“What the hell were we thinking?,” exclaims Dan Taylor, guitarist for U.K. indie soul-rock titans The Heavy, of the band’s audacious new album, The Glorious Dead, to be released on Counter/Ninja Tune on 21 August 2012. “We wanted to make a bold statement – it’s not shy.”
“It’s over the top, in a good way,” adds Heavy frontman Kelvin Swaby. “We went pretty cinematic, setting out to score a film that hasn’t been written.” As such, The Glorious Dead proves The Heavy’s most ambitious effort: Frankensteining swampy voodoo and b-movie zombies with garage rock and Gospel-soaked soul, it’s unlike anything you’ll hear this year.
The Glorious Dead builds off momentum from The Heavy’s international smash single “How You Like Me Now?,” off acclaimed 2009 album, The House That Dirt Built. “How You Like Me Now?” became the first song David Letterman’s ever requested an encore for when The Heavy played the “Late Show,” and appeared everywhere from “Entourage,” Academy Award-nominated film The Fighter, and the trailer for the new Mark Wahlberg comedy Ted – and was even performed by contestant Tony Lucca on NBC’s hit show “The Voice.” “It’s become such a big tune, people ask, ‘How are you going to top that?’,” Swaby says. The Glorious Dead provides the answer with supernatural force. Album opener “Can’t Play Dead” thunders as if Jack White remixed “Ghost Town” by The Specials; “Curse Me Good,” meanwhile, balances sweet whistled hooks and acoustic strum with heartbreaking vocals. “It’s good to have a bit of light and shade,” Taylor explains. As such, the album’s soaring centerpiece “What Makes A Good Man?” contrasts Swaby’s gritty soul searching with girl-group backgrounds and epic strings. “Think vintage, but keep it contemporary – that’s our approach,” Swaby explains. “…Good Man?” proved the album’s breakthrough. Searching for inspiration, The Heavy traveled from their Bath, England hometown to Columbus, Georgia, hooking up with local church-trained singers and players for some Southern Gothic sublimity. Taking the material to yet another level was Gabriel “Bosco Mann” Roth of Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, who added string and horn parts to four songs. “He’s such a talent,” Swaby enthuses.
The Glorious Dead also represents the first time The Heavy’s members – which in addition to Taylor and Swaby include Spencer Page (bass) and Chris Ellul (drums) – chose to produce themselves. To mix the results, the band first worked with longtime associate Jim Abbiss (Adele, Arctic Monkeys) at Peter Gabriel’s famed Real World complex, then finished up with Paul Corkett (The Cure, Nick Cave, Björk). “Self-producing was all about being self-sufficient in realizing our vision,” Taylor says. “It’s our third record, which is when you’re judged if you’re here to stay, or sliding off the face of the earth. We want to stick around, so we took our balls out and went for it.” “I love what we’ve done,” adds Swaby. “We got our deadpan heartbreak down. This record suggests how we continue to walk among the dead – now just in a few more places, and with more of a swagger.”
[links] => [image_upload_id] => 16903 [label_id] => 5 [twitter_username] => theheavy [instagram_id] => 217232350 [instagram_username] => theheavy [link] => [listed] => 1 [sortname] => Heavy [created] => 2010-07-17 22:15:59 [modified] => 2013-05-03 14:56:03 [slug] => the-heavy [fuga_id] => [description_clean] =>“What the hell were we thinking?,” exclaims Dan Taylor, guitarist for U.K. indie soul-rock titans The Heavy, of the band’s audacious new album, The Glorious Dead, to be released on Counter/Ninja Tune on 21 August 2012. “We wanted to make a bold statement – it’s not shy.”
“It’s over the top, in a good way,” adds Heavy frontman Kelvin Swaby. “We went pretty cinematic, setting out to score a film that hasn’t been written.” As such, The Glorious Dead proves The Heavy’s most ambitious effort: Frankensteining swampy voodoo and b-movie zombies with garage rock and Gospel-soaked soul, it’s unlike anything you’ll hear this year.
The Glorious Dead builds off momentum from The Heavy’s international smash single “How You Like Me Now?,” off acclaimed 2009 album, The House That Dirt Built. “How You Like Me Now?” became the first song David Letterman’s ever requested an encore for when The Heavy played the “Late Show,” and appeared everywhere from “Entourage,” Academy Award-nominated film The Fighter, and the trailer for the new Mark Wahlberg comedy Ted – and was even performed by contestant Tony Lucca on NBC’s hit show “The Voice.” “It’s become such a big tune, people ask, ‘How are you going to top that?’,” Swaby says. The Glorious Dead provides the answer with supernatural force. Album opener “Can’t Play Dead” thunders as if Jack White remixed “Ghost Town” by The Specials; “Curse Me Good,” meanwhile, balances sweet whistled hooks and acoustic strum with heartbreaking vocals. “It’s good to have a bit of light and shade,” Taylor explains. As such, the album’s soaring centerpiece “What Makes A Good Man?” contrasts Swaby’s gritty soul searching with girl-group backgrounds and epic strings. “Think vintage, but keep it contemporary – that’s our approach,” Swaby explains. “…Good Man?” proved the album’s breakthrough. Searching for inspiration, The Heavy traveled from their Bath, England hometown to Columbus, Georgia, hooking up with local church-trained singers and players for some Southern Gothic sublimity. Taking the material to yet another level was Gabriel “Bosco Mann” Roth of Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, who added string and horn parts to four songs. “He’s such a talent,” Swaby enthuses.
The Glorious Dead also represents the first time The Heavy’s members – which in addition to Taylor and Swaby include Spencer Page (bass) and Chris Ellul (drums) – chose to produce themselves. To mix the results, the band first worked with longtime associate Jim Abbiss (Adele, Arctic Monkeys) at Peter Gabriel’s famed Real World complex, then finished up with Paul Corkett (The Cure, Nick Cave, Björk). “Self-producing was all about being self-sufficient in realizing our vision,” Taylor says. “It’s our third record, which is when you’re judged if you’re here to stay, or sliding off the face of the earth. We want to stick around, so we took our balls out and went for it.” “I love what we’ve done,” adds Swaby. “We got our deadpan heartbreak down. This record suggests how we continue to walk among the dead – now just in a few more places, and with more of a swagger.”
[links_clean] => ) ) ) [1] => Array ( [Event] => Array ( [id] => 10505 [date] => 2012-11-09 [artist] => Speech Debelle [city] => Paris [state] => [country] => FR [venue] => La Gaite Lyrique [promoter] => [description] =>*POSTPONED*
[ticket_url] => [image_upload_id] => 16385 [created] => 2012-08-31 17:33:49 [modified] => 2012-11-08 11:54:12 [year_slug] => 2012 [month_slug] => nov [day_slug] => 9 [slug] => speech-debelle-paris-la-gaite-lyrique [description_clean] =>*POSTPONED*
[products_count] => 0 [hidden] => 0 ) [Image] => Array ( [id] => 16385 [media_type] => image [artist] => Speech Debelle [title] => Artist Shot Dec 2011 [credits] => [buy_link] => [filename] => images/speech-debelle/speechdebelle-artistshot-dec2011.png [checksum] => f67b360aecbea90c285d31d3f7be7328 [mime_type] => image/png [size] => 323012 [external_url] => http://media.ninjatune.net/images/speech-debelle/speechdebelle-artistshot-dec2011.png [image_upload_id] => [first_track_id] => [first_release_id] => [listed] => 0 [active] => 1 [processed] => 1 [artist_slug] => speech-debelle [slug] => artist-shot-dec-2011 [created] => 2011-12-09 16:28:48 [modified] => 2011-12-09 16:28:55 [embed] => ) [Country] => Array ( [id] => 229 [name] => France [longname] => France [numcode] => 250 [iso] => FR [iso3] => FRA [currency] => EUR [active] => 1 [parent_id] => 226 [lft] => 455 [rght] => 456 [level] => 2 ) [Product] => Array ( ) [Artist] => Array ( [0] => Array ( [id] => 80 [name] => Speech Debelle [description] =>Speech Debelle is a rapper and musician from South London, probably best known for winning the Mercury Music Prize for her debut album, "Speech Therapy" (2009), most of which was co-produced by Big Dada label mate Wayne Lotek. In 2011 she released her second album, "Freedom of Speech," this time with production from Kwes (Warp).
She has also been politically and socially active with a number of charities and movements, and hosted the BBC documentary Hidden Homeless.
www.speechdebelle.com
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Speech Debelle is a rapper and musician from South London, probably best known for winning the Mercury Music Prize for her debut album, "Speech Therapy" (2009), most of which was co-produced by Big Dada label mate Wayne Lotek. In 2011 she released her second album, "Freedom of Speech," this time with production from Kwes (Warp).
She has also been politically and socially active with a number of charities and movements, and hosted the BBC documentary Hidden Homeless.
[links_clean] =>www.speechdebelle.com
Facebook
Twitter
Myspace
Manchester born, London based 24 year old producer/dj/composer Sam Shepherd aka Floating Points has quickly become one of the most respected and sought-after musicians in modern music. Debuting in February 2009 with the limited 7 inch ‘For You/Radiality’ (Eglo records) he has gone on to establish himself as one the forerunners of today’s new dance music movement, earning the respect of his peers and contemporaries such as Theo Parrish, Kyle Hall, Benji B, Ramadanman, Four Tet, Kode 9 and Mary Anne Hobbs. He's released music predominantly on Eglo records (which he runs alongside Rinse FM’s Alexander Nut), as well as Planet Mu, R2, Ninja Tune and notching up remixes and features for the likes of Domino, Ubiquity, XL, Fabric and Rinse.
The name Floating Points holds just much weight within the DJ world as its does in production, song writing and arrangement. In a short space of time Shepherd has won over crowds around the world with his strictly vinyl club sessions, spanning, house, techno, soul and disco, steadily climbing the ranks of the globes most impressive DJ’s, fuelling an indulgent record habit that regularly leads him on trips to both Chicago and Detroit.
Outside of his studio based productions and crate-breaking DJ sets Shepherd makes use of his classical music training, writing, composing and arranging for the Floating Points Ensemble. The 16 piece group, led by Shepherd, recently won the ‘Best Maida Vale Session’ gong at Gilles Peterson’s ‘Worldwide Awards’. With big plans for 2011 the future is looking bright for Floating Points. When not writing, recording or playing music Sam Shepherd can be found in the laboratories of UCL, where is currently studying a PHD in 'The Neuroscience Of Pain'.
