The Bug ft. Warrior Queen and Flowdan – Poison Dart (Ninja Tune)

Yeahhhhhhhh. Fanbwoy time again! Ha ha. He just keeps getting better and better I think. Skeng seemed almost impossible to top, but this latest release does actually manage that by broadening out a bit rather than going for the sledgehammer blow. Two twelve inches this time which lets Kevin Martin exercise his collaborative inclinations to the max. “Networking” has a horrible image of false grins and business cards offered in sweaty palms, but actually creating networks like those around the “Ambient” comps for Virgin, and his work with GOD, and of course at BASH, is “scenius” in action. Drawing dissidents together to plot and form new cells of resistance…

Warrior Queen is her usual uncompromising self and any hyperbole I write here is kind of redundant in the face of the video above – how cool is it to see a label getting properly behind this stuff and giving it a bit of audio/visual push?

The Skream remix ramps up the dubstep disco wobble bizness and comes across a lot cleaner than the original. I’m sure it sounds great over a big system mixed in with something else which has a slightly different wobble, but it kind of defeats the object of a Bug record for home listening in my book. Something for the young people, ha ha!

My promo doesn’t have the full Flowdan vocal mix on it, dammit, but there are snippets from it in DJ Baku’s megamix and they sound well up to Flo’s usual level of rapid fire malevolence: “Would it be wise to mess with the big money sound? … No I don’t think so. SHUT UP!” Baku seriously disrupts the juggernaut flow with his(?) turntablism – Warrior Queen and Flo come in and out of the mix in a ghostly duet. The slowly increasing sense of dread becomes more fragmented – you don’t know where the danger is coming from.

I’m also gaging to hear the South Rakkas Crew remix – the people who brought you the Bionic Ras and Red Alert acieeed dancehall riddims, talk about spoilt for choice…

Twelve 1

Twelve 2

Digital bundle release (including Skeng!) to follow…

dirty canvas 23 nov 07

Big night! I fared much better than my last visit, when I left before it all kicked off.

After a bit of chattage in the front bar area bit, we headed in to see Sunship and Warrior Queen doing their thing. Sunship’s Chunky was at pains to tell us how legendary they are/were, even to the extent of grabbing the mic off the real MC. This didn’t exactly endear them to me but the set was good and bouncy and even included Bassment Jaxx’s “Jump and Shout” and Musical Mob’s “Pulse X”.

Warrior rocked out some of her greatest bars, and it felt pretty odd hearing them over anything other Bug productions, made it all a bit distanced – dreamlike. That said, she’s a force to be reckoned with and you can’t argue with lyrics like “Dem a Bomb We” and “Aktion Pak”. Sunship finished with their Warrior Queen collab “Almighty Father” which is tough and sweet in exactly the right proportions. But it was the full vocal tune they played, not an instrumental so Warrior Queen was doing live vocals over her own recorded ones. Odd.

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Logan Sama’s arrival was as good a signal as any that things were about to get… serious. He was followed by about 20 MCs who proceeded to pass the mic back and forth like a never ending big fat spliff.

The dynamic was pretty interesting – Trim, Jammer and youngster Chipmunk were actually on the bill and their lyrics were a cut above virtually everyone else. But all the MCs were great, the less well known serving as punctuation for the longer stretches of vocals by the bigger names…

Grime has its own sign language – show someone lower down the pecking order an open hand and they know that it’s your turn on the mic. It keeps things moving – no suggestion of overblown solos or hip hop esque “spots” where people get to do a selection of their hits, everyone just busts out a few verses at most before handing over. It’s proper pirate radio stuff and is guaranteed to keep the energy levels right up there.

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Chipmunk is 16 years old and whilst not everyone likes his flow, it’s generally acknowledged that he is the at the forefront of the next generation of MCs. I mean, jesus, I couldn’t even speak in public when I was 16, let alone get up on stage with mic amongst some legends and hold my own. His “League of My Own” mixtape is well worth checking, but it felt really great getting to see him do his thing in the flesh.

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Trim’s “Soulfood” is one of my favourite things in what has been a stupidly good year for music. There’s so much bullshit talked about people being on “the next level” but nobody does vocals like Trim. Some Grime makes you hit the rewind button cos it’s so rapid fire and slangy that you can’t keep up, but Trim talks slow, and so artfully – you have to check his stuff out repeatedly because of all the subtleties in there, mad allusions… (and I hate the word, but…) poetry.

I can’t tell you what precise tracks he bust out, it was a blur of geezers on the stage and hands in the air in the audience and familiar verses flowed into stuff I’d never heard before. Messy. Great.

