Category: General

http://www.grievousangel.net/RSIRadioVol1.mp3.zip

Undaunted by the fact that he can no longer blog, use forums, or do email due to his RSI, John has done the decent thing and become a [B]radio personality[/B]. Yes, rather than have to rummage forlornly through his old posts on Dissensus, UK-Dance, Blood and Fire and, of course, the mighty Uncarved itself for the pearls of wisdom he carelessly dispenses, you can now curl up with headphones, a good book, and the tipple of your choice while his calm, lucid voice oozes its way into your consciousness…

… for John has started recording his own occasional radio show.

It’s right here:

http://www.grievousangel.net/RSIRadioVol1.mp3.zip

And it’s total aceness. I shan’t spoil the surprise for you, but it features, a amazingly, an exceptionally good selection of reggae. And, errr, other stuff.

Try it. You’ll grow to love it.

And let him know what you think of it by dropping him a line at BM Box 3641, London, WC1N 3xx.

Man and woman and Pan and boom
And siren song and spiral pulse

Blood blessed by fire and touch and light,
of silver, quick, and hot, and bright

————————————————

Oh my god.

Fucking unbelievable.

That just went OFF.

Absolutely rammed, but a really sweet crowd and oh my god that music was just incredible. Aural warfare. Party rocking, crowd pleasing, bass wobbling aural warfare. The crowd was absolutely gagging for it, and it was really well mixed too. And even though it was way too full for my taste – it was pretty hard to get space to dance – there was still that fabulously happy sweet DMZ vibe. Other than one bloke who hadn’t clocked that you’re really not supposed to make space by throwing your weight around, and the knobhead bouncer. I reckon there will be twice as many people trying to get in next time cos every new DMZer is bound to tell all their mates how much fun it was. And it was rammed all the way to the end of the Mala / Loefah set, so the people dem were clearly well into it.

Kode 9’s set was the most artful of the lot, seriously progressive. Dropping Prince was a masterstroke (and demonstrated how sadly lacking in swing too much halfstep is). I think Loe pulled it up for him. 9’s set structure thereafter was really good, lots of chuntering breaky details. And his “On the Corner” t-shirt is the bizzle, I want one.

DMZ rocked it. Literally. On the stage I could hardly stand up from the bass pressure. Mala and Loefah were fab, nice bit of sleng teng action at the start, plus all the big tunes you wanted (could maybe have done with a few more new ones?) and Mud was just huge. There was a lot of soul starting to come through, especially on Mala’s sections which I would have liked more of, that “belaeric” stuff.

Skream was incredibly good — class tunes. His stuff seems mastered louder and with much clearer mid range (that “plasticky”vibe) than the other big producers. But enough nerdery — the three things I loved most about Skream’s set was first, the sheer bouncy energy of it, second, the magnificent hooky tunefulness of it, and last, those female reggae vocal samples — I want LOTS more of that please. Add them together and it was just huge fun. And he’s got some gorgeous melodies nestling in those tunes.

Downsides? Well, there’s still too many monotone, dull halfsteppers around. I’m aching to hear more vocals on dubstep (see Martin Blackdown’s recent blog post for some additional support for that idea). There were a few too many rewinds. And most of all I didn’t quite get that incredible spiritual sense of flight that I got from seeing Mala play solo. But then, we are at the other side of Beltaine rather than on the wild ride up to it.

But none of those minor criticisms matter. Oh, and the security were arseholes, for which there was absolutely no need, because…

Above all, that night was all about the crowd. Even though it was “moody” London, even though it was way too packed, even though it had loads of people new to dubstep, it was still an immensely sweet crowd. Not a trace of attitude despite the crush and the aggression from security. The massive just shrugged it off and got down.

I loved it.

Many thanks to Hijak’s mate Charlotte and Danny Bwoy fo additional pix – their’s are the ones that look good. Mine don’t.

This night felt like a pilgrimage. Getting there took a train journey from Sheffield to London; getting back, a long journey by foot via an old droving path in the early hours, to Hackney; via London Fields, with glowing blossom, while artful foxes stared at us.

It was a nice little meet up in the Barley Mow. This tiny little Victorian pub was my regular haunt over a decade ago when I worked on Rivington street. Dan, who is an old reggae head, translated from Brixton to Hackney and my host for the night, runs into an old friend as soon as we arrive, a guy who went to see the Abyssinians with us last year. I regard this as a good omen, given the connections I’ve been feeling between the spiritual overload of the Abyssinians, and of Shaka, with dubstep, and hence with Bash. Springtime vibes! Then the ever avuncular Martin comes over and I embarrass him by saying what a great writer he is, and it’s not long before John Eden shows up. I get a text from Woebot saying he is – surprise! – on his way, and one phone call and a few seconds later he arrives, resplendent in Stussy T-shirt and one of the nicest fleeces I’ve seen in a long time. (I’d like to say that one of Matt’s perks from his moonlighting as a restaurant reviewer is that he gets access to the latest threads from his colleagues in the style section, and that I anticipate him doing a Trinny and Suzzana soon, but of course, it wouldn’t actually be true…) The delightful and charming Boomnoise makes his entrance, before my gaze locks with a mysterious, wryly smiling, rakish figure across the bar… for it is Marcus.

