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My review of Marcus Nasty’s largely disappointing Rinse mix on Fact Magazine
Expect more from me on Fact soon, as well as more FNL posts.
Planet Mu’s recent exemplary form continues with a release from Hyperdub synth conductor Ikonika.
I always imagine Ikonika’s music as a soundtrack to one of Phillip K Dick’s tales detailing future-now, social-psychotropic collapses; a paranoid / schizoid take on the real. And these Planet Mu tracks Smuck and We Could Be Ikons are just that.
Ikonika’s melodies always sit at odds with their wooziness; they are encompassing and comforting, groove driven and seductive. A particular funk and groove dominates and places her music in a category of its own. Referring to dubstep or wonky would be great disservice to the sound Ikonika creates. It’s entirely its own entity.
Ikonika’s tracks are more orchestrated than simply ‘produced’. It’s as if Ikonika had an army of sentient synthesizers at her disposable and lauds over them with an oversized solar powered baton. The sun feeding in and zooping up the florescent effervescence whilst she maintains total control and maintains a totalitarian vision of what the synthborgs should, and should not be doing.
Smuck, on the A side, is a particularly great example of this. The name alone implies something highly unsanitary, and the track is dirty. It’s a highly disciplined orgy of synthetic funk. It’s like a rummage down the pants of the synthesizer you lust after, without even knowing its name. You have to submit to the wooze of layered synths and beats that are so well placed they aren’t. So deliberately badly placed they couldn’t be more perfect. It’s total.
Smuck, it turns out (according to Urban Dictionary) is the Hebrew word for pre-circumcised penis flesh. Therefore i’m not sure how apt it is to call this track tasty. But it’s certainly something you want to irrefutably gobble down with the knowledge it might not be the best thing for you to consume.
Scandinavian phenomenon and sadly something of a ‘dish du hier’, Skweee, is the point of inspiration for the flipside track We Could Be Ikons. It’s a reversion of Eero Johannes’ ‘We Could be Skweeeroes’ from the Harmönia compilation ‘Skandinavian Skweee Volume 2’. A fitting remix as Ikonika’s tracks all have the component ingredients of the idiosyncratic Skweee smorgasbord, but her take drops the P-funk referencing bass slap of Johaannes’ original and replaces it with a k-funk bounce, simultaneously injecting a certifiably UK Garage swing and the pads help lift track on to a new plain.
This release is disco waltzer music for the deprived. Skwreeeam if you want to go faster. It’s the plink plonk synth flex of someone who has had their cerebellum ruptured and set lose in the synth asylum. It’s a beauteous simultaneous attack on, and a gift to your pleasure centres.
Ikonika ZIQ254 is released on Planet Mu 26 October 2009.
The wind up and release pop RnB slam of AM to PM has always been a pure rush for me and for that alone Milian holds weight here. 8 years on from that track and a torrent of largely forgettable singles later, Milian has shapeshifted into an omnipotent neomythical beast. On Chameleon, produced by The Dream, she lists her prowess, not unlike any next RnB artist’s narcissistic self bigging up, only Milian’s attributes are post-human.
Chameleon is a paean to her super-human awesomeness. She can turn 1 into 1 billion. You don’t doubt it. When she say’s ‘ i can be the quietest … Shh! Irrelevant’, it’s enough to make you melt. BC- AD; she’s been doing it forever. That’s before Christ to now. ‘Bigger than a city / Smaller than a town’ she is a dream. She transcends scale. ‘I can be a ghetto bitch /Yep, you love me /I can be surviving / Dinner’s in the oven.’ I do love you. Chameleon is a pop future bomb.
Recently you might have heard the term ‘Dubbage’ being bandied about on London pirate radio station Rinse FM, mainly stemming from the shows of the Circle camp, Gumbo and others. In March 09 the term seems to be gaining considerable momentum and is being referenced on forums, mainly in the form of the question ‘what is Dubbage?’ Ever curious about genre mutations, I was keen to find out more about it. I got in touch with Circle over MySpace and a few messages back and forth turned into this interview with Tippa.
Dubbage?
