CARETAKEN

More haunted audio, 'recalled' by The Caretaker. After last year's colossally impenetrable six-CD collection 'Theoretically Pure Anterograde Amnesia' James Kirby returns with a more concise, more accessible (but no less confounding) collection of nebulous memoradelia on a double vinyl set care of Belgian label We/Me. This limited vinyl approach is the complete opposite of what James was doing last year with the free internet downloads and CD releases - this album is ultra-exclusive, ultra-brittle, and only about 300 listeners in the world will be able to experience it in it's intended form.

The decision to release on vinyl is significant. The music has been deliberately mastered at low level to encourage the build up of surface noise over time. This music is not meant to be enshrined in pristine digital clarity for all eternity, it is subject to entropy. The state of decay is part of the listening experience. This isn't as crazy as it sounds: I like old music to sound old - I'm not particularly keen on digital remasters. That's why I only listen to the pop music of my childhood via crackly 7" singles or my secret stash of K-Tel compilations, where 20 songs are crushed onto a single plate of wax, compressed and tinny, just like the way they sounded on MW transistor radios in the seventies.

While I'm on this subject, one of the things I find incomprehensible about the otherwise worthy Ghost Box label is that they insist on only releasing their music on CD, that invention of the Thatcherite eighties, completely at odds with the post-war British environment that they wish to invoke. It shouldn't be about convenience or unit costs - the format itself should be integral to the project. The other point about Ghostbox that I find mildly disconcerting is the way that they veer dangerously into the realms of pastiche, deliberately recreating the sonic signifiers of a bygone age, encouraging a cuddly sense of nostalgia. When they get it right, it can be profoundly affecting, but still I find the Caretaker's approach is braver. There's nothing you can really cling onto as specifically familiar (although if pushed I might make vague comparisons to "Zeit"-period Tangerine Dream or the 'Monolith' scenes in Kubrick's '2001 - A Space Odyssey'), it's more about creating an atmosphere, an aged tint, a ghostly non-place that induces reverie rather than a wry smile. A place where buried memories might leak out. The really brave aspect of The Caretaker project is that James puts his faith in the listener to map his or her own psyche across these drifting plains of amorphous choral harmonics and slivers of somnolent static. You only get out of it what you're prepared to put in. You wanna know what I get out of it? None of your damn business. Grab a copy while you can and start facing your own demons.

The new viscosity...

HALF A DOZEN TWELVES +1

Substance & Vainqueur - Reverberation/Reverberate (Scion Versions)
Second release from the new Scion imprint, continuing the good work S & V started via Chain Reaction in the previous decade. Not much has changed - why mess with perfection? - the beats are ultra-minimal, acting as pure metronomic clicktrack for the obsessively processed chordal textures and chasm-like layers of ambient landscape. Listen intently for the subleties, or just let the whole thing float around you in a soul-cleansing mist of abstract emotion. Lush as fuck, standard.

Pendle Coven - Hex EP (Modern Love)
Love the name...conjures images of nocturnal sisterhood of Lancastrian witches...hints of ancient, evil secrets in hidden pockets of the English landscape. The music doesn't quite live up to that image, but this is a moody three-tracker with the foreboding 4/4 slammer 'Waveplate' taking-up side A, although it's 'Brittle Bones' on the flip that really caught my ear, with its stuttery, hyperactive electro vibe, overdriven bass warble and pensive slivers of reverberated synth. Final track 'Golden Hadron' takes the bpms right down and drifts through dank, stalactite-encrusted caves of dub refraction. Chilly...

Deadbeat - Version Immersion (~scape)
I'm still undecided on the new Pole album, but this EP from Stefen Betke's near-legendary Berlin imprint is hitting all the right erogenous zones. 'One.One.Five' and 'One.Two.Six' mine similar territory, with percussion-heavy grooves weighty sub bass, etc etc...

Patrick Pulsinger - Dogmatic Sequences III (Disco B)
Jesus, I was buying Patrick Pulsinger records ten+ years ago, yet here he is continuing the 'Dogmatic' series in '07 and the results are stupendous. Opener 'R0uleur' is a fucking crucial techno-thrash allied with some dutty bassline bizzniz that writhes 'n wobbles inna righteous dubstep stylee - my man Pulsinger is on the case! 'Looq' and 'Numb Thrust' maintain the headlong rush with slamming beats, chugging bass and rippling washes of synth-colour, but then - what the fuck is this?! - 'Transforming Language' hires in a live drummer and guitarist for some kinda jazz noodle freak-out. Head-scratcher or chin-stroker? Who knows, but let's not forget that Pulsinger pioneered that jazzy techno thing with his iO project (I still hear 'Claire' used in TV programs occasionally) so I guess that's a genuine aspect of his musical gene-pool. More power to him - he's the coolest goddam Austrain on the planet.

Cornell - Polimer/Flounce (Minimise)
Minimal, abstract, four-to-tha-fucking-floor, but I'm definately feeling a sly sense of humour lurking somewhere. 'Polimer' is a playful arrangement of tuned blips, swooshes, crackles and gasps that gradually works itself up into a disorientating lather , with sounds flying at you from all across the stereo field. Probably sounds scary as hell on drugs. The b-side is actually the more obviously catchy number, adding a resolute chord-riff for your frazzled psyche to cling onto, but still paying close attention to unexpected elements swooping from nowhere. Stealthy!

Move-D - Ac1d/Sheffield Dance (Modern Love)
Modern Love are so fucking on it, right now - practically every release is a must have. Here, David Moufang delivers two brilliantly individual slices of abstract dance, with 'Ac1d' held together by a nagging chord-stab and rocksteady kick drum, over which all manner of samples, synth oscillations and 707 drumkit weave a trippy spell. But its all about the flip for me - I mean, c'mon, calling the track 'Sheffield Dance' was bound to perk up the ears of an old bleep-junkie like myself. Clearly a homage of sorts to the original 1990-91 sound, but without descending into outright nostalgia, its wonderful to hear more fidgety 808 snare programming again. Lots of subby undertow and squelchy synth riffs make for a complex web of rhythm that bursts through the straightjacket of over-simplification that dogs a significant preportion of modern techno music. Hope this one has an influential effect...

Bovill - Differentiate EP (Meanwhile.)
Oh my god - how deep is this shit? Four tracks of sublime, precision-tooled perfection from the mysterious Mr. Bovill, care of the increasingly relevant Meanwhile imprint. Opener 'Rate Of Change' is a heavenly blend of clavinet chords, swooping Detroit pads and succulant bass undertow, held down by conservative yet stealthy 4/4 riddim, whilst 'Featheredge' gets lean with 808 rimshots, fluttering hi-hats and playful, life-affirming melodic phrases. On the flip, 'Making Time' is a harder track with hint of acid and more of those gorgeous , reverb-heavy chords, before 'Torque (2)' strips naked to the barest ingredients in quest of the minimal Holy Grail - damn, its so good it hurts! Buy it, play it, kiss it, cuddle it. Bovill, I love you...

DON'T CALL IT A COMEBACK...

