Deadly Rhythm: 2562 and Martyn

It seems that Deadly Rhythm lost the battle against FWD on Friday night.

Considering it carried a hefty lineup featuring 2562 and Martyn, the 'bass music' promotion at Plan B in Brixton wasn't as busy as it should have been, and it was clear that most of London had headed to Matter instead for dubstep and grime's biggest outing.

Plan B is smashing it these days. After a fire in May 2009 it was refurbished and reopened with a better sound system, better layout and some of the most cutting-edge DJs in dance music. Deadly Rhythm is one of its best nights and, despite the shortfall in numbers, Friday proved a winner (judging by the amount of gravity skankage at the front).

For what is usually quite a warbly affair, there was little dubstep. Instead we had garage, tech house and 'future garage' (more info on that here) blended into a storming night of... well, bass music.

The second room didn't open, which meant everyone was in attendance for headliner Martyn. His set was sadly delayed by yours truly, drunkenly requesting the DJ write a love letter to my-friend-who-is-your-biggest-fan. Martyn's response? 'Your mate should spend more time with his girlfriend.' Bless him, he still wrote the letter.    

It's just been announced that Martyn is doing a back to back with Kode 9 at Bloc Weekend. Pens at the ready...

And the beat goes on...

Having just informed Bruno that I shared his video link, he's sent me this new one. I had to put it on here. Anyone who's worked with a label will know this situation EXACTLY! Haha...

Film it, rudebwoy

My producer friend Bruno, in his insatiable quest to keep me amused at work, has shared this hilarious link:


On a similar tip, the whole world (including Chase & Status) have been tweeting this video to grime artist Skepta. Check out the skates at the end - brilliant:

Free Krafty Kuts downloads

Probably still buzzing from the arrival of his new baby boy, Krafty Kuts has spread the love with a bunch of free music downloads.

The breakbeat master producer has just uploaded a remix of Top Billin's 'Up In Here' to his SoundCloud page. He's also offering a one-hour hip hop back-to-back with his buddy A-Skillz and a Fabric mix, both well worth downloading.

Click here to get in on the Krafty action.

Tinie Tempah - Pass Out

Is it wrong that I keep listening to this track?

Free N-Type remix

To celebrate their forthcoming night at Matter, FWD and Rinse are giving away a free remix of MA1 & Sophia’s 'I’m Right Here'. N-Type's slapped and smacked the track into a dark, atmospheric roller. Download it for free by clicking here.

Pendulum take the controls at Matter

Friday night I moseyed on down to Earstorm, the first in a series of nights curated by DnB-slash-rock badboys Pendulum. (No info on the next events as yet, but Matter assure me there'll be two more this year).

I love Matter, I really do - despite the fact it's full of home counties girls in party dresses and strappy heels; despite the fact it's in the arse-end of nowhere; and despite the fact that the top floor could do with turning the volume up... a lot. I still traipse there all the time because it pulls these ridiculously sick lineups out the bag.

Nero's dubstep and DnB set in the main room was a total stormer, and proved the duo are as natty on the decks as they are in the studio. I think I'm in love.

In room two, scratch master DJ Craze - the proud owner of six gold Technics decks, the lucky bastard, having won the World DMC Championships three times - also smashed it. He's obviously cottoned on to dubstep, but we caught some trademark hip hop and jungle styles too, which rocked.

Sinden dropped a mix of tech and tribal house, electro, two-step swagger and booty bumpin' riddims. It was good, fun, catch-all - but not enough to keep me going for a whole hour, especially when competing against Pendulum, who were giving a taster of their new album on the main stage.

Next, DnB man-of-the-moment Sub Focus tore it up, but sadly his set featured the low point of the night: an MC with 'Put your hands in the air' tourettes, which was super, mega, utterly annoying.

Talking of annoying, I'm thinking of starting a petition for a ban on mosh-pits at DnB nights. Where the hell did that trend start? I'm showing my age when I say, it wouldn't have happened in my day...

