A little while back Firehouse held their 5th anniversary at Stengade and invited the mighty Iration Steppers to come and play. Earlier on the same evening, a workshop was organised, where Mark Iration gave a little talk about how he got into the business and his whole musical background. I managed to capture the first half hour on my iPhone and have uploaded it for your viewing pleasure.
Enjoy!
lørdag den 11. december 2010
søndag den 10. oktober 2010
DMZ @ Vega 09/10/2010
Kl. 18 startede jeg med at sætte gear op sammen med Glenn. Francis kom selvfølgelig for sent med basserne, men det gjorde nu ikke så meget. Jeg var bare glad for at se de kære små igen. Igår var der faktisk så mange af dem at jeg ikke engang gad at tælle hvor meget bas der egentlig var, men det så skidegodt ud med den mur af scoops og kick bins foran scenen. Glenn og Francis' efterhånden småklassiske bitcheri om hinandens baskunnen er også en ekstra hyggefaktor. Har jeg sagt til jer idag at jeg elsker jer?
Jannick/JSL og Stanley Most ankom lidt over syv for at lave lydprøve til hans liveset. Helt klart en af tingene jeg var spændt på at høre den aften, udover kongerne. Samtidig begyndte der at svirre rygter om at Loefah ikke ville dukke op. Noget med et bedre betalt job i L.A. eller noget. Dumt. Der var også noget pre-party/reception, så fra kl. 20:00 var der gratis guldbajere og folk begyndte stille og roligt at dukke op, mens vi rodede videre med mere bas end din mor. Der blev også testet lys, lasere og røgmaskine. Sidstnævnte mest når vi skulle ordne et eller andet lige foran den.
Lidt over 8 ankom DMZ: Mala, Coki, Sgt. Pokes... men ingen Loefah. Oh well. De andre 3 virkede dog i hopla og var ganske fornøjelige. Mala var den rolige, checkede og professionelle som man har set i interviews rundt omkring. Coki er den stille i gruppen og talte stort set kun med sine 2 medsammensvorne, men virkede glad, ydmyg og dansede rundt. Pokes var én lang talestrøm og underholdt alle i nærheden med jokes og imitationer. Loefah hvem?
Vi fik ordnet det sidste af lyden og kl. 22 gik 2000F så på med et UK Funky set. Jeg er stadig ikke solgt på den genre, så jeg smuttede over på Pasha for at få mig en ordentlig omgang mad, så jeg havde en chance for at klare nattens basbombardemant. Da jeg kom tilbage var der så småt begyndt at komme flere folk til, men det var tydeligt at DMZ på ingen måde er lige så hypede som f.eks. Skream & Benga eller Rusko. Aftenens booking var også mere rettet mod musikfanatikere end random hipsters og folk der synes at Borgore's "My Favourite Things" er det vildeste de nogensinde har hørt. Fuck, hvor jeg dog hader det lort.
Helt kødmæt lagde jeg mig om backstage og ventede på at blodomløbet i hjernen kom tilbage.
Helt kødmæt lagde jeg mig om backstage og ventede på at blodomløbet i hjernen kom tilbage.
Tim Driver overtog roret lidt senere, og fulgte op på Frederiks UKF, før han skruede op for den dybe Drum 'n' Bass han er begyndt at spille meget af på det seneste. Helt klart et af de bedre sets jeg har hørt ham spille, og på en måde var det også noget af det mest sammenhængende jeg kom til at høre den aften. Det passede bare perfekt til det tidspunkt på aftenen. Godt gået, dawg! Opvarmningen blev rundet af med Kristobal, der fræsede lidt for meget mellemtone til min smag.
På grund af Loefahs afbud var det hele blevet rykket en time, så JSL gik på kl. 00:30. Har hørt ham som en glimrende DJ i mange år nu, og hans egne produktioner har givet ham en solid fanskare over hele verden, så det ville som sagt blive spændende at høre hvad han kunne byde på live (Ableton på en laptop + 3 controllere). Godt nok havde jeg hørt lidt på sommerens Trans Metro Express, men der gik det hele mere op i: "OMG! Vi fester i metroen!" og et ret random lydbillede. Jeg har også lovet ham at være vildt kritisk i min anmeldelse, så here goes. Numrene i sig selv fejlede ikke noget, og det var rigtig fedt at høre nogle heftigt remixede versioner af hans kendte tracks. De ukendte ting lød også spændende. Til gengæld var den gal med opbygningen af settet. Hver gang jeg var kommet lidt op og køre over noget, kom der et break der liiiige varede lidt for længe eller et loop der fik lov til at køre tomgang. Numrenes rækkefølge virkede også lidt tilfældig. Et prima eksempel er "Morder Dem", som utroligt nok kunne få både mig og resten af Vega helt oppe og ringe stadigvæk. Han spillede faktisk en rigtig, rigtig fed, fuldstændig omarrangeret, version af den, men den kom allerede som andet nummer i settet, så folk hang pludselig helt oppe under loftet, og det næste nummer kunne ikke rigtig holde dem deroppe. Stanley Most kom også lige ind på scenen til de sidste 2-3 sange, mens hans mikrofon var ikke høj nok før halvejs gennem andet nummer... GLENN!!!
