saw dj cameo last night and was very impressed -- the music far surpassed my expectations -- perhaps because i'm a rave-ist at heart . . . . that is, there's some question as to whether dj cameo skewed his set to please American ears by playing the more dance-oriented grime stuff . . . . but whatever it was that he did, my body and ears were pleased
a few remarks:
(1) there's a lot more going on in the "treble," the higher frequencies in grime music than i had been lead to believe -- very weird, beautiful sounds -- and very intense, mad, psychedelic -- an effect that was perhaps further intensified by the poor sound system at supreme trading -- that is, the distortion of the music, especially the higher frequencies, made it even better in my opinion
(2) i realize that the grime scene is post-ecstasy, if not anti-ecstasy . . . . but as far as i'm concerned, the stuff cameo was playing was pure ecstasy music . . . . music that is best heard on ecstasy, and music that if you were on ecstasy you'd do best to hear . . . .
(3) i'd say that cameo played two basic kinds of tracks: (a) lumbering, lurching, unwieldy tracks, which struck me as inspired by "monster movie" themes, tracks that tended to be a tad heavy on the testosterone factor, and which i didn't particularly care for; and (b) wicked badman tracks, some of the funkiest, most bad ass stuff i have ever heard in my entire life, serious serious serious dance music, with blaring noise in the treble, icebergs in the bass . . . .
cameo played probably 4/5 wicked badman stuff, 1/5 "monster theme" stuff
they also had an mc from birmingham there, goes by the name of Deadly Crisis -- i think he now lives in new york -- hopefully he'll be at the next "heat" show, which will be a month's time
the "heat" crew are djs dinesh and greg poole, who in addition to grime played hip hop, crunk, r'n'b, m.i.a., reggaeton (can't say that i like reggaeton, but can see where m.i.a. -- who i love -- has made us of it) . . . . and i think dinesh was also playing dubstep (i.e., after cameo's set, not before), but not really sure as i don't really know what dubstep is . . . . but i think it had to be dubstep because it was (a) instrumental, (b) dark, (c) uptempo and techno/d'n'b influenced w/o being the one or the other . . . .
the space -- supreme trading -- was a good choice -- and i think that w'burg is the place to do these kinds of nights -- in general, younger people, more receptive people w/o "wire magazine" types
and for whatever it's worth (and, yes, it does matter), i think it helps to have black djs breaking this music in the states -- for any number of reasons -- but in general, because racially mixed scenes are the best scenes (i also prefer mixed gay/straight scenes, but i don't think it's realistic to expect a gay following for grime music)
a few remarks:
(1) there's a lot more going on in the "treble," the higher frequencies in grime music than i had been lead to believe -- very weird, beautiful sounds -- and very intense, mad, psychedelic -- an effect that was perhaps further intensified by the poor sound system at supreme trading -- that is, the distortion of the music, especially the higher frequencies, made it even better in my opinion
(2) i realize that the grime scene is post-ecstasy, if not anti-ecstasy . . . . but as far as i'm concerned, the stuff cameo was playing was pure ecstasy music . . . . music that is best heard on ecstasy, and music that if you were on ecstasy you'd do best to hear . . . .
(3) i'd say that cameo played two basic kinds of tracks: (a) lumbering, lurching, unwieldy tracks, which struck me as inspired by "monster movie" themes, tracks that tended to be a tad heavy on the testosterone factor, and which i didn't particularly care for; and (b) wicked badman tracks, some of the funkiest, most bad ass stuff i have ever heard in my entire life, serious serious serious dance music, with blaring noise in the treble, icebergs in the bass . . . .
cameo played probably 4/5 wicked badman stuff, 1/5 "monster theme" stuff
they also had an mc from birmingham there, goes by the name of Deadly Crisis -- i think he now lives in new york -- hopefully he'll be at the next "heat" show, which will be a month's time
the "heat" crew are djs dinesh and greg poole, who in addition to grime played hip hop, crunk, r'n'b, m.i.a., reggaeton (can't say that i like reggaeton, but can see where m.i.a. -- who i love -- has made us of it) . . . . and i think dinesh was also playing dubstep (i.e., after cameo's set, not before), but not really sure as i don't really know what dubstep is . . . . but i think it had to be dubstep because it was (a) instrumental, (b) dark, (c) uptempo and techno/d'n'b influenced w/o being the one or the other . . . .
the space -- supreme trading -- was a good choice -- and i think that w'burg is the place to do these kinds of nights -- in general, younger people, more receptive people w/o "wire magazine" types
and for whatever it's worth (and, yes, it does matter), i think it helps to have black djs breaking this music in the states -- for any number of reasons -- but in general, because racially mixed scenes are the best scenes (i also prefer mixed gay/straight scenes, but i don't think it's realistic to expect a gay following for grime music)