The above photos are by BEEZER, a Bristolian music photographer well known for his photograph’s of St Paul’s Carnival & The Wild Bunch (a seminal Bristol sound-system). (Beezer, I hope you don’t mind me borrowing your photos for my blog. They’re incredible).
As a side note, FACT magazine have just reported that there may not be any sound-systems at St Paul’s Carnival this year. I’m yet to reach, but I hope it’s not true in any case, a carnival’s not a carnival without pressure.
(pic by Newcity)
I’ve just returned from a magical weekend in arguably one of the most beautiful, friendly and inspiring city’s in Britain – Bristol. I was there to catch up with friends, celebrate my birthday 2 weeks early (on sista Breezy’s clever insistence) and also to attempt to begin to answer the question of why Bristol continues to be such an incredible city for musical and artistic output.
I’m not sure if the idea that a specific place can be heard in a tune is too abstract or not, but it’s an idea that I’ve been personally convinced by for a number of years and one which largely defines this blog. The inspiration to really explore this in Bristol was largely sparked by the sounds of Hyetal, in which the city and it’s particular air, energy and landscape seems to be embedded, just as it is in the sounds of Massive Attack, Roni Size, Tricky and Portishead before him.
Whether producers are conscious of this or not is another question – but when I mentioned it to Pinch, by far one of the most respected people in the Bristol’s contemporary music community he suggested that his own music is more inspired by people than by environment. After just 48 hours in the city, this makes complete sense too – it’s a small and sociable place; just placing the palms of your hands together and interlocking your fingers sort of represents just how connected people in the musical and artistic community of Bristol are.
Some of these lovely individuals form the beginnings of a new series of photograph’s which will hopefully illustrate some of these thoughts and ideas. It’s gonna take a few trips back before it’s anywhere near completion however, as the history of Bristol music runs far wider and deeper than I’d ever originally imagined. In the meantime, I leave you with a few things which hopefully represent kind of what I’m talking about.
…there’s a million fish in the sea…all colours. ladies are moving up in the world…
REVOLVA are Bristol / Berlin based rave duo Buf & Ghettozoid (One4Ho). Formerly known as Octopussy, Buf & Ghettozoid have been on the D.O.T.S radar for sometime, appearing in 2008 as part of our line-up at the Antic Banquet Festival. Back then, their style then was bold, colourful and playful, mixing up different genres and whole-heartedly embracing the performance aspect of DJing which they often did with painted faces and swathes of glitter.
This exclusive Revolva D.O.T.S mixtApe titled No Where Allstars is an hour and twenty minute adventure through Buf and Ghettozoid’s ever-evolving sonic landscape. Launching with a powerful statement in the form of Armando’s Don’t Take It, the mix retains the duo’s kick ass boldness of their yesteryear, but in the guise of a darker, more serious creature which navigates through tides of calm, waves of hype, storms of bass and back on to dry land, to be met face to face with a mass of fiercely galloping, wild horses.
*Breathe.* Let your ears see for themselves. Enjoy….x
Free track download : Revolva: Ponyfriend
more info: www.one4ho.com/
Youtubin it…
Back in December, I was lucky enough to witness the making of some of Jamie Woon’s video for his release of Wayfaring Stranger on the youth run Live Recordings label. Director Sophie Clements is a genius; I’m not gonna give any of her techniques away but needless to say it involved Jamie standing around in the cold for hours.
Also on youtube is a trailer for ‘Living inside the Speaker,’ a tale of dubstep’s grip on the city of Bristol.
The next installment of Ruffnek Discotek is on the way headlined by the pseudo mysterious Scuba, Rooted Records is now online, and if you wanna know about last weekend’s Dubloaded feat. Mystikz, Pokes, Pinch and Bubonic, go and see the original ‘Dad blogger’ ,Gutterbreakz for an honest, amusing review and photos by Jack Rampling. Looks and sounds truly heavy weight but then again, I expect no less from Brizzle which is continuously hot on the heels of London in it’s quest to saturate the earth with sub bass.
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