The Most Spiritual Show on the Dial – 5050

 

Dennis Brown

This week we are two contributors to BDAW down with the dreaded parmageddon that is swine-flu. I’ve personally got man-flu, but I can sense through the glands that things could turn nasty. My imminent demise however did have a silver lining in that it led me to be around on a Wednesday night to check out one of my favourite radio shows—the 50 50 Soundsystem on Resonance FM. 

I have very few appointments to listen in my life, but if I’m in, this show is always on. I know little about 50 50 other that the music that they play is so spiritual it makes the two hours of broadcast involuntarily propel me into a communion with my maker. Dusty roots 45’s sit next to a cappella chants, sirens and moans to make a collage of sounds that when I close my eyes feels like my idea of a perfect church. This is mystery and wonder timed to perfection.

50 50 don’t podcast or archive their shows, but I’ve got a feeling that I might start doing it myself right here (…if you are already on it let me know!) This is, besides the joy that is Jonny Trunk, the best show on Resonance and one of the best listens anywhere on the dial. Milo Lapis, Jah Beef and crew are the most humble, understated of DJ’s, but their selections and craft are top drawer. 

Cheeky bootlegs coming soon, but if—like me—you are owned by Google, you can sync the Resonance running order to Google calenders here to remind yourself when to stay home and tune in.

It’s London, but not as you know it….

Mala of Digital Mystikz

Digital Mystikz’ ‘B’ is the first dubstep record I ever bought and the first dubstep record I fell in love with.  Mala was the man who made it, the man who was and still is utterly instrumental within the genre and, arguably, without him dubstep would lack much of its musical soul.  He’s a big thinker, a quiet talker, a genuine gem; I had high hopes for this hour-long journey with the legend himself through his streets and sights and sounds of his London via Red Bull Radio.

The programme kicks off with Mala back in his childhood ends of Norwood and runs through some of his earlier musical memories & local hang outs.  He rattles around a couple of record shops and south London markets and winds up in Forest Hill, where he gets technical about cutting dubplates.  He plays us a few of his favourite tunes, old and new, we meet some of his collaborators, he tells us how cool Red Bull Academy is etc. etc. etc.……Ok, so I’m a huge fan and I know a fair bit about Mala already, but given that he’s such a central figure in such an urban scene, even my Nan could’ve guessed that he probably used to listen to pirate radio in his room, that he hung out in Croydon at Big Apple Records and that Blackmarket is something of a spiritual home to him.   Quite frankly, Wikipedia could’ve done the job.

Look, there are bits of this programme I loved- Mala on the phone to Coki and the subsequent chat with his long time friend and label mate, the nods to fellow Londoners Jehst & Roots Manuva, the bits about him using every penny of his overtime money on that precious first cut of a track.  I get that it has to be about Mala’s connection with London, but I just felt that this programme didn’t entirely do him justice.  A lot of the time, there’s little link with what he’s talking about and the music in the background.  Who were his favourite artists growing up?  Which nights did he go to?  Where in London did he meet his fellow dubsteppers?   Where did he work before he made it?  There’s not even a mention of Brixton, the home of his DMZ night- the biggest dubstep event in the capital, which is rammed to capacity every month.

You very much get the impression that London is something of a disappointment to him, not somewhere he feels totally at home.  At one point he says that he in no way feels patriotic to its cityscape and grey concrete, but that it probably has shaped him.  And maybe that’s the problem.  Get him on the topic of music and he’s away, talk to him about his current locale and he has less to say.  However, for the tracks played along the way, for Mala’s insights into dubstep’s evolution and to get a beginner’s guide to where it all began, you still need to tune into this.  Personally, I’d just like to skip to the sequel.

Where the speaker(s) at? Part One

south african radio

There are moments when you only truly arrive somewhere when what you see from your window conspires with the sounds eeking from your transistor.

You know the drill – you’re driving down the motorway and then in a moment of madness you flick to Radio Shropshire, Donegall FM, or the Pulse of West Yorkshire. Accents and adverts suddenly connect you to the area and landscape that your comfy car has kept you insulated from.

This most excellent moment hit me like a piledriver crossing the Orange river – from Sith Ifrica to Namibia.

Two things conjoined to make crossing a tangible moment. The first is that – unlike most land borders, where one despondent cabbage field reaching to the horizon gives way to another – the orange river is a real physical, geographic change. It’s as though God had looked down and said “I’m not leaving this up to those stoopid poeple,” drawn the line across the ground, and said “let there be two different places”. The rocky Mediterranean scrub gives way to Jabba the Hut’s back yard. Luminous sand dunes and desert outcrop stretch from the curb to horizon.

We’d had our passports stamped in the border hut, and were crossing the bridge when, for no discernable reason the stereo which all through the veldt had been happily playing CD’s, decided no more hip hop, you Hafrica now boy.

From the static hiss emerged some weird juju Ndebele dude talking pops clicks and whistles to the sounds of jangly gee-tars recorded in a mud hut with a pair of 1960’s headphones.

Low fi from the beyond.

Awesome.

Tea + Techno?

rob booth

Say you’d decided that for your staycation this year you were off to the Lake District, Ambleside to be precise.  You’d packed your picnic rug, put the dog in the car & landed up there at some point on a Friday evening.  You check into your b&b and it’s all really green and countrified and you’re really starting to feel like you’re getting away from the grind.  You wake up the next morning and the birds are singing and you think that obviously what you need is a fat fry up to start the day.  You spot the delightful looking Daisy’s Café just over the road, it’s got really pretty net curtains and hanging baskets outside and so you drag the fam over there, walk in the door and WHAM….you’re surrounded by beardy weirdos ravin it up in white gloves to a futuristic soundtrack of Aphex proportions.

This is how I imagine Rob Booth- originally of the West Country via London and now proprietor of said Daisy Café- gets down on a daily basis.  In his spare time away from baking scones & serving Earl Grey to the rambling fraternity of the Lake District, Rob is an underground soldier of a rare variety.  At the last count he’s on the 75th edition of Electronic Explorations (the latest featuring Kid 606), his show that explores some of the most experimental electronic beats & artists that don’t get enough love elsewhere.

Clocking in at two hours, it’s an absolute labour of love on his part- I mean how do you keep in touch with the latest grime techno while chatting to grannies about their dead cats?  The BPM’s rarely drop below 140 and you can expect everything from acid to ragga to minimal tinted tech from the likes of Planet Mu, Rag & Bone and Surface Tension, plus he puts together mini podcasts for the shows and you can either stream them or download the file.  Yeah, ok, his presenting style is more West Country train announcer than hyped up youth vibes, but he loves what he plays and that counts.  His guests (Akira Kiteshi, Optika Technika & Syntheme) represent via mixes throughout the show and this is where it gets really clever.  Not only do they mash together some mad beats- Lee Perry, Girls Aloud & sounds from bearded seals a mile underneath the Arctic, in the latest case- but they also intro all the tracks as they’re coming in, giving us an insight into why they’re there.  Annoying?  You might think so, but it actually works.

There are shows out there that could do this, should do this, but none that succeed in quite the same wonky way and that’s why Electronic Explorations is a winner.  Maybe it’s all that fresh air.  Whatever. If you too would like to witness Rob frantically whipping cream to a mental Milanese-style soundtrack, you can find him here-

Daisy’s Cafe
Ambleside
CUMBRIA
LA22 9BS

Otherwise, just tune into the show and I’m sure you’ll get the picture.

Newbit.