Archive for ‘Reviews’

September 7, 2015

Pixies Tracks Of The Week @officialAvelino @Bonkaz @lilnastyuk @iAmShakka @JMEBBK @SectionBoyz_ @DevlinOfficial

Bonkaz & Avelino – Shine

Bonkaz and Avelino have generated a lot of heat in the music world this year with their releases individually. The two new generation artists are serious ones to watch and if you haven’t taken note already, do now! The track shows off both of their hard, lyrical ability as they go back to back effortlessly over an Acekeyz produced hip hop beat.

Lil Nasty – Regardless

East London Grime MC Lil Nasty has dropped quite a lot of new music this year keeping the heat on his name. He continues to bring the fire after the release of mixtape ‘100 Rounds’ this summer with new single ‘Regardless’, which is produced by another big name in Grime Sir Spryo. Nasty goes in on this track where he talks about making it ‘Regardless’ in music, it’s a kind of self motivational track.

 

Shakka & JME – Say Nada

A song about a break-up joins singer/songwriter Shakka with Boy Better Know’s JME. Shakka shows conflicting emotion in this song where he talks about finding a freak who likes ‘tasty meat’, whilst on the flip side dealing with the heartbreak alone on his house. This is his first single to be released via label Pitched Up who he has just signed with, and will be on his third forthcoming EP ‘Lost Boys’.

Section Boyz – Lock Arff

London based rap crew Section Boyz who this year have created a big name for themselves, and will continue to rise drop a brand new video for single ‘Lock Arff’. The menacing lyrics and delivery from the crew are carried over a threatening bass led production. They have established themselves through their unique flows and rhymes, and are gearing up for the release of their debut album ‘Don’t Panic’ out September 18th.

Term & Rachet ft. Devlin – Corned Beef City

Old skool Grime MC Devlin is back with brand new track ‘Corned Beef City’ with producers Term & Rachet. He delivers intense bars over the heavy production. We haven’t heard that much from Devlin recently, and it seems the reason why is because the producers are working with Devlin on his third studio album. That is definitely something to look forward too!

 

September 5, 2015

Found Present: Ceremony Festival 2015 [News]

Ceremony Festival will be closing festival season 2015 for London this Summer. Taking to Finsbury Park in London on Saturday 12th September. Still a baby festival, returning for it’s second year this year, it will bring past, present and future dance music artists together. Part of the Found series, who this Summer have given us four great festivals including Born & Bred, 51st State and the forthcoming United on the 13th September along with Ceremony.

Made up of an amalgamation of seven arena’s with international and homegrown UK sounds that have played an essential role in British club culture. Over 50 artists will touchdown on Saturday to play music from Grime to House to Club Classics and Hip Hop, this festival has something from everyone. I’m looking forward to catching a lot of the Grime acts over on the Tropical stage such as Boy Better Know’s Skepta & JME, brothers Preditah & C4 and Slimzee as well as Todd Edwards, DJ Marky and Plastician

There are some final release tickets left, so grab them while you have the chance!

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http://www.ceremonyfestival.com/

Date: Saturday 12th September

Location: Finsbury Park

Tickets: Final release @ £40 VIP Second Release @ £45

September 3, 2015

Sunday Review: Reading Festival 2015 [Review} (@OfficialRandL)

Sunday feeling a little bit tired after sleeping in a tent we awoke and livened ourselves up hoping to catch The Skints with Grime MC Rival, which unfortunately we missed.

Walking past the BBC Radio 1 Dance Tent I was enticed in by some banging tunes played by 99 Souls who I’m ashamed to say I’d never heard of before, but this is what I love about festivals finding new artists! The DJ’s got me raving as soon as I stepped into the festival!

I headed over to the 1Xtra Stage next to catch Isaiah Dreads. The young, West Country, Grime MC who pulled in a decent crowd even though it was early and had people singing along to his lyrics which included ‘Wait For Me’ off his recently released mixtape. You could see he had impressed crowd, some who hadn’t heard of him before too.

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Fekky was the next live artist we chose to see. His live performances always win over more fans for him. He set the stage alight more than I’d ever seen before, with pure energy and charisma. Performing tracks such as ‘Still Sittin Here’ ‘Way Too Much’ ‘Hot Boy’ and more he sprayed water over the crowd and handed out plastic cups filled with champagne. His two surprise guests brought a huge buzz especially when General Levy came out performing ‘Incredible’ and fellow South London don Sneakbo who performed ‘The Wave’.

