So there's a producer we've been playing on our Rinse show called Gremino. I think he's ruff and very underrated.
He seems to totally get the vibe of early '02 Slimzee 8bar grime dubs in way that's really fresh compared to a lot of the over-compressed grime and dubstep about at the moment. We've dropped tracks like "Rupi," "Storm" "Monster" “Accordion Tune (VIP mix)” "Lush Synth" "Ruffness," "Finneskimo" and "Drumbeat" on our show.
Underrated producers always deserve a little bit of the spotlight so here's an exlcusive Gremino production showcase for my blog.
So chatting to him, post "Unity" it seems Damu's been working on a bunch of new material, some of which is inspired by current techno. When he mentioned this, I instantly thought of the parallels between his colourful sound and the euphoric sweeps of classic techno. So I thought I'd put together a playlist of Detroit classics to share with him to see if he found something he liked.
Once I'd shared it with him, well, I thought I'd share it with you guys too as the idea of someone hearing World 2 World EP or "Desire" for the first time via this blog is really what it's all about for me.
I have a mixed relationship with techno, especially Detroit techno. I began listening to it in about '96. But as I outlined in my Resident Advisor chat with Todd, two factors separated me from daily consumption of it. Firstly was the realisation that I'd mostly been working backwards through techno, not forwards, and so when I'd unearthed all the main gems, it became a law of diminishing returns, literally in some sense, given Jeff Mills and Robert Hood's pioneering of minimal techno.
Secondly I fell in love with London, became massively inspired and influenced by its surroundings, multiculturalism and pirate mindstate and began to find techno as a scene uninspiring culturally as well as musically.
On reflection, when I look back to techno, my feelings coalesce into two camps.
Things I don't miss from techno:
The rhythmic stiffness, lack of offbeats, corrupted rhythms
The reliance on straight 4x4 kick as the primary driver
The purist mentality and how it feels disconnected from multiculturalism
Minimalism as an end unto itself
Things I will always love & cherish:
The sense of pure, epic synth-driven euphoria (quite distinct from the drug-tainted chemical chords of trance)
A love of detailed, mid and upper synthetic melodies
An attuned sense of abstract texture, space and detail - esp from Basic Channel (though they're not from Detroit, obv).
A spirit of an unbeatable underground movement
The Playlist:
Model 500 "No UFO'S"
Model 500 Night Drive [Time, Space, Transmat]"
69 "Desire"
Carl Craig "At Les (studio version)"
Rhythim Is Rhythim "Strings of Life (Original Mix)"
Derrick May "Icon (Montage Mix)"
Rhythim Is Rhythim "It Is What It Is"
Underground Resistance "Jupiter Jazz"
Galaxy 2 Galaxy (Underground Resistance) "Hi-Tech Jazz"
Galaxy 2 Galaxy (Underground Resistance) "Journey of the dragons"
World 2 World (Underground Resistance) "Amazon"
Red Planet "Star Dancer"
The Martian "Firekeeper"
The Martian "Voice Of Grandmother"
The Martian "Windwalker"
Reese "Just Want Another Chance"
Suburban Knight "Art of Stalking"
Robert Hood "Minimal Nation"
Robert Hood "Detroit: One Circle"
Robert Hood "All day long (b2)"
It's with sadness that I have to write that my Pitchfork "month in grime/dubstep" column is over. All things come to an end; this one began in 2005 and seven years later finds its end here, 56 columns later. I'd like to thank Scott Plagenhoef, the man who originally commissioned the column and supported it throughout.
Before we get into any light messenger shooting, the column is being retired, I did not choose to stop writing it. I've been invited to pitch to other sections on Pitchfork but my grime/dubstep column doesn't fit into the new editorial strategy. I'll be honest and say this isn't something I really understand but naturally recognise their authority to make this call.
It does however, not come at a completely inconvenient time. While it's boring to winge about these kinds of things, the honest truth is personally I have never been busier and any free time I do have now gets split between preparing for Rinse, producing music, DJing, writing sleevenotes for compilations and most of all, running Keysound. In addition, while I have been determined to plough relentlessly on with the column, the increasing conflict between A&R and journalism in my life has made it tricky in recent months to find an endless stream of new scene pieces to write without risking conflict of interest or going over old ground.
A case in point: Andrew Ryce filed recently a detailed and well written piece for RA on the bass/house intersection, but having had my say on this increasingly all pervasive movement at least twice in the last two years the prospect of having to re-iterate these arguments again and again in another two year's worth of columns (is house boring? if you add dubstep to it is it more or less than the sum of its parts? etc etc) fills me with dread.
In 2012 I'm increasingly looking for ways to counteract the more tepid parts of that spectrum and in the past that would have been by writing and who I chose to cover. Now it's increasingly addressed by who I sign to Keysound, who I try to shine a spotlight on Rinse and how I make music with Dusk. I'm having a lot of fun right now and feel as strong as ever about underground music, just not necessarily by writing about it in the music press.
My blog will remain of course, as an outlet for writing, but the column is over. I felt no remorse when my NME column was cut last year (you didn't know I had an NME column? Exactly...) but this does come with sadness. I've spent days, maybe even weeks of my life on these 56 articles so I spent a little time this week making them accessible here (see below) if people want to find them.