Highroad returns for it's third outing next month, and Chris has pulled out all the stops to cram in as many of Bristol's top-brass producers as possible. Top of the pile is the mighty Pinch, fresh from blowing minds on Mary Anne Hobbs' Radio 1 show with his Techno Vs. Dubstep mix - if you missed the live broadcast, check it here. Mining similar creative veins are Peverelist and Appleblim, plus Headhunter and Jakes reppin' the H.E.N.C.H axis and a rare live outing from Gatekeeper. Spearheading the future sound of Grime we got Joker and Blazey. Not forgetting Delsa playing...whatever the hell it is he plays (I just realised that, even though I've known him for ages, I've never actually seen or heard a Delsa mix!). For some reason, known only to himself, Chris has offered me a spot too, and of course I jumped at the chance, having not played out since last July. Funnily enough, I've actually got two gigs in May...but more on the other one shortly. Anyway, this is gonna be a fucking mental soundclash...I think everyone's gonna be paired-up back-2-back style, which means I'll probably be jostling over the decks with Delsa for the first hour. All happening at Cosies on Portland Square, on Saturday the 12th, for the stupidly cheap price of two quid. Jesus, that little venue is gonna be heaving - make sure to get there early to avoid disappointment!

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Watch out for issue 19 of Fact magazine (it's free!) featuring a couple of small reviews by Yours Truly - my first writing to be published on real paper (not counting the odd missive on the letters page of Melody Maker, Uncut, Mojo, etc...). It's not the first time I've been invited to write reviews for the inkies, but this was the first offer I felt comfortable with. Fact is a bit of a blogger's playground, with regular contributions from K-Punk, Simon Silverdollar and Kek-W (who seems to have a monopoly on the dubstep reviews) so I felt they'd be more sympathetic to my amateurish enthusiasm. Having been used to writing slightly rambling blog posts of unpredictable length, it was a challenge to condense my thoughts into just seventy words per review, like trying to compose a perfect miniature. Hopefully they'll let me do it again sometime. Actually, I've already been asked to write an album review for the online version. Watch that space...

DAT'S DAT (REQUIEM FOR A DYING FORMAT)

The urge for a bloody good Spring-clean has come upon me and, as part of the effort to rid my groaning shelves and choked cupboards of all superfluous flotsom, I took the decision to finally dispose of all my DAT tapes. This is not something I do lightly: Those DATs represent nearly a decade of personal musical expression and experimentation. But I haven't had a working DAT player for several years and besides all the best stuff got transferred to cd-r ages ago. I had half a mind to try and sell them, but I'd only do that if they were blanked first, which I have neither the time, inclination or facility to do. So they've been consigned to the dustbin, for the sake of a few extra precious inches of space in my little den.

It occurs to me that there might be some readers who don't even know what DAT tapes are. For a quick history check the Wikipedia entry. DAT tape never caught on as a serious alternative to cassette or cd in the consumer electronics market, but by the early nineties it had become the standard format for mastering in professional and amateur studios alike. All your favourite tunes from the early hardcore/jungle days were almost certainly recorded on these babies. I bought my first DAT recorder in 1993 - a budget model by Aiwa - and it completely revolutionised my recording methods, simply because I was able to record, copy and playback music in perfect digital fidelity for the first time. Those tapes weren't cheap - about a fiver for a 90-minute version - but I loved them. I remained loyal even when mini-discs came out offering cool editing features. Yet now, in the age of cheap hard disc recording solutions and even cheaper supplies of CD-r/CD-wr/DVD-r , they seem as archaic as the old 8-track cartridges of the seventies.

Farewell, my beauties, you have served me well...

LINK-BACK

Thanks to The Blissblogger for sending all his loyal readership over to check my 'UK Pressure Mix'. My bandwidth is getting annihilated as I type. Check the 'Woebot/Funky House' controversy while you're there. Matt's championing of the funky 'scene' (which is in itself open to interpretation) coupled with his pouring scorn on the dubstep and minimal/micro scenes and postulating that innovation within the 'nuum is essentially dead, was bound to trigger heated debate among the Dissensus cognoscenti, which was no doubt his intention. But I'm a 'live and let live' kinda guy these days (definitely going soft in my old age - as long as people keep making music I like, then I'm happy) so I'm not gonna get embroiled in all that, but it does make for fascinating reading.

Thanks also to Droid for the linkage and additional commentary. When I wrote about the difficulties of mixing at slower tempos, I hadn't even considered that the tracks themselves, powered by steam-driven sequencers and sloppily edited loops, might actually have minor tempo variations hidden within them like booby traps waiting for the unwary dj! How much truth there is in that I'm not sure, but I'm prepared to put my faith in Droid's appraisal, cos it makes me feel better about things!

PS. Over 18 months after I gave this blog a makeover, I finally got around to giving it a logo (see top of page). Now at last passing surfers will know what this blog's called!

ATTACK MODE

Another name to add to the growing list of Bristol-based dubstep labels: Mode Recordings. Mode will be tapping into the vast resources of the local scene, along with some choice international artists. The first release is due to drop this week, featuring the long overdue vinyl debut of White Boi (left) in collaboration with Komazmuk. The A side is 'Shank Step' (as featured in the mix I recorded for riddim.ca last July) with 'Bless' on the flip, perfectly showcasing the high production values and textural depth that these guys bring to the agenda. Muted trumpets parry and thrust with wraith-like vocal swoons, spooked-out echo droplets and fibrous layers of dub-tissue flicker across these typically brooding halfstep workouts. As anyone who tunes into Wedge's weekly Sub FM radio show will know, this is just the tip of the iceberg. There's already an enormous backlog of material waiting in the wings, but hopefully Mode's commitment to a monthly release schedule (which will also be available to download via Boomkat's MP3 boutique shortly) will help to redress the balance.

UK PRESSURE MIX 90-91

I finally managed to sort out a few problems I had with my hosting service, which means that I now have a bit more space to play with - but still a relatively minuscule amount of storage; only enough to service my own needs, so don't go asking for any favours, okay? This, combined with the rather nifty 'FireFTP' extension (a neat little FTP file manager for Firefox that I only recently discovered) will hopefully encourage me to get more audio up on this blog again in future. For now, I've reinstated my Post-Natal Oppression Mix, for anyone who missed it first time, and thought I might as well go public with an oldskool mix I recorded, but was a bit unsatisfied with, recently. A few close friends, and Dissensions, will already have heard this via the original Yousendit upload, and although I still don't think I achieved what I set out to do, and god knows there's more than enough dodgy dj-mixes online as it is, the responses I've had back were encouraging enough to make me turn a blind eye to it's shortcomings. So here it is, for anyone who fancies a listen...

UK Pressure Mix 90-91
50 mins, 128kbps
Tracklist:
Cabaret Voltaire - What Is Real (Virtual Reality Mix)
Man Machine - Man Machine (Electronik - Automatik)
F-X-U - The Scheme
Success - 808 (Tripwire)
Ubik - Non Stop Techno
Tomas - African Dream
Bass Culture - Facts Of Life (Bleeper Mix)
The Step - Yeah You (Robert's Dub 2)
Sweet Excorcist - Samba
Rhythmatic - Demons
Bassix - Close Encounters (Club Mix)
The Scientist - The Bee (Gargle Mix)
Nightmares On Wax - Sal Batardes
Unique 3 - Weight For The Bass (Original Soundyard Dubplate Mix)
Xon - Bopulate
LFO - LFO Remix

Recording a mix from this period has been on the back of my mind for ages. I just don't see much of this stuff represented anymore. Most oldskool mixes I've come across tend to focus on the hardcore milieu from '93 and beyond (in fact there's a new one up at Bloggariddims this week) but I think there's a fascinating period around 1990-91, when British techno first started to have it's own identity. Whilst London had it's proto-junglist rave scene, it was the Northern sound that I really felt drawn towards. It didn't really have a name then, but now it's generally referred to as Bleep & Bass. I've already written about this quite a bit in the past so won't dwell on definitions too much. But what I wanted was to try and capture the flavour of that time, as I remember it, through the records I bought. I also wanted to try to recreate the sort of dj mix I would've recorded at the time, as my earliest attempts at mixing were with these kind of tunes.

