Another Quiet Night Out

Phonica Records has come a long way in its eight years of existence. With the simple combination of a welcoming, homely atmosphere, and exceptionally knowledgeable staff, the Soho store has created its own cult following. If you want to hear the latest, freshest mutations of techno and house, Phonica is the place to go. Which is why a night curated by the staff from the shop should be so special. Who better to chose a line-up than the people who spend all day, every day listening to records?

The venue tonight is the Great Suffolk Street Warehouse/Ewer Street Car Park (there seems to be some confusion about the name). Although it is literally a car park, the venue is one of the most impressive in London, with three huge brick arches which, if you were so inclined, you could easily park your double decker in. The rawness of the space lends a sense of excitement that is missing in established clubs, with a touch of an illegal rave vibe, compounded by the portaloos by the entrance. The only problem is that as it’s not a managed club, each promoter has to bring and set up their own soundsystem. This can be very tricky in such a big space as the odd acoustics make things difficult for engineers. Sadly at Phonica, the engineers failed in the main to overcome the sound problems, resulting in many of the sets being indistinct, and sometimes even distorted. Luckily the impeccable programming shines through and each of the artists lives up to their reputations. Whichever of the arches you find yourself in, it is the same quality. Boston-based pair Soul Clap stand out in the Phonica arch, their hip hop-tinged house dappled with some slightly more heavy beats than they are usually know for. Joy Orbison also rocks it in the same room, bringing more of a British feel to the table, his sometimes spluttering drum rhythms reminding us that UK garage is still a huge influence in our burgeoning music scene.

In the Leftroom space, Benoit and Sergio’s live set is blighted a little by distortion in the system, but still has a high impact, showing why this German pair’s shimmering, melodic style has been charming the industry so much since their debut in 2009. Visionquest, one of the labels of the moment, are represented by Shaun Reeves, Ryan Crosson and Lee Curtis tonight. The supergroup live up to their formidable reputation with their deep tech house selection, the soothing nature of the tunes at odds with the effect that they have on the crowd, who are dancing as if Daft Punk have just popped on stage.

Phonica’s Birthday party is a fitting celebration for such a highly regarded institution: the venue’s grand simplicity, the imaginative visuals and most of all, the banging music throughout. But why oh why didn’t someone sort out that soundsystem?

Published on Spoonfed.co.uk

SW4 – It’s… oh… so… quiet.

It has been a long while since I last posted as I have spent the summer flitting between festivals, managing to make my dollar out of living in a field and pretending to be important. It’s been tough. But now I’m back in London town, which means that you get to read my beautifully written spiels about the occasional event that I have managed to blag my way into.  Lucky you. We will recommence with an article that I wrote a while ago about the ill fated SW4. Adding it to my blog slipped my mind at the time but here it is in its full WordPress glory.

With one of the biggest electronic line-ups of the London summer season,SW4 should be a sure fire success. Sven Vath’s Cocoon records – a leading light in the minimal and techno world – take the programming duties in one arena, while Mixmag and Shake fill the other two big tops with such delicacies as Ferry Corsten, Lauren Garnier, M.A.N.D.Y and British trance mammoths Above and Beyond. To top off this shiny pile of musical genius, nineties behemoths Underworld have been placed at the head of the main stage by the Ministry of Sound, promising a fittingly climactic finale to the day’s revelry.

Sadly, all of this potential crumbles before the punters eyes throughout the day due to one not-so-little thing – the sound levels. Across the whole site the soundsystems are limited to school disco volume, and in the Cocoon arena, the music is barely audible above the crowd. When you invite Sven Vath – one of the most respected DJs in the world – to program and headline one of your festival’s main stages, it is frankly embarrassing that that you virtually need to be standing in the bass bin to discern any clarity from the tiny stack of speakers.

Due to this crippling disability we find ourselves giving up on American techno and acid pioneer Josh Wink in Cocoon, and going to the more trance-heavy Group Therapy tent where Ferry Corsten is dishing out a healthy dose of synth-laden beats. Although it is a little surprising to hear what seems to be an ode to the mid-nineties (Human Traffic here we come) it’s always fun to have a bit of hands-in-the-air euphoria and the volume was marginally better that Cocoon.

