Imminent hiatus alert. The annual holiday looms. Same place as
last year, same place as every year. Two weeks in Sutton-on-Sea. The beach is a bit shingly, the pier's seen better days, and Mrs Eames is a bit of a stickler. But her breakfasts are smashing--best fried bread you'll ever taste.

Before I get packing though I would just like to trumpet the return of Bizzy B with the Science EP Vol 3 which is all new material and mashup deathray-riffing darkcore (bigupyachest sponsor Mikey Paradinas), concur with Woebotnik that Favela Funk rules (bigupyachest benefactor Davey Moynihan), while we're on the "Shanty House" (luvvit) meme also endorse Gogol Bordello Vs Tamir Muskrat which is on some kind of Balkan- equivalent-to-Desi ravepunkteknofolk tip, commend Egg's Don't Postpone Joy (tasty glicky microhaus-y and the title of course encapsulates my philosophy of life in a nutshell) and Akufen's Fabric 17 mix (mmmm, squelchy), admire the horn-tastic jagged languidity of Juvenile's most atypical sounding "Slow Motion", consider the possibility that J-Kwon's new single might in fact be extremist beat of the year while still not being totally certain it's actually enjoyable, and in conclusion note that the new Orb elpee Bicycles & Tricyles is not half bad at all.

All this and Dizzee & Mike Skinner on the same bill tomorrow night!

Unexpectedly gloomy state o' Grime report from Silverdollarcircle--who's now officially the Don when it comes to ground-level grime coverage. Must admit this is the vibe i've been getting off the bulk of pirate tapes that people've been kind enough to send my way (the notable exception being Ruff Sqwad as referenced--and sent-by simonSDC). Still only a few weeks ago Simes was positively burbling about how fertile the scene was, wasn't he? So maybe this is one of those Lull things you hear about that periodically afflict scenius-oriented culcha-rhizomes. Plus maybe summer weather's simply bad for music, and especially for dark ghetto-minded wintry-vibed music like Grime.

(Of course I wouldn't say "no" to another paradigm-shift from the 'Nuum either... 'sbout that time, surely.)

Woebot is Dead.


Long Live Woebotnik!!!

Feeling

Antibalas, Who Is This America? (ropeadope)
An Afro Beat Orchestra, which ought not to be my bag AT ALL, being a Fela’s-not-all-that kinda fellow, but the longer tracks like “Elephant” and “Sister” by this 17 piece Brooklyn collective (no it really doesn’t sound like my bag AT ALL do it?) are actually rather compelling; also dig the weird jagged horn playing of “Indictment”. And a nice sour keyboard sound.

Doctor Mix and the Remix, Wall of Noise (Acute)
This Metal Urbain spin off is where Jesus & Mary Chain nicked all their ideas from.

Beckett & Taylor, "Lies/More Likes"
Spandex, "Snakeskin Teeth/Abusing the Body"
(both Hand on the Plow)
K-Punk spoke truth.

Robag Wrhume Wuzzelbud, KK (Musik Krause Recordings/Kompakt)
Mmmm, maybe an Era of Consolidation for electronic dance music isn’t such a hellishly middling and even-tempered proposition after all. Still think Kompact are the most Over Rated label on Earth at present though.

Various Artists, 10 Years of Cheap Records: The Anniversary Compilation, 1993-2003 (Cheap)

Makes a good case for a label I had completely, I mean completely, forgotten the existence of. Mid-Nineties, post-jungle/trip hop, pre-drill’n’bass/IDM nostalgia ahoy! I’ll be pulling the Clear Records records out the closet next. Still got that “ahead of its time” Clatterbox album with the mid-80s drum machinery on it.

The Eternals, Out of Proportion (AntiFaz)
Derek Walmsley, whose blogg I will link to when I get it together to update the links (chronic back(b)logg believe) reckons this mini-LP, which preceded the just-out very interesting full-length on Aesthetics by some months, to be the superior record. He could be right. It’s definitely more
PiL-ly.

Various Artists, Crunk Classics (TVT)
Well I honestly have no idea if these actually are classic crunk songs--the Canon on a single CD--or just some recent tunes cobbled together, but it’s not all Lil Jon by any means, and it rocks.

