bun-u

aftershock, soundclash, dazed and blog tv

2007-01-17T11:24:00.000Z

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.

Dirty Canvas

2007-01-07T16:35:00.000Z

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.

Best of 006

2007-01-07T14:23:00.000Z

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...

Been away from here for a while

2006-11-24T14:59:00.000Z

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.

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.

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.

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.

***********************************************************************

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

Footage from the last Dirty Canvas

2006-10-12T07:36:00.000Z

Get this video and more at MySpace.com

Dirty Canvas on Saturday night

2006-10-11T15:28:00.000Z

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 reviews

2006-09-11T15:22:00.000Z

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.

Vyner Festival film

2006-08-29T14:06:00.000Z

Vyner Street Festival - bands and djs

2006-08-25T08:35:00.000Z

When: Saturday Aug 26, 2006 and Sunday 27th August
12:0o noon till 10pm both days

Where: Vyner Street, off Cambridge Heath Road, London, E2 9DQ

What: 2 day free festival taking place on Vyner Street E2 (nearest tube Bethnal Green). 12 live bands over 2 days, stalls, DJs, food, beer, games and introducing The Punk Olympics.

The Punk Olympics celebrates 30 years since punks and says stuff the Olympics with a series of events, including:
- strickly po-go
- gobbin darts
- speed bingo
- dress up tony
- spare 10p mate?
- 3 legged steamin
- blind jiving
- tossin' the cider

There'll also be open gallleries, a family area, fanzines, raffles, tombola.

The following bands are playing over 2 days

Saturday:

3.00 tbc
4.00 Beck Road Bands
5.00 Lil Lost Lou
6.00 Dear Thief
7.00 Idle Lovers
8.00 Sky Pirates
9.00 The Whore dogs

Sunday

3.00 Sailplanes
4.00 Spinmaster Plantpot
5.00 Marquis of Queensbury Rules
6.00 Cherry Mash Cherry
7.00 tbc
8.00 Tits of Death
9.00 Ruff Sqwad

DJs will be playing before and between band sets and will include: Lee (funky house), Duncan (Stereolab), Ross (no wave), David (Dirty Canvas), Adam (Eel), Tony (Eel studio one), Rocky (George & Drag), Julian (Dog and Trumpet), Stelfox (hyphy), Dave (South Hackney Radio), Tree (Hat on tthe Wall).

Will be great to see you there

Dirty Canvas gets bigger

2006-08-09T18:48:00.000Z

Hackney Road

2006-07-31T09:10:00.000Z

Hackney Road in East London is a good example of how development in London is slightly more incremental and organic than in most cities. A combination of high land values, weak local government means that the master-planning approach you get in most provincial cities is avoided here. In fact you’d be pushed to find two buildings the same on Hackney Road. Each one comes from a different time, has it’s own architectural style and there’s no attempt to follow any urban design etiquette of fitting in with surroundings. A lot of the road is also derelict, probably land-banked by long-term investors and sites are covered by billboards or urban graffiti artists -wannabe banksias. There are other bits which are extremely affluent – three quarters of a million pound houses and there are Hackney social housing blocks, which tend to be slightly angled away from the road as if posturing an uncompromised stance. There’s the pubs and ex pubs, you can get a cheaper pint in the Marksmen than perhaps many parts of Britain, Morrissey used to frequent the Seabright Arms, the George and Dragon is a favourite for the Hoxton luvvies and drag queens, while Browns and other strip clubs continues the area’s long-standing subservient relationship to the nearby City district

Dirty Canvas signs off at Wileychapel

2006-07-25T20:24:00.000Z

Big up Silverdollar....for the Dirty Canvas review. I think I've told everyone that Wiley came down...even people who don't know who Wiley is

Vyner Street - helpers needed

2006-07-25T20:04:00.000Z

What: Vyner Street Festival
Where: Vyner St, off Cambridge Heath Rd, E2
When: Saturday 26th August, Sunday 27th August 28th
Organised by: The Eel Collective (www.myspace.com/eelfanzine) and The Victory pub

Previous: Though the street party has been happening for a few years (organised solely by the Victory pub), last year saw the event grow into a fully fledged arts and music festival. The street was closed to traffic, a stage was built, a market and kids play area was set up and the street was decorated with bunting for the village fete theme. Several bands (including Alan Tyler, Tits of Death, Jesus Licks, Blanket, The Council…) and DJs performed on the main stage and the market was given over to artists. Over 500 people attended the event, which raised money for FSIDs, which sponsors research into cot death syndrome.

Details for 2006 festival: The festival will follow a similar format to last year with music, art, kids, food and beer. The theme though this year is 30yrs since punk, with the “Punk Olympics” organised for kids and elders. We have several bands and DJs interested in playing and will be making decisions on that shortly – we will have 2 stages – the main eel stage and a smaller stage (yet to be named!). We will again be running the market and are looking for stall holders from people wanting to sell weird arty shit. The Victory pub will take care of beer, food and a kiddie area.

How you can help: We’re looking for people/organisations to get involved in the day – particularly those with a connection to Vyner St or Broadway Market/London Fields/Victoria Pk area. Help is needed in terms of:
- More ideas to make it work!
- Bands, djs, market stalls holders
- People prepared to help in the running (before and on the day)
- Finance, sponsorship (we have some but could do with some more)
- Marketing and communicating the event

Please let me know if you are interested?!

If so, we’re holding a meeting at the Victory pub on Vyner Street on this Sunday 6-7pm – please come along – bring your ideas and support

Meanwhile here's a little youtube of us making the Vyner fanzine on London Fields in one day (the flash eel)

Green Flash

2006-07-10T11:40:00.000Z

Some things coming up

2006-07-06T09:28:00.000Z

Friday 14th July, one of the last ever Hat on the Wall - Laboratory of Adult Rock (www.myspace.com/thelaboratory) nights (it’s a-closing down). I’ll be deejaying with Ross (Post Records) and Matt Tree (Wolverhampton Wanderers) the usual mixture of stuff applies

Sunday 16th July, the Eel Collective (www.myspace.com/eelfanzine) will be putting together a flash edition of the Eel fanzine in one day on London Fields as part of the Hackney Mile of Art project. We’ll be providing the typewriters, photocopiers, canvases – you’ll be doing the thinking, writing, photographing and art work (on London Fields) and the end product will be published.

Friday 21st July is the next Dirty Canvas night (www.myspace.com/dirtycanvas), with Ears, Unothodox, DJ Prancehall and DJ Magic (flier above). This is the last Dirty Canvas at the Whitechapel before we move to the ICA in September, so get down to take a look, the performances for the first 3 nights have been brilliant

Finally there's the Vyner Street Festival (also organised by the Eel Collective) taking place on Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th August (12-12) on Vyner St (off Cambridge Heath Rd), with live music, market stalls, the punk olympics and plenty of other stuff to be announced.

As the World Cup is on...

2006-06-27T17:45:00.000Z

...and Brazil have just strolled into the quarters without breaking sweat. I took this pic of Ronaldinhio in 1999 when he was on the bench as a 17 year old prodigy in the Copa America game with Mexico in Paraguay. Me and a couple of friends managed to get accreditation for the tournament, so I on the pitch-side with the proper journalists - me with a cheap tourist camera next to all the seriously long lenses. Ronaldinhio was already been talked about in Brazil having come off the bench in Brazil's first game against Venezuala and jinked past a couple of defenders and scored a wonder goal

We also ran into Cafu after one of the games, who looks exactly the same now as he did 7 years ago... indeed the same as he also did when he fronted the Fine Young Cannibals back in the 80s

The next Dirty Canvas night (21/07/06)

2006-06-21T13:55:00.000Z

The next Dirty Canvas (on Friday 21st July) features two more hard-working grime acts representing east and west London

First there’s Unorthodox (No Lay from Unorthodox pictured above), a crew from Hammersmith with their own unique and more lyrically-conscious style of grime. Their tunes have been showcased on the Run the Road compilations, play-listed on radio and even sampled by BBC News. They’ll be performing tracks from their new mixtape Nu Shape, which is out now and from which you can catch selected tracks here.

Also performing is Ears (pictured above), prodigious MC from the Jah Mek The World camp in East London, who was also showcased on the most recent Run the Road compilation. He will be performing from his forth-coming mixtape A Breath Of Fresh Airs, which looks set to be big and will include his new single "oh my days". You can listen to some of Ears’ tunes here.

Unorthodox and Ears will be joined by a very special guest DJ.

This will be the last Dirty Canvas night at the Whitechapel before it moves to the ICA in September....though I will be starting a new night at the Whitechapel after than...details to follow.

Happening on Sunday night

2006-06-16T15:34:00.000Z

what we gonna do about the youts?

2006-06-03T09:13:00.000Z

This is lifted from a community safety pamphlet for the Aylesbury Estate in South London...the message is all about keeping kids on track so they don't fall into a life of crime...the picture...the gunfingers... well the irony doesn't need explaining.

I left my job yesterday in another part of South London - New Cross Gate almost three years I've spent working in a discreet neighbourhood awarded a stash of Government grants to turn it around. My part has been working with community groups and residents to try and help build more self suffiency...something loaded with difficulty, ideology and politics. I'm sure I'll reflect on this experience alot more now I've moved on, but for now i'll just say that this area and South East London generally is probably THE last remaining part of London

Another Eel money spinner

2006-06-03T09:05:00.000Z

Another fundraiser/warm-up for the Vyner Street Festival...featuring...Shimmy Rivers and and Canal and special guests*, DJs Rocky, Whispering Tone, Coventry Dave, Irish Mick, stalls, raffle, films, comedy, drink, drink, drink....part of Alan Milner's The Large Club series of events on Sunday night.

