Rumpus Spring Ball Review and return of the Badical

LO Peachi ere:

So last night saw me and my dodgy Peachi-bum-knee doing some carefree, yet careful mainly-one-leg-dancing, at the amazing Rumpus Spring Ball (8th April 2011). Very much in the spirit of the Burning Man Decompression parties and run by Nowhere regulars (headed by the lovely and generous Santi I believe), there was a ram jammed venue with about 6 rooms featuring different artists and acts and visuals. You can see for yourself in the flyer below, or on the website here or directly here. Particular favourites were the kazoo-a-longs in the main area (A-team, final countdown? very funny and surreal) and the circus acts in the main room (oooh and the pole dancing was OK I suuuuuppose - if you like that sort of thing - and frankly who doesn't? ;)


Since electro-swing doesn't really float my boat (just the electro please, you can keep the swing where it belongs - in the 50's ta), I spent most of the night in the Ubertown room featuring the jungle-is-massive theme and the famous ball pen. Although the acoustics were pretty bad at the back of the room, which was unfortunately at times the only place there was room to dance (successful night I guess), once you could get to within about 10feet of the main speakers things got better. Josh played his usual hard hitting dub step and had the floor rocking (MM review here).

The Badical caught out in the glowing rain?

But the highlight for me was listening to the Badicals play live again.... this time in a slightly less psychadelic receptive state of mind than last time I heard them at Nowhere (reviewed here) I was interested to see if I could still get into their pretty hard mashed up and twisted sound. And I could for most of the set, although at times I felt they went beyond what I could tune in to with too much sharp and punchy kick drum and not enough deeper-warmer melodic bass - which makes it sounds very hard a technoey to me, but I appreciated it all the more for sometimes being more challenging than I could handle - which was only about 20% of the time. Which I think is about right if you are exploring the boundary limits of your musical taste.

Operating in another arena with better looking props

And the stuff they play is just soooo original and different beat-wise and break-down wise, it's a really refreshing pleasure to hear it. Let alone the great energy they give off in their exagerated-knob-twisting (music geeks equivalent of a guitar crotch thrust I guess), violent head knodding, great face pulling and fist pumping moves - that is when they weren't 'interacting' with the decor!! Very powerful set all round and nice to see the boys hanging out a dancing it up for the rest of the night too - thanks guys, stay bad and radical - i.e. badical - innit ;)

Here's a link to a new free mix by them Terrafunk.

And a new track and video link for Dark Side of the Sun.

Follow them on facewaste and their website and buy everything you can of theirs...NOW!
Enjoy ;)


Terrafunk - TRACKLISTING
Autechre - Vletrmx (Plaid mix)
Falty DL - Human Meadow (Luke Vibert mix)
The Badical - Don Bismarck
Egyptrixx - Battle for North America
Debruit - Congo Whoomp
Scott Garcia - A London Thing (London Edit)
The Very Best - Wena
Tom Staar - Cannon
Hijack - Posessed
The Badical - Tanuki
B Rich - Killin it
L-Vis 1990 - Reprise
The Badical - Terror Unit
EDMX - 2K3
Skillioso - Serenade
Octa Push - Ai Nadia
Musical Mod - Pulse X
Mexican Institute of Sound - Cumbia (Deathface Remix)
Hudson Mohawke - Twistclip Loop
Gucci Mane - My Shadow (Salem Remix)

Slugabed: Drop a Donky On It

I first came across Slugabed through a review of his Ultra Heat Treated EP on Doktor Krank's epicly prolific bass blog. If you haven't heard it yet, at least get Skyfire - it's an epic slab of off kilter future-hop, with arcade game pings and blips morphing in and out of the most addictive melody, fading between bass runs and floaty pauses. Overall I'd probably describe his sound as somewhere between Joker and Flying Lotus.


More recently the learned Doktor has flagged up this dope mixtape he's done for Brighton night Donky Pitch. It's properly sick, with remixes of La Roux, Wu Tang Clan and what sound like Erykah Badu and Bjork and tracks skewed somewhere between filth and the sublime. I've been addicted for well over a week now. Enjoy!

  Slugabed - Put A Donky On It Mix by Donky Pitch

If you like that, Slugabed and the Donky Pitch crew are taking over Cafe 1001 just off Brick Lane in London this Saturday. Due to the usual twists of universal irony that flow through my life I'm due to be down in Brighton though. Oh well...

You can read more about Greg Slugabed in this recent Quietus interview. Apparently he's now moved to Kingston for some bizarre reason... will have to track him down sometime as that makes us practically neighbours and I've never heard anyone else playing music this good anywhere near here.

Phew! Managed the whole post without describing his music as wonky.... oh shit...

