Clicks, Whistles and Radio Rips 3 (Fact Magazine, 5/08)
Welcome to the third instalment of Clicks, Whistles and Radio Rips, our ever-expanding exploration of niche scenes and the best bits of music you can nab off them for free. This month we’ll be doing the usual round-up of what’s been happening in UK dance music, investigating the provisionally named aquacrunk/wonky scene, and bringing you an interview with WZT Hearts’ Jason Urick.
Dave Miller – FACT Magazine Mix
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But first, this month’s exclusive mix. Following in the footsteps of Toddla T and DJ Magic, Dave Miller of recent Warp signees Pivot contributes our third mix; a journey from recent synth-based instrumentals (including Joker, Ikonika and Rustie’s amazing remix of Pivot’s ‘In The Blood’) through a new Pivot track exclusive to iTunes, ending up at the old snyth tracks that influenced their record: Vangelis, Cluster and Jean Michel Jarre. It’s a bad boy mix and the perfect soundtrack to this month’s investigation, so get yer ears around it.
Track listing: Pivot – In The Blood [Rustie Remix] (Warp), Ikonika – Please (Hyperdub), Joker – Gully Brook Lane (White), Dabrye – Air [Kode 9 remix instrumental] (Ghostly), Kode 9 – 9 Samurai [Quarta 330 remix] (Hyperdub), Harmonic 313 – Word Problems (Warp), Pivot – Blood Rise Red Dawn (Warp), Jean Michel Jarre – Oxygene 7 [RP edit] (Disques Dreyfus), Cluster – Hollywood (Brain), Tangerine Dream – Phaedra (Virgin), Eno Moebius Roedelius Plank – Broken Head (Sky), Vangelis – Blade Runner End Titles (Atlantic)
Not much seems to have happened in grime this month. According to Prancehall’s Fader blog , Roll Deep have been kicked out their studio for not paying the rent, the computer in Jammer’s basement is broke and two other studios are closed, so that probably has something to do with the lack of new tunes. That or everyone’s too busy listening to the trifecta of mixtapes that dropped at the time of our last column: Ghetto’s Freedom of Speech, Trim’s Soulfood Vol 3 and Riko’s double CD The Truth.
Inevitably, the two most exciting things that have happened since those mixtapes involve Wiley. First, tabloid newspaper The Sun accused him of vulphopbia when he didn’t turn up for the video shoot to ‘Wearing My Rolex’. Wiley hit back, and said that if some foxes wanted to have a go at him then he’d feed them chicken bones. Him and Bless Beats then made the third instalment in the Rolex Saga, ‘It’s Alright’. This is probably my favourite Rolex tune yet: the synths are so sleazy they could be Audion gone 4×4, and Wiley is the best rapper turned hook merchant ever. There used to be a few youtube links to the song but some have been taken down, so hopefully that’s a sign it’s getting a proper release.
Wiley and Bless Beats’ Rolex tunes are wicked pop songs (‘Rolex Sweep’, the second instalment, even has its own dance move as seen above), but they’re also reminiscent of something that’s happened tragically little over the last few years in grime; riddims getting so popular that you’d hear a new vocal of them on radio every week. The Rolex Saga isn’t quite the same thing, but I think it’s how people will remember the first half of ’08 for grime, just like last summer will always be associated with the ubiquity of Skepta’s ‘Stageshow riddim’ (who is taking up mixing duties on Rinse 04 ).
There are two recent instrumentals that have been doing big things though, and neither are from the usual suspects. Loudmouth, who is part of Aftershock, has a tune called ‘Suck Out’ which literally made Badness explode (the clip’s on Loudmouth’s myspace) when Spyro played it on his Rinse show the other week. And fresh from the release of their essential An England Story compilation of UK MCs on Soul Jazz, the Heatwave Collective ’s ‘Piano’ Riddim is the most addictive thing going. Warrior Queen’s vocal of the tune, entitled ‘Things Change’, is out now, and the coming weeks will see Riko and Rubi Dan’s versions released on seven inch. The weather’s getting nice, and it’s all about spending the summer dancing to these and the Rolex tunes. Also check out Rossi B and Luca’s youtube grime mix, and our mate Toddla T’s video for his new tune ’Sound Tape Killin’.
The last month has also seen incredible records from that movement of post-Dilla, uber-wonky, erratic hip-hop producers that Kode9 champions; you know, Rustie, Flying Lotus, Dabrye, Hudson Mohawke, those guys. There doesn’t seem to be a consensus on what this music’s called (Rustie said he makes aquacrunk in his recent FACT profile but he was probably taking the piss), but we can’t get enough of it, particularly the sleazy Glasgow brand that LuckyMe make.