Next up on the list is Frenchie Laurent Garnier who is flying through his four-hour set with his usual considered style. Popping back in occasionally throughout, it is clear that this is a man who knows how to put together his show, allowing the music to breathe and building the energy levels gently, taking full advantage of his extended slot. John Digweed presides over an uninteresting hour on the main stage, marred again by low volume, which doesn’t do his selection of mellow techno any favours.

Perhaps the most anticipated set amongst our group is German born Sven Vath’s headline slot in his Cocoon arena. He is known to skilfully weave a selection of some of the freshet techno around, guiding his flock through highs and lows and emphasising the nuances of music that lesser DJs might miss. Guttingly, and I think you might know what’s coming, these nuances were lost entirely under the babble of the crowd, forcing us to abandon ship to go and have a drink.

Arriving at the main stage for the headliners Underworld, we’re immediately propelled back in time fifteen years. As one of the premier dance bands of the nineties, their music permeated into the general public’s consciousness more than any other when their signature track, ‘Born Slippy’, was featured in Trainspotting. The fact that they’re often known for this one track is not however a poor reflection on their other music, which is lesser known simply because ‘Born Slippy’ is so exceptional. They put on an excellent show, managing to retain the excitement and energy of their defining nineties sound, yet dragging it fully into to the present with razor sharp production.

Predictably, but no less brilliantly because of it, they finish with an extended version of ‘Born Slippy’ – queue hands in the air, smoke and blinding lights. It’s a euphoric end to the day, one that helps sweeten the bad taste in the mouth after an otherwise disappointing festival.

First published on Spoonfed.com

lol- Meme Album Review

As a music journalist, genre boundaries are often a necessary evil, it is very useful to be able to mention a genre and for the reader to have some idea of at least the tempo and approximate style before delving into the nitty gritty of it all. However, lol’s debut album Me Me defies genre boundaries, it pulls production influences from drum & bass and dubstep while simultaneously imitating sounds from a huge variety of different genres, from mainstream rock to house music. It is from this imitation that the album gets its name. If you take a moment to discover the definition of meme, you will find that it is “an element of a culture or system of behavior that may be considered to be passed from one individual to another by non-genetic means, esp. imitation.” In other words, what lol(a meme itself) are making central to the album is the tradition of taking previously made sounds, and making them their own. It is ironic that through this process of imitation that they have produced something quite so unique.

It this lack of possible classification that makes Instra:mental’s Nonplus records such a perfect home for the album. With a smorgasbord of tempos and styles released across the label it is always anyone’s guess as to what is going to be next from this adventures pair. The only constant feature is the high quality. This is something which is more than maintained in this album. Made in a bedroom in a warehouse in Hackney wick by three unemployed, disillusioned and directionless friends–Catie, Maggie and Jamie(AKA Mistabishi)– it is an album that beautifully sums up these feelings. Lyrics such as ‘squeeze me too much,’ hint at the slightly sinister undertones that inevitably accompany the “self-obsession, social anxiety, drug abuse, and failed relationships,” that the group state that they wrote about.

The lead singer’s voice has a phenomenal disney-esque voice while still maintaining the sleaziness which defines the record. This is perfectly augmented by the often grimy baselines and the occasional use of Jamie’s satisfyingly flat voice and, in the soulful ‘Trophy Wife,’ Maggie’s London tinged, perfectly annunciated rap. The album is not however, confined to using basslines and overpowering vocals and is incredibly three dimensional–its textures flow seamlessly through the emotions that it so beautifully portrays, from aggression to depression and everything in between. Take for instance the final three songs–a trio which might as well be one. Beginning with the beautiful ‘VHS,’ whose echoing steel drums seem created to ease the 7am comedown, it soon leads into ‘White Noise,’ an ethereal piece whose simple accompaniment of the indistinct vocals accentuates their dreaminess. Finally, after we hear the noise of a tape rewinding, we are hit by the uncontrolled offensiveness of ‘Hello Hell’–the reality of the morning after perhaps.

The oddest thing about this record is that it shouldn’t work–if someone told me to listen to a vocal dubstep/electronic/post rock/shoegaze album made by three unknown friends out of their warehouse in Hackney–I’d tell them where to shove it. But, as things on Nonplus records always seem to, it works. Very very well.

