Durrty Goodz – Ultrasound

Original writen for Sonic Router, see it and more here.

The long awaited next CD from Durrty Goodz is finally here and it’s taken time. Ultrasound is the pre-album to the highly anticipated album Born Blessed and the follow up to one of the top grime releases to date the on point Axiom EP.

It’s so good to have him back and Ultrasound doesn’t disappoint, it may not reach the heights of Axiom but it’s solid. There is no need to skip a track, which is good going for a grime CD.

There’s some big productions on here, every beat is huge sounding and punchy. Nocturnal, Rudekid, Taz Buckfaster, Bouncer, Demos, Maniac and Joker all pull out the big guns. A lot of the time they find the middle ground between grime and dubstep, which really suits Goodz not to mention, kills it.

Goodz deals with grime matters mostly, like people going mainstream and electro, the death of raves and the scene. But he does it with a big shit eating grin big bars and hooks.

Highlights include the hyper strings and bass of ‘Party N Rave’ about the state of grime raves. Buckfaster’s ‘Destruction’ is an absolute beast, pure gully. ‘Upset Me’ has a quite dig at Wiley over a minimal bleep beat. The radio sampling ‘Grime Killers’ is a banger and pretty much sums up the CD’s lyrical tip. ‘Forward Skip’ featuring MC Stephen Hawkins really gets in your head with its hype hook.

If this is just the warm up for Born Blessed we are in for a real treat as the levels are high on this one.

http://www.myspace.com/officialdurrtygoodz

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Durrty Goodz came on Logan Sama's Kiss 100 show last night for some live stuff and to promote his new CD Ultrasound (which just dropped through my door).

The guy cracks me up man, he sounds like he has a big shit-eating grin on his face the whole time. He jumps on beats from grime, hip-hop to dubstep and just comes with some fucked flow each time. He is just doing it Goodz style.

His appearance was fleeting yet he brought the hype, spoke some sense and made some jokes. Then he goes and jumps on Chase and Status’ Saxon live with some fucked bars and leaves...

God knows when he will be back he seems to pop up when ever he sees fit then leaves, so for now.

Logan Rip:

http://www.mediafire.com/?ywkntrtkzcr

Go and grab Ultrasound from UK Record Shop, I have a feeling I’m going to be playing it all day, more words to come no doubt.

http://www.ukrecordshop.com/item/durrty-goodz-ultrasound.html

http://www.myspace.com/officialdurrtygoodz

Oh yeah have a Wiley dis track while I’m at it, this is the last I heard from the war and I’m still not sure who’s winning / who to support / if it’s still going.

Dusk & Blackdown – Margins Music (Keysound Recordings)

Another excellent dubstep album for this year we have already had treats from 2562, Flying Lotus at very different ends of the spectrum and from different countries. Margins Music is pure London all the way through to it’s core, in much the way Burial is, but then Dusk & Blackdown sound very different indeed from all of those artists I have just mentioned. So what do they sound like?

Margins Music is a diverse melting pot of sounds that you could hear in and around London but especially the edges hence the name Margins Music. This album is like taking a drive round different neighbour hoods as the sun sets and night life comes into full effect. The backdrop being bass and beats with a sprinkling of London’s found sounds such as Desi, Grime, Dubstep, Eastern, Techno, and lots in-between. The liner notes by dubstep scribe and Dusk’s other half, Blackdown describes Margins Music as a travel through the city to great effect and a lot better than I could ever do, as I live up North.

Darker Than East that features the Roll Deep Entourage sounds like a mosaic of found sounds and interviews about the place they grew up in on a bed of screwed up bass and electronica. This sets the tone for the album well as this theme runs throughout in other gems like This is London.

The first distinct section / trip through LDN is on a Punjabi / Desi / British-Asian vibe. The track Con/Fusion (Out soon on 12”) featuring the sublime vocals of Farrah who pops up on two other numbers as well, is one of my favourite the use of traditional drums and an irresistible techy synth hook with a mellow laid back tone juxtaposed with Farrah looped vocal is beautiful. Lata VIP continues the flow of Desi influence on an instrumental tip into the excellent Kuri Pataka (The Firecracker Girl) that features Teji & Farrah. This is another standout and will be on the same 12” as Con/Fusion. Kuri Pataka has a catchy vocal hook that draws you in before looping it and bringing the hype with a drum roll and big Asian strings. Rolling Raj Deep sounds like a freaky hybrid of Bollywood dance instrumentals and badass dirty underground sounds. The bass is huge as always with Dusk & Blackdown that goes without saying…

The next part of London the album ventures into is the ends of the Grime warriors, (Keysound Radio) sets the tone with some field recordings of a pirate radio show before Durrty Goodz spits bars over Concrete Streets. He is one of my favourite Grime MC’s for sure, and he brings it to this track the hook, ‘I from these streets, from these streets, everyone will tell you I run these streets’ buries into your brain as does the bass and hooks. Trim’s The Bits is up next in the Grime section, this is the same version that was on Soulfood Vol.3 Trim’s excellent mixtape earlier this year, I have already chatted about that before so I won’t go into detail. Dis/East brings a eastern vibe to the grime section with tingeling shimmers of string sounds and bells of some kind laid on top of deep bass and some electro style skitting drum patterns. That flows into the Aformentioned This is London…

Then the rain comes down for the final trip into some more ends. The foundsounds AKA keysounds hence the name on Margins Music are sublime you really get the feel of the place they were recorded and it adds some beautiful atmosphere to the record, not unlike Burial does with his deep pirate crackle and fuzzed out loops of drizzle but as I said before they are pretty different in sound. Iqbal’s Groove with that mighty fine vocal tones of Farrah comes on like an Arabic / Asian dub hybrid of massive proportions. The driving bass really keeps things moving. The Drumz of Nagano pound like a Japanese electro bass freak out and then melt into the Detroit techno influenced Focus. Focus came out recently on 12” and I can’t get enough of it, I put it in my first ever dubstep mix and blended it with a Derrick May remix of Night of the Jaguar as the strings and skipping beats fit together so well. This draws Margins Music to a close in euphoric style like darting lights in the midnight traffic of the London metropolis.