Alt i alt var det dog godt at høre, men der skal helt klart arbejdes mere med opbygning af settet. 7 ud af 10 LFO peaks.
Opbygning og rækkefølge bliver generelt et problematisk punkt resten af aftenen.
Nu var klokken så ét, og det var tid til aftenens højdepunkt: DMZ, især Mala, manden der ga' denne verden "Neverland". Han lagde ud med et helt straight reggaenummer, før han gik direkte over i sit phuture-beyond-phuture-shit. Der er bare ingen der lyder som ham og han lyder ikke som andre. Hans produktioner er enestående og på det her enorme anlæg kunne man også virkelig høre hvor meget han går op i sine baslyde, hvilket ellers er et ret svært område at skabe den store variation i. Man kunne måske ikke så meget høre, som mærke de forskellige frekvenser og lydbølgernes udformning. Selv bag lydpulten kunne jeg føle hvordan de forskellige toner fik dele af krop, tøj og alt i området til at vibrere på hver deres måde. Simpelthen awesome. Udover bassen er resten selvfølgelig også perfekt: rytmer som ingen andre har tænkt på endnu og lyde som man ikke ved fungerer før man hører dem i hans regi. Det er seriøst mindblowing stuff uden at blive så nørdet at man holder op med at danse.
Efter at den halvdøve dread havde fået folk med på DMZ-bussen, begyndte han at skiftes ved pulten med Coki. Udover at være den anden halvdel af Digital Mystikz, har han også den efterhånden tvivlsomme ære af at være manden der opfandt wobblebassen, på B-siden af DMZ 007 (Hey LCSS!) med nummeret "Haunted". Cokis produktion er meget splittet. På den ene side er han fortsat ud af wobblestien, som er blevet mere og mere skingrende vanvittig for hans vedkommende. Mange har lavet hårdere numre end ham, til et punkt hvor de fleste nok tror at wobblebas og dubstep er synonymer, men ingen kan nå det fuldstændigt psykotiske sted han er nået til. Når det fungerer og hans tracks rammer det rigtige sted på det rigtige tidspunkt, er det som at få en lungefuld skunk fra den ultramuterede gren i år 2086. Den anden side af hans produktion består mest i at lave refixes af reggae- og dancehall-bangere. Igen er det også en meget ensporet og hit-and-miss-præget affære. Det siger dog en hel del, at når han smider hans 3 år gamle hjernevrider "Spongebob" i Vegas face, så går stedet berserk.
Anyways, de 2 partnere skiftes nu til at spille nogle tracks hver de næste timer. Nogle gange veksler det perfekt mellem Malas Hubble teleskop observationer og Cokis mere jordnære hysterianfald og partyslaskere, andre gange bliver det for abrupt et skift og man mister den røde tråd i festen. Det ene øjeblik er det sublimt og man lovpriser at Gud har givet en dette moment på vor jord, det næste er det hele så'n lidt ligegyldigt. Forstå mig ret. Jeg går fra: "FuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!" til: "hmmmm... bumbumbum... mon jeg snart skulle skride hjem? Jeg er lidt træt.".
Endnu en meget sigende sekvens kommer til sidst i deres set, hvor Mala dræber mig fuldstændigt med det smukkeste, skrøbeligste og samtidigt fyldige remix af hans i forvejen mesterlige "Changes". Jeg har ikke hørt så episk et dubstepnummer siden 2006. Jeg er faktisk tæt på at græde af glæde. Klokken var så godt som 3 og jeg kunne ikke ha' ønsket mig en bedre afslutning, men så kommer Coki på igen og spiller først hans okay refix af Mavado: "Weh Dem A Do" og så et noget rodet refix af Mavado & Busy Signal: "Badman Place", før han lige fyrer mere panikangstswobble af. Til sidst slutter Mala så af med sidste track og titelnummer fra hans Return II Space triple-pack på DMZ. Jeg smutter hjem.
Sgt. Pokes gjorde heller ikke det helt store for mig igår. Han havde helt klart sine øjeblikke og er stadigvæk en af de allerbedste hosts/hypemen, men det må også være svært at piske en stemning op når musikken skifter så meget. Uoplagt var han ihvertfald ikke, og det er stadig imponerende at se og høre det store menneske danse, brøle og fjolle sig gennem lyset og røgen. Et smukt indslag var da han fik lysmanden til at skrue ned for al lys, og det meste af Store vega til at holde lightere og mobiler op. En cliché, men det så flot ud. Jeg bli'r også lige nød til at droppe ordet "predator" i dette referat.