If you took the time to read one in the last seven years and came across someone you'd not noticed, well then bigup: my work here is done.
A few weeks ago a
grime MC entered the UK top 50 charts. Five years ago this was pretty much
unthinkable but in 2011-2012 it’s hardly news, as in recent times a layer of
the grime scene’s a-list have migrated from east London badmen to saccharine
sweet chart MCs backed by major labels. The difference here is the MC is the
single is grime and the MC did it all by himself.
“96Fuckries” is the remarkable new single by JME, remarkable because as an actual
grime track it’s not that distinct from previous JME material yet been
successful. The track’s title comes from the number of lines he spits and
indeed hand writes out on the YouTube metadata. The best line however has to be
the first - “Oh please, I couldn't care bout your T&Cs” –
amusing because who else in grime would spit about legal terms and conditions?
Then again who else would spit about iOS5 or indeed get something into the
charts with 96 bars but no chorus?
While much of grime’s lead MCs seem content
making commercial tracks with token bolt-on chorus’ sung by irrelevant female
session singers, JME’s too strong minded to pander to commercial clichés. The
track’s final three lines, 94-96, seem a reference to those lost once-grime stars: “MCs think they're raising the bar/By spitting on 14 genres a day?/Safe. Raising the bar makes it easier for
me to score anyway!” And score he did, using the fanbase he’s built up over
years of hard slog to take the track into the national charts.
And this is the remarkable thing about “96 Fuckries”: JME has no record label as such and
doesn’t have a PR team. “96 Fuckries” was not supported by national radio playlists
nor sent out to journalists. Half the DJs in grime didn’t get it, not that
their collective weight behind a track could put it in the charts anyway. JME
doesn’t really do interviews with blogs or magazines per se. If there’s a PR
rule book, JME’s ignoring it.
Though JME’s long since been an independent, free thinker, his hardcore grime credentials
are unquestionable: he founded BBK alongside grime legends DJ Maximum, Jammer
and his brother Skepta, and was part of Wiley’s Roll Deep and before that
Meridian Crew (who had a serious street reputation). He came through the pirate radio scene on stations like
Heat FM and Rinse. Yet if grime MCs turned themselves from garage hosts to
“artists,” with grime a culture not a sound, then JME has pushed that expansion
forward. He also went to university, is a technology “early adopter” and
quickly established himself as someone who leads not follows.
“Not following” is an apt term in the quest to understand “96 Fuckries” success. To
date JME has built a 133,000 strong twitter following yet follows no one back, literally not one user. He’s tweeted over
57,000 times. His YouTube channel has 29,000 subscribers and has had
over 17,475,000 views, with videos as diverse as records of every time he’s
needlessly stopped by the police to BBK launching their own range of Pay As You Go top up credit. So as the “96 Fuckries” release approached he distributed his music on iTunes, dropped a music video and got a series of high profile music acts (Tiny Tempah, Ed Sheeran, Calvin Harris) supported
him by RTing the download link.
This is how the social media revolution was meant to be; a meritocratic system that put the
tools of distribution in the hand of the people and gave them a level playing
field with the established powers that be. Instead the reality was that
dominant players just imported their reach, resources and reputation into
social media, quickly dwarfing those attempting to work from the bottom up. Stars
being “discovered on MySpace” was usually a quaint fabrication for PR purposes
by the major label that had funded their development deal. But JME is
completely different.
To celebrate its release, JME, his brother Skepta and sister Rinse FM’s Julie, alongside DJ
Maximum, Jammer and friends did what any pirate station crew would do in 2012:
took to Ustream, to play give-away games
(“Snapback”) with their fans, wear silly hats, spit bars and bigup anyone who’d
bought “96 Fuckries.”
UPDATE: since I wrote this piece, I bumped into JME's sister, Julie, lost at a train station. This might seem perfectly normal occurance in "blog land" but in a city of 8 million people, it is pretty unlikely. In my day to day life it's pretty unlikely. She didn't know who I was and looked pretty baffled by me randomly knowing who she was and offering to help, but I explained I was on Rinse, had written her brother's mix CD sleevenotes four years ago and gave her some directions: I hope she got to where she was going safely.
LHF
"EP3: Cities of Technology"
20/2/12 on 12" and digital
"Keepers of the Light" tracklist
CD1
No Fixed Abode "Secret Lagoon"
Amen Ra and Double Helix- "Steelz"
Amen Ra "Candy Rain"
No Fixed Abode "Sunset" (Mumbai Slum Edition)
Amen Ra "Essence Investigation"
Double Helix "Supreme Architecture"
Double Helix "LDN"
Double Helix feat Low Density Matter "Rush"
Low Density Matter "Questions"
Low Density Matter "Blue Steel"
Amen Ra "Simple Things"
Amen Ra "Low Maintenance"
CD2
No Fixed Abode "Strangelands"
Amen Ra "From Whence We Came"
Amen Ra feat Double Helix "Broken Glass"
No Fixed Abode "Indian Street Slang"
Amen Ra "Fairytales"
Amen Ra "Akashic Visions"
Amen Ra "Hidden Life Force 2"
Double Helix "No Worries"
Double Helix "Bass 2 Dark"
Double Helix "Chamber Of Light"
Double Helix "Inferno"
Double Helix "Deep Life"
Double Helix "Voyages"
Amen Ra "One Toke Wonder"
Intro tunes have things to say, they
say “here we are.” You’ve begun, arrived
and that other DJ, he’s finished now. For the next hour or ideally more, you’re
in tune to us.
