Virus Syndicate - Sick Pay (Planet Mu)

Virus Syndicate are a Manchester grime crew yet chat like they’re from Hackney not Hulme. This isn’t a criticism, just an observation. Back in the day, if British MCs adopted or imitated a style then it was almost certainly that cod New York accent associated with the best American rappers. Remember Derek B, Monie Love and all those other plazzy Bronx pretenders? Cringe worthy wasn’t in it. With the emergence of a unique British MC style allied to ragga, jungle and later UK Garage and now Grime, it appears that all regional accents and styles have mutated into a pan-British Black (Cockney) Twang. If you didn’t know that Virus Syndicate came from Manchester you’d swear they were from the same yard as Roll Deep. One line on ‘Won’t Give Up’ goes ; ‘I’m a Manchester man not a Cockney’ yet the MC sounds as Cockney as pie and mash (up).


This aside, ‘Sick Pay’ is a fantastic demonstration of just how far British MCing has evolved and improved over those two decades since Derek B and co. Instead of pretending to be something they’re not, our MCs have finally fused the best elements of their Jamaican toasting culture with the inventive rhyme schemes of US rap. What separates Grime from most US ‘urban’ styles however, is the inventive use of beats and samples. Most mainstream Hip hop and R&B remains rooted in tired grooves and familiar lyrical and musical clichés, whilst grime has carved out its own soundscapes from UK genres such as drum n’ bass and dubstep as well as hip hop and dancehall. Infact I’d go as far as saying that, at their best, our MCs offer a superior alternative to most US rappers.

And make no mistake, Virus MCs Goldfinger, JSD and Nika-D are amongst the best in the UK. The intricate, complex flows of their lyrics and the inventive backdrops provided by DJ/producer MRK1 give ‘Sick Pay’ a playfulness sadly lacking in too many so-called ‘urban’ genres. ‘Taxman Returns’ ‘Dippin’ ‘Neva Argue’ and ‘Kane n’ Abel’ meld Eastern bhangra and Arabic sounds to Spartan drum patterns and whilst this is hardly original, it suits the frenetic lyrical flow far better than all those Timbaland-lite cut n’ paste jobs. ‘Vibrator’ has a bubbling electro feel and ‘Live At The Apollo’ uses a ‘My Sharona-esque’ guitar loop to detail how the crew have evolved over the past decade. This track and ‘Neva Argue’ also get remixes from Various Production and the whole LP hangs together as a truly accurate document of modern British inner city life both lyrically and sonically. There is sex and drug dealing and getting paid and crime and boasting and all the usual stuff of rap and a life of grime but it never feels overplayed, never feels too fantastical and clichéd just VS being honest and passionate about their own skills and experiences.

As they say on ‘Infected’ “call the nurse, cos my verses are so sick, no-one can cure me, I’m honestly poorly.” Grime has indeed infected British culture and has spawned some of the most skilfull and dexterous spit merchants this country has ever produced. Many like the Virus boys matching the turbo-flow theatrics and abstract stream of consciousness of Busta or Doom. It’s good to see labels like Planet Mu who have supported the band for four years now broadening their appeal to cover grime as well as avant-electronica. More UK labels should follow their example and offer these MCs and producers the opportunity to break out of the music industry’s self-imposed ghetto.

Release date 6-10-08

Windsurf's Coastlines/Bent's Art Of Chill/CDL Jukey

Windsurf – Coastlines (Internasjonal)

Nu-balearic LPs are like shite jokes about busses, you wait ages for one to come along and then two come together; hot on the heels of Hatchback’s ‘Colors Of The Sun,’ Sam Graw and Dan Judd’s respective Hatchback and Sorcerer aliases have fused for the first Windsurf longplayer. As with Lindstrom and Prins Thomas’s joint efforts, it’s difficult to see where Sorcerer ends and the Hatchback begins. To help us, each co-surfer has listed his own influences in the shape of a ‘cosmic ven diagram’; Sorcerer gives us the likes of Arthur Russell, Ned Doheney, Gabor Szabo, Hawaii, kung fu, dolphins, old drum machines, Todd Rundgren, Fleetwood Mac and Xanadu. Hatchback provides Vangelis, David Axelrod, Brains Eno, Conny Plank, ELO, white blazers, Fender Rhodes, Steely Dan, flea markets and Cluster.

Together, they are Windsurf and they make the kind of epic electronic AOR, some (OK, me!) have christened ‘Callyearic.’ As the title suggests, this records evokes languorous, hazy evenings with the waves lapping gently against the shoreline. With tracks called Moonlight Sun, Light As Daylight, Bird Of Paradise and The Big Island, you pretty know much what to expect. Returning home from a weekend in Wales with the September sunlight shining off the lakes and mountains of Snowdonia, it all made perfect sense (although the missus classed it as ‘boring’). It’s no coincidence that this LP is being released on Prins Thomas’s ‘Internasjonal’ imprint. If you’re tired of the cosmic-nu-balearic-scando-cally-earic hype, then I’d swerve this but if, like me, you find another wet and windy summer is only made bearable by music this warm and optimistic, then seek it out.