Det er også svært ikke at holde denne fest op mod Benga & Skream festen. Samme promotere, samme sted, samme genre, men 2 helt forskellige oplevelser. Hvor B&S var én stor helstøbt eksplosion, var det her små forskudte festraketter rundt omkring på horisonten, kun bundet sammen af den absolut massive lydvæg Glenn og Francis havde tryllet frem, for den fejlede ABSOLUT INTET, udover Stanleys mikrofon. Lyset var også lidt sløjt. Jeg blev allerede lidt nervøs da jeg i starten af aftenen hørte at de 3 lasere bare ville køre på automatik, med småjusteringer til deres mønsterskifttempo nogle gange i løbet af natten. Når der i forvejen er så lidt lys til en fest, så lægger man lynhurtigt mærke til det der er, og også om det passer til musikken og stemningen. Når noget bare ligger og kører en preprogrammeret sekvens af over nogle timer, så vil det muligvis nogle gange ramme rigtigt, hvilket også skete på smuk vis, men meget ofte virke så tilfældigt som det egentlig er. Ham der styrede lyspulten virkede også ret uengageret det meste af tiden. Publikum var dog et klart lyspunkt igår. Selvom der ikke var fuldstændigt proppet var folk pænt meget oppe og ringe. Crowdsurfing til Malas 3. track er dog måske lige i overkanten og var lidt Pavlovs hund agtigt. Folk var generelt glade og det var klart at de fleste var der for musikkens skyld. Ingen sure miner og ingen brider som til Rusko. Dejligt.
i sidste ende ville jeg ikke havde gået glip af denne aften. Mala langede simpelthen for mange rystende musikalske oplevelser over pulten og Cokis psykoser var glimtvis katarsiske. Årets fest går dog stadig til Skream, Benga og Pokes.
En stor tak til alle involverede og især Geo & Co. for ikke bare at gå efter pengene, men satse stort på musik!
Lidt utydelige billeder her.
Noget bedre billeder og video fra Walker her.
P.S.: Katja og Katrine var forresten heeeeeelt syyyyyygt stive og rowdy, væltede rundt, pissede på alt og alle, brækkede sig konstant, røg LSD og fixede hash på scenen, var oppe og slås med alle dørmændende samtidigt, smadrede Lille Vegas scene, pruttede på en bartender, snavede med en hund ude på gaden, sov på en bænk på Israels Plads og fortjener deres helt egen lille sætning i dette referat. Hejhej!
i sidste ende ville jeg ikke havde gået glip af denne aften. Mala langede simpelthen for mange rystende musikalske oplevelser over pulten og Cokis psykoser var glimtvis katarsiske. Årets fest går dog stadig til Skream, Benga og Pokes.
En stor tak til alle involverede og især Geo & Co. for ikke bare at gå efter pengene, men satse stort på musik!
Lidt utydelige billeder her.
Noget bedre billeder og video fra Walker her.
P.S.: Katja og Katrine var forresten heeeeeelt syyyyyygt stive og rowdy, væltede rundt, pissede på alt og alle, brækkede sig konstant, røg LSD og fixede hash på scenen, var oppe og slås med alle dørmændende samtidigt, smadrede Lille Vegas scene, pruttede på en bartender, snavede med en hund ude på gaden, sov på en bænk på Israels Plads og fortjener deres helt egen lille sætning i dette referat. Hejhej!
P.P.S.: Rettelserne vælter ind nu. En lydmand skriver: "det ku være der varen der sku lære at snakke i mikrofonen, ik".
LCSS får lidt oprejsning: Klaus Boss har ikke DMZ 007.
onsdag den 4. august 2010
Long lost treasures.
I recently found 2 tracks on youtube that I have been looking for since the early nineties.
The first one is this little gem from Italian producer/DJ Lory D.
Back in 89-91, when I was discovering House and techno while i was attending the European School in Brussels, my friend Lorenzo was my main source for this kind of music and information about it. This was before the internet was everywhere, so it was pretty hard to get any info on any of this stuff. I would go out to parties and hear tracks, maybe ask the DJ for the title, and hopefully remember it the next day. If I was really lucky I would find the vinyl record or some CD-compilation with the track later on. Back then the whole thing was still really small as well. Tiny recordlabels with limited pressings, artists that constantly changed names, white labels and an insistance on it being all about the music, instead of faces, places and image.
Anyway, this track showed up on one of the mixtapes Lorenzo regularly made for our crew of partymonsters, and that was THE ONLY PLACE I ever heard it. The tape got lost and I haven't heard it since, 'til I found it on youtube last week, despite searching for it for all these years. I never forgot about it, though. Damn, I love that song.
Next track was another mystery to me. Still no idea who Urban Jungle is.
When I moved to London back in '94, I quickly began listening to Jungle on the pirate radio stations over there, and occasionally recording some of the sets on tape. On one of these tapes, this track showed up. The DJ or MC would occasionally announce what songs were being played, but of course that wasn't the case here, so I had absolutely no idea what this was, and I was too shy and lazy to go around record shops and try and sing the vocal hook to shop assistants, in the hope of finding out more about it. For many years all I had was this one tape with the track. This was also the only tape I would still listen to, if I got near a functioning tape deck.
Next thing that happened was me attending some party about 4-5 years ago, where my man 2000F was billed to play an old school Jungle set. To my immense surprise he dropped this in the middle of his set and I actually cried with joy! Afterwards I obviously asked what the hell it was called, but all he could show me was another white label. Argh!
