silverdollarcircle

as cologne is to techno, as east london is to grime, the west country is to great blogs.


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there's been some worrying about words recently from some parts of this big internet world, with people arguing about what is grime and what is not. for what it's worth, here's my take:
-if MC's decide to spit their lyrics over a track, it becomes grime. often the tracks that they decide to go over are fairly similar stylistically, but there's a few tracks that are totally out on their own- what's the connection, say, between 'funktion on the low', or 'fire hydrant' and the more 'typical' grime sound of pulse x, straight riddim, wiley's harder stuff etc...?
that's the thing about grime, what makes it so exciting: anything goes. still, after 2 years, there's no real stylistic boundaries or idioms in place yet. it'll probably start to close up soon, or splinter into distinct scenes, but right now there seems to be room for any sound.

it's the context that's important in whether tracks are grime or not: it's how they are used.
so plasticman is a grime producer cuz MCs love 'cha' and 'shallow grave' etc.
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i went to fabric the other day and met mpc and dripdropdrap there. it was fun. i might write about it soon.

time table for raw uk 90.00fm, from rwdmag forum

Monday

8-10 RUFF SQUAD
DJ Scholar, DJ Begg, Rapid, Mad Max, Slicks, Styder, Shifty & D.Danger

10-12 EAST CONNECTION
DJ Diesel, Double O, Rhyder, Demon, J Mundo, Napper, Fresh & Shizzle

Tuesday

6-8 N.A.S.T.Y
DJ Mac 10, DJ Snappy, Hyper, Armour, Big Seek, Stormin, Ghetto, Kano & NJ Fever

8-10 COMMANDA B

Wednesday

6-8 FIRE CAMP
DJ Twista, Lethal B, Ozzie B, 2Face, Clipper & Knowledge

8-10 TU TUFF
DJ Busby, Baby Sham, Spider B & Clumsy

10-12 NEWHAM GENERALS
DJ MS1, D Double, Footsie & Monkey

Thursday

6-8 TOTAL PACKAGE
DJ Marsta, Ivano & General LOK

10-12 AFTERSHOCK LABEL
DJ Shox, Bruza, Triple Threat & Terror Danjah

Friday

6-8 JAMEK-WORLD PRODUCTIONS

8-10 BOYS IN THE HOOD
DJ Flippy Smalls, Crazy Titch, Goodz & Dullision

10-12 EAST CONNECTION
DJ Nikki Slimting

Saturday

4-6 COMMANDA B

8-10 EAST CONNECTION
DJ Diesel, Double O, Rhyder, Demon, J Mundo, Napper, Fresh & Shizzle

10-12 FIRE CAMP
DJ Twista, Lethal B, Ozzie B, 2Face, Clipper & Knowledge

Sunday

4-6 DJ MACKIE

6-8 SLK
DJ Vectra, Flirta D, Ribz, Adam B & Swarvo

so, RAW BLAZE 'nine grand' FM is back, properly this time. happy happy happy. i turned on my radio this morning, as full of anticipation and excitement as a 4 year old's christmas day, and there it was: broadcasting loud + nicely fuzzy, a recording of a sidewinder set blaring out of the speakers. i love Delight and Rinse and On Top and all, but to have the Big One back finally makes me realise just how much i've missed it this past 4 months or so...i've missed the big crew sets, the clashes, the birthday bash specials where they crowd as many top name MCs into the studio as they can, hearing ruff sqwad every week, hearing the MCs get better and better, coming up with new lyrics all the time. most of all, i guess, i've missed feeling that i understand what's going on in the world of grime, missed feeling connected. for someone like me, who loves grime deeply but whose main contact with grime is listening to the pirates, the absence of raw blaze was quite disorienting: suddenly, i felt even more out of touch than usual with this music that means a great deal with me, felt at another crucial remove from what is actually happening in the scene.

but yeah, raw blaze is back and so am i- should be back to posting with more regularity now that it's back on, just cuz there's going to be so much to write about, so many more adventures to follow.

the sidewinder show they played today was classic. incredibly over the top with demon, lethal b, nappa and crazy titch all trying to come across as more angry than the next man. it also features my favourite single moment in music i've heard this year [it only lasts 10 seconds or so], where demon and lethal b trade screamed lyrics, as the intensity steps up each time, ending in a furious and joyful flurry of yelps and howls from lethal b:
lethal B; POW POW POW
demon; YOU DON'T WANNA BRING ARMS HOUSE
lethal b; POW POW POW POW POW!!
demon; YOU DON'T WANNA BRING NO BEEF
lethal b; POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW!!!

