Nero 'Promises'

I love dubstep tag-team Nero. Like really, really love them.

A friend of mine started working with the duo recently and confirms that they're great lads. Which leaves me all the more heartbroken to have had marriage proposals refused and my underwear returned, still used, in the post. 

I managed to sneak onto the list for Chase & Status at Roundhouse for the iTunes festival which, according to the Gravity Skank survey, seems the only way of getting in these days - competition tickets are like gold dust, whereas the guestlist queue stretched way back up to where that glorious Banksy used to be. Corporate, much?

Having been to the Chase & Status album launch many moons ago and listened to 'No More Idols' a gazillion times, and, being familiar with the typical lethargy of a Roundhouse crowd, I thought I knew what to expect.

But badda bing! I was totally blown away. It seems the boys have taken a leaf out of the Chemical Brothers bible and invested in some cracking production. And Nero, oh, lights of my life, how you looked so handsome atop those massive speakers. If only that injunction didn't keep me at least 50 metres away at all times.

I jest. In seriousness those boys smashed it: I've never seen Roundhouse go so nuts. And I've gotten so used to dance music being treated as an underground phenomenon that it's good to see live performances being turned up to the max, a feast for the eyes as well as the ears.

So to celebrate, let's look at their latest video, for the anthem 'Promises'. The superb production on this tells a story somewhere between Big Brother and Brave New World.

The album, 'Welcome Reality', is due out tomorrow and I'm so excited about hearing it I might just wet myself.   

Dub FX

This week's Wednesday boredom alleviator is a video from Melbourne beatboxer Dub FX. It's a totally awesome street performance that I'm memerised by - and the track is beautiful.

Show me your bass face

Inspired by the hilarious YouTube clip of Fred the raver putting on his best bass face, I decided to gather my own gallery of bass faces at LED Festival.

Big high fives to everyone who was game enough to take part!

Warning - it gets ugly...

Guide One = one totally mega DJ

'I'm doing a poo' face.

My bass face is revealed.

This guy was hauled over by his mates to be photographed because apparently his bass face is quite famous.

Basslines obviously startle this man.

Bass face of the very charming Professor Green.

Warface, more like.

I said bass face, not cum face.

The award for bass face of the night definitely goes to this man.

And finally, I met a very strange man with bare feet:

Reggie Watts, swearing a lot

As a blogger, I should be keeping you up to date with all the latest, cutting-edge news, right? And as a blog about London's club scene, I should really stick to the programme and write about London's club scene.

Well today I say fuck all that. The other day I was introduced to the very random world of Reggie Watts, an American comedian and beatboxer. I watched this video, it's not new but I liked it - call me juvenile but swearing always makes me laugh - so I'm going to share it with you.

Cue giggles, and much head-nodding.

Mad Decent's dance superhero

I know that Diplo's label Mad Decent pulls some good shit out the bag, but check out this appearance at the NYC block party...

Video: D Double E & Swerve 'Streetfighter Riddim'

I'm a huge fan of grime duo Newham Generals, producers of some truly spiffing aural duttyness.

D Double E - who appeared in this year's most piss-poor movie, 'Shank' - has just released the video of his monsta track with DJ Swerve, 'Streetfighter Riddim'.

It's an OK video, though it appears to have taken its cues from JME's 'CD is Dead'.

DJ Fresh 'Gold Dust' video

This weekend is turning into a visual feast! Yum.

Check out the latest video by DnB don DJ Fresh. 'Gold Dust' is out on 1 August on Data Records, a Ministry of Sound imprint. I'm not usually a fan of MoS videos but this one is pukka.

Filmed in Brooklyn, it features skipping champs Jumpers in Command and various other New Yoik types doing some pretty dope hopping about. Me like.

Kele 'On The Lam' live

Here's a clip that should be your soundtrack for the weekend.

Bloc Party's Kele recently released his first solo album, 'The Boxer', produced by the very talented Hudson Mohawke and XXXChange. And a couple of days ago he performed one of the tunes from that album, 'On The Lam', live for Steve Lamacq on Radio 6.

I absolutely love his voice - really original and sounds great on this. Watch the video (sadly it cuts off a bit short) and let me know what you think...

Video: Noisia and Mayhem feat. KRS-One

Drum'n'bass cool cats Noisia have yet another awesome music video under their belts.

In a slightly back-to-front sequence of events, this short film is for a track called 'Exodus' that was actually released three years ago, featuring rap rep KRS-One.

Noisia fan and visual artist Alexander Lehmann contacted the Dutch trio before 'Exodus' first came out, suggesting he make a film for them. They agreed, and this project started in 2006.

