Over at Lower End Spasm. Excellent stuff. Man goes to raves in a suit – respect.
Dubstep Sufferah 2 in the Dubstep forum awards!
Blimey. Dubstep Sufferah 2 has been nominated for best mix in the Dubstep Forum awards! Just to be in there is a huge compliment. And it’s not at the bottom either!
Boomnoise
At last, Boomnoise is doing a bit of blogging. You’ll still have to spend a bit of time on Dubstep forum to hear / see most of what he’s talking about but it’s great that he’s back on it.
Review of the year, 2006
It’s been quite a busy year for me. January I put up the second 94 jungle mix, Jungle Got Dub. BTW, this is up at http://www.grievousangel.net/JungleDub94.mp3. I should really re-master it – bit bass heavy. People seemed to like it though. There was the first in a trio of Phil Hine interviews in January too. March was big – the first in the Dubstep Sufferah series went up. I put some time into that, I loved doing it and it got a bit of attention and a couple of thousand downloads between here and Barefiles. Plus I went to the inaugural night at BASH – fucking mental and I met lots of dubstep people for the first time, and even better, saw Mala play in Sheffield with Space Ape. Just beyond belief. In April I did my first “modern” dubstep tune, or at lest my first halfstepp-y thing, Lickle Friction. (As you may recall Kode 9 had got in touch about some of the old 138 stuff back in, IIRC, 2003.) Anyway, Lickle was built around the Jammy’s / Scientist phone call mp3s that were doing the rounds at the time and was quite a nice little roller, and it’s been played out a bit apparently. Even bigger, me and John’s mix for the wonderful Dave Stelfox’s show on Resonance FM went out on the nineteenth of this month. It’s still up here. And I went to see Mala play too… In May I put up No Sunshine, my refix of Bill Withers’ Ain’t No Sunshine, which had been going round and round my head since January. I still love this, so much so I did a remix of it in a mate’s pro studio later in the year. It’s been played out lots. Plus I finally got to DMZ. And John released the first RSI Radio, which was great, and which I did some editing and mastering on. In June I did the second Tense Nervous House Music mix, where I caught up with the glorious renaissance of techy deep house that’s been brewing for the last few years, best exemplified in my view by Ame and Trentemoller. In July, I think it was, me and John did our first contribution to the magnificent Blogariddims series. Didn’t do much for the next few months – other than work on Dubstep Sufferah 2, which took a while, though not as long as the first volume did. It finally went up in October. It’s only done a few hundred downloads, but I think it’s the best mix I’ve ever done; when it first went up the demand took out my server in hours. After that I was just too busy with work to do much. So – three solo mixes this year plus two collaborations with John, which isn’t a bad tally.
Besides my own stuff, it’s been quite a good year musically. Obviously I’ve been focused on dubstep, of which more in a minute, but there’s been loads of good house too. As for reggae, I have yet again failed to fulfil my new year resolution of buying fresh reggae every month, but not for want of trying. Just wasn’t feeling much this year. No doubt Eden’s end of year round up CD will show me where I went wrong. I think 2006 will go down as the year that dubstep finally fulfilled its potential on vinyl. Anyway, all my favourite tunes this year were dubstep. My top ten should hold no surprises really, but here they are in order of them embedding themdselves deep into my mind and obsessing me:
1. Loefah: Ruffage / Mud
Jesus. What a fucking tune Ruffage is. I think Loefah is the best producer in the world right now and I tell you, he’s only just started. Mud needs a big system to really work, though it sounded fab on dubstep warz, but Ruffage is just… “rough… beats…”. It’s an AMAZING record, deep and lush and throbbing and saturated with flavour, I just love the electro style Loefah’s been pushing this year. You think this tune is just all groove and no soul, but… it does… Obviously Disko Wrekkah is even better, the best record to come out of dubstep and it will be the biggest dubstep record of 2007, assuming it comes out – which I expect it will. But that’s not out yet… I’ve had it since the start of the summer – probably my high point for the year – but it’s been so much a Loefah signature tune I haven’t dared play it. Maybe it’ll go on a mix when the release date is coming up. In the meantime go to DMZ just to hear it, and listen to Ruffage. Fucking mental. I should put up the vocal dub mix of Ruffage I did for Sufferah 2, see if anyone wants to play it out…
2. Pinch: Qawalli (VIP mix)
Oh boy. The deepest, heaviest, low slung deep funker of a track that dubstep has produced. Ultimate squidge. Right up there with the great deep, aquatic techno and house tunes…
3. Skream: I (Loefah Remix)
Loefah sends this tune into a downward spiral of bass that never ends. It rocks. Loefah thinks I is better than Request Line – and it is now.
