Brixton to Bristol

Youtubin it...

Back in December, I was lucky enough to witness the making of some of Jamie Woon's video for his release of Wayfaring Stranger on the youth run Live Recordings label. Director Sophie Clements is a genius; I'm not gonna give any of her techniques away but needless to say it involved Jamie standing around in the cold for hours.


Also on youtube is a trailer for 'Living inside the Speaker,' a tale of dubstep's grip on the city of Bristol.

Bristol Catch Up

The next installment of Ruffnek Discotek is on the way headlined by the pseudo mysterious Scuba, Rooted Records is now online, and if you wanna know about last weekend's Dubloaded feat. Mystikz, Pokes, Pinch and Bubonic, go and see the original 'Dad blogger' ,Gutterbreakz for an honest, amusing review and photos by Jack Rampling. Looks and sounds truly heavy weight but then again, I expect no less from Brizzle which is continuously hot on the heels of London in it's quest to saturate the earth with sub bass.

Wild Wild West

Much fun and peace felt in Bristol this weekend, which was largely due to finding myself in places amongst some of the city's finest musicians, DJs and artist types. After bumping into a very calm and quiet D-Bridge buying pasta in Sainsbury's, I later found Dylan & Robyn lounging in the dub chill out room at one of the three house parties that were going on over the course of the weekend where 2 of King-Pin's DJs introduced me to the beautiful sounds of a producer called Nathan Fake and blessed me with the most enjoyable Techno-Breaks set that I've ever experienced. Following by a wicked set of Techy DnB from DJ Kulak, Locus promoter extraordinare Rit kindly saved me from being stranded in the middle of no where and gave me a good early morning tour of the city in the meantime. Shouts to Pinchy who I bumped in to all too briefly on the Saturday whilst on the way to a Chav themed House night at Timbuktu. As dubious as it sounds, it turned out to be one fo the funniest nights I've ever been to and mashed me up so much that by Sunday all I could do was veg at Mako's. His exceptional Photek mix which I hope to make available soon truly iced the weekend cake and not forgetting shouts to Jemma and friends and their porno playing cards, Mr Magman and his Maths lessons (Fractals are cool kids) and of course the Muller man aka Reform who didn't batter an eyelid whilst I frequently nicked his PSP for some Puzzle Bobble action. Big thanks to all... xxx
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Pinched

Bristol is making big steps to become an important nerve centre outside of the capital for the dubstep scene. One of the central figures behind the growth of the Bristol scene is dj, label owner and producer Pinch who as well as being one half of the duo that have brought us bewitching 'Alien Tongue,' has managed to pull off one of the biggest, baddest raves in the scene (Subloaded) and just landed himself a set at the next DMZ all nighter line-up.

Words and interview by Appleblim

Appleblim How did you get into the whole dubstep scene?

Pinch: I didn't really get into dubstep until after I made the pilgrimage to FWD>> with some friends about 18 months ago - walking in on a mind blowing Kode9 set. Until then I’d picked up the odd Tempa bits and some grime but never really realised there was an active scene pushing this dark, atmospheric side of garage that left aside any pretentions of the UK G scene. Instantly hooked I was!

AB: 'Pop Pop' by Vex'd on your Subtext label was a huge tune both in the grime and dubstep world. How did you hook up with Vex'd, and were you surprised with the response?

P: I met Jamie from Vex'd a few years back when he lived in Bristol for a while, through Ginz (30Hz). I was seriously impressed when heard 'Function' (which was written about 3 years ago) and thought it was the best bit of breakbeat I'd heard at the time, loved the filth factor.

I always thought Pop Pop would do well but it was a surprise to see it picked up by DJ's from so many different genres - Kode9, Mark One, Plasticman, Si Begg and even electronica heads and record shops (Boomkat loved it as did Small Fish). That's the sign of a great track in my opinion, and its still my favourite track that we've released.

AB: How long have you been putting on nights in Bristol, who have you booked and how has it been going down?

P: I've been putting on nights regularly for about a year and a half - mostly under the name 'Context', which started with a mixed music policy taking in dub, electronica, broken beat, dubstep, breaks and drum & bass. The dubstep side took increasing precedence as the night built up, though until the end of last year the night always ended with a d&b set but never on a jump-up tip, more the breaky/techie/dubby stuff. Dubstep wise Vex'd and Loefah have graced the decks as have Cyrus (Random Trio), Distance, Search&Destroy and SLT Mob and myself, Blazey, P Dutty and a German guy called Bad-Jah who's single handedly holding down the scene in Berlin.

AB: Do you think Bristol could serve as important a power source for Dubstep music as it did with Drum and Bass?

P: Yeh - I reckon its already going that way. Context now hosts a room at Bristol's longest running d&b night - Drive By, and important recognition that its fitting into place in my opinion.

AB:What did you think of the recent Subloaded rave you put on with Bristol grime innovator DJ Blazey

P: Immense! I think the sound has finally found it's home in Bristol, that venue and the soundsystem that I hired in were a lethal combo. It's weird because in some ways it's like a pikey squat house with bouncers on the doors with people selling mushrooms and laughing gas inside. One of the most pleasing things for me is to see familair faces but this was even better cos their were loads of faces that I didn't know, which is a sign that things are really picking up. I'm just in the process of booking a date for the next one, which should be Autumn. I'm only gonna do it a couple of times a year so that I can really put a lot of energy and time into it because I want it to be a date in everyone's diaries.

