Friday, November 24, 2006

Been away from here for a while

So here's a catch up of the things that have happened over the past two months...

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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.
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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!

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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.
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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).
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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.
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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.
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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.

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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