Hudson’s Ooops! EP bootlegs Yummy Bingham’s ‘Come And Get It’ and Tweet’s ‘Oops (Oh My)’ in this style, and one of the great things about it is listening back to the scattered drum patterns on the originals and realising that they’re probably the sort of tunes that helped inspire Hud Mo’s production in the first place. The release feels like him going full circle, recasting his influences in his own vision. You can hear tracks from Ooops! for free on Hudson’s Drums Vol. 1 Mix and the 4am Drunk Mix that him and Rustie did for Dazed Digital, but if you’re prepared to actually spend some money then get the 12 inch in, along with Rustie’s recent (and super-rare) Café De Phresh EP and Dabrye’s Get Dirty EP, the latter of which features an all-star cast of AG, MF Doom and Phat Kat on microphone, and Kode9 and Flying Lotus on remix duty.
So often, when it comes to press coverage of the underground, it’s the musicians who get most of the glory. Yet behind the scenes, there are innumerable, equally fascinating stories that remain unsung: the kids setting up shows in church basements, running record stores on shoe-string budgets and sinking their savings into starting all-vinyl labels, and we feel it’s equally – if not more – important that they get their due. So last month when we had the chance to sit down with laptopper Jason Urick of Baltimore-based noise outfit WZT Hearts, we probed into his other, backstage life…
When did you move to Floristree?
I moved to Floristree in 2005, so I was at Floristree the last year of the store [Once.Twice.Sound].
The chronology really seems to overlap. You’re doing one thing and you start doing another thing and you take off with the other thing.
You just focus your energy in a different place. We were definitely doing stuff [at Floristree] when I had the store as well. Not as much because when I first moved in it was kind of two places, on the top floor [of a warehouse]. There was a wall and a door between [the two sides], though we were technically roommates. It was called The Penthouse, where the show space is now. My friend Nick and bandmate Shaun [Flynn] were living on the side I was living on. We had one half and it was more domesticated. Then there was a door and that [other] side. Those guys had stopped doing shows at that point.
They had been doing them before?
They did more hippie jam band stuff. It was a different vibe but it was cool. We were super fortunate. When those guys started leaving, they gave the lease up to us. We started moving our friends into the other rooms. Dave Zimmerman [of Ecstatic Sunshine] moved in. Our friend Tony Lambert, of Madagascar, moved in, though Matt Papich [also of Ecstatic Sunshine] took his room over. We moved in Jared Paolini, he’s in Tall Grass. I think the first show we did was before the sides [of Floristree] came together. We had Sightings at our house. I still had the store when we did our first K-Swift [popular Baltimore Club DJ] parties.
When we got control of the space in 2006, we had already had some shows there. It’s one of those things that just steamrolls. You do a couple shows and they go well, then you start getting emailed all the time. Matt Papich coming in – with Wildfire Wildfire [record label-cum-events organizers] and Ecstatic Sunshine – brought a whole different energy. For awhile we took on more than we wanted to. We’d rather keep them pretty rare. We don’t make money off of it. It’s just because we like doing it.
Right, and after the Talking Head club closed it seemed like you moved in there.
It wasn’t just traditional venues [that closed], the nontraditional venues were going under. Like, Wham City [former warehouse venue]. So many bands that we liked weren’t able to find shows. It was a stressful time. There was no sleep at all. My business was going under, we were doing five shows a month and there were all sorts of other personal things going on. Now we are more about doing these dinners. Being more selective about the shows and trying to keep them to a limited amount per month. We are starting to find a balance.
Except, you did Whartscape! [Wham City's weekend-long underground music festival which featured Dan Deacon, Spank Rock, Yeasayer (above), Ponytail and a bazillion more]
Yeah, well Whartscape is a whole different ball of wax! But, we didn’t do a show for a month before or a month after that, to prepare for the insanity that that would be.
Weren’t there twelve-hundred bodies going through there?
Yeah, there was about twelve-hundred people through the weekend. It was so hot and it was pretty gross the next day from all the sweat and beer. But, the space is remarkably durable.
It’s still wild to think that you had twelve-hundred people passing through what is essentially your living room.
The amount of trash bags we pulled out after that weekend would boggle your mind. It was insane. Though it turned out really well and I’m glad it happened.
Now you are doing select shows and Weedsnake? [Prix-fixe monthly dinner events @ Floristree, featuring guest cooks]
I can’t really take credit for Weedsnake. That’s more Matt [Papich], Devon [Deimler] and Dave [Zimmerman]’s doing. I got really excited when they started doing it.
When someone else is cooking in your house, it’s great.
It’s awesome. We all help do the cooking. It’s something I’ve really got behind. That’s the cool thing about the space, you can come up with something crazy like that and do it.
Words: Tom Lea & Raven Baker
