21/09/08 - Marky and Friends

When a half-empty bottle of Bulmers (other ciders are available) careered into my front teeth at about five to midnight on Friday, it mattered not, for Marky and Andy C were about to take to the main room and cause more damage to the main room than my poor old mangled gnashers. I say 'half-empty', the bottle was surely half-full, given the mood of the night.



I've always been fairly choosey about which nights I go out to, but Lord only knows how I'd never managed to reach a Marky and Friends night. Despite the consistent rave reviews, it had always seemed to fall on the wrong night, or at the wrong time of the month.

With The End nigh, and a lineup too good to miss, Jules and I made our merry way from Bethnal Green to Tottenham Court Road, via Brick Lane, to take in what promised to be an historic night for our MaF debut.

One of the things I'll miss most about The End when its finally closes is the buzz you feel when you arrive. There's a palpable sense of excitement and energy about the place when you walk in, even if you're the first person in. It's unreal. People discussing if Andy is going to drop Artisan VIP, people jabbering wildly as to whether Marky's going to do that thing with the deck and his shoulder, people just happy to be there and experiencing some of the best of times.

I've always cherry-picked the nights I go to, and have generally, never been disappointed. Admittedly, I've missed some corkers if the venue or the lineup doesn't look quite right, but The End always delivers. To spout an oft-used cliche, on January 25 2008 comes, I feel a big fuck-off piece of me will have died. I've thrown some shapes to Mambo #5 in Oceania in Kingston, I've seen my nephew cry for splitting his glo-stick at a Sum 41 gig at Brixton Academy, I've seen 50 Cent showered in piss at Reading. All great moments. But none will surpass me lifting a random 10 feet in the air, desperately trying to keep time to the amens in Night Flight.



And so Marky got us all warmed up with his 'Influences' set. It was the perfect way to get everyone moving. In the Lounge, I bumped into an old friend I used to work with at Next, who was busy promoting his Under One Roof night in Camden (I think), which I'll have to check.

Could You Be Loved stood out, as did the girl who angrily snapped 'I've GOT this phone', when I was trying to explain to her how to get a decent picture, who proceeded to take a decent three second video of me and her mate, and some other weird bloke, off his nut. Women...



The remainder of the night, I have to say, is a bit of a blur. Andy and Marky put on some show, which I won't forget until I'm old and wrinkly and probably a bit senile and smell of wee. Stand out tunes included Run Off, Tuning, Locuste, Threshold and loads of others I can't remember.

I think there's some kind of unintentional irony in all of this. I just pray they make some of the recording available, as nights like this, are surely worth preserving

By The End, I could barely see, let alone walk straight. Roll on Shogun Audio

Ringing Ears - Shogun Audio @ The End 20/6/08 review

Having just about got my hearing back, I thought I'd drop down some thoughts about last Friday's night at The End.

'Sick' does not do it justice. It was another classic from Friction and the Shogun boys showing off some real drum and bass. Jules and I got to Tottenham Court Road, via a couple of wrong turnings where my hairy friend was momentarily distracted by recounting some melodrama or other that would if retold in film would have been directed by Henry James, to see the Turks dispatch the Croatians from the Euros. Poor Bilic, he must've felt like a right tit at the end. Modric still looked a class act though.

Into the club with minimum fuss we were greeted by the schweedo sounds of D Bridge, who kept the bassline fat and the beats rollin'. Instra:mental's 'Sakura' and a new dub I've not named yet were the highlights.

Off to the bar for a few Jagerbomb chasers, Jules and I argued over the relative merits of the new Indiana Jones and were momentarily distracted by some PUR being entertained by his 'date' for the evening.

We arrived back at the dancefloor to catch the end of Fabio's set to the monstrous strains of 'True Romance'. Up next was Goldie who surprised me as being a proper showman behind the decks. While he cranked it up to 11, I managed to ask Friction if he was planning to drop 'Spartan', and he tipped me the wink and replied 'obviously mate, obviously'. So I was happy.

Punctuated by a few too many rewinds, Goldie's set was pretty tight. The Age of Empires / Up All Night remix mix being the highest of highlights. Stepping up was the main man and he didn't disappoint. Whiplash, 20:20 remix, Messiah, Cutslo remix, Sonar, The Beginning all dropped properly, it was simply one of the best sets I've heard out. The Time Warp / Tainted Love mix was particularly cheeky. Despite the last 20 minutes descending into a bit of a wobble-fest, from what I can remember, it was an awesome performance. 'Spartan', 'Mirror', 'Be True', this is what DnB is all about.