Finally, Kode9 did a mix for FACT magazine and there it was! Artist, track title and everything!
I'm obviously happy that I finally found these two, but at the same time there's a weird sense of loss. For so many years these songs almost only existed in my head, and there was something mystic, almost magical about them. Especially the Lory D track, since I hadn't heard it at all since about '92. Sometimes i wondered if it really existed, or if it was my drug addled brain playing tricks on me: it could have been a mix of 2 or more tracks or just too much LSD warping my hearing.
Now that I can hear those tracks whenever I want, it doesn't make them bad. They're both amazing tunes that have stood the test of time really well, but the mystery has been lost.
Ignorance will always be bliss.
The first one is this little gem from Italian producer/DJ Lory D.
Back in 89-91, when I was discovering House and techno while i was attending the European School in Brussels, my friend Lorenzo was my main source for this kind of music and information about it. This was before the internet was everywhere, so it was pretty hard to get any info on any of this stuff. I would go out to parties and hear tracks, maybe ask the DJ for the title, and hopefully remember it the next day. If I was really lucky I would find the vinyl record or some CD-compilation with the track later on. Back then the whole thing was still really small as well. Tiny recordlabels with limited pressings, artists that constantly changed names, white labels and an insistance on it being all about the music, instead of faces, places and image.
Anyway, this track showed up on one of the mixtapes Lorenzo regularly made for our crew of partymonsters, and that was THE ONLY PLACE I ever heard it. The tape got lost and I haven't heard it since, 'til I found it on youtube last week, despite searching for it for all these years. I never forgot about it, though. Damn, I love that song.
Next track was another mystery to me. Still no idea who Urban Jungle is.
When I moved to London back in '94, I quickly began listening to Jungle on the pirate radio stations over there, and occasionally recording some of the sets on tape. On one of these tapes, this track showed up. The DJ or MC would occasionally announce what songs were being played, but of course that wasn't the case here, so I had absolutely no idea what this was, and I was too shy and lazy to go around record shops and try and sing the vocal hook to shop assistants, in the hope of finding out more about it. For many years all I had was this one tape with the track. This was also the only tape I would still listen to, if I got near a functioning tape deck.
Next thing that happened was me attending some party about 4-5 years ago, where my man 2000F was billed to play an old school Jungle set. To my immense surprise he dropped this in the middle of his set and I actually cried with joy! Afterwards I obviously asked what the hell it was called, but all he could show me was another white label. Argh!
Finally, Kode9 did a mix for FACT magazine and there it was! Artist, track title and everything!
I'm obviously happy that I finally found these two, but at the same time there's a weird sense of loss. For so many years these songs almost only existed in my head, and there was something mystic, almost magical about them. Especially the Lory D track, since I hadn't heard it at all since about '92. Sometimes i wondered if it really existed, or if it was my drug addled brain playing tricks on me: it could have been a mix of 2 or more tracks or just too much LSD warping my hearing.
Now that I can hear those tracks whenever I want, it doesn't make them bad. They're both amazing tunes that have stood the test of time really well, but the mystery has been lost.
Ignorance will always be bliss.
søndag den 1. august 2010
NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM
As promised, here's a bunch of mixes that have been hyping me up lately.
To set things off with a blast, a bit of Dubstep heavyweight championship bidnizz. Magnetic Man, AKA Benga, Skream & Artwork, on the legendary BBC Essential Mix. 2 hours of proof that these guys are the masters of contemporary raving. Sometimes it sounds like something straight out of 1992, until I listen closer and notice the different rythms, basslines and production values. The overall feeling of full-on euphoria and 'avin' it is the same, though.
Tracklist:
01. Essential Mix – Intro
02. Track ID
03. Track ID
04. Track ID
05. Magnetic Man feat Ms. Dynamite – Fire
06. Benga – 808
07. Redlight – Stupid
08. DJ Zinc – Killa Sound (Skream Remix)
09. Nero – Welcome Reality
10. Track ID
11. Benga – Smack Your Bitch Up
12. Nero – Innocence
13. Drumsound & Bassline Smith – Fu Man Chu (Dubstep Mix)
14. Redlight feat. Ms. Dynamite – What You Talkin’ About
15. Magnetic Man – Track ID
16. Track ID
17. Track ID
18. Joker & TC – It Ain’t Got A Name
19. Magnetic Man – The Bug
20. Track ID
21. Skream – Rollin’ Kicks VIP
22. Magnetic Man feat. Angela Hunte – I Need Air
23. Magnetic Man – MAD
24. Skream – Raw Dogz
25. Skream – Wibbler
26. Crissy Criss – Kick Snare VIP
27. Sub Focus – Last Jungle
28. Skream – Stand Up
29. Mr Bratt – Selecta
30. Heist – I’m A Killer
31. F-Money – Left The Room (Skreamix)
32. James Blake – CMYK
33. Estelle – I Can Be A Freak (ID Bootleg)
34. ID – I Warned Ya
35. Trolley Snatcha – Pass Me By
36. TC & Jakes – Real Talk VIP
37. Track ID
38. Skream – WTF?
39. Benga & Youngman – Ho!
40. Benga – Mini Motor Cross
41. Track ID
42. Track ID
43. Toddla T – Sky Surfing (Benga Remix)
44. Subscape – Just Because
45. Benga – Who Remembers
46. Track ID
47. Skream feat Sam Frank – Where You Should Be
48. Track ID
49. Magnetic Man feat. Katy B – Perfect Stranger
Download the whole mix here. Thanks to Tim Driver for alerting me to this one.