Bethnal Green Working Mens Club
Pollards Row (off Bethnal Green Rd) E2
Sunday 18th June 2006
7.30 - 12.00

*any band interested in being da special guests - drop me a line

Vyner Street Festival will be taking place on Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th August...details soon come

Eel Fanzine Issue 4

2006-05-30T18:01:00.000Z

Issue 4 of the Eel fanzine is now out and available from all good outlets in a around Broadway Market (we'll also be selling it from our own stall again on Saturday)

Last night

2006-05-27T17:04:00.000Z

Here's a few snaps from last night's Dirty Canvas, which despite not having a brilliant turnout featured some top performances from Narstie, LMan and NG Cartel...

Members of NG Cartel repping the Nottingham postcode

Big Narstie is exceedingly good sir

L Man, not content with just merking it on the mic, wants to DJ too (and does)

Conflicting ideas about which way grime is heading

The next Dirty Canvas

2006-05-15T11:49:00.000Z

DIRTY CANVAS with:
MC Big Narstie (N Double A) - pictured
LDOTMAN (N Double A)
NG Cartel (Nottigham's finest)
Hosted by G Double
DJ Magic and Bun-u on the decks

Friday 26th May 2006
7.30 - 11.30pm
Whitechapel (Art Gallery)
80-82 Whitechapel High St
LONDON E1 7QX

Second last one at the Whitechapel - moving to the ICA for a larger / more regular Dirty Canvas in September (details soon)

The record doing it for me right now

2006-04-28T16:32:00.000Z

Bonnie Camplin's 'heavy epic' on a new label Decemberism released last year truly lives up to it's name. I don't know too much about Bonnie except (from what I've looked up on the net) that she used to be in Donateller and is a cross platform artist. All 20 mins of Side 1 ("Polanda Heavy Epic") is a morass of backward-sounding noise, with traces of different movements and songs, which perhaps again calls up the hauntology tag, but really sounds unlike anyone else in that particular arena. Side 2 is more in Position Normal territory, "Pearl and the Hanging Judge" sounds like some Vivian Goldman out-take and is a homeage to "The Hanging Judge" by Paul roland/Danse Macabre. As Bonnie herself states in the detailed sleevenotes: "I was trying to reconstruct the song from memory as I had lost my copy mnay years ago and could never find it again. The underlying riff was from the Troggs' With a girl like you. Then I blended Elkie Brookes' Pearls a singer with Kenny Rodgers' Ruby to provide the backing vocals and I made up some new words as foreboding the original."

"Perswayze" is a piece of fruitloops madness, "The Normal Food" and "Get Me a Mirror" borrow from Chirs Morris' BlueJam sessions (as Position Normal does) in the use of eerily slowed up speech patterns and "Steel Penis" brilliantly carves up sounds and twists melody. The whole thing is warmly packaged in a gatefold sleeve (by Enrico David). Go get yourself a copy...I got mine at Smallfish but check the label website www.decemberism.com for t'other outlets

for the arts crowd

2006-04-24T21:46:00.000Z

This piece I did appears in Arts Professional this month...

Dirty Canvas: a life of grime When the Whitechapel gallery opened in 1901, it did so with the mission ‘To bring great to the impoverished people of East London'. Late last year the awesome but unsung Grime crew Ruff Sqwad from an impoverished estate in Bow brought great art to the Whitechapel. Ruff Sqwad played as part of a night called Dirty Canvas in the Whitechapel's late Friday nights programme. The sound on the night was densely layered, often abrasive, while the eight or so members rapped about their sexual prowess and just how damn talented and tough they were. The show was brilliantly received glowing reviews in i-D magazine, The Wire and Street Soundz. The consensus was that this was one of the best live grime performances. At the time of the Ruff Sqwad show, the gallery was showing Paul McCarthey's Pirates of the Caribbean exhibition. The show, containing themes of sexual violence, consumerist indulgence and porn, was also received extremely well by reviewers and audiences alike.

It is in-keeping with the Whitechapel’s cutting-edge ethos to show something in the vein of the Paul McCarthy’s exhibition, despite its ‘difficult’ content. However, the gallery programming a Grime night is perhaps both more unusual and interesting. Of course, there are plenty of galleries are using music as a tool for audience development, and there is an increasing emphasis on cross-platform programmes, but specifically holding a regular Grime night opens up a whole new range of possibilities.
First, to the uninitiated, a background to Grime, which is both a London underground music scene and possibly a social phenomenon. Emanating from rave, jungle and garage and drawing on US rap and Jamaican dancehall, Grime has become the sound of particular cross-section of inner London’s younger community. It is sometimes dismissed as a variant of US hip hop, and sure some of the sounds/visual clichés are similar, but upon a deeper understanding of its sounds and context reveals that it a peculiarly London-centric thing. Productions draw on the sub bass sounds of jungle and the beats of garage, voices and language pick up on the patois of dancehall, while aesthetics are borrow heavily from the macho-ism/bravado of US rap. Adding to the mix is cockney humour and some grim readings of what it is to live on the wrong side of the tracks in London. The overall sound could challenge anything else describing itself as ‘experimental’.
The scene was founded as a youth-reaction to Garage in the late 90s. At the time, Garage was aspirational music drawing on the then ghetto fabulous look of rap music - expensive clothes, cars, champagne, cocaine and clubs with chic-dress-only policies. With access to more cash and credit lines, the scenesters tended to be older (in their 20s and 30s). Younger wannabes were left out in the cold (often literally - outside clubs in their prohibited tracksuits and trainers) shut-out from taking part in the scene. Grime was born out of this frustration in this. Reacting to the aspiration lyrics of Garage tunes, Grime artists rapped about the more negative, bad stuff happening in their lives. Grime also switched the DJ/MC relationship, which in garage saw the DJ-as-king and MC-as-support. The cost of a microphone being much less than DJing decks, meant the MCs took over.

At the turn of the millennium, the So Solid Crew, who straddled the Garage-to-Grime transition were involved in a number of high profile misdemeanours (some involving gun crime), which effectively shut-down the live circuit for both scenes. Still evident to this day, promoters, police and authorities are reluctant to support/approve anything with either a Garage or Grime label. While this effectively finished off the Garage scene (which relied heavily on the nights out and the litmus test of ‘what worked on the dancefloor’), Grime took up residence on London's extensive network of pirate radio stations. Here Grime became musically more experimental and as a network more insular. Artists became less aware of their audience and what musically or lyrically was working. They also lost the opportunity to hone their performance and presentational techniques. In the five or so years it's been around, Grime has only enjoyed sporadic commercial sales. Dizzee Rascal is perhaps its most well-known cross-over success story due to him winning the Mercury Music Prize in 2004. Kano, Lethal B and Roll Deep have also enjoyed some critical acclaim accompanied by moderate sales. Despite the lukewarm mainstream interest, the underground scene has remained strong (and has become stronger as a result). As a consequence, a huge cross section of young people in London (and increasingly elsewhere in the UK) have aspirations to be either a MC, DJ or producer. However this is a phenomenon, which for a large part continues to be hidden from the mainstream. There are two possible reasons for this. First, consumer patterns suggest that youth culture has become increasingly gentrified by older people. They have greater purchasing power and are still buying heavily into music, clubs, magazines and clothes. The second is that the vast majority of young people are illegally downloading music, which means that Grime’s core audience interest is not registered in sales. The lack of a live circuit compounds matters of economic viability.

The vast part of the Grime scene therefore, is maintained without a drop of support in public funding, corporate sponsorship or mainstream media. It is reliant on a network of illegal pirate radio stations and self-produced and distributed white labels – an infrastructure inherited from the rave, jungle and garage scenes before it. This active involvement in forging what is a DIY arts scene, is despite the fact that many of its protagonists are from what authorities would describe as ‘excluded groups’ – young people, people in social housing, the ‘working class’, people from different ethnic backgrounds, people with criminal records and people without an educations and basic skills.

Ironically, arts organisations are challenged to ‘access’ exactly these types of groups. The onus is on them to put in place ‘audience development plans’ and inclusion policies, to challenge the current situation which sees ‘the arts’ only being accessed by the more affluent, able and ‘white’ parts of society. This challenge and deemed response comes both from arts organisations themselves and the Government who tie their funding streams to affecting this change. Several notions are at work with this. The first is there is possibly the assumption here that ‘excluded’ groups have ‘the arts’ or ‘culture’ missing from their lives and that arts organisations can play a role in filling this gap. The second is that there are a series of barriers preventing certain groups of people from accessing the works of arts organisations. Finally, financial exclusion is a major barrier for excluded groups, and expenditures on the arts/culture comes low on their list of priorities. The existence of scene like Grime – a burgeoning, self-resourced and independent DIY-based arts scene – puts a different spin on some of these notions. It perhaps points to re-examining policies on audience diversification and inclusion and how culture/arts being developed outside of the main infrastructure of arts organisations can play a role.

