January Round Up

Been a bit quiet on the gigs front since Christmas, but that’s only because we’re saving ourselves for this big one:

THE REGGAE SOUNDSPLASH!

Saturday 25th February 2006. The Black Swan, Stapleton Rd, Bristol. 10pm - 5am.

DAVID RODIGAN Kiss Fm
With Cannibus & Big D repping Bristol
Plus...J STAR ft. MC Honey Brown
HEATWAVE DJ'S (Punchline / Scandalbag)
DUB BOY (Ruffnek Diskotek)

Powered by The High Pressure Soundsystem
Plus The Sex Pixels on the visuals!

And then upstairs….
KEEPING IT RUFFNEK!

HEADPHOBE & DEFAZED (1 Man Army)
MONKEY STEAK (Werk / Shadetek)
DJ PINCH (Planet Mu / Subloaded / Tectonic)
BLAZEY (Black Ops / Subloaded)
IRONSIDE (P.R.A.N.K.)
BROTHER WETLANDS b2b star delta 3 deck special!! (Ruffnek Diskotek)

Powered by Roots Radical Soundsystem

£5 adv (+bf) from Rooted & Replay, £6 b4 12, £8 after

www.rodigan.com
www.dubstudio.co.uk
www.heatwavelondon.co.uk

Absolutely compulsory! Check out all the news and gossip as it happens here.

More Monkey Steak news: Slit Jockey’s “Stateside Grime” Mixtape vol. 1 hit the shops this month. Mixed by Dev79, loads of exclusive tuneage on this one to sink your teeth into, not least of all a new Steak cut called “Dirty Madge”. Armin’s got a few in stock at his online dSWAT shop if you fancy checking it out – only a fiver to boot, which for exclusive tracks by DTL, Vex’d etc plus fresh rhymes by Kano, Riko et al is an absolute steal if you ask me.
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Well, for better or for worse, the Sweaty Palms Ep was unleashed onto the world this month. Here’s what folk have had to say about it…

“Sam Atkins was last called Atki2 on The Dudes EP on Shadetek, which contained slaybass stomper Pout & Purchase, and he’s on no less fearsome form here. ‘Shocking Out Proud (Sweaty Palms Mix)’ is a frightmareish mirror-hall of liquid-sword synth, icy beats, sudden ruptures of buzz-bass and a lyric so hilariously party-down it’s like Doug E Fresh playing at a deserted Antarctic weather station. S’a fucking strange tune, just a totally anti-linear hostile soundscape alive with engrossing detail, details that have you squinting one just as the track’s ready to thunk the back of your neck with a fresh piece of bedlam. By the end of the ‘Sweaty Dub’ instrumental you’re running in sheer terror. I haven’t heard anything so aggressively abandoned yet terrifying in its restraint all year. Superb stuff …5/5” - DJ

“This one’s so filthy, we recommend you scrub the turntable with some bleach and a stiff-bristled yard broom after play. Shadetek precede their Heavy Meckle compilation with some punishing wreckstep, the snares ping-ponging through all manner of sampler machination, as lyricist Renee Silver spits tower block rhymes over the whole brutal mess. 3/5” – IDJ

“Brand new 12" on Shadetek by Atki2 & Renee Silver. On the grime tip with a hip hop feel. Possibly like dDamage without the harshness. Think of more leftfield disturbed grime (like grime which has just had some bad news) and you'll be some way to understanding what on earth I'm on about. Quite fun really....” - Norman Records

“…officially bonkers.” - Tom @ Rooted Records.

Drop the Lime’s killer remix on the flip has seen plenty of Radio1 love this month, dropped by Rob Da Bank on 19th January and Mary Anne Hobbs on 24th January 2006.

Plenty of plotting and programming behind the scenes … more info about the new Atki2 Ep Guilty Pleasures and the upcoming Werk Discs compilation Grim FM to follow shortly …

This month, it’s Skream’s “Deep Concentration” that is the tune I can’t wait to have on vinyl. Big up that man! Then some top mixes which have been cemented to my CD player: Dub Boy January Dancehall mix (more info here), Kode9 & Spaceape - Dubstep Allstars 3 (Tempa), DJ /rupture @ c90 05/11/2005 (cheers to Joe c90 for that one!), El Kano “Wragga Noclik Mix” (Adverse Camber) and finally Boxcutter’s set on the Breezeblock last night. Been listening back online while typing out all this shit and I fookin loves it!

Lastly, shout outs to Gutterbreakz who ran this little feature this month. Not sure if I find this piece flattering or in fact slightly invasive … my mother, who at the time believed I’d given up smoking was quite appalled to see the rather large Guinness branded ashtray plonked on the side of my desk and gave me a good knuckle rapping. Didn’t give a damn about the publicity. He heh. Check n chuckle.

Guilty Pleasures EP

Have now confirmed the details on the next Atki2 EP. This one'll be coming out on Werk Discs, with a preliminary release date sketched in for 10th April 2006. Tracklisting runs like this:

a1 Guilty Pleasures ft. Indi Kaur
a2 Guilty Pleasures Remix by Pinch
b1 Distillers Riddim
b2 Duty Paid

More info to follow soon ...



... "Mask 12" by Descend.

