Taking to the stage to celebrate the release of new single “Christabel” Dems delivered what can only be described as a near perfect set, spoiled only slightly by the terrible sound at Birthdays. Even though the set was almost too quiet to properly hear in places it was abundantly clear that Dems have something a little special.
Bookended by arguably their best two tracks Inner O and House (Track List below), the set was short but sweet, coming in at ~40min. Regular readers will no doubt be aware that personally I think this is pretty much the perfect set length. I regularly seem to spend more time editing tweets than anything else I write (Can you tell…), and there’s a reason for that – It’s incredibly difficult to set out what you want to say concisely without overdoing it. That’s exactly what Dems have managed to do with this set, lay down exactly who they are and what they’re about without going on about it to the point that people are over it.
The undisputed highlight of the show came in the form of a cover of T2′s Heartbroken, not because it stood out as being any better than their own material, don’t get me wrong they’re a band with songs for days, rather because of the moment of pure delighted surprise it drew from the crowd.
A bit shout out is also due to artist Matthew Plummer-Fernandez for putting together one of the best live visuals I’ve seen for a long time.
If you get a chance to catch Dems live I would highly recommend it, not only do they know how to write a song but they can also put on a show. Big things surely await..
Unless you live under a rock or something you’ve probably noticed that the premiership is back in full swing. That in mind now seems the perfect time to pay tribute to one of the biggest characters in the game. Manchester City’s Mario Balotelli.
I’m sure you know about all the, allergy to grass, fireworks in the bathroom, and training bib antics so we’ve prepared something a little different.
This is Mario in Music!
A track by track guide to Mr B’s musical appearances. That’s right all of the tracks below have one thing in common, they all mention the man himself.
Melé – Beamer Ft. Kano
“Teach them how to Balotelli” - OK so i have no idea what that means, but I like to imagine that it’s a cross between wrestling a training bib, and setting things on fire.. Who wouldn’t be up for that? I’m in…
This beat is unbelievably infectious, if your feeling it then you can download Mele’s free beat tape here.
Ruff Sqwad – Mario balotelli
With a hook based around the infamous “Why always me” tee-shirt this song is the most “Mario” from start to finish.
In a way I almost wish Ruff Sqwad had used this Prince Rapid produced beat for something a little less “novelty”, because it’s absolutely HUGE!
This is still one of the biggest songs of the year for me, and easily the best song to come from the Ruff Sqwad crew for time.
RIO – Can’t Stop ft. Mr Benz
A bit more subtle this one, but look hard enough and you can see Mario pop up and show off some of his skillz in the video.
I guess it kinda makes sence that Mario keeps on popping up in songs with MC’s and rappers, after all there’s just something about him that feels a bit like footballs version of grime, which Rio Ferdinand and all the others who’ve tried just can’t quite pull off…
Aaliyah ft Drake – Enough Said
Whatever you think about this whole posthumous Aaliyah thing there’s no getting round it, Mario’s somehow there right in the middle of it. Lets face it you haven’t made it of your not “swerving with Balotelli”, never mind the fact that he was only 11 when Aaliyah died.
Balotelli is yet to get behind the mic, although with Usain Bolt releasing his own track Faster Then Lightning, and Arsenal’s Emmanuel Frimpong jumping on this Lethal B beat it’s only a matter of time right?
A while back we got Ninja Tune artist Deco Child down to the studio to record an exclusive interview and guest mix, for The Plasticine Box radio show.
After sitting on (read forgetting to post) it for a while, it’s about time that the listen again links were posted up on the blog. For your aural pleasure we present the interview and guest mix separately, or if you have an hour to kill then why not check them out in the context of the whole show?
Ok so let’s start with the volleyball…. Team GB are RUBBISH at men’s volleyball (Yes they really do deserve a capital rubbish!). The main issue is that they can’t serve. Even I, knowing almost nothing about volleyball, can safely say it’s impossible to win if you can’t hit the ball into the court. Couple this with what can only be described as the venomous serve of Adam White and it’s no surprise that Team GB lost in straight sets to an Australia side that didn’t really look like they were trying… At least Booing Australia is one of my favourite ever things. Just as well there wasn’t much to cheer.