Intro tunes also say “this is who we are.”
Those other tracks, by that other DJ they’re gone now. That was his vibration;
this is ours. This is what we’re about, where we’re beginning from and as of
now on you’ll begin to see where we’re going to.
Sometimes I wish you could have two intro
tunes, but it doesn’t work like that.
Why? Because the second tune’s power is
diminished by the first. There can’t be two firsts. That power is what makes
intro tunes unique and so magical. And because they’re your first track, it has
infinite potential. No crowd will leave after one track… I just can’t imagine
how bad it would have to be, so far away from their expectations for a crowd to
leave en masse after one tune alone. Yes it might be possible to empty a room
with one tune, but it’s… unlikely.
(As an aside Dusk and I have emptied a room
with five tracks but not one, but that was because Ghetts, Logan and 34 MCs had
just left the stage of his “Freedom of Speech” album launch party all at once
and took the crowd (their crews/mates) with them… oh and and technically the
bar staff and two lads we’ve since realized were Elijah and Skilliam were still
there, but who’s counting.)
So your intro tune is completely free,
utterly unbounded by expectation. It is utterly liberated from any of DJing’s confines.
And DJing does have basic parameters and confines under which it operates, just
like dance music production, and it’s better for it, lest it descend into a
chaotic, amorphous mess. The genius then is not how you can remove those
confines (“I don’t need to mix! I don’t need decks! I don’t even need music!”
“Err, OK mate, now what…?”). It’s who can find a new twist or a unique space
within those confines.
Personally, I love a beatless intro.
To play beatless tracks in the middle of a
set, well, you either have to be looking to grind things to a halt to segue
into another direction (a garage -> jungle switch for example), have
mind-melting amounts of influence like Wiley did during the “devil mix” era at
Sidewinder or are just looking to be a little contrary. I recall some quote
from techno godfather Derrick May saying that a good DJ should be able to take
things down to nothing and back up. In any event, if you drop something
beatless mid set you’ll need to rebuild all the momentum you’d built prior to
that.
But with an intro tune you have no
momentum, you’re starting from absolute zero and in some ways beatless intro’s
are perfect for that. They’re like a palate cleanser, wiping away the
expectations and momentum from the previous DJ and resetting things from which
to rebuild.
Some DJs like to come in with an absolute
banger; I’ve seen that a lot from dubstep DJs who are singularly focused on
hype. The problem is: where do you go from there? If your intro tune is a 10/10,
you better have about 9 more 10/10’s in the bag otherwise your set is an
anticlimax. It’s that old adage about there being “no loud without quiet,” you
can’t get louder than loudest, by definition (time for a “turn it up to 11”
Spinal Tap reference? No, thought not…). Actually, thinking about it, those DJs
who do intro with bangers, their sets tend to take a different shape. Instead
of steadily building up in intensity, which I prefer, or declining in
intensity, which seems a little perverse, each track is mellow/hype cycle in
itself. 32 bar chilled intro followed by massive dynamic range change,
mid-range drop and lots of compressed “loud” sounds… before the next intro
comes in… Repeat cycle for an hour.
I also like the ability of beatless intros
to express an another emotion other than hypement. Yes I saw certain critics slewing of the James
Blake/emotional end of the dubstep spectrum but really as a DJ what I’m looking
to do is generate strong emotional reactions – and that doesn’t just mean “arrrrghfkjskJFKKEK
RELOADDATBUMBA!!!!,” though that is fun. I’d also like to create intense warmth/happiness,
heartbreak/melancholia and even introspection as well as disorienting and overwhelming
urge to dance with every cell in your body. Because of their power and
potential, intro tunes are a good place for that kind of emotion.
Me & Dusk were back on Rinse this Thurs 11pm. It turned out to be quite an eventful one as Dusk's entire CD selection was refused by the CDJs and I'd only brought one CD per genre/tempo. Soooo I rolled out some of our club-only freshness, slipped out a few future Keysounds and Dusk & Blackdown beats.
This week sees the release of the Kowton v Dusk EP on Keysound (digital here). To celebrate its emergence, I decided to propose a clash. It's Kowton v Dusk in a banter battle: every day this week sees one of their dodgiest club experiences pit against the other's. The funniest one wins: and you get to vote.
"What do you mean my name's not on the list?"
Kowton: round 5 (final)
"Toward the end of Rooted when only myself and Chris Farrell worked there, Caravan put on Kassem Mosse in one of the bigger clubs down here and it was a massive success, one of the best parties I've been to in Bristol.
By closing time an inordinate amount of alcohol had been consumed, we ended up in a lock in til about 8.30am, myself and Chris downing black Sambuca and berating anyone unwilling to risk hospitalisation for the cause of drunkenness. I only realised it was a lock-in once we'd left.
