MK Stop 27: HQ Presents: Commix + Data @ The Cellar, Oxford (25th September 2009)

If nights had attire made to symbolise them, HQ would be a waistcoast and faded jeans: appealing enough to present to your gran, but not lacking the functionality and freedom for a traditional knees-up. The idyllic apprehension of contemporary drum & bass events would be that those who wandered, and are lost from the non-mainstream (and non-conformist) could find their path and recoil a love for the genre they abandoned. The onset of UK Garage disconnected many heads from the genre in the late nineties, while certain producers left or crossed over. The subsequent demise of experimental labels (think Partisan, Reinforced) and the loss of large imprint backing (Virgin, Talkin' Loud, etc), with Goldie's "Timeless" breaking musical boundaries, means that those jaded have a lot to remember that was superior to the wasteland characteristic of drum & bass today. HQ represent to fix and fuse.

The current measurements are high attendance, newer names integral to the growth of minimalist d&b getting booked, however a small scope of artists for consideration. Underexposed talent is difficult to pin down, and takes time to be recognised. Furthermore, not every producer is a DJ, and those who are could be too inexperienced to support main acts, or headline themselves. Inherently, also, the likelihood is they'll have made a small pool of tunes to present - for fear of tripping up into a mixing trainwreck - or will be looking to push their own productions (most fresh out the studio) so they get more bookings. It's an interesting argument: do you let the "real" DJs masquerade, or compromise the art of set-building for exclusive content to your night? HQ have the balance locked down well: treated by resident DJs Azonica and Chemical to the might of Photek and Source Direct, they return to the 90s, so that for old school heads attending, the evening is not consigned to the category of nonsensical.

The warm-up becomes honey mixed with dynamite. With The Cellar's system now enhanced, these tracks sound glorious. "Ready on the left, ready on the right?" asks Danny Breaks' "Firing Line (Origin Unknown Remix)". I had my appetite whetted for Data. Deep pads harness congruent wholeness, before powering like a steam train into 170bpm bliss. Hypnotic and arresting, the subs really are a peach. Data's "The Enemy Within" rattles the ribcage at 15 minutes in, coming off like the lovechild of Decoder and Surgeon. Thumping bass pressure coalesces with crafty edits and seasick synth growls. The mixing is tight and energetic, a perfect accompaniment to the dancefloor enthusiasts. The militancy is almost frightening, but maintains a sedation thanks to a sparse usage of the elements. The trend of minimalism in d&b is not a token-to-2009 affair; Deep Blue was championing the theories in 1999, but with the introduction of Cylon and their online mixtapes, it seems more and more are perceiving drum & bass as best in its barest essentials, a possible reaction to the stadium rock & bass that is prevalent in the scene. Pendulum swam into the covers of Kerrang! by it, lest we forget.

Data takes the ventures down low and guests are surely appreciative. It's his second stop at HQ and there's a marked improvement in cohesiveness tonight. There are echoes of circa "Piper" Jonny L present. The beats: sharp like razor blades, the bass piercing, comparatively to Azonica's selection, there's not much for the hips to cling onto. Data is expressionless throughout, a robot commanding cyber-domination with an entourage of tech-steppin' mercenaries. Whilst all this is going on, MC Manikular hosts measured, knowing when to shut up and let the beats talk.

Representing Cambridge, Commix have succumb to internet reviews that they look miserable behind the decks when they play out. Tonight they're making an effort, bopping while twiddling knobs. They hold my attention with sparkling melodies. It would be crass to say they plod, but unlike Data, there's not a lot of variation to compensate the raggedy steppers; no half-time, space trapped by rumbling blasts of bass. Legible rewinds aside, they could do with an injection of serotonin to offset the regimentation.

The success of an HQ night belongs to subtlety, not monotony. If you're a punter who's never listened to d&b before, you'd be advised to come for the full duration to sample a wide range of styles that could appear offensive with short exposure. Home listeners crave plenty of variety while not sacrificing musical content. HQ excites its fanbase by booking DJs who feed off the crowd, letting in MCs who compliment the music, playing classics from years gone by, siphoning dubs as unknown quantities, and applying consistency to all of the aforementioned. Watch out for the October 30th all-nighter with d&b legend Doc Scott.

