4 shows

I find myself often saying "Turbulent Times", and sometimes questioning whether music is a worthwhile activity for me to be engaging in at the moment ... I should probably be out there working to help Katrina victims, or working against ScAlito's nomination, or figuring out just what the hell is happening in France, or anyone of a 1000 things that occupies my thoughts... One small constructive step that I and all right minded Californian's took yesterday is vote in our ludicrous, costs-$50million dollar referendum we have today on 8 Propositions (No on everything! Suck it Govenator). This on the heels of a general election that will be happening again next year (rumor is that the Dems are gonna put up Bulworth, which somehow smacks of "oh yeah, well look at our Hollywood guy", but hey, he could be cool)

So fortunately I took solace in the good music does for the soul, a karmic lubricant if you will, over the last couple weeks. Last weekend was chill, but two and four weekends back were pretty damn awesome. I thought I'd give the run down of my thoughts for each show. Chronological order, cause that's how I roll.

Al Haca

I think not a lot of American's know Al Haca that well, and helping to put on this show made me think a lot about scenes and genres, and the difference between America and Europe, and how people get into and find out about the music that they're into. Al Haca right now are basically core producer MCC (at the keyboard and computer) and MC RQM (at his right), although many others have been involved and if I got the story right none of the founding members are currently active participants... The music is this thing that we don't really have in America but that's always been more prevalent throughout UK and Europe, this in between stuff that's not easily categorized as either dance music or as pop, that's accessible (has beats and words) but that's not hip-hop. Think XL Records or Klein (Al Haca's label) if that gives you a reference, but the fact is America can only handle this stuff as an extension of it's hopelessly outdated ideas about Trip-Hop, something in the end it could never quite sell to itself. America, too, has a problem with major label dominance of not just radio but general perception of how different music slots together, and while there's always been a machine to propel indy rock in this country, that network, that of electronic music that exists outside of the rave/DJ setting but that isn't just a Britney spears or Neptunes backing track, doesn't exist, or rather is very diminished comparatively to Europe.

It kills me. Why do so many more people know what Kill Rock Stars or Merge are more than, I don't know, I'm having a hard time of coming up with an American equivalent of Klein or Warp or a distro like PIAS that handles that sort of stuff... Asphodel's dead ... maybe Kranky? But they're a lot more chill, Nudge is about as poppy as they get.

It was this sort of lackadaisical attitude we had to fight against to get people out to see Al Haca, simply I think because Al H haven't gotten the coverage they deserve in this country. If they have it's because they've been lumped in with Stereotyp with whom they did they're last album, and who in turn is connected to Rhythm and Sound through Tikiman, who I feel gained THEIR(R&S's) notice by being part of German techno. Now there's a genre you can really package... So, basically, you've got this producer/MC pair. Nu Dub, clean and shinny, not think and heavy like Techno Animal/Scorn (so no real Industrial connection), nor old and analogue like Tubby or warm dub disciples like Twilight Circus or Alter Echo. Not quite as manic as The Bug's barely controlled madness although pulling from the same cast of MCs somewhat... and definitely not Lenky style party and Bacardi hands in the air Red Alert/Bubble Up style new dancehall. But drawing on aspects of all those, and then a heavy dose of hip-hop either of the Anticon or the Sound Ink variety as well. Pulling in MCs that include Hawkeye, Lady Saw, Sizzla, Daddy Freddy, Alley Cat, on and on, so well-known voices running over tight and heavy beats.