AB: How do you feel about being asked to play at the next huge DMZ rave?

P: Honoured.

AB: Which producers/tunes are you really feeling at the moment?

P: Digital Mystikz and Loefah have been on fire recently - Mala and Coki in particular dropped some rhythms at the last DMZ that my head still hasn't got over! I've also been strongly influenced by Plasticman, Kode9 and Vex'd - who have each built an excellent, unique sound for themselves. Everything coming from the dubstep scene has been influential to be honest though -the quality levels are just too high!!

AB: What's coming up from you in the coming months?

P: Well, watch out for my first collaborative release next week even! We've started a new imprint called Tectonic, kicking off with two tracks by me and P Dutty (aka 30Hz) - War Dub and Alien Tongue. War Dub got played on Radio One the other night even - on the Breezeblock show.

AB: Anything else you'd like to add?

Boing.


www.subtext.co.uk
Deeper > Subloaded Review

Sub loaded indeed

enginepower
Originally uploaded by infinite.

Archived Photos: Subloaded Allnighter @ the Black Swan, Bristol. April 15 2005

From the exterior appearance of the Black Swan pub, it was obvious that Subloaded was to be a wickedly grimey, old school rave affair (my favourite nah mean) but by no means was I prepared for what was beyond. Accidentally walking into the dub and reggae filled front door, we were directed to the car park which as we walked through, introduced our bodies to what was in store by fueling our footsteps with bass. Having greeted Pinch- head honcho of the Subloaded organisation and promotional team, we bowled on in and 5 minutes later, found ourselves in the busy and slightly worse for wear bar with Red Bull (apparantly made with Bull's Balls) in our hands, served in plastic cups reminiscent of school disco days.

After some meetings and greetings (hello Appleblim, Engine Room (pictured), Gutterbreakz), I headed off into the main room, via a dark corridor which offered more trips than Thomas Cook (no relation of mine unfortunately). Laughing gas balloons and mushrooms are unseen at London dubstep events, neither in fact, are the bright young things flying high on the dancefloor some of whom appeared to be on their maiden voyage into the infinite skies of the sub low sound.

I walked onto the dancefloor just in time for the second half of Cyrus' (Random Trio) set in which he played a deep, dark and bassy mix of Loefah, D1, Mystikz and of course his own stunningly constructed tunes. Great to hear Lost City on a sound system as a huge, and truly agreeable Dissident sound system. I'd heard that the bass these bad boys produced was "fukkin crazy" but it really did take the piss, with the likes of Goat Stare blowing my ears drumz and contents of my half built Rizla (Loefah owes me one) into the dirty rave night air.

The shape and size of room itself suited the sound nicely, and gradually warmed up as the crowds flocked in to hear the wrath of the Mystikz b2b Loefah and Sgt Pokes unleash itself. The DMZoners played yet another incredible set- one which they obviously enjoyed as much as the crowd. This time, the wait for the dancefloor riddim Neverland was replaced with a wait for the drivin bass of 'that Coki riddim' aka Haunted which shocked all inside last months historic DMZ allnighter. The wait was a long but pleasurable one- dropped second to last with a whole lot of bass heavy beats in between that squeezed every drop of sound from the speakers. Tunes that particularly screamed out were Kode9's Blues, Skreamz Angry Envy; a new big, bad and cold killa from Loefah, reportedly produced the night before and Mala' Antiwar Dub, a warm and refreshing 4x4 beat and a nice note to end the set on.

Plasticman also played a huge set, despite struggling with the stressed right hand deck needle. Dammit, the night was so peachy, something had to test the DJ's. Cha Remix and Shallow Grave (now classics) were well received as was a new to me MC track which was quite simply fukking brilliant. The set in general was slightly dislocated and psychedelic and was consumed with vigour by the now mashed crowd.

By the time Vex'd hit the stage, I was ready to hit the road home via the M4 in an incredibly uncomfortable hired Ka. Kode9 humming driving bass lines and the most awe inspiring 5 in the morning ground fog gave the journey an other worldly vibe and added to the feeling that the sounds personified by the likes of Kode and the rest of the free bass thinking circle- Digital Mystikz, Loefah, Skreamz, Chef, Random Trio, Youngsta, D1 are making a huge and indelible impression on the current musical landscape.

Props really and truly have to go to Pinch and the Brizzle's team who have managed to build one helluva strong suspension bridge between Bristol and what is predominantly a London scene. It's wonderful to travel to a different part of the island and feel not just welcomed but honoured to be there, and even more satisfying to see a completely different crowd totally buzzing on the vibes. From the movements of the crowd and the artists, the word on the forum and my own experience, I have no doubt that what I witnessed was not just the merging of two cities united in sound and energy but a room full of people falling in love.

CONTEXT: 18 SEPTEMBER

Saturday September 18 @ Timbuktu, Bristol

ROOM 1:
LOEFAH (DMZ, Big Apple,Tempa)
CYRUS(Random Trio Productions, Rinse FM)
BIOS AND CAMERON (Movement)
PUFFIN JACKS (Deep Bleeps)

with SGT.POKES (Digital Mystikz) on the MIC.

ROOM 2
EL SID & PAUL ROSE (Rinse FM, Hotflush
SPITFIRE (Reality)
HENRY (Dubstudio)
PIPELINE (Super Funk Set)

10pm-2am Tax: £3 b4 11pm, £4 after View flyer