First published in edited form on Resident Advisor

FWD vs Rinse @ fabric Review

As the dubstep juggernaut hurtles unstoppably from the darkened dancefloors of London into the shiny world of pop music, even finding itself with the dubious accolade of featuring in a Britney Spears record, it is easy to forget that there are still people out there still making and playing out good old fashioned wobble free, sub-bass driven dubstep. It is too easy to wander into a dubstep rave anywhere in the world and be hit by a barrage of mind bending noises whose creators seem to think that sampling a dying cat and then dropping it down several octaves is a valid form of production. Luckily for the integrity of the scene, FWD is still a bastion of the ‘underground.’

Since the club night came into existence at the beginning of the last decade, it has been instrumental in the shaping of several genres of UK bass music. Around that time many producers were beginning to feel that the garage scene had stagnated somewhat, becoming too much about being seen than about the music itself. In south London producers started to concentrate on the darker strains of garage, a sound that eventually morphed into what we now know as dubstep. In east London MC’s like Wiley and Dizzee Rascal developed their own take on it, pioneering their own sound–Grime. FWD provided a home for these upstart genres. It was at FWD that producers tried out their newest tunes on their contemporaries, forging the sound week by week on Plastic Peoples legendary sound system. In more recent times, the brand has, along with its long time collaborator Rinse FM, moved towards UK funky, another home grown mutation of garage.

Still going after almost ten years, FWD throws a party at Plastic People every Thursday and occasionally teams up with Rinse to pack out Fabric. It was at one of these Fabric nights that I found myself this Friday past, being bombarded by the varied sounds of London’s burgeoning bass music scene. Each room had a healthy blend of the aforementioned genres, producing one of the most mixed and friendly crowds I’ve seen in Fabric for a while. Room one was heaving all night and each DJ managed to whip the crowd into more and more of a frenzy, until the climax at around 4.30 when Skream pulled one of his favourite tricks–throwing himself into the crowd, who were then more than happy to toss him around the lazer swept room. A particular highlight was Youngsta vs N-Type, whose sub bass really tested out Fabrics flood embedded bass bins, shaking the ex meat packing house to its foundations. Marcus Nasty played a bounce inducing set of feel-good UK funky, while Spyro pulled out his usual flawless selection of grimy goodness.

There is no doubt that FWD is still the premier champion of UK bass music. At Fridays rave, despite the super club feel of Fabric, you could feel the UK underground scene’s life blood flowing through its cavernous halls. FWD represents exclusively home grown British music, and that’s why it always goes off–because everyone there can truly relate to it. It’s our music, not just a great tune from some producer in Berlin, but something that the bloke down the road made–something that we can be proud of.

Published on Resident Advisor

They Live ‘Cancel Standard’ Album Launch

Tuesday night isn’t exactly primetime clubbing in London, students normally being the main frequenters of the few clubs who are brave enough put on a night. So it’s no surprise that They Live’s launch of Cancel Standard at The Nest was a relatively quiet affair, with the club never more than half full. It had the feel of a private party, something reinforced by the fact that almost everyone there was a part of the drum & bass scene.

This was the second of an intended series of Exit album launches at The Nest, the debut centering around the recent compilation, Mosaic. They are very much industry parties, a small showcase of one of the most respected labels on the scene, but feel more like a welcoming friend of a friend’s house party. This time out, a number of label mainstays were scheduled play, including head honcho dBridge, Code 3, Loxy, They Live (Consequence and Joe Seven) and the Rinse FM dubstep maestro Youngsta.

Warming up until 11 PM, dBridge pulled out a characteristically solid set, keeping it simple as the dance floor filled, readying things for Loxy to up the pace a bit. He pulled out some slightly more techie beats and skillfully built from dBridge’s gentle start. They Live then spun an excellent back-to-back set which smoothly journeyed from UK Funky beginnings—taking in tunes from artists such as Joy Orbison—all the way to a satisfyingly Exit Records heavy last half hour, finishing with Skream’s “Motorway,” much to the crowd’s approval. Wrapping the night up tidily, Youngsta made a fine selection from his notoriously sub-bass heavy vinyl collection, leaving the room shaking. It fit perfectly with Exit’s anti-”crash bag wallop” policy, gratuitous wobbles being replaced by subtle and considered basslines.

Although a Tuesday isn’t likely going to make for the wildest night out, what happened at The Nest was still pretty entertaining. Besides, what were you doing on Tuesday that was better than listening to Exit DJs playing some of their favourite music very, very loudly?