I'm awoken at 11am by a call from Rooted owner Pete asking if the shop is open, I reply probably not and cycle down the middle of the road to open up. I call Pete and cover for Chris, saying he's on the way up and everything's fine. Both lies.
A few hours later Chris wakes at home and makes a phone call 'Pete, what the fuck is going on? It's 2pm and I'm the floor of my spare room. Why the fuck aren't I at work?'
"Somehow we didn't even get a bollocking."
Dusk: round 5 (final)
"On a separate trip to the States, I can remember the sound being so bad at a Benga & Skream gig in New York that I had to leave the club, find an all night chemist and create some earplugs out of filter tips, MacGyver style. Incredibly, they worked.
At the same gig some guy barged into me and started getting larey that I'd nearly broken one of his teeth with the plastic cup he was holding by his mouth.
Then, on hearing my English accent he switched from threats of violence into a 5 minute mumbled rap which despite not being able to hear a word of it because I had 3 filter tips in each ear, I felt compelled to pretend to listen to, pulling what I hoped were appropriate facial gestures and manouevres at the correct moments. At the end he simply shook my hand and walked off so I must have done OK.
That said, the pair of us must have looked pretty special to anyone walking past, me especially with those earplugs half hanging out..."
Kowton: round 4
"First gig I ever played in London was at the Coronet Theatre in Elephant and Castle. The main room was a-list drum n bass DJ's, complete with lazers and pole dancing; I was upstairs in a room headlined by Heny G and Slaughter Mob.
Vibes were bad from when we got there: my link for the gig was the MC for the evening and the moment we arrived he almost had a fight with the promoter. "Where the fucks your microphone?" Not the friendliest welcome.
I was playing at 6am, by that point the only audience left in that room was the cloakroom queue, a bunch of ketamised casualties and a group of long suffering mates of mine who'd come from the north just for this gig. I played about 5 tunes, fucked up every mix and decided playing any more was a waste of everyone's time. I didn't get paid a penny and lost my copy of Pev and Appleblim's 'Circling'.
That gig put me off DJing for about a year."
Dusk: round 4
"Whilst on tour with The XX last year we did some gig in a smokey bar in Philly. It was one of those places that wangled a late licence by "providing food". Which was technically true I suppose, if you cared to eat one of three wieners that spent the whole night rotating on some stinky grill on the back wall all night.
That night was the first time I've ever seen a woman sat on the taps in the gents eating pizza. I pointed out that this was wrong on so many levels and when she asked me to name one I went for "hygiene". "Guess so". Didn't stop her finishing that pizza though.
Quite a weird place that - there was some other guy mincing round in a pink feather boa who was complaining to Starkey and Dev79 that he kept getting hit on by guys in the club. When they pointed out it might be something to do with his body language and more importantly the boa, he was indignant that "they better recognise I got this at a strip club down the road!" or some such.
Definitely one of the odder places we've played. And the first where I made a bit of a "2 nations divided by a common language" faux pas. Someone came up, said they loved the tunes but that Philly was a town that loved vocals. I said I'd drop something vocal for them and without thinking slapped on Tempa T. With hindsight (and considering the state of that club) I'm guessing they were thinking more along the lines of Teddy Pendergrass!"
Kowton: Round 3
"At an Alfresco Disco last year (a Bristol music institution with a reputation for doing killer parties in unusual locations) Idle Hands were asked to host the third room, this time an unused court room in an old coroners court.
The decks were on the judges desk and by about 1am the place was heaving, people dancing in the witness boxes and jurors seats and all the DJ's playing incredible sets. There's a pitch black room to the side of the booth where people have been going to 'piss in a can' (this we soon realise is practically impossible) thats completely sodden with urine, but that aside the party is incredible.
At peak time, Bristol head Sell By Dave is smashing out a set of Sheffield bleep n' bass when from nowhere Don Letts appears and asks if he can takeover. Chris tells him no.
We had the best room at that party."
Dusk: Round 3
"A long while back I can remember being out one night and some spannered bloke in a chill-out area going on to me and a friend about his divorce, lack of access to his kids, hating his job and so on and so on, and us being a bit too done in to simply tell him we weren't interested, just nodding along and probably saying "Ah man, that's harsh" every now and then whilst trying to think up an excuse to escape.
We must have gained his trust as a while later he asked me to look after his bus ticket for him while he went to the gents.
Being young, somewhat naive and curious as to where he'd been on his travels I unfolded it and got covered chin to waist in white powder, true romance style - not a good look. That said, if the guy's life story was anything to go by, he was the worst advert for cocaine you've ever seen..."
Kowton: Round 2
"Walking back from Sankey's after seeing Andy Wetherall circa 2003, a rough looking bloke asks for a cigarette, I haven't got any but offer him a roll-up as a decent alternative. "You taking the piss?"
He launches into me and I end up backed against a shop front. Several punches to the face later I manage to push him off at which he demands I go round a corner into an alley with him away from the CCTV cameras.
Fearing all sorts I refuse, at which point he becomes emotional and starts riffling through his pockets for change and hands me about 4 quid in silver. "Get youself a kebab mate, I'm sorry."
I went on my way."
