Ears of 2010, rejoice: it’s been a vintage year for forward thinking electronic music. The past twelve months have furnished us with the swirling melodies of Caribou’s Swim, the joyous clicks n bleeps of Four Tet’s There is Love in You, and a barrage of boundary-pushing bass music from labels like Hyperdub, Hemlock and Night Slugs. Sitting somewhere near the top of this mouth-watering list of are Mount Kimbie – the duo responsible for Crooks & Lovers, one of the most critically-acclaimed albums of the year. The Mount Kimbie sound is a patchwork of influences – crackling electronica, swooning neo-soul echoes and warm, snaking bass lines. Crooks & Lovers is what Massive Attack might have sounded like if instead of immersing themselves in the gloominess of trip hop, they had embraced the restless rhythms of two-step. When I caught up with one half of Mount Kimbie, Dom Maker, the band had just returned from a two week blitz of European dates. “We’ve been playing a few dates with the XX, a big festival called Lowlands in Holland, and a gig that was basically at the base of Mount Vesuvius in Italy. It really surprises me that people know our songs in these places, but it seems to go down really well” said Dom. It’s a feeling that the band are going to have to quickly get used to: they have received fawning praise from the unlikeliest of places. “Our label and press team have done a great job of getting our name out and getting us interviews. But when we got reviewed in The Sun that was just insane” laughs Dom, “I think the fact that the indie crowd have picked up on us as well as the DJs helps too”. There’s no doubt that dubstep started the revolution in electronic bass music that is currently taking place, but having splintered established dance floor genres into a thousand pieces, now only the trace elements of dubstep can be found in the wreckage left behind – a process that Mount Kimbie represent better than anyone else. “Dubstep was the reason we started making music”, said Dom. “We met at university in Brighton and started going to dubstep nights instead of the Fresher’s Week stuff that was on. But our label, Hot Flush, are one of the labels that have just become more and more creative over the years, and that’s given us a great opportunity to develop our own sound.”

Although some of the tracks on Crooks & Lovers have been destroying discerning dance floors across the country, the bulk of the album is made up of meandering loops, fused to soft, twinkling melodies. It’s an unashamedly experimental album, but the reward for repeated listening is body of work that captures everything that is good about electronic music in 2010. Mount Kimbie’s label Hot Flush, helmed by the pioneering DJ and producer Scuba, was there at the very beginning of the dubstep revolution. Via a detour through Berlin techno, Hot Flush has kept things moving in the best possible way, providing a platform for the innovative sounds of Mount Kimbie to flourish. “In a way Hot Flush is more of a techno label now – moving to Berlin changed the emphasis of the label’s music, and you can hear it in Scuba’s albums. Sometimes its like he pushes the boat out so far that at first no-one knows what to make of it, then its like ‘this is the freshest thing ever’, and I’ve got massive respect for that.” Of course, Mount Kimbie know a thing or two about fresh sounds. Alongside other trailblazing producers like Joy Orbison and James Blake, the band are ensuring that British electronic music is in rude health. “James Blake was part of the Mount Kimbie band at first, he played live with us. We met before he had really released anything, but we heard a recording he’d made of a horn section doing (jump-up dubstep anthem) Cockney Thug. We realised we had to get in touch with him! Now he’s blowing up big time on his own, and we’ve both got loads on, so it seemed natural to go our separate ways for now. But we’re definitely planning to work again in the future.” The prospect of future Mount Kimbie/James Blake hookups is a mouth watering one. But for now, Cardiff has the excitement of a Mount Kimbie’s first live show in Wales to look forward to when the band grace the Cardiff Arts Institute on Wednesday 27th October. Get your tickets early – this is a white-hot gig not to be missed.

Mount Kimbie play live @ CARDIFF ARTS INSTITUTE

Wednesday 27th OCT 2010

Doors 8pm

Tickets : http://www.wegottickets.com/event/91494

Put the date in your diary – on Thursday April 29th at the Cardiff Arts Institute on Park Place, the one-man-band-like-no-other Bass Clef will be in town. Following a late-afternoon performance in the lobby of the Cardiff Museum (part of the Artes Mundi celebrations, and quite possibly the first time live dubstep has been played in a museum), zwolf, Kruger DJs (Adam & Phoenix) and Mr Healan will be warming up the crowd from 9pm in the Arts Institute, before Bass Clef takes to the stage at around 11.00pm.

I caught up with Bass Clef – AKA Ralf Cumbers – and found him waxing lyrical about the joys of playing in Cardiff. “I think I’ve done Cardiff three times, and each one has been a cracker, especially the last Swn show (in 2009), it was one of my all time favourites!”

A visit by Bass Clef is any city’s gain – and back in 2007, when Ralf played The Point as part of Mary Anne Hobbes’ Warrior Dubz tour, Cardiff knew he was something special. “I love the Cardiff crowd”, said Ralf, “if they’re in to it they will really let you know!”

And what’s not to be into? The Bass Clef sound is visceral but sophisticated – a blend of dancehall rhythms, trombone flourishes and electronic production that never fails to blow the roof off. Most people’s introduction to him was through the stunning single ‘Cannot be Straightened’, lifted from his debut album ‘A Smile is a Curve that Straightens Most Things”. Operating in the same anthemic bass territory as Roots Manuva’s ‘Witness (1 Hope)’ or Dead Prez ‘Hip Hop’, dropping ‘Cannot Be Straightened’ is a shortcut to a skanking dance floor.

The new album – titled May the Bridges I Burn Light My Way and released earlier in the year on Blank Tapes – keeps up the pressure, although there’s a little more depth to the songs. “I had a few lovely reviews, but if one person out there gets it and loves it then brilliant” says Ralf humbly. “I’ve been gigging a load, plus writing a ton of stuff, some of which may or may not be the start of album three…I’m currently based in London and most of my music is recorded at home. But with the latest album I took my home recorded tracks to a fantastic south London studio called Snorkel, to add the stuff I can’t do at home: brass, percussion, drums. It’s something I’d like to build on, the blending of electronic and acoustic is the exciting thing for me these days.”
Bass Clef is only on his second album, but given the speed that electronic music seems to move at, it feels like he’s something of a veteran of the dubstep scene. “I guess in these accelerated times, having released records in 2006 would qualify me as the 2nd wave of old skool or something! God knows, ask someone who cares about the hardcore continuum thingy.”

It’s a refreshingly self-effacing attitude from a man who has done as much rummaging around under the engine of the dubstep-mobile as any of the more consciously cooler Hypedub crowd. While refusing to be pigeon-holed by lazy journalistic clichés is the prerogative of any underground artist, the acts that make up the prism of styles that dubstep has splintered into are sensitive about the way their music is labelled and described. It’s probably a sign of a scene filled with healthy self-confidence, but Bass Clef has a slightly different perspective: “I think I started on the outside edge of dubstep, now I’ve moved farther out and the egdes of dubstep have moved waaaay closer to the centre. I haven’t ever thought about where I stand really. I just try and make tunes I think are good and true, and then whatever anyone wants to call it is fine with me.”
Whatever we do-or-don’t call it, 2010 is a ridiculously exciting time for electronic bass music with new acts and labels popping up everywhere, and Ralf is right in the mix: “Hell yeah, there’s a ton of stuff going on. The new Mr Majeika tune on Numbers is absolutely rocking my world. ‘Because of you’ by Panagea is an amazing record. Geiom is kicking it as always. There’s a new act called Raime that will release their debut 12″ this year and it’s absolutely stunning. I’m deep in to Kenyan Benga music from the 70′s too. It’s really stripped down, but so funky.”
With such an eclectic bag of influences, its no surprise that Bass Clef is such a unique artist. What other dubstep artist could play a museum lobby and the Scala in London in the space of a week? “I think the weirdest gig I’ve done would have to be at a Cambridge May ball. I played at 4am, after a Take That tribute band, in the courtyard of a beautiful old historic college, to a lot of drunk people in tuxedos and ballgowns. Good times! Well I say a lot. There were about 7 people.”
We’ve all been there…drunk in a tuxedo that is, not playing a trombone and Theremin at 4am in the morning at a Cambridge ball. But what next for the Clef-monster? “There should be a 12″ of ‘Promises’ (single from his new album) with an absolutely beautiful Appleblim & Peverlist remix, then not one but two shows with the almighty Konono No.1, plus my first trips to Malta and Tel Aviv…and of course my return to wonderful Cardiffland!”

And wonderful Cardiffland is looking forward to his arrival…

A brief but important update from camp Bass Clef – local beatsmith & electronic poet Zwolf has been added to the lineup for the Bass Clef show on 29th April at the Cardiff Arts Institute, making the night now even more unmissable!

Sharing an anything-goes philosophy with headliner Bass Clef, but never compromising on the quality, Zwolf will play an exclusive 30 minute set before Bass Clef takes to the stage, with Kruger DJs Adam & Phoenix and Mr Healan providing the freshest beats either side and inbetween

Expect an evening of entertainment that veers artfully from soca-infused bass heavy dubstep to awestruck electronica, and just to recap for those at the back its:

Kruger presents Bass Clef + Zwolf+Kruger DJs + Mr Healan

Thursday April 29th 9pm-1am

FREE before 11pm/£2/£3

p.s. Interview with the man like Bass Clef coming soon…

Kruger presents Bass Clef + Kruger DJs + Mr Healan

Thursday April 29th 9pm-1am

FREE before 11pm/£2/£3

Once in a while an artist justifies the label ‘unique’ – and Ralf Cumbers (AKA Bassclef) is one of those artists.

Bass Clef is a one-man-band like no other: a trombone n bass aficionado who combines electronic jiggery pokery with block-rocking, dancehall influenced brass and beats. Having lurched into view with the face-mangling bassline of ‘Cannot Be Straightened’ in 2007, he has resurfaced with an album full of soca-infused bass heavy electronica for 2010, titled ‘May the Bridges I Burn Light The Way’ and released on Blank Tapes.

The new album sees the Bass Clef sound expand in all directions: rhythmically and sonically there are glorious new dimensions. From the Soca-tempered ‘Hackney Lionheart’ (the best James Bond theme there will never be), to the fuzzy, slowburning ‘Fix this Broken Love’, the music is often closer to Spiritualized than Skream. But the dancehall, dubstep rhythms are never far away – and live Bassclef veers between trombone blasts and Theremin wobbles.

Expect a tour-de-force of brass, bass, emotion and skittering beats – if you know what’s good for you, you’ll be down the front skankin…Bass Clef in the house!

Underpass: Disorienteering album launch

Wonky Disco is kicking off the new year in style by hooking up with local electronica wizard Underpass for a party to mark the release of his first full-length album, Disorienteering. If you’ve heard his stuff before, you’ll know that Underpass (AKA Lee Marshall) embraces everything from ambient soundscapes to lip-curling breaks n bleeps. And if you haven’t heard him before – well now’s your chance to see a live set from Underpass, plus DJ C++ and Wonky Disco residents playing records until 1am. Doors are at 9pm, but don’t be fooled – these are FREE doors, that open without you having to insert any coins! Hoorah!

You can check out Underpass here:

http://www.myspace.com/lee_underpass

…or on his bi-weekly radio show here:

http://www.nsbradio.co.uk

And to celebrate such an auspicious start to 2010, here’s some words from Underpass himself:

Wonky Disco: “Electronic music has always been about contrasts – would you say your music embraces that?”

Underpass: “I think initially, there was no plan for what it was going to sound like at all.  When I first started making electronic music I was just experimenting with four track tape recorders and computer programs on the Amiga and cheap drum machines, just trying to find a way to make music without having to have a band with me.

The first stuff I released as Underpass was more of a specific kind of electro breakbeat style, and I think I thought that was the way I was going to continue.  There was a point where I had a  bunch of mellow downtempo electronica stuff I was making as well, and looked at it and thought, well, ok, I enjoy making this kind of music just as much, what do I do with it?

 I just decided that I’d keep it all under the same name.  I think it’s kind of patronizing to your audience to say, well they like one thing, but they’re not going to like this other thing.  People are welcome to pick and choose from it.”

 WD: “This is your first full length album right?”

 Underpass: “I actually recorded an album back in 2002, but due to various problems it never came out.  I’m actually quite glad about that now, hehehe. It’s very different working on electronic music than it is going into a studio and recording an album, effectively I live in my studio, and can always work on it, so each track is always an ongoing process.  

It’s not like I show up at Abbey Road on a Monday morning, like, ”crap, ok I have to write something now”!

I sat down in April of this year and just started going through everything on my hard drive. Once I’d figured out which bits I wanted to keep I pretty much spent a week on each track, pulling out all the bits I thought worked, and then writing new beats, recording new sections or re-recording parts, then brushing the whole thing up, and trying to get the production as good as I could.

Some of the tracks like ‘Zombies’, or ‘Hold Your Dreams In’ with Rhodri (from Right Hand, Left Hand), I knew absolutely had to be on there, because they’ve been knocking around for years, and have never seen a proper release for one reason or another.  And it was great working with Hannah Biscombe who has been a good friend for a long time, and we had always talked about her doing a sleeve for me, because I love her stuff”

WD: “It seems like videos and visuals are a big part of Underpass. Is that something you do yourself or do you work with other people?”

Underpass: “My music has always been very visually orientated.  Quite often a track comes from me trying to evoke the feeling of a certain situation that I remember, trying to kind of soundtrack events in my head. I watch movies and short films almost as much as I listen to music, so it was something that I always wanted to do.

