim’s from east London, where the white working class stereotypes of Cockney’s come from. By legend, real Cockneys are born within the sound of Bow Bells church and they too have their own twist of language. Here Trim uses Cockney rhyming slang, to swap “laugh” for “bubble bath.”

“Shower,” like Flowdan’s “NASA,” is an expression propagated by Roll Deep (primarily Riko) circa 2004/5. In the first instance it comes from the legendary Jamaican gang the Shower Posse, but comes to mean “good” in the way anything in street culture with strength, power or a fearless reputation is equated with good.

By neatly pairing “bubble bath” with “shower” in a washing metaphor, Trim says

You’re having a bubble bath about shower.

Which in the Queen’s (yawn) English means:

You’re joking if you think Flowdan has a reputation for being hard.

He continues…

And I’ve always said that Jamakabi’s better,
Riko’s the best,
But now Killa P is better than you,
You’re pissed.

Here he groups all the grime MCs who, like Flowdan, have a Jamaican “Yardie” twist to their flow, and ranks them, naturally with Flowdan coming out worst. Note also the US use of the term “pissed.” Whereas in conventional UK slang, “pissed” means drunk, the pervasive influence of US rap and cinema means Trim’s fans will recognise this as meaning “annoyed.”

And Killa P ain’t in Roll Deep for them same reasons
I’ve noticed.

But you ain’t told him,
He just thinks…
Why don’t you tell him certain man don’t want him in it?
Look…

The use of “certain” to mean someone undefined is signature grime parlance. It stems from the severity of calling someone’s name out and from knowing that by calling that name out, the person will be duty bound to retaliate. In this case we can speculate that Trim’s avoiding involving members of Roll Deep he doesn’t have a direct issue with.

…FlowDan’s a big guy, a big man, like.
I’m only 23, he’s 28, 29.
I’m just lookin’ up to him and talking to him in certain ways.

More use of the word certain, this time used to hide how he used to act with respect around Flowdan.

And cause his parents are from the same place, getme,
We socialise, but…
He does certain tings to make me think, like,
He ain’t really out for me, getme.

This seems to suggest some of their past respect was based on shared cultural roots (Trim’s parents are from St Lucia), but now present local politics have over-ridden them.

So, he could be one of the reasons why I aint in Roll Deep right now.
He could be.
Getme.

Because he’s chatting shit,
And we know he is,
Can’t pull the wool over,
You’ve been Rowing since 1990,
So let me have a go at it.

The “Rowing” reference, Trim explained to me after he used it in “The Bits,” is a coded reference to Roll Deep. The age dis is another grime feature. Grime MCs are often kept on their toes by “youngers,” members of sub crews that rank lower in the pecking order but are often more eager to prove themselves and hence, more unhinged. The age concern is present in bars like Jammer’s “I’m a big man/ but I’m not 30…” as reaching that age would be the end of the world, an idea possible only if you’re 15 and 30 seems an un-imaginable horizon.

They should have called me Flowdan,
What’s he flowing with?
He’s doing drive by shootings with no van,
He’s full of shit,
And daddy’s a badman,
Ask daddy about Lee Van Cleef,
I’ m Lee Van Spit!
Your belly went when Marcus turned into He-Man and switched...

Aye, there’s the rub.

FWD>> Sunday sessions

On the 25th of May, FWD>> relaunches as a Sunday session. In echoes of dubstep’s founding club’s earlier incarnation at Velvet Rooms, the night will run Sunday sessions’ at Plastic People.

The first Sunday line up will be a tribute to the inaugural FWD>>. Playing on May 25th and selecting music from that first session onwards, will be Youngsta, Hatcha, Oris Jay, Benny Ill and Slimzee. FWD>> will also be re-issuing the first flyer, for old times sake.

Speaking to FWD>> management, there’s a real buzz about the change of times, a sense, echoed in the enthusiasm of headz that have heard the news, that the move returns the club to it’s roots.

There’s been many phases of FWD>>. I remember the first one in 2001 at the Velvet Rooms clearly. I’d been on at El-B to start a club night to showcase his sound, but the Ghost Camp were never one for organising things. It took people like Soulja and Neil Joliffe to step up. Not realising most people would be on “garage time,” I arrived far too early, only to find a club mostly populated by the bar staff. But by the end Velvet Rooms was full. I recall euphorically standing in the middle of the dancefloor, trying to convey my enthusiasm to Neil that they’d actually pulled it off. With Ghost arguably at the height of their powers, the night peaked with Jay Da Flex’ set.