The next match up, Brasil Vs Russia managed to make Team GB look even worse. Who knew the Russians were soo good? Sure they lost in straight sets too, but the game was way higher quality that anything GB produced. The GB Ambition squad were sat behind us, so lets hope they were taking notes for Rio 2016.
Away from the sport the whole event was seamlessly organised, the security efficient, if a bit intense. The army was defiantly running the show, I only saw one lonely looking G4S guy the whole day! This does kinda beg the question, if we had all these spare soldiers knocking around at such short notice what was the point in even bothering to pay and recruit private security?
Getting our sponsor on
That’s security, the other big issue of the games? Sponsors… This might be a controversial opinion, but I really don’t think that there was enough sponsorship or branding within the arena. I was kinda looking forward to getting into the Olympic spirit with a Mc Donald’s, Heineken and some sport. I don’t even like Mc Donald’s it just feels like it should be an integral part of the experience. You might think “well the sponsorship has done its job” but go with this a second… Imagine how much more fun it would be if the Hype man was dressed as Ronald Mc Donald, there was a giant a giant Coke fountain, and someone giving away free dairy milk samples… Admittedly I’m not quite sure how Dow Chemical’s fit into this happy scene but you get the idea. LOCOG ask you to turn up two hours early, at least it would be something to do in the warehouse like holding area.
It seems that the final big issue of the London games is empty seats, particularly the corporate and sponsors seats. What empty seats…?
Sure Team GB were rubbish and there were a few empty seats but who cares? I had a lovely time, everyone should be very proud of the quality, organisation and atmosphere of the London games.
One thing that must be said about London based DJ Dibs is that she’s ahead of the curve, releasing 4 summer inspired mixtapes before the first tiny little rays of sunshine had even managed to pierce the thick rain clouds filling the British skyline. Now that those clouds seem to have departed, (Just in time for the Olympics!) I think it’s about time I posted this to inject a little summer into the stereo. The mixtapes span R&B, Afrobeats, Party time, and a 120BPM dance around your garden tip.
As if all of that wasn’t enough to be getting on with word on the street is that she’s going to start producing beats too… Some of the best producers come from solid DJ backgrounds, so lets wait and see what comes out of that.
If you like what you hear then you can check her out on Facebook here to keep up to date with live gigs and things.
A couple of weeks back, I met up for a chat with hot new Ninja Tune signing Deco Child, amongst other things I asked him which records never leave his DJ bag. Those “get out of Jail” records for when the crowd aren’t quite going your way. Listen below to find out which tunes he picked, discussed by the man himself….
You can check out the full interview on The Plasticine Box radio show broadcast via http://www.rarefm.co.uk on monday the 2nd of July 2012 from 8 PM.
Deco Childs Second single “S&G” is released 02/06/2012 on Ninja Tune, it’s up for pre-order now, along with b-side “Diamond Drops” via the Ninja store. You can listen below.
Here is a little something to listen to whilst you read. A live “Bootleg” of DJ Fresh Preforming Louder, it’s a crowd recording, so it’s a bit noisy at the start but it gets better.
Another title i considered for this post was “Beach Break Live – Wet, Wind and Wales”, but then on saturday night, finally(!), the sun came out. That says it all about beach break really, it’s a festival whose identity is soo closely pinned to the weather that when you take away the sun there really isn’t a lot left, and damn did those weather gods take away the sun.
Everything was soaked before we even turned up!
Sure you can’t blame the organisers for the Rain, and had it been sunny from the onset it would have been totally different. That said, a festival in Wales was always a bit likely to be wet wasn’t it, would it really have been such a bad idea to plan for that?
