12”

It’s back, the assorted records from my bag post of music I’ve been wanting to chat about but hadn’t got round to it yet… This month I catch up on a few that I’ve not been able to stop playing.

Addison Groove – Footcrab/Dumb Shit [Swamp81]
Anthem of the moment sees Headhunter in a juke inspired beat down. Bass heavy 808/909 drum patterns, chopped and looped vocals and an insane amount of dance floor moving energy. This is so addictive it could do with its own dance routine.

Joy Orbison – The Shrew EP [Aus Music]
He’s back hot on the heels of last years hyped Mngo and the fantasitic J.Doe. This time is a slow burning gem of a release on the renowned techno label Aus Music. ‘So Derobe’ is the pick for me, restrained melodic euphoria over rolling beats, bliss. Actress drops in a subtle rework too.

James Blake – Bells Sketch EP [Hessle Audio]
Following up his insane Untold remix and low-key collaboration with Airhead on BRAiNMATH comes a diverse three tracker of twisted soul infused, blues addled R&B meets dubstep funk. Yeah he’s hard to pin down, but has a sound all his own. ‘Buzzard And Kestral’ is rhythmic joy on wax.

Bok Bok ft. Bubbz/Brackles & Shortstuff – Citizens Dub/Pipey D [Blunted Robots]
Pure party jams from Bok Bok, destroying it with adrenaline fuelled ascending descending bass tones with a grimey electro beast that should give you a big shit-eating grin. The flip sees the label bosses bring out the winding rave gear, keeping it funky and broken.

Altered Natives – Believe In Me ft. Sacha Williamson/(Zed Bias Club Mix)/Raaaatid Einstien [Fresh Minute Music]
Smooth spaced out vocal cut that brings the soulful house vibes coming on a track you get so hypnotised by you don’t want it to stop. ‘Raaaatid Einstien’ ups the hype with a raw energetic funky cut that should keep the floor moving in fine style.

Egyptrixx – Battle For North America EP [Aaahh! Real Monsters]
Bubbling electro infused dubstep/funky hybrids ‘Hexagon Ya’ is THE one with A ‘Citezen Dub’-like ability to twist floors out of proportion with addictive ascending bass tones, builds and drops. The rest is suitably on it and they’ve got a Night Slugs on the way too, killer stuff.

Kuedo – Dream Sequence EP [Planet Mu]
Jamie Vex’d debts’ his Kuedo name with a damaging EP. Taking the off-centre bright synth led hip-hop meets dubstep he’s been destroying it with since his ‘Twitch’ rework and last years In System Travel EP, and shaping it further into his own vision. ‘Star Fox’ is a real gem and makes me nostalgic for my old SNES.

Slugabed – Ultra Heat Treated EP [Planet Mu]
Sluga gets deep down and dirty with his own gnarly hyper coloured vision of hip-hop, like the evil twin to the already slightly deranged Kuedo EP, he makes harsh dance floor noise in the most fun way possible, which shows you can keep it dirty and send it sideways all at once.

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.

Missing in Action

I’m in deep with the bass scene I just can’t get enough of the stuff, I write upfront reviews for the Sonic Router and even put some words up here, yet a lot of stuff still slips through the net one way or another. So as a vinyl collecting bass head I thought I would do a mini round up (when I remember) in bite-sized chunks of things from my collection that should without a doubt be talked about, especially while I’m down to one deck and can’t make a mix.

Calibre – Dutty/Stolen Shadow [Deep Medi]
Deeply soulful 140bpm exploration from D’n’B head into acid tinged dubstep and garage with sublime results well worthy of the Deep Medi tag.

Slugabed – Gritsalt/Lets Go Swim [Ramp]
Off-kilter, Neon-Hip-Hop with 8-bit riddims that crunch & glow in all directions with a shit eating playful grin; like Wario on Rainbow Road.

Starkey – Miracles (Jamie Vex’d Remix)/Creature [Planet Mu]
J-Vex’d drop a euphoric sideways slanting high-pressure nuclear fallout version, as Starkey unleashes evil Creatures with a stampeding growl.

Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry vs. Kode 9 – Yellow Tongue [On U Sound]
Dubbed out variant on the Kode 9 funky sound, less smeary glow and a more spaced out hazy flow, devastating bass and skipping drums.

Untold – I Cant Stop This Feeling/Anaconda [Hessle Audio]
An energy rush of bleeped out minimalist future garage that you can’t stop! Backed with grime in clown shoes, eski played on toys and congas.

Kito – What If/Cold [Disfigured Dubz]
Deep & deadly dub styles with earth shattering bass and soulful vibes made for big rigs, strings and cut up vocals bring a melancholic edge.

I’ll try and keep these coming…