Various Artists, Box Bloody Fresh (Box Fresh Recordings/East Connection)
Box Shoddy Fresh more like (track listing all out of order on the ‘Garage’--meaning Grime--CD), the R&B and Hip Hop disc can get right ropy at times, and THE FUCKING DVD DOES NOT WORK IN AMERICAN DVD PLAYERS, WHAT THA FUCK?!?!?!?, THIS IS THE ERA OF GLOBALIZED CAPITAL CAN THEY NOT MAKE A DVD THAT WORKS IN ALL PLAYERS FOR FUCK’S FUCKING SAKE?!?!?!?!?!?!?. Still good to have ‘Cock Back’ and ‘Armhouse’ and the rest on ceedee. Thanks to Susan for bringing it over, along with a large Marmite.

Really Feeling

Offshore presents Troubled Waters, mixed by DJ Clever (Offshore)

Bit of a turn-up for the books this one--the best drum’n’bass mix-CD I’ve heard in... probably six and a half years. Since it all went crap, in other words. This is like the last six years never happened--the one-bar loop, the grrrr-grrrr B-line, the Optical-damaged pounding aerobic tedium of all it. An alternate history taking off from Source Direct and the later, still-good Reinforced and those precious few Metalheadz moments, spliced with some Bukem-ite aqua-funk-but-with-balls. Not mash-up, not ragga, but (Soundmurderer & Remarc hindsight-adjustment withal) that was never all that jungle had to offer, was it? I suppose this is more properly described as drum & bass. The breaks still break, the bass actually moves (rhythmically and melodically) rather than just riffing Bad Company-style--but it’s not anthemy; indeed the fractured flow aesthetic makes it quite a tracky experience. Stand-out subsequence for me is probably Intex Systems/”Drum Track 1”[ruff!!!]>>Sileni/”Twitchy Droid Leg”[TITLE!!! And an accurate description!]>>Paradox/”I Get A Kickback” [full-kit funkspasm], but really it’s all good; DJ Clever takes you on the proverbial “journey,” right through to a lovely idyll-coda with Alaska’s “Rare Earth”. Nice to see some old Moving Shadow bods in the mix--Justice, and Sean O’Keeffe of 2BadMice/Kaotic Chemistry/Deep Blue fame, which last moniker he’s still trading under here. The tunes are all on Offshore BTW. Shimmering rainforesty beat-foliage and texturhythmic mayhem, Troubled Waters’ll Kodwofy your bodymind. It reminds me of the last time I really brocked out to D&B in BOTH full polyriddim delirium AND absolute present tense (as opposed to time-travel-tinged experiences a la Ripley, Soundmurderer, etc), and that would have been this set by Dego MacFarlane in 1998, an almost-empty basement at this club in Manhattan called Speeeed. The music danced me. I get that feeling from this CD and it makes me hungry to hear Clever (a chap called Brett who works at Breakbeat Science and runs Offshore) drop it live through an engulfing system. Plus the cover is a cute seascape picture. Out in mid-July.

Kanye's got weird eyes--they're flat, like panels, almost painted on.

Once you've switched to organic milk, it's very hard to go back.

Undaground bizniz seen

Cool sounding party on the wrong side of the Atlantic for me but London massive take heed. This info from Larisa aka DJ Ripley who is appearing at the event as Mashit Crew with her partner Kid Kameleon and another person called DJ C:

press release as follows:

London
26th of June
the Mashit crew will be rockin' the last
night of their tour with The Bug, Saint Acid, and the
Heatwave DJs.

musicalbear presents...

the bug (rephlex, u.k.) vs. mashit djs (mashit,
u.s.a.)
+ saint acid (bangface) + heatwave djs

at a secret location in east london

on saturday 26 june, musicalbear will celebrate the
miserable excuse for a hippyfest that is glastonbury
by having our very own warehouse extravaganza
featuring yardcore pioneer the bug alongside hotly
tipped american ragga jungle crew mashit on the final
date of their european tour.

some solid backup will be provided by old school neo
rave specialist saint acid as well as the heatwave
crew bringing the original jamaican dancehall styles.
this all night party takes place at a very cool
warehouse venue accessible only by lift... there's no
escape.

saint acid (bangface, delta-9, ravetap) is the high
priest of london's burgeoning neo-rave scene, father
of the electro/hardcore/old skool/jungle juggernaught
that is bangface: "what the darkness are to rock,
bangface is to rave". [SR: ooer missus, that don't sound very enticing do it!] with a pedigree second to none, stretching back nearly twenty years from his early
days as member of saint alban's famed bmx crew, acid's
ongoing success is down to his ability to fuse 'back
in the day' old school action action with up to the
minute banging pisstakedness. rave heroes such as bong
ra, mike dred, ceephax acid crew and paul blackford
continue to request sets at his night.