The Badical - wonky acid electro techno mind dingers

Peachi here:

So we heard the two guys that are The Badical at Nowhere Festival recently and they rocked the geodesic dome. I definitely need to be in the right state of mind to appreciate this. But at Nowhere I was and there live set and DJ set were both excellent and we danced our little socks of for what seemed like ages. I think I invented a whole new way of dancing at the time, but can't remember any of it - except that it was one of the best dances I've ever had! I'm just glad there's no recorded evidence! One to watch out for at the upcoming Secret Garden Party 22-25th July 2010...

You can hear their latest stuff on their myspace page and buy their music...

..... or go here and donwload some of their previous mixes!

This sums it up quite well:
"Bent squares and bogus triangles buzz, bip, and boom through statically charged soundscapes -- cleverly crafted fun-sized techno-dramas oozing with pulsating-power & mind-bending mischief." Urban D / Urban D Radio

and so does this picture (love it!):

XLR8R Podcast No113: Nosaj Thing

One of my favoruite podcasts from the end of last year, courtesy of the ever brilliant XLR8R magazine. 2009 was a very good year for Nosaj Thing. A regular at LA's Low End Theory, he's part of the same glitchy, jazzy future hop stable as Flying Lotus and Gas Lamp Killer. For me he also seems to be travelling down some similar sonic paths to Joker in the UK, picking up on more of a wonky dubstep vibe with a lot of his own tunes. This is his City Guide to LA.

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01 Teebs "My Whole World" (Brainfeeder)
02 Flying Lotus "Unreleased"
03 Free The Robots "La Lune" (Alpha Pup)
04 Tokimonsta "Doing It My Way"
05 Exile "Summer Sun (Take Remix)" (Plug Research)
06 The Gaslamp Killer "Anything Worse" (Brainfeeder)
07 Ras G "Disco 4000"
08 Daedelus "LA Nocturn" (Friends of Friends)
09 Samiyam "My Buddy"
10 Kab & Tully "Unreleased" (My Hollow Drum)
11 Teebs "Unreleased"
12 Nosaj Thing "Us" (Alpha Pup)
13 Flying Lotus "Camel (Nosaj Thing Remix)" (Warp)
14 Nosaj Thing "Ice Cube Remix"

Seattle rocks - Decibel Festival 2009

Continuing my obsession with all things West Coast and bass heavy, a number of random factors have led me towards Seattle's Decibel Festival which takes place over the course of the next week. I came across the event by accident last year while working towards the decibel Performing Arts Showcase 2009, a completely unconnected event, which took place in Manchester last week. The Google alerts from 2008 (Lusine, Deru, Tycho, Flying Lotus, The Glitch Mob, The Bug, and Superpitcher) were enough to get my mouth watering. Also last week, my mate Loz returned from Burning Man to tell me that Seattle is so cool she plans to move there to join my another friend, Mike, who moved there a few years back.



Anyway, to steal some text from XLR8R magazine:

"While everyone heaps (admittedly deserved) praise on long-running events like MUTEK and DEMF/Movement, it's easy to forget that Seattle's Decibel Festival has been not-so-quietly holding it down for the West Coast. Founded in 2003, Decibel has consistently shined a light on electronic music innovators big and small, from international stars to underground up-and-comers. This year's edition is no different, with a lineup headlined by U.K. noisemakers like Mala, Benga, Caspa, and Mary Anne Hobbs, not to mention some like-minded folks from this side of the Atlantic, including Martyn, Daedelus, Gaslamp Killer, and Nosaj Thing. Yet it's not all low-end madness—other notables include Alter Ego, The Wighnomy Brothers, Move D, Lusine, Derek Plaslaiko, Voodeux, and even U.K. dub wizard Mad Professor. In all, more than 100 performers will be scattered across Seattle over the course of four days. Plus, the festival also includes a number of panels, workshops, film screenings, and more."

(continues below)



So plenty of wonky, dub, dubstep and a lot of glitchyness. Check out this podcast from Seattle's KEXP to get a full flavour of the line up:

KEXP - Music That Matters, Vol. 166 - Spotlight on Decibel Festival 2009

Tracklist:
1. Nosaj Thing - Lords
2. Nalepa - Flatlands (Nosaj Thing Remix)
3. Michna - Bumper Car Masters
4. Take - Northbound
5. [a]pendics.shuffle - Saw Saw Soup (Robag Wruhme Remix)
6. Mike Slott - Knock Knock
7. Sub Swara - Hi Fidelity (Shambhala Riddim)
8. Tim Exile - There's Nothing Left Of Me But Her And This
9. The Gaslamp Killer - Baiafro
10. Daedelus - I Took Two
11. Pezzner - Chapter_Two
12. Lusine - Gravity
13. Tycho - The Daydream
14. Benoit Pioulard - Hesperus
15. Mountains - Map Table
16. Christopher Willits - The Greatest Rain

For more tasty videos, reviews, line-ups and mixes, check out bassfaced.com.

For decibel news, reviews and all other things West Coast bass orientated, keep an eye on DanceFever5000. They've also got this lovely heartfelt Burning Man review that chimes with everything Danielle's told me since she got back.