That's it, a few more hours and we're in a new decade.
Mad year, some good music... a lot of adventures, a lot of damage done to internal organs no doubt, a few new people entered my life and I got a swanky new job.
I'm not gonna summarise the year's music because, frankly, I can't be arsed. What I will say is that a lot of the people I've always supported have done well, which is great. There's been a lot of good shit made this year, and a lot of SHIT shit as well.
It's a time for giving and some of music world's artists decided to use Christmas Day for exactly that.
I don't usually go on the internet on Christmas Day - I'm too busy stuffing my guts with turkey and the trimmings, pudding and then piles of Pringles and whatnot - but yesterday I got online for a bit and I was glad for it.
There was a lot of music released for free and all of it by peeps I want to hear music from.
Skream's Freeizm LP was probably my pick of the bunch, a compilation featuring a tiny portion of the mountains of music he makes on an almost weekly basis. Tunes from 2007 up to now feature on the album and it's sick. Something I would definitely have paid money for, which makes the freeness all the better.
Other heads who got into the Christmas spirit include Ghetts, Dirty Danger and Rival - who was pissed off with his management and decided to chuck out the rest of his Murder Edition tracks.
No fucking about.
Check the rest below and a brilliant video of David Rodigan closing his set at the Macbeth earlier this week (23rd December) - that guy is amazing.
This past weekend I had one of the most intensely epic nights I've had since I was in Ibiza.
It all started when me and my mate Alex went down Deadmau5's show at Earl's Court - now, I'm not a huge fan of the mau5 it has to be said. Yeah, he has made some semi-decent music, but to me it's drug music and I think there's a lot better electronic music out there at the moment - but each to their own.
So, anyway, wow what a venue. The place saw a steady build up of people, from the time we got there when Magnetic Man were on.. and culminated in a sea of people, probably in the regions of 10,000 strong.
I'm very fortunate enough to have interviewed Artwork from Magnetic Man on several occasions and he brought me and Al backstage after they were on -- so we didn't see much of Deadmau5, but had a brilliant time anyway. What we did see of the Canadian prog house producer was IMMENSE. His whole Minority Report routine, where he performed with a touch screen on a platform in the middle of the crowd, was something else. Have a look...
Anyway, Artwork and Skream took us down to Annie Mac's night at Koko in Camden and we spent some time backstage in her dressing room with Toddla T and Redlight, Nick Grimshaw and some others. Crazy night. I have no words to describe it, but it was completely unexpected and one of those nights that will go down as one of the best of the year for sure.
Playing music while getting ready before a night out is a ritual around the globe, typically (alone or with your mates) you'll be blasting out some party tunes to get in the mood for the night ahead.
(As an aside, Wigfield was well fit... I think a lot of people will agree with me on that).
My little selection tonight is the usual mix of stuff, from garage to techno to DnB and so on...
Here are a few of the tunes/mixes I've been banging tonight...
"This is the voice from Planet Love. Have no fear, we are your friend. To bring peace and love to your world we are sending our very special agent... Her name is Love."
...this is wicked little track. Bubbles along nicely with nice old school sound to it and then, at about 3.10... BOY! It lets off.
Precious System - Planet Love (Dixon Chic a go Edit)
Oh yeah and this Benoit & Sergio tune (Walk & Talk) ... I need this in my life.
You can hear elements of disco, latin freestyle (which I LOVE) and even a few old classic acid/house anthems in this varied mix, played on WBMX back in 1987 (when I was six years old!).
Julian Jumpin' Perez... it's so cool that people hold on to their tapes from that era and some have even coverted them to mp3 and stuck them on YouTube.
I've got a HUGE collection of tapes dating back to 1995 - 300-odd in fact. One day I'll work through coverting the lot.
My Tape2mp3 convertor is collecting dust at the mo, but one day... one day, I'll get on it.
This Saturday just gone I went to see John Legend and The Roots at the Hammersmith Apollo.
What a brilliant night it was too.
It all kicked off with one of my favourite newly-established singers of this year, Katy B.
Katy has just been signed to Columbia, deservedly so as well - she's been putting in work for a long while now and proved her worth with a nice little warm up for John Legend and the gang. It's often said, to the point of being a cliche, that hearing a song done with a live band is typically so much better than the recorded, studio version - as I found with Katy's performace.
Hearing As I and Katy On A Mission etc... done with a band was really entertaining, and I couldn't help smiling at Katy's little jig that I always see her doing when she's on stage. The girl's got style... proper London style.
Anyway, Katy went down a treat - so the crowd was well and truly ready by the time John Legend and The Roots stepped out on stage.