Also includes their brand new single: "I Need Air"
Second course is a bit of Grime, which has been seriously left in the dust by it's once shy cousin Dubstep. For years grime has tried to get out of the underground, but the only people who have crossed overr, like Dizzee rascal and Lady S.O.V., have basically stopped making Grime and done more of a Hip Hop/Pop thing. Not that there's anything wrong with them doing that, but it's very rare to hear them doing any Grime tracks. People like Wiley, who are apparently impossible to work with, aren't really doing the genre any favours either. Wiley also flooded the internet recently by uploading more than 200(!) of his own unreleased tracks, which can be downloaded here.
Anyway, back to the mixes. DTALDN is a nice Grime blog, and DJ Magic has put together an extremely nice mix for them, which you can grab here. Tempa T, Ghetto, Killa P, Badness, Faction G and a whole gang of top notch MCs are on this, spitting over mad beats. I'm amazed that this thing is free, it's THAT good. Thanks to AJ for the tip!
If you feel like chilling out a little tiny bit after that, I don't blame you, so here's some softer, R'n'B flavoured grime from top producer Terror Danjah. He just decided to put his 2007 album/compilation "Shock to the System" up for free download. Get it here. Lots of good stuff on there. Thanks to AJ again!
This last thing I'm having a bit of trouble with. It's by 2000F & JKAMATA, who have been on fire for quite some time now. Together they've been producing and remixing up a storm with their unique blend of sleazy 80's Funk/Soul and dubstep. Their latest remix of Low Pressure: "Babylon Big Time" is a monster. 2000F is also a part of the invincible OHOI!, who together with some others put on the yearly RAW event here in Copenhagen. This year, the people behind Raw have decided to promote the event with a series of mixes put together by some of the DJs playing on the night, called The RAW Tapes. 2KF and Kamata somehow decided that they had to contribute a NINE HOUR LONG MIX, taking in most of their influences, favourite tunes and some of their own tracks along the way. Nine. Fucking. Hours. The tracklist for this musical Leviathan is just stupidly long, but contains nothing but straight up goodness. Soul, Funk, Jazz, Electro, Hip Hop, Techno, Ghetto Bass, Jungle, House, Dubstep, R'n'B, etc.... It's all right here.
I repeat: nine hours. What's wrong with these people? Make sure you free up about 800MB on your iPod.
If you're wondering how they did it, they first recorded tunes from vinyl into Ableton Live for 4 days. After that they spent another week piecing it all together: freezing it down from 173(!) tracks, rendering for 2 nights into 4 different .wav files, since they can max. be 2GB each, then splicing those together, converting to mp3, and finally lots of trial and error trying to find a place to upload and host it all. Labour of love!
Happy listening!
To set things off with a blast, a bit of Dubstep heavyweight championship bidnizz. Magnetic Man, AKA Benga, Skream & Artwork, on the legendary BBC Essential Mix. 2 hours of proof that these guys are the masters of contemporary raving. Sometimes it sounds like something straight out of 1992, until I listen closer and notice the different rythms, basslines and production values. The overall feeling of full-on euphoria and 'avin' it is the same, though.
Tracklist:
01. Essential Mix – Intro
02. Track ID
03. Track ID
04. Track ID
05. Magnetic Man feat Ms. Dynamite – Fire
06. Benga – 808
07. Redlight – Stupid
08. DJ Zinc – Killa Sound (Skream Remix)
09. Nero – Welcome Reality
10. Track ID
11. Benga – Smack Your Bitch Up
12. Nero – Innocence
13. Drumsound & Bassline Smith – Fu Man Chu (Dubstep Mix)
14. Redlight feat. Ms. Dynamite – What You Talkin’ About
15. Magnetic Man – Track ID
16. Track ID
17. Track ID
18. Joker & TC – It Ain’t Got A Name
19. Magnetic Man – The Bug
20. Track ID
21. Skream – Rollin’ Kicks VIP
22. Magnetic Man feat. Angela Hunte – I Need Air
23. Magnetic Man – MAD
24. Skream – Raw Dogz
25. Skream – Wibbler
26. Crissy Criss – Kick Snare VIP
27. Sub Focus – Last Jungle
28. Skream – Stand Up
29. Mr Bratt – Selecta
30. Heist – I’m A Killer
31. F-Money – Left The Room (Skreamix)
32. James Blake – CMYK
33. Estelle – I Can Be A Freak (ID Bootleg)
34. ID – I Warned Ya
35. Trolley Snatcha – Pass Me By
36. TC & Jakes – Real Talk VIP
37. Track ID
38. Skream – WTF?
39. Benga & Youngman – Ho!
40. Benga – Mini Motor Cross
41. Track ID
42. Track ID
43. Toddla T – Sky Surfing (Benga Remix)
44. Subscape – Just Because
45. Benga – Who Remembers
46. Track ID
47. Skream feat Sam Frank – Where You Should Be
48. Track ID
49. Magnetic Man feat. Katy B – Perfect Stranger
Download the whole mix here. Thanks to Tim Driver for alerting me to this one.
