Showing posts with label Benag. Show all posts

Keep an eye out for a new EP coming soon on Square Records from UK super Producer Milanese. With some classic previous releases on Warp and Planet Mu that have pushed the boundaries of what he terms ‘UK Bass Music,’ the new EP has a lot to live up to but early signs are good indeed.

Milanese has been working with South African rapper Ben Sharpa on tracks and at least one ‘Reload Beat’ has made it onto the EP. The track is a dark grinding, hop, glitch and jump type tune that wouldn’t sound out of place bumping out of a Mad Max vehicle. You can check it out on Milanese’s MySpace… trust me this is BIG.



I’ve heard one other collaboration called ‘Wonderful World’ up on Sharpa’s MySpace which is a lovely Industrial Grime track with a bounce like a turbo injected pogo stick on a brothel bed, but not sure if that’s going to be included on the Milanese EP or not.

Here’s an earlier Milanese track featuring Virus Syndicate that came out on Planet Mu

(YSI) Milanese & Virus Syndicate – You Can’t Remix

And a rockin’ 40 min mix from Milanese

Milanese – Electronic Explorations

And speaking of both Virus Syndicate and Planet Mu, look out for the Manchester Grime crew’s second album on the label ‘Sick Paye’ dropping some time next month.



But for now here’s a heavy little mix that the Syndicate’s producer MRK1 has cooked up featuring vocal duties from JSD.

MRK 1 & JSD (Virus Syndicate)

Just got back from the Bloom Festival somewhere in Gloucestershire, UK. As with most festivals I end up at there was plenty of bimbling round and not much music listening but did manage to catch a couple of good sets that actually penetrated my 5 minute limit attention span.

As I wasn't sure if I was supposed to be deejaying in Cardiff Saturday night (I was... but found out too late - shit) and the rain, wind and cold, alongside a soon departing girlfriend (just for 2 weeks but still) were starting to tug all 4 corners of my come down even further, I wandered over to try and get a lift back to the city with High Contrast who was presently rocking the Fly 53 tent (and to see him play naturally).

Armed with only a (not so) white puffer suit stolen from a GLC tour; with no idea who had the keys to the van where I'd hidden my tunes; and a borrowed tent still full of stuff, it was probably not the best idea to leave, so luckily by the end of his set I had perked up slightly anyway. It's been a while since I've heard HC play but he always manages to do the trick, although it wasn't til he dropped the Caspa Remix of TC's 'Where's My Money', a demonoid Dubstep stompfest, that he truly had hold of my soul strings... I decided to stay in the field and brave it out for another day.

Good job I did cos I hadn't noticed that Caspa himself was due to be playing the next day in a back to back session with Benga. So after dressing in my Sunday best and visiting Church (of the inflatable kind – sadly deflated due to the weather so services were taking place in the Wedding Disco next door) to drop some rather unholy tunes of my own, I went to see what was occurring in the Funk Tent opposite. Seems that a large portion of the Bloom’s criminally under capacity crowd had the same idea (and rightly so – that’s not the kind of set that you get everyday).



Manoeuvring through the mass of K holed crustified kids from the upper ghettos of Bath and Bristol I set myself speaker side for one of the toughest Dubstep sets this century, I’m not gonna bother giving a tune by tune account, if you weren’t there then hard luck, but both fed off each other nicely as they dropped bomb after bomb, many of their own making as would be expected. I didn’t quite reach the end (but that’s to be expected also) still I was marginally more satisfied than I had been up til then thanks to that quick double dose of Dubstep’s finest. Even the poor guys who had snuck in to the festival hoping to catch a live set from Beenie Man (they might well have been getting confused with Beardyman who was apparently there) would have been happy with the level of ragoness – except I think they’d been thrown out again by then.



I actually only heard the ‘Where’s My Money’ remix last week whilst working in Area 41, a youth arts centre in the rough South Wales seaside town of Barry (or Bazra to many locals), where a hungry young group of local emcees were tearing the mic apart. One of them (R Dott) played me the track through his phone that he’d ripped off YouTube, sounded good then but I was thankful to hear it through the DMT boys fat speakers at Bloom (twice), there’s no substitution for quality (and loudness) with such tunes believe me. Still I’m grateful to R Dott for introducing it to me so as both Benga and Caspa declined to let me put up any of their tunes, here’s one from him.

(YSI) R Dott, Young C & Fusion - Grime Time Remix

And in case you missed it, here's a mix that Caspa did for the Future Breaks show on San Franciso's University Station KUSF from late last year.

Caspa Dubstep Mix on Future Breaks FM