As with all my mixes, it was recorded entirely live, without too much forward planning, because I like to try and capture something spontaneous and emotionally-driven. No other method of mix creation holds the slightest interest for me. But obviously this approach is very hit-and-miss. I've already had several aborted attempts at recording this mix. This was the first one I even got close to achieving my aims. But the mixing is a bit wonky in places (I've heard others say that beat matching gets trickier the slower the tempo, and I think I have to agree. As an example, I've also been having fun recently mixing d'n'b from the mid-90s Metalheadz/Moving Shadow/No U-Turn period with far more accurate results). The recording levels are variable and there's some unwanted distortion here and there (trying to digitally capture these sub-heavy analogue platters is an art in itself) and I don't think it packs enough content - it should've been longer. But what there is, I'm quite happy with. Perhaps one or two tracks jar with each other, but the important thing is that it's an unusual selection, focusing mainly on b-sides, alternate mixes and '2nd Division' tracks that have been largely forgotten.

A few comments on individual tracks...

Cabaret Voltaire were a natural starting point for this mix. Afterall, they were the godfathers of the whole Northern independent electronic scene, with a legacy extending back to 1974. 'What Is Real', on Belgian indie label Le Disques Du Crepescule, was their first release after leaving EMI, and seemed like a total reaction against the more commercial material they produced for the major label. Stephen Mallinder still contributed vocals on the A-side, but it was obvious his time on the mic was nearly over. His limited vocal style was from another era. The instrumental 'Virtual Reality' mix on the flip stands-up far better. In fact, I think I was subliminally trying to achieve this sound with some of my own tracks last year. Of course, the Cabs' other member, Richard H. Kirk, was enjoying parallel success with Sweet Exorcist at this time. Their big track was 'Test One', but I thought it would be more fun to dust-off 'Samba' from the Clonk remix 12" which was the template for their 'C.C.E.P.'

Eagle-eyed trainspotters might've noticed that Man Machine's eponymous track was actually released in 1989. I guess I wanted it in there to give a bit of contrast. As I mentioned recently, it strikes me that there's a sort of gulf between the post-acid sound of the late eighties and what came next in the early nineties. Even though it points towards the future, 'Man Machine' still seems partly rooted in that hip house sound a la Coldcut, Bomb The Bass, Simon Harris, etc, full of novelty film dialogue samples and a big catchy vamp. On the flip are two alternate mixes in collaboration with The Forgemasters, which jettison most of the cheese, but I wanted to get a little taste of where we'd just been before showing where we actually were.

Ubik's 'Non-Stop Techno' was, until now, my best kept secret. From the EP of the same name, released on Zoom Records, it's head and shoulders above anything else they ever recorded during their brief career. And it's anything but techno as we knew it then. More like a minimal electro experiment, with a deadly, convulsing sub bass battling with obsessively juggled beats. That tuned 808 cowbell 'solo' slays me everytime. One of the most adventurous tracks I ever heard from that period.

Robert Gordon's 'Dub 2' was the final, most extreme and emptied-out of three versions he turned-in for The Step's 'Yeah You' remix 12", released on Warp. Experimenting with on-the-fly dub-echo fx and something like a proto-wobble bass skit, the EP as whole is one of my favourite one-riddim excursions of the period. As I've always maintained, Gordon exerted a colossal influence on this sound overall, both as a backroom engineer and through his work with Unique 3 and The Forgemasters. He's also represented here in collaboration with Richard H. Kirk, as Xon, with the track 'Bopulate', from the one-off EP they released on Network Records. A truly inspirational figure.

Although the mix focuses on the sparse drum machine programming associated with the Northern sound, I wanted to catch a glimpse of breakbeat too, and 'Close Encounters' by Bassix was an obvious choice, featuring a lovely bleep rendition of the film's classic five-note catch-phrase, over some filthy looped breaks, subby bass and sizzling 808 hi-hats. It's great, but I must say not quite in the same league as the 'Warpy' stuff in terms of mastering and bass density. Also featured is one of the lesser-known versions of 'The Bee' by The Scientist. I was very keen on the early breakbeat sound of Kickin' Records and no mix from that era would be complete, or honest, without a little touch of flava from that school.

Whether or not this is 'UK Pressure Mix version 1' or 'Part 1' remains to be seen. I don't think I'll be ready to have another go for a little while, but suspect I will get the urge to explore this era again at some point, possibly with a slightly different emphasis.

READING YOU LOUD AND CLEAR...

A couple of intriguing 12-inchers that have come to my attention recently. Both coming from mysterious sources in Germany and both focused on a minimal slice 'n dice approach to dubstep that takes no prisoners.

First came Stamp Archive 001. I assumed that the label and artist were the same thing, a la Sleeparchive, but whoever submitted this release to Discogs reckons the artist is somebody called Jegor Teplow, and confirms the rumour that Sleeparchive co-produced the record, which seems perfectly believable. The beats have the same dry, clinical edge, with subtly applied reverbs adding splashes of depth and colour. Both 'L A C' and 'Russia' are broadly experimenting in the halfstep mold, but the arrangements are far more austere and artificial, cruel and heartless. But there is a strong emotional content via the simple but effective melodic synth parts which extend a friendly, if slightly clammy, hand to the listener. It's not blowing my mind, but I like it.

'Aeto', by Anstam arrived almost simultaneously. Who's that? I have absolutely no idea. The record comes lavishly sheathed in two layers of good quality black sleeve, and has a proper printed label, but is totally unforthcoming with regards to minor details like, er, track titles or anything else that might give some clue to it's origins. The two tracks display an even more ruthless cyborg intent, with busier beats like sexless 2-Step stripped of the synthetic flesh, cleaving the air like a rampaging exo-skeleton. The vicious electronic blurps, blips and squawks are bolstered by occasional flurries of funky tabla, undulating bass frequency, nasty overdriven kick drums and ominous layers of ambient texture. This one's big.

Whether these are a just a brief flirtation or an opening salvo from a minimally-inclined army of euro-steppers remains to be seen, but I for one am waiting with bated breath...

OPEN SURGERY

It's funny how certain artists kind of drift off my radar, sometimes for years, but then I gradually become aware of them again - like Anthony Child aka Surgeon, who's been exerting a strong gravitational pull recently. His name seems to crop-up in all the right places, and then I hear things like his remix of Monolake's "Alaska", which draws me inexorably back into his orbit (and anyone needing a crash course in Surgeon-lore better go check his website).

Like Villalobos, he's another established Techno dj/producer who's been acknowledging the influence of dubstep, though in a very discreet way. To get a good idea of where his head is at these days, check his recent mix over at Spannered, which has a nice sense of pace and development, running the techno gamut from frigid 4/4 through broken/dirty electro-flavours (I'm still a sucker for the old distorted kick drums) and using a few tunes that I've also been mixing with during my practice sessions in recent times, like the old Jeff Mills 'Enforcement' mix , 'Handwerk' by Add Noise and 'TV Controls Your Mind' - one of my favourite tracks by Warlock precisely because it has that sparse, techy feel about it.

