Major Lazer aka Diplo and Switch

Just before I was going to do a shameless plug for my gritty short story night at Red Roaster (which is on tonight!), it did occur to me that I happened to pick a pretty spectacular night for my event.

Not only were there two other literary events happening (Space, Hammer & Tongue), but more importantly, Goldie, Major Lazer Soundsystem and Herbaliser were all in Brighton TONIGHT.

Plus there’s a new techno/psy-trance night called Sicknote down at the Volks, which I was planning to make my final destination after getting drunk at St James.

Being a fair person, I decided to feature all of them, instead of my own night. I’ll let you make up your own mind regarding music tastes, but whatever you do, don’t stay in.

If you were a kid in the ’80s or a true short story lover, come down to Kemptown’s Red Roaster for Grit Lit, featuring Isabel Ashdown, Jake Kennedy, Emma Gray, Tim Lay, Chris Callard, Ed Siegle, and me.

We’ve got gangsters, black artists, Brazillian favelas, drugs, raves, alcoholic mums, pretty much the whole gritty deck. It’s a fiver to get in, licensed bar, nice people and we kick out at 10pm (doors 7.45pm). Facebook holds all the answers.

Music fiends

• Major Lazer Soundsystem, Mumdance, Blah Blah Blah DJs – Digital
• Sicknote: D.A.V.E. the Drummer, Julian Liberator, Antispin, 11pm £5/4 – Volks
• Herbaliser, Tinroots, 7.30pm – Concorde 2

Culture vultures

• Studio Hammer & Tongue 2009 Grand Slam Final Performance poetry, 7.30pm £5 – Komedia
• The Space: Goldie, Ian Rankin, 8pm, £6/4 – Latest Music Bar
• Wayne McGregor/Random Dance: Entity Dance and multimedia performance with a soundtrack from Jon Hopkins and Joby Talbot, 8pm £17.50/15/10 – Corn Exchange

Tuesday night is, as you will know, national student night, so it was no surprise to find an eclectic mix of gimps when i arrived at the ocean rooms; a place which manages to maintain an almost London zen-bar vibe even during the grimmest sets from underground DJs. Still the drink prices keep the crust out, or on cheaper drugs, and genuine dnb heads still seem to turn up, which goes to show that inventive bookings, a spacious layout and a cheerful staff can beat the darker basement venues that this clientele usually frequents.

DJ’s Magnetic and Neo warmed the small crowd who were there before twelve. They were adequate but there is little to say about their sets, or the absolute shit that ID, the MC, persisted in chatting over them. The club has a decent sound system, but there is a sorry lack of clean bass in the mix, which can leave the weaker tunes sounding even thinner. Why so many DJ are content to play inferior dnb records when such high quality tunes are being produced is beyond me. These guys will stay underground, and are better off buried – for the meagre goodness they offer will help fertilise the minds of these next generation dnb producers. The MC:ID stayed on to chat some more shit over Goldie’s set, so perhaps there’s more to him than i give him credit for, though even the dynamite tunes that Goldie chose failed to come to the aid of his lacklustre verse.

Golden Jaws himself, as you will know, can no longer be called underground; though his move into public attention has far more to do with his forays into the acting world than it does his music; which probably still can. I’ll forgive you for not having heard of Rufige Kru or Ajax Project (early monikers); but not ‘The World is Not Enough’ or ‘Snatch’ – and if you escaped him in ’99 he was also in Eastenders for a short stint in 2001 playing, appropriately, a Gangster called Angel (that was his biggest dnb hit, ’93-ish, under the name Goldie). According to a guy i know who used to go graff’in’ with Goldie in Manchester (back in his artistic days), Goldie got his name from his dreads (‘goldielocks’), which he grew when he dabbled with Rastafarianism. He had to cut them off when the hip-hop scene kicked in: “coz you can’t spin on your head if you’ve got locks,” ! but the name stuck when he moved to Miami and opened a parlour engraving gold teeth for wealthy customers. Not sure who did his mug though.

I was fortunate enough to witness Goldie enter the building, and make his way across the dance space to backstage. It may be a cliché but the Ocean Rooms does feel intimate given the right occasion; and wasn’t this an occasion – Goldie looked every inch the movie-star in his base-ball cap and top – topped with fur coat. Probably not as fake as the pine-effect ‘fablon’ wall covering, or snake skin seats in the club. Still he fit in in a ‘that aint ghetto black’ sort of a way, like seeing Eminem don a tuxedo: so wrong.

Hats off to yer man Goldie when he got behind the decks though: top notch and highly professional he really let rip with style. All his cuts were clean, his tempo and range well chosen, giving the crowd exactly what they wanted. Goldie’s big toons may be few but they are solid as a rock and the previous DJ’s looked all the worse in comparison. I remember little of the rest, indulging as I do in full throttle grab-the-redbull and get your appetite whet style gonzo journalism of a type hitherto the reserve of whacked-out American reporters with a penchant for amphetamines. Oh we can do it to, and you know how we do. I was utterly incoherent as I stumbled sideways up the steps out and into the bouncer: “Don’t worry boss, it’s the story that counts, just the story, and I’m a professional -point me in the right direction and I’m away. He kicked me towards the all night cafe.

OK, so no punk rock or pop, and not enough reggae neither, which was a seriously lacking for me. I like healthy doses of reggae with my dnb thank you, and perhaps a little hip-hop to boot, but none of it. Still, what does Goldie care? He is guaranteed a decent turn out because people know his name and his face, and I doubt whether anyone was disappointed that he didn’t even play ‘Angel’; except me. Goldie has dabbled with many forms of music in his time and his label ‘Metalheadz’ is back and in production I’m told. He has left behind the stricktly dnb massive and moved into more beats orientated dance electronica; but that’s just his acts. The man himself will continue to spin the dnb: “coz it’s in my blood man – to see a crowd going off to your tunes beats anything I could do in the studio – it’s a dream”.

So we can expect to see more of this golden grinning gangster in the future, and I for one wouldn’t miss it for the world. Big shout out to the Ocean Rooms for surpassing all expectations and booking an urban legend well worth his salt. Big up the gOld man!

Peace out ya’ll…

The Ocean Rooms
http://www.oceanrooms.co.uk/

1-2 Morley St
Brighton,
BN2 9RA

01273 699069

info@oceanrooms.co.uk

Words: Jimi DnB