Inside Nokia Music

THE GIG

Late last year a friend of mine convinced me to see a band called Subsource. I was planning on staying in that night and catching up with some much needed sleep. But soon as she mentioned that they were a live dance band on a similar tip to The Prodigy and better than Pendulum, I quickly ditched any ideas of relaxation a got a Taxi down to the centre of Bristol.

This was a wise choice as I wasn’t disappointed. They were a high energy group of lads with some amazing and varied songs. A good mix of genres from Breakbeat, Hip Hop, Dubstep, Punk and DnB kept the mood fresh throughout their performance.

THE BAND
The Band consists of lead singer and Double Bass player – Stuart Henshall, Vocalist – Mutanda Kimba, Borg Ng on keys and percussion, Paul Frazer on guitar and keys and Neil Shervell on Drums. They all come from very different backgrounds both musically and geographically, which is probably why they have a sound which is a hybrid of all the bass heavy electronic music we all know and love.

THE IDES
Their new single The Ides out on Doomsday recordings on Feb 22nd February is
a good In-sight to how this band operates.

The glitchy, distorted, electronic noises at the start are reminiscent to the Prodigy’s more recent material. After a short intro it kicks into a rock style chorus, backed by a big breakbeat and more of those glichy noises.
The structure of this song has been designed for the dance-floor, as the songs edges out of the breakdown it changes to a Dubstep rhythm with a chorus wobble bassline. This all supported by soaring, lush pads and arpeggiated synths, both of which have warm analogue tones of 80’s synthesis.
The Ides, when you listen closely has a complex depth that shows off the skills of all the musicians involved. But it’s still a catchy dance-floor track that will wake you out of any tired state. It worked for me.

Here’s the video for their last single The Reason available now on the Nokia Music Store

Well the rumours turned to fact last night as Josh Homme/Dave Grohl/John Paul Jones supergroup Them Crooked Vultures took the stage at the O2 Academy Brixton in support of Arctic Monkeys.

The results were a deafening hard rock onslaught of the highest order that left me fuzzy headed and grinning ear to ear. This coupled with possibly the heaviest set ever played by Arctic Monkeys made for a monumental event of historic proportions.

It’s fair to say I can transcend this life now!

The Black Cab Sessions is the simple, well conceived idea of video recording bands and artists in the back seat of a London cab. It’s been going for a couple years now and has played host to the likes of Brian Wilson, Seasick Steve, Peter Bjorn & John and humorously so Death Cab For Cutie, but a recent discovery came as quite a surprise to me in the form of Sixto Rodriguez.

Rodriguez is a Detroit born folk singer songwriter who’s parents immigrated from Mexico in the 1920’s, his music focuses on the strife of inner city living with songs about Pushers and Prostitutes. Rodriguez only ever recorded 2 albums, “Cold Fact” in 1970 and “After The Fact – Coming From Reality” in 1971 but due to poor album sales was dropped by his label shortly after.

Though achieving significant airplay in Antipodean countries in the 70’s and a cult following that would span several generations to come, Rodriguez himself knew not of this and was also rumoured to be deceased. Now there are conflicting rumours as to how he came to learn of this dedicated following. One claims that his eldest daughter discovered a website dedicated to him in 1998, the other claims that 2 friends went to seek him out and found him working on a building site in Detroit. Whichever it may be didn’t matter to me, what did was that as a lifelong fan that assumed I’d never see him live actually did back in 2005 and how wonderfully ironic it is that he finally seems to be receiving his comeuppance so long “After The fact”

Find the Rodriguez session at The Black Cab Sessions