Check it out right away you won’t be disappointed…

The Good, The Bad & The Weird

The Internet is a strange place at times, but then we all knew that didn’t we? Yes, yes we did…

So lets start with the weird: One day I was looking for some thread I had posted on about something or other and I stumbled upon my username for Drowned in Sound jimitheexploder on the Ministry of Sound website. So I went and clicked the link, which lead me to the news section, this was pretty strange I thought… The person at MoS had decided to trall music forums for opinions on the trance DJ Tiesto and come across a thread started on DiS called, ‘Who the Fuck is Tiesto?’ started by a guy inquiring who he was and why he was selling out the O2 arena yet he had no idea who he was. I commented on this thread with my opinion, ‘he sells out stadiums often all around the world he is massive. Plays a load of shit though’ and this quote gets into the news article… Surely it isn’t news that people don’t like trance? It must have been a slow news day for MoS maybe Oakenfold didn’t have a best of compilation or mix out that day or something I’m not very up on trancey goings on. I’m pretty sure the Internet will eat its self soon if opinion on music boards is used as news…

The Bad: As you may or may not know Bloc Party released an album last week entitled Intimacy, they decided to drop it out of the blue in digital format first then CD later in the year. All good so far for sure… So you know being a bored music fan I joined in some musical conversation on this new Bloc Party offering on an Internet forum. The opinions on the record varied from massive distain and abuse to pure joy and love, as they always do on busy music boards. This is normal business as far as I have seen, and I was making the odd joke and sensible comment about what I was hearing on the new record. But hell the Bloc Party fan boys weren’t liking any negative opinion what so ever, and even though I was saying good things as well about the band I enjoy, they got on their high horse and decided to keep name checking me, singling me out and be a little abusive. I have never had so much trouble from shearing my opinion on a band ever… These Bloc Party fans were truly annoying, pretentious and overall single minded fools that couldn’t see past their own un-dieing love for Bloc Party. Pretty strange stuff in my opinion, I had never seen it before but I was informed that similar things happened to people on message boards when Radiohead dropped In Rainbows the other year. I’m all for people being in love for music, but when they can’t see past their own little opinion and get abusive about it it’s pretty pathetic and makes me laugh…

The Good: finally some good stuff hey? Yep… Music boards are also full of excellent people who are passionate about music they love and are willing to discuss it with all sorts of people who both love and hate the music they are talking about. They turn each other onto new music all the time and generally keep the scene alive to an extent as well. They inspired me to start this here blog and write about music in all its glory, they also put me in touch with some good people who I chat to regularly. I have recently been writing for another site, which is why this has slowed down a little. Another good story about music boards is the one of my step bro and his wife, who met on an old skool dance music site after swapping mixtapes and eventually hooking up and getting married in Ibiza. Brilliant…

So that’s a little round up of my musical internet shenanigans just to keep you going while I concentrate on some writing.

Durrty Goodz – Axiom EP

I’m lagging behind with Grime I’m still listening to Dizzee Rascal’s Boy In Da Corner so I thought it was about time I dug up some more up to date stuff. It looks like I failed at doing that too, as this Durrty Goodz EP came out some time last year but it is by far the best slice of Grime I have heard recently, its off the wall.

The production is sick to say the least one of my favourite Dubstep producers Peverelis does a track here I love his stuff on Dubstep Allstars Vol.06 and his recent 12” especially the tune Junction. Durrty Goodz flow on all these proper high-end beats is brilliant, he can do it fast and with a bite like no other MC I have heard recently. I think it’s the beats that raise this above other Grime releases for me. DVA’s beast Keep Up that starts the EP is a hell of an opener with its stepping bassline and a fuck load of energy. Coki’s beat on Take the Scene Back is fat I keep spinning that one. The Youngers has some well pitch shifted vocal work that reminds me of Dizzee and Lil’ Wayne to some extent. The usual Grime subject are covered about their ends, and taking the scene back, but its done with such flair and style over those sick beats it really shines through. JJ’s beat of Licence to Skill is wicked the bass is huge and the flow frantic, with a hint of bond theme as the hook, which is either good fun or annoying I’m not sure. Boi Dem is another stand out track that bassline by Bass Clef is huge I have to check out more of his productions. Title track Axiom really made my ears prick up the super fast speedy flow is out of sight, Durrty then slows it down and kicks off again, it makes you want to rewind right away. Switching Songs II has a 2-step vibe to it and is a nice different more soulful angle to the EP, time for a quick bubble I reckon. He gives us a bit of a Grime history lesson with a tight flow too with some of Wiley’s and Dizzee’s beats thrown in their for good measure, amongst other old school Grime anthems I don’t know of no doubt, I love the packman blips. Give Me The Music Feat. NY is a spacey future Grime groove of the highest order and closes the EP in style, or the secret track at the end does anyway.

Durrty Goodz is wicked Axiom is the best Grime release I have heard in a while I look forward to seeking out more sick beats and flows soon.