Dusk: Round 2
"One of the most unfortunate things I've ever seen at a club was at the Black Swan (MIGHT NEED REPLACING WITH "WELL KNOWN CLUB" or "NAME REMOVED FOR LEGAL REASONS" - Dusk. DONT WORRY MATE MY LAWYERS CAN 'ANDLE IT - Blackdown) in Bristol.
For the uninitiated this is one of those Mad Max / Borderlands kind of places where the building feels like the sound system might destroy it at any moment, there's bonfires and a barbecue in the yard and more people queuing up at trestle tables to buy laughing gas than there are at the bar buying over-priced cans of Red Stripe.
Anyhow, alongside the yard runs a motorway flyover. Some gatecrasher had had the skills to get up onto the motorway, leap down over the fence into the yard, but the misfortune to land directly on top of a lit barbecue. To compound their bad luck, some crazy guy with a ponytail who wasn't even a bouncer tried to perform a citizen's arrest and essentially got their burnt arse kicked out of the club.
Harsh."
Kowton: round 1
"Driving back at 4am from a Lake District rave in an absurdly small toothpaste green fiat (a courtesy car) the police start to tail me as they often did round there, there's not alot for the police to do in the Lakes. After 5 awkward minutes they flash the lights and I'm pulled over.
I pass the breath test but I'm a bit stoned, not really enough to impair my driving but certainly enough to make being searched troubling, and give away the fact that there's very probably a quarter of skunk under the seat. I get the standard bollocking but plead my way out of a caution on the condition that they'll tale me all the way home, and I'm to drive at 30 the whole way.
Half way there, and literally in the middle of nowhere, a small chunky blur decides to leap from the pavement onto the road at the exact moment I pass it. The badger is squashed flat; I continue, half in hysterics, half terrified.
I pull up at my house and the police woman comes to speak to me: "what if that had been a child, you'd have killed it." I admit that's probably right, though the likelihood of a child being there at this time in the morning and diving under a car is unlikely.
We leave it at that."
Dusk: round 1
"In a 90% male yet most definitely straight club in Aviemore, I can remember some guy putting me in a headlock on a carpeted dancefloor for apparently looking like Andy Murray.
"Do ye like dooks Murray?" he kept yelling in my ear which seemed a bit strange. "Yeah they're alright to feed down the park or whatever". "No DOOOKS Murray!" This carried on for a bit. Eventually it turned out he was asking if I liked dogs, I said I did, he released his death grip and began to gush about his border terrier puppies.
It was a funny old club, clearly full of bored stag parties and local psychopaths. Earlier in the evening we'd been treated to a stringy woman in a shellsuit doing an impromptu table dance (fully clad) for a couple of porky gents one of whom showed his appreciation by throwing a bottle at her.
It's the only place I've ever tasted a pint of beer so bad I went back for seconds to remind myself just how rank it was."
So that's Rounds One, Two and Three and things are getting tight. Who's winning for you?
I probably should have tried to sign "Eski Clicks" or at least tried harder... I forget now why I didn't. Either way it was a central part of my Eskifunk mix from February and it's long since been a persy.
Now Slackk's giving it away, you really should grab a copy.
Critical Beats is The Wire's latest series of talks and panel discussions, hosted with the University of East London at London's Stratford Circus. The discussions will examine electronic dance music in East London's club culture and the resulting impact on wider scenes.
The second instalment of Critical Beats took place on Thursday 8 December at East London's Stratford Circus and is titled Place, Locality and Globalisation.
On the panel: Stuart Baker (Soul Jazz), George Mahood (Big Daddy), myself and moderator Derek Walmsley.
Online tickets are available here. Alternatively, ring 0844 357 2625 to purchase tickets from the Stratford Circus box office directly. More info here.
Keysound Recordings are looking for video directors/editors to collaborate on future projects with. Ideally they should be fluent with visual collage from a variety of sources, be able to create a sense of mysticism and wonder from found sights and multiple different visual sources, especially archive footage. A knowledge of UK rave culture, from jungle through to garage would be of real benefit.
Would you be interested in collaborating?
Could you recommend someone who might be suitable?
Do you know sites or sources of portfolios to point us towards?
Email us on martin_clark7 at hotmail dot com or leave a comment below and we'll hit you back.
Double Helix "Roll On" [unreleased]
Double Helix "Bats in the Cave" [unreleased]
Double Helix "Next Culture" [unreleased]
Double Helix "Dub Culture" [unreleased]
Double Helix "Trojan" [unreleased]
Double Helix "Bumped Off (Wrong Turn)" [unreleased]
Amen Ra "Untitled" [unreleased]
Desto "Operator" [forthcoming Noppa]
Henry and Louis "Love Like a Diamond (Pinch remix)" [2Kings]
Beneath "PVO" [unreleased]
Logos v Trim "Atlanta 96 x Trim Notice Now" [unreleased]
Martin Kemp "HeavyHeavyHeavy" [unreleased]
5kinAndBone5 ft. YG "Stomp (Cedaa Remix)" [Grizzly]
QQ "Tek It To Dem (Kalbata Remix)" [forthcoming Greensleeves]
After parts one, two and three of my epic interview with Butterz head honcho's Elijah and Skilliam, and in the week that both their Rinse:17 mix CD came out and they got nominated as one of the top 10 labels of 2011, we conclude the interview with part 4.
