It's Christmas

Last minute non-festive review flex

Ahhh - nearly fucking made it to Christmas. Almost there. Let's cut to the fucking chase. Here's a pair of reviews recently knocked out - one's on the above Brandt Brauer Frick's debut album. It's like techno made on classical instruments and stinks of Matthew Herbert's under arm. Which is a good thing innit.

Brandt Brauer Frick You Make Me Real album review

The other is on Sheffield's new guitar heroes, Starlings. I know!

Check that over here...

Starlings Weight in Gold review

Breton go Hemlock...

Breton are one of the many bright new hopes having their name bandied around by those who put great importance on lists - best of the year charts and big tings are cooking for next year charts are annual bookends for music lovers. You can't move for the fuckers. And, as you get older, and a little more weary, you find yourself seeing similar faces and similar sounds. I guess that's just the way it rolls...

Breton are one of those acts, who, right this minute, would probably give every A&R man in the universe a mad lob on. They possess an indie wail, a dubstep bounce and plenty of Foals-esque angles. You can check my review of their debut on Hemlock below...

Breton - Counter Balance EP review

Jacques and Jamie meet each other and head uptown

Get out the umbrellas. Suddenly big tunes are raining down faster than you can say 'cats, dogs and student protests'. It's suddenly pouring with bigness. Or I've just been slow on the uptake... I've been playing these on repeat for the last seven days. Jacques Greene is releasing shit on the likes of Night Slugs and Local Action. Jamie XX is the XX's steel pan head - Can't stop the rock...









Bonar Bradberry may have the best name in wide screen, cosmic disco but he's also got some serious music up his sleeve...



And although Kanye West posted this earlier in the year, I've only just found it...

Cirrhosis, mistletoe and wine

December is one of the most brutal months of the year when it comes to binging. As the countdown to Christmas hots up and the desire to be at work totally evaporates, drinking is everywhere. There is no escape. The only way round it is to gird one's organs, man up and get down to business. Clinky clinky.

'Business' began in earnest last week - Tuesday involved a text book post work binge which almost led to meeting a man about a dog somewhere on the other side of London. Thankfully the less manly (or more sensible) option of test tubes full of jager was chosen, which just about made Wednesday doable. Just.

The following evening saw us darkening the doors of Soho and the seedy environs of numerous haunts in and around Old Compton Street. The first boozer was overflowing with gazillions of bears and men in dresses. After numerous bickers and stellas, we ended up in GAY until way past a time approaching common sense for a school night. As you may or not expect, David Guetta was the main meal on the musical menu. Classix.

Thursday was the final school night session - flipping and reversing the campness and ripe sexuality of the previous evening for a dose of manliness in the form of the Pig's Ear Real Ale Festival in Clapton. The vibe wasn't men in dresses - more old, lonely blokes in shorts with facial hair sniffing down hard on ale nerdery. For these gents, ale is life. It was also pleasing to see that the purveyors of cheese sandwiches hadn't snuffed it in the year since the last event. Hats off to Neil and his unnamed mate. They've made it through another 12 months. Which, if every month suddenly takes on the boozey mantle of the festive period, could be unlikely for some of us. Eek...

Kabal on a mixtape flex

Many of the best nights out in Sheffield take place down the cracks of the city. So if you want to reach the heart of its electronic pulse, then you'll have to get on your hands and knees and stick your ears to the ground.

Kabal has been one of the longest serving, yet resolutely underground evenings the city has served up over the past ten years. With residents such as wafroed new boy Toddla T and Steel City rave veterans Pipes and the FMG, the evening has managed to consistently serve up a fresh sounding dose of music both old and new. And, by hosting events in a variety of backrooms, basements, warehouses, and even converted churches, the uniqueness of the location has always helped each Kabal add up to something much more than just another club night.

This 'clandestine night for party freaks' has a series of parties coming up as the end of the year hoves into view culminating in a massive do on new year at a secret location in Sheffield. To celebrate, they've posted these two mixes on their soundcloud.

You can stream them below - both are big but in different ways...

Kabal Mix NYE 2008 by Kabal Where?House Party

Solid Chunks of Chocolate City - Sheffield 2006 by Kabal Where?House Party

DMX Krewwwww

ED DMX is a man in love with the power and mysticism of the synth. And in many ways who can blame him. He's been on it for time and his CV illustrates there are few others who have shown as much dedication or love to his analogue instruments over the years. He's one of the most consistently on it electronic DJs and producers out there...