4. Loefah: System
There’s just nothing to this tune. Couple of synth horn stabs, primitive electro beat… there’s a couple of bars with a variation in the drum programming at the end that would take this track into a whole other universe, but he just casually slings in a taste of it… and it’s just unadulterated genius.
5. Skream: Dutch Flowers
The “big” Skream track you’re not supposed to like but what a tuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuunnnnnnnnnnnneeeeeeeeee!!! I know Blackdown doesn’t like the digidub influence in dubstep and especially in Skream’s work but I have to say, I just love it and this tune exemplifies that digidub template while taking on a ridiculously happy, bouncy energy. Love it love it love it and it’s a CRIME it didn’t get a female vocal version to take it into the August top ten… maybe next year…
6. Benga: Zombie Jig
Probably 2005 really but it was on the CD (which, ahem, was patchy IMO), so… Is Benga more talented than Skream? I guess they’ve worked so close to each other for so long that a comparison is pointless, but in any event Benga has truckloads, I just wish he could get a few more records out.
7. Virus Syndicate: Major List MCs
Is it dubstep or is it grime? I don’t know that, but I do know we need more records like this – unbearably funky but intensely spacious backing matched with outrageously tight ensemble vocal flow.
8. Mala: Left Leg Out / Blue Notez
I love Loefah’s stuff but I expect Mala will eventually be seen as the greatest producer to come out of dubstep – the spiritual force of his records ensures that. It’s almost a cliche now to compare Mala with Shaka – my favourite DJ ever as regular readers know – but the comparison really does stand. His and Coki’s records are, in the main, dub missiles designed to pulverise dancefloors on plate. Mala is as interested in the transcendent potential of sonics in and of themselves as any 1980s industrialist and much Digital Mystikz output this year has translated that vibrational arsenal directly, and gloriously, into vinyl. But it’s not the sucession of wobblerz that will cement Digital Mystikz’ wider reputation – it’ll be the more emotive tracks tracks like these.
9. Digital Mystikz: Ancient memories (Skream remix)
Feel the jazz funk vibes seep in tt=he darkness!
10. Headhunter: Sleepwalker
THE standout track from the Tempa All Stars two double pack.
And a few more that didn’t quite make the top 10:
BlackDown: Lata
Intimations of greatness here – Martin walks it like he talks it…
DQ1: Wear the Crown
The bad-man producer. Difficult to choose between this Headhunter.
Digital Mystikz: Earth Run a Red / Conference / Haunted
Sheer dread heaviosity. (Can get a bit wearing compared to the best of their contemporaries though.)
Digital Mystikz – Anti War Dub
Super 4×4 excursion and ubdoubtedly a classic (but doesn’t quite have the legs it might have done)
Random Trio: Indian Stomp (from the Cyrus EP)
Such space, such minimalism… terrific tune and a great mixing tool.
Caspa: Rubber Chicken
Great, laidback, deep funk tune, possibly the ultimate wobbler… but hold tight for next year’s LFO King, which I’ve had for fucking months and is dayglo rave aceness.
Toasty – The Knowledge (Vex’d Remix)
Boxcutter – Brood / Sunshine
Great, creative single package – didn’t quite make me want to get the album.
And lots more – this was the year it became impossible to stay utterly on top of all the dubstep releases. It was even harder to properly absorb all the radio shows, even with the help of the magnificent talents of Deapoh and Boomnoise. These two have between them rendered a hugely valuable service to both today’s dubstep massive and future generations by recording and hosting all the key radio sessions. Boys, this was your year.