[links] => [image_upload_id] => 14709 [label_id] => 1 [twitter_username] => floatingpoints [instagram_id] => 55726253 [instagram_username] => floatingpoints [link] => [listed] => 1 [sortname] => Floating Points [created] => 2010-11-24 11:24:03 [modified] => 2013-05-03 14:49:52 [slug] => floating-points [fuga_id] => [description_clean] =>Manchester born, London based 24 year old producer/dj/composer Sam Shepherd aka Floating Points has quickly become one of the most respected and sought-after musicians in modern music. Debuting in February 2009 with the limited 7 inch ‘For You/Radiality’ (Eglo records) he has gone on to establish himself as one the forerunners of today’s new dance music movement, earning the respect of his peers and contemporaries such as Theo Parrish, Kyle Hall, Benji B, Ramadanman, Four Tet, Kode 9 and Mary Anne Hobbs. He's released music predominantly on Eglo records (which he runs alongside Rinse FM’s Alexander Nut), as well as Planet Mu, R2, Ninja Tune and notching up remixes and features for the likes of Domino, Ubiquity, XL, Fabric and Rinse.
The name Floating Points holds just much weight within the DJ world as its does in production, song writing and arrangement. In a short space of time Shepherd has won over crowds around the world with his strictly vinyl club sessions, spanning, house, techno, soul and disco, steadily climbing the ranks of the globes most impressive DJ’s, fuelling an indulgent record habit that regularly leads him on trips to both Chicago and Detroit.
Outside of his studio based productions and crate-breaking DJ sets Shepherd makes use of his classical music training, writing, composing and arranging for the Floating Points Ensemble. The 16 piece group, led by Shepherd, recently won the ‘Best Maida Vale Session’ gong at Gilles Peterson’s ‘Worldwide Awards’. With big plans for 2011 the future is looking bright for Floating Points. When not writing, recording or playing music Sam Shepherd can be found in the laboratories of UCL, where is currently studying a PHD in 'The Neuroscience Of Pain'.
[links_clean] => ) [1] => Array ( [id] => 151 [name] => Thundercat [description] =>Bassist/songwriter/vocalist Stephen Bruner, aka Thundercat, has music deeply rooted within. His father, Ronald Bruner, Sr., is an internationally renowned jazz drummer who played with the Temptations, Diana Ross, Gary Bartz and Gladys Knight. His brother Ronald Bruner, Jr., a Grammy-winning drummer, has played with the likes of Roy Hargrove, Stanley Clarke, and Wayne Shorter. Stephen joined his brother as a member of West Coast punk vets Suicidal Tendencies, playing bass on their worldwide tours while still in high school. He also toured through Japan with Stanley Clarke at the age of 16.
As Thundercat, Bruner takes his jazz roots and works with a mix of artists that suit his wildly experimental sensibilities - ranging from Flying Lotus, Erykah Badu, and Stanley Clarke, as well as more recent collaborations with Wiz Khalifa and Earl Sweatshirt, to name but a few. After meeting and touring with Flying Lotus, the two artists collaborated on Lotus’ 2010 LP Cosmogramma on the track "MmmHmm." Their kindred sense of musicality led to Thundercat’s 2011 solo debut The Golden Age of Apocalypse, co-produced by Flying Lotus, which opened Bruner up to a new stratosphere of songwriting and artistic exploration.
In 2013, Thundercat teamed up with executive producer Flying Lotus once again, to form a profound body of work for his second album, Apocalypse.’ Forthcoming on Lotus Brainfeeder imprint this July, the album straddles lines and pushes genres further, blurring the confines of pop, funk, electronica and prog rock, and creating something else entirely. Both vulnerable and fearless, a comedy and tragedy, Apocalypse is an intimate portrait of an artist who will continue to take music to a new place; the beyond.
[links] => [image_upload_id] => 17981 [label_id] => 7 [twitter_username] => Thundercatbass [instagram_id] => [instagram_username] => [link] => [listed] => 0 [sortname] => Thundercat [created] => 2011-06-20 09:01:58 [modified] => 2013-04-18 15:43:41 [slug] => thundercat [fuga_id] => [description_clean] =>Bassist/songwriter/vocalist Stephen Bruner, aka Thundercat, has music deeply rooted within. His father, Ronald Bruner, Sr., is an internationally renowned jazz drummer who played with the Temptations, Diana Ross, Gary Bartz and Gladys Knight. His brother Ronald Bruner, Jr., a Grammy-winning drummer, has played with the likes of Roy Hargrove, Stanley Clarke, and Wayne Shorter. Stephen joined his brother as a member of West Coast punk vets Suicidal Tendencies, playing bass on their worldwide tours while still in high school. He also toured through Japan with Stanley Clarke at the age of 16.
As Thundercat, Bruner takes his jazz roots and works with a mix of artists that suit his wildly experimental sensibilities - ranging from Flying Lotus, Erykah Badu, and Stanley Clarke, as well as more recent collaborations with Wiz Khalifa and Earl Sweatshirt, to name but a few. After meeting and touring with Flying Lotus, the two artists collaborated on Lotus’ 2010 LP Cosmogramma on the track "MmmHmm." Their kindred sense of musicality led to Thundercat’s 2011 solo debut The Golden Age of Apocalypse, co-produced by Flying Lotus, which opened Bruner up to a new stratosphere of songwriting and artistic exploration.
In 2013, Thundercat teamed up with executive producer Flying Lotus once again, to form a profound body of work for his second album, Apocalypse.’ Forthcoming on Lotus Brainfeeder imprint this July, the album straddles lines and pushes genres further, blurring the confines of pop, funk, electronica and prog rock, and creating something else entirely. Both vulnerable and fearless, a comedy and tragedy, Apocalypse is an intimate portrait of an artist who will continue to take music to a new place; the beyond.
[links_clean] => ) [2] => Array ( [id] => 164 [name] => Lapalux [description] =>In a world in which upstart DIY talent is flooding the gates of electronic music, a few recent voices have been so strong as to be startling. Lapalux - aka 25-year-old Stuart Howard - is certainly one such. As singular as a brilliant artist always should be, his instinctive understanding of the atmospheric power of texture grips the ear immediately on listening. Nostalchic is his debut album, mission statement, and the climax of many years of studying his craft.
The amalgam of words that make the title is aptly, and perhaps knowingly chosen. The album evokes nostalgia without ever sounding nostalgic, and Howard may have had his tongue in his chic when he added the second half of the title. The album is his most focused document to date, adding his beloved R&B and soul into elements of house and hip hop, all with the trademark Lapalux finish; infectious, lopsided swing and achingly deep texture.
“Like the R&B of another time and place, transmitted from an unknown planet in a distant galaxy into the mind of a wildly creative sound designer.” – XLR8R
“Fans of the Kimbies, James Blake’s ‘CMYK’, Four Tet, Bibio, FlyLo, Matthewdavid, Onra, Debruit and all those guys – meet your new favourite producer.“ – Boomkat
“Lapalux is probably one of the finest producers out there at the moment” – Oli Marlow, Sonic Router
“The Barry White of electronica.” – Errol Anderson, The Independent
In a world in which upstart DIY talent is flooding the gates of electronic music, a few recent voices have been so strong as to be startling. Lapalux - aka 25-year-old Stuart Howard - is certainly one such. As singular as a brilliant artist always should be, his instinctive understanding of the atmospheric power of texture grips the ear immediately on listening. Nostalchic is his debut album, mission statement, and the climax of many years of studying his craft.
The amalgam of words that make the title is aptly, and perhaps knowingly chosen. The album evokes nostalgia without ever sounding nostalgic, and Howard may have had his tongue in his chic when he added the second half of the title. The album is his most focused document to date, adding his beloved R&B and soul into elements of house and hip hop, all with the trademark Lapalux finish; infectious, lopsided swing and achingly deep texture.
“Like the R&B of another time and place, transmitted from an unknown planet in a distant galaxy into the mind of a wildly creative sound designer.” – XLR8R
“Fans of the Kimbies, James Blake’s ‘CMYK’, Four Tet, Bibio, FlyLo, Matthewdavid, Onra, Debruit and all those guys – meet your new favourite producer.“ – Boomkat
“Lapalux is probably one of the finest producers out there at the moment” – Oli Marlow, Sonic Router
“The Barry White of electronica.” – Errol Anderson, The Independent
Roland "Rollie" Pemberton aka Cadence Weapon had never released an album, but by age 18 had become an infamous hip-hop reviewer at online indie music mecca Pitchfork, also writing reviews for Stylus and Wired magazines. He launched his own mp3 blog, RazorBladeRunner - now retired - and began remixing artists as a producer and posting his home mixes on his blog, to much critical acclaim. Early in 2005 Cadence Weapon decided to compile some of his favourite remixes and freestyles and released his "Cadence Weapon Is The Black Hand" mixtape, sold only online and at shows. Canadian label Upper Class Recordings signed Mr. Pemberton on the spot. "Breaking Kayfabe"was released in Canada to instant praise and notoriety, culminating in two prized nominations; a Plug Independent Award for Best Rap Album and the Polaris Music Prize (modeled after the Mercury Prize). Anti/Epitaph Records, signed Cadence Weapon for the USA. In conjunction with Cadence's SXSW 2006 performances, Breaking Kayfabe was released in the USA March 13 through Upper Class/Epitaph. Big Dada re-released "Breaking Kayfabe" for the rest of the world and, in 2008, followed it up with "After Party Babies." He released a new album, "Hope In Dirt City" in 2012.
[links] => [image_upload_id] => 3894 [label_id] => 2 [twitter_username] => cadenceweapon [instagram_id] => [instagram_username] => [link] => [listed] => 0 [sortname] => Cadence Weapon [created] => 2010-07-17 22:15:59 [modified] => 2013-01-09 12:46:55 [slug] => cadence-weapon [fuga_id] => [description_clean] =>Roland "Rollie" Pemberton aka Cadence Weapon had never released an album, but by age 18 had become an infamous hip-hop reviewer at online indie music mecca Pitchfork, also writing reviews for Stylus and Wired magazines. He launched his own mp3 blog, RazorBladeRunner - now retired - and began remixing artists as a producer and posting his home mixes on his blog, to much critical acclaim. Early in 2005 Cadence Weapon decided to compile some of his favourite remixes and freestyles and released his "Cadence Weapon Is The Black Hand" mixtape, sold only online and at shows. Canadian label Upper Class Recordings signed Mr. Pemberton on the spot.
"Breaking Kayfabe"was released in Canada to instant praise and notoriety, culminating in two prized nominations; a Plug Independent Award for Best Rap Album and the Polaris Music Prize (modeled after the Mercury Prize).
Anti/Epitaph Records, signed Cadence Weapon for the USA. In conjunction with Cadence's SXSW 2006 performances, Breaking Kayfabe was released in the USA March 13 through Upper Class/Epitaph. Big Dada re-released "Breaking Kayfabe" for the rest of the world and, in 2008, followed it up with "After Party Babies." He released a new album, "Hope In Dirt City" in 2012.