To my surprise and delight, we have assembled what is effectively a Dissensus posse.

A quick trip to one of the worst shitholes in Shoreditch later (fuck knows why we went there but it did at least provide a violent contrast with Plastic People) and we were in – well, me and Dan were, we couldn’t stomach that place for long. I’d turned down a guest list but we were sitting at a table in seconds anyway, soaking up the roots and lovers that Loefah was dropping. I really wish he’d been playing later because his selection was magnificent. It wasn’t really syrupy UK lovers, but big, fat, rolling dancehall with romantic slow-paced vocals. Sadly the place wasn’t that full by that stage, but then, Loefah going on first meant that Bash’s strategy of putting women centre stage was intact.

And so to Mary Ann Hobbs, who acquitted herself well despite a touch of nerves. Opening with Anti-War Dub, she moved on to some Sizzla and a bunch of roots, doing some nice set construction by noticeable taking everything down in the middle before slamming back in with a rocking Barrington Levy / Roots Radics tune.

I popped out mid-set to say than you to Space Ape for his superb set on Friday, and he said how much he and Mala had enjoyed playing Steel City. (Like, it seems, everyone else in the dubstep scene, he is an incredibly nice person.)


Yes, it would’ve been “better” to have had Loefah on second, but Mary Ann built the vibe just fine. Dan, who knows her quite well, gave her a big hug as she left the booth; lets have a few more live sets please MAH…

The Bug’s set was a real musical highlight; I’ll remember it for a very long time. As usual he was mixing high-tech JA ragga with his own angular distortion, but this time he was setting this against two – yes two – quite fantastic female vocalists. For we had the magnificent Nicolette, who was repeatedly and deservedly bigged up for being the Nina Simone of dancehall, by post-punk’s genius of skank, the irrepressibly dynamic Ari Up. Both were, well, brilliant.

Nicolette added righteous jazz-inflected roots vocals whose startling tonal inflections – all fifths, sevenths and other twisted but perfect harmonics – crunched gloriously against the body slam vibrations generated by the Bug.

But then her honeyed flow gave way to Ari Up’s fabulously tight, syncopated MCing which was a perfect contrast with Nicolette’s voice. The impact was multiplied as they continually swapped the Mic through each riddim.
Not everyone liked Ari as much as me, and it was amusing the way she kept telling off Kevin Martin for playing too fast and too hard, but then again – errr – she was right. But this just added to the fun. In the end the combination was just devastating and it all came together on an extended, hyperkinetic Bionic Ras section.

And near the end of the set a third voice was added to the mix – a gorgeous a country soul version of female roots that was a bit of revelation – I think her name was Diana Love but I’m trying to check.

And then, basically, Flight slew dem.

With Pokes back on the mic she assumed control of the booth with stentorian musical authority. Sticking firmly to a blue print of 100 per cent classic 70s and 80s roots, dancehall and especially dub, she injected the night with some much desired soul and dread. Clearly Flight is an expert and unimpeachably confident selector; the crowd was just putty in her hands all the way through, cheering every Tubby rocker and sticking with her right into the ska and rocksteady climax. Yes, truly, rocked it.

Around now Loefah is holding court at the bar, and I’m talking cod with strangers and friends of all ages, making up for spending the night carousing rather than circulating. Kode 9 reflects that, no matter how much he loves dubstep, he’s missing that dark garage swing, and I agree. It’s the end of a fine night, and it’s time to head off into the balmy night for a drift across a silent, deserted, dark-of-the-moon London. It is quite beautiful. We get back to Dan’s at 3.00 and I don’t think I slept till 4.00. Dan’s awoken before six by the baby; I make it through til 7.30. A long night and a short sleep and long journey home, and I am buoyed up.

In the brutal, cold light of day this Bash was not perhaps as great as the first two; the energy levels were a bit uneven. But with a handful of dubstep nights now being put on in strip clubs, it was a gentle assertion of the real inner values of the dubstep scene, even if filtered by that scene’s showcasing of a related music. And it works. Despite the fact that Rhythm and Sound are playing with Skream across town in Ladbroke Grove, the room is full, more so than at the first Bash. It’s a bit more than just another club night, is Bash.