Mannn, so much good music. Their album, Wake Up!, is highly rated and it's easy to see why ...putting John and The Roots together is a perfect combination; like strawberries and cream, cheese and pickle, bangers and mash... you get the idea.
John's voice is seriously good, as any fan will tell you, and he didn't drop a note throughout - while MC Black Thought, ?uestlove and the rest of the Roots' live band were second to none.
Our very own Estelle made a surprise appearance midway through, and the audience loved it - they were enthusiastic peeps dancing all the way through, while other members of the crowd (which I have to say was really diverse - old, young, black, white, whatever...) were clearly moved by the great music being played out before them.
A great night enjoyed by all I think.
As a bonus, here's one of my favourite Roots tunes - the video is an all-time classic and was seriously difficult to find. I can't believe the captions have been edited out on the official Roots VEVO account on YouTube! UNBELIEVABLE. Why would you do that?!
Been listening to a hell of a lot of techno stuff recently, thanks to Seth Troxler - a guy I first discovered in Ibiza. Since having one of the best techno experiences of my life during his set at Space, I've been trying to track down as many of his mixes as I can...
This week I witnessed another big moment for grime music first-hand when I saw east London MC Devlin appear on stage with the Modfather himself Paul Weller.
I was lucky enough to be the only journalist invited down to the event to hang out backstage with Devs, Dogzilla, Lewi White, DJ Big Beatz and Devs' manager Mikee ... plus PR dude Seb.
I was knackered after a long day at work, but it was well worth the trip down to Brighton.
Devlin has stuck with the whole grime thing regardless of how much mainstream attention it's been getting and now he's making big moves. Performing with Paul Weller is huge, especially coming from a scene like grime, which still doesn't have a huge amount of mainstream support.
Add to this that the grime acts who do get signed or crossover usually dilute their sound for one reason or another. So it's good to see that Devlin, who hasn't comprimised his style, is doing so well.
It was good to be there with his crew for such a career defining moment.
I also saw the forthcoming video for Let It Go, produced by and featuring Labrinth. WOW... It is sick.
Eight years ago I moved into a flat for the third year of my uni life with three lovely girls (Katie, Natalie and Sammy) – who, to be honest, I didn’t know very well before we moved in together.
We all became good friends within days and it was probably one of my best years at uni.
Throughout the year, music played a massive part in our lives - and we would often be blasting out tunes: Tim Westwood's Radio 1 show, garage, RnB, drum n bass or whatever. Usually before a night out, but sometimes just during the day as well.
Our neighbours downstairs hated us - they were a couple of crazed young Christians who would complain about the dropping of a pin.
Natalie and Katie had their selection, I had mine - I also got my mum to record MTV Base and we'd watch all the latest hip-hop videos on the telly too.
Anyway, I still reminisce about the Crizzomwell Road days as we had our fair share of anthems in those days... they were good good times. I miss them.
Here are a few of the tunes we used to listen to way back when.
Wu-Tang Clan - Uzi (Pinky Ring)
Memphis Bleek (feat. Jay-Z and Missy Elliot) - Is That Your Chick
Anyone who ever says anything bad about Goldie and his reality TV appearances has obviously never heard any of his music or seen his artwork.
Away from the celebrity status he has attained, the man is a total genius and the architect of a monumental movement within drum n bass - helping to carve out a sound that is still prevalent within the scene now. The Metalheadz sessions at the Blue Note in Hoxton are, for me, now folklore. I never got to go (was too young) but I know that place was legendary.
On top of that, he has consistently put his heart and soul out there, in his music and on film (in two separate documentaries)... Mother is an absolute beauty of a tune, dedicated to his mum and lasting an hour.
Everybody who's anybody knows Inner City Life - a standout moment in the mid-90s, the soundtrack to that era.
Word has it that he's working on a drum n bass symphony, and his latest TV project involves putting together a group of disadvantaged kids together in a band (which I hear is amazing).
This week has been another good one music-wise, I've had time to post up a couple of things on here, cracked on with work and managed to get out and visit a couple of really, really good nights.
First of all though, I tipped American singer Mike Posner to make an impression on the charts here after I saw him at the Notting Hill Arts Club last month... and he has, hitting the top 10 five weeks before his single is officially released.
Cooler Than Me isn't out until next month, but it's already in the top 10 and radio stations are itching to whack it on their playlists. Cher Lloyd even sang it on X Factor...Big things will be happening for this guy over the coming year.
My first night out this week was at I Luv Live in The Queen Of Hoxton. I only went for one reason, to see Mr Random Impulse do his thing live. He smashed it, even though he was getting over a bout of the flu...
