Rambling & Rumbling In The Bass Bins: 23.05.11

Another fortnight in the wonderful world of all things low and wobbly (that being the world of bass orientated music, not the equally wobbly world of White Lightning and smack better known as Kings Street Great Yarmouth) and a million more tunes have been unleashed on an unwitting sound system near you. It would be nigh on impossible to cover everything in the mere 500 words allotted to said tunes so it boils down to a simple case of whatever spills out first gets mentioned. Both good & bad. Naturally

First out the gate is the new limited press 12" from Blue Daisy with the electro weighted stomp of '3rd Degree Hip-Hop' on the A side and the reverse carrying the equally heavy 'Status Off Air' & 'Kill A DJ' both of which are equally as enthusiastic in their synthesizer application, albeit cruising at a slightly slower pace. This release comes on the consistently reliable Black Acre label which also dropped Daisy's 'Strings Detached EP' in late '09 and has rattled out some splendid numbers from such names as DZ, DJ Hatcha & Fantastic Mr.Fox.

Over on Planet Mu at the moment NastyNasty are on the cusp of their first physical release (to the best of my knowledge) with their first 12" single 'No Names' an extremely squelchy number guaranteed to appeal to fans of Joker, Rustie & fellow Mu soundsmith Slugabed who released his 'Ultra Heat Treated EP' a while back through said label. On the flipside there is an altogether more afro-centric remix from Heterotic, which although slightly less exciting in my book does make me feel like I might be at a disco with Paul Simon. Which I assume would be a lovely experience so long as Art Garfunkel didn't turn up asking for cab fare.

For those of you less interested in music which makes you feel like an inflatable crocodile on an ocean of amphetamine Fabric's monthly mix CD is this time round compiled by Jackmaster, and is a wonderfully varied affair taking in the likes of the new Addison Groove juke track 'Make 'Em Bounce' (available on Tectonic Records) which, put bluntly, does what it's name claims and nothing more, which is no bad thing. There are some strangely 80's sounding diversions thrown in the pot to keep things cooking across the somewhat excessive 70 minute run time (a common fault in the Fabric series) but things are brought to an fabulously unlikely end with the inspired pairing of Skepta's 'Doin' It Again' bridging (somehow) into Radiohead's 'Idioteque' for a toe tappingly melancholy finish. I'm not going to lie these two tracks back to back have made me determined to get a '48 Hours' remake commissioned with Thom Yorke taking the swagger fuelled con-man role, whilst Skepta handles the overworked, blue collar detective doin' it by the book role in the spirit of stuff that probably shouldn't work but let's go with it anyway.

Honourable Mentions: Battles - Ice Cream 12" (Warp), Lando Cal - Further/Time Out 12" (Hotflush Recordings), Hubsmoke - Dirty Fingers EP (Bass Punch Records)

More news in a fortnight, where hopefully I'll have at least the first 12 hours of the film in the can (it's going to be done in real-time... let's just go with it.)