But before that, please enjoy an exclusive video documentary shot in and around the time of the interview.
Elijah & Skilliam v Blackdown interview part 4
M We talked about conflict in grime before, and obviously grime has this huge legacy of internal conflict, but focussing on clashing and aggression and so on. So it always struck me that the bigger you got, the more you may encounter guys that were more negative. Have you encountered any?
E We’re not born into it.
Sk We're not always around them. We can decide to step out and watch it happen as outsiders.
M You are and you aren‘t though. On one hand you live differently but then you say one of Fire Camp lives at the end of your road. By geography you are here East London, but by friendship you're not part of that.
E It's weird. Lethal knows that we're putting out a Trim record and we're cool, and I'll see him in a couple of weeks in Ibiza, and it won't be "a thing". Its music, isn't it? Personal is different. But I don't have a lot of friends in music, proper people I went to school with, but they do, so you know that when you have people like Trim and Ghetto arguing, they've known each other for seven years in and out of music. Whereas we've only been around for two years.
Think of the amount of opportunities we’d have to pass by people? I can tell you the number of times I have met Trim, dates, times, because there’s no club nights no radio - people can’t just turn up to Rinse like that. So you’re not coming across these people where you can have qualms.
M And I’m not saying you should do but I'm saying grime has an appetite for conflict and I’ve had issues when I’ve tried to help people out and they have been very aggressive to me, so I just wonder how you avoid it?
E Its the people that we have chosen to work with I guess. it makes all the difference. Aside from “Woo,” we've had a relationship with the people way before we put out a record.
M A bit more trust.
E We’re all in it for the long haul together. I can't have an argument with Terror Danjah, because the thing doesn't stop at the record, that wasn't the end point of what we were doing. If we were putting out the record to try and make lots of money from that record, then we can have a qualm. Same with Royal T and Swindle and stuff. But we're still so close to each other. And there’s not one person - Royal T, Swindle, Terror Danjah - who has blown up like say Joker has, way more than Guido & Gemmy.
M I would put money on it, because you’re good enough at finding talent, that you will eventually find someone who blows up that much.
E If it does happen, even then, everyone is so integrated in what we do, everyone would have helped them get to that stage. Even when Swindle plays in Norway, he is still playing all our stuff, because we helped him get there. He's on Elastic and we're on Elastic and Terror's on Elastic. We've all helped each other get there.
M Have you felt like "wow, we're really far from home?" Not distance, specifically, but that it felt like this is a very different place we're in - country or environment?
E It's wicked to see how they consume music in these places, that's interesting to me, but most of the time you're only surrounded by the enthusiasts. You're kind of living a sheltered way for the 24 hours you're living in the country. Everyone could be into the music, based on the impression those people give.
M Where would you like to play that you haven't yet?
E A few places, just because I want to go there: I want to play Japan and Jamaica. America doesn't really interest me - it does as a country - but not for what I do as music. More of Europe, man. We still haven’t done a full circuit of anywhere.
M It's funny because you are on a booking agency.
E Yes but then it's like product.
M The CD might be a step up for your profile. I think with the States you might quite like it, and they might quite like you as well. Just pick and choose the dates that you play. Just ask other DJs where they went down well. We did six dates in the States last year and they were radically different experiences. Some of the worst gigs and some of the best gigs. We did Hollywood and it was horrible, and we did Austin Texas and it was five time less people and it was amazing.
E I know, but even saying that, I want to just play in England. Most places in England are really big. I've been seeing more of Europe more than England - that's a joke. It sounds really ignorant, but to have kind of what we do really integrated to what’s going on in the UK would be sick, rather than spread out as a really niche thing... Even if we didn't go and do shows with 200 people in Europe, I'd still rather stay here. EZ: I don’t know if he’s broken in Europe but he still plays everywhere in this country. He’s busy.
M What you are talking about is getting popular and playing in regional cities? But I think that's less about you and more about specialist music... On a Friday night in a sleepy Herefordshire town do they want to hear chart hits or RnB? This may be little to do with how well Butterz are doing.
E It depends. We don't put out any music geared for that. If we released five “Boo You” type records rather than difference records each time, it would go that way. A lot of people like yourself release music like that, so you’re not going to have that result and it’s not the result you’re looking for. but it wouldn't take away from what we do if we did have music out like that.
M “Boo You” is right at the limit though, right? That's the genius of the record - It has the potential to be mainstream and chart hit but it has every credibility in what it does as a great grime record. But that’s such a rare balancing act and for every attempt at one of those you get something terrible like Masters of Ceremonies. The lyrics are so rude too.
E P Money said to me in the studio: "A lot of these verses are explicit, do you want us to change it or do you want us to do a clean version?", and I said "nah", not thinking of any consequences - "What’s the point? I like it like it is." And then Mr Jam asked for it, and made us a BBC clean edit to send to a couple of people for us. And when he started playing it I was like "shit, the record's 5 minutes long, Black’s verse has swearing,” all these things that you don't hear in a typical pop record. But this is the effect of not listening to commercial radio.
