Exodus & Room 237 Presents: Jamie Vex'd / 2562 / Youngsta & SP:MC / Neil Landstrumm / Clark @ West Indian Centre, Leeds. 25th September 2009

It’s been a little while since I went to the West Indian Centre to soak up the sounds coming out of the almighty Iration Steppas Soundsystem, I mean everyone has been away for the summer ripping up Croatia and all sorts so I guess I can be forgiven… But this line-up has brought me out of the woodwork and walking into the main room to hear Digital Mystikz Anti War Dub just proves it was the right decision.

Saying that though the place was a little empty during Computer Controlled DJs set, which was really surprising as I’ve only ever been to the West Indian Centre when its been packed to the rafters. They played a well nice selection of all things good and bassy though from DMZ beasts to grime bangers, there was even a bit of funky in the form of Bok Bok’s recent outings in that sound, this didn’t bring on loads of dancing and movement as I expected though, I guess Leeds is more of a dubstep town right now as that always gets everyone moving be it lad or lass. The addition to the main room of a projector and a dude in the corner freaking about with pictures and film was pretty cool though.

Unfortunately Sigha whose productions I really love was in the second room at exactly the same time as Jamie Vex’d who I kind of wanted to see on the huge soundsystem so I only caught a few moments of his set but the bits I saw where well nice and its wet my appetite for more. I was also really surprised to see Jamie Vex’d playing so early but the place soon packed out and he built one hell of a set, he crossed so much gowned and so effortlessly. Everything from his own productions like the quality Twitch remix and other Planet Mu bits, all the way to Terror Danjah grime instrumentals such as Sidechain and the Swindle remix of Zumpi Hunter, or Grievous Angels well nice 2-step re-rub of Napath’s Sounclash VIP. I almost bust a gut when he dropped the Zomby dubplate Murcury’s Rainbow…



Which popped up on youtube a while back (see above) and maybe a Blackdown Rinse FM show but that’s about it and there is no word yet of a release, in fact it’s the most Zomby I’ve heard on a night out. I had reservations about some of the One Foot Ahead Of The Other EP on Ramp working on the dance floor but when its powered through Iration Steppas I guess you don’t have to worry about that, everything sounds so alive and HUGE. This was followed swiftly by Untold’s amazing Stop What You’re Doing, which I’ve been aching to hear out for ages now, and it really does sound different the no beats, pulse bass freakout really hits the spot for me the tension the lack of beats bring is just something else, then coupled with the Zomby dubplate which is of a similar vibe all be it more psychedelic just slayed it. Things get a bit more blurry as the bass rumbles and the red stripe flows but this is still the first set of the night from one of the big guns… plates from The Bug were a plenty, to the delight of my sister who loves to shout Bug lyrics at me, but only while not shouting the lyrics to Next Hype of course… which also popped up in the mix accapella style over some unknown bass heavy shakers. Skream, Piddy Py and Distance even got a look in, who insanly got mixed with a does of R&B in the form of Timberland yet it worked far to well and made me wonder why he hasn’t reached for sub bass himself… along with the smeared wonk of Tiago with his swirling Bable Fish a track that has been on my radar for a while but I never expected it to sound so fucking good out this loud, the bass pulse that kicks in half way through is something else. This really was a far-reaching set mixed quick and on point on laptop and controllers, I almost felt sorry for 2562 following it as a lot of BIG tracks had been played and I don’t mean obvious bangers just MASSIVE sounding twisting turning genre escaping monsters.

After a break for air entering the main room again to see 2562 playing to a spindly crowd was a real disappointment, its like we had entered a whole new club. He was playing his own brand of rolling dubbed out techno that really contrasted the sweeping flailing twitched out, smeared synth wonk and far reaching magpie set of Jamie Vex’d. When you got deep into it though and put the small crowed out of your mind the beats where so bumping and infectious that it was hard not to move, almost everything I heard sounded like 2562’s productions but I spotted some new Untold in there too. The room filled more over time but it was still a bit disheartening to see it like that when he’s one of the leading lights of the scene, making some of the coolest, skippyest rolling dubstep meets techno around. But then after Jamie Vex’d it was easy to see why people needed a break and even the big boys on Warp and Planet Mu didn’t pack out the crowds like I thought they would. Landstrumm played a mad set that sounded like an OCD kid who had learnt to make all of dance music’s past on toys, so you got electro addled grimey, dancehall, rave, techno hybrids of all styles and tempos at the drop of a hat. You never knew what was going to happen but he locked into things long enough to keep you moving and tease you before twisting into the unknown again. I also checked out quite a bit of Youngsta at this point who was rocking it with SP:MC, I’ve never felt so hypnotised by a dubstep DJ before it was none stop deeper than deep half stepping dubplates that would have sounded like chillout music anywhere but the bassy backroom of the West Indian Centre on the Sweat Potato Soundsystem… or you know others like it. A hell of a lot of it sounded like Kryptic Minds with the odd bit of Skream’s dark side thrown in, everything worked so well and really wet my appetite for DMZ next week in the same venue.

