It was more than an uncanny coincidence that the day after I found out the police wanted to shut down Plastic People, an article I’d written championing soundsystem culture in the UK came out. At the end of the article I deliberately mentioned Plastic People as one of the last bastions of that culture in all its freedom and vibrancy. I’d tried to show how soundsystem culture had been the heart of communities that were less antisocial than alienated by a selfish and basically racist mainstream. I’d tried to show it had driven local economies, individual careers, and a musical culture that makes the rest of the world jealous.
I also tried to trace how soundsystems had become an important of symbol of popular unity, from the fight against oppression in a severely racist 1970s Britain through the summer of love in 1989, to where we are today. I also traced the ongoing and unjustified hostility towards soundsystem culture by the police.
Plastic People has one of the best soundsystems in the UK. A lot of people say it’s the best club in the world. It’s certainly my personal favourite. Last summer I had to move house suddenly and I deliberately chose somewhere where I could walk to Plastic in 10 minutes (heaven!). I can’t remember when I first went there but I’m pretty sure it was to Co-op in the early noughties. Co-op was the weekly Sunday night session at which broken-beat thrived. Broken-beat is a uniquely London genre and the Co-op crew all still revered all over the world. In 2005 I became an obsessive attendee of FWD, which was then on Thursday nights bi-weekly. I was there when dubstep exploded and those nights are some of the best memories of my life. I can still remember hearing Skepta over Midnight Request Line and Mala playing Anti War Dub. We used to love it when grime MCs came down.
I’ve never had the slightest trouble there. In the past five years I’ve heard about 1 fight. I recently went to Fabric and had men grabbing me all night. Last summer, the only time I’ve been to Matter at the 02, guys I couldn’t even see kept pinching my ass. One of my friends said she’d had the same thing. I’ve never experienced anything like that level of disrespect at Plastic, let alone anything that warranted its closure. I don’t think anyone’s ever tried to push drugs to me there – but they have at all the other big clubs in London that the police seem to approve of. Maybe because they’re sponsored by big corporations. I’m a young female and I’ll happily go to Plastic on my own if there’s some good music I wanna see. There isn’t another club I’d feel okay to do that.
I’ve also come to know and love many people from my time at Plastic. I can’t even begin to count them all. I just tried and my brain started to boggle, especially at how many of them had gone on to be absolutely massive, world-respected artists. I can’t believe it’s 2010 and I still haven’t been to another club that can rival it. I haven’t yet seen the police report but from where I’m standing this looks like yet another incidence of the law trying to bully a culture which they’re scared of simply because they don’t understand it. If the police are worried about public nuisance and disorder, why don’t they ever shut down football stadiums? To be honest, I suspect that they see a lot of black people there and associate that with crime. It doesn’t say a lot about our future.
Here are Part 1 and Part 2 of my history of soundsystems in the UK. Massive, massive respect to RBMA for commissioning them from me, and for conceiving of The Daily Note.
Here is a piece my friend Dan Hancox wrote about the police targeting grime.
This was posted by decksandthecity on the 23rd of February, 2010
I’ve got monitor eyes and haven’t had time to write up the stories I have to tell you! Oh no. Here’s a short summary of my recent adventures (*actually you could call it ‘What I Did Last Week’ like one of them school exercises):
“In the past this week I’ve had to coax Dennis Bovell out the pub, made a major discovery in the Elizabeth Bishop archives, been bowled over by how beautiful Storm and Flight are, started developing some music video plots with Lady Chann (more on that soon), gone all the way to Oxford to find a dust jacket only to realise when I finally got the book I wanted that they take all the dust jackets off the books and store them in a special dust jacket room (!!!), bought some new pyjamas, messed Lemonde around a lot, set up Ahu with a new boyfriend and HANDED IN MY EXAM FORMS.”
All the while I’ve been bussing it to this mix that Reecha of Dirty Canvas/No Hats No Hoods has done especially for POP. At my desk at work and everything.
Featuring the currently hype likes of Brackles, Bok Bok, Rude Kid, Deadboy, SRC, Terror Danjah – note it’s full of forthcoming No Hats No Hoods goodies. (BTW I’m listening to Bok Bok and Braiden duppying it on Rinse FM right now).
Also I totally failed to find the time to write a review of DJ Magic’s very fine No Hats No Hoods Edition 1 mix CD last year so here I am finally bigging it up. Proper grime essentials, no sugary pop tings. Go and find it.
This was posted by decksandthecity on the 2nd of February, 2010
Walcott’s work produced an often pained conflict between being a black St. Lucian and being imbued with the Western literary canon. Some postcolonialists criticised him for using Western forms. But I think the way a poem like this recreates his own experience is very powerful.
Limacol used to be used in the Caribbean to treat fever. When I first read this it immediately resonated with with Milton’s Satan. “Which way I fly is hell; myself am Hell; And in the lowest deep a lower deep/ Still threat’ning to devour me opens wide, To which the Hell I suffer seems a Heav’n”, etc. The boy in Walcott’s poem experiences his own fever in Biblical/Miltonic terms. (‘Orient and Immortal Wheat’ is in a corrupted version of the blank verse which Milton epically incarnated.) I think it’s significant that he’s 13, around the right age for the onset of burning sexual desires.
My final Xmas Gift is this tech-house mix from my friend MirrorMirror. She’s doing a musicology PhD! We’re both going insane and falling to pieces. Nevertheless this mix is perfectly composed. And more than a little sexy.
HAPPY CHRISTMAS
See ya 2010.
This was posted by decksandthecity on the 22nd of December, 2009
You can catch him on NYE here. Or maybe even tomorrow night at a secret party in east London with Bullion, Alex Chase, Offshore and Goodhand… but you’ll have to chase us to find out more.
Hohoho.
UPDATE Master Four says ask his pet Toucan: peru@clausefour.net
This was posted by decksandthecity on the 18th of December, 2009
The one and only Carrie Bradshaw of Rave (that’s me) is struggling right now trying to finish my PhD thesis before Christmas.
Definitely the hardest thing I’ve done in my life so forgive me for not writing a proper post again til next year – I’m about quality control.
Meanwhile I will serve you a series of Christmas treats instead.
The first is this beautiful ‘Winter Mix‘ by my friend DJ Oneman. I’ve been reaching but failing for the right adjective for it … but there’s something reassuring about when music exceeds language.
Anyway it proves that Oneman is bearing the torch for intelligent interpretations of dubstep etc. Get ready for his Rinse CD in late January, it’s gonna be seminal.
Oneman waay back in 2007
This was posted by decksandthecity on the 13th of December, 2009