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big, big big cd out on monday [i think]::::
RUN THE ROADS [679 records], compiled by the fantastic grime journalist Martin Clark [hyperdub, Touch, Deuce]. you can read about it here.
all the tracks that i've heard that are on it are amazing, so i would very, very strongly recommend that you buy this if yr at all interested in hearing what the best grime in 2004 sounds like. a few tracks on there would each alone be worth the price of the cd- chosen one, let it out, move, destruction vip.
tinchy strider's 'move' [which used to be called 'headbanger', months ago] is one of the greatest ruff sqwad productions ever, along with one of the best grime vocal performances- tinchy strider encouraging us not to be scared to let it out, to move, to bang yr head, to make a racket.
so yes, you really should buy this cd.

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i dunno if i've linked to this before or not, but if i haven't then i'm stupid:::
poplife is brilliant, one of my favourite blogs around, easily. derek writes about all that is interesting in modern music, which obviously [for me, anyway] includes a lot of grime, and he does it in a passionate, informed and natural way that's a really joy to read every day. so leave these awkward fumblings and go and read his stuff instead...

[but not yet cuz i've still got stuff to digress and meander about he he] particularly interesting for me recently on poplife was derek's comments on 'rhythmic danger' in grime [does anyone know where that phrase originates?] which is something i think about quite a lot. part of what makes grime so endlessly fascinating for me is the rhythmic invention, which crucially-and fairly uniquely- has come about as the result of a rejection of 'beat science'. the beat isn't important in grime tracks anymore- the MC holds the beats. he's the percussive instrument in the set up, the time keeper. [witness grime MCs carrying on going after the record has been cut out, waiting for the DJ to come back with a record that keeps time with them]. this reduced role for grime tracks has allowed producers to have an almost totally free hand in the sounds they make- for the first time in perhaps 50 years, there's a style of popular music, of music for dancing, clubs and cars, which has no 'standard' beat pattern at all. anything goes. the tracks are there as incidental music to the MCs- not incidental as in unimportant, but as in setting the scene, fixing the atmosphere, drawing the audience in, giving them something to hold on to.

so you get beatless mixes, or tracks with only the gentlest pitter-patter of beats, or tracks with beats as thrillingly ungainly counter-stabs to the MC's flow [i luv u, for example]. the spotlight moving to the MC from the DJ has opened up a whole new world of invention, and while there are downsides to that [such as the occasional slow-periods where no new big tracks seem to be picked up on that i've written about before], really what allows grime to be so exciting and- often- alien, is that the focus often isn't on it's most radical and alien aspects. with the MCs ruling the scene, the producers can let their imaginations explore fucked up pop-ambient snowscapes, gabba-electro carnage, computer game nightmare sounds, cut up and brutally condensed brass + horn filmic soundtracks.

and all the time, the MCs are coming up with new moves every time, of course, but i guess that's another post...

night night

AKUFEN and MISS KITTIN at fabric this saturday. it's gonna be wicked, i'm going, and - come on, really- you should come along too...

something i was thinking about today: HOW good a title is 'misty cold' [ruff sqwad innit] ? it' so perfect, such a poetically accurate description of grimey melodic brutalism.

hazy, hazy, hazy days...

"we should only allow women to run for government, own businesses, join the police force and generally run the world. We (the males of the species) have given it our best shot but let's face it, we don't have a fucking clue, and everybody knows it."

-duncan at the ugly vision, hitting that nail right on its head.

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DJ GODFATHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I cannot stress enough how important it is for you to go over to dissensus and download the mp3 of the dj godfather mixtape.
after listening to it, i've spent pretty much the entire day singing to myself, "let me see yr dick work, let me see yr pussy work" over and over. it is only a matter of time before i am arrested.

yesterday i saw the biggest piece of polystyrene i have ever seen in my life. quite possibly the biggest piece in the world. i reckon it was about a foot and a half deep, 8 feet long and 6 feet wide. i really wanted to touch it, for some reason, but it was behind railings. if you want to look at this unique object, it is on chenies street, which is off tottenham court road.

but, then, why would you?