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Jammer is I guess what you’d count as an elder statesman in Grime, but his signature “Murkle Man” includes the lines “I’m a big man but I’m not thirty”. He gets more props as a producer than as an MC, but all he has to do is drop those lines and everyone goes mental, every time. I’m actually a bigger fan of his than a lot of people, his “Are You Dumb 2” mixtape has an amazing tune on it featuring some purloined Sizzla vocals which works like a roots/grime duet. Jammer has stupid energy onstage as well – there was one bit where he and another MC (Blacks?) were just doing a line of lyrics, passing the mic to the other, then back – just insane rapid fire stuff which had jaws dropping and smiles broadening.

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This stuff is infectious, much more addictive to me than moody geezers playing one record after another, good though that can be. The rest of the night is a bit of a blur, Fuda Guy from Ruff Sqwad was great, at least 20 people held the mic that I had no idea who they were. I barely got a chance to check out room 2 but that seemed pretty cool as well – some nice breezy 2step was a good break after all the slewage and chest beating in the main room.

Meanwhile London’s dubstep fans were queuing up to not get into a carpark in the freezing cold….

Your orders 

  1. Check out the links to tunes above
  2. Get down to the next Dirty Canvas if you can
  3. Check out what my mate Danny had to say about the night
  4. See the rest of my photos below
  5. Leave a comment…

 

flyers

Friday = Grime! With Trim!

Saturday = noise and dub! With Xylitol!

Tuesday = weirded out sorta post rocky stuff which isn’t twee or prog! With Giant Paw! Who I keep meaning to blog about but never seem to manage it!

out to all pasta rastamen

If you really think that “all JA seems to produce these days is drum-machine driven electro drivel with lyrics about busta-this and bling-that and batty-bwoy the other.” then you definitely need to check this one out:

Pure consciousness and niceness, 21st Century JA roots and reality reggae in the traditional style. Five highlights include:

Alborosie –   “Rastafari Anthem” – this is a guy who hasn’t put a foot wrong in 2007 and you can tell 2008 is going to be his year. Seriously. You could do worse than to go out and buy any 7″ you can find with his name on…

Lutan Fyah – “Save The Juvenile” – excellent upbeat tune in which Lutan demands that the badmen stop their badness and look after the next generation.

Nesbeth – “Board House” – the sad story of a rubbish day in which Nes’ house burns down as during gang war crossfire and his woman walks out on him. Is it miserable? Is it bollocks – proper grimacing through the pain before heading off to get shitfaced stuff.

Taurus Riley – “Pretect Your Neck” – proper old school skanking bizness, presumably inspired by Wu-Tang but you wouldn’t know it.

Mr Easy – “Strangest Thing” – Easy gets pulled over by the police for his weed, and just to rub it in, Mykal Rose is singing about his “stalk of sensimiella” in the background.

There are 18 tracks on the CD so everyone will have their own favourites (and my will change tomorrow). Some lightweight girl tunes included, but basically it’s a wicked roundup of 2007 seven inch releases (and probably some that never came out).

Plus it’s a double set – you get a DVD thrown in with some nice promos (Lutan and Nesbeth especially) and a short Alborosie documentary.

available on CD (£8.99) and mp3 (55p per track) direct from Greensleeves. Check the link for soundsamples as well.

Or add it to yer Amazon wish list for xmas, innit.

My top ten for 2007 will follow in another place shortly.

DURRTY GOODZ


DURRTY GOODZ: Fact Magazine

Dan Hancox’s great interview with one of the best Grime artists right now, plus photos from Ms Drumzofthesouth. Killer combination!

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Get Goodz’s Axiom EP from here if you’re curious about this stuff – you won’t regret it. For me this is another cornerstone of the UK MC lineage – up there with all those Saxon soundtapes. Certainly one of my releases of the year.

reggae reading and sites

A couple of updates I’ve been meaning to mention for a while:

Dancecrasher’s news page is now a blog, which should be well worth bookmarking, or adding to your rss reader.

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Greensleeves have finally overhauled their site with a load of new material to look at and mp3s you can buy for as little is 55p a pop!

Dub Vendor’s new site is even better than their old one with a load more soundsamples to check before you buy plus some nice reviews etc.

Finally Pressure Sounds have given their site a lick of paint as well.

Also some new stuff:

United Reggae looks like an interesting development, lots of news about upcoming releases and a few features as well. I liked the Tenor Saw overview and discography. One to watch, but it’s a bit annoying you have to register to see/use some of the content.

