GEEZASGEEZASGEEZAS

This was one of those entirely unprepared nights; I was expecting a quiet evening in spinning a few records but before i knew it i was in a car on my way to look for a hall in the middle of nowhere. After over an hour of searching we’d completely given up and decided to just go back to a friends to have a chill one, but on our way we drove past a hall and saw a load of cars pulled up outside. We could sense rig.

We swiftly turned into the carpark as it was just gone 11 at this point, and we knew the hall party would be ending at 12. After an argument with some sweaty biker on the door when he still made us pay £3 each to get in regardless of the fact there was less than an hour left, we entered. We’d missed Unity’s set but luckily the final DJ was just starting his, pulling out all kinds of experimental tech-house bangers. The tunes weren’t really my vibe but that didn’t matter because the rig was huge and I was surrounded by geezas stacking their nuts off, which always gets you in the party mood.

The atmosphere of the Waterfront studio was one of excited apprehension, with faces from all over the local hardcore scene turning up to see one of the biggest bands of the wave play Norwich for the first time.

 The first band on was Dad Punchers, a pop punk / emo band from LA, who feature Elliot Babin, the drummer from Touche Amore. Although the room wasn’t as packed out as it could’ve been you never expect that from the first band on, and they still brought a lot of energy to the stage. Although I find them quite boring on record i put that down to muddy production, as live they were absolutely brilliant. Keep an eye out for these guys in 2014.

 The next band playing were called the Self Defense Family. They played a sort of self deprecating melodic hardcore which i’ve seen be done well a few times before but this was simply too much. The vocalist was topless, digging his fingers into himself and screeching about his troubles and the whole thing just seemed entirely self obsessed. Although I knew I shouldn't, I couldn’t help but laugh and I actually walked out for a cigarette after only 10 minutes of their set.

Kahn is pretty big on the oldskool dubstep scene, dropping tunes similar to those of El-B and Caski. This track is quite different for him - released on BoxClever rather than Punch Drunk (his usual label) you can see the difference in his styles. He seems to be going for the newer dubstep sound and keeps things simple with the predictable modulated basslines. 

Just got Mala's discography so I thought a quick review of the Left Leg Out / Blue Notez e.p could be interesting.

As ever, the sub perfects Left Leg Out, with its subtle intrusion at about 1 minute in. Although bass is technically a rhythmic instrument, it definitely leads Mala's music as if it were the melody. The beat is dubby which is cool but to be honest the thing that I love about mala is his inclusion of world music, in particular bongos, and when the bongos do come in at 2.45 it picks up the whole song. This is proof that dubstep is not all shit, as easy as it is to write it all off.

Blue Notez starts with a relatively traditional dubstep kick and snare pattern before coming in with the sub and a creepy synth lead. The horns at 1.25 send the song into a sort of jazzy groove reminiscent of 'summer dreams' by Skream, which i like a lot. The synth lead creates quite a tense, uneasy atmosphere, but this is combated with the calmness of the horns. 

Overall this e.p is a brilliant release, a true homage to El-B and Burial. 

I've been a fan of Skream for a long time and have always preferred his dub to his dubstep. I was shocked when he did that song with Example but I guess a dj's gotta pay the rent, and when I heard he'd released a house song I was unsure what to think. I am a fan of house in general but I was sceptical as to whether Skream was producing what he wants or just following the deep house trend. 

When I got round to listening to Kreepin' I was pleasantly surprised. He uses a standard boots-and-cats-and beat and nice minimal-house-esq chords with filters to create quite a mellow sound. A fair amount of vocals are used in this song but not to the extent that they take away from the rest of the music, which is good. 

Any of you who've written YD off as just yet another new hardcore band could've been forgiven in the past, but with the release of their new single 'Karma' they sound bigger than ever. Even better than that, the video looks like some sort of new-age Braveheart which is funny as long as you don't take them too seriously.