The show had about 100 people at it max, which isn't big considering the venue, the DNA lounge. It was funny, I was on first and they were very insistent we start right on time. Sort of a business-like vibe, as in "the company starts business now". Which isn't a bad thing, it's just not what I'm used to. Started with Deadbeat's "Slow Rot from Rhetoric", which has to be one of the most heart shattering tracks from last year and yet amazingly full of tightly-wound potential. Totally gave me chills when I heard it first at the Deadbeat show last January, but it sort of drifted out of my consciousness to be replaced by Texas Tea and other tracks from New World Observer. It's the power of musics like that... People give Kruder and Dorfmeister a lot of slack for creating safe, chillout music that was easily marketable, but the fact is that when they were at their best (usually I think when Kruder was at his best) they took already deep tracks like Can't Turn Round by "Rockers Hi-Fi" or "Gone" by David Holmes and just made them heavy to the nth degree ... musical GHB in its near liquid slowness... But the thing is that that stuff has a huge energy, something that Tricky and Portishead perfected a decade ago but hasn't really been successfully reproduced in the '00s, and it's got a huge energy when it's LOUD. And Bassy. DNA is set up to focus attention at the stage or right in front of it, so even though it was empty it's fun to play big in that room. I so often find myself trying to take the artifice out of what I do, of questioning that side of my musical self after all the cheesy stuff I hear out on a regular basis, especially the direction of current Drum and Bass. But I have to remember to trust myself that there's good big and bad big.

So, it was a lovely moment, getting to play track and being reunited with Christian and Lucas after not seeing them for more than a year. The rest of the set rolled out well too I think, although it's still tough to play eclectic to American audiences that aren't all young at the speed that I want to, at least not to do it and have them get into it. It's of course hard to judge when there are 30 people in a room built for 300. I haven't been a headliner in so long that I almost forget what it's like to hold that expectation and fufill it, so I find myself being sloppy or just testing out things because I know the pressure isn't on me to "be the draw". But sometimes you want that pressure eh?

The place never got full enough to warrant opening the 2nd room, which was quite a bummer. That was were Ripley was supposed to play, but as it turns out she got on at the end from 2-3 and got to play to a little more lively crowd than I did, which is great. I love hearing her stuff on a big system, because when else can I hear a lot of stuff we play in this country nice and loud? Only if I play it, and then I can't really listen (ironically).

Al Haca truly were the stars of the night though, it was an awesome set. It's still open territory performing with Live, the performance aspect of it that is. Christian sang, which I had no idea he did and he's a better singer than he thinks he is (I think), but Lucas really is a stellar MC, knowing how to be engaging, state his piece but make it relevant to the situation at hand. Best kind of MC, one that knows how to perform the role of Master of Ceremonies as well as deliver lyrical content.

So in the end it was a good show, although it didn't have the draw that it should have for the above reasons. As well as the fact that in order to generate interest in a city like San Francisco, there just has to be a such a massive publicity run if the name alone can't draw in the crowd, which as much as I love them Al Haca, their name alone really can't do it. It's a shame because there are so many aspects of their music that all kinds of people might have been into, from the Dancehall community of Dub Mission, to the San Francisco Breakbeat community (which while not my style of music [and that's a subject of a whole other post, what exactly is Cali / British breaks ... it mystifies people no end that aren't in that community to hear about it ... but like I said, another time], so not my style but a great and friendly and powerful community out here), the larger Burning Man contingent, Techno types (it was nice to see Forest Green and Satamile there for sure), anyone who reads XLR8R magazine, and just generally people wandering around that neighborhood, which is pretty hopping with some pretty bad bars (and a few good ones), that might be interested. The fact is that none of us really had the time to do fully do the blitz like we wanted too which means the attendance wasn't high.

Because of that, Al Haca's performance was all the more impressive for being as full of energy as it was. I've definitely walked into a room and known instantly that I'm not going to play to the numbers of people the promoters had in mind for the space and just turned off mentally, done the show but in a sort of hopeless manner. Not them... they were 100%, and to be fair there wasn't no one there but I'm sure less than a lot of what they're used to playing to in Europe. So big up to them on that front especially.

A final shout out before moving on goes to Sven of Tolcha who was tagging along for the tour and documenting the whole thing. Picked up the first Meta Polyp release the next day at Amoeba and all for tracks are really good, especially with strong contributions from Sascha from Jahcoozi, who are definitely becoming the ones to watch. Check the Modeselektor remix of Black Barbie on the N-Ron and Leftenant A Thunder Sound mix.