This is actually funny because all of a sudden everyone is asking us! We only started saying Dubbage because we felt the type of House we played was different from the other new rising stars of the scene. Now everyone has just started calling that style Dubbage and is referring to it as a new scene, or a new thing but it ain’t. It’s just a name we call it to separate us from the funky scene.
So what is Dubbage?
If I could sum up a Dubbage track in words it would be a Deep House track that has sounds which could make it borderline tech, or has sounds and depth as a Dubstep track would have but sounds like House. It’s more beats… simple beats but with intelligent sounds. I was having this conversation with Geeneus the other night as well. He was playing me tracks off his new album and was asking me what genre I reckon it would fall under. They weren’t funky cause they were well produced and production was on point, and it wasn’t typical soulful House as it was too techy and dubby. Then we both looked at each other and said ‘Dubbage’! It’s long winded, and I confuse myself at times when trying to explain this to anyone but in a nutshell, I believe this is it.
So who’s making Dubbage right now?
Producers making music which could be classed as ‘Dubbage’ from London, who are closely linked to Circle are: Geeneus, W Beeza and IC. If a scene were to progress from this name or term, then these guys would be the front runners. IC is a part of Circle and his stuff will be pushed more on the shows. WBeeza gives us all his tracks before anyone else and his stuff is proper on point, as is Geeneus’. Gee will produce stuff across the board though but his Gypsy Woman refix would definitely be classed as Dubbage.
Is the name necessary? Some people would say it’s all just House.
It’s not necessary at all but if something’s said, people are tickled, innit? They hear something they like or hate as a phase and will run with it. It then spreads like wildfire and all of a sudden everything is placed in a genre or a new one is created. It’s fucked really…it’s like gossip: you plant a seed, whether it be intentionally or not and it spreads. At the end of the day people will say it’s all House but funky is something different which is why people’s ears are standing up to it. It’s something fresher, more exciting… it spins away from House, its meaning, its beliefs, what it stands for. See that’s someone from Circle giving funky props but it’s not for us.
Is Funky something you want to distance yourself from?
We have said that we won’t be playing any of the current new stuff that is poorly produced and sounds like grime. We have also said that we won’t be associating with events that solely push that side 100%, yeah our names do appear on flyers and events that play funky, but do we turn up and play funky, that’s the question. The funky scene is good for the youngers. but they have to control it somehow to go in the direction they want. When we all first started playing there was more of a mix with House and the tracks that were classed as funky was not as grimey as they are now. It was poorly produced but not as bad as it is now which is why we have concentrated on playing more House than anything else and within that we have concentrated on more of the beats side of things than the soulful stuff. Now the olders of the House scene will play soulful, but when you go to their events they’re dead out… stiff.
What about Circle events? What’s played?
When you come to Circle events (Yellow / Format) we play beats - House - but beats. Most of these wankers in funky think we play strictly US. Where they fucking got that idea from is bullshit. All they need to ask us is where the music comes from and we will tell them. Bugs in the Attic, Restless Soul, Aphrodisiax, Freerange, Wbeeza, Geeneus, IC etc - loads of UK and European stuff. In fact the majority is UK and European but they think it’s US. Why?…because they haven’t educated themselves on the music they play or where it originated from. We have never ever said that we hate, we won’t play or that funky is completely shit.
Remember, if it weren’t for DJs like Supa D, Angie B, Footloose, Kismet there would be no funky scene. When the first funky tunes started being played 3-4 years ago these were the DJs that first played them on a certain station. When producers like Invasion Records, Tadow, Lightfinger/Fingerprint, Dubplate Wonder and Apple first started making that new sound, they were the DJs that got it out there for them.
Do you like much Funky then?
Funky tracks have crept into our sets. One or two tracks still get played. We love Hardhouse Banton’s Sirens, Crazy Cousins’ Do you Mind, Geeneus’s As I etc. There’s a small percentage that is well produced and sounds really good but there’s more shit than good and that percentage after 3 years ain’t got any better. If anything the sound has changed again and maturing into some next grime ting with 10,000 MCs all chatting nonsense. You’re seeing it now, failed grime DJs and MCs jumping on the bandwagon.
