This is the flyer for the next Dirty Canvas on Saturday 3rd February 2007. The night is being taken over by Stratford's Aftershock label home of producer Terrah Danger, Bruza and with many R'n'G affiliates like Sadie Ama, Gemma Fox and Sway. The label was very quiet in 2006, but is looking to become major players in the scene once more in 2007. Terrah in particular has scene his position as grime's top producer usurped by Ruff Sqwad's Rapid, so he has ground to make up. From what I've heard of his (and the label's) forthcoming 'shock to the system' album though, Terrah will indeed be making his mark again.
Last Saturday saw Dirty Canvas in a little soundclash with promoters 7 Year Glitch at a new venue in Soho. Though the whole thing had to finish at 12 midnight, we crammed in plenty of DJs and the final hour saw an energetic performance from Ruff Sqwad, a swinging set from Tempa T and some conscious bars from Purple and G Double.
Dan Hancox has penned a piece about grime’s struggle to get a foothold in London’s live circuit in Dazed and Confused…where I contribute with a couple of quotes.
The Eel Collective have also been busy. The Winter edition of the Eel is out, plus da Collective have put together an exhibition of album covers at the Art Vinyl shop on Broadway Market. Showing for the next couple of weeks, the album covers have been chosen as their favourite (albums and covers) by various local people, each with a current polaroid of themselves, a picture circa when they bought the album and a typewritten piece on the reasons for their choice. It's a great idea (nothing to do with me!) and works a treat.
Finally, we’ll soon be talking about how blogging killed the tv star, with this new blog-on-the-tv site from Woebot, which is fantastic.
7 Year Glitch have sent for Dirty Canvas so we're having a soundclash thing on Saturday 13th January at a new venue in Soho called Everything Must Go. The night, which finishes at 12 midnight but is free, will feature, Tempa T, Ruff Sqwad and Purple plus the Glich's and DC's DJs.
The next Dirty Canvas proper is on Saturday 3rd February at the ICA. It will br an Aftershock label launch party with Bruza, Triple Threat, Terrah Danger, Shola Ama and others (including special guests). If it is anything as good as the Skitz launch party....it will be worth a visit.
This is my music round up for 06. It was another slow year where nothing new blew, lots of small scenes just continuing to bumble along slowly.
No particular order but I’ve tried to group into three or four categories. The only record that really blew me away was Side 1 of Bonnie Camplin's 'heavy epic'. Lots of funsize youtube clips too so you can listen for yourselves.
Hauntology headz:
Albums
Bonnie Camplin -Heavy Epic Brightblack Morning Light - s/t Burial - s/t Ariel Pink – House arrest Colleen - Et Les Boites À Musique
Grime survivors:
Albums/mixtapes Various - Logan Sama’s War Report JME - Derkhead, Shh Hut Yuh Muh, Poomplex Wiley – bits of 2nd Phase & Tunnel Vision Vols 1-4 (maybe 2 great albums in that lot) Neckle Camp – Straight Necklin Ruff Sqwad – Guns and Roises 2 Also bits of mixtapes by Scorcher, Frisco, Slix, Tinchy Stryder, Statik
Singles
Buss it up - Kano & Vybz Kartel Chance us – Scorcher Shangooli - Scratchy Heard what i said - Prez t and JME Beef with T – Terminator Spun a Web - P Jam f Big narstie, Solo & Demon Never see me fall - Bashy Good Old Days – Mercston Kick off – Danny Weed I’m from a place - Ruff Sqwad ft Maxwell D Dead – Skepta No base - Slix You and I - Shola Ama feat Wiley Clack Riddim - Virgo ft B Live & Flirta D Duppy – Skepta
Rock, folk, post:
Albums
Alasdair Roberts - No Earthly Man Camera Obscura - Let's get out of this Country Joanna Newsom – Ys Espers - espers II Benoit Pioulard – Précis Grizzly Bear – Yellow house Hawk and Hacksaw – Delivery Room TV On The Radio - Return To Cookie Mountain
Singles
Let's Call It Off - Peter Bjorn & John