By the time FWD>> moved to Plastic People things had changed. UK garage as a movement had imploded and the club began to go it’s own way. Months would go by with the dance floor barren, such that when the club began to feel full, people would enthuse about there being oooh, 40 people there. This is even before the term “dubstep” itself, back when people talked about “the Forward sound,” which meant the confluence of dark 2step/4x4, breakbeat garage and proto-grime.

What united those nights and undoubtedly kept them alive, was a sense that it was by the scene, for the scene. People came down, got to know people became inspired, went away, made beats, shared them with the DJs and heard them tested over that amazing system. It was dubplate culture at it’s finest: and look at the results.

But in the scene around FWD>>, things changed. Instead of being the only dubstep club, anywhere, it’s now just one of many in London alone. The DJs it supported, from Hatcha to Youngsta, Mark One to Plastician, Kode9 to Skream, have all gone on to become international DJs, such that hanging out together is harder when everyone’s booked for Japan or Glastonbury.

Sunday Sessions at FWD>> should change all that, stop the disinterested passing traffic and random City shirtboys and encourage the headz to pass by. I for one will be there.



FWD>> also return to The End on the 23rd of May. The lineup is pretty large, personal highlights include a Martyn 2 hour set, Ghetto, Appleblim, TRG and the chance to see more dubstep fans looking baffled by funky. He he heh.

Wot do u call it? Wonky...

Wonky: pronunciation [wong-kee] –adjective, -ki•er, -ki•est.

1. British Slang.
a. shaky, groggy, or unsteady.
b. unreliable; not trustworthy.

2. Musical flavour - *not* a genre - transcending multiple scenes in summer 2008, characterised by an outbreak of unstable midrange synths.

As summer 2008 approaches, a theme emerges across myriad existing genres: the mid-range is being hijacked by offkilter synths that are about to explode. Crossing hip hop, hyphy, grime, chip tunes, dubstep, crunk and electro, one flavour unites a network of exciting sounds. Wot do u call it? Wonky.

Read my Pitchfork Wonky special which features Rustie, Hudson Mohawke, Quarta 330, Ikonika, Darkstar, Zomby, Flying Lotus, Samiyam, Starkey, Dev79, Joker, Guido, Gemmy, Pinch and Trim.

Rinse April pt 2

RINSE

This week we return to our monthly Rinse show, tonight 11pm-1am. Add the station to MSN rinse.fm@hotmail.com.

You can still download last week's show from the Rinse podcast (via iTunes) or from the Rinse blog here. You can still download the February show here.

Usually bubble?

Blackdown: So Wiley’s “Wearing My Rolex” has become the first tune featuring a grime artist to be signed to a major is ages. The dance to it and your follow up “Rolex Sweep” has become a YouTube phenomenon. Tell me about how “Rolex Sweep” came about?

Skepta: “It’s about girls taking a guy’s Rolex and she starts dancing with it. Wiley’s saying he can give his girl the Rolex and I’m saying she starts to do the Rolex sweep with it.”

B: You seemed to move really quickly on this one…

S: “Yeah. Because it’s getting noticed so quickly we’re figuring out what’s the best way to release it. We jumped a bit ahead.”

B: Tell me about the dance to “Rolex Sweep,” because people know about the dances in hip hop, with Soulja Boy in the states have been dance moves with hip hop tracks, but that hasn’t been the case with grime much. So how did you decide to do it in grime?

S: “A lot of the time a lot of ideas come from having fun, laughing and joking. I said to Wiley why did you make “Wearing My Rolex” and he said “y’know, sometimes you’re in a club and you’re talking to a girl and you’re so drunk that she might say ‘oh let me wear your rolex’ and said “yeah and you give it to her and she goes to the bar and tries to show it off to the bartender and she starts dancing with it and stuff,” and he was like “yeah, the Rolex sweep” and that was it. We just started dancing.”

“We, people in the UK, have been dancing since like, the ‘90s, it’s not nothing new. I’ve always seen people doing weird dances in house raves, funky house and bassline raves. There was in grime, people use to do the little gunfinger skank in raves, but people stopped now because it’s really MC-based, the scene now. But before there was dancing, so we just thought ‘yeah man, let’s just do a dance.’ Obviously Soulja Boy’s just come out but we’re gonna play on that in the promoting of the track.”



B: The thing is a lot of other grime MCs take themselves very seriously, and I don’t know if they would have allowed themselves to be seen to dance. What makes you different?

