Night Slugs

Having run for just shy of two years, L-Vis 1990, Manara and Bok Bok's Night Slugs clubnight has charted the cutting edge of bass-heavy gutter music with admirable consistency. With an ethos that stays true to club music's function as floor filling party music as well as continually highlighting innovation and experimentation, Night Slugs has successfully surfed developing trends in UK bass music whilst boasting ridiculously fun line ups and parties. Over its short history the London party has hosted grime legend Terror Danjah, the relentlessly boundary pushing Zomby, hype party crew Trouble & Bass and a who's-who list of UK Funky's best proponents: Roska, Lil Silva and Scratcha DVA to name a few. 

As with all such endeavours, it was only so long before the night made the leap into becoming a label. Bok Bok's essential Sub.FM radio sets have always showcased a dizzying array of unreleased dubplates, many of which not just totally awesome, but also lingering in obscurity and label-less. With their first release the crew show themselves to be excellent selectors as well as party DJs, with Night Slugs 01 being headed up with the much hyped debut release from Mosca. Square One's tell tale synth hook might ring some bells having spent the last few months being rinsed by every DJ worth their salt. Even more excitingly, the EP boasts a jaw droppingly good remix package from a laundry list of the UK's best rising stars. Bristol's own Julio Bashmore makes an appearance off the back of the Dirtybird released Um Bongo's Revenge, Roska continues his ubiquitous presence around every release worth owning and the Night Slugs guys both contribute their own rerubs. A fairly essential purchase for any fans of remotely funky party music.

And it doesn't end there either. Remarkably good producers in their own right, L Vis 1990 and Bok Bok have tons of devastatingly good dancefloor destroyers on the brink of release. Continuing to fufill his role as UK bass ambassador to Mad Decent, L Vis releases the remix package of last year's excellent United Groove. MJ Cole's refit bolster's the original's haunting tribal stomp with some serious bass weight whilst TRG ups the groove with some of his textbook percussive flex. On the brink of release for Bok Bok is the brilliantly off-kilter Citizen's Dub, coming via Blunted Robots. A disorienting, rising and falling rainbow coloured synth line lends some psychedelic power to the funky template whilst Bubbz lends a few gurgled bars, fittingly about being too drunk to stand up straight. At Numbers' ridiculous take over party at Fabric at the beginning of the month it got numerous airings in every room, its pretty nutso and looks set to really bring Bok Bok out of L Vis 1990's Diplo endorsed shadow.

Simon Docherty

Promised Works - Nick Drake's Pink Moon

By 1971, the English singer-songwriter Nick Drake was reaching the end of his metaphorical tether: depression, insomnia and the near-crippling shyness that marked his earlier career combined with an increasing dissatisfaction at the poor sales of his two previous records, (1969’s Five Leaves Left and Bryter Layter, released in 1970) and culminated in an almost total withdrawal from public life. This withdrawal, however, also resulted in the recording of his final album, Pink Moon, a collection of songs of such beguiling, unique beauty as to place them amongst the finest ever written. Put to tape over the course of two, two-hour long sessions beginning at midnight, Pink Moon is, quite literally, extremely

sparse: across its twenty eight minutes, the only thing interrupting Nick’s singing and guitar comes in the form of a piano lightly decorating the title track. What’s left behind, after all else is stripped away, are the winding, ever-shifting melodies that struggled to escape over-orchestration on Drake’s previous work.

On Pink Moon, the focus is squarely upon eleven intricately written guitar parts, and the lilting, haunting

softness of Drake’s voice. It is, without wishing to descend to hyperbole, a completely realised, utterly cohesive set of songs: each perfectly complementing both the track previous and the song to come.

Lyrically, too, the album coheres around two central themes: recurrent images of nature, and of a continuous, quiet hope for the future. It’s tempting, as with any artist that dies young, to view any final

work as a kind of ‘early warning sign’ of things to come, (and, indeed, Nick Drake passed away in 1974, two years after Pink Moon’s release, overdosing on anti-depressants) but to do so in this case is to do the album a great disservice. Its gentle, understated feel, though conceived in a state of increasing

turmoil, stands as testament to the ability of an individual artist to create something moving. As Nick sings on the final track ‘From The Morning’: “the day once dawned / and it was beautiful”. A simple statement, but sometimes it’s the simple things that are the most powerful - and therein lies Pink Moon’s ineffable power.