Another ‘genre’ that’s been mentioned in relation to House recently is Wonky (Not to be confused with the post-Dilla hip hop sound). Circle made ‘Say no to Wonky’ t-shirts – is that to do with the grimey House thing?
Ha ha ha! Ok, this is the god’s honest truth: we/Circle were all on radio, someone messaged us or something, or we were talking between ourselves on the mic and someone was saying ‘what do you call Grime Funky?’ and someone said ‘Wonky’. Again, something unintentional that people heard, took on board and started crying about it. So much so that it got back to us and made us laugh. It was a joke but they took it serious and had a cry, certain producers acting like pussies, ringing certain DJs and crying to them, which got back to us hence the t-shirts we printed up. It was our way of saying ‘fuck off you cry babies.’ We don’t even wear those t-shirts. There’s no need, it was a joke; the kids got upset, big deal, deal with it, innit? As far as I’m concerned, it’s done with but people still refer to Grime/Funky as Wonky. We never told them to. They heard it and ran with it… another seed… go figure!
Where do you think the current UK House thing will go?
There are two roads this generation can go down in terms of the new House sounds. The non funky road which is slowly developing into something new, or the ever changing funky road, which is now seeing a change with the MCs jumping on board. Whichever road you take or prefer it’s exciting. People from the funky side will say that the road we defected to is boring. That’s their opinion, and I personally won’t bite anyone’s head off for that. We expressed our opinion on where Funky’s going, so it’s only fair everyone has an opinion but don’t start crying about it – that’s long.
How far can Dubbage go?
The thing is I actually do think it will lead into a sub genre. For some reason over the last couple of years a lot of people follow and listen to a lot of our opinions and take it as gold, when sometimes it’s just our personal opinion… it means nothing really, but people see it as ‘well if Circle say so, then it must be so’ and it ain’t always, or should be like that. But it’s good I suppose. It shows we’re actually influencing a lot of the younger heads which is why I think this Dubbage thing will lead into something big. Imagine that, something we were just messing with as in a different name actually turns into something.
You can catch Circle on Rinse Fm every Monday at 9pm
Photo c/o Cogdogblog
There’s something majestic about the total immediate connection with the music headphones give you. Contrasted with the pure submersion provided by a stack of amped up speakers, it is of course a very different thing. A closed, rather than open, listening experience. Totally antisocial. It’s just you and your tracks; their acoustics juggling the air between your ears and phones. It’s intimate. In a club you can get close but can you get this close? No interference. No chit chat. No bar queue. No brutal interject for a cigarette.
A track cuts in that wants to make you clasp your cups to your ears; the experience is like nothing else. This is of course assuming you’ve invested. This ain’t no ting ting earbud thing. Only cans can give you serious sound-orama. Without synesthesia, sounds can emerge which are unrecognised from the reproduction of your home audio set up. It’s an escape far better than trivial television, downloaded memories, youtube nostalgia or anything.
I find great pleasure in the fact the space around you is so comparatively quiet. It doesn’t matter. It’s just you and the music. The connection is a mantra. The rhythm is encompassing.
The notion of headphone club nights is a bizarre one as Transpontine points out. In a club, it’s what happens between and during the sounds which validate your presence. At home, or in transit, it’s your surroundings, if anything, which provide the context and even then you can shut them out in favour of you selection.
But right now, as i type, i’m listening to music in the dead of night. Flat mates asleep. I’m alone, truly with the tunes. In front of me i see my speakers, dead and redundant. And it’s quite satisfying to bypass them. It feels as though the connection between the music is stronger. From source to ear; something has been eliminated, the sound is closer.
Headphone space is quintessential to the appreciation of music. Setting that time aside to connect, away from distraction is important. The difference between hearing you favourite tune in a club, blaring out of a passing car and on headphones in your own space is massive.
It’s Friday night. I didn’t venture into nightlife. I didn’t saddle myself up next to the speaker stack. Instead i’ve had an intimate evening with some of my favourite records. And i think it’s important to have that space. Like someone else talking about your favourite book, music in the social can mutate what it means to you.