 If you look at the music videos of people like Chris Cunningham, they are just so stunning and perfectly suited to the music, to the extent that you almost think the music was made to compliment the video and not the other way around, and I knew we could never do anything that special, but in terms of making something that went with the music, I felt that I really wanted to be involved filming and making the video, even if it meant that it wasn’t going to look anywhere near as polished as getting someone in to do it for me, just because I wanted it to be something that was personal, not just some shiny promo clip to shift units that ultimately had nothing to do with where my head was at, so I hooked up with the talented Steven Hamer, who I was working with at the time, and we just took cameras out and started filming, built up a huge selection of stuff, and then just started editing it over a bunch of evenings together into something that we felt showed the kind of world that we live in and the things that surround us.”

WD: “What can we expect at the album launch?”

Well, I’m going to do a bunch of stuff off the record which is only the second time any of the mellow stuff will get a live showing. I always think that live people are more interested in the danceable stuff, so this is going to be a different kind of show for me, showcasing the other side of what I do for a change. Of course, I’m planning on building the set up so we get to some dirty electro by the end of it, it just wouldn’t be an Underpass gig without some filthy bassline wrongness to end the night!

We’ll be showing the videos too, so hopefully it will be somewhere between a gig, a film showing and a visual installation if it all comes together. Fingers crossed.”

So – there you have it. Underpass at Wonky Disco on the 14^th Jan, 9-1. Delicious, dissolvable dance music.

Evils: rocking Wonky Disco on December 3rd

It feels like Evils has been a looming presence on the Cardiff electronic music scene since…well, since computers n that. Otherwise know as James Hale, Evils has released music on Cardiff’s most forward thinking and influential labels (Boobytrap, Slow Graffiti, Kruger Singles Club and now Shape Records), and his live shows are infamous dens of electronic intensity. If you’ve never heard the Evils sound, then make a beeline for his myspace: 

http://www.myspace.com/evilsmusic 

Now fully equipped with a live band, Wonky Disco is proud to welcome Evils’ laser-guided blend of electronic glitches, synaptic bass lines and machine melodies to the Cardiff Arts Institute on Thursday 3^rd December. Not only is the gig FREE, but we caught up with Evils main-man James Hale for a pre-show chat:

Wonky Disco: We’re really looking forward to hearing some of your new material at Wonky Disco. What’s the response to the latest album been like? Were you pleased with it?

Evils: Yes definitely pleased with it, and the vinyl is proper lush! It was good working with Frank Naughton again who is, in my opinion, a bit of a musical genius. I probably spent too much time getting it out but I’m going to rectify that with some new stuff out soon.

WD: What are you doing now music-wise, working on new material or focussing more on developing the live sound?

Evils: I’m working on new projects, separate to Evils but still electronic. Should see the results of that in 2010. I’m also thinking of starting a label with a friend and we’ve got this interesting music/art project to get off the ground called the Golden Section. It’s basically a massive musical collaboration but I can explain more early next year. They’ll be more info on www.meritone.co.uk soon…

WD: What are you listening to at the moment – got any favourites of 2009?

Evils: The last Plaid album – the one they did for some film last year. House de Racket is a favourite of 2009, specifically their song Synthesiser – that’s a track I like to play really loud on my headphones and dance around in the back garden when I’m drunk on my own at night. It’s a sad state of affairs admittedly, but there you go. Quite liked Joy Orbison and I’ve been listening to Sebasitan Tellier, Chilly Gonzales and The Bug quite a bit too. Also liked the Major Lazer album and Vitalic’s Flash Mob.

WD: And what are your Evils plans for 2010?

Evils: Ha ha Evils plans for 2010 are to release an EP and hopefully work with a vocalist…the tracks are already written…

So – now you know the score, get down to the Institute for an Evils spectacular at Wonky Disco. Pre and post Evils music will be provided by Kruger deejays Adam and Phoenix. Wonky Disco: Delicious, dissolvable dance music.

All aboard the Wonky Disco bike

On Thursday 12th November, Kruger Magazine is proud to present the inaugural Wonky Disco: a party for people with panache. 

Featuring disco, dubstep, hip hop, house and all things electronic, the opening night will be staffed by Kruger deejays Adam and Phoenix, with special guest Dafydd from Spillers. You may well know Dafydd for his long-running Batucada Basics night, but the boy likes nothing more than to throw off the shackles of internationalism and monkey around with some sideways sounds. That’s why he’ll be treating us all to a menu of electronic delights over the course of the night…

Come down for an evening of delicious, dissolvable dance music – see you at the Institute x