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It’s not even Christmas yet, but the organisers of Field Day have just announced the first wave of act for their sixth festival, taking place in London’s Victoria Park on June 2, 2012.
Field Day announces first acts for 2012
by Scott Wilson on 07.12.2011 at 13:44pmSBTRKT – SBTRKT review
by Juno Plus on 05.07.2011 at 09:47amSince donning the SBTRKT mask (quite literally; DJ appearances are undertaken behind an oversized African tribal headpiece), one time broken beat producer Aaron Jerome has become far more famous for the booming intensity and restless rhythms of his current pseudonym than the sweet soul of his previous production life. Tracks like “Soundboy Shift” and the growling “Midnight Marauder” (the latter a collaboration with old pal Sinden) worked dancefloors hard and earned him a whole new legion of fans within the “bass music” community, but lacked the subtlety and cute musicality of his early bruk and modern soul excursions.
It’s something of a pleasant surprise, then, to see Jerome returning to his musical roots on this first SBTRKT long player. While the shuffling dubstep rhythms, future garage grooves and hurried broken beats remain, they’re the mere building blocks of something altogether more musically adventurous. The overriding feel is one of sassy soulfulness. The majority of the tracks come complete with deliciously emotional vocals courtesy of collaborators Sampha, Roses Gabor, Jessie Ware and Little Dragon. These, coupled with Jerome’s way with a melody and heavyweight low-end extortions, ensure that the album seemingly sparkles from the speakers like a rainbow popping out from between the clouds. With such a sharp focus on soulfulness and musicality, highlights come thick and fast. Check the sweet UKG/UK funky rhythms of “Right Thing To Do” (think T Williams’ “Heartbeat”), the sparkling soulful house pulse of “Pharoahs” or the spine tingling tropical sweeps of “Never Never”; all aptly demonstrate Jerome’s talent for fusing genuine soul music with contemporary dancefloor styles.
As such, SBTRKT should probably be viewed as a modern soul album rather than a genuine dancefloor set. While each of the individual tracks will do the business in a club, SBTRKT offers far more than basic, no-frills dancefloor fodder. It’s a sophisticated and well-rounded set that deserves a wider audience than the DJ following he’s already built up.
Matt Anniss
Jessie Ware & SBTRKT – Nervous review
by Tony Poland on 08.11.2010 at 15:49pmVocalists often get a raw deal in dance music – shunted to the sidelines by producers who more often than not take all the glory. It runs almost parallel to pop, where singers hog the limelight and the writers and producers barely get a look in. It’s about time that the UK’s bass scene finally start producing some vocal talent , and hot on the heels of Katy B’s “On A Mission” comes the first single from Jessie Ware – previously employed as part of Man Like Me – which comes with production from SBTRKT and is the latest blinding EP from the Numbers crew.
SBTRKT’s nu-jazz past really shines through on the production, with a bassline that reeks of early 80s boogie but sped up and bolstered by some lethally fast hats and glorious funky snares and claps. As the bassline rises through octaves and a heady, filtered string arpeggio blows through the tune, Ware’s vocals are layered beautifully over the top. The real ace though is the deft tempo drop after the first chorus – slowing down to around 90bpm slowly and with the vocals still clinging onto the groove for dear life. As the hats and bass notes almost collapse into each other, it speeds up frantically making for a truly unique moment – a trick missed by so many producers.
As well as a dub and radio edit, there’s also a String VIP mix that unleashes a new set of strings around midway through. There’s also a new SBTRKT original included called “Fright” which starts off with a bassbin-pounding set of toms and subs, before switching up beats into a crisp and crunchy garage rhythm, all the while layered with some twinkling space-pads. It’s pretty essential fare all round, as you’d expect from Numbers, and a welcome debut from Jessie Ware.
Oliver Keens
Modeselektor – Art & Cash remixes review
by Juno Plus on 31.08.2010 at 10:50amThese faultless Berlin techno/dubstep merchants are on very fine form at the moment, having recently announced Modeselektion Vol 1, a bumper compilation that features a heavyweight cast of international producers currently entrenched in the post dubstep sound. Their label 50 Weapons is gushing out all kinds of goodness at present, they never fail to retain their trademark sense of humour, and now they have released this excellent set of Art & Cash remixes. This Mdslktr classic from last year was perfect enough in a taut, funky motorik way but here we see Bok Bok, Roska, SBTRKT and Phon.o really expand the horizons.
Nightslugs’ star Bok Bok transfers the original’s sinuous synthlines to a way lower register, riding a huge bassline that’s embellished with some raw snares, claps and cash register sound effects, a nice sonic pun on the tune’s title. It’s prime UK bass material, and is yet another excellent Bok Bok version. Roska is someone else who’s simply unable to turn in a bad mix – staggering given the amount of stuff he’s been knocking out of late. Using his trademark kit of organic percussion (with a nice eastern flavour this time around) layered into powerfully funky sequences, he keeps the original’s booty-slapping electro snares and loosely follows the chord structure with some shivering synthlines. It’s prime Roska, even if it’s hard to spot the original Modeselektor in the mix.
SBTRKT keeps closer to the spirit of the original, using glitchy chords and bleeps in his version, but he really makes it his own with a chord sequence that tugs hard at the heartstrings and an added vocal that sounds as though it’s being dredged out of the sea. It’s a real beauty, almost like Boards of Canada on a house tip, with crisp snares that don’t over-complicate the tune. Whereas the other three mixes are pretty radical makeovers, Phon.o’s mix is possibly the one hardcore Modeselektor fans will pounce on. Upping the tempo slightly, he keeps the huge tech-riffs of “Art & Cash” in place, but adds a whole set of minimal hits in a Bmore-meets-Radioclit style, and filters sections up for maximum rinse potential. Don’t make us pick our favourite – these are all absolute gold.
Oliver Keens
Modeselektor announce compilation
by Tony Poland on 25.08.2010 at 13:04pmAce Berlin bass demons Modeselektor have announced the full tracklist for Modeselektion Vol 1, an 18 track CD compilation that features a heavyweight cast of international producers currently entrenched in the post dubstep sound.