Later in the week I hit the Red Bull Music Academy Culture Clash 2010 - the second soundclash. And what a night it was... after hearing last year's and seeing the footage on YouTube I was really looking forward to this and it didn't disappoint. Absolutely one of my best night's out this year, and that's saying a lot, because (not meaning to boast) I've been to a lot of music events in 2010.
Here's Skream dropping Coki's sick Movado remix while Sgt Pokes and Benga go mad on stage.... (although whoever uploaded it labelled it Channel One).
Skream & Benga ripped the place to shreds, Metalheadz came with the fire and dropped some naughty dubplates, Channel One kept it strictly irie and Soul Jazz mixed it up but never really found their way.
This was one of the highlights for me - Shy FX drops a special Metalheadz version of Katy On A Mission for Skream & Benga.
Funnily enough after the Headz dropped that Katy On A Mission dubplate I was convinced they'd won... and I think a lot of people were too.
Channel One emerged victorious and, even though I really wanted Skream & Ben to take it, I have to say my heart was with Channel One. They went about everything the right way and proved you don't need to shout your mouth off and disrespect other people to win the support of the crowd - the other sounds got taught a lesson by a proper old school sound system.
Good, solid output prevailed and, ultimately, I couldn't be anything but happy for them. Well deserved.
Tonight I'm off to KISStory at the O2 to see DJ Luck and MC Neat and tomorrow Ed Sheeran records his DVD live at the Bedford in Balham.
There's a phrase I use for the stuff I listen to during long journeys - it's simple, like me, and straight to the point...Journey music. (I KNOW I'm definitely not the only one who uses this term).
Journey music has played an integral part in my travels. It's standard - no one wants to be sitting on a train, tired and probably irritable, fiddling around with their playlist. You want to get on, find your seat, plonk your arse down and whack something on that's going to carry you through the long trek to your destination feeling content and relaxed - whether you're awake or sleeping.
Some of the best memories that I relate to journey music involve leaving London on a high-speed train, watching the grey buildings disappear and the green countryside pop up... knowing that you're on the way to the airport and off to somewhere hot and chilled.
I'd say my all-time favourite DJs for these special moments in life would be Fabio, Heny G and the Anti Social Entertainment crew... and probably loads more that I can't think of right now...
The Amity Affliction feature on my blog for a second time.
This Aussie "screamo" group are a firm favourite of mine. This cover of Pat Benatar's 80s classic is brilliant, in fact I think it's better than the original...and that's saying a lot, because I LOVE the original.
I've chucked in both versions below. Kicking off with Amity's excellent cover.
Space, Ibiza. The 29th September saw the closing party for their Wednesday night extravanganza.. a night that houses one of the more 'edgy' (for want of a better word) and underground nights in Ibiza.
Kehakuma was sick. Our flight was 10am on the morning after, I think the event went on to 7 or 8 in the morning... We left at around 5.30, but boy did I want to stay - regardless of whether I missed my flight and despite the fact I had literally no money left and would have in a very, very bad situation had I missed that EasyJet plane back to gloomy London.
At 5am Seth Troxler and Guy Gerber got behind the decks. And they were the main reason I didn't want to leave.
As soon as they stepped up I was hooked, but when they played this... I was glued to the dancefloor - well, dancing, but unable to leave.
It's another track that I've always been able to recognise as one that I liked a lot but, again, never knew the name of.
Fortunately I do now and my life is a little better for it.
Jaydee - Plastic Dreams
And here are the guys themselves playing the track that very same night I was there. Memories that I hope will never ever leave me.
I know Dubstep is a multi-faceted, multi-influenced genre of music that encompasses many different styles and sounds.
BUT...when I think of the term DUBstep - in its original sense - this is what appears in my mind (not this specific track obviously, but this style of music).
This guy makes some genuinely spine-tingling techno music.
I can't emphasise enough how deeply his music touches me. It's crazy... so minimal, yet so deep.
I guess that's the real beauty of minimal music - it can work in a similar way to horror thrillers that don't actually show everything that happens and leave it to your imagination to work it out, often making it worse.
Minimal music allows you to lose yourself in the spaces that have been left in the sounds.
Gifford Noel went by the name of DJ Trend in his early years, but also produced under the name TNT.
Not only did he make some fucking good Drum n Bass and Garage tunes, but he was also reponsible for several well known commercial projects and remixes - including Angels With Dirty Faces by the Sugababes. And he was a stalwart in the early years of east London's break out Grime/Garage scene, producing tracks for many of the Grime MCs who have gone on to hit the charts this year...
Over the weekend Twitter has been awash with RIP messages for him. I have no idea what happened, and no wish to know - it's none of my business.
All I know is that the music scene has lost another talented individual.
Of course, his memory will live on through the music he created.