The Whitechapel’s venture in promoting a Grime night as part of their Friday night programme is both brave and totally appropriate. The night is one of only three regular Grime nights in the Capital and has served as a crucial outlet for the scene, at a time when other live venues are running scared from it. The Dirty Canvas night has provided artists whose music has been dismissed by the mainstream with a reputable and established platform. This has helped to empower both them and their core audience. It has furthermore served to pick up interest from mainstream music organisations and media at a venue considered accessible. For the Whitechapel, it goes much further than just helping to just diversify its audience – it has provided sanctuary to a neglected but cutting edge art form. In a sense, programming a Grime night at the Whitechapel is entirely natural, and in-keeping with the gallery’s aim to 'provide a platform for artists and informing and shaping culture'.

Of course, the experience of the Grime scene is certainly not unique either to music as an art form or within music itself. This DIY/independent approach to forging culture is mirrored in outsider art, fanzine culture, street theatre and in other music scenes like punk, and improv. Galleries and other art organisations are increasingly recognising these movements and reflecting them in their programmes. Indeed the Whitechapel at the time of the next Dirty Canvas show, will be showing an exhibition of outsider art.

Heading to...

2006-04-24T17:16:00.000Z

Some photos from the last Dirty Canvas in February

2006-04-23T14:42:00.000Z

Top to bottom - Purple and G Double, a couple of Purple, Jendor points out New Era, Essentials mcs with DJ Magic on the turntables, New Era tells me something funny, Jendor with DJ Magic taking over from a curious Logan Sama, and a couple more of Jendor.

Full details of the next one on 26th May, coming up here in a couple of days...

Missing

2006-04-20T08:14:00.000Z

Eel benefit

2006-04-20T08:07:00.000Z

Here’s some photos and film from the Eel’s benefit night, which took place a couple of Sundays ago. The night featured five bands (as well as four DJs, a film, an indoor market selling clothes and bric&brac, and a raffle!) – Plaistow, Tea and Toast, Cherry Mash Cherry, Jesus Licks and ….some other whose name escapes me. All put in good performances – all linked in some way to folk music (avant-folk, indie folk etc)…Tea and Toast perhaps put in the most eye-catching display with their hand-made animal (of some description) costumes and scintillating performance. With a big crowd showing, the night raised lots of funds which will go towards the August bank holiday street festival, which (all things being well) will be headlined by Ruff Sqwad and Chicks on Speed. Another benefit night will take place at the Bethnal Green Workings Mens Club between now and then…details to follow.

The band who's name I forget

Jesus Licks - banjo player Nik Clifford top, vocalist Dom Golden, guitarist Danny Wootton and drummer Kate Squires

Tea and Toast - any guesses about which animals are on display?

Finally a short film of the performances – no live audio (music by Tea and Toast and then Jesus Licks)

Feeling Ruff

2006-04-10T13:05:00.000Z

Ruff Sqwad interview here ...good to see Dirty Canvas' repping of the business community is getting its dues.

Funny, I met Ruff Sqwad's six form college teacher last night at the Eel fundraiser thing (review coming up)...he was saying that they're all good eggs and that but I'm not sure he gets the magnitude of their greatness

Youtube

2006-04-08T19:32:00.000Z

I getting quite addicted to this place at the moment, not just because all the great music footage means you can have your own personalised MTV, but also because of all the other strange home movie footage you stumble across - y'know the kind of thing your feel uneasy about watching, not because of anything lewd in content, but because its not really meant for you. I ran a search on my original home Coventry and came across these. The first is some Coventry grime...well its pretty ordinary hiphop if truth be told, but I enjoyed recognising the locations being repped and filmed in this piece anyway.

The next is the other variety, here a guy going by the name of Sparrowhawk documents his trip to Europe's biggest Tescos on the outskirts of Coventry. I don't want to give too much away, but let's say he had trouble choosing his magazine.

Eel Night

2006-03-28T16:15:00.000Z

I'll be djing at this fun-packed show in a couple of weeks. Four bands, DJs and other entertainers will perform against the back-drop of a traditional working mens club

Grindie

2006-03-23T15:12:00.000Z

I remember about 8 years ago on UK Dance, Simon Reynolds and Bat were having this debate (the board at the time was a twice daily emailer) about future paths of UK garage and within this the role of “The London Massive”.

Bat would put his unerring faith in the Massive, following its chosen path whatever that was. Reynolds wasn’t so sure…”What if the Massive took up indie?” he pondered, to which Bat replied “I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it”…no doubt sure that that day would never come.

Well, that day may have already come – as Statik has produced a mixtape mashing up the best of grime and current indie and imaginatively called it Grindie. I like the audacious idea, but early impressions suggest some of the results are, at best, mixed. Have a listen yourself by downloading it at Logan Sama’s myspace.

Ricoh Rat-Run

2006-03-22T08:55:00.000Z

The bizarre escape route out of Coventry City's Ricoh Arena referred to here (last paragraph). Photos followed the game against Leeds last Saturday....

St Paddy's day

2006-03-17T00:53:00.000Z

Will be spent at this place, The Perseverence

London films

2006-03-15T17:15:00.000Z

I’ve seen about three films about the big smoke over the past few weeks, courtesy of the burgeoning documentaries section of the Film Shop on Broadway Market.

First of all I saw “London” by Patrick Keiller from the early 1990s, brilliantly captures the feel of the city at the that time (Major’s years, the final few flourishes of the IRA’s mainland campaign, the stock & house market crash). It’s filled with lonely images shot throughout the city. The premise is played out with a narrator taking us (an old friend who has been working at sea and been away from the city for a long time) on a journey of rediscover so that we can re-familiarise ourselves with the city once more. It’s beautifully done, and hopefully soon I might get around to watching the “Robinson in Space” sequal.

Then, next up, it’s "Finisterre" by members of St Ettiene (or Bob Stanley at least) and soundtracked with their music. Overall it is a bit disappointing. Billing itself as a film, which celebrates the parts and aspects of London which are sometimes over-looked or forgotten, it ends up being very sentimental in parts (bordering, almost, as a tourism promo). The music doesn’t come off too well either….I quite like some of there stuff but they seem to have lost their way recently.

Then finally, I watched "London Orbital" a film by Chris Petit based on the Iain Sinclair and friends’ walk around the M25 in 2001, which also led to Sinclair’s excellent book. More similar in style to Keiller’s film and probably the best of the three as it explores the myth and boredom of modern Britain around the buildings and sites situated near the road. They take in the mythical Sibel building, the gangster wasteland and Bluewater in Essex, Waltham Abbey, Heathrow as well as plenty of hospitals, golf courses and other retail parks. It's probably the best of the lot.

Creeper Volume 1

2006-03-13T21:29:00.000Z

Logan Sama is giving away Roll Deep's mixtape Creeper at his myspace site (here - scroll down through blurb to red text)

Meanwhile here's Willy.....

Fundraiser for Spirit

2006-03-05T16:51:00.000Z

I will be reaching this...a benefit gig to help keep Spirit's shop and home on Broadway market

Aim High 3 - The Original Babylon Burner

2006-03-05T15:37:00.000Z

I’ve had this mixtape on heavy rotation for over a month now and I'd say it’s probably even better than the first two. Put together by Roll Deep’s Target and showcasing pretty much of the crew’s 2340 or so members, plus others including Ruff Sqwad, Bruza, Doctor and Syer – this mixtape series has worked better than most others largely because the sounds have a consistent, unified feel to them. The whole thing is produced mainly by Target with (other RD producer) Danny Weed chipping in occasionally.

Things kick in when several MCs get to work on the Alligator Riddim, sounding very new agey in using seductive middle eastern horns and a fuller rhythm, which seems to be a post-Duppy trend. Riko and Flowdan are on particularly good form here, the latter appointing the riddim ‘the original Babylon burner’. Other standout tracks include Ruff Sqwad’s gothic freestyle, Dog Z’s sanguine ‘nightshift’ (using the old Commodores tune), and All in One’s freestyle, which announces his return to the scene. The only downsides really are the contributions from Alex Mills (I’m all for R’n’G but she doesn’t do anything for me) and the DVD is the standard fare of overlong interviews (the same people proclaiming "big tings for 2006" as had for 04 and 05) interspersed with some occasiuonally good footage.

Old tunes which sound a bit like grime #1

2006-03-05T14:50:00.000Z

Pink Fairies’ James Bond mash up - a grime classic

Grimey Coventry

2006-02-27T15:24:00.000Z

Nabbed from Chantelle's site, this is notice of a grime night in Coventry this Wednesday at the Collesium (a place I got barred from for beef 'n' ting...well for popping a balloon actually).

Eel Communications

2006-02-26T19:29:00.000Z

The Eel Blog is live again - click on link over on the right

(or type http://eelfanzine.blogspot.com/ into your browser)

Currently listening to....

2006-02-20T21:52:00.000Z

Battles - EP C/B
Target - Aim High Vol 3
Bruce Haack - Way out record for children
Wendy Carlos - Switched on bach
Death in June - In memoriam
Phil Ochs - There but for fortune
Slapp Happy - Acnalbasac Noom
Kim Fowley - nuggets stuff
Lily’s - Better can’t make my life bettter
Tones on tail - Night music
Germs - GI
Solex - Low kick and hard bop
Shortwave Set – Slingshot
Bill Fay – Time of the last persecution

Dirty Canvas (17th Feb): review and therapy

2006-02-20T17:43:00.000Z

Dirty Canvas on Friday went pretty well. I'm still getting to grips with some aspects of putting on this kind of show, some of it down to experience but other bits are down to the fact that this is a pretty unusual sort of event. Preparation for the night is obviously important and takes up a shitload of time, and where a crew or act lacks a manager, you become their manager by default. For this one, I spent plenty of time coaxing the Essentials crew in one form or another. I've known the crew from my community work in New Cross - they've performed at community events and got involved in music mentoring schemes that my work has run. They seemed like a fairly safe bet for the second Dirty Canvas night and the fact that I'd nabbed Davinchie's EP name for the night made it even more relevant to choose them.