Surgeon's latest release is the "Whose Hands Are These?" EP, a 12" four-tracker just out on Dynamic Tension Records. The real eye-opener here is the Autechre remix - I was amazed that they'd come up with such a hard, propulsive version after so many years of abstract, undanceable nonsense. In some ways, the whole EP reminds me of that period around 1994-95, when Autechre and others were making some incredibly experimental electronica, but still with enough of the black stuff to make it work on the dancefloor - remember the 'Basscad' and 'Anti ' EPs? It's not melodic, but the beats are punchy and the textures are crunchy. Serious shit. I'm well up for it.

MIXMAGIC!

Well, I had a vague notion it was gonna happen, but still I got a bit of a shock earlier today whilst idly flicking through the latest issue of Mixmag in W.H.Smith's. It's one of those magazines I haven't checked for ages, but the cover promised a 'Best Of British' feature explaining 'why UK dance music is back on top with Optimo, Klaxons, Dubstep and a raving nation', which I thought sounded vaguely intriguing. I assumed there might be a little feature on someone like Skream, or perhaps Youngsta, but it seems that Mixmag is already exploring beyond the boundaries of dubstep's Croydon heartland. The mag fell open on page 80, and there under the title 'Home Win For Bristol Ravers' (ouch!), all my crew - Headhunter, Peverelist, Joker, Pinch, Blazey and Atki2 - were staring back at me. It's a strange feeling, to see all these people you know, perhaps in some cases even consider to be friends, suddenly becoming The Next Big Thing in an established glossy publication like this. I felt something a bit like fatherly pride, but also a twinge of anxiety, cos until now I felt like I had a little monopoly on reporting about this regional scene, but now they're all coming of age and moving on, upwards and outwards, which is entirely as it should be. I feel a bit like I did after the first big dubstep special on Mary Anne Hobbs early last year, when the original London scene blew-up so spectacularly...a sense of redundancy, that having helped to midwife the scene through it's earlier phase, my job was done. But that's just me being stupid and elitist. I'm really pleased for these guys and I hope they all become absolutely fucking huuuge....

...just like Shackleton, who got a whole page to himself. When that first Skull Disco promo cd-r landed on my doorstep two years ago, I could tell it was something original, but I never dreamed it would develop into anything more than an esoteric sub-sector of the dubstep landscape. Yet now Mixmag are hailing Shackleton as "poised to become one of dubstep's first stars", and, for reasons I've already made clear recently, it couldn't happen to a more deserving case. Sometimes the good guys do win! I might post scans of the pages for the overseas crew, but I'm gonna wait until this issue is out of circulation, cos I don't wanna upset anyone again.

Actually, this edition is a pretty good read all-round. Also featured in the 'Best Of British' section are Chantelle Fiddy's report on Grime at the ICA and the rise of Funky House on the capitol's pirate stations (as predicted by Blackdown a few months back), plus reports on Birminghams' Acid House revival scene and the popularity of Hard Dance raves in the south west. Oh, and a big feature on The Klaxons. I heard one of their tunes recently. My response? Comfortably numb.

Plus Q&A with Goldie (the new Rufige Kru album is a spectacular return to form for the Metalheadz mainman, by all accounts) and all the usual news, reviews and nice photos on nice paper. Who says the printed word is dead??

BASIC ORIGINS

I had to laugh earlier this week, when sorting through some old vinyl. Came across this compilation called Teutonic Beats - Opus 2, released on E'G Records way back in the dark ages (1989, to be precise). E'G was a decent art rock sub-label of Virgin Records, set up in the seventies to release music by acts like Roxy Music, Brian Eno, King Crimson and, later on, Killing Joke. The Joke's roadie was a guy called Alex Patterson, who as we all know would later achieve huge success with ambient-house pioneers The Orb. He gets a mention on the credits for this compilation, so I assume he had a hand in compiling it. There's a really good reason why I haven't played this record for many years: it's not that great. Apart from the fact that it was made back in the days when it was acceptable to cram ten tracks onto a single piece of vinyl, the music on offer gives absolutely no hint of the colossal influence the Germans would bring to bear on Techno in the following decade. Despite contributions from Westbam and Thomas Fehlmann, the collection lacks any kind of defining character or sense of direction, being merely a stylistic mish-mash that freely pillages from the easy-going hip-house styles emanating from the UK at that time, with a dash of Belgian New Beat.

But what really made me chuckle was spotting the name Von Oswald in the writing credits for a couple of tracks. A quick bit of research revealed that this was in fact Moritz Von Oswold, aka Maurizio, aka one half of Basic Channel and Rhythm & Sound, undoubtedly one of the most influential producers to emerge from the Berlin school in the past fifteen years. Listening to 'Love Park', recorded under the Marathon alias with his then partner Ralf Hertwig, it's hard to believe that just four years later he'd be releasing seminal Basic Channel tracks like 'Phylyps' onto an unsuspecting world. I don't think this necessarily reflects badly on Von Oswold as an individual, but it does help to illustrate the sort of gigantic leaps that were being made all over the continent during that incredible time. Compare the 'cutting edge' dance music of 1989 with that of 1993, and it barely recognisable.

By the mid-90s, Von Oswald had perfected a kind of stripped-down, dubbed-out techno that's still inspiring producers today. With tracks like 'M6', all the activity happens at close quarters: the barest fluctuation in equalization...a minor percussive flutter in the distance...the more you focus inward the more information the rhythm yields. Then pull-back and view the track as a whole and it becomes a serene, tranquilizing wash of pure 'rhythm and sound'. To quote Eno's definition of ambient music, it really is as 'ignorable as it is interesting'; the onus is on the listener to decide what level of attention he or she is prepared to devote to it. From a dj's point of view, these sort of tracks make excellent mixing tools: their gradually evolving nature, coupled with extended duration, providing acres of creative space for prolonged beat-matching excursions, and certainly useful in a three deck situation, one would assume.

For the past decade, Von Oswald and his partner Mark Ernestus have been moving ever nearer to pure dub; as likely to create some fearfully empty extended instrumental as they are to construct a more concise, accessible vocal track, working with the cream of Berlin-based roots reggae vocalists. But always at the core is that minimal intent, combined with arcane recording techniques, whereby the tracks are artificially 'aged' through some kind of analogue mangling process, piling on the tape compression and noise levels until the music sounds buried, oxidized, calcified - 'Burial Mixes', indeed!. For the uninitiated, a good place to start exploring would be the "With The Artists", "The Versions" and "See Mi Ya" collected works. The latter is the most recent - an exercise in constructing a 'one riddim' project, an old Jamaican ploy whereby various singers record their own vocal versions over the same backing track. Serious converts should head for the 7x7" collected package, which includes some addition dubs (but don't believe anybody who describes it as a 'box set' - it's just seven singles in plain white bags sandwiched between two pieces of card, which, unless you're not intending to break the shrink-wrap, needs to be held together with an elastic band!).

Cap dead? No! It can't be!!

Mind you, I seem to recall Superman died a few years back, and it doesn't seem to have done him any harm.

Come to think of it, Captain Britain died twice in the space of a couple of years. Still going strong.