Jules and I escaped to the dubstep room where the sub nearly took my eardrums clean out and meant we headed back to the main room to catch it going off for Scotty and Bailey. With me and my companion having big day coming up, we decided to make tracks before Break, who by all accounts played the set of the night.

I'll be back for High Contrast in August. No doubt.

Welcome to DJ Turner's World of Music

Most people are aware of my love for all things Drum ‘n’ Bass and most of those who are, have been bored by me about it. God knows how many people I’ve showed the videos on my phone of the Nightlife 4 launch party. A colleague's interest in my passion at the Company Update meeting a couple of weeks ago was enough to convince me there might be one of two people who might read this with a bit of interest, so here’s just a few rambling thoughts on what’s going on in ‘the scene’ at the moment.

By DnB standards, there’s been a veritable wealth of mix CDs hitting the shops recently and I’ve picked up the three biggest. The most eagerly anticipated by far has been the latest offering from Andy C (Ram Records boss and all-round bad boy) – ‘Nightlife 4’. The Nightlife series have been the standout and must-own mix collection for any DnB head since the original ‘Nightlife’ came out in 2003, alloying the freshest, up front beats, with arguably the tightest mixing in the land. Andy C is a DJ par excellence. Many actually believe he’s actually a robot, such are his skills behind the decks. The mix itself starts off at a breakneck pace, with Hive’s ‘Neo’ remix and from this firing start, there’s no let up. The tunes are all there to make this the best in the series, ‘Streetlife’, ‘Artisan VIP’ and the huge ‘Timewarp’ (Big up yourself Nihal for the Radio 1 playtime). However, for a beardstroker like me, the mixing seems a little bit dry and unimaginative for someone of Andy’s undoubted calibre. It’s still a stellar effort, but the tracklist promised so much more.

Next up, is the latest in the long line of Drum & Bass Arena mix CDs, ‘Drum & Bass Arena Presents: Friction & Fabio’, a two CD compilation that has been out for a couple of weeks now. The Friction CD has been on heavy rotation in the Polo due in no small part down to the colossal ‘Spartan’ by Dutch bass fanatic, Icicle. If you catch me wandering about with the HD25s on, make sure you ask for a quick listen. It’s absolutely disgusting and well worth a trip to The End next Friday to hear it on a rig that does it justice. It really is that sick and well worth turning ‘up to 11’. Break’s remixes of last year’s classic ‘Talk To Frank’, as well as the seminal ‘Bambaata’, make welcome appearances, but its the efforts from Loxy & Ink, Eveson and Noisia that really stand out. Tight mixing, as you’d expect from Friction, who’s not far behind Andy. The Fabio effort is more on a lighter tip and a bit more accessible for those looking to kickstart their DnB journey. If you’ve caught his Radio 1 show, you know the drill. The soulful delights of Calibre, Commix and Lynx punctuate a perfect summer mix.

The last CD, which I picked up on Monday, is the latest in the ‘Watch The Ride’ series, this time mixed by tagger/producer/DJ/ Walford gangster/Bond villain, Goldie. Clifford has never been known for his skills behind the decks, but his selection is usually bang on, and this is no exception. The ear-shattering ‘Dreamcatcher’, by Russian wunderkind Subwave, gets the VIP treatment and the massive Goldie/D Bridge collab, ‘Mirror’, takes its place among what is essentially a rather impressive showcase of dubs from the Metalheadz camp ahead of the autumn launch of the label’s Platinum long player. The nattily titled ‘Strange Owl Experiment’ by Noisia opens up a can of Goldie’s self-styled ‘Rufige’. A great mix that showcases ‘proper’ drum n bass. Too hot to handle.

That’s about it for now, but I’m sure I’ll see you all next week at Shogun Audio’s two-monthly night at The End. It’s gonna be heavy, heavy, heavy.

DJ Turner’s June Top 10

1) Icicle - Spartan – Shogun Audio dub
2) Loxy - Ancients - Dub
3) Rufige Kru & D Bridge - Mirror – Metalheadz dub
4) Chase & Status - Streetlife – Ram Records - dub
5) Calibre - TV On - Signature
6) System - Near Miss – Digital Sounboy dub
7) Roni Size - It's Jazzy (Nu:Tone remix) – V Recordings dub
8) Icicle - Minus – Shogun Audio
9) Spirit - SHK - Play:Musik dub
10) Commix & Icicle – Ultraclean - Unreleased