Also includes their brand new single: "I Need Air"
Second course is a bit of Grime, which has been seriously left in the dust by it's once shy cousin Dubstep. For years grime has tried to get out of the underground, but the only people who have crossed overr, like Dizzee rascal and Lady S.O.V., have basically stopped making Grime and done more of a Hip Hop/Pop thing. Not that there's anything wrong with them doing that, but it's very rare to hear them doing any Grime tracks. People like Wiley, who are apparently impossible to work with, aren't really doing the genre any favours either. Wiley also flooded the internet recently by uploading more than 200(!) of his own unreleased tracks, which can be downloaded here.
Anyway, back to the mixes. DTALDN is a nice Grime blog, and DJ Magic has put together an extremely nice mix for them, which you can grab here. Tempa T, Ghetto, Killa P, Badness, Faction G and a whole gang of top notch MCs are on this, spitting over mad beats. I'm amazed that this thing is free, it's THAT good. Thanks to AJ for the tip!
If you feel like chilling out a little tiny bit after that, I don't blame you, so here's some softer, R'n'B flavoured grime from top producer Terror Danjah. He just decided to put his 2007 album/compilation "Shock to the System" up for free download. Get it here. Lots of good stuff on there. Thanks to AJ again!
This last thing I'm having a bit of trouble with. It's by 2000F & JKAMATA, who have been on fire for quite some time now. Together they've been producing and remixing up a storm with their unique blend of sleazy 80's Funk/Soul and dubstep. Their latest remix of Low Pressure: "Babylon Big Time" is a monster. 2000F is also a part of the invincible OHOI!, who together with some others put on the yearly RAW event here in Copenhagen. This year, the people behind Raw have decided to promote the event with a series of mixes put together by some of the DJs playing on the night, called The RAW Tapes. 2KF and Kamata somehow decided that they had to contribute a NINE HOUR LONG MIX, taking in most of their influences, favourite tunes and some of their own tracks along the way. Nine. Fucking. Hours. The tracklist for this musical Leviathan is just stupidly long, but contains nothing but straight up goodness. Soul, Funk, Jazz, Electro, Hip Hop, Techno, Ghetto Bass, Jungle, House, Dubstep, R'n'B, etc.... It's all right here.
I repeat: nine hours. What's wrong with these people? Make sure you free up about 800MB on your iPod.
If you're wondering how they did it, they first recorded tunes from vinyl into Ableton Live for 4 days. After that they spent another week piecing it all together: freezing it down from 173(!) tracks, rendering for 2 nights into 4 different .wav files, since they can max. be 2GB each, then splicing those together, converting to mp3, and finally lots of trial and error trying to find a place to upload and host it all. Labour of love!
Happy listening!
fredag den 30. juli 2010
Guts for garters.
I've been wanting to do a post about some of the female MCs in Grime for a long time. For a while, back in the beginning of this millenium, it almost seemed like Grime was going to be the first genre with a 1:1 ratio of the sexes. Not that I really care what sex the person I'm listening to is, but it was a bit interesting back then, that there were so many women all of a sudden, that were actually really good!
Anyway, there was a whole bunch of women popping up back then and coming real hard on the lyrical front. I've picked out a few of the more interesting ones.
First of all there was Ms. Dynamite. I've mentioned her in a post before, but she deserves another mention. She's still one of my favourites and has made a bit of a comeback recently on the UK Funky scene. Haven't heard anything yet that equals her old stuff, though. Here's one of her slightly harder old tracks.
Ms. Dynamite: Ramp
Next up is the other one that crossed over to the mainstream: Lady Sovereign.
Before she got wrung through Jay-Zs Roc-A-Fella media hype machine and we all constantly got reminded about her age and sex, she was just a really dope MC who could easily compete with the best. A prime example is this track here, which I found on the first Channel U compilation. She merks man dem.
Madasyn f/t Frost P & Zoz Rock, MC Shystie and Lady Sovereign: The Battle
...which rather conveniently brings us to Shystie. Don't really know too much about her, apart from the fact that she was another young female who just ripped things. Here's a little freestyle from Tim Westwoods show:
I always used to confuse Shystie with Lady Stush, but I promise I won't ever do that again. "Dollar Sign" was BIG, yo!
Lady Stush: Dollar Sign
Here's a newer freestyle from Logan Samas show on BBC Radio:
I obviously saved the best for last: No Lay. She's also the main reason I wanted to do this post in the first place. The amount of energy, emotion and aggression she puts in some of her tracks is just off the charts. One of the few MCs that can give me goosebumps. It's a real shame she didn't do more tracks back then, but i found some newer mixtapes by her here. I also found som choice clips of her on youtube, starting of with a more hiphop track where she just never stops.