Friday was frankly a little depressing, again maybe it all comes down to the rain, but it felt like a ghost festival. As hard as we looked, there was almost no one anywhere, and zero “Festival Atmosphere”. Hardly surprising prehaps when there was nothing to do. I get it, it’s about the beach but would a back up plan for when it’s too cold and windy to go be soo hard? As a result most of friday was spent in the action aid tent, playing connect four. Fun yes, worth a trip all the way to Wales? Probably not.
All in all not a great start, thankfully Sir David Rodigan was booked to make an appearance in the evening. He single-handedly rescued the day, and taught me a valuable lesson which would prove to be true throughout. Nothing happens at beach break until 22:00 at which point there’s a 4 hour window of fun, before more lovely nothing.Whats the point in having the festivalin the middle of nowhere in Wales if it can still only get a licence for music until 2 AM?
The Abandoned festival. This was late afternoon on saturday!
Rodigan, went in exactly how you’d expect him to. Big records. Big personality. There’s a good reason why the man’s got an MBE.
Mr Jam also put in a solid friday night set, nothing remarkable but at least it got the crowd going, a rare treat for beach break as it turns out. That was the end of friday night.
Saturday was characterised by a marked improvement in both the weather and the daytime line-up, with acts like Ghostpoet, and Labrinth on the main stage, sadly the whole thing was mired in indifference from the crowd, I think this photo from Ambassadeurs set just about sums it up…
This isn’t a photo of him setting up, this is the crowd int he middle of the set!
There were two moments that the crowd came together to create anything like atmosphere, the first was for England Vs Sweden, the second was in the undisputable festival highlight “The Juke Joint”, a party house of dancing and southern comfort with an old american speakeasy vibe. It was the only place on site that really felt anything like a festival.
Dizzy rascal opened up the 22:00 – 02:00 fun window, with a solid, but short and somewhat unremarkable set. What is it with festival headliners doing under an hour these days? Still at least there weren’t any moshing Penguins!
The real highlight, not just of saturday, but of the whole festival was steeze merchant, DJ and all round bad man Toddla T. An “if carlsberg did DJ set’s…” moment, except imagine if you will that carlsberg actually make quality champagne. Perfectly balanced, just the right amount of hype and MC Serocee is always a bit win. Just when Toddla had the crowed pumped it hit 2AM Game over. Time to wander round aimlessly for an hour in search of some nonexistent fun.
I know beach break is a student festival, but I can’t help thinking its target market is a student soo stereotypical that I was struggling to believe that he / she actually existed. That is until I woke up on sunday morning to find someone pissing on THEIR OWN tent. Despite their being a Sunday lineup headlined by Friendly Fires, and some super sunny weather, the last 3 days had convinced me it was time to go. We busted out of their straight back onto the first train home.
It’s the poor underworked Ice cream men I really feel sorry for…
For some more photo’s check out the slide show below. Due to some kind of “incident” at snappy snaps which I don’t really understand, a lot of the better photo’s don’t seem to exist..
If there’s one thing that the Watch the Throne tour made me realise when it rolled into town, then it’s how much of a difference really crisp, sharp vocals make to a rap show. Kanye and Jay had it down, you could hear every line as though it were a record. Sadly Dalston’s Birthdays don’t quite seem to have mastered that specific art yet. Not that that can really be seen as a reflection on Iggy, but it does kinda spoil the show a little bit when you can’t really hear what she’s actually saying.
(I like this track, it’s like chipmunk finally decided to make a really good record, Iggy doesn’t pop up until about halfway though.)
The set it’s self was short and sweet. Short because, apparently it was like 40 minutes, felt more like 20 if I’m honest. Sweet because, well time flies when you’re having fun I suppose, and it was a fun show. Don’t get me wrong, it’s never a bad thing to leave people wanting a bit more, but for the kinda price she’s charging you can’t really get away from the fact people expect a bit more, maybe she wanted to escape back to new(ish) boyfriend A$AP Rocky as soon as possible (sorry couldn’t resist that little pun). Having said that as she likes pointing out (Check her twitter), Ms Azalea stuck around after for photo’s and all that kinda stuff. A proper popstar in the making prehaps, just a shame some of that time couldn’t have been spent on stage.