Vex'd and Plasticman

(Photo by Cooper)
Publicity worked wonders here. I haven't seen a show this sonically challenging this packed since, well, since the last Plasticman show I was at. I guess people really like him. Or maybe it's that people who really like him know what they're doing when the throw a party. These things are complicated.

We walked into the space, down a ways from Caesar Chavez right in the middle of nowhere, lots of packing material and truck part factories around, and Ripley said "oh, I've been here before"... but she was thinking back to 1991. She recognized it instantly though, which is a great clue to how strong the underground party scene is in SF, kind of unparalleled anywhere in this country I think, certainly beats New York by a mile for spaces and groups that stay around for 15 plus years and are still connected to lively new music.

So it was a perfect setting for Plasticman and Vexd. 'Bout, I dunno, 250 people there? I'm bad with numbers. Great ramshackle place with a bar area perched precariously 20 feet about the decks, and a back room that's clearly someone's living room at other times of the day. Happy people. And a good system. Not a Jah Shaka/Valve/Bar Rhumba system though... yes, it sounded great. Best I've heard in San Francisco, so big ups to Ripple for going the extra mile to get that all in there ... but, still, not FWD I think. But very good, able to bring out intricacies that are only present in very loud music.

Quite different sets between the two. I swear up and down that Vex'd played mostly Vex'd tunes and some Distance tunes, but those who seemed to know thought it was very few Vex'd tunes.... Jamie, wanna weigh in? I'm having trouble remembering. But it was heavy heavy heavy relentless stuff. It's like any artist who is exploring a sort of particular range of sounds. The set was very focused on the sound of Disintegration even if it wasn't all tracks from there, and compared to Plasticman it was very uniform sound wise, different rhythmic permutations of the same elements. That's what made me thing it was mostly Vex'd's own work.

All this is good. Remember I'm going through this crisis of what it means to be in a scene vs. outside of it, and rediscovering what innovation can come from narrow focus. Jamie's set was about "how big can we go with this" with his customary swooping and pounding sounds that are 1/3 kick, 1/3 this thing that's almost a snare, and 1/3 synth. Unique stuff. Very powerful if you want to get increasingly hyped on each new permutation.

Plasticman was very different, and I realized why it was such a good paring. Plastic as a DAMN good DJ (especially for his age). His selection is wide. Yes it's new, lots of unreleased stuff, so it's fun in a "what's coming out next" way, but the man obviously has been playing a lot and knows how to take an advantage of how wide this scene (or scenes as Martin would probably vehemently argue) is from a sound and structure-of-tunes perspective. He played stuff with vocals and stuff without, stuff that I knew and stuff that I didn't. Some of it dubby and some more Fruity-Loopy. Some of the most interesting stuff were things that sounded like (and correct me if I wrong), Grime people doing 4x4. 4x4 ties so closely back to the 2step/garage scene which really is nowhere near the feel or energy musically of Grime/Dubstep (to say nothing of the social side), but here are these tracks that are undeniably Grime, they just happen to not be very syncopated and have a kick every beat. But they sure as hell don't sound like MJ Cole and they don't sound like EL B and they don't sound like house either, although they could be weirdly mistaken for either of the last two by someone not in the know.

So yeah, lots and lots of range, extremely impressive range. Plastic admitted to me that basically ALL he listens to is Grime. He doesn't really do ANY other type of music. And, despite what all my eclecticism screams, that's great! How else does anyone have time to eek out every single last great track from a genre if not by being utterly focused on it to the exclusion of all other things. Plus I'm just partial to his sound choices anyway from the tunes that he's made. I just like that videogame sounding stuff, it never gets old to me, maybe it's just because it was the sound track to my growing up. It's like getting to hear megaman on the screen.

Weird ass music and people got into, for both of them (where were these people for Al Haca???) This happened the last time I saw Plasticman. People didn't know what to do with music, but because they were all there, it was loud, and the venue was cool, they had no choice but to listen. They were forced to come to terms the fact that's it's awesome music, and the energy of hearing so much new music, that the vast majority of people there are NEVER going to hear a tune that they know in a new Plasticman set, is something powerful and rare. You have to just sit there and appreciate each track as it is, interpret it's arguments as they're passed to you and just marvel at them.