HQ: MySpace
Data: MySpace
Commix: MySpace

MK Stop 26: Drunkenstein + The Wookies + Secret Rivals @ The Bullingdon, Oxford (24 September 2009)

Waiting, anticipation, dread – everyone’s parameters for stop and start are different, and who has the ability to wait the right length anyway? It could be down to chance, or transpire from attunement to your surroundings. Whatever. Secret Rivals enter in a pleasingly swift manner at tonight’s Moshka bill. Walls of noise-pop traverse elegiac guitars at angst-punk tempos. Cascading riffs accumulate friction, then fly with the female vocalist into an accelerated fray. Secret Rivals rock out, but there’s a degree of sameness to each song. Now and again the interest levels lift, but it’s only an occasional novelty in the face of better bands I've seen.

“We are a dark, broody band with a happy aftertaste,” say The Wookies, after Secret Rivals head offstage. Beginning with equal parts keyboard rigidity and melodic simplicity, there’s certainly no nightmare in their showing, even if, as the drummer proclaims, “Dreams are all I’ve got to give you”. Their second tune harbours a fairground-ride crossed with spaghetti western soundtrack. When balancing gruff vocals with soaring riffage and percussive tidal waves, they breathe gulps of air through the line-up. Recklessness is always counterbalanced by order, fighting prog ghosts but never losing touch with reality. I have a feeling this is a glimpse of a band on its way to great things.

True to their name, headline act Drunkenstein are a monstrous gothic hybrid of bands one and two with five cans of cider. Mikes are a prop for many a performer, but none more savage than punks at their most downtrodden, which is what Drunkenstein come across as at least. Concentration and vagueness are not mutually exclusive, but are handled with deft precision, the band cooking up measured heaviosity. Combined with the singing, which has a surprising theatrical quality, their entertainment is like a bath of ice: chilling, fragmented and demanding a careful touch. They say they “stayed up all night practicing”, and it shows.

But where’s the audience, I wonder. There are barely a dozen heads to count. Nevertheless, for those few in attendance, Moshka have provided a sure-fire winner.

Secret Rivals: MySpace
The Wookies: MySpace
Drunkenstein: MySpace

MK Stop 25: Muttley - Lost In Thought (Subvert Central Podcast 045)

01. Svarte Greiner – The Black Dress (from the album “Knive” – Type)
02. Brian Mcbride – Silent Motels (from the album “When The Detail Lost Its Freedom” – Kranky)
03. Renderizors – Stranger At Your Party (Band version) (from the album “Submarine” – Last Visible Dog)
04. Jasper Leyland – Taken (from the album “Carbon Series Volume 5” -12X50)
05. Marcus Schmickler – Cue (from the album “Param” – A-Musik)
06. The Drift – Nozomi (from the album “Ceiling Sky” – Temporary Residence)
07. Robert Haigh – Lost On A Train (from the album “Notes And Crossings” – Siren)
08. Burial – Night Bus (from the album “Burial” – Hyperdub)
09. Dario Antonelli – ZX-21 Part 1 (from the album “Zaum Vol.1” – Psychonavigation Records)
10. Eluvium – I Am So Much More Me That I Am Perfectly You (from the album “Lambent Material” – Temporary Residence)
11. Stars Of The Lid – Requiem For Dying Mothers Pt.2 (from the album “The Tired Sounds Of Stars Of The Lid” – Kranky)
12. Burial – UK (from the album “Untrue” – Hyperdub)

“Lost In Thought”: dedicated to my mother, whom I have left home from, to build ledges of ascension, with my old place of residence.

Download

Any feedback much appreciated. :)

MK Stop 24: Mr. Shaodow + Meet Me At Midnight + Baby Gravy + Desert Storm @ 02 Academy Oxford (5th September 2009)

Guitar boxes shuffle, 180 bpm metal grinds out the speakers, ready for the spell we’re put under. Baby Gravy steer the ship from Desert Storm’s crescendos. Stalking and slinking over the premises, Iona’s taut vocalizing maps out a Van de Graaff generator of low-slung static charge. “Nuffink”, with local MC Nzyme, is a highlight, self-raising to a mid-tempo comedown, where the sub bass is enlarged and synths permeate like slugs caught in a beer trap. ShaoDow enters for live favourite “Don’t Touch Me”, and the set ends with Iona crawling round the floor.

The gap between tension and release begins to broaden, as beer fuels the mosh-pit riot; by now there’s a sweaty intensity inside the Academy.

