Low End Lowlife: 16.08.11

Devastation. A world in tatters. Historic landmarks that once proudly arose over the skyline of a great nation reduced to their mere component parts of steel and brick. Now nothing but dust in the eyes of a beaten and broken people, oppressed and exploited by feral primitives with a complete lack of regard for the individual and little understanding of the society they upturn... Bloody hell it must have been awesome to see the original Planet Of The Apes upon its theatrical release in 1968! Alas with only my youth to blame I have to make do with the DVD boxset and a stiff G&T instead. Undeterred in my quest to reconnect with the post-apocalyptic simian spirit of '68 however I rattled out the old Ouija board and got on the voodoo bugle to Roddy Mcdowell, rest his soul: Turns out he's been bumping a lot of UK bass music posthumously... Here's the shit the main monkey man has been going bananas to in the past few...

Veteran DJ/producer/all round bigwig N-Type's record label Wheel & Deal, founded in 2009, has just released it's first compilation of both previous releases and unreleased dubplates this month. There's some beautiful stuff you may or may not have heard banging around Rinse FM, FWD or in one of N-Type's pressure cooker DJ sets over the past few years alongside some prime cuts yet to anoint your virgin tympanic membrane. Either way it would appear this label is cooking with grease; Ben Verse pops in with the unhinged percussion and some searing synth jabs on 'Wilderness'. DMZ's Coki appears with another strain of his paranoia laced smouldering aggression on the aptly titled 'Madman' and N-Type himself lays down one of the album’s pivotal sub-molesting moments on his contribution 'The Bark'. There's also some deranged Latin skank going down on Slaughter Mob's 'Princess Of Rio', it's a flamboyantly rhythmic number which Roddy reckons is a wise choice for fans of Joe, Shackleton or listening to the Sex & The City theme tune whilst on a come down peering over the edge of the Empire State. Come down the stairs Roddy. Stay safe...

Meanwhile, Hudson Mohawke, possibly the only cheerful thing to ever emerge from the Special Brew, shortbread and misery of Glasgow, makes his day-glo return to Warp Records with the luxuriously ludicrous Satin Panthers EP. After the initial musical red herring of 'Octan', which is all Washed Out synths and dreamy atmosphere it is back to business as usual with Hudmo's trademark blend of lumbering staggered rhythms ('Thunder Bay') Kanye styled chipmunk vocal tics ('All Your Love') and spastic funk'n'bass workouts ('CBat') much like the sound he initially cut his groove with on debut LP Butter. Roddy once had a night out in Glasgow... He reckons it was shit, and would rather have stayed in his Travelodge with this on his cassette walkman. And with hindsight comes wisdom my friends.

Lucky Me, a record label who have handled releases from the aforementioned Mr 'Mo, this month have chucked out a new 12" by Machinedrum. Opening cut 'Alarma' leans much more toward the dubstep end of the Machinedrum spectrum, coming through with some hyperactive squealing synthesizer work which is sonically not too dissimilar to a particularly aggressive boiling kettle (Roddy enjoys a delicate Ceylon if you are putting a pot on) which is neatly tethered to a rolling sub line, the sort of which you should be well familiar with by now. Other cuts like 'I'm A Brat' and 'YNY' continue MD's penchant for doped up R'n'B and are two wonderfully slow summer rollers perfect for taking the edge off after escaping the evil experimental clutches of a band of Orang-Utan scientists.

Anyways, all this cross spiritual plane conversation has left poor Mr Macdowell something asunder in cerebral terms, so he has left me with a shopping list and has been on his way. I'm off to the record shops of central London to pick up some of these fine slabs of wax... What? Roddy, what do you mean they're all gone?

"You maniacs! You blew it up!!! Ah damn you! DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!"