Back in December I spoke to the two members I knew most and, after raising it at their meeting, they gave their booking the all clear. In the two months since this, making contact became difficult and when I did (as mentioned below) it seemed things between crew members had become a little strained. The bottom line was that Jendor and Nu Era were going to rep for the Essentials on the night, so some patching up the line-up was needed in the form of getting Purple & the Renegade boys and DJ Logan Sama along. In my tribulations I’ve managed to collect a partner – Peter Todd (aka DJ Magic) who has shared the workload, and chucked in a lot of good ideas, contacts and is a fine deejay to boot.

The other time-consuming bit of prep is the marketing. The first (Ruff Sqwad) night received a bit of flak about only seemingly targeting a white middle class audience. Although not strictly true, what I took on board was that the venue (an art gallery) was only really attracting the kind of people who normally go there and so extra effort was needed to get some of grime’s core audience through the door. More work was therefore spent on flyering shops and other grime nights and setting up the myspace malarkey and trying to turn some heads over at the RWD web forums.

Back to the night itself, which as with the last one, got off to a slow start - the early start and pre-performance section of the night needs to be looked at. When the performances did get underway – the night came together well.
Logan arrived (and despite some dodgy DJ equipment) got on with spinning a finely mixed set, airing plenty of new unreleased dubs. The came Jendor and Nu Era, repping for the Essentials and gave a show which they clearly enjoyed, as did the crowd. I mentioned to Jendor that some of the audience may be new to grime and he took it quite literally patiently explaining audience-artist feedback tips.

DJ Magic took over from Logan (as he headed to his next gig), Ruff Sqwad checked-into the audience and then West London’s Purple and G Double took to the stage. Purple, with his sculpted poodle hair and beard combo, was wearing his Arsenal top inside out (perhaps embarrassed by the name on the back….Viera?) and with G Double spat some of the scene’s more “conscious bars”, reminding us how George Bush is a baddie etc. They are obviously coming to the scene differently, but there is a worry from some (see RWD forums) that it's another case of UK hip hop-heads attempting to somehow gentrify the scene...particularly as Purple is fairly new to the scene, but are semmingly getting plenty of exposure (after the Urban Classics, this was the second night on the trot that he was reppin for grime to ‘the wider audience’). On the night though, he and G Double put in an excellent show (part of it can be heard at the myspace site).

Overall then, good…some stuff to work on. The night missed the intensity of having a whole crew feature to sustain the main performances - as with Ruff Sqwad. Perhaps I saw the full distance to travel when after the gig, I went across the road to the Heatwave at the Rhythm Factory. This is a night that has really come together. A great crowd, a brilliant atmosphere and some corking sets and performances, which in a strange sort of way composite grime’s heritage – dancehall, rap, jungle etc. Big up Gabriel and co for putting on a big regular night, with an atmosphere so chilled it reminded me of the sweeter rave years.

Also big up everyone who came down to Dirty Canvas….to all my Dissensus crew, my Leeds crew, my Wolverhampton crew and my Coventry crew….you’re large (...really fat most of you, go on a diet).

Any ideas for crews to feature at our next night in May (pref ones with managers of some sort, please)?

Tonight's other performers

2006-02-17T15:31:00.000Z

Logan Sama, sometimes called "the Westwood of Grime" made his name on Rinse FM and has since moved into legit radio with a Monday night show (11-1) showcasing all that is good with the scene.

Purple meanwhile, has been making some big steps over the last year to provide the scene with something different both in image and lyrics. He was worked with the likes of Plan B and was one of the mcs featured in last night's Urban Classics performance (see below)

Both Logan and Purple will be going on to the 333 in Shoreditch later for the Straight Outta Bethnal night

"Hey tonight we've made history, cuz we've made posh people say GET ME"

2006-02-17T12:47:00.000Z

Urban Classics last night was both funny and quite good. Dreamt up by Genevieve Dowokpo of the youth organisation Bigger Fish, the concept was about bringing together urban and classical music. A wet dream for liberal parents this was a shared family experience for the many who filled Hackney Empire last night. The one-off performance brought together the BBC orchestra, with a mish-mash of figures representing 'urban music' - Davinchie (on the ivories), Bruzu, Purple, Pase, Tor and (human jukebox) Faith SFX.

By far the stand-out performer was Bruza, who just seems comfortable with what ever audience he gets put in front of. He also seemed comfortable having an orchestra behind him…almost mimicking the waving hand gestures of the conductor and inviting all fifty-or-so of its members to shout “get me” with the rest of the audience. Though at one point he briefly forgot where he was, and called for “selector" to "wheel it up” as the crowd’s energy reached the night's crescendo…. only one or two members of the orchestra stopped while others carried on… Bruza then had to restate the principle in plain English “orchestra stop!”…then explained “in our scene we stop a song when it is going well and then start it again” (some orchestra members looked at each other…baffled).

Other mcs performed reasonably well without ever hitting Bruza’s heights. Pase had a whole set of lyrics based on celebrating his Mum's Irish lineage, which could’ve been written in an O’Neil’s bar….Purple (who's at Dirty Canvas tonight)merked unoriginal mcs and Tor prowled the stage with her conscious lyrics about better paths. I saw Faith SFX at the last Notting Hill Carnival so knew what to expect, but he again left jaws dropped as he showed how he could beatbox, scratch, run basslines and sing (with a great voice) ….all at THE SAME TIME! In the cleverly worked opening to his performance, the orchestra began and worked up to a soloist.... the whole audience were straining their necks to see who and what was playing (a strange mix between a violin and oboe) and then Faith SFX reached the stage serenading with his mic.

So the middle classes learnt a bit about grime, maybe they’ve dropped a few ‘GET MEs’ over lattes this morning. There were also lots of young people there – a sign perhaps that this was a rare chance for under 18s to see some of their heros. I also overheard some family members of one of the performing mcs who seemed genuinely proud that this strange bedroom hobby was now being paraded in front of the BBC’s orchestra for all to see.

The whole thing is being aired on 1xtra (http://www.bbc.co.uk/1xtra/) on Saturday and I'm sure will be downloadable thereafter

Who you repppin for?

2006-02-13T10:26:00.000Z

Dirty Canvas is just a few days off now (this Friday night kids) and the last week or so has proved a bit of a pain in trying to pull it all together. First of all I seemed to lose all contact with Essentials, phones & emails weren't being picked up...then when we did meet up there seemed to be some kind of growing reluctance from them to the night, which was a change from their earlier enthusiasm and for reasons I couldn't really put my finger on.

Then it all becomes clear - you have a crew of 8 or 9 which has been on the road for over 4 years, things perhaps things aren't altogether rosy between members - the cohesiveness, which characterises the Essentials (in performance/on DVDs) isn't perhaps there any more. Anyway, to cut a long story short, we won't be seeing the whole Essentials crew on Friday because.... maybe there isn't a whole crew anymore. What I do know is that Jendor, Nu Era and Davinchie are still working together and they'll be the ones who'll take to the stage on Friday (either as Essentials or not). The likes of Remerdee, Bossman and 2 face are all 'working on solo stuff'.

Last week was therefore about plugging the void ...promising the Essentials and only giving up a couple of members would surely leave me with bare showerfaces. I'm pretty sure, with the help of a new recruit to the DC team (Pete aka DJ Magic - that's two of us now) I've managed to come up trumps. Logan Sama (who owes me one) will be spinning some vocal tunes on decks and Purple and the Renegade Boys will also be playing. There will also be an open mic session (trying to overcome that kinda wierdness pre-performance last time), where people have to register early to get a slot on a first come first served basis (which seems to be attracting alot of interest at the myspace site).

Remember to get down early because its a 7.30-11.30 gig and afterwards there's the choice of Heatwave's reggaeton night over the road in the Rythmn Factory (with a special PA by the Dcotor from South Agents) or Straight Outta Bethnal over at the 333.

Street Soundz UK

2006-02-13T08:59:00.000Z

A new magazine covering grime is doing the rounds at the moment. Street Soundz UK is apparently the work of a young 19-year old Londoner and issue 1 is free at Uptown records (normal retail price is £2). Why the plug? Well, the Ruff Sqwad at Dirty Canvas night (last November) gets a double page spread with loads of photos (if you were there you're probably in it), plus there's some decent interviews with the likes of Doctor, Cameo, Ghetto and Shystie.

Saving the spirit of Broadway market

2006-02-06T18:56:00.000Z

"Mon Feb 6:
Lowell Grant aka Spirit of 71 Broadway Market won a reprieve at Shoreditch County Court today. He will
continue to make payments on his arrears until the next hearing in mid April. The Judge was concerned that previous judgements have not taken into account that Spirit is both a resident and a business tenant at 71 Broadway Market. Spirit owes nearly £30.000 to the owners Broadway Investments who acquired the property in dubious circumstances in 2001. They are demanding immediate possession of the property. There were no representatives from Broadway Investments in court and their barrister had no idea where they were based. Spirit said he was delighted with the outcome and plans to re-open for business tomorrow."