CLUBS: February 2010

Friday 12 February @ Plan B, Brixton
Event: Hatcha & N-Type present: Sin City - A Red Bull Music Academy Special
Lineup: Room 1 / Scientist (live), David Rodigan, Hatcha b2b N-Type, Appleblim b2b Ramadanman, El-B b2b J Da Flex, Soul Jazz Sound System, Kenny Ken & MC Skibadee
Room 2 / Oneman, Youngsta, Kromestar b2b Walsh, Heny G b2b Jay 5
Deets: £8 advance / £12 on the door. www.plan-brixton.co.uk
Gravity Skanker says... Click here to go to David Rodigan's Kiss 100 page. Look at the picture. Then listen to the voice. Then look at the picture again. Then listen to the voice. Confused much?

Friday 26 February @ The Russian Bar, Dalston
Event: Days Like That
Lineup: Scott Garcia, DJ Noodles (Groove Chronicles), DJ Para (DEA Project), Goldielocks and more tbc
Deets: 9pm - 5am, £5/£3 b4 11pm
Gravity Skanker says... UK garage and dance classics at this stormin' late-night den. It's the next best thing to hopping in a time machine and reliving '97.

Bestival party: March 2010

As a big fan of Bestival, I thought I'd share this splendid news: they're holding a party in London on Saturday 20 March.

Hell, they haven't even announced the lineup yet, but this is the festival that launched a thousand fancy-dress nights - why not go for the giggle? It made dressing up like a knob cool again. Without Bestival, I would never have seen so many male friends clad head to toe in lycra, rolled-up socks firmly in place.

You can go geared up in any of the previous years' themes, which were: cowboys and indians, circus, pirates, under the sea and outer space. Woohah.

The party's being held at Koko in Camden. Tickets are £12 from www.ticketline.co.uk. For info, go to their Facebook page.

Bloc 2010

I'm so excited at having bought a ticket for Bloc Weekend I think I just wet myself a little bit.

The beauty of this, and other holiday park festivals is, no camping. Oh, the joys of taking a hot shower between raves, walking just two minutes to reach the next stage, 24-hour arenas and going swimming or playing mini golf with your mates when still slightly spannered.

Having been to the festival every year since its inception in 2007, I can vouch for it being total, utter hilarity. This year the lineup includes Salt n Pepa (yes I'll be wearing my blue puffa jacket, circa 1999, for that set), Grandmaster Flash, Skream b2b Benga, Congo Natty and Roots Manuva. The promoters have even dug deep into their garage box to pull out MJ Cole who, I'm reliably told, spends his time living off the proceeds of 1998 album 'Sincere' and playing with mini helicopters.

Last year's Bloc brought out some strange habits. I developed an addiction to Burger King chips at 4am, Chris was so excited at finding a Ribena vending machine he spent £30 on the stuff, and Sally loved the dance mat so much she spent most of her time on it - despite the arcade game being positioned right outside a room of real music, with real DJs and real clubbers.

There are still tickets left. Check out the website here.

I heart Hospitality

I do bang on about how good Hospitality is, but it's totally justified. What an amazing night!

I went to the last couple of Hospitalitys at Digital in Brighton. Great crowd, great fun. The sound system in room two could do with a tweak, as could the opening hours (who wants to go home at 4am anyway?) but other than that, it's a brilliant event - and possibly the best drum n bass party in the world.

Last Friday, Hospitality returned to London on one of the coldest nights of the year. We trekked through the snow to Matter, determined to make our rave mission happen despite the fact that my raving compadre was already puking (his fun started early) and I didn't have my moonboots on (I resent going anywhere in snow without them).

Unfortunately Matter has taken a leaf out of Fabric's book and the queues are hefty, which meant we caught only the last track of Rusko's main-room set. But Friction totally smashed it afterwards, playing the best set of the night. London Elektricity kept the pace up nicely, which was sadly lost when Shy FX came on the decks and decided to rewind almost every tune. It's. Really. Annoying. To. Stop. Start. All. The. Time. 

I'd love to tell you how good Cyantific was, but I was too busy teaching everyone at the front how to gravity skank by that point. It was a bummer that High Contrast couldn't make it - he may have a microphone for a head, but his sets are always awesome.