The most newsworthy thing about this is that The Daily Mirror should even consider it to be newsworthy. I mean, who gives a fuck about Steve Rogers in the UK? Must've been a slow day at the office.

TIMEWARP TELLY

One of those freeview channels - fTN, I think - has been screening old Space 1999 episodes recently. Now, I remember being a big fan back in the day. I watched the show, read the Look-In comic strip, played the board game, had a toy version of the laser gun that lit-up plus the action figures and a model of one of the Eagle craft, etc etc. Of course, that's all gone now. All I managed to find in my trash archive was a set of playing cards made by Whitman (see image). Worth a punt on e-bay, I wonder?

Anyway, I've been really disappointed with the shows. Or maybe disappointed with myself for finding them so fucking unwatchable. The acting is awful, the scripts are dire and the dialogue (especially the bits where Koenig an co. are having a 'light hearted moment') makes me wanna spit. Surely I should be appreciating all those things? Fuck, I'm losing the plot.

You wanna know which repeats I'm really enjoying?

The Crystal Maze.

Seriously.

You remember it, right? The show hosted by Richard O'Brien (of Rocky Horror fame) where the contestants have to win crystals to buy time in the Maze at the end, and hopefully win a crap camping holiday if they collect enough gold tokens. I watch it with the kids. We're all loving it. My eldest gets all tense, and I keep telling him, "son, don't worry, everything you see happened long before you were born". Dig those eighties haircuts. Actually, most of the ones I've watched were made around 1992. We forget that the early nineties still had a big hangover from the eighties. I think it was 'The Rachel' haircut from 'Friends' that finally killed eighties hairstyles.

So there you have it - I like the Crystal Maze more than Space 1999. How the hell did that happen?

BRISTOL ON WAX

I know I've been seriously lax with the record reviews, but will try to redress the problem this month. Maybe. First it's time for a quick trawl through the current crop of releases coming out of my home town. Of course, I'm in an impossible position because I'm friendly with the people running the labels and socialize with several of the artists featured, so it's not like I can say anything bad about them, is it? Just take everything I say with a pinch of salt, then go check out the audio clips at the vinyl emporium of your choice and draw your own conclusions...

Peverelist - Erstwhile Rhythm/The Grind (Punch Drunk)
I feel like I've already reviewed these trax in furtive snatches since the end of last year. What more can I say? Apparently, when the 12" finally rolled out of the pressing plant, Hard Wax in Berlin ordered a massive batch - fuel-injecting Bristolian minimalism straight into the main vein of the Techno heartland. Incidentally, I hear that the Skull Disco roadshow was a big hit when Appleblim and Shackleton descended on the German kapitol last month. Appleblim got to meet the Rhythm & Sound crew in person and much mutual back-slapping ensued. 'The Grind', along with Appleblim's forthcoming 'Vansan' clearly points the way towards a reconciliation with minimal techno's streamlined pulse and dubbed-out hypno-chords. I don't claim by any stretch that this is the be-all and end-all for underground innovation, but I do have a certain emotional investment in this approach, and it's great that a small pocket of UK-based minimal exploration is happening right on my doorstep, as showcased when Appleblim and Peverelist went back-to-back at Dubloaded last week. Doppelganger and I arrived just as they were spinning 'Space Break' by T++ (aka Monolake's Torsten Pröfrock), which kinda speaks volumes. Mind you, I'm not suggesting that they're trying to set themselves apart as some kind of alternate stream - 'Blim dropped a couple of wicked cuts from the forthcoming Skreamisms 3 EP - but, y'know, it gives me something to write about...

Joker - Kapsize EP ('earwax)
Spotted at Dubloaded gulping down a bottle of lager, so we can assume that 'adolescent genius' Joker has finally turned 18 years of age. And what a great way to celebrate entering manhood, with his debut four-track EP on Tectonic sub-label 'earwax. A quick search of this blog reveals the earliest mention of Joker was 18 months ago. He was pretty amazing back then, so obviously expectations were high for this (even though Plastician gets first dibs on all his best stuff, by all accounts). Now I'm the first to admit that I've not really been following the Grime for some time, but if everything was as good as this I'd still be buying all those over-priced white labels! 'Stuck In The System' is a perfect opening gambit, exhibiting the grimy penchant for quasi-orchestral maneuvers and taking it into the stratosphere with a beautifully arranged (dare I say composed?!) mini road-symphony incorporating a veritable pit of string and brass timbres, underpinned by a rude octave bass that nonchalantly swerves across note and metre with a jagged confidence that belies Joker's tender years and quiet nature. Then my personal favourite, 'Grimy Princess', a sublime concoction of viscous textural layers, phat synth bass and mutant electro flavas - 808 snares and rimshots set to stun. On the flip, 'The Bop' lowers the temperature slightly with a more lo-slung arrangement of buzzing bass riff and spidery square wave melody cycles. Not bad, by anyone's standards, but I bet Joker can write tunes like this in his sleep. The set concludes in fine style with the juddering hyper-electroid stutter groove of 'JV Anderson', a maze of tight edits, filter breakdowns and hard-rollin' riffery that leaves me stunned with admiration. This is just the beginning for Joker...world domination is surely inevitable.

V/A - Substratum EP (Immerse)
Rising from the ashes (or should that be still burning embers?) of the Noir club, the Immerse imprint is dedicated to releasing anything that comes under the banner of 'breakbeat and subculture', though with a heavy bias towards dubstep, so far. The first release played it safely with a nice collaboration between Benga & Walsh, followed by a detour into d'n'b drumfunkery courtesy of Andy Skopes (and, for the record, I thought the a-side 'Otis Drumfunk' was pretty neat). Now comes the most daring and ambitious release to date - an EP in two separate parts, showcasing some of the newer talent to emerge from the dubstep scene, slanted towards Bristol, but also featuring Spanish duo 23hz & Numaestro, who's 'Galleon Dub' opens proceedings sounding not unlike a stripped-back homage to the dark, pioneering work of Benny Ill/Horsepower Productions, with eerie crooning Indian voices swimming over a restless groove awash with ominous waves of dub-distortion. Side 2 is given over to that mercenary label-hopper Atki2, and 'Douceur' is one of his more straight-ahead halfstep offerings, swimming with playful wobble bass gymnastics, eastern atmospherics of uncertain origin, flickers of spanish guitar and distant reverb detonations. The hyper-edited sound of Grim Dubs Vol.5 seems like a distant memory now. (By the way, we managed to sneak over to Goatlab to check out part of Atki2's mammoth head-to-head with Dub Boy last week, too. Despite being more of a breakcore and gabba night, their grime/dubstep/dancehall clash attracted an enthusiastic little crowd, although I suspect Atki2's material might've been a bit too cerebral for a party of that nature. We'd been hoping to check out Dan Gusset's set as well, but he'd already played by that point. Oh well, we'll catch him one day).

