Flavaboxin'

Well I just got punched in the arm by an Asian man whilst walking down commercial road. I don't know why. There are kids setting off fireworks all around London this week I swear, not just all the kids from the estate behind our house; I keep seeing people posting on twitter about it. Very hilarious, but noone wants to walk out the door and risk getting set alight really. Just got back from Leicester, very fun. Attempted to eat 2 'Flavaboxes' to cancel my debt to Amrit. 1 flavour box costs £3 and consists of 6 potatoes, a portion of chips, lamb doner meat, a chicken leg/breast, beef doner meat and chicken tikka pieces, garnished with garlic sauce, chilli sauce and topped with some salad. Not really sure why the salad is there, there really is no chance of giving the Flavabox an even partial impression of healthiness. I finished about two inches, possibly 2.5, before being defeated. Yes, you measure this food in height.

Really into Alix Perez right now. 1984 is amazing.This tune he did with Spectrasoul is a favourite of mine. So much soul to it, real bliss

Also hot right now is producer Jam City. I'd love to write extensively on here about why I'm excited about this music right now but I might be writing about it for Inverted Audio at some point. What I will say is check out the mix done for Fact. The link to Fact's website is in my blogroll on the left of the page.

Timeless

Started to get a grip, after all these years, of what I wanna play when I DJ. It's a mix of Grime, Dubstep, UK Funky, Hip-Hop, UK Garage, Wonky, B-More Bass and it rolls at about 134 BPM usually. I have a fun time with this.

I've started producing a bit more recently, still very shit but if you wanna hear a tune which I don't completely hate, get it here. It's far from finished.

In other news I was round Pariah's yard yesterday having a mix and there's a possibility he might be working with Trim. I know, right? Absolutely mad. Trim. Trimothy. Trimble. From the Isle of Dogs. Yeah, Mr Soulfood himself. No, not Trim Hinson. Pariah also has some mega exciting remix news in the pipeline which I don't really want to reveal, I mean I'll probably get sued by his label for the Trim thing so I can't risk any more.

Picked up the new Night Slugs EP, which is phenomenal as well as a very well cut piece of vinyl, which is more than can be said of Hyph Mngo by Joy Orbison and Timeless by SBTRKT, which were the other two tunes I picked up. Wet Look on the Hyph Mngo 12" skips, deeming it unmixable, and the SBTRKT tune is really quiet at the start and just sounds a bit warped at any time the drums drop out. Sort it out cutting factorys. All the tunes are amazing though, so I can't really complain.

One of my decks is broken.

This is Timeless by SBTRKT. It's a reworking of Goldie's Inner City Life.

This on Saturday:

Blunted Robots

I really cannot wait for the next Blunted Robots release. I've played 001, the Martin Kemp/Mickey Pearce release, pretty much to death. Next up is a complete 12" from Mickey Pearce, which you can hear at the Blunted Robots MySpace. The Blunted Robots crew are pretty much the most exciting label in Bass music right now, along with Hessle Audio and Night Slugs. Every tune I've heard that's affiliated to any of these guys (Brackles, Shortstuff, Spamchop...) combines these really scattered rhythms with some silly bass pressure, demonstrating what UK Bass has always been about: a fusion of elements from various genres which combine to sound both forward thinking and undeniably danceable. I've played loads of tunes by these guys every time I've played out and they've gone down a treat. Also this picture, taken by Braiden, a phenomenal selector in his own right, is pretty cool:

Deadboy/SRC

Another artist from the Future Garage/Funky contingent has caught my ear recently - South London's Deadboy. Batting around journo terms such as Future Garage seems a little bit ridiculous, but I think what he does most closely fits these terms, with the exception of the hiphop style tunes on his MySpace, so really it's probably better to call it 'Bass' and settle for that. I think he's from my ends in Kent but don't quote me on this, it could as easily be someone completely different but no matter what the background to this is, he really has tapped into something fresh here. Forthcoming single 'U Cheated' (see below) has been bashed about by Oneman recently amongst others and carries the kind of special energy through the live drum samples and sense of melody which is genuinely very exciting. I should be getting a promo to review for Inverted Audio soon. Check this out:

Another dude that's been killing it recently is pseudo Grime producer SRC. His stuff kinda sounds like if Zomby did really heavy grime with that video game sample feel which I'm really into. There are some videos he's posted on YouTube of him making beats with an MPC, which I obviously love. Everytime i see a producer rockin an MPC it gives a a big smile. I can't put into words how much i love them and SRC really does them credit. Here's his Mario-sampling track, Goomba:

Floating Points - Vacuum EP Review

A few weeks ago I did a post about House in which I wrote briefly about 'Vacuum Boogie' by Floating Points. Since then I've joined the team at Inverted Audio and I was asked to review the aforementioned EP, so here it is:

It wouldn't be an understatement to place Floating Points', AKA 23 year old Sam Shepherds new EP as one of the highlights of 2009 after a string of releases this year beginning with the skip-hop of Eglo 7" 'For You', through the electro-soul of 'Love Me Like This' and most recently 'J & W Beat', which has been hammered by every decent selector from Mary-Anne Hobbs to Eglo co-head Alexander Nut. This string of releases, although great in their own right, seem to have been building up to 'Vacuum EP'. The first thing that's striking about the title track is the groove, established by a deep, booming kick, which falls irregularly but is anchored by disco hats, before a shaker completes the shuffling effect. However, as much of a heady groove as this creates, what really makes this track is the melody. It's difficult to pick out one controlling melody or hook, but listening to the track there must be at least five elements, all grappling for the limelight and simultaneously complimenting each other. The effect is both dizzying and blissful, and it is easy to see Shepherds classical background here: any followers of his on Twitter are regularly treated to performances of Debussy compositions and the like. And that's what 'Vacuum Boogie' is - a composition, the synths working like an orchestra rather than just electronic sound. From here there is a slow build whilst the tune finds its feet, but when the bass drops? Game over.

On the flip, 'Truly' is structured quite similarly, with a keys line fitting between drum hits until the bass drops in a similiar way to 'Vacuum' and one of the most blissful chord hooks in existence enters the mix. This is one of the EPs main strengths: the progressive, loose intro which seems to fuse seamlessly into a full-on woozy epic in a second.

The final track on the EP, 'Argonaute II', is the most understated. It gently ripples with dreamy energy, underpinned with a sporadic lead line which stretches the length of the track until the fade out, though in all honestly 'Vacuum Boogie' and 'Truly' are the two which grab most attention. This EP finds Floating Points' at his most coherent, taking elements from previous exploits and combining them into a House format, the relatively slow tempo of which allows him to be at his most melodic, which is where he really excels. Though there is still time for releases in the tail months of 2009, 'Vacuum' will no doubt be a definite highlight for many, and deservedly so.

Dubstep is one word you fucking morons

It is now a widely accepted fact that what has become 'Dubstep' now rests in commercial venues blasting out mid-range, 150bpm ear-fodder for grinning space-wasters waiting for the next drop (they never have to wait long, there's a drop at least every 30 seconds) so they can shout 'FILTHY!!!' like it's a good thing. Don't get me wrong, I love a bit of ridiculousness as much as the next guy, but there is nothing good about this stuff.

For example the following tune would probably get a rewind in your average night billed as 'Dub Step' (notice the gap between the words; no names mentioned, though a hint would be that I think the guy is a moron, but I was recently invited to a night billed as this. I don't think it's too elitist to state that if someone doesn't care enough to bother to learn that Dubstep is one word then they shouldn't promote the aforementioned music).

It sounds like a pig squealing.

So yeah, another quite generic rant, but actually I think this is a very positive thing for the music. In recent months we have seen those originally attracted to Dubstep for it's space, progression and bassweight jump ship after playing Dubstep meant exactly what I've stated above. From this we have the rise of Funky, the Dillaism of Wonky and further progression into Future Garage and House, not forgetting the pioneer Djs such as Oneman,, Blackdown, Ben UFO, Bok Bok and Ben UFO amongst others blending all the aforementioned styles together and being perfectly selective about the Dubstep they play, limiting it to the cream of releases and cutting out anything dull, using maybe releases from Hyperdub, Keysound or Hessle Audio along with emerging sub-genres. Therefore rather than the too often heard torrent of 'Dubstep is dead' or it becoming something so awful that it resembles nothing of the original groundbreaking force it once was, we see it becoming an umbrella term for innovative, amazing Bass music. Kode 9 was once quoted as saying Dubstep is a huge Sub and anything over the top, and this is a sentiment very relevant to 2009, with genre boundaries blurring in a way which makes 2009 a very exciting time to be in music, despite the hoards of Filth dullards.