Taking some chill out time we headed to the NME/BBC Radio 1 Stage to watch a band completely unheard of to our ears; Glass Animals and yet again they won us round. It’s amazing what listening to a band live can do and how it can change your perception. I really would advise checking them out as they blend R&B, soul, hip hop and indie.

Next up was Young Thug the American rapper who made his debut appearance in the UK at Reading Festival and what a chaos he caused over in 1Xtra. He certainly made an impression on festival goers with his incredible energy and stage presence, showering fans with water who knew every words of his lyrics.

Excitedly rushing over to the NME/BBC Radio 1 stage I knew I had to catch Jamie XX live and in all his glory. The DJ literally left me in awe and dancing for the 30 minutes I witnessed of his hour set. The atmosphere of the crowd was pure entrancement. This set was definitely another favourite of the weekend, and one I had never witnessed before.

I caught some of South London’s Stormzy set over at 1Xtra. He played again to a full house where the energy was high performing hit ‘Not That Deep’, ‘Shut Up’ and more, bouncing all over the stage with the vigor transferring to the crowd. Krept & Konan were next up on 1Xtra and they drew even more of a crowd performing tracks from mixtape ‘Young Kingz’ such as ‘MDMA’ and ‘Don’t Waste My Time’ and also tracks from their new album ‘The Long Way Home’ such as ‘Freak Of The Week’. The South Londoner’s also shut down their performance bringing mad energy and special guest Yungen on with them.

West Coast, American rapper Kendrick Lemar was up next on the main stage where he brought the mood up and down performing hits from his album ‘To Pimp A Butterfly’ and ‘Good Kid M.A.A.D City’ such as ‘Bitch Don’t Kill My Vibe’, ‘Swimming Pools’ and more. He showed Reading why he deserves his mainstream success as he lit up the stage.

The next two artists I wanted to watch were luckily at the same stage (BBC Radio 1 Dance) and finished off the Sunday night perfectly for me. Hudson Mowhake was first and warmed me up nicely for the headline act over at the dance stage BBK. Hudson Mowhake shone with his amazing productions mixing hip hop, soul and electronic and I was amazed to be in his presence while he stood on stage.

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The Dance tent suddenly became more and more packed as it seemed like the whole of Reading Festival had come to watch Boy Better Know for their hour set with Frisco coming on stage first, followed by Jammer and then the rest of the crew through from Shorty to Skepta, JME, Maximum and Solo 45. They performed a whole host of tracks such as Frisco’s collaborative ‘Walking With The Elephants’ with Shakka, ‘Shaky’, ‘Too Many Men’, ‘That’s Not Me’ ‘It Ain’t Safe’ and ended with ‘Shutdown’. They showed Reading why Grime will always live on and why they are the Grime Kings.

September 3, 2015

Saturday Review: Reading Festival 2015 [Review] (@OfficialRandL)

Arriving on Saturday at Reading Festival and setting up my tent for the next few days we headed straight to the press tent to see the line-up and times for the day. Deciding to catch Dimension and Kove’s set on the BBC Radio 1 Dance Stage first was a brilliant decision and really hyped us up for the rest of the day. They started the set with some heavy drum & bass tracks then leading into some lighter house tracks also playing their collaborative track ‘Feel Love Again’.

Next up was the 1Xtra tent to catch the hypest Grime MC Tempa T who performed a intense set to a packed tent, we could barely squeeze in so unfortunately had to watch from the outside. We hurried back to the dance tent to catch Secondcity who played their hit single ‘I Wanna Feel’ and got the crowd moving and ready for the evening.

I’d heard a lot about Royal Blood, but hadn’t really listened to a lot of their music, so now was the time as they were up next on the Main Stage. I was pleasantly surprised to find how much I enjoyed their music. They were definitely one of the stand out performances for me over the 2 days I was at Reading. Their performance was simply stunning and I felt the bass shudder through me. Mike & Ben have won a new fan.

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Ms Dynamite is someone I’ve watched perform many times live, but never fails to disappoint, so over to the 1Xtra stage it was. The atmosphere in the crowd was electric and was dancing from start to finish while she performed tracks such as ‘Dibby Dibby Sound’, and ‘Wile Out’.

Veteran hip hop DJ Semtex took over from Ms Dynamite on the decks spinning old and new hip hop tracks for an hour before the illustrious Lethal Bizzle took to the stage. The 1Xtra tent slowly got more and more busy before Bizzle’s set and was overflowing to the outside. The more brave took to the centre where the mosh pits were going to start especially crazy when he performed hit single ‘Pow’. The Grime MC also performed recent hits ‘Fester Skank’ and ‘Rari Workout’.