Moving on to part two, 'Sitar Dub' is the work of Diem, who I'm not familiar with personally, but I've been hearing the track played out locally on dub for months. It features the same "strictly yard music" sample as Kion's 'Yard Music', but there the similarity ends. The main focus is the interplay between a resonant synth line and a plucked sitar sample, with a massive, heavily echoed electronic clap holding down the groove, and thick layers of sub and wobble bass pressure beneath. Last but by no means least comes 'Thunder' by Forsaken (aka Pete Bubonic). It must be nearly a year since Pete first handed me this one on cd-r, and I played it at Dubloaded last April, then on Gutterbreakz FM the following month, so you can probably guess I'm rather keen on it. If I recall (and I'm sure he'll correct me if I'm wrong), this was one of Pete's earliest attempts at exploring the emptier, more atmospheric end of dubstep (his background is more breakbeat, d'n'b and techstep, with a strong allegiance to grime) and he sort of nailed it at first attempt, with an unfathomable palette of textural elements flowing between ethereal calm and gritty violence. The unpredictable placing of the snare makes it notoriously tricky to mix with, but I like a challenge. It's a true original - I've still yet to hear anything else quite like it, and nice to see it finally enshrined on wax. Big up all concerned!

Moving Ninja - Formations EP (Tectonic)
Yes, I know this isn't Bristol music, but it's the latest release on Pinch's Tectonic imprint, and besides Bristol-based labels are the only ones in the world to date that have sanctioned vinyl releases by this brilliant Australian artist, so he's family as far as I'm concerned. I'm no stranger to these tracks either, as Ninja's Paul Jebanasam personally sent me them, along with a whole bunch of other tunes, on cd-r over a year ago - 'Uranium' featured on Gutterbreakz FM exactly 12 months ago. I swear, that cd-r is like the best unreleased album project you can imagine. Thankfully, Pinch was similarly impressed enough to commission a second Ninja EP, and I applaud his choice of material. 'Blackout' emerges from an angry buzz of pylon static before stealthily thrusting forward with a writhing, morphic riff , blistering swathes of drone-matter and multi-layered percussion, all bolted together with an ultra hard, techy halfstep beat. 'THX' edges out into more abstract territory, whilst 'Kemancheh' dwells in some improbably ancient ethnic twilight world, propelled by a slurred metallic bass note and ritualistic percussion loops. Finally, the real jewel in the crown is 'Uranium', a stunningly evocative ambient vista that conjures a powerful sense of the vastness of Jebanasam's native environment, with the mournful pad melody adding an extra dimension of strong emotional impact. A truly outstanding piece of music and a damn fine record all round.

SHADOWPLAY

Pinch's Tectonic label continues to grow in stature and ambition. The recent release of Moving Ninja's Formations EP suggests a strong affinity with the more ambient, atmospheric possibilities locked within the Dubstep framework. But the boldest move is yet to come - the first Tectonic long-player by a single artist is due to drop in April, and it's awesome. From The Shadows is the debut album by Random Trio's central figure, Cyrus, and in some ways it feels like the first to offer a truly accurate account of what dubstep is (currently) all about. Defiantly hardline in it's outlook, this is a zero-compromise collection of spectral halfsteppers; the almost complete lack of vocals (sampled or otherwise) suggesting an eerie, depopulated nocturnia. Indeed, there's an absence of foreground in general - the barest wisps of melody and dub-texture flit pensively into view, before ducking back into the inky shadows behind the beats. There's not much that could be called a 'riff'' - you could never confuse it with instrumental grime. This music is iPod unfriendly - listen to MP3s on the ear-buds and you'll hear some snares, tambourines and strings, and perhaps the merest hint of a bass undercurrent. This music says 'fuck you' to the convenience of iPod culture - it grew from the soundsystems , and demands to be listened to in that environment, with the cloying sub bass frequencies pushing the air around. You need to feel this music coursing through your entire body, not just your ears. A decent home hi-fi system should be adequate, though. Only serious bass-headz and audio-freaks need apply. In some ways it represents exactly what I'm trying to move away from, yet in others it totally fits the bill. It's certainly as minimal in it's intent as anything coming from the techno community. I think it might prove to be an historically important album, too: in years to come, it will give scholars a benchmark of just how emptied out this 'dance music' became before it evolved into something else. To the casual listener, pumped-up by the information overload of the mainstream, there's practically nothing there to listen to.

The album opens with "Gutter" (I'd love to think it was named in my honour, but very much doubt it), a militant mix of galloping kick drum and teasing whirls of harmonium, before easing into the shivery elegance of "Mind Games", where sweeping string pads and restless bass throb are underpinned by a brutally efficient halfstep riddim that suddenly bursts into a double-time thrash, to startling effect. But then "Paradise Dub" sails out into deep space, it's digidub flavour augmented by the barest brush strokes of environmental texture, subliminal drone and a single, perfect wobble bass note in the middle. Just when you think the album is about to drift off into a catatonic stupor, portentous strains of distant feedback usher in the mighty "Rasta From", brimming with suppressed energy, as the malevolent hi-hats scuttle over quagmire bass and intensely accented snare. A couple of points deducted for falling back on the old rasta dialogue samples, but who's counting? "Dirt" and "Calm Before The Storm" add yet more spine-tingling washes of understated pad melody and barely audible background crowd ambiance - true ghosts lost in the machine - before "Watcher" decimates all in it's path with a relentless bass note throbbing on eighths.

Cyrus' music refuses to give the slightest concession to the needs of the wider market place. It isn't trying to make any new friends. If you weren't already a convert at Dubloaded or FWD>>, this album is unlikely to draw you in. The decision to release on CD might still prove to be a masterstroke, though, as it won't alienate a larger potential audience. But unlike the Hyperdub albums, there will also be a vinyl release, spread over three discs, thus staying true to the 'spirit of the culture'. It's a well structured album, too. Even the split-second pauses between tracks seems to have been carefully tracked to give just the right sense of flow and momentum. This is one of those albums that actually hits it's peak near the end: the final trio of tracks providing a very satisfying finale. "Dark Future" injects a pounding 4/4 kick drum adrenaline rush under swooping washes of synth and a delicious descending bass pattern, whilst "Crying Game" adds amorphous wailing noises and impressionistic dashes of piano to the mix. In fact, it feels like Cyrus is gradually starting to add some musical flesh to the emaciated rhythmic bones, so that by the appropriately named title track it really feels like dawn is approaching. Cyrus steps from the shadows, his eyes blinking involuntarily as the first rays of sunshine sweep across and warm his pale, sallow complexion.

Anyone in the near vicinity is strongly advised to get down to Dubloaded in Bristol, this Friday, where Cyrus will be playing out (along with Dubstep godfather Hatcha) and no doubt showcasing the material on this album, offering a perfect chance to preview in the environment in which this music is ideally suited.

COMIX HAUL

Everything I post here is from the perspective of an ex-comic book reader/collector. I treasure what I still have, but rarely even look at them. Yet still they excerpt some sort of tug on my subconscious; they are a part of what made me the person I am. I think.

So anyway, last week I took the family over to visit relatives in Belfast. Grannie had bought a few books and comics at the local store to keep our kids amused. For the eldest, who's ten, she'd grabbed a random selection of Marvel and DC titles. Now, my son, gawd bless 'im, couldn't give a flying fuck about superhero comics. He's never been interested in them. Ever. But of course, as you can probably guess, I devoured the fucking lot during our visit, and even made sure to smuggle them home again, so I could peruse at my leisure. I am nearly 38 years old. How sad izzat?

So what do we have here? The Spider-Man and Marvel Heroes annuals are aimed squarely the juvenile market, featuring basic plots, minimal characterisation, colouring pages and puzzle sections. Not a great deal there to chew on, to be honest. Some of the artwork is fun, though. Shane Davis' Spider-Man hits a level of extreme stylisation that I've never witnessed in the web-slinger before - a crooked, spindly caricature with outrageously bulbous eyes. Captain Britain makes an appearance on the contents page of Marvel Heroes, which warms the cockles of my heart, obviously. But enough, let's get to the meaty stuff...