Mathew Pitts

The year ahead in bass

The most exciting prospect for this year has to be the transformation of Dress 2 Sweat, Wireblock and Stuff Records into Numbers, a new label to partner with its Glaswegian clubnight namesake. Over the years all three have done their utmost to break now established beatmakers Rustie and Hudson Mohawke as well as release all manner of righteous club über bangers - a quick glance over their discographies should give some idea of the quality to be expected of this new incarnation. Forthcoming releases should encompass all kinds of rainbow-tinged, off kilter hip hop and future dubstep, but the most anticipated 12" is the magnificient ‘If You Want Me’ by the hotly tipped Deadboy. Combining the synthetic colour of Joy Orbison with the lonely garage heartbreak isolated by Burial, Deadboy's productions have heaps of soul as well as devastating dancefloor potential.

A trend looking to continue into 2010 is Nottingham's unlikely new status as a home for forward thinking dance producers. Two labels in particular will continue to smash it into 2010 - Berkane Sol and Wigflex. Loosely involving releases by the same group of Nottingham producers (as well as some further flung), both labels have an anything goes approach to 140bpm, whether its Hizatron's amazing acid house and minimal excursions or Geiom's increasingly more unclassifiable nexus point between UK garage, funky, and dubstep. Forthcoming releases from other hot tips Brackles & Shortstuff (former Nottingham residents with their own brilliant label, Blunted Robots) place the labels right at the forefront of the bass music zeitgeist right now.

Throughout ‘09 Brainmath remained a mysterious proposition, bubbling in the background throwing out a series of incredibly high quality 12"s, some under pseudonyms and mostly one sided. It’s still unknown who helms the label (my money's on the man behind Brainmath 01 and 02; the ever elusive Zomby), but what's certain is that 2010 should yield a similar quality-over-quantity approach. Forthcoming releases are announced for RnB-cum-jazz-cum-G-Funk wonderkid James Blake following his dancefloor destroying remix of Untold's "Stop What You're Doing", as well as huge tip for 2010 sbtrkt, whose excellent productions have been reaching as far flung ears as fidget don Sinden and experimental post-punk band These New Puritans.

Excitingly, the collective output of these labels and producers is only the tip of the iceberg; underground UK dance music looks set to continue its inexorable march onwards.

Simon Docherty

Decoyrocktopus: Focus on the tube

Located just off Park Street, The Tube is a fairly cosy club of about 200 capacity responsible for some of the best nights in Bristol, regularly smashing it with a group of promoters who bring unfeasibly big line ups to such a tiny club. Bafflingly, countless people I’ve met avoid the place as a rule of thumb. In the interest of overturning this strangely prevalent opinion, here’s a laundry list of what’s coming up.

First up is shop-cum-clubnight Donuts, responsible for bringing some serious fire to Bristol, grabbing an intimate set from Four Tet, as well as sets from L Vis 1990, Joker, Jammer, Silkie, Ikonika, Jackmaster and all manner of excellent dubstep, garage and UK funky. On December 11th they have a ridiculously great line up with UK funky main man Roska and the much hyped Jam City heading up proceedings.

For out and out party music, Hype Society are doing silly things with a venue so small. So far this term they’ve seen the likes of Tempa T (Next Hype), Drop The Lime (Trouble & Bass) and Dexplicit (Pow (Forward Riddim)) take the club to its limits. Bristol badman Gemmy is going throwing down a set of his trademark warped and purple, future R&B infused dubstep on the 10th December.

For some of the most forward thinking, introspective bass music, the ever excellent Seasonfive heads up the second Saturday of every month. Past nights have seen the likes of Martyn, Peverelist and Ramadanman, as well as column favourites Brackles and Untold. On 12th December they celebrate their second birthday in style with a two hour set from Hotflush head honcho Scuba. The label’s been around since dubstep’s inception, most recently responsible for propelling the careers of Joy Orbison, Untold and Mount Kimbie as well as releasing Scuba’s own startlingly deep two step.

Simon Docherty

 

An Introduction to Bristol Bass Pt 2

Rooted Records on Gloucester Road is an excellent place to pick up the best of Bristol's 12"s, boasting an amazingly comprehensive collection to dig through. Here's a selection.


Guido - Orchestral Lab
With an uncannily apt name, Orchestral Lab follows in the footprints of Joker as far as melodic emphasis goes, eschewing squealing synths for an array of electronic approximations of strings and brass that walk a line just the right side of cheese. 'Way U Make Me Feel' follows the same bass heavy r'n'b archetype at once looking to the future and the past with its '80s sax lines met by futuristic basslines that anchor it firmly in 2009.


Hyetal - Pixel Rainbow Sequence
Whilst the A side is a great appropriation of the Joker/Gemmy/Guido trifecta of "purple" dubstep from a very promising producer, its Rooted Records and Punchdrunk boss Peverelist's remix on the flip that is particularly intriguing. Mangling the original's colourful 8 bit blips into a kaleidoscopic gloop, baffling shuffle rhythms create a bewilderingly hypnotic effect that's more Stockhausen than sound bwoy.