The Eel Fanzine (Issue 3)

2006-02-05T22:02:00.000Z

I worked on Broadway Market selling this...I've gained huge admiration for market traders doing this malarkey in all weathers...my knackers have just thawed out. Big up editors Tony Collins and Adam Wright for putting their all into it, another great issue...power to the people!!

Pop into Broadway market for a copy (the cafe squatters and most traders have them)

............or you could go along to the launch party at the Perseverence (at the bottom end of the market) this Friday night for the third issue launch

Dave the rave

2006-02-05T21:53:00.000Z

Hold tight Mr Dave Stelfox for the Dirty Canvas prop in this month's i-D magazine

Jesus Licks Rats Water

2006-02-03T12:26:00.000Z

Tonight!!

Make sure you come down.....

Mods and Rockists

2006-02-02T11:27:00.000Z

Blissblogger and K-punk both on good form, ridiculing the current rockist hegemony in pop.

Particularly like Simon’s reminder of the rockist manifesto here:

”It’s rockist rockist rockist to the core: auteurism, authenticity, substance, durability; long-form Works that take effort and perseverance and time to unlock their depth and detail; artists-who-keep-getting-better-we-firmly-believe-that-and-we-stick-to-them-loyally-unlike-those-fickle-pop-fans; singer-songwriter torn-from-heart gut-grit; Concepts and confession and “character studies”; Opuses and Oeuvres.”

..and k-punk’s highlighting of indie and pop’s false opposition here

“A little insight into the times can be gleaned from the fact that NME has been reduced to ostentatiously banning Blunt from its awards ceremony (because there are a MILLION miles between his maudlin mumbling and that of their darlings, naturally). James Blunt versus Coldplay: is this what Pop antagonism is reduced to?

Such plastic antagonisms (and NME/ Corporate Indie can't survive without convincing its consumers that they are an alternative to something, that there is some region of commonsense, complacent, middle of the road mediocrity that they don't already occupy) ..."

The Ricoh Arena

2006-02-01T17:48:00.000Z

I’ve been to the Ricoh Arena, Coventry City FC’s new home since the beginning of the 2005/6 season, three times. After a difficult start, I am starting to warm to the place.

The Arena was subject to the sort of delays, which make similar concerns about the rebuilding of Wembley look ridiculous. Initially billed as Arena 2000, it was first proposed in the mid 1990s when the Coventry team, though you couldn’t say they were riding high, were nevertheless an established part of the Premiership having been in the top flight for going on 30 years. Gordon Strachan was managing the club, the team’s attack was spearheaded by Dion Dublin and Darren Huckerby with Gary McAllister pulling the strings behind them. In the Boardroom was Chairman Bryan Richardson, who seemed to have big ambitions for the club. On his wing was the MP (and soon-to-be discredited Paymaster General) Geoffrey Robinson. A new stadium was deemed to be a logical way forward, and one which had been done or was being planned by several other clubs of Coventry’s stature.

The plan was extremely ambitious, a stadium located on a site close to a M6 junction between Coventry and Nuneaton, serviced by a railway station, which could hold up to 40,000 fans and with innovative features a retractable roof AND pitch. The scheme would be embedded in a regeneration scheme building an adjacent retail park and refurbishing a disused colliery site in Keresley into a business park. As well as the club itself, both Coventry and Nuneaton Councils got involved as did the newly set-up Regional Development Agency “Advantage West Midlands” – who assigned the area a “regeneration zone” specifically for the project.

Problems began with site clearance (a shrewd small landowner held out for a high payment and was eventually rewarded with a £1 million pay-off), decontamination of the former gasworks site proved more problematic and expensive, and, to compound matters, the club’s financial situation and success on the pitch were simultaneously plummeting.

By 2001 the club had been relegated and annual accounts revealed the club to be £60 million in debt. This forced the departures of both Strachan, Richardson and any player deemed any worth in value. The new stadium scheme, which fans had dubbed either “Arena 3000” or “Arena Whenever” seemed dead in the water. What appeared to save the Arena though was its role in the wider regeneration zone, which had substantial commitment from public authorities. Finally, Coventry Council (which ironically had its first Tory majority) bit the bullet and decided to underwrite the whole scheme, thereby allowing it to proceed. The club, for their part, were given a tough contract as leaseholders, which required them to virtually fill the stadium for every game (with a new reduced capacity size of 30,000). The retractable gimmicks were gone as was the plan to put a railway station there. Arena 2000 became the Jaguar Arena, and then the Ricoh Arena when the Jaguar announced the closure of its car plant in Coventry.

With the finances, contracts and name in place it seemed little else could go wrong with the new stadium, but they did at the construction stage with contractors falling behind the target for a 2005/6 season start. However following some fixture swapping at the start of the season, the Arena finally opened (with reduced capacity of 23,000 on health and safety grounds) on 20th August 2005, for the home game with Queens Park Rangers. The team won 3-0 with goals from Jorgensen and two from Adebola. The team has since maintained a good record there (with the local fans and media quick to dub the place “Fortress Arena”) though have been let down overall with their poor away form.

My first vist to the Arena was for the game against Luton, which we won 1-0 (the goal again courtesy of Adebola). I’d heard good reviews about the stadium from media and friends so my expectations were high. Overall though, my own first impressions fell short. My first problem was the retail park setting, which is common to all new stadia. This usually allows clubs to promote their grounds as being ‘more accessible’ but end up being a pain in the neck to get to whatever your chosen transport. A couple of friends and I, were dropped off by car in a place that appeared close to the Arena, but the car-tailored urban design features makes it difficult to move in the obvious ‘as the crow flies’ directions. Coming up against 10 feet walls, highway barricades and inhospitable roadside shrubbery made unpleasant and time-consuming the experience of getting to the turnstiles.

From the outside, the Arena reminded me of several other new stadiums I had been to at Derby, Sunderland, Reading and Leicester. Exposed jagged structures on top of a seamless almost circular perimeter wall. Together with the obligatory corporate advertising the Arena exterior is marked with fans’ contributions (in the form of personalised bricks) to the wall of fame honouring players from the bygone era and not-too-distance past. Inside is altogether more impressive (especially now having seen 3 games – none lost), with a design that conjures a raucous atmosphere, even when there are sparse areas.

The last game I went to was on Saturday, where we almost (and should’ve) sunk Middlesborough in the FA Cup 4th Round, but drew 1-1 instead. The game attracted the Arena’s largest crowd of almost 29,000 (one of the biggest gates of the day), which I’m sure contributed to the Sky Blues outplaying of their hosts. The increased crowd contributed to chaotic traffic conditions before and after the game, which apparently has become a regular feature on match days.

The exit that game from the Arena to the car park (in Tescos – where you have to convince the parking attendant that you’ve spent over £25 on shopping) was a strangely thrilling experience. To avoid the long walk around the retail park features, canal and railway line, we followed some people who seemed to be making their way to the car park in a more direct fashion. They led us to what amounted to be a challenging assault course, comprising a scramble down a steep muddy hill, a careful manoeuvring across a narrow ledge across the canal and then through a disused, derelict and pitch black tunnel, which was about 30 metres long and had a truncated exit that you need to crawl out of before again scrambling up a steep hill to the Tescos car park. All this was while in the company of up to a hundred other people performing the same task. I wish I had a video camera for this (though it might’ve proved tricky) because it was such a surreal and yet exhilarating experience, like a mob of psycho-geographers disregarding architects/planners’strategies and tunnelling their own way through.

New computer...back online

2006-01-31T22:10:00.000Z

Are you mad, blud?

2006-01-23T15:22:00.000Z

333 on Friday was good despite what prancehall and his shower click are saying. I went to the one late last year and this was a big improvement on that.

Ok so it didn’t do what it said on the tin (or flier) and there were some choking wastemen on the stage who cut some of the limelight from some of the real stars, but there were plenty of hype moments and I thought the crowd was pretty good. That said I left before three so things might’ve deteriorated thereafter. Highlights: the crowd filling in Skepta’s bars, Tempa T’s winding body and ‘swing’ bars, Fuda Guy bringing MCs onto the audience’s side of the barrier (when I though we might some grime-styled stage-diving), seeing All in One back in the scene again & Maximum’s set.

Big up Chantelle for putting the whole thing on. It may be a while before grime hones its live ‘product’ but that will come with time (and once mcs put themselves in the shoes of the audience and think about what they might want), but the priority for now is getting these nights ON.

A coupla coupla

2006-01-20T14:08:00.000Z

Matt Ingram's Wire Review here (with added pictures)

Chantelle Fiddy's thingy at 333 which I'll be at tonight

Grime: locked out

2006-01-20T12:34:00.000Z

Fuller version of my article appearing in Socialist Worker magazine:

"I am a problem for Anthony Blair" (Dizzee Rascal, 2004)

Every generation has its youth movement, whether it's the psychedelic 60s, punk in the 70s, new wave in the 80s and dance music in the 90s. Grime is a current social phenomenon in London and predominantly elsewhere in the UK. A whole generation of young people from a part of society normally invisible to the mainstream unless labelled as "hoodies" or "gangs", have aspirations to be MCs, producers and DJs.