S: “The way I see it – I was having this conversation with Wiley the other day – I think a lot of us, as artists, forget we’re the pioneers of the music. The kids have just come along and grown up on grime and they’re really narrow minded about things and they think an MC is supposed to be a specific way. He’s supposed to wear a specific hat and dress a specific way.

“It’s like I wrote a lyric the other day about making money, a track called “Over the Top,” and at the end of the track I say “I’m not saying I’m a rich man or a bather, just saying go get money…”. And everyone seems to have commented “ah Skepta think’s he’s gangsta because he’s making money, he’s talking like he’s rich, and he’s not even rich” and I actually said on the track “‘I’m not saying I’m rich I’m just saying, get money.’”

“They’re really naive about things: in the music you’re not allowed to talk about money, clothes, wearing your own Boy Betta Know T-shirt. They want us to talk about guns and fights and shanks and clashing for the whole thing. So I don’t really see myself like that and I try not to care what people say, and I just do me and live how I want to live.”

“When me and my friends go out, we’re always dancing. No one can call me fake because if you go to a funky house or grime rave and a song came on, you will see me and about 15 of our friends doing loads of different dances. That’s just what we do man, so I just wanted to incorporate it. My music: I just wanted to show me. That’s what it’s about.”



B: You recently played to an audience of 5,000 at the 1Xtra Live event. How did that feel?

S: “Yeah, it was a bit scary man. I’ve done shows like that but I’ve never done them in England before, they’ve been abroad. I did one in Brussels with 4,000 people but they don’t really understand you properly and you’re not up against Akon or Chris Brown in Brussels so being up against them in England and knowing they’re gonna watch it back on YouTube I was a bit nervous.”

“But the butterflies are in my stomach when I’m not on stage and that’s the weirdest thing about it. When I’m behind the stage and they’re saying “Alright Skepta, you ready? Ready? Going on in one minute…” That point there is when I’m so scared. But as soon as I say my first word on the microphone – “yeah” “yo” – then I’m gone, I’m in my own world and I just think to myself and put on a show for them.”

B: One of the frustrations for the grime scene is that in general it is not allowed on those stages. How do you feel about the fact that now electro tune “Rolex Sweep” comes along, suddenly the doors open…

S: “We have to realise that the people that make our style of music we’re not the majority of the country, we’re a small minority of what the country listens to and what’s on the radio at the moment and what Radio 1 is supporting. They’ve got a reputation to live up to and music to play and they’ve got certain target amount of listeners they’ve got to hit so they don’t want to jump in and support grime, I wish they did but certain times in the world you’ve gotta work with what you’ve got.”

“We know how the radio works and sometimes you do have to make a “Wearing My Rolex” but now it started from there to going on stage performing “Wearing My Rolex,” “Gangsters” “Duppy” and “I Wear My Own Garms,” so you have to learn to break into things.”

“So Boy Betta Know is working on their own album now called “VIP” coming out. It’ll have “Wearing My Rolex,” “Rolex Sweep” “Doing It Again remix” and a song called “Too Many Mans”. Loads of new songs, it’s gonna be smash. It’s coming out on Boy Betta Know, a lot of people want to sign it but we want to keep it for ourselves, for the summer. “Wearing My Rolex” is unknowingly the first single off our album, it’s going toward the campaign of it.”

DJ Skepta mixes the next edition of the Rinse mix series.

The Ghett-go

New Pitchfork column from me featuring Trim, Ghetto, Cluekid, LD and rise in jungle flavours.

Rinse FM March/April 08

RINSE

This week we returned to our monthly Rinse show, Thursday 11pm-1am. Add the station to MSN rinse.fm@hotmail.com. Tracklist to follow, but it was a fun one with beats from Cluekid, LD, Trim, Ghetto, Grevious Angel, Sully, MJ Cole, Crazi Cousins, Kode9, Darkstar and more...

Download this show from the Rinse podcast (via iTunes) or from the blog here.

Rinse April 3rd show tracklist

Mavado "On the Rock" (unreleased)
Crazy Cousinz "Do You Mind" (unreleased)
Sunship ft Warrior Queen "Almighty Father" (Casual)
MJ Cole "Sincere (MJ's dubb 2000)" (Talkin' Loud)
Phuturistix "Thelonius Punk" (Hospital)
Plastician "Shallow Grave (Skream remix)" (unreleased)
Groove Chronicles "1999 (remix)" (unreleased)

Grevious Angel "Lady Dub remix" (unreleased Devotional Dubs vol1)
Sully "Jackman's Recs" (unreleased)
Darkstar "Need You" (Hyperdub)
Pinch "Wonky Bleepy" (unreleased)
Logos "Medicate" (unreleased)
Ramadanman "Blimey" (Hessle Audio unreleased)
L-Wiz "Amy Diamond" (unreleased)