heatwave djs - xiquet, masta g and lexy - will be
providing the heavy dancehall vibes which have seen
them play all over london and the rest of the country
in the past year with residencies in venues like 333
and 93 feet east and guest appearances just about
everywhere. playing sets that embrace everything from
dancehall classics to hardcore bashment and up to the
minute exclusive remixes, they'll be warming the party
up with their friendly, hotstepping dancefloor styles.

the party will take place at a warehouse in bethnal
green, east london, not far from tube/rail/bus links.
the capacity is only a little over 200 so come early
to avoid disappointment. email party@musicalbear.com
for the address. entry will be a very reasonable £5
all night. the party will run from ten till six in the
morning. there is a reasonably priced bar at the
venue.

http://www.mashit.com
http://www.musicalbear.com

Jason Jinx has sorted out the DB Benefit!

PAYBACK
Thursday July 29th 2004
AVALON 662 6th Avenue
$7 in advance; $10 on the door
advance tickets at Breakbeat Science and Satellite or
here at Jason Jinx's site

10 til 4AM

Lineup

Josh Wink
Junior Sanchez
AK-1200
Scott Hardkiss
Dave Ralph
DB
Stakka
Nigel Richards
Odi
Mr Kleen
Mojalators
Jason Jinx
Plus a special surprise guest

come show yr love and respeck and have a blindin night

Chees-E

Man Like Namsung sent me this bit from Scratch (the magazine of hip hop production) from a Lil Jon interview:

“At some point in the late 90's, Jon was introduced to the Novation synth module, a piece of equipment that would prove indispensable to his current success. He recalls his revelation, "I went to a strip club that played nothing but house music and that synth sound was on every track. It fucked me up, so I took some shit that was straight rave/dance music and put it on hip-hop and it changed the whole shit."

This shiny tone, when coupled with a thumping drum program, injected the ATL club scene with an energy previously only felt at raves and techno functions. "I use a lot of those dance sounds because those sounds have that energy. The synth on [Youngblood's] "Damn" and [Usher's] "Yeah" have
that dance energy. It's pop, but it's super ghetto at the same time, which is like, impossible to do."

I spose it's obvious really, that synth sound HAD to come direct from chees-E (in a good way natch) techno and house. (The topic is further discussed on this ILM thread)

From a sex-pol angle, it’s interesting that Lil Jon first encounters and assimilates house music (hitherto regarded as gay in the hip hop imagination, and not without reason) in such a stronghold of heterosexism and armored male selfhood as the strip club.

Come to think of it, when doing the B-Boys on E relick for Muzik way back when, I interviewed Armand Van Helden and he claimed that strip clubs were a primary conduit for Ecstasy into the hip hop community. The owners apparently routinely give the girls pills so they have loads of dance energy and project the right “positive” friendly attitude.

Kinda depressing, for those of us who once thought of E as--if not quite sacrament of a spiritual revolution--then at least an androgynising and postsexual/we-become-angels force, to see it end up being used in such a polarized-gender-roles-reinforcing, fallen context.

Can it be true, the story I read somewhere that Lil Jon’s parents are brain surgeons? I mean, both of them!?!

The Lull

Some of them got taken out by the sudden apprehension of futility. Others, by an abrupt urge to travel to the other side of the world. Dissertations turned sticky, writer's block, draining new jobs in record stores, newspaper reviews of biographies received as uncanny signals to oneself.... there's plenty of reasons to stop.

Me, it was a thumb injury. It'd be kinda cool if it was a blogging-related injury (a world first?). It wasn't but it was certainly a blogging-disabling injury. There was also the certain matter (i'll have you know Mark!) of having a bleedin' book to finish.

Must admit the interval of enforced inactivity also caused the urge to fade somewhat. Like muscles atrophying with non-use. I'm feeling my way back into this. A proper post later this week. Probably. Possibly.

Big SHOUT to the Kept On Churning It Out Crew--kpunk, simonsilverdollar, stelfox, geeta, et al.

PS. here's a new entry by someone else who's been keeping very quiet of late

PPS Come back Matt!!!

FINISHED!!!