Headlining the main stage were Metallica the famous rock bank who burned bright and kept festival goers entertained and happy even watching them under the rain. They kept their status strong at Reading as one of the most powerful live bands and I was stunned as I watched them. Towards the end of their set they let out giant inflatable balloons in the crowd showing their playful side. This is a performance I won’t ever forget.

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Last but not least I headed to the NME/ BBC Radio 1 Stage to catch Rebel Sound who are made up of three generations of DJ’s; Sir David Rodigan, Digital Soundboy’s Shy FX and Chase & Status who played to a full tent dubplates, reggae and jungle tunes which left Reading on a high on Saturday night.

September 2, 2015

Pixies Tracks Of The Week @LadyLykez @CourtneyLDN @JammerBBK @AR15UK @JusRival

Lady Lykez – Chat To Your Man

Lady Lykez the cheeky female MC drops another fun and serious track at the same time, with a lyrical onslaught but with a positive message at it’s core. The dynamic Lykez is one of the only artists who can convey a strong message and still keep it light-hearted. She tells a story of different women all involved with the same man, she tells them they shouldn’t be fighting with each other but should be joining together. Lykez will be clashing Sox on Lord Of The Mics this month at the live show, 23rd of September at 02 Islington Academy so make sure you catch her down there!

Courtney Bennett – Motives

Courtney Bennett released the audio to her debut, self-penned single ‘Motives’ off her forthcoming EP ‘HE(art) Dealer’. The singer/songwriter/rapper has built her name in music circles and has fans in artists such as Jhene Aiko, M.I.A, Big Sean, Missy Elliot, Erykah Badu and Raekwon already. She found her Youtube presence growing after covering and interpreting classic and modern hits and now has a following with over 5 million hit and 60,000 subscribers! Listen to the futuristic synths with Courtney’s elegant tone on ‘Motives’.

Jammer – Royal Rumble

Boy Better Know’s Jammer has brought the old skool Grime vibe officially back with new track ‘Royal Rumble’, which captures what Grime was about in it’s origins with some of the scene’s most legendary MC’s; Jammer, D Double E, Footsie, Lethal B, Hype, Blacks, Jendort, Shorty, Bruza, Ears, Face and Royal. Produced by Mystry the MC’s go in hard with 13 straight back to back pure, hype, unadulterated bars. The track was created in celebration of 10 years of Lord Of The Mics and has definitely done it justice to the fullest.

AR15 Presents Can’t See Me Again ft Skepta, Bashy & Kano

The biggest rap album to ever be seen or heard out of the UK dropped last Friday 28th August on iTunes. AR15 Presents ‘Concrete Jungle’ sees over 50 of the cream of the crop of UK rappers from Grime and UK rap team up for 16 exclusive tracks and unseen collabs. ‘Can’t See Me Again’ the latest track off of the mixtape sees three Grime originators come together to exchange verses about their lives, the changes, letting go of the past and moving on for the better.

Rival – Victory Interlude

East London Grime MC Rival has dropped another winning track ahead of his debut album release.  He connects well with the down tempo, CRT produced track and talks about never giving up and how he is so close to making it. This won’t be on the album, but it’s definitely warming us up for it!

 

August 7, 2015

Review: Eastern Electrics 2015

Eastern Electrics in its 8th year and it came back bigger and better to impressing with its electronic beats and accessibility for London residents as it’s just a short ride away from Central London. On the grounds of Hatfield House, which is due to turn into one the UK’s premier dance festivals in years to come. The one-day event sold out with ease with 12,000 people swarming to Hatfield from 12-10pm for a day of sunshine, tunes, rides, drinking and most importantly raving.

We started off watching Crazy P DJ at Gloria’s stage after finding our bearings they had the crowd feeling light with their easy listening electronic sounds, mixing disco and dance. We then headed to the new Forest Stage which was the Black Butter Records Stage to see standout DJ/producer, Mele had his moment at the festival. He has become a fast favourite due to his mixing and wide track selection, which demonstrated at EE.

The Skreamizm stage was the next to watch with one of our favourite DJ’s Boddika who had an hour and a half long set, enough to showcase his  skills and understanding of music playing everything from house to D&B and electro. We then had a chill out period in the garden area where they had the Sexy Kitchen men DJing which was pretty hilarious, playing some old skool hip hop with the host gyrating around the stage.

Back to Black Butter to catch My Nu Leng, a duo who I listen to a lot who have produced for the likes of Newham Generals and remixed for Clean Bandit, Naughty Boy and more. They played a bass heavy set and were my favourites of the festival, mixing dubstep, grime and more playing tracks like Solo 45’s “Feed Em To The Lions”.