Joker "Early Morning" (unreleased)
Sully "Trackside" (unreleased)
TRG "2084" (unreleased)
LD and Cluekid "Guerrilla Warfare" (unreleased)
Ico and Sollabong "Emperors Song VIP" (unreleased)
Sharmaji "Twist it Left" (unreleased)
Kode9 + Spaceape "Konfusion" (Hyperdub)
Dusk "Focus" (Keysound dubplate)

Trim and Radioclit "Thief in the Night" (Soulfood)
Ghetto "Brothers in Arms" (Freedom of Speech)
Durrty Goodz "Marijuana" (unreleased)

You can still download the last show from the Rinse blog.

The funky seduction

For the reasons I’ve outlined in the Mavado post below, namely that dubstep’s dark aethetic has started to feel constrictive and oppressive, I’ve found myself listening to as much funky as I can find recently, as well as the usual vocal grime, dancehall and desi.

Up until now this funky fever has been fuelled by the infectious enthusiasm for the scene I contracted interviewing Supa D, Soulja and Geeneus last year, but if I’m honest while I was curious, I wasn’t gripped by the sounds I was encountering. The Supa D Rinse mix CD will no doubt be looked on as some kind of “first” in the genre but it still doesn’t move me like grime.

But some kind of threshold was crossed for me a few weeks back when a Dissensus user posted a link to a Marcus Nasty set on Déjà Vu.

As the head of the Nasty Crew, Marcus is infamous in grime, but he’s also well known for his funky DJing. Unlike the Supa D mix CD, his set is hosted by two MCs, Shantie and Quincy, which is an essential element of the experience for me. Also there’s loads of rewinds, providing essential dynamic range, in interesting opposition to some of the suggestions Supa and Gee made about the lack of reloads in funky.

While there are the first hints of a few grimey funky tunes (gunky? Haha…) at the end of this mix, for me, the killer cut on this mix is “Do You Mind” by Crazy Cousinz. It comes at the beginning of the second section, the singer, Kyla, unleashing lyrical seduction.

”The whole night…”

The ear strains to this line. What exactly is she saying?

”…the whole night…”

The whole night what?

There’s something Loefah, the master of reduction and minimalism, said in interview a few years ago: "The way I see it, space is just as much of an instrument as a kick or a snare."

“F… the whole night…”

Uh oh. Wait a minute. Did she just say…

“Would you mind if I f… the whole night?”

“Who minds?! Tell the truth!” spits Shantie.

The funky seduction: it’s irresistible.

· Download the Marcus Nasty on Déjà Vu set here. Listen to a clip of "Do You Mind" here or check Crazy Cousinz' latest Rinse show. Mmm bongos: oingy boingy!

Dirty Canvas and Why Not?

Blim

If you pretty much single handedly popularise a genres’ name, like the Dubstep Allstars mix CD series did, then you really need to come correct. And while the first edition is absolutely peerless (Hatcha’s), the second a reminder of a beautiful time (Youngsta’s) and the third brave and experimental, if a little emotionally tempered (Kode9 and Spaceape’s), the recent two volumes of the Dubstep Allstars series haven’t hit the spot for me.

So I’m really excited to be able to say that Volume 6, mixed by Appleblim, is sick.

While many people might have rushed, the Bristol DJ took his time perfecting the mix and it paid off. Instead of unleashing a raft of upfront beats (exciting in the short term, risky in the long term) he condensed the essence of the sound he’s developed and pioneered and provided its definitive document.

I do like the Berlin/Bristol dubby techno/dubstep axis, I really do, but sometimes I have reservations. It’s a fine line between dubbed out and uninspiring. It’s a fine line between techy and rigid techno. It’s a fine line between headspace and head in the sand: at its best dubstep should grab you by the balls not drift you out to sea.

Anyway, I fully put all those reservations aside with Appleblim’s mix. It’s the perfect blend of groove and drops, tech and swing, Jamaica and Berlin, with a touch of Bristol jungle and NY diva house.

The latter, as manifested in Pinch’s album cut ft. Yolanda, “Get Up,” symbolises what works so well about Dubstep Allstars 6.

Firstly the mixing, which sounds live but is flawless. Secondly the selection is glorious: tried, tested cuts yet of a time (now) in harmony with each other. Thirdly the arrangement: “Get Up” provides an early peak, from which the mix really begins to flow. Yet not until Martyn’s “Broken Hearts remix” does it regain such ecstasy. Finally there’s the attention to detail, like the blissful moment when Appleblim key-mixes out of “Get Up” with 2562’s “Moog Dub.”