M But how would you know that there are a list of banned words you can't say at BBC radio? Mary Anne had to get written permission as an exception to play “Bullet A‘Go Fly.” It's a bit backwards to be honest, especially at night time, when kids are asleep. I understand in the day time when kids are awake.
And the thing is also that a lot of the stuff is in local slang. We talked at the beginning of this conversation about you finding people not knowing what “wha gwarn” means. So if you asked Mr Average Radio Listener guy what “Buss all over you girl” is, they’d tell you that a bus is a big red form of transport. But it’s something completely different if you decode it.
E it’s funny because all pop records are coded sex anyway. You have all these Rhianna songs that are the rudest things.
M I heard someone playing “Slippery When Wet” by Bon Jovi in a shop the other day and it reminded me with that title how much they’re really not talking about water and pavements or street safety signs. And they’ve got away with selling tens of millions of copies in the '80s of an album with a very sexual title. So why does it matter if Blacks is "bussing all over your girl" or not now?
E Good grime club records, we had a few last year, “Street Fighter,” “Slang,” “Ho Riddim” but this year: none. And we noticed that when you go to see a DJ play, sometimes you waiting for them to play a certain record, but with us I wouldn't know what they’d be waiting for right now. And before we did “Boo You” I thought that was shit. They were waiting for the moment where you play that song but there wasn't that song this year. All these talented MCs , the “New Wave,” they haven't made anything where I though "wow this is amazing, I've got to play it."
M Me neither. I wrote about this in my Trim piece because if I was a new grime MC coming through I’d be quite depressed because the gods of grime are quite difficult to touch, and you haven't got a new wave that are inspiring.
E Imagine for us, we are being the Granddads, at 24, putting out Trim whose been in the scene for ages, and P money... so we're not even crossing any new ground with the MCs, which is kind of like a shame. One of the things I can criticise Butterz for is that we haven't brought an artist to the forefront. You can only do so much in 18 months, but that would have been pretty cool. Imagine if with all this music you got a new MC that was pretty good.
M But you’ve got to work with what there is. If there aren't new MCs coming through, you've got to be honest that they're aren't good enough. When I hear the new wave MCs I don’t think they’re better than Trim or D Double.
E And that's just us being honest as well. Imagine if we tried to do that but with not full confidence, it would come out half arsed.
M: I thought they might be in funky
E nah but funky MCs are terrible generally.
Sk Yeah, they've dumbed it down.
E It's like they've seen how it's gone, and then gone back to garage. They don't need to do that, there should be some kind of intermediate point where they don't get too lyrical. They can still entertain you, but not get stupid with it, like: "Go to the shop, bop, der der der" - you don't need to do that, we've been through that already with garage.
But that's us - I keep having to remember - that has been through that. I keep referring to the 18 year old, and they control the traffic.
M In some points in this discussion I've seen you quite explicitly talk about thinking about what the listener wants, and giving it to them. And there's lots of other times where you've made a lot of headway in what you're doing by thinking about what you want, and having the singularity of vision of thinking in that "if I can make me happy, then I can make other people happy". I think the second one is more powerful, as anyone can just play bangers and prove crowd pleasers - the bait move. But what you guys have done great is to still imagine what it's like to walk into Rhythm Division to buy records. That if you put the bar high for yourself that people will see that it’s put high for the music that’s getting to them.
E People ask why there's two of us, and I think it because you talk to people about music... When you have someone to go through records with them and talk about tunes that you like, you think "oh it would have been sick if I did this," and you dream up another situation for yourself. And that’s how the Silkie and Swindle situation came about.
M Dreaming like that is really healthy. It’s not some hippy thing, it’s trying to imagine the best possible thing and then going out and making it reality.
E There are so many ideas, especially with all these people involved, and you don't ever have time to realise them.
Sk Now you can get in contact with them slightly easier. Let's say Twitter - everyone's your mate. They're not, but everyone can say stuff to you. That's how a lot of stuff happens.
E Diddy and Skepta happened by Twitter. It's funny, with us now I feel like we have influence with DJs, and we can make things happen for the greater good. The other night I was up and Preditah was online. I said "What you doing?"... "Nothing". I added Royal T to the conversation and said "What you doing?".... "Nothing." I just left and they got started on something.
M But that's what you guys have been doing in a really genius way for some time, like catalysts. So, have you played around with production?
Sk I have a little bit. It's quite time consuming and frustrating.
M Yeah, that sounds about right. But did you get a taste for it?
Sk What will happen is I get an idea, and I voice note it into my phone, but I won't do anything until I get about ten of them... But it's a next thing putting it down, and I don't really ask for help from people. So it's really just me trying to do it from scratch.
E Imagine feeling the pressure of having to write a tune so we get more bookings?
M I recommend asking people for help, to get over the barrier that the technology presents. The first phase of music is conquering technology, and that takes ages... making noises that you like it to make not the noises it likes making. That phaze takes ages. Anyway, that's not a very insightful tip: ask people to give you help.
Sk I do have a grasp of what everything is and does. I will eventually one day just say "Terror, let's sit down, seriously" but I do it because I enjoy it, I‘ll hear some little drum rolls and want to do it like that. It's really just experimenting, and has no direction to it. With the grime that's coming out, I'll hear a live instrument and try and make it [work]...