Published on Resident Advisor

New Blood 011 Album Review

In case you hadn’t noticed, drum & bass is going places. I’m not talking about the occasional tune that you hear on Radio One–as far as I can tell 175 broken beat has been regularly popping its camo clad head through the mire of pop music for the last 20 years. No, I’m talking about the extraordinary level of musical innovation lead by artists in the Autonomic Camp–people like dBridge, Instra:mental and ASC. It is an upheaval which has even lead Skream and Distance–two of the founders of one of the most revolutionary transformation of music of our generation–to start producing within this so called stagnant genre. This ‘new’ drum & bass is virtually unrecognisable from its heavy hitting forefathers, often using a half time beat, it is take a much more considered approach, swapping bass attacks and pounding beats for complex drum patterns and atmosphere.

Although Med School have been taking a slightly different approach to the task of dismantling drum & bass to Autonomic, they are certainly in the same vein, and many Med Schools artists quote the latter crew as an influence. They both share a tendency to pull apart beat structure and replace traditional kicks and snares with odds and ends such as the reverberation of water droplets or a indistinct click. However while the Autonomic sound relies on crackling ambience, creating a slightly more sinister feel, Med School use a much more melancholic vibe, offset by euphoric synths and vocals, which are perhaps inherited from their big sister, Hospital.

From the off, as the warm bass of Nuage’s ‘Missing you’ drifts out of the speakers, calmly offset by the heavily auto tuned voice and dancing staccato notes, this album ebbs and flows through a variety of moods and rhythms. Tracks like the stunning ‘Distinctions of the Same’ by Russia’s Bulb and Furi Anga’s ‘Rainbow Unit’ keep up the minimal side, intricate clicking beats and haunting vocals conveying the pensive musings the artists. There are moments of dance floor friendly beats such as Sato’s ‘Fuse,’ or Anile’s ‘Change of Direction.’ However, these pieces don’t feel like they were written with the dance floor in mind, it seems as if they have spilt out of the artists consciousness ready to dance too. Between these two extremes is, well, everything in between–from a surprising dubstep tune by Eleven 8, to the powerful throbbing heartbreaker that is ‘Relapse’ by Lung.

One of the great triumphs of the album is the way that, despite the often radically different styles, it is held together by running themes–a persistent feel of melancholy, barely discernible voices and gentle, all encompassing basslines. After the release of last years exquisite New Blood 010 compilation, this years offering had a lot to live up to, however they have pulled it off with some serious style.

Published on Resident Advisor

lol – Interview

Meme (Noun)

Biology
Definition: An element of a culture or system of behaviour that may be considered to be passed from one individual to another by non-genetic means, esp. imitation.

And so goes the explanation behind the title of the debut album from the group lol, Me Me. By attempting to imitate elements of other people’s music, which were inevitably imitations to some extent themselves, lol (a meme itself) have used memes to produce something new.

Group member James (AKA Mistabishi) explains: “We played all these random records and tried to dress up in the style of that record, taking parts from it and then reproducing it in our own way.” It is ironic that through this process of borrowing from others that they have managed to create something so unique.

The members of lol don’t seem to have much in common from the outside. Maggie works long months on oil rigs “number crunching,” while Kate is an ex Anne Summers shop assistant turned carer. James, on the other hand, is an ex-banking drum & bass producer, whose acclaimed album Drop on Hospital Records nestles amongst a plethora of other projects. However, these differences are clearly only skin deep. During the winter of ’09-’10, united in unemployment, they shunned the world, holed themselves up in their unit in Hackney Wick and meshed their collective creative urges. Me Me is the result.

It is a record born, according to James, through “boredom and confusion.”  The results chart the lack of direction that the three protagonists felt during that winter and will resonate with many listeners. I mentioned to him that I felt that Me Me didn’t fit in with any particular musical area and he agreed, saying, “Yeah, well, we didn’t fit in anywhere either, it’s a real misfit thing and that’s why I like it, I thought it would be worth putting out for other people who felt like they didn’t fit in either.”

Forgoing the studio, the album was made entirely on an old Akai Professional DPS24 MKII Digital Personal Studio, recording vocals under a duvet cover. While both James and Kate have proven production skills (she has a B.Tech in production), Maggie learnt as they went along and more than made up for any lack in this department with her stunning vocals. This combination provided surprising results for the trio. “It was weird,” James contemplates, “I would have never have made anything like that. In fact, I don’t know if any of us would have.”