Outside of dubstep? Well, as mentioned both Ame and Trentemoller have really rocked my world. In rock, I did not prove immune to the attractions of Arctic Monkeys. When my wife got the CD I listened to it all, then put it straight back on and listened to it all the way through again. And again. I haven’t done that with a CD for years – not even Burial’s. (And yes, it is a great CD, not for me quite as good as other people have found it to be, but a lot better than, say, the Hatcha mix CD -amazing selection, terrible sequencing… but enough dubstep!). So yeah, the Arctics are the best British rock group since the Stone Roses as far as I’m concerned – just looking at the festival shows on TV it was obvious to me how much tighter they played than all the other bands and how much better their songs are.
Anyway… a very good year, especially with the quality of dubstep and dubstep related events I’ve been able to make it to this year, principally DMZ and BASH. I didn’t expect it to be as good as it was.
Grievous Angel Presents Dubstep Sufferah Volume 2
I’ve done a second volume of the Dubstep Sufferah mix series.
It’s a similar format to the first one – select dubstep tunes, with significant additional dub FX and re-editing. However, this time there is even more emphasis on bringing out dubstep’s roots – and indeed the whole ardkore continuum’s roots – in reggae, especially in Brit soundsystem culture. Some commentators have denied that there is a cultural lineage between reggae, but I think that point of view doesn’t take into account some fairly well established history. Not that I expect anyone to agree with me when I say, somewhat exaggeratedly, that dubstep actually is reggae!
Also for this mix, I’ve focused on adding a significant vocal, or at least MC, element to this otherwise primarily instrumental music. It’s noticeable that most of the biggest crowd responses at DMZ are for the vocal tunes, of which only a small proportion have been released, and I really wanted to lighten a mix that would otherwise have been fairly relentlessly minimal with vocal colour.
It also helps to create a time travelling, cut up sense of dubstep emerging form an 80s reggae dance not only is the mix opened with some live Saxon and Asher Senator, and little known Brit digital dancehall mixed with some sweeter dubstep in the middle, but there’s loads of additional MC samples sprinkled across the mix. I’d like to thank Dublin reggae and jungle maestro Droid for his kindness in furnishing me with a generous helping of live dancehall, as well as John Eden for providing the Saxon material via his blog.
Technically, the mix is something of a hybrid. A lot of vinyl mixing, a fair amount of digital mixing, and a load of editing in Live. It’s not a purely authentic vinyl mix and I doubt you could do this on decks; that’s not the point. It is however meant to be a properly constructed mix you can return to.
The narrative arc of this mix follows a classic dubstep mix blueprint. Heavy, harsh, grinding first third, some sweet respite, and some bangers to close. Following a sweet reggae and dub intro, I went straight into an increasingly punishing selection of banging dubstep classics that becomes more industrial and claustrophobic with each track, culminating in a series of monstrous wobblers. I particularly like the cut up of Virus Syndicate’s Major List MCs over Pinch’s Qawalli VIP in this section; they seem made for each other. The heaviness is finally relieved by Iration Steppas’ classic Scud Missile dub, which takes us into an altogether softer, darker, dancehall tinged section.(I’ve been amused and delighted by Skream’s championing of digidub on his Rinse FM show, more power to your elbow Olly, even more so since you’re also championing the jazz funk sound of my Essex youth!) Dark garage originator and fellow Sheffield resident DQ1 does the bridge into deeper dub and more rolling beats; the last third is petty much ravetastic, focusing on Loefah re-edits. He’s the king of the beats and my favourite dubstep producer by a mile (my favourite producer in any genre in the world actually) and while he may be frustrated at not doing deeper tunes, at just doing beats, frankly they’re so great I don’t care.
And that’s it really. I’m very happy with the mix; while all the tunes are familiar to the initiated, I hope they have been dubbed-up and edited enough to sound fresh, and this mix wasn’t about showing off unreleased tunes, it was about creating some particular atmospheres, showcasing what has been arguably dubstep’s most fertile period thus far, and possibly, creating an ear-friendly route in for the uncommitted. I hope you enjoy it; let me know either way.