No Lay: Bars of Truth
Some thing she did for the BBC. Straight shivers.
And finally the track that introduced me to her. This is just all-out war. Right from the first line: "How these boys gonna chat 'bout Berettas, when you neva had a metal tucked unda your sweata?", she never let's up on her no-holds-barred assault on every other MC out there, and walks away victorious. Every bar is quote worthy, her pronunciation is crystal clear despite the tempo and heavy accent, and the aggression just cannot be stopped. For years I only had the 12", but the video actually makes the whole thing even better.
No Lay: Unorthodox Daughter
That's it for now. Hope you enjoyed this as much as I did.
Next up: a whole bunch of mixes. Yay!
Anyway, there was a whole bunch of women popping up back then and coming real hard on the lyrical front. I've picked out a few of the more interesting ones.
First of all there was Ms. Dynamite. I've mentioned her in a post before, but she deserves another mention. She's still one of my favourites and has made a bit of a comeback recently on the UK Funky scene. Haven't heard anything yet that equals her old stuff, though. Here's one of her slightly harder old tracks.
Ms. Dynamite: Ramp
Next up is the other one that crossed over to the mainstream: Lady Sovereign.
Before she got wrung through Jay-Zs Roc-A-Fella media hype machine and we all constantly got reminded about her age and sex, she was just a really dope MC who could easily compete with the best. A prime example is this track here, which I found on the first Channel U compilation. She merks man dem.
Madasyn f/t Frost P & Zoz Rock, MC Shystie and Lady Sovereign: The Battle
...which rather conveniently brings us to Shystie. Don't really know too much about her, apart from the fact that she was another young female who just ripped things. Here's a little freestyle from Tim Westwoods show:
I always used to confuse Shystie with Lady Stush, but I promise I won't ever do that again. "Dollar Sign" was BIG, yo!
Lady Stush: Dollar Sign
Here's a newer freestyle from Logan Samas show on BBC Radio:
I obviously saved the best for last: No Lay. She's also the main reason I wanted to do this post in the first place. The amount of energy, emotion and aggression she puts in some of her tracks is just off the charts. One of the few MCs that can give me goosebumps. It's a real shame she didn't do more tracks back then, but i found some newer mixtapes by her here. I also found som choice clips of her on youtube, starting of with a more hiphop track where she just never stops.
No Lay: Bars of Truth
Some thing she did for the BBC. Straight shivers.
And finally the track that introduced me to her. This is just all-out war. Right from the first line: "How these boys gonna chat 'bout Berettas, when you neva had a metal tucked unda your sweata?", she never let's up on her no-holds-barred assault on every other MC out there, and walks away victorious. Every bar is quote worthy, her pronunciation is crystal clear despite the tempo and heavy accent, and the aggression just cannot be stopped. For years I only had the 12", but the video actually makes the whole thing even better.
No Lay: Unorthodox Daughter
That's it for now. Hope you enjoyed this as much as I did.
Next up: a whole bunch of mixes. Yay!
New and Improved!
As most of you know, there's been some changes in my life the last year. No more drugs, including alcohol, and instead a whole bunch of healthy stuff like.... well basically all the stuff I did before, just without the drugs.
This is, of course, the main reason why my blog has been dead: lots of therapy and brain readjustment. The other reason is pure lazyness. Fo a while I thought people could just follow me on facebook, but I've realised that stuff just drowns in peoples newsfeed, and not everyone reads EVERYTHING on the internet every day like I do. So now I've started to feel the need to preserve stuff for coming generations here on trusty old blogger.com again.
Enjoy!
This is, of course, the main reason why my blog has been dead: lots of therapy and brain readjustment. The other reason is pure lazyness. Fo a while I thought people could just follow me on facebook, but I've realised that stuff just drowns in peoples newsfeed, and not everyone reads EVERYTHING on the internet every day like I do. So now I've started to feel the need to preserve stuff for coming generations here on trusty old blogger.com again.
Enjoy!
søndag den 2. august 2009
tirsdag den 28. juli 2009
Everything was better in the old days.
My man Klaus B has dished out a 2 hour mix of : "old skool Chicago/Detroit/Belgisk støvsuger/Acid/Bleep/UK Breakbeat/Rave/Techno osv. "
It's stuffed with bangers you'd almost forgotten, instead of the usual Now That's What I Call Rave! fodder.