A year after this intense recording period the album is finally being released on NonPlus+, Instra:mental’s imprint. The main reason for selecting the label out of the several offers was the fact that they didn’t want to change a thing about it. “Other labels got back to us saying that they liked it but ‘could you change such and such,’ but, you know, this came out of this weird three month window and messing around with it would just make it irrelevant.”

Soon the threesome will be back together, Maggie is returning from another stint on the rigs and there are talks of a live show circulating. As we talk about it, James’ eyes light up at the prospect, and I am reminded of a discussion that we had had a little earlier during which his indifference to DJing, i.e. playing out other peoples tunes, became clear. This is a man truly passionate about creating music, and I, for one, cannot wait to see how his talent transfers to the live setting.

First published on Kmag.com

They Live Interview

For many d&b heads, Exit Records has become one of a few ‘buy on sight’ labels, producing such high quality and consistency that each release causes a ripple of excitement through the scene. Having kicked off the year with the extraordinary compilation album Mosaic, head honcho dBridge has flung his weighty support behind They Live, a collaboration between Autonomic favorite Consequence (real name Cameron McLaren) and newcomer Joe Seven.
Hailing from the opposite side of the world – Australia and New Zealand respectively – the pair met up at a gig and instantly hit it off. “Me and Lowqui went out to see Cern play in Melbourne and we all got talking,” Joe explains.

“I knew that we had a similar taste in music soon after we met,” Consequence adds. “When we first met we discussed music pretty much non stop and had similar influences. Neither of us initially knew if it would work or not, so we just wrote a few things and it developed naturally.”

Cancel Standard is the result of this meeting of minds. Further pushing Exit’s current attempts to melt away genre boundaries, it is an album which ignores people’s expectations, leading them on a journey through this duo’s musical mindscape. It is not a collection of songs, it is a cohesive piece of music designed to be listened to from beginning to end, in the correct order.

“For me an album needs to be able to be listened to as a whole,” Cameron says. “That doesn’t mean that you have to, but I think the tunes need to work together. When I look back on albums I used to listen to as a kid, they seemed to have a natural flow to them, so the idea of cohesion is important to me.”

“Early on in the project,” Joe furthers, “dBridge suggested the idea of the album being pressed as a single 12″ LP, which we were both really into. My first memories of music were listening to my dad’s movie soundtracks on 12″, particularly Alien, which was one long nightmare soundtrack. I think it’s important for an album to keep the listener in a certain state.”

So how exactly did they come up with this unique electronica? “There are no set roles in the studio,” explains Consequence. “Sometimes I will start something and Joe will come in and lay some stuff down, and vice versa. Most of the album was done on hardware, this allowed us to approach it more as a live jam.”

With respect to the sound of the album, the guys had a similar approach. “I think we both had a subconscious idea of where we wanted it to go, but at the same time, we would get into the studio and jam, whatever happened, happened. I feel like we approached it more as a band than as I would if I’m working on a solo project.”

“Yeah,” agrees Joe,” and when we finished the title track Cancel Standard it kind of set the scene for the album. Even though a few of the other tracks were written earlier I think that was the point when we both knew where it was heading.”

So what’s next for these two sonic innovators? “I am moving to London at the end of March,” says Consequence. “My second solo LP is complete and will be out sometime soon this year. I’m also looking forward to starting a live show with dBridge, more about that soon.”

“I’m finally heading back home to England at the start of April,” exudes Joe. “I have a solo record on Exit sometime soon and there’s a whole lot of They Live stuff to be finished, including a possible live show from us.”

Published at Kmag.com

 

Subwave – Roadrage

I haven’t posted anything for a while, getting a job is hard! So I thought I’d dig up this single review that I did as part of Spoonfed’s ‘Dancefloor Bombs’ series a few months ago, from the archives so to speak. Listen while you read!