From then on tiredness set in and after a very brief brush with Clark and unfortunately missing Distance altogether we left into the night on a fucking long drive home to the county with the bass resonating loud in our ears.

N-Type, Silkie & Quest, Iration Steppas, Gentleman’s Dub Club, Exodus @ Exodus Croatia Launch Party, Faversham Leeds. 9th June 2009

This was like a mini Sub Dub Vs. Exodus but not in the setting of the West Indian Centre and with a much smaller sound system, but at least they had a sound system as The Fav has always sounded so bad for every other gig / club night I’ve been to, the bass crew know where its at though and bring their own rigs. This was the launch party for Exodus Croatia the dubstep / dub festival that’s been going strong for a couple of years now and by the way this went off Croatia is going to be something else, quite literally as well I mean you just don’t get the sun / sand and boat parties in Leeds.

Spinning dub early on in the main room was Exodus, just playing some deep dubbed out vibes to a meandering crowd, it was sounding good. In the conservatory was another big rig playing those jungelist sounds, then right next to the main room was The Gimp aka a little freaky room playing some hardcore heavy artillery, chainsaw and laser guided gun finger dubstep; all of this combined made the windows of The Fav shake hard.

Gentleman’s Dub Club hit the stage in suits as a full on live dub band with MC, drums, horns and bass a plenty. I’ve heard about these guys before but never seen them, they really killed it and drew a big skank happy crowd. Plus they did full band live rewinds just like the DJ’s do; it really got the tension going for those meaty drops.

Into The Gimp for some face melters while Iration set up, and fuck me who ever was playing in there was reaching for the big guns: Dark’n’grimey full of wobble. The Kutz & Benga ‘I’ll Kut Ya’ was probably the only track I could ID to be honest, but what a track.

Iration Steppas in the main room were warming things up very nicely in their usually dub in the year 3000 style. The rig may be smaller than I’m use to hearing them on so there was no STUPIDLY HUGE push you over and leave you for dead bass pummelling, but it was defiantly big enough for a Tuesday night. Special after special via dubplate and special again got played, vibes built and bass dropped. I wish I knew what these tracks were they get me every time, the final track he played that got three wheels was something else. An almost four to the floor deep and loose beat built into an all mighty drop that got the crowd pogoing for the first time in the night.

Silkie & Quest hit the decks not long after and brought the boogie, skipping drums, soulful breakdowns and full on colourful funk fuelled bass really turned the night into a dance party. Playing a set of pretty much all their own productions as far as I could tell apart from one Joker & Ginz track, ‘Purple City’. This stuff sounded so effortlessly warm and danceable and in such contrast to the lil room playing hardcore ravestep it was brilliant. Pretty much everything I could have wished to hear was played and loads more I couldn’t quite place, ‘Purple Love’, ‘Headbut Da Deck’, ‘Test’, Silkie’s boogie drenched remix of Skream’s ‘Filth’ and Mr Larger’s vocal anthem ‘Tell Me’, ‘Edan’ which finished the set and jeeeeez it sounds HUGE. Silkie & Quest may well be some of my favourite producers around in dubstep at the moment and without a doubt they can do it in the dance.

After the relentless space funk of Silkie and Quest, they didn’t do a single rewind, all rollers all the way… N-Type came on and started to build things up with filthy bangers in his usual style. We had to roll not long after mind, it was getting late and it’s a long drive back. Killer night, quality music all round and easily one of the best nights I’ve had at The Faversham. I wish them all well in Croatia I bet it’s going to go off in epic style.

Sub Dub Presents: Exodus / DMZ

I'm heading down for this today, I can't wait!