Mixed Live by EZ - Pure Garage << Rewind << Back to the Old Skool

As one of the original pioneers of garage, DJ EZ is more than qualified for the mission in hand. With Pure Garage... he has managed to pull together a defintive collection of the greatest tunes the garage scene has to offer with old skool tunes to get the memory full-on jogged and reminiscing with no less than four CDs jam packed full of total floorfillers. There are some welcome familiar faces which haven't been seen for a while, such as So Solid Crew and Artful Dodger as well as people like Craig David and Skepta who are currently assaulting the airwaves with new material. There's something for everyone with number one hits, 2 step beats, underground bombshells and female vocal flourishes. On the bonus CD we're provided with some welcome nu skool garage and bassline house anthems, whilst classics of the genre such as Sweet Female Attitude's 'Flowers', Sia's 'Little Man', and The Wideboys Feat. Dennis G's 'Sambuca' ensure that this scene is definitely worthy of the big fat rewind it's been given. As DJ Pied Piper and The Masters of Ceremonies said: "We're lovin' it, lovin' it, lovin' it"!


Label: Warner Music TV
Release Date: Out Now
Genre: Garage

DT8 Project AKA Darren Tate Interview

Perfect Sunbathing Sounds

Give us a quick explanation of your sound.
The fundamental sonic element that links all DT8 Project records together is chords. It really is about music that's genuinely uplifting and songs that are thought provoking. The actual production is quite varied, and although it does focus primarily on dance it covers all aspects, be it breakbeat, chill-out, ambient, house, trance and even some rock.

Describe the first time you heard one of your tunes on the radio.
I remember it very clearly. I had just had a night out with some friends and we went to a club to hear the record being played out the first time. It wasn't, which was disappointing. However, on the taxi journey home it came on! It was a tremendous feeling and even now it's still exciting to hear records played on radio.

Why did you decide to call the album Perfect World?
There are two reasons really. Obviously there is a track on the album called 'Perfect World', but I felt that the title sums up other aspects of the album as well, such as the feeling of well-being one gets (hopefully) listening through to it.

Describe the perfect setting to listen to the album in.
An isolated beach, sun out, shades on, cocktail in one hand. Should do the trick.

Gavin Rossdale's a bit of an unusual choice for a collaboration, explain.
Gavin heard an early version of one of the songs years ago through a friend – Sacha Putnam (who played bass with him in Bush). Gavin really liked the record and offered up some vocal to be used for whatever I fancied and thus 'Falling' was born.

What surprises have you got planned for the gig at Koko?
Well I've recently finished upgrading my studio and the result has been truly amazing. A few new special records should certainly be cropping up.

Words: Naomi Misquita-Rice

The Used - Pretty Handsome Awkward

Utah based post-hardcore quartet The Used blast back onto our airwaves with new single Pretty Handsome Awkward. The song begins with dumbed down fuzzy guitars and simple echoing drum beats sounding like early Rage Against the Machine offerings such as Freedom (from their self-titled debut album). The song quickly thrashes into a full-on assault with heavy rhythmic guitars and drums alongside melodic vocals which are even more catchy than hospital bacterial ‘superbug’ MRSA.

Pretty Handsome Awkward debuted at number five in the US charts and has been hailed as their best work to date. The single definitely marks a new, more accessible direction for the band with the polished sound easily making them eligible for mainstream radio play. The screamo vocals, reminiscent of Lostprophet Ian Watkins, and the waves of euphonious sound which wash over you, will translate well to such an environment. The entirety of the song is made up of one long chorus so there’ll no doubt be people picking up the lyrics sharpish and humming along to the tune with enthusiasm.

The inclusion of repeated anthemic chants of "yeah" towards its ending seals the sure-fire-hit-status deal. This is one the fans may not be so fond of due to the more mainstream positioning of the song. However, for everyone else, it’s a cheeky little rockin’ treat.




Label: Reprise
Release: 03.09.2007
Live date: 28.11.2007 Brixton Academy, London

Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip Interview

Consisting of one part laptop wizard, one part performance poet, Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip are currently cooking up a juicy medley of treats with their refreshingly imaginative take on breakbeat. hip hop and electronic sound. Surrounded by an aura of excitable anticipation after the huge underground success of marmite tinged début single 'Thou Shalt Always Kill' and a headline tour already in full swing, we talked props, costume changes and new releases.

The newest offering, 'The Beat That My Heart Skipped', is a four minute aural assault fusing simple guitar strumming, bop-along heartbeats and nimble lyrical wanderings about the artificial nature of meeting someone in a bar and becoming infatuated by them. Pip's lyrics verge on observational realism à la Mike Skinner but are infinitely more intellectually arousing, drawing inspiration from poetry and spoken word artistes. Pip notes, " Often I’ll write a lot of little lines over a month or so and then kind of tie them all together...I like to tell stories from other peoples' points of view but then also obviously sandwich in and draw from my own experiences."

Pip explains that the pair work completely independently of one another "which is one of the reasons we’ve maintained the ‘Vs’ in our name because it is very much two separate acts working together to make something. We feel that we manage to keep our two identities...but it just happens to sit together nicely and make something."

They've been letting the creative juices flow for a while now and Dan Le Sac reckons the new album is almost finished, "We've pretty much written it and because of the way we work the writing is a lot of the recording so all that we've gotta do now is just get into the studio, re-record all Pip's vocals so that you can actually hear him, cause some of them sound like he's under water. He records all his vocals in his bedroom on like a four-track thing so you can often hear his mum hoovering or whatever." Apparently the album will be a melting pot of randomness with a country tune and a song about Tommy Cooper. They plan to get into the studio in October to wipe out Pip's mum's input which means the album should be sorted, minus housework samples, early 2008.

But we want some of the new stuff now! Having already embarked on a UK headline tour, electronic maestro Dan Le Sac assures us, "We're pretty much playing ninety percent of what might end up on the album." And, there are even more surprises in store for us, "Pip's got a few costume changes and this big bible that he made that looks quite cool with us on the front that he uses during 'Thou Shalt...' and just various little bits and bobs to make it a little bit more interesting to look at. I think after we've done the tour and got the album out we're gonna put a lot of time into the theatrics of the show." At some point we can expect a lot more optical pleasure and some projected visuals thrown in for good measure.

What about preparation for the live performances? "We, nine times out of ten go, 'Oh we haven't got a set list, what do you wanna play?'...There’s me stressing and Pip just trying not to look like he’s stressing". As long as they don't forget the lyrics...

To finish off, Dan ponders, "Every time we do something else it seems to be an achievement in itself. Like going on tour is an achievement for us...we’re gonna sell out The Scala at the end of the month, you know, that’s an achievement. It is just the growth of what we’ve done. So every time we go somewhere new we’re always surprised by the amount of people who actually turn up."

It looks like these guys are in for an exciting ride.

InMe @ Koko, September 19, 2007

Essex boy nu metallers InMe head to Koko tonight for the fifth date of their UK headline comeback tour. Mostly known for their more restrained teenage sound, they've come back with a new, more mature and heavier vibe which, it seems, they hope will gain them more respect in the notoriously unforgiving land of metal fanatics.

As the band prepare to take to the stage it looks set to be a corker of a comeback. Loads of flashing lights consume the stage and there's a big cinematic blast of operatic sound. All eyes are fixed on the stage as the band walk out in a rather sheepish manner. They've been away for a long time and nerves seem to have gotten the better of them. Koko is awash with what can only be described as the contents of a school disco crowd tonight, so their hopes of appealing to a more mature set don't look likely to be fulfilled.

The set itself is mediocre – they pump out tune after tune from new album Daydream Anonymous which the crowd enjoy to an extent but it's painfully obvious that they're all waiting to hear some of the older hits. The new direction is much more technical, with loads of self-indulgent guitar riffage and a bigger, more full-on, textured hardcore sound.

Disappointingly, the band only play a couple of the classics, including 'Underdose'. This tune is received with the most enthusiasm we see all evening with people bouncing their little butts around the dance-floor and laying into one another like rabid dogs.

Throughout the show frontman Dave McPherson appeals to the crowd to step up their game, for the most part, to no avail. It's actually quite uncomfortable to watch the desperation he displays with these requests. A last ditch attempt sees him splitting the crowd down the middle to form a Wall of Death. Some brutal craziness ensues but quickly the atmosphere lulls back to a more restarained climate.

Maybe the kids just aren't in the mood to party tonight, or maybe they just don't 'get' the new sound. Either way, the band have a lot more work to do to regain the loyal fanbase they once had. Unfortunately, more Kevin and Perry than Dimebag Darrell.

Words: Naomi Misquita-Rice

Foals Interview

Wanna Be in Our Gang?

Geeky gang of five, Foals like to think of themselves and their entourage as one big extended family who openly communicate with their fans through their art. For their upcoming tour they're bringing loads of the clan from back home along for support and general partying. We spoke to front-man Yannis Philippakis about what makes for the best live gig, the new direction they're taking, gang mentality and, er, shooting each other...

You've got a new album lined up, produced by the infamous Dave Sitek, tell us a bit about it.
He's [Dave Sitek] fucking amazing! ... In my mind he's somebody that really produces your record in the sense that recording with him is like putting all your songs through some sort of effect pedal...he just does wild stuff!...We recorded drums out in alleyways in Brooklyn...it's an intense cool experience with him ... The record's got a really afro beat feel to it and we used a lot of brass musicians on it, it's got a warm feeing to the record...There's only one synth on the whole record, everything else is on piano. It's got a slightly more classic feel to it I guess.

Which elements make for the perfect gig?
It's basically 90% the crowd. We could play anywhere and if the people there are receptive and they're not too cool for school, then we enjoy playing anywhere ... it's not like we particularly relish in the idea of playing big venues where you have two metres in between you and the crowd ... that's the kind of stuff that starts to dilute the experience of what live music should be about ... We never walk off and go...'Good lick on song two man', we'll only ever come off and go, 'Fuck, that crowd was wicked!' ... I think what makes the perfect show is a good crowd and a lack of interference between us and the crowd.

Who's supporting?
It's cool 'cause we got to pick our friends to come on tour with us as well this time ... it's nice that we got to bring some of our crew along. We've got Metronomy and a band called Great Eskimo Hoax ... the whole kind of thing with our band is that we have a big family, we've got the same guy that does all our artwork and everything's very much in our very tight-knit group ... It's like a big kind of extended hip hop family – it's like bringing the hip hop mentality to indie, without the bling. We've got more weapons though!

Do you have any surprises planned for your forthcoming tour?
Yeah we'll probably just pull a load of guns out and just start shooting each other or something. Maybe throw some Roman toga theme parties or maybe some people will clap when we play some songs.

Shake, Rattle and Bowl @ Bloomsbury Bowling 03/03/07

A Saturday night out bowling wouldn’t usually be my cup of tea. The prospect of hanging out with a bunch of frustrated fourteen year old chavs and rude boys arguing over who’s got dibs on the Britney clone in the adjacent aisle or how to dupe the bartender into believing they’re old enough to buy a round of Bacardi Breezer's doesn’t fill me with feelings of utter glee, to say the least. However, as soon as I arrived at the entrance to this relatively new venue I could tell that I was in for a treat, something a bit more special than the stereotypical night out I’d associate with that of the pram-face brigade.

To begin with, like the organised(!) person that I am, I managed to arrange a guest list. (Mainly because I’m a cheapskate and the opportunity to get £2 off the entry price made me feel as though I was somehow ‘doing over’ The System, or something). We arrived pretty early and breezed straight to the front of the queue. As we walked down to the main part of the venue we passed through the small cinema-esque room on which the modestly sized screen was playing an old-skool teen flick, Revenge of the Nerds. The main room was dressed up 50’s décor stylee, like those American diner types you see in films. It was already seriously packed and all my best intentions of arriving early to secure bowling lanes quickly flew out the window.




A quick look around confirmed that Bloomsbury Bowling is a comfortable size, enough room to explore but not so big that if you lose your mates there’s no hope of finding them again without putting out an embarrassing message over some dodgy tannoy system. There’s a separate dining area where they serve mini hamburgers and other typical American fayre, which, I have to admit, actually did look tasty and was reasonably priced. There is plenty of seating, quite a few bowling lanes, some pool, a large horseshoe shaped bar, good sized dance-floor aaand, get this, karaoke booths for all you budding young popstars out there to strut your vocal skills.

The crowd was a pretty eclectic mix, some dressed up in 50’s and 60’s clothes, teddy boys and rockabilly chicks amongst those in their standard jeans and T’s (I opted for the 50’s granny-chic look). There was a good spread of ages present too, but luckily none of those annoying teenage ASBO types – god now I sound like one of those perturbed Tunbridge Wells housewives with nothing better to do than write letters of complaint to the BBC about the inclusion of swear words in their programming before the watershed…

I had a little giggle peeking through the window of one of the karaoke booths to watch a group of drunken happy people prancing around and generally enjoying a sing-along, scowled jealously at the early-birds who actually got their butts into gear to book bowling lanes in advance and generally had a good boogey on down to some classics from the ‘good old days’.

This venue has been hailed as one of the new places to be seen on a Saturday night. There is such a variety of things to do and it makes a nice change to hanging out in just another shady drinking hole. The music was wide ranging, including some classic 50’s and 60’s, some soul, rock ‘n’ roll, surf guitar, a bit of new wave stuff, as well as modern interpretations of those sounds. My advice would be to book way in advance if you want to bowl as they have a limited number of first come first served lanes on the night. The drinks are slightly more expensive than pub prices but will by no means leave you skint for the rest of the month. Also, arrive early because even the guest list queue ended up succumbing to the one-in-one-out door policy as the night wore on. The décor rocked, the clientele were friendly and the service was pretty good too. Check it out, hang with the cool kids. Much better than an evening in chewing your toenails I’d say!


Shake, Rattle and Bowl, Bloomsbury Bowling, Basement of The Tavistock Hotel, WC1H.
First Saturday of the month: 8pm-3am.
Entry: £6/£5 w/flyer /£4 w/guest list.
Bowling: £5.50 per game.
Karaoke booths: Price dependent on size of room and charged per hour.
Closest tubes: Russel Square / Euston.