Tracklist:
Dilemma - Hexadron
Liza'n'Eliaz - Space Split
Plexus - Auto Shutter
Synergy - Magic Control
Turntable Terror Trax - Turntable Tribal
The Unknown - Dreams Of Santa Anna
Exposure - Party Claps
Formicula 4 - Formic Acid
World Dominance - Compression
Brain-E - Madness Overflow
Cosmic Baby - Cosmic Babies
Sequential - Psychotronic
Aphrohead - Thee Lite
Mike Dunn - Dance U Mutha
Risque III - Tropic Zone
2000 & One - Line Dimension
Brother From Another Planet - Planet Earth
SUAD - Cape Fear
Hypersonic - Dance Tones
Trak One - Motion
Armando - Downfall
Ricky Smith - Working Without
Kevin "Krazy K" Dobbins - I'm House
Kc Flightt - Jump For Joy
Mission Control - Outta Limits
49'th Floor - Night Passage
Pizarro - Perdona Me
Kamasutra - Night Walk
Tanzmuzik - Pique-e
Rhythim Is Rhythim - Drama
Pierre's Pfantasy Club - Got The Bug
Housegang - Work My Body
Jody "Fingers" Finch - Jack Your Big Booty
Bad Boy Bill - Jack It All Night Long
Gallifré - 117 House Beats
Obscure FM - Michael Jackson Is In Heaven Now
Acid Masters - Deterioration
Final Cut - I Told You Not To Stop
Underground Resistance - Sonic Destroyer
Fast Eddie - Yo YO Get Funky
Razor Boy & Mirror Man - Beyond Control
The Sound Vandals - Extasy
World - All B&M
Blasphemy - Flirtation In Paradise
Frankie Bones - Janet's Revenge
Deck 8-9 - Vector
Eon - A Kind Of Living
It's stuffed with bangers you'd almost forgotten, instead of the usual Now That's What I Call Rave! fodder.
Tracklist:
Dilemma - Hexadron
Liza'n'Eliaz - Space Split
Plexus - Auto Shutter
Synergy - Magic Control
Turntable Terror Trax - Turntable Tribal
The Unknown - Dreams Of Santa Anna
Exposure - Party Claps
Formicula 4 - Formic Acid
World Dominance - Compression
Brain-E - Madness Overflow
Cosmic Baby - Cosmic Babies
Sequential - Psychotronic
Aphrohead - Thee Lite
Mike Dunn - Dance U Mutha
Risque III - Tropic Zone
2000 & One - Line Dimension
Brother From Another Planet - Planet Earth
SUAD - Cape Fear
Hypersonic - Dance Tones
Trak One - Motion
Armando - Downfall
Ricky Smith - Working Without
Kevin "Krazy K" Dobbins - I'm House
Kc Flightt - Jump For Joy
Mission Control - Outta Limits
49'th Floor - Night Passage
Pizarro - Perdona Me
Kamasutra - Night Walk
Tanzmuzik - Pique-e
Rhythim Is Rhythim - Drama
Pierre's Pfantasy Club - Got The Bug
Housegang - Work My Body
Jody "Fingers" Finch - Jack Your Big Booty
Bad Boy Bill - Jack It All Night Long
Gallifré - 117 House Beats
Obscure FM - Michael Jackson Is In Heaven Now
Acid Masters - Deterioration
Final Cut - I Told You Not To Stop
Underground Resistance - Sonic Destroyer
Fast Eddie - Yo YO Get Funky
Razor Boy & Mirror Man - Beyond Control
The Sound Vandals - Extasy
World - All B&M
Blasphemy - Flirtation In Paradise
Frankie Bones - Janet's Revenge
Deck 8-9 - Vector
Eon - A Kind Of Living
Download here.
mandag den 20. juli 2009
The Freshest Kidz
Great documentary about the evolution of B-Boying, Breakdancing, Electric Boogie, Popping, Locking, etc. Essential viewing for anyone with a vague interest in modern urban dance styles or hiphop. I love the internet.
More old UKG/Grime.
Just felt like watching some of these classics. Most of it still sounds fresh today!
Platinum 45 feat. More Fire Crew.: OI! Is this the song that gave us OHOI!? According to a recent interview, it just might be. This is one of the first songs where it becomes very clear that something is happening with UKG. This is way more aggressive than your usual MJ Cole/Artful Dodger fare, the 2-step rythms have been thoroughly mangled and the bassline cuts through everything. Notice Lethal B, who would later go solo...
...with the even more aggressive POW! (Forward Riddim). This is of course the song that allegedly was banned from a large number of venues across the UK for causing fights wherever it was played. Still a good tune though.
Pay As U Go Cartel: Champagne Dance. A rare chance to see Wiley before he splintered off from the UKG scene, started Roll Deep and his solo career. He was on point back then already.
Wiley: Wot U Call It? asked the question on everybody's lips back then. Rephlex Records brought out the 2 Grime compilations, which were basically mostly dubstep, Wiley was trying to convince people it was called eski beat, and other people were talking about dark garage, breakstep, UKG, etc. Eventually grime stuck.
Sticky ft. Ms. Dynamite: Booo! This was just a massive anthem. Shame that Dynamite rarely flexes her toasting skills. Paved the way for Lady Sov, Shystie, No Lay, M.I.A. and a bunch of others.
So Solid Crew: 21 Seconds. Arguably the track that started it all by decidedly shifting the focus from the DJ/producer to the MC's. The Wu-tang of UKG that imploded in a flurry of violence allegations, halfbaked solo albums and the slow rise of dubstep and grime.
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