[links_clean] => ) ) ) [4] => Array ( [Event] => Array ( [id] => 10458 [date] => 2012-11-09 [artist] => Mr. Scruff [city] => Exeter [state] => [country] => GB [venue] => Lemon Grove [promoter] => [description] => [ticket_url] => http://www.ents24.com/web/event/Keep-It-Unreal-Exeter-University-The-Lemon-Grove-3048834.html [image_upload_id] => 17198 [created] => 2012-08-20 17:10:58 [modified] => 2012-08-20 17:10:58 [year_slug] => 2012 [month_slug] => nov [day_slug] => 9 [slug] => mr-scruff-exeter-lemon-grove-4 [description_clean] => [products_count] => 0 [hidden] => 0 ) [Image] => Array ( [id] => 17198 [media_type] => image [artist] => Mr. Scruff [title] => scruff 9 nov 2012 [credits] => [buy_link] => [filename] => images/mr-scruff/9-november.jpg [checksum] => 5df08c3f44ad6c1a43ffbf075ec7b4bc [mime_type] => image/jpeg [size] => 167749 [external_url] => http://media.ninjatune.net/images/mr-scruff/9-november.jpg [image_upload_id] => [first_track_id] => [first_release_id] => [listed] => 0 [active] => 1 [processed] => 1 [artist_slug] => mr-scruff [slug] => scruff-9-nov-2012 [created] => 2012-08-20 16:12:36 [modified] => 2012-08-20 16:12:42 [embed] => ) [Country] => Array ( [id] => 208 [name] => United Kingdom [longname] => United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland [numcode] => 826 [iso] => GB [iso3] => GBR [currency] => GBP [active] => 1 [parent_id] => 191 [lft] => 413 [rght] => 414 [level] => 2 ) [Product] => Array ( ) [Artist] => Array ( [0] => Array ( [id] => 40 [name] => Mr. Scruff [description] =>A lot of things have happened since a young Andy Carthy started answering to the name Mr Scruff, making a name for himself under the shadow of Manchester's mid 90s club scene. Releasing three critically acclaimed albums, selling over half a million records worldwide and playing countless tours and club events has cemented his now legendary DJ status; this is a DJ that can sell out the 1600 capacity London KoKo armed only with his records, some turntables and a few spare packets of teabags.
More than that, Scruff has established himself as a general guarantor of quirkiness and quality, so much so that when his range of speciality teas were launched they became the 5th best selling grocery product in the long and illustrious history of Selfridge's Food Hall (see www.makeusabrew.com for more tea shenanigans). His 'CUP' tea shop in Manchester packs in the punters and the now legendary travelling tea stall is a firm favourite at Scruff gigs & festivals all over the UK. Meanwhile, his wobbly potato people adorn t-shirts, brollies and even people's bodies worldwide (Ninja Tune has been sent documentary evidence of this phenomenon...)
But who are we to tell you the full-story? Over to you Andy...
Greetings! I am Mr. Scruff, DJ, Producer, Cartoonist & Tea Drinker. As a DJ, I play across the board, including Soul, Funk, Hip Hop, Jazz, Reggae, Latin, African, Ska, Disco, House, Funk, Breaks, Soundtracks and loads more. I make music that draws on these influences, with a large dose of cheek and good humour. There follows a rambling overview of what i have been up to for the last 20-odd years...
The event that first sparked my curiosity about music was in the early 1980's when, as a young 2 Tone fan, I discovered a stack of my father's original Blue Beat 7"s, including several Prince Buster songs that had been covered by my then favourite band, Madness. I suddenly realised that the new music I had been listening to had roots that reached far back, and this knowledge inspired me to explore the wider musical world which had just been revealed to me.
I encountered mixing as a 12 year old in late 1984, when a friend of mine played me his uncle's electro records, notably the Streetsounds' LP 'Crucial Electro Volume 2'. At first, I assumed that the reason for there being no gaps between the songs was to fit more on the vinyl, it didn't occur to me the mixing was a creative part of the presentation, and had been carefully thought out.
Soon after I was constructing my own crude pause-button mixtapes, inspired by the Electro compilations and various radio shows on stations such as Piccadilly, and Radio Lancashire & Southside. These shows exposed me to a wide range of dance music, which at the time was a blanket term to cover anything from electro and hip-hop to soul, reggae and early house music. Back then there were far fewer records being released each week, so DJs had to be versatile and play across the board.
As an enthusiastic young music fiend in Stockport, these stations were a lifeline to quality new releases, and exposed me to a lot of older music that I had missed. Little by little I was building a collection fuelled by this knowledge, all the while improving my DJ skills. By 1987 I was proficient at turntable mixing and editing, although I was still using primitive home hi-fi gear. In the summer of 1988 I had my first mix played on Waxmaster's show on the Manchester pirate station WBLS.
Fuelled by this exposure, I took a part time job at Kwik Save and ploughed all my earnings into vinyl. By this time I had a good knowledge of electro, hip hop, house, & 80's soul, and was busy expanding my knowledge of blues, disco, funk, soul, reggae, jazz, African and Latin music. More pause-button mix tapes followed, as did demo tapes of my own early productions. My first break came in 1994, when I met Barney Doodlebug, a DJ/Doodler who was originally from Bristol, and now runs the international Doodlebug events. He gave me my first Manchester gig, in Dry Bar on a Sunday night, and he also passed a demo tape of mine to local label Rob's Records, which resulted in them releasing my first 12" single.
I gained regular bar gigs, as well as a short stint at Manumission alongside fellow Stockport lad Treva Whateva. Following on from this, I became a frequent guest at Headfunk, alongside residents Chubby Grooves & Tom Simba (who went on to form Groove Armada with Andy Cato). This night mutated into Eardrum, a DJ/jam night that I was resident at alongside Chubby, Mark One and Andy Votel. Other Manchester residencies included One Tree Island with Stefano, Guy Morley, Jah Conguero and Funk Boutique; and Dubism, with Guy Morley and Dom from Blood and Fire.
On the recording side, I released further singles for Rob's Records subsidiary Pleasure, as well as sides for Echo Drop, Grand Central & Cup of Tea. My work for Grand Central with Mark Rae inspired some 4-deck club performances, including friendly 'battles' with DJ Food, which introduced me to the Ninja Tune fold. My first remix was a DJ Food megamix for their 'Refried Food' box set in 1996. Then more gigs followed.
Some of my first DJ gigs abroad were with Grand Central in the mid to late 1990's, and following my signing to Ninja Tune in 1999, I did several European tours with the likes of Roots Manuva, The Herbaliser, Dynamic Syncopation & Mixmaster Morris. The release of my Ninja album 'Keep it Unreal' also kick started my Manchester club night of the same name, borne of a desire to play exactly what I wanted, rather than having to fit in with the music policies of other club nights. After a short stint at Planet K, the night moved to the Music Box, where it remains to this day. The success of this night inspired me to take the idea on tour, so that instead of turning up with my records and playing the standard 2 hour guest DJ slot, I would recreate 'Keep it Unreal' in different venues, and play for the whole night. A similar situation occurred in Brighton, where after 7 years of regular gigs with Tru Thoughts' Robert Luis, we started the monthly Etch residency at the Concorde 2 in 2001.
Another logical step for me was radio. It was such a vital part of my own musical education that I jumped at the opportunity to guest on shows such as First Priority's late night function on Kiss 102 in the mid 1990's, as well as the many RSL stations that had one month licences. It was on these that I joined forces with Treva Whateva to present the 'Hot Pot' show. The show then progressed to the national Student Broadcast Network for a few years, and then onto Manchester's Key 103 in 2002 for an 18-month run, as well as a year long stint on the Virgin Trains onboard radio channel.. I am not doing a regular radio show at the moment, although my mixes do feature regularly on shows such as 'Futureboogie' on Kiss 101, and 'Unfold' on Juice 107.2.
I am now in a position where as a DJ I can play a lot of esoteric and unusual music, as playing for the duration of the night enables me to create a very relaxed atmosphere, before increasing the energy levels at my own pace, taking in many kinds of music along the way. Over the course of a night the music can include blues, jazz, soul, funk, 60's R&B, disco, boogie, deep house, reggae, ska, rocksteady, dancehall, electronica, electro, hip hop, african, latin, drum & bass, breakbeat, and any combination of the above. The only real criteria is that the music has to have soul!
Although I am a fairly technical DJ, it is vital to remember that the most important skill for a DJ is to play great records in the right order. Each record must complement the one before, and introduce the one that follows. Beatmatching is an obvious way of linking records, but there are other common factors, such as lyrical themes & complimentary keys that a DJ can use to aid the transition. Each piece of music has a mood and an energy level, and orchestrated carefully, you can create an atmosphere where every record that comes in is precisely right for that moment.
[links] => [image_upload_id] => 4258 [label_id] => 1 [twitter_username] => mrscruff1 [instagram_id] => [instagram_username] => [link] => [listed] => 1 [sortname] => Mr. Scruff [created] => 2010-07-17 22:15:58 [modified] => 2013-01-08 14:17:25 [slug] => mr-scruff [fuga_id] => [description_clean] =>A lot of things have happened since a young Andy Carthy started answering to the name Mr Scruff, making a name for himself under the shadow of Manchester's mid 90s club scene. Releasing three critically acclaimed albums, selling over half a million records worldwide and playing countless tours and club events has cemented his now legendary DJ status; this is a DJ that can sell out the 1600 capacity London KoKo armed only with his records, some turntables and a few spare packets of teabags.
More than that, Scruff has established himself as a general guarantor of quirkiness and quality, so much so that when his range of speciality teas were launched they became the 5th best selling grocery product in the long and illustrious history of Selfridge's Food Hall (see www.makeusabrew.com for more tea shenanigans). His 'CUP' tea shop in Manchester packs in the punters and the now legendary travelling tea stall is a firm favourite at Scruff gigs & festivals all over the UK. Meanwhile, his wobbly potato people adorn t-shirts, brollies and even people's bodies worldwide (Ninja Tune has been sent documentary evidence of this phenomenon...)
But who are we to tell you the full-story? Over to you Andy...
Greetings! I am Mr. Scruff, DJ, Producer, Cartoonist & Tea Drinker. As a DJ, I play across the board, including Soul, Funk, Hip Hop, Jazz, Reggae, Latin, African, Ska, Disco, House, Funk, Breaks, Soundtracks and loads more. I make music that draws on these influences, with a large dose of cheek and good humour. There follows a rambling overview of what i have been up to for the last 20-odd years...
The event that first sparked my curiosity about music was in the early 1980's when, as a young 2 Tone fan, I discovered a stack of my father's original Blue Beat 7"s, including several Prince Buster songs that had been covered by my then favourite band, Madness. I suddenly realised that the new music I had been listening to had roots that reached far back, and this knowledge inspired me to explore the wider musical world which had just been revealed to me.
