Cursed techno mayhem from GrecoRoman

Who? Colin Bailey, 29, a voodoo comic-book villain who terrorises dance floors.

Sounds like? Acid house, Black Sabbath and grime with old school rave melodies and throbbing bass lines.

It may be hard to believe that a boy brought up in a small Scottish town exposed to folklore and listening to Michael Jackson could be transformed into a ghoulish, death-obsessed techno fiend, working with Peaches and touring with Hot Chip

“It’s like my upbringing has gone full circle”, he says, “I heard Metallica and that was the changing point.” Next was a love of hardcore punk, which he pursued through singing in a band. But he says: “My true awakening came when I got into clubbing in Glasgow when I was about 21 or 22 and discovered all types of electronic music; I loved the feeling of elation in a club and this combined with a love of freeform jazz, metal, hardcore punk and no wave meant I was ready to make my own music.”

All these influences combined with a dark, cheeky imagination are what make up Colin’s alter ego, Drums of Death. As the story goes, on waking to the sound of tribal drums after a frivolous night with a Haitian warlord’s daughter, Princess Zara, Colin realised he was under a voodoo curse. “I wanted to create something that combined the primal with the visual; Drums of Death is like an allegory for growing up,” he explains. “It’s a subconscious thing; I was a quiet kid, so he’s like a comic-book villain that brings all the bad things out on a personal and aesthetic level.”

The sight of this macabre figure on stage, along with the wobbling bass lines, old school piano stabs and the whip and crack of snares causes riots. It is the closest we’ve ever come to dance-floor pantomime - only it’s more ‘Sin City’ than Widow Twanky.


Words: Adam Saville

"Hyper Bass Fusion"

Young Upstart L-VIS 1990 has been at large, traumatising clubs in both Brighton and London, for almost two years; Adam Saville speaks to him with the onset of the release of his first E.P




It's 9:15pm on a Friday in Fabric and it’s almost empty. By my side is a bright-eyed 24-year old from Brighton with an Ace Ventura-style quiff and a multi-coloured shirt decorated with exotic fruits; his name is L-VIS 1990. He makes a type of bass-heavy dance music which he calls his “hyper bass sound”.

“I am from a Drum and Bass & breaks background”, he tells me. “A lot of the breaks DJs are only just getting into the electro thing. I was into it when it first started to emerge but now it’s completely tired.” What about bassline? “Bassline is on its own really, I don’t want to class myself within the bassline scene although I am a big fan. It is a really good scene full of energy, but most of the DJs are not really breaking out or crossing over on to the London club circuit. However, a new sound is emerging, and a new crew of DJs and producers is coming together to do something fresh and new”.

He tells me his club night Night Slugs, which was set up with Alex Bok Bok from Faggatronix, was set up because there was no night in London playing this bass-heavy sound. Prior to this, his club night in Brighton, So Loud, marked what he saw as an “official funeral” for the new rave of old. As he recalls, “we painted a banner in blood that read “New Rave R.I.P.”, that was the turning point for me, the return of bass.”

This reversion back to "bass" has produced a sound that fuses the aggression of bassline with the slickness of Ed Banger; it combines rave melodies, electro bleeps, jacking techno beats and the wobble of dubstep to create a sound that, as he asserts, is made “only for the dance-floor”.

“My sound has plucked all the goods bits that I have found in the last ten years of listening to dance music. I’ve put them all together – it’s like drum and bass, Detroit house, jacking ghetto house, grime, dubstep and garage all into one. What I want is for everyone to enjoy my sound. Whether you’re into dubstep, garage or electro, you can all get together and enjoy my sound.”

What L-VIS shrewdly avoids is sectioning his sound off; his music is not too dark or oppressive, but it certainly packs a punch. Plus it has a sense of humour; his sample of Al Green in ‘Stay Together’ is a cheeky nod towards the lack of girl-friendly elements that his music appears to be lacking.

“I’m not one for melody. I’m not musically trained – I make tunes that I think will go down well on the dance floor. Girl-friendly doesn’t have to be about female vocals or Spanish guitars. (Laughs) My music is girl-friendly in the sense that it is fun and that you can dance to it.” He’s not wrong. Three hours later, Room Three at Fabric is by no means short of girls, laughs and, of course, terrorising bass lines.

L-VIS 1990's E.P is out 21st July:

A1) Apple Bass
A2) Change the Game
B1) Mr Wobble
B2) Black Snax

Words: Adam Saville

Listen to: Drums of Death

Signed to Hot Chip's label, Grecoroman, Drums of Death frightens children. If there was anything a drunk, paranoid mother did'nt want her ruby-cheeked child to hear - it's the shrilling worble of Drums of Death. Not only does he evoke the sort of k-hole inducing wobbling dubstep basslines that have claimed the sanity of hoards of ravers across the nation, he jacks it up with whips and cracks that have enough force to give Mr Manhattan whip-lash. At times dirty minimal, and at others grime-tech - this is why Bassline House is gaining so much credence, it has literally every thing. FUCK!

http://www.myspace.com/drumsofdeath4eva

You can catch Drums of Death @ The Broomfields Festival - 30th August 2008

Words: Adam Saville

Whatever happened to garage music?