Initially I was cagey about Meet Me At Midnight, who at first sound a casualty of alt-rock. But spinning the microphone yo-yo-style, they expand their tapestry from lysergic groaning and shovelling of instrumental dirt, to petrol-bomb riffs more mince than meat. When unwinding their playful side they’re of great enjoyment. Unlike the body ping-pong that continues to upset the concord.

But now the Shaolin rapper is waiting in the wings with laptop-merchant Offkey and MC Leen. I last caught ShaoDow supporting The Scribes close to a year ago, on the release of his single “Grime”. He’s come on leaps and bounds since then: his voice of satirical wisdom bypassing getting banned on Channel U, guesting the Truck festival (reviewed in September's Nightshift), and unleashing his anger indiscriminately (a moral duty given his involvement in the Love Music, Hate Racism campaign) with ingenious prose that could tongue-tie the fiercest auctioneer.

Leaping onto the stage with a spinning crescent kick – shadow; moving ShaoDow – he’s a beacon of delight tonight; running through “Look Out, There’s a Black Man Coming”, an audacious a capella, and an insanely good freestyle session; covering topics as experimentally vague as Cheestrings, Hitler, the magic roundabout and Michael Jackson. I ended my evening with an affection so vast I could hardly wait to drop “That’s Mr. ShaoDow To You” into the CD player again and bop along to my heart’s content.

MK Stop 24: Glint - Self-titled EP (www.glintonline.com)

Glint was conceived by Jase Blankfort (NYC) and Mateus Tebaldi (Brazil) in New York City. This self-titled EP sees them issuing an electro-rock amalgam of Kraftwerk-meets-Muse, unfinished symphonies, taunted by paranoid guitar flex and forlorn lyrical passages. The epic "Kernel Panic", a graphically rich maelstrom of orchestral strings, percussive post-rock poise and vocal intrepidity, continually peaks and troughs as the opener, breaking down for a total of four, jolting your apex upward and downward like a see-saw.

The casual stroll / dilligent sprint meshing of (mislabeled) "Freak" squeezes oil from the painting as Mogwai encapsulated in a perpetual motion machine, Blankfort whining like an alchoholic, at odds with himself, over driving percussion, and rope-swing guitar.

The output appears tinted by asymmetrical structures that are once lopsided as they are angular, blending like rice with curry sauce. It's this spicy homogenity that populates the entireity of the EP, the poppier "Hold Still" exiting a dust-blown compartment to crash down with force on the listener, the rippling analogue, arpeggiated synth arching like a rainbow bridge from the underbelly of the procession.

Lyrically there's much to scratch beards over, particularly "I've tried this times before / I can't wait / Counting the steps I take / The hearts I break / I'm counting mistakes I make, the lies I fake / I'm willing to change my ways, take me away".

"Friends" rises from a pool of Detroit Techno glue to supplant a weighty cheerleader-wave of automated guitar persistence, searing like a lengthy burn. "Damaged Goods" which follows it, is hook, line and sinker to the record's mission statement: to prove "my love is true". There's weighty backing to Blankfort's gruff deliveries, pauses for breath, with a machine-gun grunt propelling the longing onward.

If there's one thing that's lacking from this EP, it's that the barriers to enlightenment are blocked by a tendency to be oppressive. "Sound In Silence", their 2008 LP, proved they have the scope to implement lighter textures instead of a doom-engulfed emotive smog. I have a feeling that if Glint can capitalise on this fact and sow sweetness in the lining, on the same release, they will be onto something very special indeed. As it is, they don't require to trade old ideas for innovative ones; just a gentle glance at the world wouldn't go amiss.

Purchase: "Sound In Silence" and Self-titled EP
Glint: MySpace
Glint: blog

MK Stop 23: Muttley - Gravitation To Resolution

01. Jasper TX & Anduin – Where A Star Once Was (SMTG)
02. Robert Fripp & Brian Eno – Evening Star (EG Records)
03. Kettel – An Inky Moon (DUB Recordings)
04. The Drift – For Grace And Stars (Temporary Residence)
05. Sawako – Purple Sky Coming (Anticipate)
06. Gordon Giltrap – Sad Skies (La Cooka Ratcha)
07. Johann Johansson – Fordlandia – Aerial View (4AD)
08. Quosp – Stars (U-Cover)
09. Seeland – Station Sky (LOAF)
10. Peter Broderick – Below It (Type)
11. Neil Halstead – The Finer Points Of Flying (Brushfire Records)
12. Glint – Boy And The Stars (Rely Records)
13. Mono – The Sky Remains The Same As Ever (Temporary Residence)
14. Need More Sources – Sun (MOTEER)
15. Badmammal – Skydive (goodluck/badluck)
16. Bird Show – Clouds And Their Shadows (Kranky)
17. Christopher Willits – Clouds Form (Ghostly International)
18. Slowdive – Blue Skied An’ Clear (Creation)
19. Boards Of Canada – Skyliner (Warp)
20. Burial – Forgive (Hyperdub)
21. Brian Eno – An Ending (Ascent) (EG Records)