I encountered mixing as a 12 year old in late 1984, when a friend of mine played me his uncle's electro records, notably the Streetsounds' LP 'Crucial Electro Volume 2'. At first, I assumed that the reason for there being no gaps between the songs was to fit more on the vinyl, it didn't occur to me the mixing was a creative part of the presentation, and had been carefully thought out.
Soon after I was constructing my own crude pause-button mixtapes, inspired by the Electro compilations and various radio shows on stations such as Piccadilly, and Radio Lancashire & Southside. These shows exposed me to a wide range of dance music, which at the time was a blanket term to cover anything from electro and hip-hop to soul, reggae and early house music. Back then there were far fewer records being released each week, so DJs had to be versatile and play across the board.
As an enthusiastic young music fiend in Stockport, these stations were a lifeline to quality new releases, and exposed me to a lot of older music that I had missed. Little by little I was building a collection fuelled by this knowledge, all the while improving my DJ skills. By 1987 I was proficient at turntable mixing and editing, although I was still using primitive home hi-fi gear. In the summer of 1988 I had my first mix played on Waxmaster's show on the Manchester pirate station WBLS.
Fuelled by this exposure, I took a part time job at Kwik Save and ploughed all my earnings into vinyl. By this time I had a good knowledge of electro, hip hop, house, & 80's soul, and was busy expanding my knowledge of blues, disco, funk, soul, reggae, jazz, African and Latin music. More pause-button mix tapes followed, as did demo tapes of my own early productions. My first break came in 1994, when I met Barney Doodlebug, a DJ/Doodler who was originally from Bristol, and now runs the international Doodlebug events. He gave me my first Manchester gig, in Dry Bar on a Sunday night, and he also passed a demo tape of mine to local label Rob's Records, which resulted in them releasing my first 12" single.
I gained regular bar gigs, as well as a short stint at Manumission alongside fellow Stockport lad Treva Whateva. Following on from this, I became a frequent guest at Headfunk, alongside residents Chubby Grooves & Tom Simba (who went on to form Groove Armada with Andy Cato). This night mutated into Eardrum, a DJ/jam night that I was resident at alongside Chubby, Mark One and Andy Votel. Other Manchester residencies included One Tree Island with Stefano, Guy Morley, Jah Conguero and Funk Boutique; and Dubism, with Guy Morley and Dom from Blood and Fire.
On the recording side, I released further singles for Rob's Records subsidiary Pleasure, as well as sides for Echo Drop, Grand Central & Cup of Tea. My work for Grand Central with Mark Rae inspired some 4-deck club performances, including friendly 'battles' with DJ Food, which introduced me to the Ninja Tune fold. My first remix was a DJ Food megamix for their 'Refried Food' box set in 1996. Then more gigs followed.
Some of my first DJ gigs abroad were with Grand Central in the mid to late 1990's, and following my signing to Ninja Tune in 1999, I did several European tours with the likes of Roots Manuva, The Herbaliser, Dynamic Syncopation & Mixmaster Morris. The release of my Ninja album 'Keep it Unreal' also kick started my Manchester club night of the same name, borne of a desire to play exactly what I wanted, rather than having to fit in with the music policies of other club nights. After a short stint at Planet K, the night moved to the Music Box, where it remains to this day. The success of this night inspired me to take the idea on tour, so that instead of turning up with my records and playing the standard 2 hour guest DJ slot, I would recreate 'Keep it Unreal' in different venues, and play for the whole night. A similar situation occurred in Brighton, where after 7 years of regular gigs with Tru Thoughts' Robert Luis, we started the monthly Etch residency at the Concorde 2 in 2001.
Another logical step for me was radio. It was such a vital part of my own musical education that I jumped at the opportunity to guest on shows such as First Priority's late night function on Kiss 102 in the mid 1990's, as well as the many RSL stations that had one month licences. It was on these that I joined forces with Treva Whateva to present the 'Hot Pot' show. The show then progressed to the national Student Broadcast Network for a few years, and then onto Manchester's Key 103 in 2002 for an 18-month run, as well as a year long stint on the Virgin Trains onboard radio channel.. I am not doing a regular radio show at the moment, although my mixes do feature regularly on shows such as 'Futureboogie' on Kiss 101, and 'Unfold' on Juice 107.2.
I am now in a position where as a DJ I can play a lot of esoteric and unusual music, as playing for the duration of the night enables me to create a very relaxed atmosphere, before increasing the energy levels at my own pace, taking in many kinds of music along the way. Over the course of a night the music can include blues, jazz, soul, funk, 60's R&B, disco, boogie, deep house, reggae, ska, rocksteady, dancehall, electronica, electro, hip hop, african, latin, drum & bass, breakbeat, and any combination of the above. The only real criteria is that the music has to have soul!
Although I am a fairly technical DJ, it is vital to remember that the most important skill for a DJ is to play great records in the right order. Each record must complement the one before, and introduce the one that follows. Beatmatching is an obvious way of linking records, but there are other common factors, such as lyrical themes & complimentary keys that a DJ can use to aid the transition. Each piece of music has a mood and an energy level, and orchestrated carefully, you can create an atmosphere where every record that comes in is precisely right for that moment.
[links_clean] => ) ) ) [5] => Array ( [Event] => Array ( [id] => 10644 [date] => 2012-11-09 [artist] => Fink [city] => Milan [state] => [country] => IT [venue] => Bloom [promoter] => [description] => [ticket_url] => http://www.bloomnet.org/musica/eventi/1-625-venerd-09-novembre-fink-rae-morris.html [image_upload_id] => 15102 [created] => 2012-09-28 15:37:38 [modified] => 2012-10-16 16:21:19 [year_slug] => 2012 [month_slug] => nov [day_slug] => 9 [slug] => fink-milan-bloom [description_clean] => [products_count] => 0 [hidden] => 0 ) [Image] => Array ( [id] => 15102 [media_type] => image [artist] => Fink [title] => Fink Artist Press Shot 2010 [credits] => [buy_link] => [filename] => images/fink/fink-artistpress-72dpi.jpg [checksum] => 5351e0e8130b7122c12a4d3ae4134162 [mime_type] => image/jpeg [size] => 365184 [external_url] => http://media.ninjatune.net/images/fink/fink-artistpress-72dpi.jpg [image_upload_id] => [first_track_id] => [first_release_id] => [listed] => 0 [active] => 1 [processed] => 1 [artist_slug] => fink [slug] => fink-artist-press-shot-2010 [created] => 2011-01-18 12:34:08 [modified] => 2011-01-18 12:34:08 [embed] => ) [Country] => Array ( [id] => 217 [name] => Italy [longname] => Italy [numcode] => 380 [iso] => IT [iso3] => ITA [currency] => EUR [active] => 1 [parent_id] => 209 [lft] => 431 [rght] => 432 [level] => 2 ) [Product] => Array ( ) [Artist] => Array ( [0] => Array ( [id] => 4 [name] => Fink [description] =>Fin Greenall, who is the voice and heart behind Fink, often gets mistaken for other people.
At the BMI Awards in the US, a ‘roomful of gangstas and playas’ were convinced the Cornwall-born, Bristol-raised Englishman was a lawyer, and not a songwriter picking up an ‘American Urban’ gong – one of three BMIs he received for his work with John Legend on the soul singer’s Evolver album.
In Berlin, clubbing capital of the world, they think he helps run a small minimal techno label. In certain London circles he’s known as the hardworking insider whose past roles at DefJam, Sony Music, Talkin’ Loud, and Source saw him work with a range of artists longer than the horizon. At the BBC, they imagine Fink as perhaps the only musician who has played both the Electric Proms and the actual Proms (was that really the same guy leading a 120-piece orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall in an ‘immense’ cover of Roy Ayers’ Everybody Loves The Sunshine?).
In record company circles, he’s the producer who worked on the first demos by Amy Winehouse and the writer who’s been crafting hooks for Professor Green. In big-room booths around the world, he’s the internationally-renowned DJ and Ninja Tune stalwart who finally hung up his Sennheisers with a valedictory set at London’s Fabric in 2003. ‘My skillset just seemed so old compared to these guys that could DJ for six hours without one high-hat out of place using Ableton or something,’ he notes admiringly.
Who is Fin Greenall? All of the above.
Yes, the now-Brighton-based musician acknowledges, he has done – does do – all of those things. ‘But none of that is as important as how I feel when I write songs like "Fear is Like Fire" and "Perfect Darkness". The Fink thing is my main thing.’
As a kid, the one thing of his dad’s that Fin Greenall wasn’t allowed to touch was the old Martin acoustic guitar. ‘It was his one possession where he said, “everything in this house is owned by everybody – apart from that.”’ But with age – and the burgeoning of his son’s skills as a player – came a relaxation of the exclusion zone: Greenall plays the Martin on the punchy, Jeff Buckley-covering-Radiohead-esque "Fear Is Like Fire". It’s sure to become a live stand-out on Fink’s upcoming, 18-month-long world tour. ‘It’s all about trying to look at fear and be optimistic – you can be really negative or fucking embrace it and use it.
‘The great thing about growing up in a house where music is a big factor,’ he continues, ‘was the fact that music being part of your life was a perfectly natural thing.’
Music, it seems, became more than that: it was Greenall’s life. He hoovered up the sounds he heard on John Peel: ‘The Cure, The Smiths, The Orb, African music, Japanese hardcore’. He embraced skateboarding, the music and the fashion – ‘it was an awesome way to grow your own culture’. At university in Leeds, electronic and dance music became everything.
‘It was definitely about wanting to be part of a revolution that I could call my own,’ he recalls. ‘A couple of friends and I clubbed together our student loans and bought equipment to make ambient techno – we were really inspired by Aphex Twin and The Orb and Moby. We were amazed at how fucking easy it was to make ambient techno. It wasn’t easy to make good ambient techno,’ he laughs. ‘But it was easy enough to make techno good enough to get us signed after six months of mucking around at uni.’
The young techno warrior was messianic.
‘I thought the song was dead, the chorus was dead, playing drums and guitar and bass was so old-school and outdated and why would you want to do that? Dylan did that 50 years ago! We should be part of this new revolution, instrumentalism, acid house, rave culture, techno – this stuff is a brave new avant-garde frontier and you should be involved.’
His ardour and his skills saw Greenall become part of the Ninja Tune family – first signed on the back of a cassette-tape demo - as artist, DJ, writer, producer, and remixer.
