A night’s worth of heavy dubstep, best served hot.

For this experience you may need:

• A pair of Technics vinly decks, a mixer and a CDJ player,
• A record bag crammed with tasty chops from one of the most rapidly expanding forms of musical expression at the minute, dubstep
• A frontline purveyor of the scene, in the form of a certain West Londoner, Gary Mcann a.k.a Caspa
• Denmark’s foremost music venue, Vega.

The trilogy of major dubstep events at Vega over the past year came to a climaxing halt last night, as the last installation of the series graced the dimly lit concert hall at Little Vega. And who better to sign things off than Gary Mcann himself, one of the pioneers of the dubstep scene that’s taken the world by storm in 2009. A purist in many senses, Caspa kept things cool, collected and old school as he showcased a selection of some of the finest numbers tainting today’s musical soundscapes, pushing a pair of Technics to their limits with some gallant mixing skills fused with a colourful ensemble of eye catching tricks and ear-appeasing scratches.

And whilst the music on show was no less than phenomenal, the reaction to it was arguably a tad dank and dim, much like the weather outside at the moment. Given it was the last weekend of the month, turnout wasn’t as good as it may otherwise have been and it showed. Swap last night’s venue with London’s Fabric, however and one would definitely have had one scorcher of a show on their hands, as it was last night was decent, even a lot of fun, yet ultimately lacked a key detail or two.

Keen on battling the monotony, The dub police label boss churned out wave upon wave of commercial dubstep, sticking to certified, tried and tested floor fillers that rattled the walls of little Vega with a demonic vengeance as his MC pranced about on stage cutting into the music every now and again with a stream of hastily assembled lyrics.

The Highlights:

“I remember” Capsa dubstep remix”: The tune that put Caspa on the dubstep map with a bang. A top tune given a top touch-up albeit in a completely different format to the original.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ND6WWlwBdcA

“Caspa & Rusko - Bread Get Bun”: One of Capas many alliances with fellow dubstep manciple, Rusko the end result being a vulgar, cockney-punctuated screamer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKahubEOI8w&feature=PlayList&p=DCCDB8779001F692&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=6

“Caspa and rusko terminator”: Another by-product of the Caspa-Rusko alliance, teeming with the same vulgar ferocity and cockney stabs as “Bread Get Bun”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWQukgO1X6c&feature=PlayList&p=DCCDB8779001F692&index=7&playnext=2&playnext_from=PL

Links of interest:

“Caspa: Cockney Violin” : A tune that sounds like a battle soundtrack from The last Samurai.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qowgtBr_XEo&feature=PlayList&p=65B9D4F8E6A80030&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=2

“Rusko: Cockney thug”: One of the premier dubstep numbers around, a ferocious sizzler laced with stabs of raw cockney cuts from “Snatch” warped firmly upon a chunky beat-heavy foundation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWQukgO1X6c&feature=PlayList&p=DCCDB8779001F692&index=7&playnext=2&playnext_from=PL

“Caspa & Rusko: Rock bottom”: One of the more suave tunes from the Fabric resident and his cohort.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Lh4ZVE1gRI

Caspa: Essential mix (part 1): Caspa caning it live on Pete Tong’s essential mix.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYvqg1cQeK4

And I thought I’d throw this one in just for good measure:

“Mj Cole Sincere (Nero remix) “ : If you haven’t figured out what dubstep is yet, this tune ought to say enough to get you up to speed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MZpmiStEsI

Turboweekend indeed

The crowds poured in to Little Vega thick and fast on Saturday, drawn from afar by the prospect of being able to listen to some of the hottest electronic music in the country at the minute. It was always going to be a biggie, what with the likes of erstwhile purveyors Kjeld Tolstrup and Le Gammeltoft headlining the show. And whilst the aforementioned duo did indeed deliver the wares throughout the course of the night, ultimately, few would dispute that the true heroes of the night were none other than a certain Turboweekend, who stole the audience’s hearts and minds with a veritably consistent and charming performance.

Having missed out on Tolstrup and Le Gammeltoft’s opening set, I managed to rock up just in time to catch the band of the moment, “Turboweekend” doing their thing. There’s a reason why this quartet is as highly venerated as they are at the moment. Brimming with confidence from the word go, Martin Petersen (Drums), Silas Bjerregaard (Vocals) and Morten Køie (Bass), and Anders Møller (synths) took the already warmed up ground on a voyage through some of the most eclectic rock for miles, touring through a quirky mix of dark synth-singed rock with an electronic / soulful tweak. The response from those present was as manic and as heated as the on-stage fracas; which seemed to get more intense with every passing hour. Highlights from the performance include “Wash out “ “After hours” and “Into you” all of which inspired downright insanity on the dancefloor.

The end of the show culminated with a stage invasion that saw the better half of the front third of the audience auspiciously ushered onto the stage, for an impromptu orgy of chaos; icing on the cake on what was yet another tremendous showing from the rock band du jour.

