Go placidly amongst the bass and the hype.

Well after being referred to a blog with a similar title, I thought that was indeed the only way I could plan getting through this bank holiday weekend. Suffice to say here I am on a Monday night/Tuesday morning, semi asleep, sitting in the club that kick-started my weekend listening to a set being performed by Fabio, after what can only be described as a weekend of failed assassination attempts on my eardrums. It all started of as it usually does with the traditional pilgrimage to FWD>>. From south west to east on a Friday night (these days that night is somewhat hit and miss, on one hand they perhaps have the best combination of space and sound in London, but these days the line ups don’t seem to bring much enthusiasm to the venue as they once did), saying that this particular FWD happened to be a sure fire hit, unfortunately I missed D1’s set and arrived at the beginning of the Newham generals hour of power. The crowd is always responsive to these guys, especially me; during the early grime days, I probably would recite D Double E’s bars the most out of any grime mc. Tubby dropped a couple dubplate bombs from himself and some unknowns that got the crowd and his MC’s going off, and for anyone not accustomed to this scenes culture equates to an “itch un-gow-er again” and again, and again, with each wheel adding fuel to the fire of a burning crowd. Not before long their set was over, and there was no more generally speaking, just dj youngstas dark feelings… For anyone that really enjoys youngstas sets, I find not listening to his show on a Thursday night the best way to easily sink into his sets the following days on a loud system in a club. He played for 2hrs with beats produced by SP, himself, Benny Page, and other djs that notoriously feature in his bag, and as per usual dropped anthems (in my book) like Skreams 'Here’s a sign' and Mala’s 'Pop Pop' and for the first time to my knowledge played an untitled red liner by Chase & Status, that as far as I could see was enjoyed by everyone still left in the dance as the clock struck 3:15. I was home by about 8am following the usual post FWD shenanigans, looking forward to re-charging for what lay ahead once the sun had gone down on what seemed to have been at the time the onset of a great summer Saturday.

After spending the day doing a little exercise, some cleaning and a bit of studying for my upcoming exams, I got ready, and before not too long I was outside the Mass in Brixton. Time for another “skank under the steeple” I told myself as I couldn’t wait to get inside and up that never-ending stair case; a pet hate of many regular DMZ goers. As I strolled into the main room after saying howdy to some of the peeps that were there, I was greeted by the sounds of Tes La Rok and Dead-O from Clouds, representing Finland with there finest dubplates, engineered to get our bodies rocking and our feet stepping, personally since first being introduced to the sounds of clouds back in 2006, these guys have not failed to impress me, as many dubsteppers know, 'under the dancing feet' is a personal favourite of mine and those that are not strangers to the SubFM chatroom surely have read my interpretation of the lyrics sang by Joanna Newsom on the Clouds track 'Shallow'. DMZ played next and Loefah. In my opinion it was an ok set, the usual bits with some fresh unheard bits from Loefah. Sometimes I think it their sets can be a bit hit and miss but that just depends on what mood I am in. Up next was man like GothTrad, emphasis on 'man like', as his set was unlike any other, it consisted of live remixes of some of my favourite dubstep tunes (Skream and Clu Kids 'Sandsnake' and Clouds 'Under the dancing feet'), that had the original producers in awe, a combination of GothTrad’s energy, some already established hits, and some precision timing on the CDJs, lead me to award the set of the night to him, saying that, Chef played an almost perfect set, a diverse selection like always, consisting of some crowd pleasers from the -30 camp, Benga, some deep tunes, and tunes about the music and not about the hype of the crowd. Of all the dj's there’s nothing like watching chef mix, there’s a quirkiness about him as he listens to the mish mash of sounds coming through his headphones. Geiom played the night out and surprised us with a live vocal version of his tune reminiscing you.

Sounds like fun huh? That was just the first 24hrs. After sleeping for 4hrs, I had to get up and get ready for training, yeah I know… it genuinely isn’t the first thing you want to do after 2 nights of being out but onwards and upwards as they say. After a hard day of travelling and counting to 10 in Korean over and over again, I made my way home and got ready for the drive up to Nottingham for the Detonate indoor festival. What can I say, upon arrival I was bewildered by the amount of people outside the main entrance, a minuscule amount of bodies compared to what the numbers were inside. I arrived just as Benga was playing inside the future proof room, I thought to myself perfect timing as I had been wanting to hear some Benga bits, not just the odd one or two included in dj sets on occasion. I had wanted to hear a continuous mix of his tunes; they have a definitive sound which creates a unique vibe that you don’t get from other producers in the scene right now. Mala, who I saw play the night before followed up after, then Pinch; whose set was a refreshing break, was then followed up by Skream. The night was mainly about the crowd the venue, and the lack of air conditioning. The sheer number of bodies combined with some good music, resulted in you sweating just by association, it was horrendously hot, if you wasn’t sweating then someone close by was sweating on you, thank goodness for being able to get back stage for a face and hands rinse every so often, I tell you… it was a great night, being able to check out all the different music on offer; drum and bass, hip-hop, and dubstep, and it was cool to bump into some old friends, and to meet some guys whose names I have heard on radio but never have had the opportunity to meet in real life. After some back stage catching up it was about 7 am when we decided to make our way back to London.

Enough is enough aye? Suffice to say my big city nights didn’t end right there and then just because a new day was starting, last year, a new day is the beginning of a new night in some big city somewhere, but I feel I have gone on long enough, there’s only so much time in a day.