I wrote a review of his latest (and possibly best) album - Wave Funk - for the Hyponik site. Check it here

And check out his blog over here

Fuck Yo Social Media Strategy

I know this isn't the real Dave Chappelle but if I close my eyes and make a wish I'm gonna convince myself it is. Just for a minute.

David (@davechappelle) has requested to follow your tweets (@itsajimting) on Twitter!

David @davechappelle

153	28,374	39,501
tweets	following	followers

In London Fields no one can hear you scream

Call me an ugly, old cynic but it seems that all creatives currently have some clause in their personal contracts allowing them to revisit the behaviour of their selves from 20 years ago, then rehash this output all in the name of raising some (probably much-needed) cash. Belts are tight, talk is cuts, hair is grey, moobs pronounced and even aging rock dudes need to make a living. Usually it's a total crock of horse shit but in the case of Screamdelica, the pre-rave album put together by Primal Scream and Lord Sabre Andrew Weatherall tings are different. The album is proper big and helped create dance music as we now know it. So you don't begrudge them too much their decision to recreate Screamdelica in the flesh.

Their gig at the Olympia was big and reflected the physicality of much of the majority of the Scream and their audience - everyone was looking slightly more saggy with only Bobby G resilient to the wind of change. He may have a pair of kids named Wolf and Lux but he's slighter than a pencil and dances like an absolute flower. No moobs on this mon.

G-man and his motley Scottish crue rattled through some of their hits before returning to don jet packs and fly through the more technicolour dub of Screamdelica, complete with backing choir and big boxes of electronic primordial soup. It was loud, euphoric and at times, a little bit ropey. Mani gurned his way through the entire show and they forgot how to play Rocks but it was still a massive gig. Plus the space was so big you could get away with smoking inside without any fear of getting caught.

One of the big bits to their comeback is the new appraisal of Weatherall - Everyone's suggesting he should be the next Peel which is nuts for a chap who can't remember much of the late nineties and early 2000s due to the amount of stimos he was on...

His latest 6music show which takes a peek at the influences behind Screamdelica is part of the reason why...

You can download it below

Andrew Weatherall 6Music Screamdelica show

Kiss the donner meat glove Hackney stylez

Weekends before and since Kiss the Fist, our erratic and irregular little evening of electronic business, have been characterised by regular bouts of sleeping in the wrong place. I'm not currently sure whether being pissed all the time constitutes being able to pin the tail of blame on a narcoleptic donkey or not. Probably not, but it has certainly been a crucial factor in losing a large amount of dignity, money as well as two phones and a bag of promo cds. Whoops? Whoops indeed.

Kiss the Fist itself was a pretty big look - We'd set the bar of brilliance pretty high with previous behaviour in the boozer - The word 'Cuntz' was bandied about in relation to certain members of the clientele during the last one - while only the previous weekend I'd taken it upon myself to forewarn the staff in the pub of what might happen by nodding off on a stool. And being unwakeable. You don't see Tiesto doing this. Do you?

The night itself could never succeed in the same way in terms of pure, unadulterated Corrie-style drama. But we had nuff tunes to show the handful of punters in there who was boss. And when that handful may or may not have include a Catherine Keener lookalike and How Clean is Your House 'star' Aggie MacKenzie then you know the audience needs to be judged on quality. Not quantity.

It ended somewhat predictably by nodding off following a blast of 'rave gravel' in a studio somewhere in the heart of Aldgate East. I grabbed 40 fitful winks while drooling on myself in a room full of fun time guys. And slipped down some stairs bruising my arse and tail bone. Plus operation reclaim hat and records from there is currently filed as 'ongoing'. So the night itself was a great success.



As part of our 'promotion' for the evening, we put together a little podcast of the sort of musical tackle currently floating the collective boat. One of the main talking points was the 15 inch donner meat pizza we took down as creative fuel. The one above is much rougher than the one we ate (the images were on me lost blower). It was almost too nice?

You can stream the podcast here

Getting a Droop E on...

Shiiiiit - November's gone and December is slipping by like a hot sword through a block of off lard. Much has gone down and gone missing in the inbetween time. First up is this... Props to one Bob Funkhouse for pointing us in the direction of Droop E



You can download the whole of his Black Diamond Life mixtape over here.