Appleblim & Shackleton - Soundboy Punishments
Cheating slightly here with the inclusion of a compilation of 12"s, but it would be impossible to choose any single one anyway. Collecting the entirety of the Skull Disco label's output, Soundboy Punishments contains some of the most claustrophobic bass music ever committed to wax. Combining skeletal percussion with suffocating levels of sub bass, tracks veer from unsettling to zen-like. A fantastic remix by Ricardo Villalobos joins the dots between dubstep and techno and the whole thing walks a satisfyingly unclassifiable line between the two.

Mimeon Docherty

Promised Works: Broken Social Scene - You Forgot It In People

'You Forgot It In People' - the second album by ever-expanding Toronto collective Broken Social Scene - is probably few people's idea of the greatest record of all time. But the lasting effect it first had on my bored 16-year-old ears makes it unlikely I'll ever take it off its pedestal.

On release, it emerged from relative obscurity. Broken Social Scene had existed as a side-project between Toronto scenesters Brendan Canning and Kevin Drew, putting out the ambient 'Feel Good Lost' in 2001. Lush and sweeping but relatively unremarkable, it laid few clues to what was to come, with nothing on the scale of the indie variety show on offer here. The pair added countless more friends to the Scene and returned with this just a year later.

Far more than a solid indie-rock record, 'You Forgot It In People' still sounds like some sort of divine compilation album, such is the range of perfectly-executed styles on offer. It's a true magnum opus, going through noisy blowouts ('Almost Crimes') to kitten-soft delicate pop tunes ('Anthems For A Seventeen-Year-Old Girl') via laid-back improv-sounding jams ('Looks Just Like The Sun').

The concept is, then, an ambitious mission statement which for many bands would end up as a pretentious, masturbatory disaster. The number of official 'band members' playing on the album - all key players in their own right on the Toronto indie-rock scene - reaches double figures. Yet it's immediately clear that the idea is to bring together people who are full of talent and ideas: check out the way the distorted guitars overlap with Brendan Canning's hypnotic bassline and joyous handclaps in 'Stars And Sons', or how Kevin Drew and Leslie Feist's voices entangle each other on 'Almost Crimes'.

What makes 'You Forgot It In People' so special is that it goes through every effort to avoid such perfect pieces falling apart. The band's attitude to production seems to be to throw everything into the melting pot, but the tightness and sense of rhythm overpowers any sense of scruffiness. They keep everything focused on even the most meandering pieces like 'Shampoo Suicide', a song so busy and experimental it sounds like frontman Kevin Drew is speaking in tongues. There's also a prevalent sexiness - seen everywhere from Emily Haines' breathy vocals on 'Anthems...' to the overt fantasising on 'I'm Still Your Fag'. The whole thing just works sublimely.

'You Forgot It In People' is by anyone's ears a masterclass in bringing together a huge variety of people and styles into a solid and somehow beautifully cohesive album. And if you were lucky enough to have such a feast cure your musical rut, it will never leave your heart.

Mike Mantin

Decoyrocktopus: An Introduction to Bristol Bass Pt 1

So, you're in Bristol, the city that birthed trip hop, pushed forward drum n bass and now flies the flag for dubstep. With such a prolific and fast moving scene, its easy to get lost- hopefully this column will prevent that. Jumping in at the deep end, here are some of the best nights; after all, the best way to immerse yourself in this music is to hear it on a dancefloor. In front of a rib crushing 20K rig preferably.

First up is the longest mainstay of the Bristol dubstep scene; Pinch's Subloaded and Dubloaded. Between the excellent Tectonic label and those two nights, Pinch built the entire Bristol scene from the ground up. If you want levels of sub to make your chest collapse, this is where you need to be; monthly at the Croft and Black Swan.

If Sub/Dubloaded represents the old contingent, the ever excellent Crazylegs heads up the new. Responsible for some of the most exciting line ups Bristol has seen in recent times, Crazylegs is at the forefront of UK Funky, garage revival and everything new on the dancefloor.

Going further leftfield, there's Pollen. Only a year into its life, its already established itself as the best place for all manner of boundary pushing craziness. Colourful synths, skewed post-Dilla beats and future thinking are the name of the game. The night doubles up as a label with Brackles & Shortstuff heading up their only release thus far; certainly worth keeping an eye on.

Finally the messiest in the scene; Shit The Bed. There's nothing introspective or futuristic about this one.. until the k-hole aftermath at least. Expect seriously big names, three rooms of fun and an acute sense of nihilistic self loathing in the morning. Check it at Motion.

Next time: The essential Bristol 12"s!

Simon Docherty