Unfortunately the BB Records Stage started to become very, very busy during My Nu Leng, so busy you could barely move so we moved on  after 40 mins or so, and as DJ EZ came on after about 10 mins later the stage had to be shut down due to overcrowding. We headed to the EE Pub to watch Mike Skinner and he wasn’t there and I was told by a bouncer he was on site, returning in the last 20 minutes of his set he still hadn’t turned up. I had wanted to watch him and it was a shame two headliners didn’t deliver their sets.

Skream the main man behind the Skreamizm stage did deliver a class set as always mixing deep, dubby, bassy sounds with some disco. I knew Skream wouldn’t let us down and he ended the festival on a high for everyone watching him!

August 3, 2015

Pixies Tracks Of The Week @SCRUFIZZER @MrMiniUK @OfficialChip @Nines1Ace @TriggaSDC @ChimpoMCR

Scrufizzer & Mr Mini – Conquering

This is the one for the Grime heads as West London’s Scrufizzer and South London rapper Mr Mini collaborate on new track “Conquering”. They have previously worked together on a few tracks, and their sounds gel really well together ,with Mr Mini lending his more relaxed bars on the chorus to Scrufizzer’s fast-paced ones giving it an equal balance.

Chip ft. Wiley & Frisco – My Bruddaz

When three hard lyricists in Grime link up teamed with a Rapid (Ruff Sqwad) trademark production, it can only mean straight fire. Chip has been releasing a good amount of music recently, keeping the quality of it high, and new track “My Bruddaz” is no exception. Showing love to their close friends who they class as their brothers, this is a good vibe track with lots of energy.

Nines ft. Scrapz & Fatz – Ice City

Church Road rapper Nines is one of the UK’s most promising and underrated rappers in the UK, so it’s always due to be a banger when he drops a track. The track “Ice City” pays homage to the crew they are in of the same name, with the three laying down some hard-hitting, truthful bars about their lives and thoughts.

Trigga x Chimpo x Sam Binga – Who Run Tingz

Manchester native’s Trigga and Chimpo alongside Bristol’s Sam Binga have joined together for “Who Run Tingz” which is due for release August 8 on Toddla T’’s label Girls Music. It’s dark beat that combines Grim, Crunk and Dancehall from the 2 producers is turned energetic with Trigga’s lyrics with a gangster vibe – the essence of the Shadow sound.

 

 

July 29, 2015

Bugzy Malone @ 02 Islington Academy [Review] @TheBugzyMalone

Manchester wordsmith Bugzy Malone played a sold out show at the 02 Islington Academy on Tuesday 28th August. He’s had a fantastic week with the release of his EP ‘Walk With Me’ reaching No.6 in the national album charts, along with the sold out show.

Hosted by Charlie Sloth who has been supporting the artist on his BBC Radio 1 & 1Xtra show heavily, where Bugzy also hit the radio presenter’s infamous Fire In The Booth freestyle series. It was evident that Charlie along with other faces in the crowd such as Kiss 100 DJ Logan Sama and A&R Benny Scars also have faith in the 0161 artist.

Arriving at 9pm just as Bugzy hit the stage, I unfortunately had missed warm-up acts such as Potter Payper. The Mancunian Grime star brought a strong energy with him, bouncing around as he delivered his first lyrics to the captivated crowd.

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Bugzy repeatedly got the crowd shouting “0161 Manny on the map”, as he moved from track to track such as ‘M.E.N’ a more personal track off the EP. He quickly began with one of his older tracks with an aggressive, delivery. He performed his Fire In The Booth which fans were eager to hear live and they spat the lyrics along with him.

As he moved to a track close to his heart about a family member passing, his storytelling technique in his rhymes really shone through, and his manner and attitude softened. He asked the crowd to put lights on their phones or with lighters and turned the stage lights off so he was barely seen and the audience was lit up as a mark of respect.

As he swiftly brought the energy back up, moving onto a track from his EP produced by Rude Kid ‘Watch Your Mouth’, which saw the MC return to his more passionate, powerful and lively state.

He controlled the crowd like only a true star can, getting them involved and bringing a quality stage presence. He truly had them walking with him as they knew every word to his lyrics and were like his soldiers. Bugzy Malone is the next Grime artist to blow so keep your eyes peeled on him!