‘Brilliant times,’ he sighs nostalgically. ‘Sometimes you’d just have to pinch yourself. Then, other times, you wake up in Bratislava on a Tuesday morning and you’re reminded that there is hard work to all of this.’ All that crate-digging wasn’t all it’s cracked up to be either: ‘You can’t be shit!’ Greenall grins. ‘And because of the community that Ninja has worldwide, if you are shit everybody knows about it the next day. Eight years of DJing have given me an obscenely huge record collection. I just cleared out the breaks section – four crates of twelves that were total pony!’
So the wheels of steel started to fall off.
‘It wasn’t until I’d run that right the way through to its natural conclusion – I’m an international DJ on the biggest DJ label in the world – that I thought: I’m kinda over it. And it was actually working with a young artist straight out of school called Amy Winehouse that inspired me to go, “wow, songs are great! Now I get how difficult it is, and how much talent there is involved in this. It’s more of a challenge than clubbing.”’
Greenall melted down his turntables and recast them as a guitar and a stool. Metaphorically speaking. His parents were pleased. ‘My career only made sense to them when I picked up a guitar and started to sing,’ he says. ‘All of a sudden I was doing music, I wasn’t just mucking around. But in my rave days, DJing techno and breaks, they didn’t get that at all. That’s probably why I did it in the first place.
‘But I realised: if your music had songs in it, it had a much greater reach. Not in business terms, but if a singer of, say, Amy’s calibre sings over this beat, it becomes so much bigger than just a beat. I can’t get rid of my clubbing past, not that I’d want to. But the linear nature of some of my music is definitely because of all those years spent clubbing and DJing, when a very simple idea can make the best club record. And it’s the same with songs – I’m after a really simple riff or really simple lyric or melody. And it’s about keeping that beautiful moment going for as long as you can.’
[links] => [image_upload_id] => 15102 [label_id] => 1 [twitter_username] => Finkmusic [instagram_id] => [instagram_username] => [link] => [listed] => 1 [sortname] => Fink [created] => 2010-07-17 22:15:58 [modified] => 2013-01-07 16:15:06 [slug] => fink [fuga_id] => [description_clean] =>Fin Greenall, who is the voice and heart behind Fink, often gets mistaken for other people.
At the BMI Awards in the US, a ‘roomful of gangstas and playas’ were convinced the Cornwall-born, Bristol-raised Englishman was a lawyer, and not a songwriter picking up an ‘American Urban’ gong – one of three BMIs he received for his work with John Legend on the soul singer’s Evolver album.
In Berlin, clubbing capital of the world, they think he helps run a small minimal techno label. In certain London circles he’s known as the hardworking insider whose past roles at DefJam, Sony Music, Talkin’ Loud, and Source saw him work with a range of artists longer than the horizon. At the BBC, they imagine Fink as perhaps the only musician who has played both the Electric Proms and the actual Proms (was that really the same guy leading a 120-piece orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall in an ‘immense’ cover of Roy Ayers’ Everybody Loves The Sunshine?).
In record company circles, he’s the producer who worked on the first demos by Amy Winehouse and the writer who’s been crafting hooks for Professor Green. In big-room booths around the world, he’s the internationally-renowned DJ and Ninja Tune stalwart who finally hung up his Sennheisers with a valedictory set at London’s Fabric in 2003. ‘My skillset just seemed so old compared to these guys that could DJ for six hours without one high-hat out of place using Ableton or something,’ he notes admiringly.
Who is Fin Greenall? All of the above.
Yes, the now-Brighton-based musician acknowledges, he has done – does do – all of those things. ‘But none of that is as important as how I feel when I write songs like "Fear is Like Fire" and "Perfect Darkness". The Fink thing is my main thing.’
As a kid, the one thing of his dad’s that Fin Greenall wasn’t allowed to touch was the old Martin acoustic guitar. ‘It was his one possession where he said, “everything in this house is owned by everybody – apart from that.”’ But with age – and the burgeoning of his son’s skills as a player – came a relaxation of the exclusion zone: Greenall plays the Martin on the punchy, Jeff Buckley-covering-Radiohead-esque "Fear Is Like Fire". It’s sure to become a live stand-out on Fink’s upcoming, 18-month-long world tour. ‘It’s all about trying to look at fear and be optimistic – you can be really negative or fucking embrace it and use it.
‘The great thing about growing up in a house where music is a big factor,’ he continues, ‘was the fact that music being part of your life was a perfectly natural thing.’
Music, it seems, became more than that: it was Greenall’s life. He hoovered up the sounds he heard on John Peel: ‘The Cure, The Smiths, The Orb, African music, Japanese hardcore’. He embraced skateboarding, the music and the fashion – ‘it was an awesome way to grow your own culture’. At university in Leeds, electronic and dance music became everything.
‘It was definitely about wanting to be part of a revolution that I could call my own,’ he recalls. ‘A couple of friends and I clubbed together our student loans and bought equipment to make ambient techno – we were really inspired by Aphex Twin and The Orb and Moby. We were amazed at how fucking easy it was to make ambient techno. It wasn’t easy to make good ambient techno,’ he laughs. ‘But it was easy enough to make techno good enough to get us signed after six months of mucking around at uni.’
The young techno warrior was messianic.
‘I thought the song was dead, the chorus was dead, playing drums and guitar and bass was so old-school and outdated and why would you want to do that? Dylan did that 50 years ago! We should be part of this new revolution, instrumentalism, acid house, rave culture, techno – this stuff is a brave new avant-garde frontier and you should be involved.’
His ardour and his skills saw Greenall become part of the Ninja Tune family – first signed on the back of a cassette-tape demo - as artist, DJ, writer, producer, and remixer.
‘Brilliant times,’ he sighs nostalgically. ‘Sometimes you’d just have to pinch yourself. Then, other times, you wake up in Bratislava on a Tuesday morning and you’re reminded that there is hard work to all of this.’ All that crate-digging wasn’t all it’s cracked up to be either: ‘You can’t be shit!’ Greenall grins. ‘And because of the community that Ninja has worldwide, if you are shit everybody knows about it the next day. Eight years of DJing have given me an obscenely huge record collection. I just cleared out the breaks section – four crates of twelves that were total pony!’
So the wheels of steel started to fall off.
‘It wasn’t until I’d run that right the way through to its natural conclusion – I’m an international DJ on the biggest DJ label in the world – that I thought: I’m kinda over it. And it was actually working with a young artist straight out of school called Amy Winehouse that inspired me to go, “wow, songs are great! Now I get how difficult it is, and how much talent there is involved in this. It’s more of a challenge than clubbing.”’
Greenall melted down his turntables and recast them as a guitar and a stool. Metaphorically speaking. His parents were pleased. ‘My career only made sense to them when I picked up a guitar and started to sing,’ he says. ‘All of a sudden I was doing music, I wasn’t just mucking around. But in my rave days, DJing techno and breaks, they didn’t get that at all. That’s probably why I did it in the first place.
‘But I realised: if your music had songs in it, it had a much greater reach. Not in business terms, but if a singer of, say, Amy’s calibre sings over this beat, it becomes so much bigger than just a beat. I can’t get rid of my clubbing past, not that I’d want to. But the linear nature of some of my music is definitely because of all those years spent clubbing and DJing, when a very simple idea can make the best club record. And it’s the same with songs – I’m after a really simple riff or really simple lyric or melody. And it’s about keeping that beautiful moment going for as long as you can.’
[links_clean] => ) ) ) [6] => Array ( [Event] => Array ( [id] => 10648 [date] => 2012-11-09 [artist] => Kid Koala [city] => Vancouver [state] => [country] => CA [venue] => Venue Nightclub [promoter] => [description] => [ticket_url] => http://northerntickets.com/detail.php?id=643 [image_upload_id] => 15028 [created] => 2012-10-03 11:48:27 [modified] => 2012-10-03 11:48:27 [year_slug] => 2012 [month_slug] => nov [day_slug] => 9 [slug] => kid-koala-vancouver-venue-nightclub [description_clean] => [products_count] => 0 [hidden] => 0 ) [Image] => Array ( [id] => 15028 [media_type] => image [artist] => Kid Koala [title] => Artist Press shot [credits] => [buy_link] => [filename] => images/kid-koala/KidKoala-artistpress-72dpi.jpg [checksum] => 8ad0decd0d63ce1c44ca2a8f3f249d01 [mime_type] => image/jpeg [size] => 104060 [external_url] => http://media.ninjatune.net/images/kid-koala/KidKoala-artistpress-72dpi.jpg [image_upload_id] => [first_track_id] => [first_release_id] => [listed] => 0 [active] => 1 [processed] => 1 [artist_slug] => kid-koala [slug] => artist-press-shot-4 [created] => 2011-01-05 10:49:18 [modified] => 2011-01-05 10:49:18 [embed] => ) [Country] => Array ( [id] => 119 [name] => Canada [longname] => Canada [numcode] => 124 [iso] => CA [iso3] => CAN [currency] => CAD [active] => 1 [parent_id] => 117 [lft] => 235 [rght] => 236 [level] => 2 ) [Product] => Array ( ) [Artist] => Array ( [0] => Array ( [id] => 38 [name] => Kid Koala [description] =>Back in 1996, Kid Koala became the first North American artist signed to UK label Ninja Tune. In the years that followed Kid Koala released a string of remixes and toured North America with fellow Ninja artists: Coldcut, DJ Food and DJ Vadim. But it was not long before his skill, innovation, and performance style led him to attract attention from those outside the club community. In 1998, he was invited to join Money Mark’s band, and then went on the road to open for the Beastie Boys on their 'Hello Nasty' world tour.
In 2000, Ninja Tune released Kid Koala’s debut album 'Carpal Tunnel Syndrome', which received international praise by the press for having defied expectation. The album featured a video game and a 32-page comic illustrated by Kid Koala himself. Following the release of the album Kid Koala toured extensively in North America and Europe as a member of groups such as Deltron 3030, Lovage, Bullfrog and on his own, opening for some of his favorite artists, Radiohead and Bjork.
While on the road, Kid Koala kept busy with pen to paper, illustrating a 350-page book called 'Nufonia Must Fall', accompanied by a soundtrack that he composed on the piano. Shortly after the release of this book came the release of his second album, 'Some of My Best Friends are DJs' complete with a 50-page comic book and mini chess game. This album was supported by a cabaret-style tour known as 'The Short Attention Span Theatre', which featured 3 DJs on 8 turntables, a slide show and a bingo game among other quirky surprises. Following this tour Kid Koala performed DJ sets in Australia, Asia, Europe, Russia, North America and South America, all the while working on a new book.
Kid Koala's most recent release on Ninja Tune was 'Your Mom’s Favorite DJ' in 2006. On this record he shows that his chosen means of expression (the turntable) is used not as a way of showing that he can do faster crabs than anyone else, but as a way of telling stories. Although there is the romance, silent movie comedy and swing that your mother may well smile at and even shake her booty to, the enthralling deftness and complexity you’d expect from Kid Koala is also here - woven together with classic hip hop beats, breaks and generous swathes of heavy guitars.