If your new to Iggy then don’t let that put you off, you should deffs go and grab a free download of her “Ignorant Art” mixtape here, and keep an eye out for the forthcoming “Glory EP” which is allegedly dropping soon.
This was going to be a live review of Belleruche at Scala (31/05/12) but after watching London’s very own Py play the support slot, followed by a thoroughly uninspired set by Belleruche I think it’s about time i did a post about Py.
She first came onto my radar, and i suspect many other Peoples, at the start of the year with a wonderful vocal feature on Moments the stand out track from Lapalux’s “When Your Gone EP”
It seems that increasingly these days what makes a great singer is the producers they chose to work with, if that’s true then Py is on point, having worked with Lapalux, George Fitzgerald, Raffertie and Breton amongst many others.
If it’s all about working with underground superstars off stage, on it is an entirely different matter. Performing as a three piece with a live drummer and laptop / keys guy, leaves lots of room on stage for Py to shine, delivering an elegant yet understated performance. (I’m not sure if that really means anything, but it sounds nice, and she really was very good)
Her mixtape “Tripping On wisdom” is out now to download free or if its your into the kinda retro 90′s thing that’s big at the moment it’s also on cassette. Don’t own a cassette player? No one really does anymore, but hey you could make a necklace out of it or something.
This is a super old Q&A from back just before the release of Gob, me and Rob Hakimian (now of Beats Per Minute) did for Under City Lights Magazine. I thought i’d post it up here to celebrate the release of the Kwesachu vol. 2 mixtape. Which you can download now.
For people who haven’t heard about you before, describe your sound to them; what can they expect from you?
DELS: Hip-hop, raw, honest, experimental… that’s it basically. Simple.
What sets you aside from the other hip-hop artists that are around at the moment do you think?
I don’t know. It’s not something I really think about really, but I guess that with the producers that I’m working with it’s got like a different sound to what’s currently out there.
I wanted to ask you about your choice of producers actually because you’ve worked with some really interesting producers – producers I really like –so I was wondering were you involved with those choices or were they suggested to you by the label? How did that come about?
I’ve been working on this record years before I signed with the label last year and I’ve been friends with Micachu, Joe Goddard from Hot Chip and Kwes since like 2006. That’s around the time when I started getting into their music, ‘cos before I went to university I was straight like hip-hop, dancehall music, stuff like that and then when I went to uni I met different people and got into different types of music and I guess that’s the reason why my music sounds the way it does. I don’t really listen to hip-hop that much anymore and I spend time listening to other interesting sounds.
So you mentioned you started way back in 2006 and then I think in 2008 you released a single with Moshi Moshi?
Yeah
So what have you been doing between that release and releasing ‘Shapeshift’ on Big Dada?
Well, after that in 2009 I had ‘Shapeshift’ ready. We shot the video in 2009. So we’ve been sitting on that for a very long time and I only got to release it last year in July. I was just kind of trying to work out my live show, cos now I’ve got like a proper band and I thought a hip-hop show can be a bit boring when it’s just DJs and a guy on the mic. I just wanted to build that process you know. And make sure that when I’m onstage I’m communicating something to the audience because I feel like hip-hop could be so much more interesting if you have some great musicians around you. I’ve also been working on my record. I finally finished it at the beginning of the year and it’s coming out in May.
How has your live show changed over the course of writing the album?
It started off with me and a CD player, to me with a DJ, to me with a drummer and a DJ, to now with two keyboardists, singers, delay pedals, bass guitar. I’m really happy with it, but the next step is to add visuals; I want my instrument to be a visual.
How long ago was you and a CD player?
Last gig was in Hull in a dingy club with about four people looking at me and that was in 2009.
Wow, that’s quite recently. I was thinking it would have been back when you were in college.
No, no, no it was recently!
Why is the album called GOB?
Just because I like the word “gob”. It’s very British, it’s something that my mum used to tell me to shut up all the time like “shut yer gob”. My friend Kwes who’s producing on this album he made this track called ‘Gob’ and I just thought it was so punchy. It’s gonna be the next single.