Dubstep Sufferah Volume 2.
A LAME-encoded 192K mp3 which weighs 104.5Mb is here.
A LAME (Insane) 320K mp3 which weighs 174.1Mb is available for a limited time. Down now!
0.00 Asher Senator / Saxon Sound Intro
1.11 King Tubby / Johnny Clark: A Ruffer Version (Jackpot)
4.45 Digital Mystikz: Ancient Memories (original mix) / (Skream Remix) (DMZ)
10:18 Skream: I (Loefah Remix) (Tempa)
13:48 Digital Mystikz: Conference (Soul Jazz)
17:34 Virus Syndicate: Major List MCs (Jammer Instrumental) (Planet Mu)
18:41 Pinch: Qawalli (VIP mix) (Planet Mu) / Virus Syndicate: Major List MCs (Jammer Vocal Mix) (Planet Mu)
23:36 D1: Degrees (Tempa)
24:59 Digital Mystikz: Haunted (DMZ) Grievous Angel Vocal Edit
28:28 Skream: Glamma (Tempa)
31:16 Digital Mystikz: Earth Run a Red (Soul Jazz)
35:11 Iration Steppas: Scud Missile Dub (Universal Egg)
37:48 Appleblim: Cheat I (Skull Disco) Grievous Angel Vocal Edit
39:57 Mickey Murka: We Try (Version) (Unity Sounds / Honest Jons)
41:29 Benga: Zombie Jig (BengaBeats)
43:27 Kenny Knots: Watch How the People Dancing (Unity Sounds / Honest Jons)
44.49 Skream: Dutch Flowers (Tempa)
46:48 Selah Collins: Pick a Sound (Version) (Unity Sounds / Honest Jons)
47:12 DQ1: Wear the Crown (Tectonic)
52:09 Headhunter: Sleepwalker (Tempa) Grievous Angel Vocal Dub
55:55 Caspa: Rubber Chicken (Tempa)
58:43 Loefah: Mud (DMZ) Grievous Angel “Signal” Dub
63:11 Caspa: For the Kids (Dub Police)
65:40 Grievous Angel: Lickle Friction (CDR)
69:07 Loefah: Ruffage (DMZ) Grievous Angel Vocal Dub
71:43 Loefah: System (Tectonic) Grievous Angel Edit
76:03 Ends
Tense Nervous House Music, Volume 2
Around this time last year I did a spring-tide mix of old and new house, which I called Tense Nervous House Music. It was kind of a follow on from Beltane and was specifially inspied by spending time in the old temples on the island of Gozo. Now, as is very obvious now, this Spring was dominated by my going out to various Dubstep events, which have all been fantastic. And yet, in some way I can’t quite describe, my mainlining dubstep over the last of years has ineluctably led me back to house. Partly it’s because of a renewed appetite for that delicious syncopated deep house pulse. part of it was knowing that a favourite dubstep producer likes proper deep house, and increasingly seeing dubstep through a house lens. (The fact that quite a lot of people on the excellent Faith forum, which is the coolest house forum in the world, are quite into dubstep helped as well.) And part of it is the fact that this year I finally cottoned onto the fact that there’s been a quite fabulous renaissance in house with the emergence of the “minimal” style.
Now admittedly, not much of this stuff is that minimal. And yes, some of it sounds a bit too close to electroclash for my liking. In fact, most of it just sounds like deep house or tech house. But there’s some cracking stuff in there and most of all, it just demonstrates the indefatigable ability of house to renew itself.
Hence, this Beltane, I found myself splurging on reasonably fresh house music, and the product is Tense Nervous House Music Volume 2, a digital mix of new-ish house that has, as usual, been subjected to some heavy dubbing. It starts off all deep with a brace of Ame tunes – and yes, Ame do thoroughly deserve the hype they’re getting from every deep house head in the world right now – moves onto some increasingly twisted sleazy minimal, before climaxing with an edit of the very wonderful Carl Craig remix of Theo Parrish’s Falling Up and a couple of Trentemollers – who also thoroughly deserve the hype that is being showered on them at the moment – before winding up back where we started with an Ame dub.
I like it.
Tense Nervous House Music, Volume 2.
68 minutes 40 seconds. 157.2Mb. 320K LAME-encoded mp3 (at the “Insane” setting).
Find i here: http://www.grievousangel.net/TenseNervousHouseMusicVol2.mp3.zip
Here’s the tracklisting:
Tense Nervous House Music, Volume 2
0:00 Dimensions 6: Living In the Sunshine (Ame Ohio Dub)
3:18 Dimensions 6: Living In the Sunshine (Ame Main Mix)
7:19 Nigel Hayes: Augustus (Ame remix)
13:08 Blaze: Lovelee Dae (Carl Craig’s 70 Degrees & Sunny mix)
14:40 Kirk Degiorgio presents Esoterik: Starwaves (Jimpster remix)
19:15 Spirit Catcher: Street Hawk
22:18 Booka Shade: Blue Rooms (Original Mix)
25:38 Audio Soul Project: Reality Check (Mix 2)
28:55 Layo & Bushwacka!: Life2Live (Jesse’s Stripper dub)
31:25 Terra Deva: Fresh Start (Derrick Carter’s All Hail The New Ugly Re-Dub)
33:25 Sharon Jones: Want to Need To (Trentemoller remix)
38:38 Terry Francis: Music Freak (Nathan Coles House Mix)
43:20 Spirit Catcher: Voo Doo Knight (Grievous Angel Edit)
47:25 Theo Parrish: Falling Up (Carl Craig Mix)
51:06 Trentemoller: Serenetti (Original Mix)
57:31 Trentemoller: Minimal Fox (Original Mix)
62:20 Dimensions 6: Living In the Sunshine (Ame Ohio Dub)
68:00 Ends
Cos most of the tunes on here are just fabulous
John Eden presents: RSI Radio
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.
DMZ 060506
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.
Bash 21 04 2006
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.
Digital Mystikz at The Plug, Sheffield 21st April
Digital Mystikz’ set last night was the best thing I’ve witnessed in a very long time. I’m just going to tell you how it went and what it felt like. What I will say up-front is that Dubstep played live by a good DJ is just the most exciting music on the planet right now and Mala is an absolutely fantastic DJ.
It was a really sweet crowd and they just got better the longer the night went on. There was a massively friendly vibe, a real sense of community, and the same kind of atmosphere you get at a really nice reggae event, or like it used to be at old underground dance music nights. As you can see from the pictures the crowd was nicely mixed too, with plenty of women soaking up the bass vibes. I have to say I think the Mystikz bring this sort of inclusive, friendly atmosphere with them; it’s like they almost insist on it. Julian C90 did a very good warm-up set. When we got in D1’s Degrees was playing and he went from there to some really very sparkly tuneage. Tight mixing too.
Sure, there was a bit when he was dropping some very downbeat tekky halfsteppers and I couldn’t help thinking that I could see how people could be turned off dubstep if seems too, well, gloomy. I could see where the accusations of it being low in energy come from. But this didn’t last long – Julian rocked it, built up to a really cool climax, finishing with Rhythm & Sound – I think it was King of My Empire.
While bobbing around during his set I met Mala when he was coming in and we chatted for a while. Such a sweet, dignified, focused man. I broke off from talking to him to go dance when Julian played Loefah’s mix of Search & Destroy’s Candy Floss.
Mala came on at midnight. He dropped a bunch of reggae to start, which as you can imagine made me very happy indeed. 
He and Space Ape were bouncing around in the booth in sheer joy but before long Space Ape got down onto the floor and started toasting from within the audience, and he stayed there the whole night. It was such a great way of hyping the crowd.
