Rocks Blog

Skreamizm comes to London

Reviewed by Kezia (@keziafrances)

Widely hailed as a one of the gods of dubstep, it comes as no surprise that when Skream moves, everyone else does too. Skreamizm, his latest tour, is not a series of brightly lit headline gigs but parties. He was inspired by intimate club nights such as his birthday event at The Nest to go ‘back to basics’, aiming to deliver old-school raves like the FWD nights at Plastic People that he used to frequent.

Certain names you get used to seeing on billboards under headliners, but much like the lighting plans, the supports for Skream’s homecoming South London show weren’t the usual suspects. The line-up included his brother Hijak, a jungle and drum and bass DJ, and Goldie (yes, that Goldie, with the teeth). This is in essence a proper rave, with his mates, in the dark. Not too dark though – you can still see the speakers and the fire exits.

As I walked into Electric Brixton, the London ‘homecoming’ stop of the Skreamizm tour, I couldn’t help but move. Thanks to the massive RC1 soundsystem pulsing, I was moving with the vibrations alone. The room-shaking sounds were surprisingly coming from Krystal Klear, and were coolly followed by some heavy beats from Goldie. Luckily, the bass seemed to be turned down a little by then.

Perhaps more hotly anticipated than Skream was Route 94’s debut, an as yet unnamed (but apparently well-established) dubstep producer who is now heading in a house direction. Twitter clearly links him to Skream; the rumours claimed it had to be him or Benga, because surely only they could come up with such anthems as ‘Window’. Putting the gossip to rest, Skream stepped on to the stage alongside Route 94, who was disguised in a mask and beanie. Secret identity safe; it’s all about the bass-heavy house music.

I purposefully haven’t said much about the music yet, because Skream’s set encompassed so many tunes and genres that there really isn’t space to. He started his set at the beginning, with dubstep, including still-fresh tracks from past volumes of Skreamizm albums. Then he dropped a banger; it’s not cool but you’ll have heard it out and about, especially if you’ve seen Jackmaster – the Destiny’s Child ‘Lose My Breath’ remix that I have yet to pin down.

In typical Skream fashion, he climbed on the decks, grabbing an opportunity with the mic to tell us exactly what Skreamizm was; “this night isn’t about my rep. It’s about having a party and getting people moving again.” He introduced the latest offering from Benga, plus Rusko’s ‘Somebody to Love’ and Example’s new track with Calvin Harris. Big chart hits that are easy to skank to. 

Being a three hour set, and Skream, it wasn’t confined to one sound. He took the room from Funky Pigeon to the euphoric treats of Goldfrapp and The XX before dropping his new collaboration with Kelis, ‘Copycat’ (best heard with your eyes closed). It’s pretty sexy, in a Beyonce way. 80s and 90s classics came out too, including ‘Show Me Love’ and ‘Space Cowboy’ before the dancefloor literally tore up to Prodigy.

In the words of Sgt Pokes, “he’s come a long way since he was a Croydon boy.” If we trust Skream to deliver the beats time and time again, then there’s nobody better to put it into words than his MC.

Follow Skream on Twitter @I_Skream or Facebook www.facebook.com/skream to find out where he will be next. 

(Photography courtesy of Edwardes)

Review: RBMA takeover Boiler Room

By Kezia (@keziafrances) 

One of the most exciting Boiler Rooms ever went down in London last week, as Red Bull Music Academy delivered a takeover line-up worth tuning in for. I went to see the likes of Scratcha DVA B2B Ikonika, Skream B2B Artwork, Boy Better Know and T. Williams presents Dread D in the hottest room in London, but in true Boiler Room style, everything was captured on camera to watch at home.

Recently there’s been a band of girl DJs taking over the boys nights, like Monki, B.Traits and Moxie to name a few. Ikonika is another, being in line-up after line-up, often in unison with label mate Scratcha, but thanks to her gender-neutral name you might not have even realized she’s a lady. Seeing her up close in the Boiler Room I could tell that she is one of those special DJs that makes the technical side of things look effing effortless, and unlike some of the female Boy Better Know/Skream fans who came bounding in the room like over-excited puppies, she was a deep, unmovable level of cool, mixing warm-up beats as I cracked open a can of cider at a safe distance from the ‘Red Bull On Air’ box.

The changing flavour of the dance scene is undisputedly a hot topic right now. Yesterday Skream took to Twitter to address all those questioning the content of his future gigs, tweeting “YES I WILL BE PLAYING TECHNO/HOUSE/DISCO AT ALL FUTURE SHOWS.” Keep up guys, it should come as no surprise that his current forte is house and disco, with the Skreamizm tour, the 130bpm show with Benga on Radio 1 and the flurry of new tunes that refuse to fall into the ‘dubstep’ line of thinking that he’s famed for.

One such tune is Skream’s remix of Duke Dumont’s ‘Need You (100%)’ feat. A*M*E. The original is doing the rounds on the club scene, and to balance the success of that and make a popular remix is a tricky business, but last week he did so, and the aforementioned social network got all hot under the collar about it. Artwork too is a fan of the new sound, supporting his Magnetic Man counterpart by introducing ‘Bang That’ as it dropped in the Boiler Room; “You know this is your boy’s track right? He’s making classy sh*t now!”

Thankfully, for all those bemused by all the fuss over Skream and co’s BPM change, T. Williams can break it down. He recently told Resident Advisor, “In the UK basically if you get a name in a certain genre, it can stunt you in the industry and keep people from taking you seriously as an artist or at least a producer in another style.”Referring to how he was formerly known as Dread D on the grime scene, T. Williams is taking on the critical crowds and genre-bending as he revisits his roots for a grime revival. Boiler Room was the perfect venue for T.Williams to present a Dread D set, being smoky and full of underground music enthusiasts.

You know BBK are in the building when the whole decks are picked up and moved to make room. Make room in the metaphorical sense I mean, as the Boiler Room is never going to be an overly spacious place to get down, as demonstrated by the camera bouncing along the top of the crowd, swinging in all directions to follow the mic. Still, Boiler Room tried, and the small crowd kind-of parted as Boy Better Know took to the center of the room.

BBK gave a flavour of everyone’s style; JME worked his water into his ‘man don’t drink no champagne’ lyrics as the crowd got grimey for ‘Murking’. The beats changed pace for Skepta’s new ‘Blacklisted’ tunes, which grow on me every time I hear one, and the clips from his video for ‘Castles’ – billowing smoke, copies of Vogue –made a slick appearance in the VT. I wouldn’t expect anything less from the Boiler Room.