Are you going to make a video for it?
Yeah definitely. We’re shooting a week Tuesday.
You do all your own graphics and videos and things don’t you?
Yeah. With another design studio.
Does that make you feel like you have greater ownership over the whole project?
Yeah for sure. That’s how I’ve always wanted it to be. I’ve always said that I wanted this DELS project to be equally about the audio and the visual, because the times that we’re living in now everything’s online and people are interacting with music in different ways. I think pushing the whole visual element is a really interesting concept for me and that’s something that I’ve been interested in for the last few years. And coming from a graphic design background it’s kind of like a natural progress.
And my music might not last. I might fuck up in a few years time. So I don’t want to go to an interview at a design studio in London and they’ll be like “Ok so what have you been doing for the last few years?” – “Oh I’ve been making music.” But they want to see evidence that I’ve still been thinking in a visual way. So that’s like my plan b.
So it’s like at the same time you’re building your portfolio.
Yeah, exactly!
What kind of themes can we expect to hear lyrically on the album?
Basically the album’s all about the coexistence between fantasy and reality and it’s like an exploration of that space in between.
Yeah that’s what I got from the track titles…
Yeah. ‘Hydronenburg’: that’s about alcoholic water and it’s all about changing. There’s a lot of things where I’m talking about changing objects or changing myself or changing things about other people and stuff like that. So it’s kind of like this distorted view of reality. That’s what I was interested in for this album; just because it lends itself to such a rich visual. Cos if you just base everything on reality it’s too regimented but with fantasy you can do anything.
Are you inspired by things you read?
Yeah things I read, I love Aruki Murakami, the way he writes, he’s a Japanese writer. Also I love Hayao Miyazaki, he’s amazing; and I just love the whole story element. That’s why when I was growing up I used to like people like The Streets, Roots Manuva or even like Notorious B.I.G. just because they all told stories and that’s what I really like.
And you’ve got Roots Manuva on the album, how did that come about?
Yeah! Oh my god. To be honest that was quite random how that happened. I played his night at the Queen of Hoxton and he came up to me out of nowhere and was like “Yeah let’s make a song.” I didn’t even meet him yet! We were label mates but I’d never met him and he’s like “let’s make a song” and he’s talking to me like he knew me. It was quite weird but I was really excited at the same time. I was trying to compose myself. He’s one of my idols and to make a song with him was just amazing. That was done with me, him and Joe Goddard and we had a brass section. Yeah it sounds really cool.
So you’ve got many different producers working across your album, how do you think all of their different sounds and styles tie together to make the finished product?
Because the beginnings of the instrumentals that they sent through to me I picked them while keeping in mind “how can these all go together?” So I wasn’t just picking any old instrumental, I was thinking “Nah that’s not right, we need to work on this.” And then as the album was coming to its completion we kind of just tied the sounds together. It was supposed to be Joe Goddard producing but it ended up with Kwes producing six tracks on the album, Joe Goddard having three and Micachu two. So that was quite interesting for me. The project was originally going to be a joint project with me and Joe Goddard and we were going to come up with a name for it, but we couldn’t think of a name; we came up with all these shitty names. Then he said “you might as well just call it DELS” and I became a solo act basically.
Speaking of names, how did you get the name DELS?
It’s a nickname from when I was a kid. This teacher got me confused with this boy called Delroy and everyone started taking the piss, calling me Delroy every day and then it kind of stuck. My mum calls me Dels. I’d quite like for people to start calling me Kieran again you know? Cos it’s like, just lost in the mist somewhere.
How did you end up signing to [Ninjatune subsidiary] Big Dada? Were there a lot of offers coming in?
They were the ones that were really passionate about what I’m doing and I felt like they understood my vision. That was the most important thing for me. I also wanted to make sure that I have creative control over what I’m doing, that’s important.
I noticed on the b-sides to ‘Trumpalump’, the Joe Goddard remix isn’t so much of a remix; it’s pretty much a whole new song.