The video, an alien invasion story, was released earlier this month and has proved an internet hit. It is in the same apocalyptic vein as a previous Noisia video I blogged about, 'Machine Gun'.

Keep up the good work, lads!

Rusko at Thekla, Bristol

As someone who is totally, utterly obsessed with clubbing, I know I'm not alone. I've been very lucky to get to know some of the capital's top ravers over the years - the people who you're guaranteed to see at every party, year in, year out; people who share the same obsessive need to skank it up each weekend with a big fat smile on their face and a hug when you see them.

I love those guys (you know who you are), and one of my top ravers - a fellow dubstep and DnB-head like myself - is Holly (who is probably going to kill me for writing this post about her). She's the one with the gas mask and the Sub Soldiers T-shirt raving it up at the front, usually at Fabric.

Last weekend she invited me to Thekla in Bristol for a massive dubstep night. I couldn't go, but she sent me a link to a video of Rusko's set, which made me kick myself for not being there.

Various people (particularly some holier-than-thou music journalists I shan't name) turn their nose up at Rusko in the belief that he's too mainstream, appeals to a young audience, or not highbrow enough. Bullshit. He rocks a crowd, and I think this video proves it.

Seeing as this is a blog about clubbing I thought I'd share the clip with you, so you can spend seven minutes imagining you're there. Have fun.

JME and Tempa T 'CD is Dead' video

As grime videos go, this one's pretty cool.

JME and Tempa T released the video today for their collaboration 'CD is Dead', off JME's new album, 'Blam'. The track is available to download from 30 May.

Tottenham lad JME founded Boy Better Know crew, which includes his brother Skepta. They're a wicked act to watch on stage and have put out some phat tracks in the past including 'Too Many Man'. They've certainly upped their game since that video...

Gordon Mac and Kiss 100

My mate-off-the-radio Ed Adoo just sent me this link to an interview with Gordon Mac.

Gordon is the dude who started up Kiss FM, London's famous radio station that operated from 1985 as a pirate before landing a legal licence in 1990. He is still big radio cheese. 

The history of the station is fascinating, including the fact that it was the launchpad for the careers of Norman Jay, Tim Westwood and Trevor Nelson.

I'm a big fan of Kiss. Ricky, Melvin and Charlie on the breakfast show are jokes - well worth listening to despite the fact they have an appalling playlist. The station is also home to David Rodigan, DJ Hype, Logan Sama, Sinden and the Loose Cannons. That's quite a bangin' lineup, I think you'll agree.

So ladies and gentlemen, would you please welcome...

Soundcrash: DJ Yoda at Kentish Town Forum

On Saturday night I toddled down to Kentish Town Forum for Soundcrash, a 3D audiovisual extravaganza which essentially was, to my delight, a comedy dance music night.

Soundcrash is behind a whole range of hip hop/dubstep/anything-goes events ranging from the Trojan Sound System party at Koko last week (I'll blog about that later) to the Soundwave Festival in Croatia this July (which looks wicked - check out www.soundwavecroatia.com). The promotion has only recently come on my radar but boy, it's a good'un.

All the DJs at this gig were performing an AV mashup on the big screens that were hoisted up around the venue, so they get maximum respect for the amount of effort - and YouTube hours - that must have gone into getting a set together.

The party kicked off with Solid Steel's DJ Cheeba, who gets my top marks for the night. Cheeba smashed it, mixing and scratching everything from jungle to dubstep to Flight of the Conchords. The most memorable part has to be this (literally) dope Alice in Wonderland remix...



Second best bit of Cheeba's set was when he played 'Akama' by Kaitain and Tom Central. I say that not just because the latter was my date for the night, but because it was a genuinely badass track. Look it up if you don't believe me.

Next up were the Addictive TV DJs, who looked like what I can only describe as the Three Stooges dancing on stage like my dad at a wedding. Unfortunately they took the joke a bit too far. Instead of striking that delicate balance of excellent music with a measured dose of humour, they went all out, culminating in a badly chosen track from Family Guy. The most excruciating fact was, they looked more excited than the punters. But let's not dwell.

DJ Yoda came on next, doing what Yoda does best. He's famous for his well-crafted AV shows and this Magic Cinema Set, as he calls it, was no disappointment. It must be hard for a DJ to retain their credibility while playing a Tom Jones track to a serious dance-music crowd, but somehow Yoda managed to pull it off (give or take a few missed cues).

He dropped enough quality raving tunes to keep me skanking, but every now and then pulled some hilarity out of the bag, too. I never thought I'd see the day Lonely Island's 'I'm on a Boat' was played at a rave. If you haven't seen it yet, you're going to LOVE this:

Noisia 'Machine Gun': not a naked woman in sight

There are lots of dance music videos out there that I find lazy and, in extreme cases, offensive. The artists that commission them think it's cool just to have semi-naked girls wiggling about to flacid beats, often in stupid sunglasses or holding riculous props (stop sniggering at the back, please).