Release date – 27th October

The Art Of Chill – Bent (Platypus)

Would you buy a compilation called The Art Of Chill? No neither would I, so it’s lucky I got sent this from the good folks at epm. Bent are one of those bands who always appear on the zillions of ‘Now That’s What I Call The Very Best Of Ibiza Sunset Chill Bar Grooves 5’ CDs in Asda but that’s not their fault. Along with Boards Of Canada, Lamb, Groove Armada et al, Bent have become a Chill-By-Numbers outfit which is a shame because their music is often sublime and beautiful in its arrangement. This compilation provides a stunning insight into Simon Mills and Neil ‘Nail’ Tolliday’s tastes. Each Bent-ster (as we at Swine call em) ‘curates’ his own compilation and whilst the tone is similar on both, Nail’s is the more avant-garde and the more interesting. Make no mistake; there is music on this compilation that will amaze and surprise you, whether that’s minimal abstract classical, spooky disjointed electronica or perhaps one of the most remarkable singing performances I’ve ever heard; The Bulgarian Female Vocal Choir’s ‘Kalimankou Denkou.’ No shit! As the man says himself in his notes;

‘My old friend Katty played this to me about 14 years ago and I was sceptical at first. I’m glad she insisted because after about five seconds I was in floods of tears, I’d never heard anything before quite as beautiful.’

So, ignore The Art Of Chill as a brand name and seek this magnificent compilation out, you won’t be disappointed.

Release date – 13th October

Café del Lar Jukebox

Listen The Snow Is Falling – Yoko Ono & Plastic Ono Band
I Betray My Friends - OMD
Molde Canticle Pt 4 – Jan Garbarek
Never Say Never – John Martyn
Beauty & The Beast – DJ Taylor
Love Aint An Easy Thing – Neil Sedaka
Call Me (Instru) – Blondie
Livin’ For The City (Bullring Mix) – Cook da Books
TVOD – The Normal
Perfumed Garden – Rah Band
Voila – Francoise Hardy
Ice Cream Van - Glasvegas
Pigs (In There) – Robert Wyatt
Time Becomes/Planet Of The Shapes - Orbital

All Good - Runcorn's very own Sanctuary.

The brief was simple - classic disco, funk n' soul - the DFS approach. The venue; my local' the Traveller's Rest (aka The Tup) in Runcorn, where unbelievably I had one of my best New Year's Eve's last year with local northern DJs cooking up a storm. Always a bit of a backwater, Runcorn's 'dance scene' such as it is, never really recovered from the closure of Gaz Crilly's brilliant 'Stoned Soul Picnic' nights at the Panorama and later The View if Frodsham.

Runcorn, like Widnes and Warrington has always had a strong allegiance to northern and at one point Halton (the joint borough of Widnes and Runcorn) had it's own Soul Club which basically meant local DJ and 'character' Harry Dennett persuading Edwin Starr and the like to (rumour has it) stay over at his terraced house on the Grange council estate (where I grew up) before appearing at the Queen's Hall in Widnes at various alldayers. Some of these events were great but the northern scene has always been a strange, closed world and as we realised that anything that deviated slightly from the Detroit/60s template would NEVER be accepted in such purist circles, we moved onto clubs in Liverpool and Manchester (and even places like Blackburn's Peppermint Place) where 'progressive' dance music was played.

This was the mid-80s before house totally took over and our little crew were regulars at most events in the surrounding area, especially the first Upnorth weekenders in Blackpool and Southport. And now we're all getting older and some of us have grown up kids and some of have young kids and most of us can't be arsed driving out to Manchester or Liverpool, so we make do with life in a (very boring) northern town.

Ofcourse we could've played the latest Terje remixes and deep Estonian space-disco 12s from 1978 but instead began with Barry White's version of 'Standing In The Shadows Of Love' and ended with Shalamar's 'Night To Remember.'

Inbetween there was Philly, Stax, Gamble, Atlantic, Motown, RAK (Mickey Most - Britain's Tom Moulton? We think so!), West End, Casablanca, Solar, Tamla, Jay Boy, Buddha, Fourth & Broadway, King, Ze, Verve, Direction, Salsoul, Whitfield, TSOP and Prelude; nothing too obscure (although the Eddie Kendricks instrumental version of I Am A Cider Drinker got the trainspotters pestering me for the identity of my cover-up), nothing too pretentious or conceptual, not the kind of stuff we'd really play for ourselves given a totally free reign, but hey, this is fucking RUNCORN!!

We enjoyed it, so did the crowd and even the bouncers joined in for the finale 'get ready, baaaby, tonight, darrrrlin' gonna make this a niiiiight to remeeeeemberrrr!' Now fuck off, the milkman's here!