1. Marva Josie / DJ Shadow Intro 2. Galt McDermot / Figure Of Wax - Mashed Apples 3. Waajeed - Tron 4. Flying Lotus - Lonely Beer Bottle 5. Dark Phayd-R - Trick The Witness 6. Plant Life - When She Smiles... 7. Chase & Status - Against All Odds
---Ideally I'd have switched onto vinyl for a while here but I didn't have those decks set up!---
8. Bullion - Get Familiar / Hustle (Remix) 9. Snoop Dogg - Snoop Dogg Millionaire 10. Billy Paul - Let The Dollar Circulate 11. Steve Spacek - Dollar 12. Jack McGruff - Oblighetto (J Dilla Remix)
The Steel City seems to generating an abundance of fresh sounds (see the "Leave You Suckers With Your Auditory Sickened..." post from March) and equally dope art.
Representing The Hantu Collective and The Happy Happy Poster Club whilst producing his own fresh brand of illustration, George Law's juxtaposing of delicate colourscapes and razor-sharp stylised characters works a treat in my eyes. There is almost dark humour behind some of his pieces; where christmas decorations turn into monsters and monsters creep up on unsuspecting kids.Whether or not this is his way of addressing the ugliness of the materialistic ghost of Christmas present/s (The Hantu Collective specialise in ethically sourced and produced clothing) or simply because it looks dope - either way it's pretty stunning. Incase you were pondering on the title of this post and it's irrelevance to George's work - I'm going to leave you with this final image - it caught my eye a while back and straight away a certain lyric sprung to mind...
ALL DAY: Shrill, annoying, piercing, inconsistent, pointless shit. ZANE LOWE: Started off as the not-so-eccentric Peel with the way he skipped genres. Now he's the poster boy for shit. TIM WESTWOOD: Remember the good old days with DJs like Riz on the turntables? Well they stopped. And the music got shit too. Pretty shit. COLIN MURRAY: Good banter and solid music. Not pushed enough. Anyone know when his show is actually on? ESSENTIAL MIX: Essential lifesaver for the station - one of Radio 1's saving graces.
GILLES PETERSON: Diverse, well researched, well thought out, solid show. On at a shit time in the small hours.
So I must give my man Russ huge props for giving me the heads up on this little gem:
Since hearing Dela's "Let Me Know" (feat. Apani B) and "Cheer" (feat. Large Professor) around 18 months ago, I was kicking myself today after realising that the "Atmosphere Airlines" record (which for some unknown reason I didn't buy) also featured:
Despite the fact that we spent March 17th in London's Big Chill Bar (Mulatu & Heliocentrics, Orbital, DJ Derek and Russell Howard at the festival by the way) and the rest of the week sweating out Guinness - this year's real St. Paddy in my eyes was Mr. Considine.
This is probably due to the fact that over the 3 weeks surrounding St. Patrick's Day, Channel 4 went and gave us the excellent Red Riding.
Now I'm not putting Considine's part on a pedestal as the entire cast were phenomenal. Joining the Midlands De Niro we had relative newcomer Andrew Garfield and familiar face Mark Addy (keepin' it Yorkshire since "The Full Monty") as the main trio. On top of this you've also got Sean Bean, Peter Mullen, Gerard Kearns ("The Mark Of Cain" and of course "Shameless") plus solid performances from Joseph Mawle and ... yeah pretty much the entire cast.
The reason why I'm bigging the Dead Man's Shoes star up so much stems from an article in the paper I read shortly before his episode of Red Riding was aired. I'd been a fan of his work with Shane Meadows plus his parts in "24-Hour Party People" and "Hot Fuzz" - but with America now taking a shine to him with projects such as "PU-239" (HBO) and "The Cry Of The Owl" (alongside Julia Stiles - hmm...) I worried he may have peaked too early and we'd watch both himself and his career turn ugly.
Nope. Far from. He was completely on point in the three-page broadsheet article. Described as humble and honest, it shone through as he addressed his interviewer as "Man" or "Brother" and talked about sensitive subjects such as the lows of being in the film industry:
"Yeah it's a bit annoying when I'm sat having tea at home with me family and someone bangs on our front room window shouting "YOU, YER CUNT!" in an elephant mask".