Die hard fans and newbies should check out reggaepedia, an ever growing wiki resource that will hopefully become even more comprehensive and useful as time passes.

Abyssinians / Black Uhuru : Jazz Café, 7th November 2007

 

Most of my posse were seriously put off this gig by dint of it being (a) at the Jazz Café and (b) £30 to get in. Paul Meme’s immense powers of persuasion swayed me, though, and whilst I’m glad I went, the night got me thinking about the good and bad of reggae gigs in general.

The good is that the place was rammed out, which shows that there is still a load of interest in reggae in London, with a lot of people prepared to stump up their hard earned to see it. With all the scepticism about download culture it was great to get somewhere hot, sweaty and loud to see this stuff in the flesh. The crowd was pretty diverse in terms of race and gender but the gate pressure obviously meant it was yer neat and tidy end of things rather than natty dread sufferers who were in attendance.

Image courtesy of merylklemow on flickr

Image (not from the gig last night) nicked from  merylklemow.

The Abyssinians came on in a timely manner, looking splendid with Bernard Collins and Donald Manning in gold and red silk and David Morrison a bit more casual. That was one main worry out of the way. Reggae gigs are notorious for starting late and for certain artists being, how shall we say “a little worse for wear” when they deign to come on stage. A mate of mine at work had a grim time when she went to see Barrington Levy and Sanchez recently on a Sunday night and things didn’t get going til 2am.

The band sounded great, and worked hard all night, backing up both acts. My one complaint is the absence of live horns of any description. I can see keyboards are easier and cheaper and all that but they make things much flatter. For 30 quid I want a bleedin’ horn section, right? Bernard Collins had a dodgy mic which lead to him putting it down and heading off backstage after the first number. I don’t blame him really, how hard can it be to make sure the mics all work ok? It took a while to sort out but not ages.

The Abyssinians are still in fine form and it was truly amazing to see them in person, sounding so good after all these years. Most of the songs that I knew sounded very similar to the records but there were few instances of being completely transported by the experience – and those only during the anthems like Declaration of Rights, This Land is for Everyone and of course Satta. They stuck fairly steadfastly to material on their albums which I guess is what most people know, but I would have loved for them to do a version of Love Comes and Goes from the recent compilation of Talent Corporation releases on Pressure Sounds.

All “revival” gigs have a bit of a weird effect on me. It’s great to see the material performed (and a relief that there is no busting out of new material which can’t match the classics). But it also feels a bit like a museum piece. Museums are very safe places where everything is nicely under glass and contextualised for you. The complexities of scenes which are still evolving is absent. Part of me wondered if I was there to add another tick to my spotter list of people to have seen before they pass away…

That said, you would be hard pressed to find a support act as good as The Abyssinians anywhere. It felt great being able to put some money in their pockets after giving them so much love over the years. I am categorically not knocking them for surviving in the cut throat reggae business for this long and if I’m in as good a shape as them at their age I will be a happy man.

Image courtesy of Julius Laid Back on Flickr

Image nicked from Julius Laid Back. 

Michael Rose’s recent output with Alborosie and Twilight Circus made Black Uhuru’s retro set a bitter-sweet affair. There is scope for a set of his “greatest hits” from the last 30 years, but we were of course just going to get snippets from the glory days of Uhuru. And bloody good they were.

The backing band’s rootsier touches for the Abyssinians gave way to a harder/funkier Sly & Robbie style with some electro touches that had me and Paul both thinking of Tackhead. An extended version of “Shine Eye Gal” was spellbinding with Michael’s vocals sitting perfectly on top of the driving b-line.

Unfortunately I started flagging shortly after this and got really annoyed by the drunken students in front of me who thought it was hilarious to do really loud impressions of Japanese reggae fans. It was still rammed and all the people pushing past us was getting to me as well. From the bar in the Jazz Café you can still see the band but there is more background chit chat there and the sound isn’t as good. Yes, yes I am like a right grumpy old git, but for 30 quid I don’t want to be messed about like that! There’s something about rammed gigs I just don’t like. Everyone squeezed in there looking up at a stage, encores, that sort of thing.

Paul was trying to persuade me that reggae gigs are a part of “soundsystem culture” but they aren’t really. Seeing someone pick up a mic in a dance is very different to going to a gig and certainly it sounds like in the 1970s live sets by bands at soundsystem bashes were barely tolerated. In fact soundsystem in JA came about through economic necessity – as a cheaper easier way to take a variety of music to the people whilst the live acts toiled away in studios, or on the tourist circuit in expensive uptown hotels. But but but… that doesn’t really matter. It was a great night out and there should be more of it.