Not Avon Barksdale from 'The Wire'

New Brighton night Beat Redemption has sure got me excited about their next event in March. The inaugural one at the back end of January was a stonking success with a packed out crowd shovelling the deepest depths of bass marshalled by Hyperdub’s Kode9 and Cooly G. Concorde’s system pounded like I haven’t heard it in a while.

The next one on 12th March will be headlined by Los Angeles’ beat maestro, retro computer game enthusiast, jazz legend nephew and premiere orgasm inducer to radio 1’s Mary Anne Hobbes. Oh, he also has a big hand in LA record label Brainfeeder (Ras G, Gaslamp Killer, Nosaj Thing, TOKiMONSTA).  Flying Lotus has a new album out in May, which said radio 1 dj is getting her knickers very twisted over. He’s been confirmed for Bestival and before that he’ll be a Butlin’s weekender BLOC. All in all, his shit is red hot!

If that wasn’t enough the promoters have also crammed a couple of other quite capable headliners on to the bill. Dutch dub man Martyn (author of recent fabric50) will be doing a 90-minute set. Then there’s a live performance from King Midas Sound which is musical alter-ego of The Bug (skeng!).  All that and a load of other stuff including Greena from Bristol’s Apple Pips playing in the front room. Check here for all the details.

See you in the dub-pit.

TOKiMONSTA

Eventually found the Jazz Place after initially going down the wrong street (does anyone else still have trouble navigating the south lanes?) all the while getting heavily rained on.  It’d been a while since that last time I’d been down in the Jazz Place and it was good to be there again as I’ve some fond memories of that cosy basement.  Blue Daisy took the controls as first live act of the evening and was warming into his set when I arrived.  Playing what I suspect were mostly his own cuts, Blue Daisy played a set with a lot more groove than I had been expecting, mixing some very deep and atmospheric sounds with precision assaults of crushing beats.  It put me in mind of one of my favourite Warp artists, Clark.  Especially the crushing mile-wide repetitive beats of what I think I recognised as his own ‘Hunterz’.  On tonight’s evidence I got the distinct impression Blue Daisy will among the most interesting artists in electronic music over the next few years both live and producing beats.

TOKiMONSTA came straight after Blue Daisy’s seamless groove with 45 mins that veered between cosmic hip-hop and some good old-fashioned rave inspired anthemic moments.  Chief among the latter and getting a great reaction from the crowd were her own cuts using samples of of Lee “Scratch” Perry’s ‘I Chase the Devil’ and The Loonies ‘I Got Five on It’.  It all got very muddled up during TOKi’s set as her concoction of gnarling sub-bass and shimmering scatter-gun beats combined to addle my mind.  The only thing I clearly remember is not being able to leave the dancefloor.  And there I pretty much stayed until the end of the following set of Slugabed.

Big ups to Donky Pitch for putting on a night of such unique quality.  One of the organisers told me they are simply interested in playing music and putting on artists that they really want to hear, and hopefully this will be what a number of others will want to hear also.  The crowd was a good mix of those who wanted to have a bit of a party and those more content to head nod, but it was clear the vast majority were drawn there for the music.  With a music policy at the intersection between British dubstep, west coast hip-hop and Scandinavian skwee, a place where a great deal of innovative and exciting artists are creating some amazing music, Donky Pitch is well placed to showcase it in Brighton for our distinct pleasure.

Donky Pitch DJs have a residency every 3rd Saturday at The Globe. 9pm-1am

Find out more about Donky Pitch here

Listen to Donky Pitch guest mixes here

Review by Paul Clare

Blue Daisy

The first Donky Pitch night was only held back in June this year but is already proving to be a heavyweight addition to the underground music scene in Brighton, playing cutting edge experimental hip-hop and electronica, without the added pretentiousness but with a lot of fun(k). Next Thursday sees them put on two live performances by some rising stars of electronica from opposite sides of the Atlantic. TOKiMONSTA based in L.A. and part of the Brainfeeder label family which includes Flying Lotus and Gaslamp Killer is playing as part of her first UK tour. Expect some soulful hip-hop sounds set against some real dirty floor shaking bass. Blue Daisy from Camden is someone a lot of people are very excited about. A live set that should leave the crowds guts shaken and minds enriched. In his own words:

“Imagine yourself in a box, a normal four-by-four box, and you’re sitting in there, and you’ve got little holes to breathe….and different atmospheres are coming in- you’ve got the cold air coming in, the hot air coming in, and it overwhelms you. You pass out and wake up again in the same box, but that box becomes a new world. So now, where you’re sitting, it’s not a box anymore, the box becomes what you want it to be- it becomes your world. And that’s what I try to do with my music; you’re listening to my music but I don’t want you to just listen to it, I want it to grab you and sit you in the middle of the track.”

Resident DJs Slugabed and Ghost Mutt will also be playing some wonky, funky, bass-y goodness. Not many better reasons to start your weekend early, not that most of Brighton need much encouragement to do that.

Donky Pitch 1.2 is at The Jazz Place Thu 26/11/09

Words by Paul Clare