John Eden: BM Box 3641, London, WC1N 3XX, England UK
Archive for the ‘d**step’ Category.
…is a short film by photographer Shaun Bloodworth.
It was commissioned by Mary Ann Hobbs for Sonar, and has a soundtrack by my man Grievous Angel.
All three protagonists live in Sheffield as do the various clubs featured. It’s good – some nice energetic positive vibes.
Click the link to have a look.
To the Albany in New Cross, via the brand spanking new train line which joins the previously isolated South East and North East parts of London.
The journey allowed me some time to ruminate on the mixed feelings I had about the event. “Margins Music” was a bold album, linking up the psychogeography of London with its various sonics. Blackdown and Dusk gave great interview in Woofah issue 3 and Mr Blackdown himself shared a bill with Georgina Cook and I at last year’s Creative Edge event at UCL.
Oh yeah and they got my best mate to remix their album.
But but but… doing a live show based on their album? Really? Once again full marks for ambition, but horrendous memories floated through my brain at the thought of it. Not least being munted at one of the mid 90s Tribal Gathering festivals and stumbling into the Metalheadz tent as they launched into a piss poor “Jazz Odyssey” with much backslapping from Goldie about taking it to the next level with “real musicians”.
The Albany was far from full when we reached. Mr HistoryIsMadeAtNight and I caught up with Melissa Bradshaw at the bar. Blackdown paced about, impossible to miss because of his height (one of the few people I have to look up to in conversation, ha ha!).
And then, without much fanfare, it kicked off. Dusk and Blackdown took to laptops, another geezer fiddled with the backing film, two ladies on vocals up front, a female percussionist and I think a female keyboard player, but I couldn’t quite what she was doing from my vantage point. An encouragingly multiracial and non-blokey line up, I felt.
Full marks so far – they’d not gone for anything insane like string quartets or jazz saxophonists. It sounded tight, Farrah and Japjit’s presence at the front was an all too welcome deviation from the usual problems of “bloke playing with laptop” which make performances resemble offices.
The sparseness of the audience and the laid back nature of the first half of the show made it hard to really get sucked in, but the visuals helped – lots of gritty footage of London, mashed up with Bollywood films and some neat on-the-fly video scratching and distorting. Despite that, there were still moments when I longed for the venue to transform itself into a big tent at a festival… I felt a bit stiff standing there, pint in hand, shuffling about.
That said it was an impressive debut, I certainly didn’t notice any fuck ups. The set increased in intensity throughout and there were some ace bits of percussion soloing. Vocals were faultless and occasionally had the hairs on my arms standing on end. Volume-wise it was still alright for talking to the man next to me, but that also meant there weren’t any rib-rattling b-lines.
Farrah and Japjit departed after a while and were replaced by… Trim. Woah.
Margins Music features Trim and Durrty Goodz, arguably the two most accomplished grime MCs in terms of abstract vocal impact. Trim specialises in woozy poetics that take a few plays to suss out – but always grab your attention.
This was hardly his usual territory though. It’s not like he’s even a regular fixture at the rare grime raves in London. The only other time I’ve seen him was at Dirty Canvas in 2007. But the Albany was all arty and not exactly banging and… people weren’t exactly waving their hands in the air bawling for a reload. He did great though, sliding out some top abstract bars (and, uh, some slightly more base ones!). He even improvised some lines about kicking back and enjoying a beer when he spotted me and Mr H.I.M.A.N. doing precisely that.
Then Farrah and Japjit rejoined the group as they raised the roof for the final track – credits rolling on the screen behind them.
We showed our appreciation. As Blackdown himself says, it worked.
Dates in Brighton, Manchester and elsewhere follow. My man Grievous Angel is doing a set at the Manc show. Check this out if you have an open mind and want something a little way different…
EDIT: History Is Made At Night review now up also.
spent last weekend in Leeds, mainly to check out Sub Dub at the West Indian Centre.
Main room is dubstep played through Iration Steppas soundsystem. 2nd room a little more eclectic, and thus where I spent most of my time.
Top bash with Kode9, Heatwave and Mr Grievous Angel turning in some especially excellent sets. Nice crowd also – great to hook up with Matt B again and meet a bunch of other people for the first time.
Frustrated to find that Woofah contributor Ashes57 was also there taking snaps, but we didn’t manage meet!
KEEP PLASTIC PEOPLE ALIVE Petition.
If you have ever been there, you will want to sign this.
Our fearsome Security Kitty patrols Woofah HQ
I’ve been neglecting the blog recently, but updates have been appearing regularly in the sidebar cos of my new twitter feed. Apologies to all the people who’ve left comments here, especially NagHammadiEye, for my lack of responses…
My suspicion is that short updates and links will appear there from now on and bigger pieces will be blogged. I have mixed feelings about this but it seems like the easiest option with not much time available…
So the new issue of Woofah is being warmly received. All contributor copies have been mailed out now and tonight I will tackle the backlog of orders. London shops will get copies after work tomorrow.
As many of you will know, Woofah was conceived on the dancefloor of BASH – the reggae/grime/dubstep club run by The Bug and Loefah at Plastic People. Plastic People is an awesome venue probably best known for its regular FWD nights – FWD is to dubstep what Metalheadz at the Blue Note was to drum ‘n’ bass I suppose.
Plastic People’s soundsystem and its selection of promotions has made it legendary. I first went there for some nights run by the Manasseh crew which included Sugar Minott and the late Junior Delgado toasting over records selected by folks like Dave Hendley and Manasseh themselves. It was an incredible experience being literally feet away from some reggae legends with the full weight of PP’s soundsystem.
More news on that soon (and the campaign to keep it open), but it should go without saying that I would be gutted if it closed.
As History Is Made At Night has pointed out, this has to be seen in the context of the wider gentrification of the south of Hackney – the City moving slowly north.
I can barely believe I’m saying it but the new issue is here and ready to get out to you all!
Believe me it’s worth the wait – up to a massive 92 pages this time and some incredible content that I am completely amazed we managed to secure. And it’s still the same price!
In the shops next week, but you can order direct NOW:
(copies to contributors and allies will be mailed out early next week, or can be got from me in person)
Woofah issue 4 just landed at Chateau Droid. The shipment will now cross the Irish sea and reach London early next week.
Hit the link for more info or stay tuned to this channel…
I’m excited – you should be too!
FACT magazine: The month in…Bass.
Tom Lea interviews Blackdown and Grievous Angel about the “Margins Music Redux” remix album. Which I am sure is great, but for some reason I haven’t received my copy yet… hmm?
Here is a nice promo video for the album:
Paul is a suitably excitable interviewee as usual, dropping in references to Hawksmoor and Stewart Home along the way… 
Coupla exclusive GA mixes available for download over at Blackdown’s blog right now also.
First vinyl release on Ruff Revival, following on from the tremendous debut of Naphta’s “Long Time Burning” album on CD. (See my gushing review in Woofah issue 3). And yes, some heavy involvement from Droid, so I am biased – but only because his programming ensures he always comes correct with this stuff.
El-B‘s remix of “Soundclash” complements the Grievous Angel cut on Keysound perfectly – where Paul Meme boshes it out and makes your adrenaline pump, El-B makes your hairs stand on end with slinky dread bizness.
“Fully Loaded” sees Naptha busting out some proper junglist sub and breaks underneath some cold yardie vocal samples. The minimalism of the intro reluctantly giving way to an incredibly satisfying, yet dangerous maze of warehouse sonics.
Some serious time, effort and thought has gone into this…