In 2009, Kid Koala put together 3 'Music to Draw To' performances in Montreal for which he basically invited people to come and draw while he played records. There was no dancing allowed, but people could enjoy a free cup of hot chocolate, purchase some treats and either draw or do some writing. These events were initially created just for fun, but they became a huge success. As the series progressed, he received more and more requests for us to take our event to other parts of Quebec, North America, Europe... Even South America and South Africa...
Later that year, Kid Koala embarked on another journey, that of presenting a project called 'The Slew' – live with the former rhythm section of Grammy Award-winning Australian rock band Wolfmother. Featuring drums, bass/keys and DJs working across a truly excessive six turntables, the set featured raw guitar cuts and heavy beats that set out as a one-time-only tour across North America. Due to the high demand by fans for a return and the amount of fun the band had playing together, they toured the North American Jazz Festival circuit and also appeared at SONAR Spain and Chicago. Somewhere in between their busy tour schedule the ex-Wolfmother rhyhtm section joined Kid Koala in the studio to lay down some new songs. Currently Dynomite D is working on the songs at his studio.
In late 2010, Kid Koala finsihed his latest graphic novel and soundtrack titled 'Space Cadet'. To work out the accompanying live show and gallery exhibition, he took part in an artist residence at MASS MoCA (Massachussetts Museum Of Contemporary Art) in December. The Space Cadet Headphone Concert and Gallery debuted on December 11 with 2 shows. The novel and soundtrack are set to be released during 2011 through Pigeon Press and a world tour will commence soon after.
[links] => [image_upload_id] => 4006 [label_id] => 1 [twitter_username] => kidkoala [instagram_id] => 209219810 [instagram_username] => realkidkoala [link] => [listed] => 1 [sortname] => Kid Koala [created] => 2010-07-17 22:15:58 [modified] => 2013-05-03 14:51:56 [slug] => kid-koala [fuga_id] => [description_clean] =>Back in 1996, Kid Koala became the first North American artist signed to UK label Ninja Tune. In the years that followed Kid Koala released a string of remixes and toured North America with fellow Ninja artists: Coldcut, DJ Food and DJ Vadim. But it was not long before his skill, innovation, and performance style led him to attract attention from those outside the club community. In 1998, he was invited to join Money Mark’s band, and then went on the road to open for the Beastie Boys on their 'Hello Nasty' world tour.
In 2000, Ninja Tune released Kid Koala’s debut album 'Carpal Tunnel Syndrome', which received international praise by the press for having defied expectation. The album featured a video game and a 32-page comic illustrated by Kid Koala himself. Following the release of the album Kid Koala toured extensively in North America and Europe as a member of groups such as Deltron 3030, Lovage, Bullfrog and on his own, opening for some of his favorite artists, Radiohead and Bjork.
While on the road, Kid Koala kept busy with pen to paper, illustrating a 350-page book called 'Nufonia Must Fall', accompanied by a soundtrack that he composed on the piano. Shortly after the release of this book came the release of his second album, 'Some of My Best Friends are DJs' complete with a 50-page comic book and mini chess game. This album was supported by a cabaret-style tour known as 'The Short Attention Span Theatre', which featured 3 DJs on 8 turntables, a slide show and a bingo game among other quirky surprises. Following this tour Kid Koala performed DJ sets in Australia, Asia, Europe, Russia, North America and South America, all the while working on a new book.
Kid Koala's most recent release on Ninja Tune was 'Your Mom’s Favorite DJ' in 2006. On this record he shows that his chosen means of expression (the turntable) is used not as a way of showing that he can do faster crabs than anyone else, but as a way of telling stories. Although there is the romance, silent movie comedy and swing that your mother may well smile at and even shake her booty to, the enthralling deftness and complexity you’d expect from Kid Koala is also here - woven together with classic hip hop beats, breaks and generous swathes of heavy guitars.
In 2009, Kid Koala put together 3 'Music to Draw To' performances in Montreal for which he basically invited people to come and draw while he played records. There was no dancing allowed, but people could enjoy a free cup of hot chocolate, purchase some treats and either draw or do some writing. These events were initially created just for fun, but they became a huge success. As the series progressed, he received more and more requests for us to take our event to other parts of Quebec, North America, Europe... Even South America and South Africa...
Later that year, Kid Koala embarked on another journey, that of presenting a project called 'The Slew' – live with the former rhythm section of Grammy Award-winning Australian rock band Wolfmother. Featuring drums, bass/keys and DJs working across a truly excessive six turntables, the set featured raw guitar cuts and heavy beats that set out as a one-time-only tour across North America. Due to the high demand by fans for a return and the amount of fun the band had playing together, they toured the North American Jazz Festival circuit and also appeared at SONAR Spain and Chicago. Somewhere in between their busy tour schedule the ex-Wolfmother rhyhtm section joined Kid Koala in the studio to lay down some new songs. Currently Dynomite D is working on the songs at his studio.
In late 2010, Kid Koala finsihed his latest graphic novel and soundtrack titled 'Space Cadet'. To work out the accompanying live show and gallery exhibition, he took part in an artist residence at MASS MoCA (Massachussetts Museum Of Contemporary Art) in December. The Space Cadet Headphone Concert and Gallery debuted on December 11 with 2 shows. The novel and soundtrack are set to be released during 2011 through Pigeon Press and a world tour will commence soon after.
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In 2007 Toddla T (aka Tom Bell) was working in a shoe shop in his hometown of Sheffield. Then just 19 and living at home with his parents, he DJ'd at weekends and was producing beats and tracks with his friend Scott as Small Arms Fiya.
Now it's 2011 Toddla T is making the finishing touches to his second album on the legendary Ninja Tune label, has a regular slot on BBC Radio 1, and has produced tracks for some of the UK urban scenes biggest stars (hands up Tinchy, Jammer, Bashy, Roots Manuva and Ms Dynamite).
He DJ's around the globe, has a slew of remixes under his belt (Hot Chip, Gyptian, Gorillaz, Major Lazer for starters), is a star of his own Toddla TV channel online and has worked in studios from Kingston Jamaica to Kingston upon Hull. Not to mention the recent launch of his Girls Music Label which, after only three releases has already featured productions by British dance music heroes Sticky and Roska.
So how do you get to be one of the leading lights of UK dance music in 4 short years?
Much can be attributed to Toddla’s phenomenal talent, drive and ambition. He has good taste and keen eyes and ears in all elements of British youth culture. However, the man himself modestly explains that it has just as much to do with the sea change which has taken place in British Pop music in the last few years.
When Toddla first started taking to the decks outside of his home town he was worried that no one would "get it" and to start with, many didn't. (Listen to the track "Roadtrip" from debut album Skanky Skanky to hear an amusing account of just such a night). No one could quite work out who Toddla was. Was he an MC? or the producer at the front of a now forgotten, media created "UK Digi-Dancehall revolution"? Was that skinny white kid the voice singing about Rice n Peas? Surely not.
Not allowing this confusion to get in his way T stuck to his guns. He could smell a change in the air and knew that what he was doing was worth sticking with. He made a mixtape, The Toddla T Ghettoblaster Vol.1 in 2008 and put it up for free online. It was downloaded by more than 10,000 people, was brilliantly received and announced Toddla as a talent to be watched. People other than club promoters and other DJ's started to hear about him and his club sets started to get more and more busy with people who were there to see him. Longtime studio spar and MC Serocee joined him on the road and the pair started to travel far and wide around the UK spreading the good word.
His debut album Skanky Skanky was released in January 2009, this was followed by a Fabric live mix album and a lot of requests for his production skills with everyone from Major Lazer to Grandmaster Flash getting in touch. Over a Guinness or two in his new London local (he decamped from Sheffield to the capital in 2010) Toddla reflects on the last couple of "pretty crazy years", the current UK scene and sets out his stall for what promises to be a very busy and successful 2011.
"When I was first signed (to 1965 Records) every kid wanted to be in a band. The Arctic Monkeys, The Libertines and all that were really popular, me and my mates who were into Notorious B.I.G and dancehall were really in the minority. Nowadays kids want to be Skream and Benga, or Tinchy or N-Dubz and because of that all their points of musical reference have changed"
It's true, there has been a huge shift in musical aesthetic, away from the skinny jeans and Chuck Taylors of The Strokes and the seemingly never-ending bandwagon that followed. What Toddla's saying here is borne out of the recently released statistic that rock music has had its worst year in the UK charts since 1960 with only 3 rock bands making it into the top 100 songs of 2010.
As a backdrop to Dizzee, Tinie, Tinchy et al storming the charts, the explosion of dubstep and subsequent re-evaluation of bass-driven, UK club music has seen a major shift in what people aged 15 - 25 are raving to. Where Soulwax and SMD and their like were ruling the clubs 2002 - 2006 nowadays seasoned campaigners like Shy FX and David Rodigan are championed by kids who weren't born when they were first spinning records.
Watch Me Dance is a bold step forward for Toddla T. Fans of Skanky Skanky will find plenty that will please them but for the countless thousands of clubbers who know Toddla T the DJ but haven't heard his productions this second album may come as a surprise. Toddla explains...
"I've been busiest in the last two years as a DJ, so of course this album has a big dose of the sounds and production techniques that I'm out there representing in the clubs every weekend but if you're looking for tops-off jungle or 4x4 bassline tearouts you won't find them here. This is definitely still a record for clubbers, but it's the one they'll listen to at home with their mates or every day on the way to work"
In Watch Me Dance Toddla has created a dubwise, street-soul masterpiece. In a typically precocious reference to records that were made when he was 4 and 10 years old respectively Toddla sums it up. "A bit of the Soul from Soul II Soul Club Classics and a bit of the Left-field from Leftism, I've been listening to those now and again, they took in a whole load of club music and made an album that summed something up and were great to listen to at the same time."
Amen to that.
Watch Me Dance is released on Ninja Tune on 22 August 2011.
[links] => [image_upload_id] => 16079 [label_id] => 1 [twitter_username] => toddlat [instagram_id] => 7231711 [instagram_username] => toddlat [link] => [listed] => 1 [sortname] => Toddla T [created] => 2010-07-17 22:15:59 [modified] => 2013-05-03 14:57:03 [slug] => toddla-t [fuga_id] => [description_clean] =>Do U Know Toddla T?
In 2007 Toddla T (aka Tom Bell) was working in a shoe shop in his hometown of Sheffield. Then just 19 and living at home with his parents, he DJ'd at weekends and was producing beats and tracks with his friend Scott as Small Arms Fiya.