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oh, i wrote that d double lyric down wrong by the way; it's not 'that's very individual, never heard that from another individual' its, 'that's very original, never heard that from another individual'.
so that's that sorted out then.
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other business:
this is going to seem like i'm only saying this cuz he said nice things about me recently, but it's not because of that at all: kid shirt's recent posts on illness, why he is currently a major global polluter, how he is the jewish messiah, and how he is the victim of alison goldfrapp's occult powers is the best blog post there has ever been.

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it made me happy to read evergreen daze mentioning that he enjoyed that christian marclay thing at the white cube a while back. i saw it too and i don't think i'll ever forget it. it was one of the most fun + exciting pieces of film + music i've seen + heard.

getting back into the pirates after a little bit of a break has been such a pleasure. for a few weeks i haven't really been listening to pirate stations as religiously as before, just cuz it seemed a bit like huge effort to search out some MC stuff, with freeze + delight + on top down, and raw blaze still not back on despite those cruel, tantalising rwdmag forum posts that periodically appear. but now, delight + on top are back, so the floor in once again littered with the cellophane wrappers of C90 tapes...

ESSENTIALS were on tonight, [delight 103.0fm 8-10 mondays]and sounded very, very big. there's a self confidence to them now, a joyful swagger in what they do, that reflects their current position as perhaps the biggest crew aside from Roll Deep [who, by the way, never seem to be off the radio at the moment]. too many mind-boggling davinche dubs to take in all in one sitting, but i'll listen to the tape again and try and come up with some words about them. although i will say this now, about a [relatively] establised davinche track; his remix of big e d's 'frontline' with kele le roc on vocals is the saddest song i've heard all year. those mournful, muffled descending horn parts sound like they've just realised that it's all over, and the jabs of strings coming up from the typical frontline slime + murk lift the track only to be cut off unexpectedly, ending like dashed hope, quickly but not for long. and kele le roc is still my favourite female singer ever. when she sings 'well, excuse me...'here, singing about her right to cry at the emotional frontline, surrounded by those hazy horn parts plodding downwards, she sounds so strong, so heroic and so independent that you know she's a survivor of devastations and wrongs. the tragedy is all in that refusal to totally break down and wail, in her determination to keep it together and stay dignified. there's a kind of ache in her voice. and she makes you think that it'll never go away.

side note: a few weeks back, matt woebot's joked about how horrible it would be if f cd mixers had in-built glitch effects. well, it seems to have happened; bossman was using some cd decks tonight, and had a skipping cd sound come in whenever he was commanded [and those essentials boys do COMMAND] to reload a tune. it sounded wicked actually. but not as good as the screech of a record being pulled back though. that's the most exciting, exhilirating sound in the world.

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oh, and don't go out on sundays anymore. sundays are rubbish anyway. you should stay in doors cramming your body with roasted food stuffs while listening to D DOUBLE AND FOOTSIE on the braindead show [rinse 100.3fm sundays]. it was so great to hear d double back on the radio after all this time. felt like coming home, almost. 'ok, it's the newham gens' brought an instant big smile from me. d double is a star. he should be massive, and although he might not be cuz the world is fucked, he will always sound like a star. he's got a great new track out in which he bigs himself up for inventing his 'mui mui' and 'ooh ooh' echoes. 'that's very individual! never heard that from another individual!' he quips approvingly and i think the phrase is; pleased as punch. it is funny and it is delightful. d double is a star.

Tubby, the braindead dj, is quickly becoming one of my favourite grime DJs. i love the way he focusses on playing very dynamic, attacking grime that sounds like its making raids on yr speakers, rather than the currrently very popular dulled, low brass stabs that go 'dunh!...dunhh!' like some heroin version of dancehall [e.g; jammer's 'destruction' and quite a few daviche tracks]. Tubby prefers to keep it plasticy and restless, full of synthetic melodies throwing the tracks forward. as much as i like davinche and 'destruction', it's good to hear things begin to rise up from the dark and moody detonations that have taken over recently.