So, yeah, it had raw energy, both Vex'd and Plasticman, and for different reasons. My set upstairs afterwards ... it was good. I got a lot of nice compliments. My tact with these kind of shows ... I collect music out of the breakcore/extreme dancehall/ragga jungle world, and play back the things I think people will go for, people who normally listen to straight jungle or dirty breaks or general party music, and try and get them to go for it. My thing is to try and hook you in with parts that you already know or can grab onto, but that have been radically reinterpreted to extremes. It's useless for me as a DJ, I've found, to string together all my hard weird instrumental stuff that has no focak point for the majority of listeners. That would work at Mutant Fest or some places in Europe where people just want you to be as hard as possible and bash at them around with good noise. But EVEN then I tend to shy away from too much of anyone one of the various artists who's music I'd be playing with probably anyway... I get a greater kick out of seeing dev/null or Drop the Lime play than I do listening to me play a whole set of their music (they perform, I perform other people's music), so I have to go off the assumption that that's not that interesting (my playing all that stuff together), when I have a tenuous hold on people's attention anyway. So the key for me is to take a little of each, to play Aaron Spectre and DJ C tracks that even if people don't know the tunes they can say "Oh that's Beenie Man or Bounty Killer or whoever, that's cool I know that" and then hit them with crazed beat like dev/null and DTLs. The result is I play 4 or 5 times the number of tracks with vocals in them now as I used to 4 years ago. I just feel like that's what I have the best success communicating my ideas with.

People went for it. There were times when I think people didn't know whether to stand still and scream or to dance (the hint is that the correct answer is ALWAYS dance.) But people were impressed by a lot of the tunes I think. I just wish the dancing thing were more hardwired into people in this country, instead of standing around an nodding in appreciation.

So, a very very fun night, really professionally executed. I'd be involved with anything Ripple and Subscience do again in a heartbeat. The final addition to the story is that I think it surprised and delighted Vex'd and Plasticman what a rave-y, funny crowd it was. Plastic said he'd definitely not ever played a show quite like it, which I think is great. In the end it doesn't matter in some ways who comes out as long as they're into it. It's hard to live in the old days where one party was what the wealthy hipsters, the Jamaicans, the artists, the bridge and tunnel crowd, etc. all showed up at 'cause it was the only game in town. Now you can reach for all those scenes and more, but your core is gonna come from somewhere, and I don't think Vex'd and Pman had ever seen this particular core before. So that was very cool.

Final final note: the most common topic of conversation when I was telling people about the show: "Oh, hee hee, how funny there's ANOTHER guy named Plasticman. Wouldn't that be funny if they got in a fight." So Fin' what. People saying that are mostly codedly saying "I don't know anything about this guy who you're talking about so I'm gonna fixate on the obvious thing" It's just stupid. Plastic cleared it up and said now that he thinks back on it someone once played him a bit of Plastikman and he thought "eh, whatever" and totally forgot about it till someone brought it up after he became big. He didn't really know and he didn't really care. I say to detractors, what could be more noble than that?

Joe Nice

(Photo by Me)
The man the myth. I'm actually kind of proud of this photo...

Before I launch into a description of the show, let me make r(d)eference to Martin and his article that just came out today in Pitchfork (and I think I was supposed to write this, what I'm writing now, before he wrote that to give him some ideas to bounce off of, so my apologies my friend for not being more on the blogging ball). The first 1/2 of the article hits on major themes that he's touched on before, what is dubstep, what it isn't, who makes it, and why it sounds like it does. His take is very rooted in the scene-ness of it, the relatively small number of people involved and how it feeds back on itself to make itself stronger (it's precisely his thoughts and ideas that have triggered my own about being inside/outside a scene, and why that's both good and bad for musical development, both for artists and DJs). Basically I've come to the conclusion that his arguments are like light. They are both a wave and a particle. They are both right and wrong, simultaneously. The argument that Loefah makes that it's the sound of London, that Dubstep only makes sense in London, holds up for me beautifully when talking about produced tracks, and when you're talking about this one live night that's grown to near mythic proportions. The sound reflects off itself (never mind that almost NO elements are originally British, that the most common themes are hip-hop, Jamaican dub, and Middle Eastern/South Asian elements. I buy that/get that that the amalgamation could only have happened as it did in London). But I think this argument somehow inherently denies outsiders their interpretation of the sound, that it some how invalidates that UNLESS they 100% buy into the London/this particular group of producers' aspect of it (see above photo). The hand wringing over whether Rephlex's Grime comps were or weren't grime and why they were called that and whether or not they should have been is ultimately not important to me, because without those comps and the power of Rephlex, Plastic and Mark One would never have made it to the states in early '04 and a lot of people (definitely myself) might never have been draw into BOTH the Grime world AND the Dubstep world. It was the very fact that Plasticman/Mark One/Slaughter Mob, also like light, were both Grime and Dubstep AND notGrime and notDubstep simultaneously that made both worlds accessible to outsiders who had no reference point other than the music.

So, again, I'm not saying Martin is wrong, I'm saying he is right, but I'm also saying that at a gut level I can't understand the sense of being part of the Dubstep scene, because I'm not physically there, but I would never want that to alienate me from playing the music, appreciating the music, or invalidating the very things he talks about that make the scene great. From being part of the scene anyway.

Have I lost you yet? OK, good. So Joe Nice. Now there's a man who is in the scene. "One of the top three dubstep DJs at the moment". Awesome! Good for him. Thank god he came to town because there IS nothing like hearing anything that you're into live after so much computer speaker/headphone time. The dude can play. There were about 40-50 people there, the most Grime city has seen, so still not a packed house but enough to get the place going by the end. The B.I.G. crew were massively heroic, such love and respect to all of them. When I came in Child was telling jokes on the mic because that was the only sound that could be got going at that moment. Busted turntable, someone had to run back to Munk's house to get another one. Man, Nickie's is just about the crappiest venue technically I've ever had the misfortune to be involved with. These guys are all troopers.

Joe played a good 1.5/1.75 hours, and the set definitely had peaks and valleys and tracks ran along well, and ran together well. Again, I was impressed with the details that come out in dub music when it's loud. I'd say 50% of the information gets lost in any setting where I might hear these tracks most of the time. Definitely recognized a lot of Loefah/DMZ tracks from mixes, there's this one DM related track with a skank in it that both Ripley and I love. There were a couple where I recognized the hand of Distance, but not at his most over the top, more along the lines of Dark Crystal, and I was well into them. The set built up to some pretty much mad tracks at the end. Vex'd remix of Toasty (which I like and I love that it gets rid of the weebly sample, but it does take the swing out of it a bit. I can play the original to nonThisMusic types, but probably not this remix).

And then, closing? !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SHAKLETON REMIX OF LIMB BY LIMB!!!! OMG, off the freakin' chain. It's awesome. Is it dubstep? Is it Mark One/Plasticman/Distance/Toasty/Search and Destroy (see, how come when I talk about dubstep can ID a greater group of not-actually-technically-dubstep-producers than those that are. Maybe DMZ and crew ARE the outsiders. Which, of course, in some ways, we always knew they were already), anyway, where was I? oh, yeah !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's awesome. Heavy heavy. Almost no drums, just the drum/snare/synth combo in pounding military rhythm. I like too where as 2-step would have sped up the vocals to be twice as fast from their original 95bpm tempo, dubstep slows them down to 70, making them all the more fierce.

Fierce - that's what Joe's set was. He's larger than life, and I think he likes it like that. He's a good performer too, absolutely into it, not unlike a preacher. And the dude cuts everything to dub. See below. I can't imagine. I wouldn't be eating. Big Ups, and all the more so for the fact that this is America and if the scene is small in London, it's infinitely smaller here.


Meat Beat Manifesto

Image by Condementasm (I'm having real trouble finding ANY pictures of the event online. Does anyone know of some?)
This is turning into a marathon isn't it? If you've made it this far, congrats. I'm dreading the spell check. (yup, it sucked)

On Saturday before Halloween I went to Otherworld, our local warehouse spot. 6 room party, probably 40 DJs, lots and lots of manic beats, and 2.5 hours of Meat Beat Manifesto.

It was a great great party, very very different from any of the others listed above. I have no idea how many people were there, but somewhere between 500-1250. I had walked through all of OW before, and have done a couple shows upstairs in the two rooms there. But I'd never seen it in full swing. I do get a kick out of feeling like you're playing in someone's living room, literally. Lots of people running every which ways, most like a rave I've been to in a long time, but that just means San Francisco, veteran party town that it is, showing its true colors and doing it up right. Even the security guards were running around say "I can't believe Meat Beat Manifesto are playing here!" (I think, as in, "in our house"). It was awesome.

MBM themselves truly have the show worked out, fully integrated with video. Check out there insane set up here. 5 laptops between three people, plus several samplers and keyboards each, and then a live drummer. Dangers sings occasionally and it's mad fun. I recognized "I Am Electro" and "Radio Babylon" ... If they played "I Control/Audio Collage" I missed it, which is a shame because that and Subliminal Sandwich were staples of me being 17, that era when the record companies were pushing Electronica on Americans and that was one of the albums that they picked. And it worked on me.

Side room rolled along nicely too. Big shouts to Oshan (is that you spell it, O? I never know) for playing some dubstep-y weirdness upstairs, and then Mole put on an awesome show. Koda and the rest of Based on Bass valiantly battled a ceiling leak right over the decks in their room and still managed to turn it out. Big shouts have to go to Mariposa who played some stellar jungle old and new. Anyone who sees this that has her contact info please send it my way, set was mad tight.

5lowershop, as usual, seemed to be doing their own thing off on the side, but great sets from everyone, especially Stapler who I think always sounds better than he thinks he sounds. And once again I heard Jino for a second, and really he's the one to keep an eye on. His breakcore aesthetic is different than mine, less poppy, more dark, but no less clean in its way.

I know Mochipet and Forest valiantly battled equipment failure as well. I knew something was going wrong, but I couldn't really tell what specifically ... I took heart though as I often to when I see other people struggling on stage (that sounds bad, hang with me a sec). It sounded good! Despite all problems, the sound of good records came out of speakers, and that's what the majority of people there want to hear. I forget this so often. I'm so prone to throwing up my mental hands in the middle of a set and walking off in my mind and sulking and not trying very hard for the rest of the time on stage if the technical conditions aren't right, and then I have real trouble when people come up to me afterwards and tell me that they liked it or loved it or what was that one tune. It's like twisting the knife. But it SHOULDN'T be like that. It's only because I let it be like that. The fact is, my displeasure with my performance doesn't, as much as I might like it to, invalidate someone else's sheer enjoyment of it. That's ultimately why I create, to give up/give away control of the perception of the creation. It's just that I have a hard time letting go sometimes.

I tried to explain all this to Forest, the fact that regardless of what she thought, I loved the set. That as a friend and fellow DJ, boy can I ever sympathize with technical failure and I'll sure as hell get worked up on her behalf about technical mishaps, but as an audience member, I couldn't help but like it. "I like it Mambo!" to quote MBM in his alternate Tino guise. And that's what's great. It's what keeps all of us DJs sane and able to soldier on.

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Thank you, esteemed readers, for listening to my humble rantings. I'm having real trouble being regular about this blog. That was never the intention, but unfortunately it and RiddimMethod will have to continue to be occasional activities for me for 1 more month only (with the exception of a mix/post for RM tonight or tomorrow). But I'll get bits and pieces up hopefully.

Side note: have not heard from anyone specifically about New York gigs. The details are, I'm returning there, I'll be there from the 27th-30th. If there's anywhere I can throw down on the 27th/28th/29th of December, I'd love to, otherwise I'm gonna return to the city I lived in for 3 years and not be able to play anyone a note of the music I've collected in the last 1.5 years. Definitely jonezing for the live experience. If anyone has leads, let me know.