It’s over.

It was bloody good.

Thank you all.

Photos on the facebook….. CSG 2011 Photos, audio and video coming soon…..

CSG Opening night at 126 Gallery.

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 Community Skratch Podcast aims to showcase the myriad styles and tastes of our associated artists. It won’t be regular. In any way. When we get good shit, we’ll post it.

First up, Mikey Fingers, the famed dust aficionado, banjo bowzy and speed racer.

An all wax mix of psychedelia, broke beats and folk freakery, misty-eyed nostalgia and the occasional nauseous time signature.

Nice.

Fingers got soul.

Right click and save as to download podcast.

Download Mikey Fingers – Double Dot Mix

or……

Stream CSP001 – Mikey Fingers – Double Dot Mix

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

We have just finished the first stage of compiling some of the many videos available online from the Community Skratch crew. Click the “Videos” link above to head to our brand new library and check out what you may have been missing.

Videos from nozlrecordingsuk, communityskratch, blam1982, jazzism and many more all together for the first time for your convenience!!

Very exciting news on the way about this years summer shows, but for now check out what we’ve done so for….

Head straight to the videos

As we mentioned before, Billy Jam was at the Community Skratch Games this year and here’s what he had to say about it all..

a short excerpt for you…
“Now in its fourth year, the aptly named Community Skratch Games (CSG), which features several DJ based showcases and a scratch DJ battle over the long weekend, is truly all about community with a genuine emphasis on fun & camaraderie rather than on competition & seriousness. In fact, the prize for the winner of the CSG’s annual DJ battle is not a trophy (a la the famed DMC or ITF battles) but a big bag of Irish breakfast meats (rashers, sausages, black pudding etc., all supplied by the local butcher) that the winning DJ traditionally shares with the other participants in a big breakfast cookout on “Skratch Monday” after all events are over.”

click the link above to read the rest… Big thanks to Billy for making the trip to Galway!

The final night of the Community Skratch Games took place last night to another full venue at the Bierhaus. Lots of great music all night. Difficult to pick the highlights, but for me they were the Noid The Droid DJ set, T-Wok, Manus Goan and the brand new set from Rubble Digits which was incredbile. I wasn’t able to stream it as it was too dark in the venue, but I am confident that Rubble Digits (pictured)  is one to watch in 2010 and beyond. The crowd were assaulted by glitched up beats and hardcore Gabba (especially Jimmy Penguin who has a bad neck as a result of it today).

It was great to catch the Neil Buchanan show. These guys have real skill and smashed it yesterday..  they would do DEADLY business in a huge venue.

So today, we are at Jimmy Penguins house for a skratch session with Moschops, DJakulate, Jimmy Penguin, Blak Randy, Maroon, and Deviant. Dinner is on the cards thanks to Sarah Face!!

Yet again the skratch games has highlighted what a berserk place Galway is, and how much skratch and music talent there is out there. Thanks again to the Vince Mack Mahon boys for putting this together. Everyone is keen to make sure our summer tour shows are even bigger and better than last year, so make sure you check NozL Recordings.com for the details!!