Gotta love heading out to see a highly regarded underground maverick, whose career has spanned three decades, influenced multiple generations of Hip Hop artists and has way too many aliases to care to mention: all on a school night!
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PERTHQUAKE
Musical fasting? Au Contraire
Nobody could be certain of what was to come on Friday night when Ramadanman made his first appearance in Perth at Shape courtesy of Knowledge Music. Though it seemed he had been booked for his talents in dubstep production, the man is known to dabble in a wide variety of musical genres and the direction his set would take was anyone’s guess. The last dubstep artist to grace Shape with the deeper, minimal, more “boundary pushing” style similar to that of Ramadanman was Appleblim, and the turnout for that even was less than desirable. Which is why I was so excited when I arrived at Shape to find a packed out room around midnight. Break it down for the full review.
Kool Keith, aka Dr Octogon, aka Dr Dooom, aka Black Elvis, aka…
As you have probably gathered Kool Keith; who will be making his way to Shape on the 11th this month, is a Hip Hop artist that isn’t shy in utilising aliases in his musical endeavours. Having first come onto the scene as a founding member of the Ultrmagnetic MC’s, Keith has gone onto record successfully as a solo artist often under the aforemntioned plethora of different aliases.
Lyrically known for exploring the abstract with a unique sense of humour and a stream-of-coscience like flow, as well as this Keith is known for a style that focuses on sexual themes that he has dubbed ‘pornocore’. Keith also credits himself for the creation of the ’Horrorcore’ sub-genre.
Kool Keith will be at Shape on the 11th of August, get more info here, and tickets from Shape.
Ramadanman
London based artist Ramadanman aka David Kennedy is a chap who certainly doesn’t limit himself to one sound. Producing since the tender age of 14, Ramadanman has taken his unique production style through hip hop, house, drum and bass and dubstep. The latter of these genres seems to be where he’s focusing his attention of late, and this Friday night at Shape he’ll be making an appearance (event info here) thanks to Knowledge Music to showcase his brand of lush, warming minimal dubstep, most likely with a splash of his other musical leanings to top it off. Break it down for more info and a couple of tracks.
Ramadanman @ Shape
David ‘RAMADANMAN’ Kennedy has been DJing since the age of 14, beginning with deep house and hip hop and progressing to jungle as he grew older before focusing his attention on DUBSTEP. Since then he has racked up a number of critically acclaimed releases on a diverse selection of labels including Soul Jazz, Tempa, Aus, Critical Music and Hessle Audio – the label he co-runs with Pangaea and Ben UFO. RAMADANMAN has also remixed a variety of artists including the Ragga Twins, Scuba, Beat Pharmacy, Howie B, SpectraSoul and the Bulgarian group Wickeda.
He has enjoyed DJ support from the likes of Ricardo Villalobos, Skream, Mr Scruff, Craig Richards, Francois K, Kode9, Mala, Distance, Mary Anne Hobbs, Rob da Bank, Gilles Peterson, Will Saul and many more. He is also heavily involved in organizing the Leeds night RUFFAGE as well as co-hosting the now infamous Ruffage Sessions weekly internet radio show on Sub FM. Ramadanman DJs often both nationally and internationally including regular dates at the dubstep institution, FWD in London!
Add to that with a special exclusive SHOCKONE DUBSTEP SET, plus local dubstep heavyweights REKAB and YLEM we’re in for one hell of a rinseout!
Kool Keith @ Shape
Presenting…. Original member of New York’s new-school pioneers the Ultramagnetic MCs, solo rapper of many alias and all round psychiatric lyrical master KOOL KEITH!!
Best know for his signature style, a stream-of-consciousness lyrical flow and complex vocals, skills that have earnt him a perennial nod from the underground hip-hop community. The average Kool Keith album is peppered with bizarre, disjointed, even delusional or disassociated themes, concepts, and references. Nearly all of his albums incorporate a satirical dislike for more commercialized strains of hip-hop, as well as major record labels!
His early career and lyrics with the Ultramagnetic MCs often referenced his time as a patient of Bellevue, a psychiatric hospital, where he was treated for depression. Keith later claimed that having been a mental patient in Bellevue was only a joke which he perpetrated on a far too gullible media… (Claims of Keith Matthew Thornton being committed to Bellevue have been authenticated.) With Ultramagnetic, his abstract style developed, maturing in songs like “Poppa Large.” He was also probably the first rapper to create multiple aliases for himself!!
Working with Industry veterans Kutmasta Kurt and Dan “the Automator” Nakamura, these two helped produce tracks featuring Keith’s new alias, Dr Octagon releasing Dr. Octagonecologyst, which was released by the English trip hop label Mo’ Wax. DJ Qbert was also a major contributor to the album’s sound, employing scratch techniques previously unheard on a rap album. The album received critical acclaim, including from media sources outside the mainstream hip-hop community. The critical success of the album helped to open the accessibility of the underground hip hop scene to an appreciative audience. The album is considered a landmark in the acid rap genre! In the following 10 years we have seen the character ‘Dr Octagon’ be killed off by another new alias ‘ Dr Dooom’, then ‘Black Elvis’ was born – yet another alias, an unsolicited ‘Return of Dr Octagon’ album produced by someone else and another couple of alias in the way of ‘Project Polaroid’ and ‘Mr. Nagatco’ monikers!
Regarded as a true veteran of the underground scene and style, KOOL KEITH drops into Perth for what is sure to be a crazy night of original flows!
Sincerely Yours
The last time Dan Stephens aka one half of Nero, just about the hottest production outfit in dubstep and drum and bass at the moment was in town he featured on a bill with 3 other internationals and played two seperate sets over the course of the evening. The first was a high energy ball tearing drum and bass set, and the second was a dubstep set which went down at 4am and unfortunately this reviewers legs just couldn’t go the distance on that particular evening. Saturday night at Shape Nero made his second appearance in Perth this time as the star attraction with a whole two hours to showcase the pair’s work and with the sheer abundance of quality tunes they’ve been putting out recently, this set was sure to be a classic. Break it down for the full review.
Logistics
I wonder what Gresham family functions would be like. Do they throw down dirty basslines at their cousin’s weddings? Do they remix christmas carols to 174 bpm and rinse out around the christmas tree? With not one, but two of the drum and bass scenes hottest producers under the one roof the idea is not hard to concieve. Break it down for a bit more.
Logistics @ Shape
Logistics grew up on a self prescribed musical diet, equal parts guitar based compositions from bands such as Rage Against The Machine and down tempo efforts from labels like Mo’ Wax. Matt (Logistics) railed against the music his brother, Dan (Nu:Tone) would listen to and finally acquired a taste for Drum & Bass.
Having a brother already signed up to HOSPITAL RECORDS didn’t qualify Matt for an ‘automatic in’ and it wasn’t until he sent ‘Replay’ down to the office, swiftly followed by Fabio and Grooverider picking up on the tune, that he got his chance to work on his own album project. Having just left college this was a great opportunity for him and he made the very best of it, working solidly on creating masterpieces and bridging the gap between what until then had often been a lacklustre sub-genre; Liquid Funk and more exciting, dance floor orientated Drum & Bass. It’s Logistics’ influence that has been picked up by the major DJs in the scene such as Andy C and Friction, and his anthemic creations have contributed greatly to the modern Hospital sound.
The LP ‘Now More Than Ever’ was a hugely ambitious project, restraining no less than 24 speaker busting tunes beneath its calm exterior a double CD affair with CD1 ‘Now’ offering a traditional Logistics sound while CD2 ‘More Than Ever’ comes at you like a hungry Lion, simply and effectively looking to tear out your jugular with a deeper and rougher sound.
18 months later, having scooped Best Album at the 1xtra Bass awards for his debut album, Logistics dropped his second long player Reality Checkpoint. Rammed full of genre bending goodness it was heralded as a glimpse of the future with dubstep and electronica influences fusing together with the anthemic Logistics sound.
2008 saw the Luke Skywalker of the Future Sound Of Cambridge drop the massive track ‘Cosmonaut’ and feature on several awesome collabs with Commix and brother Nu:Tone. Logistics’ productions kept sub basses pounding throughout 2008.
Having been locked away deep in the Degobah system making tracks, 2009 was time for Logistics to unleash the full power of the force. ‘Crash Bang Wallop’ smacks dancefloors and stereos hard. No mind tricks, this is the deadliest album yet from Logistics, be careful how you wield it!
Nero @ Shape
NERO has become a big name in both the Drum and Bass and Dubstep scenes, often fusing both styles of music in their DJ sets. Starting there career of in Drum n Bass on DJ SS’s prestigious Formation Records Label in 2004. Since then Dan and Joe’s tracks have caused quite a stir, gaining huge momentum from support from DJs like Andy C, Grooverider and Friction, as well as consistent radio airplay on all the big shows in the UK scene.
In June 2006 Nero released their acclaimed EP, “Requiem EP” on Formation Records. Consisting of four top tracks, it was received with a huge response with High Contrast even included the track ‘Bitch I’m Gone’ in his mix for the legendary Fabric Live series!
2009 saw Nero’s first release on iconic label Breakbeat Kaos. The killer track ‘Act Like You Know’, backed with Sound in Motion and a dubstep edit of the title track, has been hitting dancefloors across the world for the last year and was picked up by Fresh and Adam F.
Onto Dubstep…. Nero’s debut dubstep release, ‘This Way’, became one of the biggest dubstep tunes of 2008 and is still selling big units across the world. Since then, Nero’s consistent releases have made them one of the most talked about acts in dubstep. Their remix of the Streets’ tune ‘Blinded by the Lights’ was a massive radio hit as well as a dancefloor smasher played by DJ’s from Chase and Status and Skream to Tiesto and Diplo. More recently Nero have remixed La Roux and Deadmau5 to devastating effect.
The boy’s DJing career has also taken off, with an impressive back catalogue which includes supporting Deadmau5, Chase & Status and Zane Lowe on their UK tours.
Nero have recently signed exclusively to Chase & Status’ label MTA and are currently working on their debut album… watch this space!