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oh and also; kompakt's 'speicher 2' mix cd. good lord, it's quite hard isn't it? joachim speith you are a crazy guy. what happened to that sitting on the beach missing yr girlfriend sound that michael mayer used to talk about? still lots of fun though.

"we’re not speaking in anyone else’s language. We’re saying things that we experience and we believe in"
-davinche on grime, speaking to rwdmag

-i really, really love that new eminem song, 'just lose it'. the only song by him i've ever liked. it's like a hiphop cousin to roll deep's 'shake a leg'; that same loose, gleefully silly pop mess. more songs should be like this- we need more tracks that want to get people to lose their cool and act stupid on the dancefloor. cool is crippling.
"boy, shake that ass...wait, i mean girls, girls girls girls" that's genius! you love that! tell me you don't love that!

"everybody's talking but nobody's listening
every day the same shit, week out and week in"

-dizzee rascal

more people should read friend and comrade joe's little dogs day.

you can help rectify this sorry situation by going here.

and also, please, please buy Forward when it comes out. buy multiple copies- i'm sure you'll be able to find some use for them. this MUST go to number one.

sincere concern and sympathy for all the good and right thinking people in america.

i feel quite scared now, thinking about the next 4 years...

listening to 'strings of life', feeling a little better. little comforts.

how could a place that produced that, also produce this?

so i'm really disappointed + quite pissed off that i left the grime night at Fabric early. roll deep's set seems to have gone done in legend as one of the greatest live shows of all time. some people are saying better than wu tang. others are saying better than the sex pistols in 77. so, yes, quite regretting that early night i decided to have now. but still, the start of the night WAS a bit shit + very disheartening. but i guess in that kind of situation you've just got to stick it out and wait for roll deep to re-hearten you. a mistake, a historic, terrible mistake on my part...but i'm going to the next one and i'm going to stay there till the bitter/glorious end.


in other news: roll deep are now rich and signed

and you should all buy forward riddim on monday. i still think it'll go top 10.

this isn't very scientific but::: Kiss FM DJs are now responding to calls to play 'fwd' by playing it right at the end of their shows, keeping you listening with promises of 'fwd coming up real soon' and so on. they're using fwd as a tool to keep people locked in. this is exactly what happened with 'babycakes'. and that went to number one. admittedly, babycakes is hugely more commercial than fwd, but that fact only allowed it to STAY in the charts after its initial entry, because it could easily be slotted in to the rest of the daytime pop the legit stations pour out. before it got to number one, there was very little legit radio play of it. it's initial popularity was based on underground buzz alone. so that's my prediction for fwd; underground popularity pushes it way into the top ten, then it slides down the charts rapidly cuz everyone who was going to like it will have bought it in the first week. but still, it's going to be the best thing to happen to the british popular music scene since hardcore. it's going to be...an event.

so i'm really disappointed + quite pissed off that i left the grime night at Fabric early. roll deep's set seems to have gone done in legend as one of the greatest live shows of all time. some people are saying better than wu tang. others are saying better than the sex pistols in 77. so, yes, quite regretting that early night i decided to have now. but still, the start of the night WAS a bit shit + very disheartening. but i guess in that kind of situation you've just got to stick it out and wait for roll deep to re-hearten you. a mistake, a historic, terrible mistake on my part...but i'm going to the next one and i'm going to stay there till the bitter/glorious end.


in other news: roll deep are now rich and signed

and you should all buy forward riddim on monday. i still think it'll go top 10.

this isn't very scientific but::: Kiss FM DJs are now responding to calls to play 'fwd' by playing it right at the end of their shows, keeping you listening with promises of 'fwd coming up real soon' and so on. they're using fwd as a tool to keep people locked in. this is exactly what happened with 'babycakes'. and that went to number one. admittedly, babycakes is hugely more commercial than fwd, but that fact only allowed it to STAY in the charts after its initial entry, because it could easily be slotted in to the rest of the daytime pop the legit stations pour out. before it got to number one, there was very little legit radio play of it. it's initial popularity was based on underground buzz alone. so that's my prediction for fwd; underground popularity pushes it way into the top ten, then it slides down the charts rapidly cuz everyone who was going to like it will have bought it in the first week. but still, it's going to be the best thing to happen to the british popular music scene since hardcore. it's going to be...an event.