don't think blackdown is the same as he used to be in terms of being a general nuum reporter which is a shame. He appears to only push his own thing or stuff very closely related nowadays..
gah, i have no interest in derailing this thread but what would a nuum reporter even cover right now? greyscale techno-as-the-emperor's-new-clothes? disclosure? emo indie singers with a halfstep beat? brostep & trap? what does "nuum" even mean anymore? I dont think it's clear and i've said so in print.
I can't write about the things I dont feel; it's dishonest and waste of my life. and my prio is to DJ, make and release records now; not to write about them too much.
but even if it was, let's be honest, what "nuum" stuff is there out there right now? "dubstep?" it's in stasis. grime? i've interviewed elijah, slackk, logos (and by proxy Boxed) but who else would you suggest i cover? Juke? that's not from the UK is it.
road rap and this deep house wave: i see they're prolific and vibrant but i contest that these things are even "nuum". they have the ears of the road audience i know and lots of energy in them, but sonically the dont fit the lineage as what has come before - which is fine, that's not a value judgement just an observation. UK ragga had a road audience and it wasn't part of the nuum directly, same for UK hip hop that came before and also soca. it's fine; just different.
road rap is road guys making US rap, not making an entirely new DNA, like grime was. this deep house is just the road guys discovering euro house and e/balloons for the first time (despite them existing for nearly 30 years!) and having fun. fair enough. some of them are making their own tracks, which is a great sign and might evolve into something entirely different to the house that has come before but currently is very much in line with it, sonically, albeit with a noir twist.
I regularly listen to hours of Radford et al to keep in touch, but despite my attempts to be balanced here I'm sure you lot will now just endlessly slew me for these deep house opinions. But i think all perspectives are entirely split on whether house was a completely new idea to you post-uk funky or not. It's probably quite normal to get caught up in the energy of this deep house wave if you've never engaged with the house club scene before - and fair enough.
For example: i'm hearing stories of grime MCs going down to Vauxhaul clubs, taking e and saying "it doesn't matter if there are gay guys there, everything's cool". that might be an interesting cultural twist on two communities that had next to no interaction maybe 10 years ago but e and house and Vauxhall clubs weren't invented last week. but if they came into your world in the last two years, you probably feel like it's the best thing.