My first Hip-Hop/Rap post. I don't listen to a lot of it at home, but out in the clubs I get down to my fair share - mostly commercial stuff, don't get me wrong though I know what's what.
The Clipse and The Neptunes made some sick music a few years back.
I was listening to Clement Marfo, an up-and-coming UK rapper, when I heard him over the Mr Me Too beat and remembered what a HEAVY tune it is.
Here's the original...
And Clement's version.
Then I got thinking about the Clipse album my flatmate had when I was at uni, mannn - they made some bad bad tunes.
Well, five nights out in a row will take their toll on anyone - man, woman or beast (I'm the former) - so as I write this I'm constantly sniffing and my head is pounding. Lovely stuff.
Still, it was worth - my last two nights were full of most of the music I love dancing to: Grime, Garage, Dubstep, House... ahhh, bliss. Well worth the ill feeling I have right now.
As my brain thumps away inside my skull, I'm soothing it with the sounds of Flying Lotus. Just received his latest album, Cosmogramma, today. It's a beauty, as I expected. Guy's got skills...
Flying Lotus - German Haircut
...In the same package I got Chromeo's new album.
Now, after having the sounds of Cosmogramma keeping my mind busy, and a little confused at times, the first few seconds of Business Casual grabbed me straight away. A woman saying "You're a hot mess" brought a massive smile to my face - I call myself a hot mess all the time, completely in jest of course. I'm nowhere near arrogant enough to think I'm actually hot.
Chromeo are brilliant, they were amazing at EXIT earlier this year - very entertaining, great party music, good lyrics. Faultless really.
At the time of writing I'm only 4 tracks into the album and I'm thoroughly enjoying every second. I have The Best Of The Bar Kays on CD, it's years old and skips constantly nowadays - but this Chromeo CD is like a perfect substitute.. it reminds of the Bar Kays a little... it's got that funk and a combination of party tunes with slower lover's songs.
The Bar Kays - Sexomatic
The Bar Kays - Anticipation
All bang up to date of course, but with a strong nod to the 70s and 80s.
UPDATE: I've come back to edit this and I still have the CD playing on repeat two hours after I first wrote this blog entry...
BUY IT, BUY IT, BUY IT!
Chromeo - Hot Mess (Live)
Chromeo - Fancy Footwork (Apparently this was featured in Step Up 3D... I only just found that out)
Oh, and I wrote about Devlin's new video at work today. Runaway debuted on NME.com over the weekend and it features the vocals of DJ Yasmin on the chorus.
What a brilliant video, I really genuinely like it and I think it has the potential to chart in a very high position. Fingers crossed it does.
I'm trying to champion as much GOOD UK music as I can, and this is definitely seriously good British music.
Not had much time to get on the blog this week, been majorly busy.
Last night was my fourth night out in a row this week (and I start work at 7am, so you can imagine I'm a little bit tired).
I went to Rinse FM's 16th birthday bash at Fabric, a club I haven't been to in almost 7 years. Crazy night, serious line up and everyone I saw represented fully. Plastician with P Money and Blacks, Boy Better Know, Heartless Crew, Skream & Benga and whoever was on in Room 2 at midnight (Funk Butcher I think)... all smashed the place to bits. Heavy.
ject>
Anyway, this past week I've written articles on two really impressive up and coming UK musicians, Ed Sheeran and Random Impulse (who happen to good friends with each other too).
Check Random's latest refix/mash up of Chase & Status/Swedish House Mafia here and listen to the story... How this guy isn't signed in the UK yet is beyond me.
Really impressed with both of these two, nice guys and they're doing stuff that shows how a wide range of influences has been pouring into the younger generation of musicians in this country inspiring collaborations and a fusion of different genres that is working really well.
The UK really is a world leader when it comes to producing great music and creating genres. We have an unsurpassed depth of talent that understands a wide variety of different types of music and it's great to see that there is such a huge amount of support behind British artists from their respective followers.
My weekend has been completely dominated by music.
At home I've been banging old Grime on YouTube, downloading old sets and watching old videos. Reminiscing about a scene which is still going strong, but obviously (like all burgeoning genres) not always quite as raw and authentic as it used to be.
I've also had Skream and Benga's set from Rinse FM (broadcast August 25th) on repeat... some serious bangers on there and Example bringing nuff jokes with the crazy duo. Cannot wait to see them at Rinse's 16th Birthday this Friday.
Out and about, my good friend Jemston played a birthday set at one of my local bars, Black Cherry, and it was a blinder. Loads of top quality house, from afro beats to more melodic Masters At Work business and some serious classics... topped off with some Teddy Pendergrass and Tenor Saw. Whaaaaat!! Banging the walls business.