Now it's 2011 Toddla T is making the finishing touches to his second album on the legendary Ninja Tune label, has a regular slot on BBC Radio 1, and has produced tracks for some of the UK urban scenes biggest stars (hands up Tinchy, Jammer, Bashy, Roots Manuva and Ms Dynamite).
He DJ's around the globe, has a slew of remixes under his belt (Hot Chip, Gyptian, Gorillaz, Major Lazer for starters), is a star of his own Toddla TV channel online and has worked in studios from Kingston Jamaica to Kingston upon Hull. Not to mention the recent launch of his Girls Music Label which, after only three releases has already featured productions by British dance music heroes Sticky and Roska.
So how do you get to be one of the leading lights of UK dance music in 4 short years?
Much can be attributed to Toddla’s phenomenal talent, drive and ambition. He has good taste and keen eyes and ears in all elements of British youth culture. However, the man himself modestly explains that it has just as much to do with the sea change which has taken place in British Pop music in the last few years.
When Toddla first started taking to the decks outside of his home town he was worried that no one would "get it" and to start with, many didn't. (Listen to the track "Roadtrip" from debut album Skanky Skanky to hear an amusing account of just such a night). No one could quite work out who Toddla was. Was he an MC? or the producer at the front of a now forgotten, media created "UK Digi-Dancehall revolution"? Was that skinny white kid the voice singing about Rice n Peas? Surely not.
Not allowing this confusion to get in his way T stuck to his guns. He could smell a change in the air and knew that what he was doing was worth sticking with. He made a mixtape, The Toddla T Ghettoblaster Vol.1 in 2008 and put it up for free online. It was downloaded by more than 10,000 people, was brilliantly received and announced Toddla as a talent to be watched. People other than club promoters and other DJ's started to hear about him and his club sets started to get more and more busy with people who were there to see him. Longtime studio spar and MC Serocee joined him on the road and the pair started to travel far and wide around the UK spreading the good word.
His debut album Skanky Skanky was released in January 2009, this was followed by a Fabric live mix album and a lot of requests for his production skills with everyone from Major Lazer to Grandmaster Flash getting in touch. Over a Guinness or two in his new London local (he decamped from Sheffield to the capital in 2010) Toddla reflects on the last couple of "pretty crazy years", the current UK scene and sets out his stall for what promises to be a very busy and successful 2011.
"When I was first signed (to 1965 Records) every kid wanted to be in a band. The Arctic Monkeys, The Libertines and all that were really popular, me and my mates who were into Notorious B.I.G and dancehall were really in the minority. Nowadays kids want to be Skream and Benga, or Tinchy or N-Dubz and because of that all their points of musical reference have changed"
It's true, there has been a huge shift in musical aesthetic, away from the skinny jeans and Chuck Taylors of The Strokes and the seemingly never-ending bandwagon that followed. What Toddla's saying here is borne out of the recently released statistic that rock music has had its worst year in the UK charts since 1960 with only 3 rock bands making it into the top 100 songs of 2010.
As a backdrop to Dizzee, Tinie, Tinchy et al storming the charts, the explosion of dubstep and subsequent re-evaluation of bass-driven, UK club music has seen a major shift in what people aged 15 - 25 are raving to. Where Soulwax and SMD and their like were ruling the clubs 2002 - 2006 nowadays seasoned campaigners like Shy FX and David Rodigan are championed by kids who weren't born when they were first spinning records.
Watch Me Dance is a bold step forward for Toddla T. Fans of Skanky Skanky will find plenty that will please them but for the countless thousands of clubbers who know Toddla T the DJ but haven't heard his productions this second album may come as a surprise. Toddla explains...
"I've been busiest in the last two years as a DJ, so of course this album has a big dose of the sounds and production techniques that I'm out there representing in the clubs every weekend but if you're looking for tops-off jungle or 4x4 bassline tearouts you won't find them here. This is definitely still a record for clubbers, but it's the one they'll listen to at home with their mates or every day on the way to work"
In Watch Me Dance Toddla has created a dubwise, street-soul masterpiece. In a typically precocious reference to records that were made when he was 4 and 10 years old respectively Toddla sums it up. "A bit of the Soul from Soul II Soul Club Classics and a bit of the Left-field from Leftism, I've been listening to those now and again, they took in a whole load of club music and made an album that summed something up and were great to listen to at the same time."
Amen to that.
Watch Me Dance is released on Ninja Tune on 22 August 2011.
[links_clean] => ) ) ) [8] => Array ( [Event] => Array ( [id] => 10686 [date] => 2012-11-09 [artist] => The Herbaliser [city] => Thessaloníki [state] => [country] => GR [venue] => Block 33 [promoter] => [description] => [ticket_url] => [image_upload_id] => 16832 [created] => 2012-10-25 15:06:41 [modified] => 2012-10-25 15:06:41 [year_slug] => 2012 [month_slug] => nov [day_slug] => 9 [slug] => the-herbaliser-thessaloniki-block-33 [description_clean] => [products_count] => 0 [hidden] => 0 ) [Image] => Array ( [id] => 16832 [media_type] => image [artist] => The Herbaliser [title] => Herbaliser Soundcrash 2012 [credits] => [buy_link] => [filename] => images/the-herbaliser/Soundcrash-Jazzanova-A5-Flyer-02.jpg [checksum] => ff378883178a833e4469d3773d74e876 [mime_type] => image/jpeg [size] => 122271 [external_url] => http://media.ninjatune.net/images/the-herbaliser/Soundcrash-Jazzanova-A5-Flyer-02.jpg [image_upload_id] => [first_track_id] => [first_release_id] => [listed] => 0 [active] => 1 [processed] => 1 [artist_slug] => the-herbaliser [slug] => herbaliser-soundcrash-2012 [created] => 2012-04-30 17:24:10 [modified] => 2012-04-30 17:24:16 [embed] => ) [Country] => Array ( [id] => 215 [name] => Greece [longname] => Greece [numcode] => 300 [iso] => GR [iso3] => GRC [currency] => EUR [active] => 1 [parent_id] => 209 [lft] => 427 [rght] => 428 [level] => 2 ) [Product] => Array ( ) [Artist] => Array ( [0] => Array ( [id] => 39 [name] => The Herbaliser [description] =>It's not every day that you come across a duo like Jake Wherry and Ollie Teeba. They've been working together for over a decade and continue to progress and improve, to excel in the competitive world of hip hop production and beyond.
Jake Wherry grew up in South West London. A diet of jazz and James Brown provided the soundtrack of his childhood and teenage years, before he naturally found himself getting into rare groove and old school hiphop and played guitar and bass in many jazz, funk and rock bands. Ollie Teeba, meanwhile, was strictly about the hip hop. He began DJing at 15, was playing out in London within a year and, in between, was to be found collecting sneakers.
Despite knowing of each other's rep at sixth form college it was only to be years later that they would convene at Jake's now legendary studio, Traintrax, to start their beat making careers. The guys immediately hit it off and began working on material of their own, utilising the skills of seminal collobrators DJ Malachi, Kaidi Tatham (Bugz In The Attic) and Ralph Lamb (Easy Access Orchestra). Wherry had played in school bands with PC (DJ Food) and when he heard the early Herbaliser demos, he was quick to introduce them to Ninja Tune; just in time for the mid-nineties explosion of hip hop jazz breaks.
As they explain: "Our instrumental style was born of a necessity to produce hip hop music, but without access to rappers we had to develop a new approach".
Their first album, the classic 'Remedies', was released by Ninja in October '95, a sharp hit of hard breaks, jazz sampledelia and funk, a record that could only have come out of the UK. 1997's 'Blow Your Headphones' added more vocals to the mix, in particular introducing the world (outside of the New York Underground scene) to the talents of What What (now Jean Grae).
Counteracting the prevalence of a couple of DJ's and a bongo player being the most common 'live' presentation of dance music, and inspired by the great funk bands of the previous decades, Wherry and Teeba decided it was time to take the musicians they worked with out on the road. With Tatham, Lamb and Patrick Dawes (percussion) already on board, it was a small step to making a seven piece whose blend of hip hop rawness and funk band tightness made them a major fixture at festivals across Europe.
The experience also caused Jake and Ollie to re-think the process of making a record. For 1999's 'Very Mercenary' they also began sampling their own playing partners, originating new grooves and then splicing them in the sampler as if they were off a piece dusty rare vinyl. It also featured a stellar cast of guests, What What this time being joined by Bahamadia, Blade, and Roots Manuva. But it was the musical breakthrough that fascinated them most and allowed them to indulge a love of sixties soundtrack and library records without merely chopping and looping the originals. Hence, whilst 'Something Wicked This Way Comes' (2002) featured another fantastic batch of guest vocalists, including MF Doom (long before his current deification) and Rakaa Iriscience (Dilated Peoples), it was as music that it really fascinated, a dark psych-funk underpinning being revealed.
The band went back out on the road and the record's commercial and critical success saw The Herbaliser rising to headline status at many key UK and EU festivals, with a live show that by now left most others for dead. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, the boys leapt at the chance to produce last year's "Solid Steel: Herbal Blend" mix and reassert their prime skills as mixers and hip hop heads. Meanwhile, their self-evident production chops got them gigs making music for everyone from Motorola to Guy Ritchie ('Snatch'), from PlayStation ('Tony Hawks Underground') to writing NFL's theme for the primetime 'Sunday Night Football' on ESPN.
All of which leads us to 'Take London'. As you'd expect, the record shows further refinement and expansion in sheer technique, while tracks like 'The Generals' show that the boys have lost none of their edge, or sheer enjoyment of fucked up, crazed hip hop tomfoolery. And talking of the Generals (the most unusual group to come out of US hip hop in a good few years), it's great to see this album putting back one woman centre stage. What What may have morphed into Jean Grae, but her skills have gone superhuman. But then The Herbaliser have always been about progression. That and being dope...
[links] =>Tumblr
Facebook
Twitter
Soundcloud
It's not every day that you come across a duo like Jake Wherry and Ollie Teeba. They've been working together for over a decade and continue to progress and improve, to excel in the competitive world of hip hop production and beyond.
Jake Wherry grew up in South West London. A diet of jazz and James Brown provided the soundtrack of his childhood and teenage years, before he naturally found himself getting into rare groove and old school hiphop and played guitar and bass in many jazz, funk and rock bands. Ollie Teeba, meanwhile, was strictly about the hip hop. He began DJing at 15, was playing out in London within a year and, in between, was to be found collecting sneakers.
Despite knowing of each other's rep at sixth form college it was only to be years later that they would convene at Jake's now legendary studio, Traintrax, to start their beat making careers. The guys immediately hit it off and began working on material of their own, utilising the skills of seminal collobrators DJ Malachi, Kaidi Tatham (Bugz In The Attic) and Ralph Lamb (Easy Access Orchestra). Wherry had played in school bands with PC (DJ Food) and when he heard the early Herbaliser demos, he was quick to introduce them to Ninja Tune; just in time for the mid-nineties explosion of hip hop jazz breaks.