First to clarify, grime isn't a British version of US rap - a small UK hip hop scene has been running since the early 1990s but has failed to ignite because essentially it is a poor copy. Grime on the other hand comes from somewhere different because it has evolved from the rave, jungle and garage scenes, utilising the same infrastructure, personnel and context. Like it's wrong to describe Jamaican dancehall as a version of US hip hop (it emanated reggae), it is also wrong to view Grime as the same. Also, like jungle and garage before it, grime is essentially a London thing, though its influence is now spreading throughout the UK.

Despite all this, you won't see many 'grime' labelled nights if you scan the Time Out listings, because there aren't many nights running. The scene's live circuit is suppressed by Police and local authorities and has been since the early 00s. While still known as ‘garage’, its main proponents - So Solid Crew - were targeted as principal enemies to the state by Ministers, tabloids and so on. A crew of 20 or so predominantly black males from a Battersea estate, rapping over harshly minimal beats reaching the upper echelons of the charts were not seen as wholesome entertainment by the powers that be, and certain misdemeanours involving their members, such as the carrying of firearms, supported their case. "Idiots like the So Solid Crew are glorifying gun culture and violence," said minister Kim Howells following the deaths of two Birmingham teenagers from gunfire in 2003.

This state-sponsored anti-garage lobby had enough clout to effectively shut down the live scene, ward off major label interest and dampen interest from the music media. Radio 1 lost interest, HMV stopped stocking the records, and music critics, fine with tales of gangster lives in US rap, were seemingly less keen to hear about the same issues played out on their doorstep.
’Grime’ was borne out of the suppression of the garage scene (though a strictly non-MC version of garage continues to prosper in clubs). Pirate radio, which was always a important conduit for jungle and garage, became even more important for grime when the other outlets closed. With the pressure to succeed being less about populating the dancefloor, the sounds became more experimental and MC lyrics became more serious, occasionally nihilistic and combined street slang with patois and cockney. Pay As You Go Kartel signified the mood with their underground hit "Terrible" – “now we're going on terrible, I've had enough that's it, now we're going on terrible”.

With less reliance on nightclubs, the scene also attracted a younger audience many of whom were brought up on a staple of US rap, Jamaican dancehall and UK garage. Self-made DVDs became an important currency in the scene - rappers, producers and DJs, deprived on a place on music television were given a platform to provide a visual accompaniment to their narratives. New underground stars have emerged in the last 3 to 4 years, Dizzee Rascal, Wiley, Kano and D Double. Some parts of the media have started taken an interest again in their perennial search for the next big thing. But the glass ceiling is still in place, in particular there is still very little evidence of a re-emerging live circuit. Eskimo Dance organised by central-figure Wiley was an extremely popular grime night, but after only a short run it has been pushed outside of London's M25 orbital to towns like Watford, Hemel and Chelmsford because of difficulties in securing permissions and licensees from authorities in London. In October 2005, Kano, a new major label signing from the grime scene, had his gig at the Scala in King's Cross cancelled following safety risk concerns from Camden Council and the Met Police. Similarly, MoBo award-winner, Sway was banned from the Jazz Cafe, in north London, after a fight which didn't involve the artist.

Indeed to an outsider, the live grime night would appear to have a certain level of rowdiness, but in this sense it is not too dissimilar to punk. Crews of young black and white teenagers leap around with their hoods up calling for the DJ to rewind a tune. Like punk though at its heartbeat is a positive instrument of disaffected youngsters organising themselves to question the way things are.

Perhaps it is this bit which is unpalatable in need of what could only be described as censorship? Police are openly advising promoters to remove "dangerous" acts from their line-ups. My own attempt to organise a mild community street festival in Hackney last August resulted in a police warning me it would be permitted so long as there would be "no garage, no rap, no reggae, no r'n'b" - not even an obscured subtext about who they didn't want to see there (presumably healthy music staples like death metal were deemed fine). Another example of grime's prohibition was the nightclub ban of the 'grime' anthem “pow” by Lethal Bizzle (a top ten chart hit) by police in Essex in 2004 because of the energetic reaction it caused on the dancefloor. Even pirate radio, grime's trusted media has received a clampdown by authorities, with over 40 transmitters confiscated near the end of 2005 on the very dubious basis that they interfere with emergency vehicle radio signals.

Major labels have cherry-picked talent (such as Dizzee Rascal) and in doing so have attempted through their marketing to de-contextualise and 'clean-up' their 'product' for mass consumption. This is to be expected I guess (de-rigueur for the ‘mainstream’), but it has further alienated grime's core audience. Meanwhile mainstream music in the UK is become wilfully dominated by middle and upper class offspring in retro tribute bands - where the bad boy antics of the likes of Pete Doherty are hardly feared or suppressed, rather celebrated in the great tradition of rock and roll. Then there’s the tedious minstrels like James Blunt (staunch Thatcherite, ex-squaddie) or Katie Melua for example - showing how the music industry has become gentrified into bland theraputic soundtracks.

Music providing a voice for the disaffected, alienated and angry is not being tolerated at the moment, possibly because that anger, alienation and disaffection is a little too real. Without doubt, grime lyrics can be unpleasant, homophobic, misogynist and celebratory of gun culture, but it's so easy for the authorities/media to blame the plight and alienation of urban communities on means of expression and reflection (music) rather than examining what their own role might be in this. Tony Blair wants a little respect with his latest policy agenda, while Dizzee tells us 'you people are going to respect me if it kills you'.

Canvassing punters

2006-01-19T14:24:00.000Z

Myspace is the place

2006-01-05T11:57:00.000Z

The Dirty Canvas night is just a few weeks away (17th Feb with the Essentials - for details scroll down) and has its very own myspace site here, already with some very influential 'friends' .

Nik Cohn's 'The Trickster'

2006-01-04T12:15:00.000Z

I read this over the Christmas holiday and really liked it (big up Tony Collins for passing it to me). It’s the story of Cohn, a middle-aged Ulsterman with a background in (mainly sixties) rock journalism, taking up residence in New Orleans’ projects in the late 90s and slowly immersing himself in the local bounce/rap scene…this culminates in him playing an executive producer role for some recordings and playing middleman between local rap acts (Choppa, Che Muse, Junie Bezel, Jahbo) and the mainstream music industry (this all taking place shortly before the hurricane and flooding last summer).It’s engagingly written though his hang-ups sometimes become tiresome. The book written to celebrate life in the downtown “ward” communities, and about the local “bounce” rap scene, but it often seemed to be about Cohn’s own acceptance into those communities and the ‘rap game’ than anything else. But that said, he did brilliantly illuminate life (and death) there, and how boundless aspirations (usually) morphed into desperate despair.

We are the Woebots

2006-01-04T12:11:00.000Z

Woebots magnificent hundred

Regeneration Breakdown

2006-01-04T11:23:00.000Z

This from a piece I wrote for The Eel fanzine

“There are areas and sections of the community that experience significant disadvantages typically in terms of high unemployment, low incomes, high benefit dependency, high crime and low educational attainment. If these areas are to continue to prosper the Council needs to remove barriers to business growth, enable disadvantaged communities to share the benefits of sustainable economic growth and offer a pleasant and safe place to live and work. These are the Council's regeneration challenges.” London Borough of Hackney 2005

Ask someone at the Council about the goings on at Tony’s café and the whys and wherefores of the Wratton deal and at some point they’ll mention the word ‘regeneration’. Regeneration has become one of those catch-all phrases that was rarely used in the past, now it crops up everywhere from stem cell research to Dr Who. Perhaps it’s most common use has been on all those utopian-pictured and corporately-badged billboards hiding new brownfield development sites and on their accompanying pamphlets stuffed through our letterboxes. The intended message goes something like “things here are changing for the better – we represent progress!”. The difficulty when reading these things is getting a handle on what is being planned, why is it happening and perhaps more importantly who are the “we”?

Unfortunately the digger you deep the more complex ‘regeneration’ becomes. London is a quagmire of regeneration partnerships, Government quango agencies, strategic bodies and alliances, housing associations and that’s even before you get a-looking at the 33 London Borough and their typically idiosyncratic (re)structures. Each has their own mission statement and targets, each claim to be working with each other and each claim to represent the interests of people.

This latter point is important because it raises an interesting question about 'accountability' and the erosion of local democracy. All of these bodies, partnerships and strategic alliances are desperate to involve ‘the people’, you ‘the residents’, because it helps to legitimise their work, telling their funders and partners that you, the masses, are on their side and so long may they continue. In return you get to make some ‘choices’ – choices because we are in so much love with shopping and consumerism, we are desperate for decisions about public services to be made in the same way. The trouble is that for regeneration the important choices tend to be made elsewhere and the presented choices are highly doctored and simplified, amounting to no more than a colour preference. Increasingly these optional consumer choices are replacing the impact that people can make at the ballot box.

Back to the ‘regeneration’ which as I said earlier is a catch-all term. Defined simply in this context, ‘regeneration’ is the response to something which is in a process of decline. This can be an area which is physically in a poor state of repair, and/or has a poor state of economy, and/or has a poor state of social well-being. Regeneration programmes aren’t necessarily about property schemes, they can also be as much about health projects, community safety initiatives, employment schemes and community development work. In fact there are some Government-sponsored schemes that are working reasonably well, but, rather than singing from the rafters about them, the Government keep quiet about them for fear of looking a bit, y’know, ‘leftie’.

