Tag Archives: bigbeat

inthemix.com.au, Music, Review, Writing

Midfield General – General Disarray

Leave a comment

At the height of the Big Beat craze, one label stood taller than the rest – Skint. Boasting names like Fatboy Slim and X-Press 2, the label produced some of the most successful cross-over music in the business. Damian Harris, one of the owners of Skint, also produced music under the name Midfield General, and had some minor hits on his hands.

However, as the music press turned on Big Beat, deriding it as cheese, Harris became a little more reclusive with his works, opting to produce others works rather than his own. This lead to him becoming executive producer of Justice, and yet another huge cross-over success.

Unfortunately, even though he seems to have magic with other people, his own work never seems to have that mass appeal. And I don’t think this is going to change with General Disarray. There are some really great tunes here, but they’re all just a little too left of centre to really catch the general public’s ears. Disco Sirens with its housey vocals and disco bassline is probably the closest that he’ll get to commercial success. Love Thy Self and On The Road are sure to please the electro lovers out there, and be played in many dancefloor sets.

But it is the left field tracks like Teddy Bear – a spoken word piece over music about a disabled boy talking to truckers on a CB Radio, and Seed Distribution by The Might Boosh’s Noel Fielding, which is as warped as Noel Fielding can be, shows where Harris has gone in the last few years. He hasn’t lost the real essence of big beat, which went beyond the cheese and commerciality and actually explored what could be done with electronic music.

inthemix.com.au, Music, Review, Writing

Rico Tubbs – Knuckle Sandwich

Leave a comment

Rico Tubbs, the Finnish breakbeat producer whose tunes have been rocking clubs in various guises for over a decade, launches his premier album release on Menu Music, Knuckle Sandwich. And boy does it pack a punch! Listening to Knuckle Sandwich, it’s almost as if Rico’s is fed up with the retro “electro sound” and is single-handedly trying to knock it’s awfulness from the airwaves, and muscle in the old Big Beat and 90s rave sounds.

Whilst this oldschooler absolutely loves this mix, there weren’t any track separators on the CD, so it was one long continuous mix, and I found that kind of annoying. However, it is a wonderfully produced mix of all Tubbs own tracks, and whilst with other producers this may falter in a similar mix at some point, the tunes on this album are so bouncy and funky that nothing feels forced or out of step with the overall vibe of the album. All the tracks are excellent, but stand outs are Gangsters and Slap the Bass, with their old school synths and massive dancefloor hooks.

However, one problem I do have is I can’t help but to think that other people won’t get as much from it as I did. Although each track is wonderfully arranged and produced, and as groovy as all hell, people who might not understand the retro-roots of the album may dismiss this as simply a cheesy knock off of Fatboy Slim, without giving it a serious go. I’m sure that individually, each track stands up well, but as I only received the mix CD I can’t really give a fair review of that aspect of the album.

Event, inthemix.com.au, Review, Writing

Cut Le Rock @ Minke

Leave a comment

Getting to Minke at our usual time of “last bus into town”, I was disappointed to see a small turn out of maybe a hundred people spread between the two levels. Then again, with Dave Seaman playing Traffic on the same night, and Clash of the Titans on Saturday, I wasn’t surprised. Breaks is, after all, an emerging scene here, and the vibe of the place reminded me a lot of the early dnb shows – most of the people there at that early stage in the evening were either industry, or friend of the DJs. However, like the early dnb shows, the DJs played as if to 5000 people, as Skywalker and Jayar kept those few that were dancing on the floor for the majority of their sets, playing a mixed bag of funky and tech breaks, building up the party vibe as a few more people wandered in.

Journeying downstairs, the mood was more relaxed, as Denorthwode played popular hiphop to a chilled crowd. Whist it was nice, I was up for more up tempo music, so we travelled upstairs again, to be greeted the splendid sounds of Stephen King, who decided to entertain us all with a set of old school breaks. Playing such gems as Herbie Handcocks’ Rockit and Coldcut’s wonderful remix of Paid in Full, he enticed the growing crowd out onto the floor. Wanting to stay for a while as his tune selection was wonderful, and his mixing superb, he had to compete with the Beat Smugglers downstairs, which was unfortunate, as they won my interest, and we headed down again.

The Beat Smugglers, if you haven’t seen them, are simply amazing. A funk band with a dance mentality, these guys know how to put on a show. Even with one man down for half their act, they still managed to get the now packed place jumping, rocking with their not-so-unique but ever-so-funky blend of funk and hiphop music. When Kim Dezen arrived after his Wozone appearance, he took the band up another level, scratching superbly over their infectious beats, and not a head in the place was still. Thinking Cut Le Rock was on at 2:30, we trudged upstairs again. To our surprise, he hadn’t started, and he didn’t start until 3, which kinda annoyed me as I would have liked to see more of the Beat Smugglers. I dashed downstairs, and missed their last tune, started chatting to a few people, then dashed back upstairs.

By this time the place was nicely filled with about 400 people (but I’m bad at judging crowds), reminding me further of the early dnb scene, as no one would go out until the main act would come on, then there’d be millions of people. As Cut Le Rock had already started I manoeuvred my way to the front to get a close look. Cut Le Rock has been on my “must see” list for about 5 years now, and it was well worth the wait, as he put on a show that simply blew the place up, quite literally. His scratching was simply amazing. He was responsible for guiding the Scratch Perverts away from technical showmanship to be more dancefloor orientated, and, as with them, it shows true turntable skillmanship to be able to mix so well, and keep the dancefloor moving. His track selection was quite a surprise, being all mainly bigbeat, playing such artists as Fat Boy Slim, FreeStylers, and of course dropping a few of his own tracks to boot! Whoever said Bigbeat was dead has not seen Cut Le Rock.

More surprising was the fact that the crowd appeared to lap it up. People were jumping about and cheering as he dropped track after track of happy, funky party music. I’m sure that both he and the crowd could have kept going all night, but unfortunately the wonderful BOSE sound system there has a fatal flaw in that if the computer overheats, the sound dies, as it appeared to do around about 4:15. They played around with it for a while, but to me it looked like they wouldn’t have it fixed quickly, which was a real pity, because everyone was enjoying it immensely up until that point. Why they didn’t move Cut Le Rock immediately downstairs is a mystery, as I’m sure a lot of people, like us, took their cue to leave at that time.

This night reinforced my view that breaks is a growing scene that needs more class acts like Cut Le Rock to come and absolutely rock Adelaide to its foundations at ALL types of shows, not just clubs. The skillmanship and professionalism in the face of a technical breakdown was a joy to behold, unlike other DJ’s who have hissy fits and swear never to come back. He took it firmly in his stride, assisted where he could, and chatted to fans and let people take photos with a laugh and a smile that is refreshing to see from an international DJ. I for one can’t wait to see him again, and suggest that you do too.