When I was reading Ben Esser’s Dazed blog about Club Zeus in Chelmsford, which happened to be the first club I was allowed into as a baby faced 16 year old, I noticed that he mentioned 'garage is the shittest thing ever'. Now, this is something I would have probably agreed with three years ago; living in Essex, you tend to associate garage music with idiotic women with knee-high boots, bleached blonde hair and an ass-brimming skirt, and men who think that finding out that a woman is a slut makes good ground for an early marriage. But today, what is it that is getting the skinny jeaned, ex-indie chompers onto dancefloors? It's big-beat/garage. Just check any track by Sinden, Herve, Crookers, Boy-8 Bit or check out upstairs at the Vice pub Old Blue Last in Old Street on a Friday night. It's as if today's generation, whose ipods are just as likely to contain Arcade Fire as, say, a bugged out mix by Erol Alkan, have inherited a liking to thick bass lines and repetitive vocals - something that, during their adolescence, they were most probably repelled by. Call it nostalgia, or call it some sort of innate transfusion that took place during the oblivion induced by underage drinking - whatever it is, there's no denying that, today, garage is bigger, better and more appealing than ever. Rather than admit it, we hide our shame by re-naming it “bassline”.

Top five tunes that are garage but we are too afraid to admit are garage:

1) Sinden & Count - Beeper
2) The Count of Monte Cristal – Bounce that Ass
3) South Rakkas Crew – Mad Again (Boy 8-bit remix)
4) Crookers – My Penny
5) Grovesnor – Drive You Car (Bird Peterson remix)




Words: Adam Saville

adsav2001@hotmail.co.uk

Listen to: L-Vis 1990

L-Vis 1990 draws his influences from the last six years to create what he calls his "hyper bass sound". His bass heavy sound fuses elements of grime or dubstep with jackin' techno beats, electro bleeps, cut-up vocals and rave melodies. When he booked NY's Drop the Lime for his Brighton club night he saw it as an "official funeral" for the new rave of old. As he recalls: "We painted a giant banner with the words "New Rave R.I.P" written in blood. I think that was the turning point for me, the return of bass".

L-Vis 1990 E.P is out now.

You can catch him:

12th June @ Proud Galleries
13th June @ Fabric
July 25-27 @ Secret Garden Festival



words: Adam Saville

This.is.Sick goes monthly... a time for reflection.

This.is.Sick sprung onto the Chelmsford scene with its unmistakable brand of electro, bassline and techno on two occasions: the Christmas bank holiday 2007 and the Easter bank holiday 2008. What it provided was a bass-heavy attack on like-minded people, leaving them with a feeling of optimism over the future of Chelmsford nightlife. There was a real buzz, people began to realise that there was more on offer in Chelmsford than the trashy, gut-wrenching Dukes Experience. This was not an immediate realisation; the coming of age of the Chelmsford’s underground club scene had been set in motion way before – so where did it all begin?

Historically, Essex has been home to some remarkable dance acts and movements – UK garage thrived here, The Prodigy came out of Braintree and pirate drum & bass stations have been ten a penny over the last decade. But what we associate Essex’s dance scene with is not what is being vented at TIS. TIS draws its influence from wider catchments than UK garage or D&B – naturally, these sounds do exist intrinsically, but the heart and soul of the music we play spans out much further. We do not relate to Modern day hip-hop, gangster rap, or grime lyrics – we appreciate the darkness of the streets but we do not aspire to survival in a cutthroat world by way of an aggressive tongue. Instead, it is the sound of the wobbly bass line, the terrific snare and offbeat high-hat that reaches us. We are eighties children – we were brought up on Transformers and Corey Haim – twinkling synthesisers and Air Jordans. Our role models were the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Micheal J. Fox before he got Parkinson’s. Our elder brothers and sisters were ravers - they discovered ecstasy and glow sticks, and how to testify their love for someone they had never met for an evening/night/morning to never see them again. Our parents listened to The Beatles, northern soul, punk, funk, reggae, Motown soul, rockabilly, no-wave, new-wave, PETER GABRIEL (and so have we). The day we discovered Kraftwerk was possibly the most important day of our lives. All of this has affected us and it is there in the music we produce, play, listen to and dance to.

This.is.Sick embarks on a monthly residency @ Bar Toucan on the 18th July 2008.

August 8th 2008 – This.is.Sick presents… The Broomfields mini-fest Launch Party.

August 30th2008– In association with This.is.Sick, The Chelmsford Ravers, Nobody Don’t Dance No More, Strong.Look – The Broomfields Festival.

Check: www.myspace.com/thisissickchelmsford

words: Adam Saville

This.is.Sick presents... The Broomfields Launch Party.

This.is.Sick is providing Chelmsford with a chance to taste the party aspect of the Broomfields mini-fest three weeks before @ the official launch night.

DJs adverb, crossbones, quailman plus more TBC will bring you a night of jackin' electro, boob-ticklin' bassline and wobbly dubstep...

As well as dancing you bollocks off, there will be an opportunity to grab official merchandise, purchase last minute tickets (subject to availability) and sign up to the Broomfields/T.I.S mailing list.

This is gonna be KILLER!

adverb