But there’s also plenty of dross…. many schemes are promoted as last chance saloon opportunities for the poor but are really concerned with easing the conscience of the wider population. ‘We’re doing something for them’ makes some voters believe we have a compassionate re-working of capitalism in this country. For others, the belief that poor people have been given every opportunity to climb out of their situation and yet have failed to do so has led to this now ritualistic castigation of them as sub-human (see the media-propelled “chav” label).

Then there is commercially-motivated regeneration – or 'economic development', still following the Thatcherite ethos that if you bring money into an area, it will somehow trickle down to the people who really need it. But a short stroll through the Poplar community overshadowed by the adjacent Canary Wharf will show this not to be true. Capital, rather than flowing or even tricking, has a tendency to stay (and grow) in the hands of the people who already have it.

For the major regeneration schemes though, the thing that has always kind of saved London in recent decades has been the difficulty for planners, developers and regenerators act on a more strategic scale – thereby limiting approaches to composite schemes within each of the 33 boroughs. This has helped London escape those strategically master-planned schemes that have helped blight so many provincial cities and sometimes turned them into identikit towns. Compared to this, London has progressed with in a slightly more distinct and organic piecemeal style. This though is changing and two major schemes will have a significant affect on East London in coming years. The first is the 2012 Olympics project, the second is the Thames Gateway scheme.

The Olympics project I won’t dwell on, but the computer aided designs show a huge ripple sculpting a huge part of East London into what looks like a huge monolithic golf course….let’s see, maybe more on that another time. The Thames Gateway is both more interesting and altogether much more significant, as it threatens to change the composition and distribution of communities in the city. The project – which is already underway – is seeking to build houses for up to a million people adjacent to the Thames between Newham in inner London stretching out to Thurrock in Essex. Several ‘new towns’, ‘urban villages’ and ‘sustainable communities’ will be created in the process – for example Barking Reach will be a new 200,000 population town built on the river between Barking and Dagenham. Most of the housing is intended to be “affordable”, which means it will be targeted at those people currently renting from the Council or housing association, key workers (like teacher and nurses) or first time buyers. The process is being led by the London Development Agency (the economic development arm of the Greater London Authority) together with a number of specially set-up Urban Development Corporations (arms-length management companies in a similar vein to the London Dockland Development Corporation set up to develop Canary Wharf). The barely concealed agenda is to free up inner London’s land from social housing, and inject further pace into the gentrification process, bringing in more economic activity and creative buzz into London so that it can’t continue to compete as a “world class city”.

Council’s are already playing their part in the deal by helping to break up their social housing stock and selling it off to housing associations and anyone else who might be interested.. Then when the packaged homes promotions come, the flight will begin and inner London (like inner Paris) will be the preserve of the middle classes, with social problems out of sight, the sirens out of earshot.

So what can we do to stop Broadway Market and the rest of Hackney and the East End becoming this homogenised Theme Park for the professional classes? I would point to three areas to support:

1. Developing a voice for the area with strong local support. As we have seen countless times through London and elsewhere, where there’s a vacuum in support for local interests, politicians, regeneration strategists and developers will have it all their own way. Critically, this ‘voice’ must be able to articulate its own vision for the area even if this involves ‘leaving things as they are’.

2. Use the Council’s own institutional powers - A nagging concern I have regarding laying the boot into local Councils is that it is dangerously swimming with the tide. The Government is keen to do away with local government and is doing all it can to set government-authored bodies to take its place. Big business is no fan either. The danger in highlighting the corruption in one inner London borough might just help bring its longer-term extinction (to be replaced by more of the quango bodies). Therefore working to make the Council more accountable and less corruptible should be a goal itself.

3. Raise awareness of local economic patterns to show which patterns of spend are having a positive and detrimental impact on residents’ preferred vision for the area. Note: lining the pockets of the niche-trade organic lifestyle framer driving down in their SUV from Oxfordshire may not always represent the most ethical consumer decision.

Jesus Licks at the Tate (6th January 2006)

2005-12-21T17:37:00.000Z

Jesus Licks, who are best described as kinda folk-indie, are quickly emerging as one of London's finest bands.

Though I would say that as they happen to be friends of mine, but check them out for yourself at this gig in January and check out some of their songs here

Broadway Market Squatters Evicted

2005-12-21T17:23:00.000Z

URGENT!!!!! EVICTION OF OCCUPATION AT 34 BROADWAY MARKET

Sheriffs and Police broke into Tony's Café this morning, injuring one of the occupiers and have allowed Dr Wratten's men to start an immediate demolition. Within an hour the building was rendered unliveable.We lodged an appeal yesterday with the High Court but the bailiffs ignored that and went ahead anyway. Two of the occupiers are at the courts right now trying to get a stay of execution but Wratten's men have done so much damage that it seems unlikely we could re-occupy the café.The sad thing is that more people than ever were coming to the café and there was still a fantastic energy to the occupation.We plan a show of local solidarity tonight at 6pm, outside the Café. Please come and show your anger and support!

Fifteen of the best for 2005

2005-12-20T16:20:00.000Z

Ok we all love a list, so here’s a list of the albums (and occasional mixtape and complication) that have done it for me in 2005.

1. Ariel Pink - Worn Copy/The Doldrums/House Arrest

Probably my favourite new sounds this year were made by California’s Ariel Pink. Ariel Pink has recorded several CDR albums on 8-track since around 1999 and now three of these have now been released on Animal Collective’s imprint Paw. The soundscape produced by cassette recording is very much part of the sound as near perfect Beach Boys pop motifs are wilfully obscured and distorted to sound like it’s coming through a not-quite-tuned-in radio hosted by a DJ playing dusty warped cassettes.
Favourite track: Ocean of weep (on House Arrest)

2. The Focus Group - Hey let loose your love

The Focus Group is Julian House (formerly Broadcast’s record designer) and he (together with the rest of the Ghostbox artists) has been exploring the often dark childhood nostalgia last explored by the likes of Position Normal and People Like Us. Forgotten library sounds, schools programme soundtracks, radio workshop explorations are all delved into here on tracks that mostly run under 2 minutes. The whole package is made complete by the Polytechnic text book-style covers.
Favourite track: Hey let loose your love

3. Animal Collective - Feels

Incredibly, this is the Animal Collective’s 7th album and also most commercial-sounding release. It also catches them at something approaching their peak. Following on from last year’s excellent Sung Tongs album, Feels feels more like the product of a full band, with Avey Tare, Panda, Geologist and Deakin all pitching in to create the densely layered, moving and regularly catchy songs.
Favourite track: Banshee Beat

4. Bun B -Trill

In 2005 US rap’s epicentre moved to Houston, Texas with Mike Jones, Bushwick Bill and Pitball all releasing big-selling and critically acclaimed LPs. Surpassing them all though is former UKG player Bun B, with Trill. Though possibly let down by the occasional weak track, Trill makes it into this list with the sheer weight of tracks like Draped Up, Pushin and The Story.
Favourite track: Draped Up

5. Various - Target presents Aim High Volume 2

Roll Deep’s Target and Danny Weed at the controls for this year’s best grime mixtape (and DVD to boot). The signature accordion sounds are everywhere while the scene’s best MCs deliver big bars over the 25 tracks on offer.
Favourite track: (Riko & Godsgift's) Dead That

6. The Books - Lost and Safe

Perhaps the most delicately produced album of the year, the Books pluck sampled voices and arranged them inside simple compositions made with guitar, banjo, andpercussion. Based on moments of contemplation and often crammed with pent up emotion, the album creates a more melodic path for the Books after their first two albums.
Favourite track: An Animated Description Of Mr. Maps

7. Isolee - We Are Monster

The only dance music entry in the best of list, Isolée is Rajko Müller who has been making minimalist house since the mid 90s, Beau Mot Plague being a huge dancefloor hit in1997. We are Monster continues Isolee’s use of warm tones, pulsating rhythms and crushing melodies. This sound is both simple delivered yet feels cleverly crafted. Favourite track: Schrapnell

8. Kanye West - Late Registration

Though not quite reaching the heights of the awesome College Dropout, Late Registration is still one of this year's best rap albums. The album has a strong input from co-producer Jon Brion and this has undoubtedly has helped West’s sound evolve .
Favourite track: Gone

9. Electrelane - Axes

Axes sees Electrelane take a huge advance on their sometimes patchy previous work. Now transcending their influences, they are full of fire ripping into the modern age and on their game. Favourite track: The Partisan

10. Wooden Wand and the Vanishing Voice - Xiao

Wooden Wand and the Vanishing Voice are part of America’s emerging ‘avant folk’ (or whatever you want to call it) community. Here folk is used as the catalyst for blending improve, jazz and psychedelic influences, while the occasional Funkadelic and kraut rock grooves can also be heard.
Favourite track: Paper trail blues

11. Kevin Blechdom - Eat my heart out

Thankfully the work of the now-defunct San Francisco duo Blectum from Blechdom (1999-2001) is gaining its deserved credence, which it failed achieved at the time. Both Blevin and Kevin have since released excellent solo records, with Kevin Blechdom's perhaps closer to the duo’s original manifesto. Eat My Heart Out continues in a similar vein as Blechdom’s first LP Bitches Without Britches, though the pushing-the-boundaries-of-good-taste quota is higher (mirrored by the visual aesthetic on the original front cover – not the one shown).
Favourite track: The Porcupine and the Jellyfish

12. Roll Deep - Creeper Mixtape Volume 1

There are supposedly 5 of these Creeper mixtapes around, but they’ve been held back by Relentless, who understandably were keen for Roll Deep fans not to have too many distractions from the official In at Deep End release. For me, the first Creeper mixtape (I haven’t heard the others) provides a better Roll Deep manifesto than the slightly disappointing album.
Favourite track: (Wiley’s) So sure freestyle

13. Hot Chip - Coming on Strong

Reminding me a little of Max Tundra’s LP from a couple of years ago, Hot Chip are a kinda like a strange fey Indie take on disco, soul and funk. Sounding a bit like Belle and Sebastian playing Prince numbers or awkward indie kids attempting to be sexy.
Favourite track: You ride, we ride, in my ride

14. Lightning Bolt - Hypermagic Mountain

Roaring bass, drums and screwed vocals creating easily the noisiest album on my list this year.
Favourite track: 2 Morro Morro Land

15. Ruff Sqwad - Guns and Roses Mixtape Volume 1

The first third (8 tracks) of this mixtape is a ball of Ruff Sqwad energy mixing their love of guitars, dense sound and fiery lyrics.
Favourite track: We bring it down

And Bubbling under...