Sample this:

Official website: http://www.turboweekend.com/

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/turboweekend

Turoweekend: “After hours” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LM5c5oHHsl0&feature=fvw

Turboweekend: “Into you” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfM-w3UU4Rc&feature=related

Turboweekend “Wash Out” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xijsykdx2Us&feature=related

Turboweekend: “Something or nothing” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pS3NWJcopZQ&feature=related

“Lucy Love” is in the air

Everyone that turned up at Little Vega on Friday must have done so with high expectations of the highly hyped Lucy Love. They weren’t disappointed.

Denmark’s de facto first lady of all things grunge and grime put on a scintillating performance that rocked the rafters off the concert hall, as she churned out one rough tune after another, stabbing away at the fleshy beats her on-scene Dj conjured with her sharp, high-pitched attitude-infested vocals.

Love started on an easy, conservative tone, mc-ing away in her grime element. It wasn’t long before she tweaked things up a tad though, working the crowd into something of a frenzy with a more raunchier, synth-tinged ensemble of tunes. With the crowd in her grasp, the likes of the commercially lauded “Daddy was a dj” and “V.I.P” were served, shaken and stirred, with plenty of input from her Dj, who was as much a star of the show as the chequered hoodie clad Love herself. The duo of dancers /vocalists accompanying her every move were just as impressive, nonchalantly moving along to the proceedings, seemingly in their own beat-riddled paradise in a land far far away.

If things were hot and sweaty mid-way through the show, they got sizzling and steamy towards the end, as several unreleased numbers (such as “Poison” and “We’ve only hit the ground”) found their way onto the stage, several of which contained weighty measures of drum & bass influences whilst others came in the form of chunky electro-driven symphonies, each accompanied by one wave of shrill South London vocal after another. The loco Lucy Love left the building with a wry smile on her face at the end of the show amidst a series of cheers and shouts for more. She came, she saw and she conquered.

Ear / eye candy:

Lucy Love: "I'm in love with it" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GTMziXPQsI

Lucy Love: "L.U.C.Y L.O.V.E." "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jPGirHEZY8&feature=related"

Lucy Love :" V.I.P" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4cMxNVGPxc&feature=related

Lucy Love: "Daddy was a DJ" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWaZ9ikJ8U0&feature=related

Multi-ethnic mixed race mash up

The 7^th of November 2009 was a tremendous occasion for me, for many reasons, varied and disparate. As one Elia Elisabeth Johnson, Co-founder of the Facebook group for people of mixed race heritage in Denmark put it, the night gave rise to “perhaps Denmark’s first ever mixed race event and perhaps also one of Denmark’s most beautiful social gatherings”

I had mixed expectations prior to the night itself, which kicked off with dinner at an eatery in downtown Copenhagen that goes by the name of Riz Raz. On the one hand, I was eager to meet my fellow mixed-race brothers and sisters, and on the other hand I was really anxious, if not nervous about the very prospect of doing so. I think everyone that attended felt the same way to a certain extent. I wondered what it would be like, and the novelty of it all had me casting mild aspersions within my conscience.

And so on as gloomy a winter’s day as you could imagine, I set off towards Riz-Raz, headphones in and volume up as I sat on the 6A bus. My rendezvous with the rest of the attendees, felt like a dive into the Atlantic; I was hit by a stream of colourful emotions and a vibe unlike any other I’d experienced before. It was odd seeing people who looked just like me, and I must say I was quite shy to start off with, as indeed we all were.

Dinner was a rustic affair, and the restaurant itself didn’t exactly provide us with an out of this world service or menu yet this was completely and totally irrelevant in the context of the night. During the festivities, a certain Neil Steinbeck Bloem [1], candidate for the post of communal representative for the district of Copenhagen dropped in with a stack of flyers ahead of next Tuesday’s communal elections in Denmark. Neil, who just so happens to be half Danish, half South African, gave a brief yet enlightening speech during which he highlighted a couple of the eccentricities of being mixed race. He pointed out that we’d been discriminated against by the better part of society for a long time, yet of late, we have emerged as something of a dernier cri in the social circles we inhabit an observation that many were in agreement with.

Dinner done and dusted, we proceeded to the nearby club Mambo, in what seemed like a walk down a red carpet at the Cannes film festival. All around, we were greeted by curious stares and camera flashes as we trekked to the second half of the night’s festivities. Club Mambo was arguably a most idyllic venue for a mixed race gathering, what with its multi-ethnic public, Latin vibes and Salsa music. Our group seemed to get significantly larger at Mambo’s as more of our own trickled in. Conversation upon conversation with one fellow mixed race individual after another triggered one parallel viewpoint after another as we shared our views on everything from nationality, cultural values, patriotism and identity.

Whilst all of the aforementioned sounds all merry and grand, there were several minor incidents on the night that reminded us of the controversial situation we live in. At club Mambo, for instance, we were confronted by a surly American lady who went on and on about how racist it was of us to organise a party that was exclusively for a certain type of individuals, thereby segregating others. As valid as her point may have been, it may be worth note that several of the guests present were not in fact mixed race, and that no attempt was made to exclude them from the festivities at any time.