Sticking with Marvel, there's The Astounding Spider-Man #142. Unlike the kiddies' version, Peter Parker is no longer a meek student, but a fully rounded, professional adult. Glad to see he's finally matured. He's up against the usual suspects - Doc Oc, Scorpio,Green Goblin, etc, but the storyline seems to suggest that the reason Spidey keeps fighting the same villains over and over again is due to some sort of conspiracy involving the ruling classes. I love it when writers try to rationise the inherent ridiculousness of comic book logic. I mean, it's all nonsense, isn't it? I've been away for over two decades, yet still all these characters have hardly aged, still having the same problems in their personal lives, with the same people...Forever People, indeed.

Take Steve Rogers aka Captain America. In Marvel Legends #2, Rogers is still haunted by his WWII experiences and especially the death of the original Bucky, still doesn't seem to have anything approaching a normal private life, still has a tense on-off relationship with Sharon Carter and is still in his mid-30s. The guy was only frozen for a couple of decades, he must be over 60 by now! Mind you, Nick Fury looks even better. He fought in WWII as well, yet, even without the benefit of suspended animation, he's still looks fucking great, with just the perennial streaks of grey at the sides of his head. Mind you, the once ever-present cigar seems to have been consigned to the ashtray these days. Despite puffing on those stogies for at least 50 years, Fury's lungs are in great shape now. Back-up strips are Iron Man (inevitable costume upgrade, but still the same old Tony Stark) and Thor in a good old fantasy romp with nice artwork by Scott Kolins, in a sorta European style. Incidentally, these are all published in the UK by Panini Comics (who presumably have exclusive rights with Marvel) and don't they look lovely. Thick card sleeves, luxurious paper quality, sophisticated full colour throughout...it shows up the old Marvel UK for the shoddy operation it was! Although back then even newspapers were in black and white. What happened in the intervening years that made full colour publishing so easy and economically viable? I remember when I was a kid, my dad took me on holiday to Italy, and I was amazed by the quality of their Marvel reprints - even nicer than the US originals (I still have a souvenir issue of Fantastici Quatro lying around somewhere) and it seems like we've finally caught up with that level of presentation. But still, for all the paper quality and artistic sophistication, part of me still yearns for the pulpy world of Kirby, Buscema, Perez et al. It was all about the design, the ruthlessly efficient composition that led your eyes across the page so beautifully. This new generation of artists all bring something fresh, but they just don't scan as nicely. And what ever happened to caption bubbles? The third-person narrator has died. Captions only appear when in the first person, like a substitute for the thought balloon. Today's comics seem to aspire to the condition of motion pictures. The story is propelled entirely by visuals and dialogue. I think this is a trend that began in the '80s. The most significant gain from this has been the vastly improved level of dialogue writing, which can often flows very naturally, and is occasionally rather amusing. But still, I miss those "meanwhile, back at Avengers H.Q..." caption boxes. And then there was that style of caption writing pioneered by Stan Lee, whereby the writer/narrator seemed to be addressing the readers, like we were actually involved, part of the process. Now we are the unacknowledged spectators. Comics just aren't as inviting and friendly as they were. It's probably all Frank Miller's fault.

But anyway, let's move on to the DC stuff: Batman Legends #40 and a graphic novel-style collection called Hush Returns that compiles Gotham Knights #50- 66. Batman is one of the very few heroes with whom I've continued to have some sort of relationship with in adulthood, although the last thing I read was probably something like Batman & Dracula, which was well over a decade ago. Both of these specimens have overlapping plot elements and obviously take place in nearby time zones: the Joker's fall from grace as the criminal king of Gotham (now just a washed out wreck hiding in a derelict amusement park) and Batman's troubled relationship with Green Arrow are common factors, plus both story lines involve figures from Bruce Wayne's past relentlessly closing in on him - namely the Red Hood (who appears to be the second Robin come back to life) and Hush, who might be Wayne's brilliant-but-twisted childhood friend Tommy Elliot. The Joker's part in Hush Returns is the real centerpiece for me, delving back into his origin sequence so brilliantly imagined by Alan Moore back in The Killing Joke. We see the pain behind the cracked smile emerge once more, as he learns the identity of the man who killed his wife. Interestingly, the origin sequence is tampered with slightly: here, the Joker only finds out his wife is dead after the botched chemical plant raid, rather than beforehand - just another example of how, in the comics universe, the sequence of events can be altered, whilst the core facts remain the same. It was also fun to see the guy who makes all the special customs - for the good guys and the bad guys - an independent specialist with his own hidden garment factory, creating all those suits to the hi-specs required of his super-customers ("I don't take sides, I just take cash"). This is an idea I first saw in a short text story called Neutral Ground in the paperback Further Adventures Of Batman, published in 1989. All good, ripping yarns.

Although I've expressed some reservations, the fact remains that I was totally sucked into all these stories, and as I finished each one my overriding reaction was what happens next?! So many intriguing little plot strands and characters to explore. The urge to track down the surrounding issues and flesh out the story lines to my own satisfaction is remarkably strong. Even though much has changed, the characters and situations are still the same ones I followed all those years ago, and it's like coming back to the old neighbourhood and becoming embroiled in all those familiar lives once more. The Marvel and DC universes are so old and vast now, and constantly referencing and re-examining their own histories - the present is always firmly latched onto the past, which in turn informs the future, which can change slightly, but never really detaches itself from the core historical facts. Everything changes enough to ensure we keep reading. Nothing changes enough to ensure that, no matter how convoluted the storyline, by the time it concludes, reality has returned back to the default position. But the fun is in watching it all unfold. I've got a feeling I might be hanging around in these worlds again for a while, as least for a few months. I think a trip to Forbidden Planet is on the cards....

BEFORE I GO...

I shall be away most of next week, but hoping to catch M.R.K. 1, Pinch and Rob Smith's More Rockers at this l'il shindig on the 24th, if I get back in time.

Wicked 'mini-documentary' of Shackleton's in-store appearance now showing at the Rooted blog. Big-up the Madboy!

Also, it's interesting to see what my fellow Bristolians have got to say about the Minimal-Dubstep crossover idea, on this heavy thread at Hijack. Some wise words there...

HIGHROAD

Well I'll say one thing for young Chris - he knows how to throw a good party! The second Highroad night at Cosies was as rammed and vibey as the first one back in November. Once again, Chris assembled an imaginative roster of artists and djs for the evening, and the soundsystem was packing plenty of weight, even if the upper frequency range wasn't quite as well-defined as I would've liked. Unfortunately I missed Chris' own warm-up session on the decks, but arrived in time for another mouth-watering set from The Peverelist, whose debut 12 inch "Erstwhile Rhythm/The Grind" hit the streets last week, on Rooted Records' in-house label Punch Drunk. Whether you wanna call it dubstep, minimal, or even 'post-jungle', these tunes have been causing a minor stir on dubplate with their aerodynamically assembled beats, and shades of Hardwax-style hypnotic propulsion, and it'll be interesting to see if they're destined to have any lasting influence over the coming year. Further tantalising evidence of the semi-mythical 'dubstep-minimal crossover' was in evidence, although Tom was keeping the artist/track details close to his chest (damn those plain black dubplates he uses - you can't even grab a sneaky peak at the labels!!), although there was definitely some fresh tunage from Appleblim and Gatekeeper in there, plus Tom's own delicious "Roll With The Punches", which, with it's pensive percussion and wistful squarewave melodies, strikes me as a sort of post-Grime reverie.