Houston, hyphy, crunk & rap:
Albums
Clipse - Hell Hath No Fury Da Backwudz - Wood Work Dead End Alliance – Scewed for life Trae – Restless Pimp C – Pimpalation OG Ron C - After Da Kappa J Dilla - Donuts E-40 - My Ghetto Report Card Z-Ro - Still livin
Singles:
Superhyphy - Keak Da Sneak Chunk Up The Deuce (feat. Paul Wall And UGK) - Lil keke Yeen Know - Lil Scrappy Get Stupid - Mac Dre New Oakland - Mistah Fab Go Ignant - The Mossie ft. The Federation & E40 Grapes - Nump feat. Federation & E-40 Hell Yeah - San Quinn feat.E-A-Ski Go dumb – The Federation Northern Califoolya ft San Quin, Messy Marv, B-Legit, Ea-Ski, Keek Da Sneak & James "Stomp Down" Bailey Money in the Bank - Young Srappy feat Young Buck Do Ya Bad - Yung Joc Fuck Yo Couch - Bailey Hustlin – Rick Ross
No rave:
Albums
Junior Boys - So This Is Goodbye Hot Chip – The Warning Mapstation – Distance told me things to be said
Singles
Darko - Booka Shade Pop The Glock - Uffie
One drop dancehall:
Singles
Ganja Farmer - Marlon Asher Gash Dem - Chuck Fender Nuh Badda Mi – Perfect Serious Times - Gyptain Jah Time - Fantan Mojah
Scott:
Scott Walker – The Drift
Top of the pops:
Singles
Yeah yeah - Bodyrox feat Luciana Put your hands up for Detroit - Fedde Grande Me & You Cassie Cure and the cause Fish Go Deep Sexy back – Justin Timbalake
Old stuff:
Comus, C86, Diplomats, Le Orme, Franco Battiato, Jack Nitzsche, Fairport Convention, Neutral Mil Hotel, Blue Nile, Takagi Masakatsu, Moondog, Van Der Graaf Generator, Bill Fay, Bruce Haack, Beat Happening, Exuma, Fad Gadget, Germs, Kim Fowley, Klaus Shulze, Tones on Tail, The Motels, Venom, Wendy Carlos.
Here's my own video mash-up with some hackneyed off-cuts...
On the 14th October, Ghetto, Scorcher and Wretch 32 stepped up as part of their new Movement guise and meeeerked it – Ghetto especially was in hyper mode, with Logan on decks playing some bumpin funky house but then also playin the school master as some of the moshing (!) near the front was causing some needle bumpin.
Earlier L Man received a very lukewarm reception, either because it was too early or people weren’t feeling his (8 mile-relocated-to-Norwood) routine.
Kode 9 also had to play double-the-length of his set due to the now familiar problem of getting MCs to arrive on time – but his dubstep-cut-with-lots-more set was pure vibes.
It was also good to see Peter Gunn spinning his NYC take on grime (a reciprocated slot in the big apple would be great!). This second DC-at-the-ICA night confirmed that the crowd for these things would be a curious mixture of ‘road’, ‘fashionistas’ and ‘musos’...prompting people on the Rwd.mag forum to ponder ‘there were people with grey hair down there I swear dan’ and ‘there were bare Graham Norton types down there’.
Last Saturday’s (18th Nov) Dirty Canvas night was tarnished by D Double E leaving everyone short with a rendition of ‘Signal’ and then taking off – nothing else (everyone said he was ‘long’ if that makes sense!), I won’t say how much that 5mins works out pro-rata for the hour, but he’s up there with Premiership footballers.
Fortunately Frisco turned up with Skepta and had hyped up the crowd with their set. Dirty Canvas co-organiser DJ Magic had also been moving people by taking us through his selection of new dubs and older classics with the help of Bar Rhumba’s hypeman MC Scandal. Earlier Chewy had put down a funky house set, perhaps confusing people as most people showed up when he played and wondered where the grime was. Earlier I had played a Houston and Hyphy set (when noone was around!).
The Dirty Canvas crowd now has a familiar feel – includes grime’s growing papparazi Raj, Hyperfrank , Chantelle, Dane Bradshaw.
We’re now looking at new venues to take the night after a final couple of shows at the ICA in the new year. The next night is a week on Saturday (2nd Dec) and features a pretty huge line-up, which makes me wonder whether we’ll be able to fit everyone in.