Hailing and still residing just outside of Burton-on-Trent, it only takes a few YouTube clips to confirm that you can take a lad out the North but you can't take the North out the lad.
Now the thing is, these two factors - Hollywood and Humbleness - got me thinking... He's not let the fame go to his head, he obviously has a vast amount of diversity to use within his roles (Matlock-dwelling serial killer, American mis-understood stalker, Russian fugitive) so surely he'll take the Ray Winstone route and end up in a Scorsese-topping 3 hour epic to much acclaim.
Well, it turns out he is working with Scorsese in his next film. Sorry, make that Scorzayzee. The film is a massive piss-take mocumentary / comedy, with Paddy sharing his guise with the title: "Le Donk". With Meadows camera following the life of a failed rockstar going for his second chance, the film (in association with Warp Films) is bound to be the indie film scene's "Bruno".
It seems as though he's the acting equivalent of, say, Madlib. Their portfolios range from gritty, homegrown productions, to neat and timeless shorts - right the way through to big-budget major releases. However, each one points out how passionate they about their art. Some are a success, some are middle of the road, some are failures (Julia Stiles film again - hmm...) but rather than any project being about the cheque, these are all done for the sake of just doing it.
So I'm quite happily set for another dose of England's finest. Depending on which gets released first, the hilarious "Le Donk" or the intriguing "King Of The Gypsies" - get set for a super-duper fuckin' dose!
Spreading the word of good music, art, events and the little titbits that fall down inbetween the cushions - Waxy Deposits is here.
Based in Brighton, yet hailing from a hip-hopping North Western background - expect the ill ish from both ends of the country to be posted up on here. Not to be 'scene', or to build up numbers of any sort - just to inform and be informed.
Drop me a line atfigureofwax_es@hotmail.co.uk if you're running a night, exhibition, sophisticated dinner party, messy barbeque, far-left protest rally, etc and I'll do the same! Same goes for any DJs or producers who are putting stuff out and feel like everyone's too busy listening to Lily Allen... although hands up whoever thinks she's got well fitrecentley?! The girl used to look like Mike Skinner in drag but she's erm... 'blossomed' nicely it would seem.
Starting off, I've got to give props and heads up to the mythical beast who put me onto this whole blog malarky... Some say he only drinks the tears of orphans, others say he can drop your underwear using his lazer eyes - all we can confirm is that his name is Roland Dubbs and the dude's making power moves! Roland's come a long way since his birth alongside fictional musical twin 'Jon Blueberry'. Whilst Jon was last spotted somewhere on the Hawaiian shores, sailing his 'party raft' made from French knickers, Dubbs has been wiggling bottoms left, right and centre with his blend of wobbly house and atmospheric dubstep. His recent endeavours have found him on a remix tip for Romanthony's "The Wanderer" plus shattering speaker cones a-plenty with "Desert". The latter of which pricking up the ears and exercising the talent of South-West Graphic Design guru Alex Bomok. Add on top of this a brand new mixtape alongside JDevious (Roland's b2b partner in crime) and you've got a frenzy of new music, not to mention a perfect link for me to go into the next section!
It's Thirsty Ear! Based in Sheffield, originally from the deepest, darkest, dampest corners of Buxton, Derbyshire - these guys have been on it and focused since they began in 2004. With the aforementioned taRDyboys joining head honchos Dark Phayd-R, Dr. Bad Touch and Infinite Soul as residents - it's the perfect solution for anyone seeking quality music from a beat-induced spectrum. Infact, with that outlook in mind, the same can be said with regards to the Ear's growing collection of 7" releases crafted by Phayd-R and Infinite. Feeding the parched canals inside Sheffield's Harley Bar, past guests have included Boca 45, Bullion (who's turning many heads at the moment!) and ITF champ DJ Woody. With a Tru-Thoughts Takeover confirmed for April 4th (see you there!) fronted by the label's co-owner Rob Luis plus beatsmith Natural Self, this monthly night is set to get even bigger and even better... Take it from me, that's pretty fucking good!