July 27, 2015

Pixies Tracks Of The Week @JusRival @SOLARGE_E300 @officialAvelino @Espa @MyNuLeng @NewhamGenerals @BladeMusic

Rival x So Large – Voices

East London MC, Rival has been on the road recently touring with Ghetts and The Skints in doing so has been busy and making his presence known. He’s joined forces with fellow East London’s So Large for “Voices”, with them both exchanging hot verses. They deliver fiery bars with energy over a heavyweight, vocal-led instrumental from Rude Kid. This is definitely one of my favourite grime tracks of the year.

Avelino – Money Over Everything

North London’s Avelino is destined for big things in the world of UK rap, which is currently at it’s healthiest stage ever. His music sees reflective lyrics, joined with experimental and often melodic productions. For his new track “Money Over Everything” which samples Wretch 32’s famous F64, Avelino tells Complex UK “It’s sick to have him jump on the tune, as well. ‘M.O.E’ is a song that, hopefully, you can turn up to but lyrically, it’s me admitting that I’m aware of our ignorance but it’s just the way it is .”

Espa – Pray For Me [My Nu Leng Remix]

Espa dropped her “Pray For Me” track back in May which saw the London singer show a vulnerability to her, over a garage beat reminiscent of from the 90’s. Now production duo My Nu Leng have given it the remix treatment taking it down a darker, bass heavy route.

Newham Generals ft Wiley – Scars

Footsie released his Scars EP via Butterz on vinyl earlier this year with the track originally being released in 2005 The classic Grime tune has now been given visuals, fitting the era it was originally made in, with memorabilia such as RWD magazine covers, Nokia 7600s, Lord OF The Decks DVDs and more. With bars from Newham Generals and Wiley this is one to keep in your music catalogue forever.

Blade Brown ft. Tigger Da Author – Drug Dealer

Blade Brown certainly did it big for his “Drug Dealer” video which is a favourite track amongst his fans off his Bags & Boxes 3 mixtape. Shooting the video in LA, we see Blade Brown with a luxurious car on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, also hitting the beach with his lady. See you can spot in the video as it includes celebrities such as Floyd Mayweather.

 

July 22, 2015

Massis Grill & Bar [Food Review] @MassisLebanese

Venturing out on a Saturday evening for dinner can sometimes be hard when you haven’t booked anywhere and haven’t got the faintest idea of what you fancy eating as a group of friends. Deciding to meet in Maida Vale to walk along Little Venice, an area none of us had been out too a lot before, we came across a lovely looking restaurant with a nice ambience just off the river in Sheldon Square.

Starving we sat down at Massis Lebanese, a grill and bar. With it being a nice Summer’s day it had enough tables outside so this is where we asked the waiter to sit. The smell of shisha from other customers brought a nice aroma to the air surrounding us, with a DJ positioned outside just by the doors.

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The cocktail menu that we looked at first, delivered a warming mixture of fruit and alcohol, sounding delicious and I was hoping they tasted as good. I was stuck between the pomegranate martini with fresh pomegranate and shaken with grenadine, vodka, lime and Chambord, the pine & passion which mixed fresh pineapple and passion fruit with Havana 3 and coconut and lime or the apple and cinnamon bellini. I chose the martini, the flavours blended together perfectly and it wasn’t too overbearingly sweet and went down a treat with my food!

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For the food we decided to pick a dish each and share a starter. One of my friends went for the Hummus Shawarma with lamb which came first and I had a taste of. The hummus was nothing to write home about, but the Lamb Shawarma tasted fresh and the edges were perfectly crispy with the middle being soft and tender, how it should be!

My other friend and I chose a starter to share and a main each. We went for one of my favourite Lebanese starters; the Sujuk which are spicy Armenian lamb sausages pan fried with cherry tomatoes and once we squeezed some lemon on it were good to go. Fried nicely, the sausages have a strong flavour, where you can taste the spices and spiciness of them.

My friend chose for her main a stew she normally has home-cooked called Bamia. This is a traditional stew with okra in tomato sauce with lamb and vermicelli rice. I guess you can’t ever get it cooked better than a good home-cooked one and but she did say it was nice!

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I opted for a safe option of a Kafta which is skewers of charcoal grilled ground lamb finely spiced. I ordered a side of vermicelli rice to go with it, although the waiter kept bringing bread and I had 3 skewers when it came so it was a large portion. I was disappointed that the salad it came with was literally just red cabbage, they could have made an effort to put lettuce some onions and tomatoes in it. The Kafta was cooked perfectly and was the meat was juicy and spiced enough.

They gave us lovely pastries afterwards as a complement and to be honest these were the nicest Lebanese sweets I have had ever. I’m not big into desserts but I couldn’t stop eating these!

Where To Find:

Paddington Central, 9 Sheldon Square, London W2 6HY   020 7286 8000   www.massis.co.uk