This mix is bigger than the Goodyear Blim-p.

On the rock

No tune has loomed over 2008 for me more than Mavado’s “On the Rock” on Baby G’s “Mission” Rhythm. Now, three months in I’m hardly breaking news on how big this tune is: the tune’s just so incredible I feel the need to publicly declare my total infatuation.

Darkness was once dubstep’s defining characteristic: UK garage but dark, hence “new dark swing” or “dark garage.” Yet as an aesthetic, it’s getting close to becoming stifling and dull. Add in an unnecessary reliance on instrumentalism too and things are getting oppressive. Right now in dubs I’m looking for light, colour, intensity. Not that sweet, sacharrine or (sonically) lite would ever cut it either, but there’s a twilight between day and night, dark and light, vocal and instrumental, happy and sad, sweet and sour that is the magical balance I crave.

“On the Rock” has many of those qualities and more, and I guess it’s symbolic of a craving I have for more vocal, emotive, colourful music right now.

The backstory to “On the Rock” is that Mavado’s birthday party last year got raided by the Jamaican police and soldiers in helicopters. Angry, he turned to gospel to express his frustration. The result is something even the addition of Jay-Z bars can’t improve.

Call it twilight, magical balance or dynamic tension, I’ve been drawn to Mavado since I first heard ”Amazing Grace” last year. What’s so remarkable about him is the sweetness of his voice and the bitterness of his message. No one else could sing about “[bone] marrow flying” and make it sound so intense.

While I haven’t felt this strong about a dancehall voice since Sizzla’s, in part Mavado reminds me of arguably my favourite house album, Romanthony’s “Romanworld”. Roman too sings with the anguish of someone who the whole world has forsaken, especially on “The Wanderer,” which like “On the Rock” is most spine-tingling when it’s a naked accappella.

Mavado too sounds scorned and forsaken, ripping his heart out and showing it to the world:

“Jehovah guide me
Be my guidance
Greater salvation for me
Jehovah guide me
Be my guidance
No they could never stop me

I'm on the rock (I’m on the rock)
Higher than I and I (higher than I and I)
Jehovah guide me
I am on the rock (I am on the rock)”

· Download “On the Rock" from the mighty Heatwave’s blog.

FWD>> this Friday

Due to an unfortunate pre-match flu-based injury, sustained in the warm up, Appleblim has had to be subbed from the starting line up for tomorrow's FWD>>.

In an exciting, last minute turn up for the books I will be taking my tracksuit off, doing some lunges and leaping into some quite frankly unwise sliding tackles tomorrow night at Plastic People. I will be joining El-B in goal, D1 running the midfield and Mr Cheffal up front.

Come along if you can: last time was a nice little run out.

March Pitchfork

This month's ramblings on Pitchfork about Cotti, Skepta, Spyro, Rapid and funky. All roads lead to funky right now... which is better that than deadout midrange riffage. Aaaaaanyway...

Garmsir, Afghanistan?

So, I don't really care too much what Prince Harry's been up to but I do care about the politics in Afghanistan. Reading the reports of his duty, I couldn't help looking up where he's been.

Damn: Garmsir, Afghanistan's got some breathtaking geography.

Though Yahoo! maps seems to throw up some quite different colours and textures.

Funny thing is, doing a search on Flickr for Garmsir leads you to peer into the life of this guy who seems to like light bulbs, bullets and mountains. He seems be exploring a cave somewhere... damn, I wish I knew where in the world he was.

Dubstep on the cover of XLR8R

Dubstep's taken over this month's XLR8R magazine. Check the cover feature for my feature on Skream and George Infinite's photos.

I first interviewed Benga and Skream for Mixmag way back in 2002/03: I don't think anyone'd got to them before that. I did them again for Deuce after that, but it was my interview with Skream in 2005 that came to mind most when speaking to him again: the comparisons given the growth of the scene and his career personally, are amazing. (Just check how many gigs he has!).

So the interview mostly followed this path, and how dubstep has gone from a small tight knit community to a global movement, as witnessed by the 1300 or so people who came to DMZ@Mass last night and Rinse and FWD>> @ The End last week.

Anyway, the magazine is available as a free pdf here (how does that business model work?). Thanks to Vivian for the opportunity.

PS: Mr 9 going on clever rocking a box on his head. Who would like to join my petition to get him to try and DJ with it on too. Now that really would take some skills... ;-)