"'Gravitation To Resolution’: tracks that represent an ascending of consciousness, in their respective progressions, all connatural to the sky; objects of, motions in, from night to day, in whatever custom fits.”

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MK Stop 22: Muttley - Veer On The Side Of Caution

Artwork credits: cordani @ est00.com

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They say if you fail to plan, you plan to fail, but they don't usually supplement if you fail to fail, you're on course to plan. This is the mentality I've been handling tighter in the last month, as the woman I've had the relationship breakdown with replied to one of my mails - directly, for the first time in over an annum. She informed me "you were thinking too much and too deep and tried to interpret too many things, which had absolutely nothing to do with you." Obviously there's misunderstandings at each end, a literary big cat that's had its dinner stolen. Reclaiming my equilibrium will be dictated by fate and common sense, as she says "I'm gonna explain you everything as soon as I'm gonna have a new laptop again, ok?" By kind direction of my parents I will resist answering her until that semblance is fulfilled.

"Veer On The Side Of Caution" is the second in a series of mixes dedicated to Bridewell Gardens, which I enrolled for earlier in 2009 to attempt work in the fields of conservation and decoration. To tie in the first paragraph, it is a cross-application of mellow and meaningful music that is themed on tracks that use piano for longer than two minutes. I partake in pricking out and potting on at Bridewell and this is my soundtrack. If you're unaware what these are: pricking out is lifting sowed seeds (plants) from their beds, putting them into trays, whereas potting on is lifting tray-bound plants and placing them in pots. Sound like fun? It's helped keep me sane and sedated this fall.

I've lengthened the double whammy of purposes by integrating the ominous narratives of L-r & Radiomentale's "I Could Never Make That Music Again" LP, ala "Let Sleeping Dogs Lie", to creep in and out. It is a relay of musicians talking of their personal hardships, methods of using music as healing agents, and the contextualising of such diction in succession opens the idioms into more adventurous areas. I can apply a multitude of the speeches as buoys for my problems with psychosis, most openly "I stopped listening to music in general. I had my own personal things that I was going through. I was also going through a time of, you know, I guess I would say...I'm not retro or conservative at all you know, I'm really not".

Leafcuter John's "Dream 111" is the badge of honour I sacrificed when presuming a test on the woman's MySpace page was to detect whether I was supposedly "stalking" her (which I wasn't. I was very worried for her and so prolonged my viewing of her MySpace to tell if there was suicidal hypothesising). A selection of her friends posted "one, two" in their specific language (this deal has greater space for misunderstanding as it veered over two different countries, one not native English) and I took the bait, intended for me or not, and posted "three" in her language. I then mailed the friend who shouted me down by saying if she has no more time for me, deleting my MySpace comment will let me know. For all I assume she could have removed me from her friends list there and then, as the comment on her site remained, but the one on mine "hello my favourite donut" (we used to jest and that was an affectionate term) disappeared. So the manifestation increased, opening up "This is battered and torn, with a scratch on the top, although it is not so worn, it is time to stop" to further interpretation.

"There are freaks that are created, either through accident or disease, and then there are freaks that create themselves. We get laughed at, it was a joke. We got laughed at for years, so we had to really believe in ourselves, because we could have given up. A freak is really a metaphor or a symbol for someone whos on the outside. And in a lot of ways, they've always seen themselves as outsiders...as freaks, if you were." Like trying to put ten pounds of mud in a five pound sack, this working could have transgressed desirably if I was able to see clearly, with clarity and restraint from not constantly wearing my heart on my sleeve. The anguish is almost palpable as I encounter my older emotions and attempt to open my eyes and realise this friendship I had online with this woman could teeter to trepidation all too quickly if I don't take my family's advice and hold back. Those reading my past write-ups, and newcomers to the 15 Minutes Of Fame Mix Series, I'll tell you honestly what occurs in good faith, very soon.

Mixed in Cubase SX 3.
Any feedback much appreciated. :)