E You did the bass for “Mood Swings.”
Sk Oh yeah... because I play bass at my Church.
E That's a big musical thing! I'm not musical, I'm just a listener... The guy that knows the beat from the first second. An enthusiast.
Sk I'm fully not a foreground type of person.
M No, that's what an MC is for.
[Skilliam plays video of him playing live bass over “Moodswings” on the iPad]
M How long did that take you to learn?
Sk It took about three hours [laughs], and I got a blister.
E He didn’t even tell me what he was doing. That's the first time I'd seen him play as well, that video!
Sk No one knew apart from my church group.
M In terms of producing, what you're trying to do is create variations from loops... with a live instrument, you can make a lot of “mistakes,” and the good “mistakes” you keep. Swindle plays his stuff in live, right?
M So, to questions from people on Twitter. What do you think of the criticism from some people that just want to listen to aggy 8bar?
E That's a good question. For me personally, grime was never just one way - I don't know if you could ever find a set that was just aggy 8bar, so I don't know why they expect me to do it. That's what is exciting about it - that there is loads of styles and patterns put together, and that's what we're trying to put together now.
Sk And 8bar is for MCs as well...
E Yeah, yeah. Imagine when we first started all the tunes were all moulded this way so you had to mix quickly, but now we're finding that we can give tunes a bit of room.... Most of the tunes now have got variation and progression going through them, whereas before if you listen to like a lot of Teddy and Rude Kid and Maniac and DaVinci, it's just a loop.
M And again that to me was the mix tape era, because they knew that an MC was going to cover the lack of variation part...
E Or people are not going to hear the end, because it's only played by the DJ.
M I reckon they shot themselves in the foot with that - it was lazy, you didn‘t need to bother with an arrangement. You've got to listen all the way through and not get bored - not get to 64 bars and go "OK I've heard this." Because then it can be sold or appreciated as a finished, complete object.
E But people are still doing it now. This is the back and forth that I have with Logan, he is like "Oh, who are you intending this music to be listened by?", and I said it's got different purposes - that's what all good music is like.
When we did “Moodswings VIP” I was listening to Kanye West’s album and there’s a tune on there that’s 9 minutes long and I thought I want to do a Butterz tune that’s that long. So I told Swindle to just take it out of the context of a DJ playing it in a set and make it like a movie soundtrack. Go as long as you want. It’s 8m18s that song and there’s nothing else like that from our area. “Err, why’s the intro two minutes?” Well, why not. No rules innit. Especially when he’s done loads of urban remixes where there are rules he’s like “oh shit, Elijah’s said I can do whatever I want, cool…”
Imagine if this Butterz things creates 20 offshoots? Well then you’ve got a scene then innit. What we started as a humble thing has created all these different little opportunities and inspired people to go on and make this, and come out to rave again. Imagine that - there's people saying it's the best rave they've ever been to:.
M If you inspire a new generation it will the first few raves they've ever been to.
E Yeah. And what I found before, with grime producers especially, how are you going to be inspired to make something for a rave if there's no raves?
M It’s self-fulfilling though....Well, I don't know. A lot of grime got so aggressive that it caused a lot of problems in clubs, and also with the police not allowing grime to be in London clubs kind of killed the infrastructure. But also the focussing on mix tapes and it being a kind of concert thing - and not very danceable - doesn't help clubs either. I love some of the mixtapes, but it's not club music.
E I think there's some space for it now. “I Am” is like that. I could play it in a club but… These things are one step at a time, do a single. If anything else comes afterwards then great, another one.
M Yeah, but I think if you do enough of them you'll start to know what the move after the one you're about to do is.
E We've still kept a core of everyone who worked with. Everyone who is on first four is on the next four, which is wicked. Even like TRC. He phoned me up moaning saying he's not getting out there as much... He's made two of the stand out tunes “Boo You“ and “I Am,” and he's not standing out, then it's not straightforward.
M But if you bring a lot of talent through and try and keep it under one umbrella, ultimately some of them will either not be happy or you can't sustain them because of the nature of their success.
E That’s why, people ask me if I'm going to put out a Predator or Faze Miyake record and I say no. Not because they're not good but because we've got enough on our plate. I don't want to gobble up the whole scene. That’s not the point of what I want to do.
M Also I find all the time that its easy to get excited and sign record you really like, but then you can't make a commitment to put it out because you've got so many in the pipeline already.
I'm sure as a label you should be looking at people like Numbers or on that artistic level, but as for the people you're choosing you've kind of got free reign. But I think you'll inspire people - I've heard people say "I wanted to put this out because Elijah and Skilliam did." That's friendly rivalry.
E I'd rather hear that than someone be like "I want to be on that label," if you know what I mean? Personally, I'm someone who did business studies, and I wanted to be like Richard Branson when I was growing up, so I'm more inspired by someone who wants to do it themselves.
That sounds weird what with working with all these people that seem to be underneath me or whatver, but I feel like we're all at Butterz together. There's no chief executive. At Cable it wasn’t me and Skilliam’s night, it felt like all of ours.
M You have seemed to have nailed that family vibe, the community spirit. And that's impossible to fake.
Read parts one, two and three here. Rinse 17 mixed by Elijah and Skilliam is out now