Sweaty Palms EP now out on Shadetek

Single of the week on Boomkat

"Absolutely crushing new heat from Shadetek Recordings, the label that birthed the future RnB sensation tiombe lockhart (giant step), recently got busy with ex artifact emcee tame one (eastern conference) and pimped some superbad modeselektor (bpitchcontrol) and para 1 (big dada) licks. Serious grimecore producer Sam Atkins aka Atki2 last used this alias on the minimal basscone wrecker ‘Pout and Purchase’ on ‘The Dudes’ EP also on Shadetek. Previously he’s dabbled with the murky sidewalks of Werk Disc’s large Grim Dubs series. For this 12” we keep the underground in check while having enough pop buzz to please the kids - this is one serious sound mangler. Shadetek are now bunkering down for the build up to what will be the grime mix cd of the century - ‘ Heavy Meckle’ will be bringing some serious rumble and ruffage to your neck of the woods come February 2006..in the meantime, this twelve is just utterly sick..so get on it!"

Big up Renee for the vocals, Matt Sht. for the release, Luca for the remix and Orien McNeill for the dope artwork.

Bristol Bass Pressure

Highly recommended:

DUBLOADED @ The Croft, Stokes Croft, Bristol
Saturday 14th January 06

CYRUS (Random Trio)
BLAZEY b2b JOKER + MCs Shadow D, Scarface and Bugsy
THINKING
DUB BOY/HEATWAVE

Main room - powered by 12K Mackie Rig & double the number of subs from last time!
Bar Room: Hosted by Heatwave DJs, Dub Boy, Beavis, Pinch - the latest and greatest in dub, ska, roots and dancehallpowered by Beavis's system
9pm - LATE, £2/4




Ruffnek Diskotek
Thursday 19th January 06

MARK ONE
PARASITE (Live)
MR BENN
MAGIC MOSUN (Live)
DJ RAGGAMUFFIN vs. DUB BOY

@ Timbuk2, Small Street, Bristol
£4 b4 11, £5 after

Renée Silver

The "Sweaty Palms EP", featuring my collaboration with South London based rapper, Renée Silver, is due out on Shadetek next week. As part of the hype, Renée has kindly supplied a few words about herself, to fill you in on her story so far...:


"Enthralled by Hip Hop from the second she heard the beats, Renée Silver has been rapping relentlessly ever since. This began with freestyling before her ever-prevalent lyrical urges also got their hands on a pen and pad, and she developed the art of writing engaging, emotionally charged and quick-witted rhymes. Indeed, 2006 will see this wordsmith make the smooth transition from a gifted live performer, used to pulling off high energy, highly entertaining gigs on the underground scene, to a successful recording artist. And if she can keep on writing and performing material like her forthcoming track, ‘Shocking Out Proud! (Sweaty Palms Mix)’, then she’ll be entertaining us for years to come. Although, in all honesty, she’ll probably do that whatever happens! I mean let us just recap 2004-05 for her: sick freestyle after phat freestyle, which resulted in Deal Real Records reaping the benefits, when she challenged this highly critical Hip Hop crowd to make her work with any word that they could throw at her, at the Female All Stars’ Christmas finale. Of course, she reigned supreme: devouring word after word, in rhyme after rhyme. Indeed, this is now a regular feature in her stage shows, which always delights the crowd. That said, by July ‘04, writing, gigging and freestyling alone were no longer sufficient to satisfy her itch to rhyme; so she ventured out into the cold world of ‘battling’. Now, almost 18 months on, she has battled it out in Bedford, Bournemouth and Manchester as well as at London’s infamous Battle Scars, Lyric Pad and The Jump Off. And her travels have hardly been in vain as she has won more than 50% of the battles that she has entered, and ended 2004 as Lyric Pad’s reigning champ. She then burst into 2005 taking battling to another level, when she won the first London heat of Battle Scars, with previously unseen ingenuity and skill.

“There’s some crazy fuckers out there. But to be fair, most of them are hiding some
sort of twisted genius, laughing at you, laughing at them. Renée Silver would happily fit into this category.” Wah! Issue No. 1, 2005.

"So we patiently await the Battle Scars grande finale with baited breath! What of the remaining battles that she has lost though, I hear you ask? Silly question, especially if you have ever seen her or even just heard Lyric Pad’s recordings of the battles on Itch FM (105.5). However, if you insist on receiving a factual answer, here it is. She has ‘never’ failed to reach the final stages of a battle and thus has only lost to the following proven champions:

"Professor Green: Finalist: Hip Hop Power Summit, ‘05 & The Jump Off Champ, ‘04/05
Lay Z: Semi-Finalist: UMF Battle, ‘05 & Battle Scars Champ, Manchester ‘04
Saint: UMF Battle Champ, ‘04
Dekay: Lyric Pad Consecutive Winner, ‘04 & Phuturehype Champ, ‘04
Nathanial: Urban Freestyle Champ, ‘04

"Winning isn’t everything to Renée Silver though, as engaging in these battles has also provided her with the desire to educate or re-educate people about the true art of MC-ing. As such, she has drawn upon her previous knowledge of running MC/Rap workshops and is now co-ordinating and leading her own tailor-made workshops for both amateurs and professionals alike. But her eagerness, to assist in elevating UK Hip Hop to greatness, does not stop there. Therefore, she recently took over the running of Calibrated Entertainments’ Street Team, making it ‘Renée Silver’s Calibrated Street Team’.