Imagine, if you will, waking up one Monday morning and finding an ominous letter from the council on your door matt. You decide to have a cup of coffee before dealing with what is inevitably bad news, when do the council ever send you anything nice? Sitting in your kitchen you tuck into your Crunchy Nut Cornflakes and rip open the envelope. A photo falls out. It’s you, driving – your features scrunched up into an unrecognisable ‘bass face’. At the bottom right of the photo, in angry red, are the digits 123mph… It all comes back to you, you are normally such a sensible driver, but one night in mid winter, the radio selector had announced a fresh dub from the Russian beat-smith Subwave. You couldn’t help it, as the waves of noise poured out of the speakers the speedometer crept up, and up, and up, until… SMASH, your Crunchy Nut Cornflakes fall on the floor – you stagger to work, your life ruined by a simple arrangement of gut wrenching bass and spiky precision beats.

An Interview With the Legendary dBridge

Darren White, AKA dBridge, is no normal dnb producer. Arriving in London at the beginning of the 90s, his brother took him to the hardcore raves where the genre was slowly giving birth to the forefather of modern dnb, Jungle. Instantly hooked, he knew that he had to be a part of it. Twenty years later, via duo Vicious Circle and supergroup Bad Company, he is one of the most respected and influential producers in dnb and with the help of Instra:mental, has taken a scene which has been repeatedly written off by critics as stagnant, and completely turned it on its head. 

As we chat in his newly rewired studio, surrounded by a bewildering array of equipment ranging from 70s synths to a top end mac, he looks back on one of the many times when even he was frustrated by the inward looking genre. “I wasn’t into the direction Bad Company was going and it felt like there wasn’t really a place for the music that I personally wanted to make.” Luckily Zinc saw the potential in his unique style and released ‘The Monochrome EP” on Bingo Recordings, providing a confidence boost and propelling him into a thriving but relatively underground community of like minded individuals also disillusioned by the direction that dnb was going.

Several years and many massive tunes later a track called ‘Naked Zoo’ by the relatively unknown duo, Instra:mental, came to his attention. He tells me, “I was just like hold on a minute, what the fuck?! I need to work with these guys! I had similar ideas of melody lines and key changes and it was nice to find someone else who was doing it – and doing it really well, it inspired me to push myself.” This was to prove a meeting of huge significance for the dnb world, with the ideas of these three artists slowly seeping through their sets and into the consciousness of other producers. This wave of change built towards the end of the last decade, growing faster and faster as it was chased by the threat of the latest mutation of dance music, dubstep. “It definitely gave dnb a kick up the arse, I think that the scene sees that unless it really starts sorting itself out then it will be left by the wayside.”

The most recent significant development in this saga is the compilation album Mosaic, released on the 31st of January on dBridge’s own label, Exit Records. True to previous Exit form it reeks of quality, each and every tune is a carefully crafted gem which seamlessly meshes into a Mosaic, displaying his personal vision of what dnb is. He explains what the criteria for making the final cut were, “first and foremost soul – where you can feel that a part of that person is in the tune and there are slight imperfections in it.” In more recent production he has begun to add an extra element of himself into his tunes by writing and performing his own lyrics on top of them. “I enjoy the songwriting side of it, it adds a whole other dimension to making the tune, with new melody lines to work around your instrumentation. It is also that part of you which no one else can copy”

So, what’s next for Darren White, Exit and the ‘Autonomic’ sound as it has become known? Well, the future looks very rosy indeed. Exit has a mouthwatering selection of projects in the pipeline, starting with an album from duo They Live (Consequence and Joe 7), followed by LPs from Dan Habarnam and Loxy & Resound. Towards the end of the year it is the head honcho’s turn for the limelight with his second album, following on from his stunning 2007 debut, ‘The Gemini Principle.’ Perhaps more excitingly he also has a long overdue live show with Consequence lined up. He explains, “it’s something that I’ve always wanted to do but I wanted to do it with someone else so we could bounce ideas off each other.”

dBridge is a very different music lover to you and I. His life in drum and bass reads like an elaborate romance, with fall outs, moments of passion and moments of hate. But when it all comes down to it, this is a man besotted. I naively ask him what it is about dnb which keeps drawing him back and like a hopeless addict he explains, “It’s so interwoven in the formative years of my life that I can’t let it go, I just love it, and I always will!”

Mosaic is out on the 31st of January on Exit Records and launches at the Nest on the 1st of Febuary with a ridiculous line up including Instra:mental, Skream, dBridge, Genotype, Loxy, Code 3 and SP:MC.

Published on Spoonfed.co.uk