LCD Soundsystem - LCD Soundsystem
Jackson and his Computer Band - Smash
Richard Hawley - Coles Corner
Belbury Poly - The Willows
The Advisory Circle - Mind how you go
The Fall - Fall Heads Roll
Antony and the Johnsons - I am a bird
Juana Molina - Tres Cosas
Richard Devine - Cautella
Annie - Anniemal

Singles (grime)

Ruff Sqwad and Roll Deep - Sidewinder
Ruff Sqwad and Roll Deep - All day long
Skream - Late night request line
Ruff Sqwad and Wiley - Together
Young.dot – Young.dot EP
The Essentials - State your name
Roll Deep - When I’m ere (Wiley rmx)
Davinchie - Dirty Canvas 3
Crazy Titch – Singalong (Imp Batch - Gype riddim)
JME - Serious/Radio guys
Ruff Sqwad - Underground
Doctor - Jealousy and hate
Trim and Scratchy - Trim and scratch
Wiley - Tunnel Vision
D Double - Freestyle (on Grime)

Singles (other)

Bun B - Drapped up RMX (ft. Lil Keke, Slim Thug, Paul Wall, Mike Jones, Aztek, Lil Flip)
Mike Jones - Still tippin’
Three Six Mafia - I gotta stay high
Vashti Bunyan and Animal Collective - Prospect hummer EP
iWayne - Can’t satisfy her
Damian Marley - Jamrock
Amerie - One thing
Cesaria - Angola (Bateau Ivre Rework By Pepe Bradock)

Haunted Hawksmoor

2005-12-16T17:40:00.000Z

The eerie scene in Spitalfields on Sunday afternoon as the sun was setting through the black clouds coming from the Hemel Hempstead inferno

2005-12-15T15:42:00.000Z

For those of you with an interest in Hackney politics, here is the info about tonight's meeting about dodgy Council sell-offs on Broadway Market...please come along:
-------------------------------------

PUBLIC MEETING
Come and Have Your Say!
The Occupation of Tony¹s Café has raised many issues in the national, London and local press. We are calling a public meeting for local people to discuss these questions:

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF HOW BROADWAY MARKET IS CHANGING?
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE DEVELOPERS WHO NOW HAVE A LARGE STAKE IN THE AREA?
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE WAY HACKNEY COUNCIL IS MANAGING REGENERATION?
All parties are invited: local groups, council representatives, developers
Chair: Rev William Campbell-Taylor
Letters of invitation have been sent to:
Chris Berry Interim Head of Planning, Hackney Council Jessica Crowe Deputy Mayor of Hackney Guy Nicholson Regeneration Officer, Hackney Council Andrew Boff Conservative Councillor, Queeensbridge Ward Bill Hodgson Labour Councillor, Queensbridge Ward (Chair of Planning) Arthur Shuter Local Advocate and Spokesman for Protest at Tony¹s Café Carl Taylor Hackney Independent Stephen Selby Broadway Market Traders and Residents Association Maria Flynn Regents Estate TRA Fred Filce Whiston & Goldsmiths TRA Dr Roger Wratten Stirling Properties Broadway Investments Hackney Ltd
All parties will be invited to speak for 2-3 minutes on one or all of the issues.
Questions will be taken from the audience.
Thursday 15th December between 7.30pm and 9.30pm St Michaels Hall, on the corner of Lansdowne Drive and Lavender Grove, E8.

Through the wire

2005-12-14T19:03:00.000Z

Hold tight Matthew Ingram (aka Woebot) for his review of Ruff Sqwad @ Dirty Canvas in this month's Wire mag (p86)

Are you gonna hold it down?

2005-12-13T12:04:00.000Z

The Essentials will be headlining at the second Dirty Canvas night on 17th Febraury 2006, at the Whitechapel (art gallery). Here's them performing at the Gateside Festival in New Cross Gate in August.

The Essentials Crew are Remerdee, Nu Era, 2 Face, Bossman, Kidman, Jendor and come from New Cross and Deptford. They’ve been going fro over 4 years and in that time produced quite a few underground hits, including ‘shut down shop’, ‘jenny’, ‘state your name’ and ‘get over it’. Their collaborating producer Davinchie, has been making a name for himself throughout the scene, he produced Kano’s ‘Ps & Qs’ and also the Dirty Canvas EP series (which helped name the night).

Way back when the sun was shining

2005-12-12T17:29:00.000Z

Some pics from Vyner Street festival held in August this year...

Hoping to do it again this summer.

Gentrifyers against Gentrification

2005-12-12T16:03:00.000Z

As reported in the Guardian last week this little episode in taking shape near my gaff in Hackney. Keep abreast of developments here. As someone tainted by working somewhere within the “regeneration industry” (and what an expanding self-serving industry its becoming – more on that another time) I am perhaps appreciative of some of the wider pressures faced by the likes of Hackney Council (from the Government definitely but also their council tax payers) to balance their books. But that’s no excuse to purposefully destroy community-valued businesses. Even if you were that way inclined, favouring unscrupulous property developers with no connection to the area is bad for the market (if every sense).

The other thing about this affair is that it is fairly multi-faceted – organisers have kept the protest 'issue-based' and have steered clear of macro-politics as seems de rigueur these days. This has allowed the organisers to draw on a broad church of support ranging from seasoned activists to occasional lifestyle choosers. I’ve been down to the squat a few times in the past week to lend my support….as have plenty of other professionals, new media types, artists…and thought to myself, ‘wait a minute this is - gentrifyers against gentrification’!

A bit like tourists who don’t want to go anywhere touristy and yet propagate the whole process, there are gentrifyers who like to infiltrate an area where they can be an exclusive voyeur to a quirky community setting. As more of this ilk arrives so the exclusivity goes and the thing that makes it originally attractive is disturbed. Like tourists, the hipsters can dip in and out of areas as their stock rises and falls…while the long-standing community watches from the sidelines. A theme park to some a community to others.

I remember some right-wing American economist (Michael Porter I think?) talking about regenerating your downtowns by first attracting the ‘gays, artists and quirkys’ to create a bit of a local fizz….after this, the investment would follow. It’s no coincidence that most speculative property investors who can buy swathes of property and sit on them for 10-20 yrs, often turn them into cheap artist studios to help boost their return.

I guess in reality there is some kind of tipping point. Middle classes coming into an area can to a point bring some advantages to the long-standing communities living there. Like it or not, the schools tend to get better teachers, Council services suddenly get done, better stores come in and existing people can benefit from all of this. But the negative side sees rents increase, expensive organic/farmers markets taking over inexpensive ones, valued community businesses being priced out by footloose investment. Someone should do an interesting London-based study on all of this - the gentrification continuum (if you will). Begin somewhere like Stratford and go through about several other areas at different points of the gentrification process, and perhaps end in Notting Hill.

Upper class yobs

2005-12-12T15:45:00.000Z

It turns out the person who mindlessly vandalised mine and my partner’s bike outside a pub in Islington last night was the extremely posh middle-aged lady who lived in the million pound property next door. Locking our bikes against her railings was obviously too much for her to bear. The locals in the pub had initially covered for her by saying they saw some kids messing with the bikes (and suggesting that we move them) but the non-locals confirmed that an apoplectic woman demanded that the bikes from her mansion be removed or she was going to damage them (we were out of ear-shot in the back room). We found them with flattened tyres and damaged wheels – and at the time thinking through our possible courses of action (brick through window, pitchfork through woman) we settled on going to the police for criminal damage. Any better suggestions gratefully received…

Dirty Canvas (4th November 2005) @ the Whitechapel

2005-12-12T14:28:00.000Z

Some pictures from the first Dirty Canvas night, which took place a fews weeks ago at the Whitechapel Gallery. The night had a kind of unfamiliar feel to it...the gallery hadn't put on this kind of night before, Ruff Sqwad hadn't played this kind of gig before and the situation was pretty new to me too, but Ruff Sqwad really made the night work, holding down a brilliant performance.

The next night is on Friday 17th February 2006 at the same venue (The Whitechapel) and I'm courting a South London line up...details soon.