Originally it was going to be just Ruff Sqwad and Jammer – which is a pretty decent line-up on its own – but now Skitz is having his 'In the zone' album launch party as part of the night and JME, Brazen, Logan, Tempa T and President T have all be added. Promises to be good.
We also have some stylish t-shirts (courtesy of Happily Ever After) which cost just a tenner and you can buy here. Watch out for the mixtape coming soon!
Shanty House was something I put on at the Whitechapel Gallery (filling the opening left by Dirty Canvas’ exodus to the ICA). The idea was to do something which fitted a bit more into James Smith’s Friday Nights programme (Dirty Canvas was always a bit of a tangent compared to their other nights). It was also a pilot for a future regular night, showcasing different global urban music scenes, including the likes of grime, baile funk, desi, crunk, dancehall and kwaito. The night itself – on Friday 3rd November - was biased towards all things South America with a screening of Resistencia – a documentary about hip hop in Colombia, a Q&A discussion with its Director Tom Feiling and a performance from the Brazilian (but East London based duo) Tetine.
DJs Stelfox (dancehall and crunk) and the man who coined the term ‘shanty house’ Woebot(desi and grime) covered other angles well. The night was pretty successful (I think!), plenty of people showed up and the film, which though more political than music-based, generated plenty of discussion in the Q&A. Tetine provided the necessary performance to conclude the night and didn’t disappoint either, though their sound is perhaps more indebted to Peaches and Fischerspooner than baile funk.
As I said, I’m hoping to get this going as a regular in a different venue (it needs a clubbier space, better sound system to do the music justice) possibly starting in February next year (look out for details here or at the myspace).
Another shindig which a couple of friends and I have got going is Police and Thieves, which had it’s first night on Saturday 11th November (November’s been a busy one) at the Seabright Arms in Hackney. The night, which raises money for Tony’s Eel Fanzine and is also sponsored by Post Records draws on an older crowd (and my older records) and each one features a beat combo. For some reason the first night seemed to attract every last punk in London…I say ‘for some reason’ well, inadvertently booking two punk bands possibly didn’t help.
The night ended up being a fairly surreal mix of civilised drinking/partying and anarchic moshing beer-spilling – though it had its good moments...and the Black Flag vrs Oi sounds of Oiz II Men and Moral Dilemma were interesting with Saffron on deck providing the best antidote. The next one on 16th December will be an anti-punk affair, with London’s finest folk-C86 band Jesus Licks taking the stage.
Other things I’ve been up to of late include a couple of European (first-time) excursions to Stockholm and Prague, both extremely calm (well, after London) and cool (in both senses) and worth checking if you haven’t been.
Music I’ve been listening to: JME ‘Derkhead/Tropical’ Ruff Sqwad ‘Guns and Roses 2’ Joanna Newsome ‘Ys’ C86 compilation Comus ‘song to comus’ Pimp C ‘pimpalation’ Trae ‘Restless’ Greensleeves ‘The Biggest reggae one drop collection’ Wiley ‘tunnel vision’ Vols 1/2/3 Neckle Camp ‘straight necklin’ The Federation ‘breakin news’ Jack Nitzche ‘hard working man Colleen ‘/et La Boites a musique’ Warrior Dubz dubstep compilation Kode 9 & Spaceape Jesus Licks ‘into the woods/marry me’ Woebot’s Italian prog recommendation
Dirty Canvas' next installment is on Saturday (14 October) at the ICA in Central London.
Headlining are The Movement, grime's supergroup making a good fist of their verbal war with Boy Better Know (and in particular Wiley) and generally a big impression this year, with plenty of individual mixtapes and their collective mixtape dropping soon. The Movement include Scorcher, Ghetto, Wretch 32 and Devlin.
The Movement will be joined by Norwood’s finest L.Man, plus Kiss FM’s and grime's premier DJ Logan Sama and the force behind dubstep's continuing rise, and Hyperdub head honcho, Kode 9.
The first one at the ICA sold out by 11pm so early ticket purchase is recommended!
Dirty Canvas made the successful move to the ICA...reviews here, here and here. The next night is on Saturday 14th October with Newham Generals and Logan Sama.
