[Toothsayer @ Volks 12/10/10 and a few words with Danglo]

Getting daily more excited about the upcoming Toothsayer night. Almost worringly so, if my anticipation goes on to build in this exponential manner it might just rupture something vital. One of my housemates gets so excited before we put on a houseparty that by the time people begin to arrive 4 hours later than invited, she has exhausted herself, has a little cry and has to go to bed. So if you see me bedewing the Volks with me tears cut me some slack. Mole's even promise to get time off the day job to be my date (we shall see).
As well as the legendary Action Jackson, Steve 412 (don't ask what the numbers mean I did) you can catch Danglo and High Rankin underneath the 'world's oldest operating electric railway' .

Danglo is the man putting on the night. I have never had the chance to see him play out but am loving his mixes, such as this saucy blighter below.


'THE DOTTED QUAVER' - DANGLO [BALKAN/SWING/FIDGET/AFROBEAT] by TOOTHSAYER [BRIGHTON, UK]

Headlining this motley cohort is High Rankin. Humour in credible dance music is something of a rare treat, with far too much seriousness abounding. Germany being the largest exporter of innovative tunes until recently probably didn't help much. The Germs, for all their excellent work, do tend towards a certain taut functionality that doesn't easily lend itself to lightheartedness. Not something you could say of High Rankin.



Listening to his Cut You Down EP I found myself thinking Flying Lotus might have sound like this had he been born in Brighton, of English Pop ancestry rather than American Jazz royalty and trying to ween himself of a particularly nasty addiction to penny sweets. That is a compliment from a bombast Mr Rankin. (Follow link to listen to EP in full)

A little too scatty and day-glo neon in places, but moments of great production and hopefully just the thing for a raucous school night

Here are few words exchanged between me and Danglo for your entertainment and cultural enrichment:

What was the first tune you went crazy for/made you want to make music?

I’d say the tune that got me into dance music was probably Fat Boy Slim – Right Here Right Now. When my older sister had “I’m number 1, So why try Harder?"

But maybe… ‘Full Throttle’ by Prodigy. For some reason I went mental for that when I was 10. I didn’t have a clue what I was listening to but I knew I liked it.

So your Toothsayer night, do you have an ideology/desire to change the face of clubbing forever or are you just in it for some extra pocket money?

I do it for the money and the bitches. Straight up.

Real. Everyone seems to be heading to Bucharest for their samples nowadays. What is it about the Balkan sound that is appealing?

The Balkan sound is impossible not to dance to. At first I felt it was a bit gimmicky. But it just makes sense. If you get something that impossible not to dance to, add more bass and a club friendly kick. You’re away.

Give us one of your current favourite tunes. What makes it so damn good?

My new favourite is The Martin Brothers – Steal Drums.

Everyone likes a song title with a pun in it.

It crosses that tricky line, being minimal house, but being MASSSIVE at the same time. How is that possible? Minimal but Massive.

Do you think the job of the DJ has become easier due to the internet?

It means there is loads of great tunes at your fingertips, but it also means there is loads more crap getting in our nails, my god, there is a lot of crap to sift through. My job as a DJ is to sift through loads of crap and hope to come out with a little nugget of gold. And then another nugget of gold. Until I make a massive wall of gold.

Now High Rankin has brought to our attention ‘Meow Meow’s’ penis rotting affects, what as a responsible adult would you advise the kidz to ingest with their dance music?

Cranberry Juice. It’s Healthy and sorts out the inevitable Cistitis.

You heard it here first horselords. What can we expect in the future from Toothsayer and Danglo Jackson?

I’m planning to set up Toothsayer at some Festivals next summer. Get on some stages. Play some music. That way we can put music on in the sunshine AND in the night time. Oh, and I DJed in Estonia a few weeks back, and that was great. So I’m gunna of throw a Clubnight in Estonia. I love it there, their bathroom floors are heated. Why would you ever leave the bathroom if the floor was heated?

Myself, I’m going to keep producing tracks. I had a mate come over and play some saxophone last night. I’m looking forward to chopping that up and making it groovy. I might put a kick drum, a snare drum and possibly a hi-hat over it and see how it goes. Oh, and a bassline.

Love a nice bita sax. Thanks for your time mate, looking forward to the night.