I went home at the end of it all beaming inside out with glee. Suddenly I didn’t feel that alone anymore, suddenly I knew that there was and is a whole world of “us” in society, even in Danish society, which is far from multicultural. In many ways, last Saturday’s mixed race gathering was a ratification of my identity; a counter-conviction to the doubts and aspersions that every mixed race individual faces in the lifelong quest to find their niche. I can hardly wait for the next reunion.

---

[1] http://www.neil.dk/

Remember remember the 5th of November, The gunpowder treason and plot. I see no reason why the 5th of November should ever be forgot.

Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori:
mors et fugacem persequitur virum
nec parcit inbellis iuventae
poplitibus timidove tergo.

"How sweet and fitting it is to die for one's country:
Death pursues the man who flees,
spares not the hamstrings or cowardly backs
Of battle-shy youths."

(Adapted from Horace)

And now, an address on behalf of V, the humble Vaudevillian veteran cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the viscistudes of fate:

"Good evening, London. Allow me first to apologize for this interruption. I do, like many of you, appreciate the comforts of every day routine- the security of the familiar, the tranquility of repetition. I enjoy them as much as any bloke. But in the spirit of commemoration, thereby those important events of the past usually associated with someone's death or the end of some awful bloody struggle, a celebration of a nice holiday, I thought we could mark this November the 5th, a day that is sadly no longer remembered, by taking some time out of our daily lives to sit down and have a little chat. There are of course those who do not want us to speak. I suspect even now, orders are being shouted into telephones, and men with guns will soon be on their way. Why? Because while the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power. Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn't there? Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression. And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission. How did this happen? Who's to blame? Well certainly there are those more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable, but again truth be told, if you're looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror. I know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who wouldn't be? War, terror, disease. There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense. Fear got the best of you, and in your panic you turned to the now high chancellor, Adam Sutler. He promised you order, he promised you peace, and all he demanded in return was your silent, obedient consent. Last night I sought to end that silence. Last night I destroyed the Old Bailey, to remind this country of what it has forgotten. More than four hundred years ago a great citizen wished to embed the fifth of November forever in our memory. His hope was to remind the world that fairness, justice, and freedom are more than words, they are perspectives. So if you've seen nothing, if the crimes of this government remain unknown to you then I would suggest you allow the fifth of November to pass unmarked. But if you see what I see, if you feel as I feel, and if you would seek as I seek, then I ask you to stand beside me one year from tonight, outside the gates of Parliament, and together we shall give them a fifth of November that shall never, ever be forgot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TLD3Z6sJWA&feature=PlayList&p=D75A0699A7205299&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=3

Modern day Europe is steadily evolving into a continent that propagates the notions and jurisdictions of far right politics with increasing intensity. The last decade or so has borne witness to an unpreccendented rise in the popularity of right wing political parties. From the Danish people's party to The British National party, Europe is being swept by a plague of modern day totalitarianism, whose core stipulations seek to impose racism, classism and other illaudable traits upon modern day civillisation.

In the UK the British national party continues to tigthen its stranglehold on a population that is simmering in the vices of economic recession, preying on its weakness in order to mount its racist propaganda.

(The next paragraph has been adapted from Wikipedia)

In the 2005 UK general election, the party received 0.7% of the popular vote, the eighth largest share. The BNP finished fifth in the 2008 London mayoral election with 5.2% of the popular vote. Mayoral candidate Richard Barnbrookwas elected to one of the London Assembly's 25 seats. In addition to already holding several metropolitan borough council seats, the BNP won their first county council seats and European Parliament seats on 4 June 2009, winning one council seat in both Lancashire and Leicestershire, and one European Parliament seat each in Yorkshire and the Humber and North West England.

According to its constitution, the BNP is "committed to stemming and reversing the tide of non-white immigration and to restoring, by legal changes, negotiation and consent the overwhelmingly white makeup of the British population that existed in Britain prior to 1948". The BNP proposes "firm but voluntary incentives for immigrants and their descendants to return home". The party also advocates the repeal of all anti-discrimination legislation, and restricts party membership to "indigenous British ethnic groups deriving from the class of ‘IndigenousCaucasian’". The BNP also accepts white immigrants that are assimilated into one of those ethnicities. The BNP asserts that there are biological racial differences that determine the behaviour and character of individuals of different races, although it claims that it does not regard whites as superior to other ethnic groups, and that preference for one's own ethnicity is a part of human nature.

"How did this happen? Who's to blame? Well certainly there are those more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable, but again truth be told, if you're looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror" V.

God forbid that the BNP, The Danish People's party and THe French National front ever become ruling powers. Their totalitarian quest is in already in full swing, but it's not too late to stop them. Remember the 5th of November.

1.