Yeah I know!
Do you end up with a lot of extra lyrics that you don’t use?
I thought about using the same lyrics again, but then I thought that would be cheating the audience. I wanted to give the audience something fresh. And it’s quite a heartfelt lyric; it’s about my granddad. I don’t know, I just wrote it. Joe said we were gonna do a remix and I always wanted to do something with my friend Ghostpoet at some point because I think he’s a great artist. He did his verse and when he did that I said to Joe that I thought we should do a quiet remix, stripped down, less crazy, and I just wrote that verse and then that was it.
I wanted to ask you about Ghostpoet because in a lot of the press I’ve read you two have been touted together as a “new wave of hip-hop.” So with his verse on that track did you meet him, do you know him? Or was it something that was hooked up?
No, he’s one of my friends. I met him… I met Kwes, Micachu, Joe Goddard and Ghostpoet… Sampha… I met all of these great producers and artists all on MySpace! So this was when MySpace was booming. I was always talking to these guys every single day and I’d never even met them. It was really weird. So when I saw Kwes – I remember bumping into him on the underground I was like “Whoa! You’re Kwes,” and he was like “yeah.” Then we kept seeing each other out at like gigs and stuff. But I’ve known Ghostpoet for a few years and I think he’s a great artist and I think he’s going to do some really great things.
Would you consider getting together again and doing another collaboration?
Definitely! We did a mixtape, we released it in 2009 and it had everyone on it. It was produced predominantly by Micachu and Kwes, and it had Ghostpoet on it, it had The xx on it, it had The Invisible, Golden Silvers, Man Like Me, just a crazy amount of artists and we all know each other through friends of friends. It’s called Kwesachu Volume 1 and we’re going to do a Volume 2 this year hopefully, just everyone get together and make music.
Are you looking to get the same lineup with big artists on the second mixtape or have you got some new people in mind?
I don’t know; I don’t really control the mixtape, but I’m sure there’ll be loads of new artists on there.
You mentioned Sampha. Are any of the tracks you’ve made with Sampha ever going to be released? Are they going to show up as b-sides?
Yeah I’m sure they’re going to be released in the future, we just need to finish them. He unexpectedly got really popular so then he got really busy and we couldn’t finish the tracks. I really wanted him to be on the album but I think we’re going to do something over the next month or so and finish it and put it out there because I think he’s just a wicked, wicked producer and he’s an amazing soul singer as well.
So you’ve got a few people featuring on your album, are you featuring on anyone else’s album?
Not at the moment, no. Not any hip-hop records or anything.
You still live in Ipswich and you’ve been commuting to London to record; if this album is a success will you move to London?
The plan is to move to London this summer, obviously I lived here before, I moved back to write the album. I just wanted to write it in Ipswich for some reason and it’s worked. I’m looking forward to moving back to London but to be honest I’d probably prefer to write my second album in another city like Tokyo or New York.
That’s really interesting because a lot of the press that I’ve seen says that one of the reasons your music is so fresh is because you took that step away from the “London scene” and wrote it in a different city, so is that something you’re going to try to do; write each album in a different city and see where it takes you?
Yeah I’d love to do that, that’d be a good excuse to go travelling! I’d meet loads of new people, make new friends, stuff like that and I’m sure it would have a massive effect on my music.
In 2008 you released ‘Lazy’; do you think you’re still lazy?
No I’m definitely not lazy, not anymore. <laughs> That was kind of like a reflection of my teenage years before I went to college and stuff like that.
I suppose we should whack this in: every press release I’ve read about you says you were in a two-step garage band that John Peel played. What was the band called and can people still hear the song?
No, no, you can’t find the song. It was a band before the internet age so it doesn’t exist, luckily. <laughs> We were called The Alliance Inn. If you go on the BBC website and search The Alliance Inn we don’t come up, it’s like a picture of these random four white dudes with beards. <laughs> So you won’t ever trace it back to that period.
If you take off it might come out on an old John Peel sessions CD or something.