By my calculations, I've been clubbing over 600 times in the last decade - and not once have I done it in a bikini. So why the need to portray this image of women as sex objects?

It's therefore refreshing to come across this video for 'Machine Gun', the next release by Dutch drum 'n' bass trio Noisia. It's the first release off their debut album 'Split The Atom', which comes out on 5 April.

Directed by Superelectric, it's a world away from Ministry of Sound-style glitz and cheesy glamour, instead basing itself loosely on the story of Frankenstein with a healthy dose of destruction, war and gore thrown in.

It's a clever, inventive music video and the graphics are brilliant. Just don't watch it if you're on anything!



Big high five to DJ Tom Central for sharing this with me.

We need to talk about Wiley

I'm dedicating this extended blog post to east London grime artist Wiley. Not because I think he's great, but because I think he's, well, a bit weird.

Every interview I come across, he rants about another artist. He's well known for hating Lethal Bizzle. But who else is on his target list?

EXHIBIT A: an interview he did with Time Out magazine last year. He says: 'You know what, yeah? People think I'm mad. I understand why, but I'm not mad. I am actually quite sane... I'm tired of all the talking. I just want to make music.'

He then has a dig at Dizzee Rascal (nothing new there, then. But I'm definitely with Team Dizzee on this one - having known him for three years I can safely say he's a very nice chap indeed.) Wiley also throws in a dig at pop cutie Tinchy Stryder, bizarrely proclaiming: 'I am Tinchy Stryder. I literally am him.' Right.

EXHIBIT B: this hilarious video with my new buddy Nabil Abdul Rashid, a stand-up comedian who interviewed Willy, I mean Wiley, for his comedy sketch programme, The Sho Sho Show, on urban music broadcaster Channel AKA. Doesn't seem like Wiley's 'tired of all the talking' here, huh?



(If anyone can explain why he says his new name is Joe 91, please do. Frankly, I'm baffled.)

EXHIBIT C: Wiley vs J Weezy - an MC battle outside Iceland, no less. J Weezy clearly has some sort of hyperactive ADHD thing going on, and Wiley takes this opportunity to show off his amazing MCing skills. Sorry - did I say amazing? I meant turd.



EXHIBIT D: Wiley's track 'Never Be Your Woman' (the Herve mix is out at the end of the month.) It's a remix of the 1997 White Town original, and it's utter gash. It follows the Wiley formula of bragging about himself, his cars, etc etc. But why he's picked this vocal is beyond me - why can't Wiley ever be my woman? Gravity Skanker thinks the lady doth protest too much.

I'll end this piece with a fantastic retort by grime hotshot Skepta. Yes, you guessed it - he's been on the receiving end of Wiley's potty mouth, too. This is what Skepta, a north Londoner like myself, has to say in return:

Run DMC: It's Like That

Something to get you going for your Friday night, kids....



I'd love to be at Sin City at Plan B this evening (David Rodigan, N-Type and co - the lineup is sick), but instead I'm off to relive the good old Leeds days with Iration Steppas at University of Dub, in the infamous and, ahem, classy La Scala.

Having watched the moves on this video I now have much more ammunition in my skanking gun. Bring on the weekend...

DJ Zinc and Ms Dynamite: 'Wile Out'

Must say I'm loving this new tune by DJ Zinc and Ms Dynamite, 'Wile Out'.

UK garage artist Ms Dynamite has been re-emerging in the dance scene over the last year, making lots of live appearances at clubs and events following a two-year hiatus from music.

Similarly DJ Zinc, producer of 1995 anthem 'Super Sharp Shooter', has been reinventing himself recently as the father of crack house (I promise I'll do a blog post soon explaining what that is!).

They've got together to produce this skankin' track, which was released this week. I'm interested to see how well it does in the charts.  

The journey to 'Let Me Be Your Fantasy'

Music website and online store Drum&Bass Arena has just released the Little Dragon back catalogue.

The label is owned by Floyd Dyce, the man behind Baby D and their 90s seminal dance music hits 'Let Me Be Your Fantasy' and 'I Need Your Loving'.

I met Floyd a few years ago and he's a really sweet, nice guy. Everyone from my generation loves these tracks and he should be proud of producing them, but I know it's been a long and dark battle for Floyd to have them finally recognised as his own. It's a hard lesson in the value of a good contract.

D&BTV has produced a short film looking back at his work in relation to the early years of acid house and hardcore. Check it out here:
Floyd Dyce on D&BTV

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: