We are pleased to be able to confirm that Grandeurs Of Delusion will be supporting Dstyles, Toadstyle and Excess at Camden Barfly on Saturday 3rd December. Tickets are available now at £10. Its an early show and doors open at 7:30pm, so get down early to make sure you catch all the action.

As usual the Irish shows were thoroughly messy. The Oslo Flow show was particularly disgusting every night. In fact it was all particularly disgusting every night. We can’t wait to do it all again. This time in we’re heading to Sweden – Gothenburg to be precise, and we are joined for this leg by Monster (sorry boys I don’t know where the Umlaut is on this keyboard..) ,Fidel Cutstro, and Blak Randy (who seems to be called Disscuss again).

But first to relax a little and get the Oslo Flow and G.O.D records ready for the BBQ….

A special screening of seminal concert movie “A Night at the Knitting Factory”, featuring the D-Styles Sextet and Ned Hoddings.

Friday, Aprill 22nd, 8.00pm, 126 Gallery, Queen Street, Galway, Eire.

words by deviant

I did attempt to write a standard PR piece for this, I really did. I failed miserably. What follows is a haphazard trek through my thoughts….

To say “A Night at the Knitting Factory” changed lives is not an overstatement. I’d say we watched that DVD every day for a year. It heightened my enthusiasm ten-fold for an artform I had grown to love, that I had largely immersed myself in for the five years previous. The arrival of that DVD in our hands is responsible for much that has happened in the little skratch pocket that continues to bubble away in the west of Ireland. So bigs up to our old friend Savage, for twas in his living room we first set eyes on the D-Styles Sextet.

For those that don’t know, the main performance is a re-imagining of tracks from D-Styles’ LP “Phantazmagorea”, itself a major landmark in the evolution of skratch music. A real eureka moment for me and many others, the album declared that finally someone had done it, i.e. fulfilled the potential of record manipulation.

DJ Disk had threatened to get there a few years previous with his “Ancient Termites” LP, and Faust, Craze and Shortee made some bold steps in that direction, all releasing on seminal San Francisco-based record label Bomb Hip-Hop. As good as these records were (and I still think “Ancient Termites” and “Man Or Myth” were massive achievements and pointed the way to this juncture), they were still lacking musical maturity, held back by the relatively primitive means of production and the new compositional terrain which they were attempting to traverse. Kid Koala was on that skratch music flex too and indeed had garnered a significant amount of mainstream acceptance for his efforts. I think though that the feeling among hardcore skratch heads (or nerds, however you choose to see it…) was that Koala’s output wasn’t necessarily from the skratch scene, it was outsider shit by a guy whose mastery of the turntable arguably wasn’t up to the standards set by those on the battle scene at the time and above all, it didn’t appear to come from the hip-hop aesthetic, more pipe and slippers than 40s and blunts.

Of course Q-Bert had released Wave Twisters in 1998, hailed then, and now, as a history making album. It can’t compare however, with the musical nous displayed in “Phantazmagorea”, and tho deserving of its place in the pantheon of “classic” skratch LPs (there’s not that many really) it never goes beyond the sum of its parts, remaining firmly within the “turntablism” sphere, of little note outside of these confines. The LP is also meant as an accompaniment to the animated film of the same name, only released 3 years later. It did go on to greater success and exposure as an accompaniment to the movie, receiving much critical praise while touring the film festival circuit. It also marked the beginning of the hyper commercialisation of Q-Bert the brand. Which I could have done without to be honest.

Ok, I’m meandering…..anyway….

For all it’s experimentation, “Phantazmagorea” has hip-hop at its core, rooted in the Bay Area drum machine funk and sleaze of Too $hort and the otherworldliness of Ultramagnetic. It’s deviations from the script remain largely within the scope of the culture hip-hop had come to encompass, it’s as braggadocious as any E-40 joint, it’s drums knock as hard as any Paul C shit. It’s tight as hell, technically refined, not a sloppy cut or wasteful bar to be heard. Personality oozes from the songs, that of the fringe character, the weirdo porn enthusiast, the serial killer obsessive with a muted swagger, as indicated on the “Pharoahs Of Funk” skratch collaboration with DJ Flare in 2000.

It is in this respect that the performance is perhaps most notable. Though far from a faithful re-rendering of the LP, the D-Styles sextet, more commonly known as the World Famous Beat Junkies, truly realised a fucked up, dissonant, near-mess of sound, a cacophonous uproar of boom-bap sensibilities and b-movie zombie soundtracks, booming kicks and snares, samples torn from their context and abused for all to see. This was the epitome of their output, towering above even their legendary battle sets in its accomplishment. It could even be regarded as the definitive full-stop on the progress made since the Invisibl Skratch Picklz laid down the crude “DJ band” template over a decade before and elaborated on in compositions such as “Vs The Klamz Uv Deth” and “Invazion of the Octopus people”.

Ned Hoddings, on the other hand, brought the new shit, ultra stripped back experimental hip-hop compositions and freestyle skratch freakout interludes. Such was their musical maturity and confidence, the solos kept to a minimum, the music allowed to speak for itself and given room to breathe, free of the hectic mess pervading so many other attempts at musical skratching. This was the flowering of four hyped hyped young skratch musicians and the moment when Ricci Rucker, Toadstyle, Excess and Mike Boo announced themselves to the world.

In an hour both groups had obliterated all around them. Instantly the dick-measuring contest masquerading as a battle scene (which had previously seemed to underpin the whole movement) became irrelevant, and creation of music by means of turntable manipulation was now the ultimate goal.

(I had another 5 paragraphs of shit written here. We were well into rant territory so I deleted it.)

Bottom line is, this is the shit that really made me wanna do it. I know others feel the same.

Come watch it with us. It may be emotional.

The 5th annual Community Skratch Games begin at 8pm, Thursday, April 21st @ 126 Gallery, Queen Street, Galway.

Performances from

Cut Man Doo & Damien Chmielix
Deviant
Eoin Smith

plus improvised performance with Sebi and the Community Skratch Players.

The opening night of CSG 2011 also serves as the launch night for the new Community Skratch Music 12″, Deviant & Naive Ted’s folk inspired skratch music, “Send In The Hounds”. Deviant shall be performing a showcase of these tracks as well as a selection of new and old compositions. He will be joined by special guest Sebi C, who also appears on the vinyl release. The video for their previous collaboration “Leave It At That” is viewable here.

Dublin based sound sculptor Eoin Smith will be explaining his process of production prior to his experimental live set. Eoin shapes abstract sounds and visuals via turntable manipulation, “incorporating turntable technology into the realm of sonic art in both composition and performance.” You can hear Eoin speak about his interactive turntable installation for Culture Night 2010 here.

Polish tape manipulator Cut Man Doo has gained a cult following worldwide for his online videos. He is best known for his skilful manipulation of reel to reel tape, emulating vinyl skratches in real time. He will be ably assisted in a freestyle showcase by Damien Chmielix on turntables. Check out Cut Man Doo’s electro freestyle on tape here.

Community Skratch Players is a loose bunch of Galway based musicians and DJs who occasionally perform improvised concerts and on this night will feature musicians Tony Higgins, Andrew Madec and Simon Kenny, alongside DJs Jimmy Penguin, Tweek and Mikey Fingers and the previously mentioned acts. A clip of last years show closing improv, broadcast and streamed live on WFMU New Jersey, can be viewed here and the whole show is still streaming from the WFMU archive here.

Yup, Bedlam Mind’s Chinch 33 shall be rolling along to Galway for the fifth annual CSG.
Last years’ concept skratch album “Hypermetabola” received plaudits from around the globe, and we are very pleased to have Chinch join us on Saturday 23rd April.

The album is still available for free dowload here

5 years of Community Skratch, 21st – 24th of April, 2011, Galway.

Community Skratch Games 2011

Opening night, Thursday 21st April, 8.00pm, G126 gallery.

Send In The Hounds 12″ launch with

Deviant & Naive Ted (Send In The Hounds showcase)

Eoin Smith (turntable improvisations, Dublin)

Cut Man Doo and Damien Chmielix (tape and vinyl experiments, Poland)

Improvised performance from the Community Skratch Players.

Artwork, design and photography from Community Skratch affiliated artists Alis Klaar, Niall o Brien, JP Hartnett and Dan MacEoin.

Good Friday, 22nd April, 8.00pm, G126 gallery

Special screening of “Night At The Kintting Factory”, seminal performances from the D-Styles sextext and Ned Hoddings. Truly unmissable for those that haven’t seen this important moment in the evolution of skratch music,

Community Skratch Open Freestyle Battle Royale and DJ showcases, Saturday 23rd April, 3pm, Bierhaus.

Performances from….

DJ Blood1 (UK/Swe)

Deceptakut (UK)

Grandeurs Of Delusion (UK)

Fidel Cutstro (UK)

Jimmy Penguin

Mikey Fingers

Tweek

Gondek

Ozz G

Cut Man Doo (Pol)

Damien Chmielix (Pol)

Moschops

Djackulate

DJ & Producer showcases, Sunday 24th April, 3pm, Bierhaus.

Performances from

Melodica Deathship

T-Woc

MyNameIsJohn

Mustapha Monde

Rumbus Merrylegs

Rubble Digits

Dal Kas

Teknique

Deviant & Naive Ted

Chiwawa Studios

Noid The Droid

Laminator

facebook event page

The first in a series of fundraisers takes place Saturday, February 19th at 9.30pm in Monroe’s Tavern (upstairs).
If you’re in Galway, be sure and check this out!

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=132575576808889

November 5, 2010

Billy Jam was back in galway for another remote broadcast, lots of amazing musicians traveled from all over ireland to be apart of the show.
check out the playlist for more information, videos and photos!

playlist

http://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/37941

download

http://archive.wfmu.org:5555/archive/BJ/bj101105.mp3

Well, thats it – its all over for another year. The community Skratch Tour 2010 ended in Brighton this saturday, at what was one of the best events we’ve ever been to – the Community Skratch BBQ. Yet again the Gladstone garden was at capacity as everyone climbed onto the tables to catch a glimpse of the action.

Every year the atmosphere is incredible at this event having seen brilliant shows from Clockwork, Foly, Blak Randy , Jimmy Penguin and Deviant, Unemployed Superheroes, Grandeurs Of Delusion’s sizzling new line-up and the amazing Oslo Flow alongside Keita.

Unfortunately after a heavy night in Bristol, we lost Mikey Fingers and Tweek along the way. Although we understand that they both enjoyed themselves.

This year’s BBQ was hosted by Enlish who was on fire all afternoon despite not having been to bed for 2 days. One of the great things about these events is that people come from all over to get involved. As well as performers from Ireland, Canada, Norway, UK and even Japan(!), people travelled for hours to be a part of the crowd.

We spoke to people from Ireland (Gem), Leeds (Mike-L), Guernsey, Norfolk, Germany, and London at the BBQ – and everyone left knowing the journey had been worth their while.

The highlight of the BBQ show for me was Blam and Plato. With a venue full of people sporting Oslo Flow shirts, their infectious natural funk was the perfect soundtrack as the sun went down. What they do is so unique and brilliant, everyone in the venue could feel they were witnessing something incredible.

The past month of shows has been amazing. We have all met some brilliant and achingly generous people from across the world. At times it was very hard work. A lot of travelling with very little sleep (to be fair that was our own fault) and a lot of intoxicants at times took its toll.

But the most incredible thing about these shows is that the standard of talent, musicianship and people make it all worth while. As Blam (@daggaless) said himself “There was some serious business going on in Brighton that day – something is changing” – and I can’t wait to be involved in whats coming next.

Keep checking the site for the forthcoming video..

To get everyone ready for the forthcoming Oslo Flow album on NozL Recordings we now have some very limited edition T-Shirts available in yellow, green, grey, pink, and  light blue. Drop us a line at info@nozlrecordings.com if you want one for £10 + delivery but the shirts will be available at the shows at an even more reasonable price.