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Vagabondz

Stenchman - all the way down by stenchman


Haven't been to a Vagabondz night in at least a year, but their sticking to their filthy guns, unfortunatley wont be making this due to the inevitable financial difficulties of those who can't be bought (and Digital's hefty ticket price, who do they think they are?) Unless the fine people there want to extend a press pass to the humble purveyors of this modest blog, always been a fan of Digital innit? Great speakers... erm...




Nah only kidding they put on as many good nights as ones that aren't to my taste and we can't all be unrelentingly idealistic, some prefer to have some pocket money for the odd pint, new t-shirt, self-respect etc.



This is certainly going to be one of the good'uns. As well as old Action spinning his magic, which should never be missed by the right-minded, those cheeky Vagabondz are shipping in the ridiculously talented and versitile Stenchman. Check out the boy's range. Couldn't pick out out one tune, so picked many.



Couldn't find a decent full length decent quality version of 'spell on you' but here's a taste, can still hear how sick it is even if it sounds like its coming to us out of a well.



Too good, man's gone take over the world.

Legendary junglist rastafarian Congo Natty is headlining with surport from good old Marcus Nasty, who is always pretty fucking decent and would be quite something if he didn't feel the need to invite every one of his mates to chat inane nonsense over his solid beats. "When it comes to the eruption, I don't need no introduction" Though we could give MC Majestic the benefit of the doubt and credit him with a sophisticate sense of irony, with which he laudable critiques bad grammar and crass sexuality in one fell swoop, lets not, and leave him sounding like a rapist. I don't think its much less than he deserves. What is it about bass music the makes decent producers give their mates (who sound as if the took far too many pills in the formative years of adolescence) free reign to their inspid thoughts or at times hilariously bad rhymes.



For an example of decent lyricism you could try and break into MF Doom's gig at Concorde 2 15/10/10, which unfortunately sold out before I got a golden ticket. Not something think Mr Majestic will be achieving without a radical change of direction.



...oh go on, one more for luck:


STENCHMAN - TOO FILLED WITH HORROR TO CRY by stenchman

Tom Waits - Big in Japan (listen to tune in video below)

Though this blog is dedicated to electronic bytes of sustenance, every really great DJ from Villalobos to Matt Edwards knows when to throw in something from outside their conventional electronic genre to give their set breadth and make a nod to a world beyond ill-lit basements.

The aforementioned Action Jackson has been known to send the dance floor whirling like a dervish with a cheeky Greek number, something like the tune that accompanies that climactic scene in Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

So here is the first of my recommendations of songs, not dance tunes in the conventional sense, that could be worked into sets. (And in doing so, I invite the seemingly hibernating Mole, to think up some too.)

Tom Waits has the voice of a crusty old pirate who’s dared to do everything you never had the balls to and then a little more you wouldn’t even want to. As Daniel Durchholz put it, sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car."

This bad boy, off album Mule Variations, has so many elements, from the rasping brass to the descending swing of the double bass, that could be cut up, sampled or whatever you clever people do, to great effect.

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The Action Going on With Jackson

Some sweet action going on with Mr Jackson at the moment. Though he may be one of the soundest fellas I have the pleasure of knowing, I shall try not to allow any understandable bias to creep into my thoughts on his sounds. But, as I’ve just recently said to the man himself, his productions are going from strength to strength.

Haven’t heard him play out for a while. He used to spin some of the best Minimal sets around Brighton, but with many like minded people, I believe from what I’ve heard through grapevines, his new sets are now moving, from a kinda ethno-techno vibe, to the stuff showcased in these two lovely tunes. UK Funky? Not sure what to call it, but Mr Mole and I are super feeling it at the moment and will be posting more of it up soon.




So, without further ado... here are two tunes by Action for the delight of your ears:

Action Jackson - Face Food by actionjacksonlondon

Action Jackson - Mama Gets Deep by actionjacksonlondon

He has generously promised me to keep us up to date with when he’s playing out...

If you lucky enough to be hittin-up Outlook Festival you can catch him there, With other such likely looking chaps as Skream, Pinch, Scuba, Shackleton, 2562, Roska (video below), Ramadanman, Pangea, Untold, etc etc etc . Wish I could be there but prior Cuban commitments.

Otherwise watch this space for when and where Action is playing out nearer to home.

(I.E. Brighton and London)

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