Showing posts with label Dubstep. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dubstep. Show all posts

Sunday, 20 October 2013

Loefah: Last time I listened...

Continuing my never-intentional tradition of being late to many things (I got a Megadrive as most kids in my year had Playstations. I started watching Sopranoes this summer etc etc). I've been listening to Loefah and his Swamp 81 label. Music is a bit different though, underground wise, it's something I've been into and been involved with, on and off, for a long time. I've probably mentioned it before but when I started MCing, UK Garage was commercially big and in the charts but the underground was taking a turn to the darker side of things. I followed that turn and it's various manifestations into Dubstep and Grime etc. Then I dropped off the radar for a bit, or my internet connection was lost or something, because the whole Dubstep thing got massive, seemingly overnight. Thing was, it wasn't the sound that I was hearing in those early trips to FWD and DMZ with my mate Jazz, or the trips to Bristol I'd make to see my brother and all his producing mates. I just wasn't, and still don't, feel it, much (I don't mind the odd tear-out track or whatever they were calling it). Anyway, one of my favorite early producers and DJ's was Loefah, and over the last few years, I just about managed to keep my toe in these things through my mate Jazz and my brother, who reliably inform me of his activities, like his label Swamp 81. I finally sat down to listen to some of his new (to me anyway) stuff, as apposed to routinely going through his early DMZ releases. Here's a pretty decent Boiler Room mix form August this year. It's sick


Monday, 20 February 2012

Vision Overground

So I mentioned a couple of weeks ago the music my brother Gatekeeper is involved in creating. Well, I'm excited to say that there has been a project bubbling away now for a while which is now seeing the light of day!





Vision Overground consists of Gatekeeper on productions, with MC's Grilza, Ryder Shaifq and the vocal's of Sohpie G. Have a wee listen to a couple of clips they have put up recently on their Soundcloud page. I believe one of the tracks was recently featured on Mary Anne Hobb's XFM show.





Sunday, 29 January 2012

Family Business! Gatekeeper & Grilza: Cuts From the Green Room. Free E.P

Bonjour!


Over a decade ago now, when I started on this journey, it pretty much began in my bedroom at home, after an idea was planted in my head by one of my brothers, who I shared not only a bedroom with (full of rave flyers, records and a set of 1210's) but also a common interest in Drum and Bass and most other forms of underground music. He suggested to me I could be an MC.


It's a story I've told many times since then, in various different forms, so whether it's tired or not, it means a lot to me. The part of the story which I havant spoke of, well, not publicly anyway, is of course my brother (I'm not going to tell it now though, I'd have to speak to him first, it's family business). The long and short of it this, he ended ended up in Bristol producing experimental Bass music (Dubstep and it's various mutations) under the name of Gatekeeper.


On the rare occasions we get to meet up, there's normally lots to talk about in terms of our mutual interests and the separate paths we've both taken. About 5 years ago, I think, he told me he'd began to work with a young rapper from Bath by the name of Grilza. Well, he still is, and the family has grown! Theve gone on to be a duo for a few years now and have some pretty sick releases like Ignite which featured Dread MC as well as being championed by Mary Anne Hobbs on the Bristol Rise Up Documentary and various other tracks played on her Radio 1 show.


They've just released a free EP, "Cuts From The Green Room" which you can download HERE. It's a collection of some of the tracks theve produced over the years now, and I know they were carefully selected (there were 1 or 2 I hadn't even heard!) 


At present, they are working on a project which I can't say too much about but believe me, I've been excited about this for a long time, I've had a little listen and there's bigness to come...watch this space!


As one is my brother by blood and the other by a notepad, a pen, football and pure jokes, I'm going to give them all the support I can. It's what you do with family, and like I said, it means a lot to me.