Sun is Shining...

sunshine and pollution (streatham)
Originally uploaded by infinite.

...bring it on

Dusk at Homelands

Dusk at Homelands
Originally uploaded by infinite.

Shouts to the Lady M for being a more than willing dancing partner. Although we danced through many a wicked set, quite simply put, Norman Jay is the way.

Radio1: Grime and Dubstep Special

Red Mystik
Originally uploaded by soulsnatcha.

Props to Radio 1's Mary-Anne Hobbs who is one of the few commercial Radio DJ's reppin the Dubstep sounds that have been tearing up the Underground. Last week she put on a special Grime and Dubstep dedicated show which featured the likes of Vex'd, Pinch , D1 and Roll Deep and of course, Digital Mystikz in the mix. The Mystikz set was annoyingly cut short due to lack of time, so upon receiving loads of emails, Mary-Anne played out the rest of the set which featured the incredible 'New Life' (brings a tear to my eye everytime I hear it) on this weeks show as well as Loefah's storming 'Root.'

Listen to this weeks show here....

(also listen out for FBC Fabric near the beginning of the show...one of the best new UK HH producers around at the mo in my humble opinion!)

Niceness....

Reasons to be Cheerful 1,2,3

Now that the DMZ photos are off the production line, I've got a little bit of time to tell you about what I've been up to.

1. Chillin with the South Side Youngers:

Ashton (aka Bashton/Bashment), my stinky but sweet nephew has been staying with me. He's 19 months and already has a penchant for partying. Walks in to my house, looks through my records, chucks away the ones he doesn't like the look of (I keep trying to explain to him that you can't judge a record by it's sleeve but he doesn't seem to get it), has a read of Undercover Magazine before deciding to deface the pictures and then walks over to my stereo and cranks up the volume. His latest favourites are some D1 beats that I'm in the process of writing about. Considering they're deep, dark and eerie sounds, that's quite worrying, but then again, maybe he just takes after his Auntie when it comes to musical tastes. I'll give him a column one day.

2. Sounds:

Blackdown and Dusk's first release on Keysound Recordings- I'm particularly feeling the second track Submerge which has a wicked skank to it. A slightly quirky, off key sounding rhythm with a warm feel- and a step which conjures up the image of a cartoon character walking with a bounce down a sunny street. Drenched is minimalist and a lot colder in atmosphere, opening with the sounds of the Dubstep Express train (London Bridge to Croydon via Streatham and Norwood) on what sounds like a shitty day in London. A creeping bass line and an industrial kinda grating noise which loops underneath gives it a pissed off and slightly paranoid vibe and one that makes you even more pleased of the warmth of the second track. Listen Here >

Appleblim and Shackleton have also been on repeat for the past few months. Blim's Girder Dub is now a favourite of mine-it's driving bass line sounding even bigger and bolder at the last DMZ night. Loving the industrial vibe-conjured up by the metallic sounds and delays on the claps which lead the ear into some big bold space. It almost sounds like Blim's been jamming in Battersea Power Station. Mystical Warrior is another industrial sounding affair with a whole host of beeps and blips plus an aggy Freak Recordings style B-line. It also has a slight early Mystikz feel to it and due to the name- I'm wondering if the tune is kind of a nod to the producers that I see Appleblim raving to every month.

I once knew a guy who spent all his time hitting tea cups with forks, writing down the notes they produced and recording them, breathing into microphones and generally seeing the whole world and all the objects within it as an infinite room full of instruments. Shackleton (pictured above) appears to be of this breed experimenting with as many sounds as humanly possible and cramming them into 8 tunes that were sent to me recently. Featuring stripped down bars of mad eeks and cries laid over hard digital bass lines (New Dawn), eerie sounding strings and exhalations, bongo's (I Am Animal), Dance-hall flavoured bass lines and what sounds like an electric guitar going nuts in the background (Massacre), Shackleton is definitely the king of kook and one who generally sounds like he's having big fun with sound.

Some new Skope's beats. The man's been working hard recently and considering he's been producing for under a year, 15 signings is pretty good going. Sinking is my new favourite Skopey track- a soul-tipped bubbla with a delicate Joan Armatrading (one of Britains finest) vocal loop running throughout although the wonderfully warm but still slightly edgy sounds of How Do You Feel are also giving me reasons to be cheerful. He's set for the big time as we've known all along. Keep an eye on this place for a newly updated Skope's profile about to drop soon... the last one's kinda out of date (oops). Check a recent set of his Here, courtesy of Inperspective Records and Noir.org.

Last week's Youngsta and Task show which I had the pleasure of witnessing for myself. The audio is available Here, thanks to Mr Dubway and www.dubplate.net. The show features Yunx's usual Beat-juggling skills plus a half an hour performance from the man like Loefah during which he drops some explosive DMZ bombs.

Size9: Shouts to lead singer Breezy who blew me across Hannah's gorgeous garden where the gig took place in honour of web-designer Nobby's birthday. Her voice, stage presence and image are phenomenal and she sings with so much emotion and attitude. I danced happily in my high heels with a vodka in hand and smile 'pon face and was for one night only, transported to South America via the seriously good Latin and Jazz-Funk sounds of the band and Hannah's amazing Colombian cuisine. Catch Size9 at Croydon's summer festival this year. www.sizenine.net

3. Hot Chocolate, Red Peppers, Berocca and last weekends little bit of sunshine that made it necessary to consume these things.

I've got that weird lump-on-one-side-of-the-throat feeling and as various people have reported their ills to me recently, I can only assume that I too, am coming down with a cold no doubt induced by the fucked up weather system of our little island. The above selections of food stuffs are my weapons against it developing into something bad (god forbid that I'll get so ill that I don't make it to Valve on Saturday). Did you know that Red Peppers contain three times more Vitamin C than Oranges (and are better for the teeth)? Here's a tip, they go nicely with Houmous. My all time cure for colds, flus and hangover's however is Berocca- it turns your wee a weird yellow colour but it tastes wicked and is full of enough vitamins to revive the deadest of dub zombies (< guess who's back!). As for the Hot Chocolate, well- there's only one and it goes by the name of Green and Black's. A beautiful fairly traded tropical storm in a teacup but too much of it induces nightmares in which vertically challenged people wearing jet packs come and get ya...no lies, I'm still traumatised by that one.

4. Alright so the 'Reasons to be cheerful' song only has 3 reasons, but I've got a few more including:
Chatting to Youngsta about why CD-J's can never rival Vinyl (coming soon)....Reaching Blues and Soul Magazine with a pic of Mala on the decks, Poax looking gruff and Wiley and Jammer feelin the vibes at Forward>>....Reading Riko Dan's blog (thanks to Blackdown for the link)....and much, much more....

Without Further A Do...

Fist of Fury
Originally uploaded by soulsnatcha.

I bring you :

DMZ 2: MAY 7 2005 pics >

DMZ 2 Review >

www.dmzuk.com

The future, the future and the stuff of legends

DMZ 2, 7 May 2005, 3rd Base Brixton.

As it said on the flyer, meditation it is, but along with the seriously deep vibes that float around 3rd Base during DMZ, comes the entire body work out. Stomach, head and feet are all feeling the strain of 8 hours of bass weight hitting my insides but I could have danced all night it was that good. Alright, I pretty much did dance all night thanks to the incredible tune selection. I don't think there was one tune that wasn't worthy of at least a nod of the head or a shake of the derriere- Digital Mystikz b2b Loefah and Sgt Pokes, again providing 2 hours of pure power in the form of all those new Coki twisted bass line riddims floating around (Haunted again receiving countless rewinds), soulful Mala beats (Anti-war dub, Forgive) and half step head rockers from Loefah (another new beat with a wicked vocal sample) as well as all the bits from Random Trio, Skream and D1 that make up the DMZ playlist.

Not to say it was just about the DMZ set- oooooh no, Pinch and Chef did an astounding job of warming up a crowd that took a while to defrost, between them dropping everything from Appleblim's Girder dub (sounded heavy!) to some Skreamz classics. D1's set was even better than I expected- the mans decksterity culminating in a heady and heavy Neverland mix which shook the dancefloor into action. Also wicked to hear the original Dubstep Allstar Hatcha with Crazy D on full form - there's something immensely soothing about Crazy's voice with the heads in the crowd creating a choir to sing along to the 'itchy' line (Blim and Engine Room guilty) and Hatcha indulging us in everything from new Benga to old Hatcha proved he's still one of the dons of the dubstep dancefloors.

SLT's Bandit and Q Gritty also shook the place up, dropping a hardcore, energetic mix of Toasty style breaks, Grime and Dubstep including Jazz Lick which hasn't been heard for a while but was greatly enjoyed, alongside the mic skills of MC's Vicious and Dangerous winding up the dancefloor with the already infamous 'gash' at the front.

Undeniably though, it was Horsepower who really rocked the church. In a body rocking, head nodding homage to the roots of the DMZ sound, Benny Ill and Lev Jnr alongside an extremely upbeat Pokes, treated the 5 am stamina gang to an hour of the baddest, fattest, heaviest Jungle. I wasn't around during the Jungle days- (far too busy doing my homework), so up until now, my journeys through it's subbed out, dubbed out, drum-wise soundscapes have mostly involved listening to it in people's houses whilst they provide a commentary as to why DnB is shit these days. Horsepower provided a much needed opportunity to hear it as it might have sounded back in the day- on a big soundsystem surrounded by big people.

Amongst the selection, a couple of tunes that I've never had the chance to bruk out to until then, including 'I Bring U The Future' (Booooooo!) and Dillinja's 'You Don't Know' which myself and a now bouncy crowd (not forgetting the rowdy SE25 crew in the corner) truly made the most of. So, to Horsepower, thank-you for what was perhaps the most appreciated lesson in music since my first Dubstep venture to Forward around a year ago. To all the loyal heads on the dancefloor and to the DMZ team; here's to 8 hours spent living for the moment with each moment being a tremendous tune, a smiling face or a wicked conversation.

Pics coming soon...

www.dmzuk.com

Darling buds of May

What I love about going to events is not just the music, but the interesting chats I end up getting involved in.

Last night's Technicality provided more than just another baad set from man like Bailey but also an education in resonance. According to Ben Kei (doa), a certain part of the female anatomy resonates at a certain frequency (around 33Hz according to this website). An ex tutor of his dedicated a lot of his time to exploring the results of this frequency with his girlfriend and was known to play it during his lectures. I've gotta admit this little bite of info had me in stitches so props to Mr Kei for the giggle. Further still, I was chatting to Breakage about it who said that it's actually quite a well known theory amongst sound boys although the exact frequency is debatable. However, if the optimal frequency of this part of a woman's anatomy is indeed 33hz, it would explain why a lot of the ladies he knows particularly like his dubby tunes. So don't expect a conversation with any of the girls next time you hear So Vain, Ask Me, Rise or Long Time being dropped on a proper sound system.

Jokes aside, Technicality was wicked on all levels last night despite the crowd being slightly down in numbers. Bailey and his bag of tricks somehow managed to bring some much needed clarity to the system after a nicely selected (good to hear Future Unknown by Krust!!) but muddy sounding D-Bridge set. The last 20 minutes of Bailey's set was particularly stormin- a Breakage (and SP) beat so fresh that the CD had never been played before and skipped cos it hadn't been tested for scratches or dust. Rare to hear a Bailey set go tits up- but you can't blame him and in fact, it could have been a sneaky way for Breakage to get his tune rewound.

Shouts to Lab Creation's MC Blackeye who finally his first proper warm welcome at Technicality after a stint with Skopes at last months event. It was a warm voice, and one that was obviously feeling the vibe which seemed to collect in right hand corner of the DJ booth amongst the suicidal beer bottles. Also shouts to the couple of Fame-esque ravers on the dancefloor who took up enough space to have the rest of us think the place was packed, and whilst they were there, flexed one or two poses that I couldnt resist snapping.