We were honoured to have something of a living legend in our midst, when Rob Smith - of Smith & Mighty fame - stepped-up for what was, as far as I'm aware, his first publicly-performed dubstep set. For anyone who forgot, Smith & Mighty were part of the original Bristol hip-hop and dubwise scene that spawned The Wild Bunch, Nellee Hooper, Massive Attack and Tricky. Their early releases on the Three Stripe label are still considered classic records by many (myself included) and they even troubled the mainstream charts with their production work on tracks like Fresh 4's "Wishing On A Star". Their rise to super-stardom seemed assured, but bad contractual dealings saw them fall at the final hurdle. By the time Smith & Mighty had re-grouped, the momentum was lost and even though they continued to record and produce throughout the following decade, there was always that sense that they never achieved the level of success they deserved. Whatever, when someone decides to write the definitive history of Bristol bass-culture, Smith & Mighty deserve a weighty chapter. But what's Rob's new material like? I was expecting it to be quite tentative, but obviously he's been really working hard at it. I managed to grab a few words with him, and he explained that he'd been playing about with dubstep-influenced ideas for about a year. The thing that struck me most was the level of sophistication, that comes from 20 years of production experience. The music was steeped in tradition - lot's of heavy dubbed-out chords and beautiful melodica phrases, chugging dancehall basslines and explosive layers of reverb and echo - but mostly held together by unmistakably halfsteppy beats, and some nicely applied (but not over-used) wobble bass tremors. A few tracks played around with breakstep ideas - there was one that even put me in mind of the breakbeat garage sound of Zinc from a few years ago, and another that had curios hints of Belgian hardcore riffery. It was a mixed bag, but I reckon Rob's definitely onto something, bringing in plenty of familiar elements from dub and breaks that could have some serious crossover potential. I'd hesitate to use the word 'slick', because of the negative implications, but that's basically what it amounts to. Rob's not doing this for a hobby - he's serious about getting these tunes released, and when that happens, I think he could take dubstep to a whole new audience.

Our headline act was Sam Shackleton, of Skull Disco fame. This was the first time I'd linked with Sam for over a year, and the first time I've seen him play out ever. Despite his own assertion that his mixing was a bit 'sketchy', I thought he put on a brilliant show. Hearing a solid hour of pure Shackleton music on a system is quite an experience. He's developed such a distinctive sound, and I love the way that, to the outsider, all his tracks probably sound very similar - he has an almost fetishistic need to use certain key percussion sounds and sub-bass frequencies, and each new piece of music is a slightly different aspect of the greater whole. All the variation is in the details - the endlessly absorbing layers of percussion (Sam's intricate beat programming makes everyone else sound lazy by comparison) that writhe and smolder with all the intensity of a voodoo ritual. The thing I most respect Sam for is the way he has relentlessly pursued his own vision, with only the barest concessions to the dubstep fraternity (basically, the tempo and the bass weight) and now he's starting to get some of the respect he surely deserves, both within the community and further afield from the likes of minimal high-roller Ricardo Villalobos. This in turn seems to have re-energised Shackleton. After a year of personal problems, he was all set to abort the Skull Disco project, but I can confirm that he is very much back in business. The next release is due in about three weeks, with Sam's own bare-boned exercise in sustained tension "You Bring Me Down", coupled with Appleblim's remarkable "Vansan" - full of reverb-heavy Basic Channel chords, pattering 808 percussion and frozen wastes of harmonium drone. I was lucky enough to leave with a test pressing under my arm - cheers lads!!

The night was rounded-off perfectly with a back-to-back session from Bubonic and Kymatik, full of all the frantic energy we've come to expect when these guys hit the decks. Plenty of old favourites making an appearance (both grime and dubstep) , plus some fresh tunes that caught my ear including a Rossi B and Luca track that samples a huge chunk of The Specials' "Ghost Town" - love it! Apparently that one's out now on A.R.M.Y. Records - I must keep an eye out for it. Of course they threw in a few exclusives from local talents like Wedge and Bubonic's production alter ego Forsaken, too. All in all, it was a great evening, and I'm already looking forward to the next one. It was nice to have a proper heart-to-heart chat with Atki2 as well, and special mention for Delsa, who looked like he was gonna thump me at one point - proper punch drunk, innit...

(Some pics of Shackleton's earlier set at Rooted Records here.)

AT LAST

So I finally got myself hooked-up with Last FM. You can see the little 'recently played' chart/link thing at the top left of the page now. I might move it somewhere else later. I've had people recommending Last FM to me for ages, but I never bothered with it because (it might surprise you to know) I don't actually listen to much music on the computer. I mainly listen to vinyl, CD or tape on separate hi-fi equipment, so most of my listening activity will go unrecorded. But what the hell, I'll give it a go, although I'm not committed enough to become a fully paid-up subscriber just yet. To be honest, I don't think I've fully grasped the potential of Last FM (other than to show-off one's brilliant taste in music??) but perhaps it'll prove useful in the long run. If nothing else, it'll probably reveal a lot about my wider musical tastes. I listen to lots of stuff that never gets mentioned here...it's weird that I only feel motivated to write about certain types of music, isn't it?

At the time of writing there's only two MP3s up on the chart, which is what I've been listening to for the past half-hour. One is a long mix, though. It's the latest effort from Siah Alan, aka Patternloader and you can grab it here. His blog has always been a good read, but now he's branching-out into mixing. So far, technically speaking, the results are a bit patchy. But there aren't many people with the balls to do all their learning in public, and of course I empathise after all the struggles I had trying to re-master the art of beat-matching throughout 2005-06. There's still a few moments of greatness in there, and you certainly can't fault the imaginative track selection (and I'm not just saying that because he used one of my 'Gutter dubz'!). My only advice would be (a) don't give up because it can only get better and better and (b) try and keep the transitions short 'n sweet, for the time being - there's a tendency to be a bit over-adventurous with some of the longer segues. But the important thing is, Siah feels an overwhelming urge to share his musical tastes and he knows that mixes are the only ethically approved method of disseminating new music, so he's fucking going for it, and best of luck to him. He's actively encouraging unknown producers to send him their work, so what are you waiting for? I personally took a decision last year that, no matter how much I enjoyed it, I had to stop encouraging people to send me demos, because it was becoming a real problem finding the time to listen to it all, and to give constructive criticism, etc. Some stuff I never got around to listening to, never even replied to, and I bet the kids who sent them figured I was an areshole - and who could blame them? I would love to be a sort of John Peel figure, plowing through piles of demos all day and putting the best stuff in the mix (and getting paid a salary for the privilege!) , but I had to re-focus and get my priorities sorted out. That's one of the reasons why there's no contact info on this blog anymore. It's a shame, I know, and maybe I would've found the next Boxcutter this year, or whatever, but this is how it's got to be from now on. Of course, all my regular producer friends can keep the beats coming (you know who you are) but that's about all I can actively manage to deal with for the time being.

Hey, there might actually be snow in Bristol this week. 70% chance tomorrow night, according to the Met. Office. Cool. It's been a long time since we had a decent dollop of the white stuff around here...