As they explain: "Our instrumental style was born of a necessity to produce hip hop music, but without access to rappers we had to develop a new approach".
Their first album, the classic 'Remedies', was released by Ninja in October '95, a sharp hit of hard breaks, jazz sampledelia and funk, a record that could only have come out of the UK. 1997's 'Blow Your Headphones' added more vocals to the mix, in particular introducing the world (outside of the New York Underground scene) to the talents of What What (now Jean Grae).
Counteracting the prevalence of a couple of DJ's and a bongo player being the most common 'live' presentation of dance music, and inspired by the great funk bands of the previous decades, Wherry and Teeba decided it was time to take the musicians they worked with out on the road. With Tatham, Lamb and Patrick Dawes (percussion) already on board, it was a small step to making a seven piece whose blend of hip hop rawness and funk band tightness made them a major fixture at festivals across Europe.
The experience also caused Jake and Ollie to re-think the process of making a record. For 1999's 'Very Mercenary' they also began sampling their own playing partners, originating new grooves and then splicing them in the sampler as if they were off a piece dusty rare vinyl. It also featured a stellar cast of guests, What What this time being joined by Bahamadia, Blade, and Roots Manuva. But it was the musical breakthrough that fascinated them most and allowed them to indulge a love of sixties soundtrack and library records without merely chopping and looping the originals. Hence, whilst 'Something Wicked This Way Comes' (2002) featured another fantastic batch of guest vocalists, including MF Doom (long before his current deification) and Rakaa Iriscience (Dilated Peoples), it was as music that it really fascinated, a dark psych-funk underpinning being revealed.
The band went back out on the road and the record's commercial and critical success saw The Herbaliser rising to headline status at many key UK and EU festivals, with a live show that by now left most others for dead. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, the boys leapt at the chance to produce last year's "Solid Steel: Herbal Blend" mix and reassert their prime skills as mixers and hip hop heads. Meanwhile, their self-evident production chops got them gigs making music for everyone from Motorola to Guy Ritchie ('Snatch'), from PlayStation ('Tony Hawks Underground') to writing NFL's theme for the primetime 'Sunday Night Football' on ESPN.
All of which leads us to 'Take London'. As you'd expect, the record shows further refinement and expansion in sheer technique, while tracks like 'The Generals' show that the boys have lost none of their edge, or sheer enjoyment of fucked up, crazed hip hop tomfoolery. And talking of the Generals (the most unusual group to come out of US hip hop in a good few years), it's great to see this album putting back one woman centre stage. What What may have morphed into Jean Grae, but her skills have gone superhuman. But then The Herbaliser have always been about progression. That and being dope...
[links_clean] =>Tumblr
Facebook
Twitter
Soundcloud
Facebook Event link https://www.facebook.com/events/397156527022235/
[ticket_url] => http://www.glazart.com/events/low-leaf-mo-kolours/ [image_upload_id] => 16726 [created] => 2012-10-26 09:52:23 [modified] => 2012-10-26 09:52:23 [year_slug] => 2012 [month_slug] => nov [day_slug] => 9 [slug] => slugabed-paris-glazart [description_clean] =>Facebook Event link https://www.facebook.com/events/397156527022235/
[products_count] => 0 [hidden] => 0 ) [Image] => Array ( [id] => 16726 [media_type] => image [artist] => Slugabed [title] => Slugabed Artist Shot 2012 [credits] => [buy_link] => [filename] => images/slugabed/slugabed-trevortraynor.jpg [checksum] => 514c883ade8dc42810f9b75945117f48 [mime_type] => image/jpeg [size] => 105218 [external_url] => http://media.ninjatune.net/images/slugabed/slugabed-trevortraynor.jpg [image_upload_id] => [first_track_id] => [first_release_id] => [listed] => 0 [active] => 0 [processed] => 1 [artist_slug] => slugabed [slug] => slugabed-artist-shot-2012 [created] => 2012-03-26 14:24:49 [modified] => 2012-03-26 14:24:56 [embed] => ) [Country] => Array ( [id] => 229 [name] => France [longname] => France [numcode] => 250 [iso] => FR [iso3] => FRA [currency] => EUR [active] => 1 [parent_id] => 226 [lft] => 455 [rght] => 456 [level] => 2 ) [Product] => Array ( ) [Artist] => Array ( [0] => Array ( [id] => 141 [name] => Slugabed [description] =>Blending influences both classic and contemporary, from the outermost reaches of dubstep, hip hop and beyond, Slugabed has received unanimous praise for his debut album 'Time Time, released on the Ninja Tune label in May 2012.
Under his Slugabed alias, 23 year-old Greg Feldwick creates music which is at once complex, deep, thoughtful and above all distinctive. It channels the energy of the best of today's bass music, through spacey bleeps and meditative melodies to explore the outermost reaches of electronic music making today.
Originally hailing from Bath, UK, Feldwick relocated to Brighton in 2008, where he played an instrumental role in the success of local club night Donky Pitch for which he still holds a residency. The first rumblings of appreciation from his peers came at this time, from Slugabed’s initial pool of 12-inches. Releases for the Ramp Recordings and Stuff Records labels were the first introduction for many to his work, with both demonstrating his ability to combine intelligent and original production skills with serious dancefloor appeal.
Strong club and radio support followed from a wide range of respected DJs including Mary Anne Hobbs, Mark Pritchard, Benji B, Laurent Garnier and Surgeon as well as Tom Ravenscroft and Huw Stevens on BBC Radio 1.
With an already impressive catalogue of official remixes for the likes of Starkey, Eprom and Kelpe under his belt, he also created his own unofficial version of Pharoah Monch’s classic ‘Simon Says’ which devastated dancefloors worldwide. However, it was arguably his ‘Ultra Heat Treated’ EP, released in 2009 on the Planet Mu label, that propelled Slugabed into the spotlight, winning him new support and glowing reviews across the board, as well as interest from some of the best cutting-edge record labels around.
Partly as a result of this interest he was offered a chance to remix Roots Manuva’s all-time great “Witness (1Hope)” for Ninja Tune’s twentieth anniversary boxset. The result was one of the stand-outs of that mammoth collection, and made him one of only a handful of producers to successfully remix that classic cut. In fact, Roots Manuva himself liked it so much that he personally requested the instrumental so that he could use it in his live set. Almost inevitably, the album deal with Ninja Tune followed shortly after.
Since then, things have really taken off for Feldwick. He has played at the legendary Berghain club in Berlin as part of Scuba’s SUB:STANCE night, toured the USA, Australia and Asia, and remixed both Eskmo and Stateless for his new home label, as well as supplying another remix for the mighty Roots Manuva's 'Get The Get' single.
Funny, clever, referential, sometimes moving and never anything but completely himself, Slugabed is a substantial new presence in UK bass music.
With an ongoing touring schedule throughout Europe and the world, 2 new singles planned, and work on his second LP underway, things look set to stay busy for Slugabed into 2013 and beyond.
Blending influences both classic and contemporary, from the outermost reaches of dubstep, hip hop and beyond, Slugabed has received unanimous praise for his debut album 'Time Time, released on the Ninja Tune label in May 2012.
Under his Slugabed alias, 23 year-old Greg Feldwick creates music which is at once complex, deep, thoughtful and above all distinctive. It channels the energy of the best of today's bass music, through spacey bleeps and meditative melodies to explore the outermost reaches of electronic music making today.
Originally hailing from Bath, UK, Feldwick relocated to Brighton in 2008, where he played an instrumental role in the success of local club night Donky Pitch for which he still holds a residency. The first rumblings of appreciation from his peers came at this time, from Slugabed’s initial pool of 12-inches. Releases for the Ramp Recordings and Stuff Records labels were the first introduction for many to his work, with both demonstrating his ability to combine intelligent and original production skills with serious dancefloor appeal.
Strong club and radio support followed from a wide range of respected DJs including Mary Anne Hobbs, Mark Pritchard, Benji B, Laurent Garnier and Surgeon as well as Tom Ravenscroft and Huw Stevens on BBC Radio 1.
With an already impressive catalogue of official remixes for the likes of Starkey, Eprom and Kelpe under his belt, he also created his own unofficial version of Pharoah Monch’s classic ‘Simon Says’ which devastated dancefloors worldwide. However, it was arguably his ‘Ultra Heat Treated’ EP, released in 2009 on the Planet Mu label, that propelled Slugabed into the spotlight, winning him new support and glowing reviews across the board, as well as interest from some of the best cutting-edge record labels around.
Partly as a result of this interest he was offered a chance to remix Roots Manuva’s all-time great “Witness (1Hope)” for Ninja Tune’s twentieth anniversary boxset. The result was one of the stand-outs of that mammoth collection, and made him one of only a handful of producers to successfully remix that classic cut. In fact, Roots Manuva himself liked it so much that he personally requested the instrumental so that he could use it in his live set. Almost inevitably, the album deal with Ninja Tune followed shortly after.
Since then, things have really taken off for Feldwick. He has played at the legendary Berghain club in Berlin as part of Scuba’s SUB:STANCE night, toured the USA, Australia and Asia, and remixed both Eskmo and Stateless for his new home label, as well as supplying another remix for the mighty Roots Manuva's 'Get The Get' single.
Funny, clever, referential, sometimes moving and never anything but completely himself, Slugabed is a substantial new presence in UK bass music.
With an ongoing touring schedule throughout Europe and the world, 2 new singles planned, and work on his second LP underway, things look set to stay busy for Slugabed into 2013 and beyond.
| Artist | Date | City | Venue | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Heavy | Friday, Nov 9th | Paris, FR | La Maroquinerie | Buy |
| Speech Debelle | Friday, Nov 9th | Paris, FR | La Gaite Lyrique | |
| The Warehouse Project | Friday, Nov 9th | Manchester, GB | The Warehouse Project | Buy |
| Cadence Weapon | Friday, Nov 9th | Brooklyn, NY, US | Grasslands Gallery | Buy |
| Mr. Scruff | Friday, Nov 9th | Exeter, GB | Lemon Grove | Buy |
| Fink | Friday, Nov 9th | Milan, IT | Bloom | Buy |
| Kid Koala | Friday, Nov 9th | Vancouver, CA | Venue Nightclub | Buy |
| Toddla T | Friday, Nov 9th | Brooklyn, US | Electronic Music Festival (BEMF) 2012 | Buy |
| The Herbaliser | Friday, Nov 9th | Thessaloníki, GR | Block 33 | |
| Slugabed | Friday, Nov 9th | Paris, FR | Glazart | Buy |