When Mala started, it was as if a whole range of subs had been added to the sound system. It was monstrous, but they were fiddling with the sound for much of the set, getting the sound guy in every now and then. I actually thought the sound was pretty good. It might not have had the cavernous, round, world-defining bass you get with Iration Steppas or indeed DMZ, but it was still low, full, and loud – excellent really.
http://www.grievousangel.net/MalaDeckle1.jpg
The dubstep kicked off with a bunch of incredibly banging, high-energy tracks that were just stripped down noise-weapons: one-note bass lines in lock-step with the kick that were all about working the bass. It was minimal and slamming but incredibly funky. Then there was a long section of bouncy dubstep rockers, including what has been my favourite tune for the last year, Coki’s Mood Dub – the tune I had most wanted to hear him play.
After the bouncy stuff there was a very long and unbelievably intense section of hard steppas – sufferah’s tunes, in the sense that Mala seemed to be challenging the crowd to go with these incredibly heavy, deep, hard tunes, to endure the sweet punishment of the low-end. And go with it the crowd absolutely did. The heavier the dub, the bigger the response, people were just going mad for it, and the pay-off was this sublime sense of being transported, a really deep sense of spiritual release. And Mala was driven, almost possessed, turning down most requests for rewinds, intent on making the journey ever more intense.
But never to the point of being torturous or worse, dull; there was always a finely honed judgement at work. And at just the right moment Mala relented, dropping an absolutely amazing, slow-burning almost jazz-funk dubstep tune, that I absolutely MUST have. It was a DJing masterstroke; build it right up to a peak of almost unendurable intensity and then drop it right back to nothing, just Space Ape talking you down. Mala is both technically and creatively a superb, almost supernaturally gifted DJ. It wasn’t just that his mixing was tight, it was the whole flow of the set – it reminded me of the flowing, artfully-constructed sets of the great house DJs.
Then it was time for some more up-ful tracks. The crowd was still thick and baying for more, and when Mala dropped Loefah’s Root they went wild. The sense of intimacy and recognition was extraordinary; the crowd were screaming at tunes they obviously had never heard before but were immediately captivated by. It was just awesome.
The last section featured a whole heap of devastating 4×4 steppers that was like really evil, groovy but wonky house, which was just fantastic. And maybe my favourite moment of the night was this massively long, extended mix out of (I think) the VIP mix of Request Line into Kode 9’s Seven Samurai – it seemed to go on forever with wave upon wave of EQ action twisting the sound while Space Ape declaimed over it. Just magnificent.
Finally the lights came on and the roar was vast. I’m not sure that the Sheffield audience was quite as demonstrative during the set as the Mystikz might be used to – that’s Sheffield for you, sweet, soft and laid-back – but the crowd really showed their appreciation at the end. The lights still blazing Mala pulled out one last tune and everybody, as Simon “Whistlebump” Haggis said of his visit to DMZ, “Having it right off really slowly”.
And that was it. I was just overwhelmed by that point, staggered over the booth and mumbled some thanks. It was one of the best musical experiences I’ve had for a long time. Regular readers will know how much seeing the Abyssinians meant to me, how utterly transported and deeply moved I was by their performance. Well, it wasn’t as good as that, but then again, it was a very different kind of musical experience, albeit one with a similar spiritual core. Regular readers will also know how much l love Jah Shaka; for me, at his best and with his system in the right room, he’s the best DJ in the world. Well, Digital Mystikz are very, very nearly as good as Jah Shaka – which is extremely high praise from me – and the music is pretty similar to the more savage steppers’ sections of his performances.
For what Digital Mystikz share with both the Abyssinians and Shaka is that to go see them play is to experience spiritual healing. In my opinion, the Mystikz and Shaka in particular are not just fucking around when they drop relentlessly hard, pounding, one-note bass skankers; it’s not just some metallic testosterone work-out; they’re deliberately putting you in a different spiritual place. It’s like there is SOMETHING LIVING IN THE MUSIC, something really good and strong and powerful.
Dubstep is doing something very special right now and I don’t know how long the beauty of the current scene will last – two years? Three? Forever? – but if you have any opportunity at all to go and experience it, you should seize it.