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- Keysound Takeover
- Save Plastic People petition
Dear reader, If you have ever enjoyed any music from this blog please sign and share this petition to save Plastic People: here. Martin - Rinse February
 We were back on Rinse Thurs 25th, fun set, especially strong on the grime this month. DOWNLOAD our set here. Bias & Gurley "Roll" (unreleased) Monkey Steak "Haarlem Drift" (Steak House) Roska "Time Stamp" (unreleased) VVV "Final Frame" (unreleased) Roska "Squalk" (Rinse) Zed Bias "Flipper"(unreleased) Todd Edwards "I Might Be (MJ Cole remix)" (unreleased) Brackles "6am El Gordo" (unreleased) Naptha "Soundclash (Grievous Angel funky remix)" (unreleased) ID and Baobinga "Backfoot" (unreleased) Girl Unit "IRL" (unrleased) Cassie "Official Girl (Deadboy remix)" (unreleased) Kowton "Looking at You (Hackman remix)" (unreleased) Tiny Tempah "Pass Out (SBTRKT remix)" (unreleased) B Live & Silencer " Warfare" (unrleased) D.O.K. "West Coast" (unreleased) Kaychi "Runaway Strings" (unreleased) Terror Danjah & Joker "Gully Goon Estate" (unreleased) SRC "411 Lemsip (Mr Mitch remix)" (unreleased) Sharkey Major "Shark Attack remix ft Ghetto, Dot Rotten, P Money, Devlin" (unreleased) Ikonika "They Are All Loosing the War" (unreleased Hyperdub) Starkey "Starting Gate" (forthcoming Planet Mu) Amen Ra "Candy Rain" (unreleased) Kyle Hall "Kaychun" (forthcoming Hyperdub) No Fixed Abode "Sunset (Mumbai Slum Edition)" (unreleased) ID and Baobinga "Red Dust" (forthcoming) Distance "Ill Kontent" (unreleased) Emika "Double Edge (Pinch remix)" (forthcoming Ninja Tune) Ramadanman "Don't Change For Me" (forthcoming Hessle Audio) ID and Baobinga "Man Down" (unreleased) Blawan "Potchla Vee" (unreleased) LV ft Josh "Walk It" from "38 EP" (forthcoming Keysound) LV ft Josh "Face of God" from "38 EP" (forthcoming Keysound) · Don't forget you can download all our older sets from the Dusk + Blackdown Archive page. - Save Plastic People
 "There is a light and it can never go out..."Official Statement from the Management of Plastic People "Hello everyone and thank you very much for your support. We know that Plastic People is loved by all of you, but we could never have predicted the reactions from so many people in such a short time. It has been overwhelming. On behalf of everyone here at Plastic People, special thanks to Benny Blanco for starting the Keep Plastic People Alive Campaign and to all of you who are showing your appreciation for what the club has done over the last 16 years
Charlotte and I are in no doubt how serious this situation is and as a result had a meeting with the solicitor yesterday. This does not mean that all hope is lost and that Plastic People has come to its end. However, it does mean that we must do all we can to co-operate with the Police and Hackney Council in order to ensure that we can keep the best dance music venue in London open for all to enjoy.
Here is a breakdown of the whole process:
The police have made an application to Hackney Council for a review the premises licence at Plastic People on the grounds that the way the management have been operating the club has breached the existing terms of its licence and failed to prevent crime and disorder and public nuisance.
The notice outside the clubs premises will be there till the 11th March, which is the closing date for representations to be made by interested parties (unfortunately this does not include you guys, but there may be an opportunity for you to make a contribution, see below) for or against the closure or any other outcome of the review.
After the 11th, the licensing department at Hackney Council will, within 10 days, write to all parties concerned to invite them to a sub-committee hearing on a given date at a given address where they would make their case. That hearing should take place by the 31st of March.
It would then be up to the Committee to decide on the eventual outcome which could be one or more of these:
(a) To revoke the license altogether;
(b) To suspend the license for a period not exceeding three months;
(c) To modify the conditions of the license;
Once a decision has been made, we would be notified and in the worst case scenario, we would have the option of appealing, but our current aim is to work with the Police and the Licensing Authority to find a solution that is satisfactory to all. Having never had problems with our licence over 16 years, whether in Oxford Street or Shoreditch, we are optimistic that this will be possible. Whilst the management concentrate on working With the Police and Hackney Council to address their concerns, much still needs to be done. Unfortunately, we cant make the full version of the Police application openly available at this stage. A collection of people involved in the club are setting up a Committee called Friends of Plastic People. They will gather peoples experiences of working with and attending Plastic People over the years. They will meet this week and no doubt they will let you know how you can help.
I would urge everyone to hold back on making representations to the Police or the Council in the meantime, but by all means carry on spreading the word.
Once again, my most heartfelt gratitude to all of you!"
Bernard KOUDJO
Plastic People LTD
Curtain Road
Shoreditch, EC2A 3QETruthfully, I'd be totally devastated if Plastic People closed down, there's nothing like it in London. It is totally fundamental to London-based bass music: from dubstep to early grime, breakbeat garage to UK funky and broken beat, it has incubated so many amazing sounds that have subsequently gone on to conquer the globe. Hatcha's sets there changed dubstep forever. Kode9 cut his DJ-teeth there. Burial's "Archangel" was first played there: say no more. I've lost count of the number of my hero's who have played there - I once saw Mala hand over the decks to Wiley and Roll Deep. I've lost count of the number of people who I've seen play there and become a hero of mine and subsequently so many other people around the world. DJing there was one of the most amazing moments of my life. Privately, I've feared this day for many years: I profoundly hope its not about to come. So we need to fight for this special place. Please join the Facebook group here. Remember joining the Facebook group isn't the solution just a means to get organised. When the committee called Friends of Plastic People is formed we must support their needs. - Pfork: it's a 130 ting right now...
 New column in Pitchfork from me, trying to pull together all the strands of the different funky-catalysed 130 bpm movements. "It's a 130 ting right now..." In addition, here's part one and two of an interview I did with the photographer of the Skream Keysound 12" a-side, Greg Tuck. - FWD March
 FWD>>. Is. Back. God damn I've missed it. - Twitter
 This is me on Twitter. If a few more of you lot add me, I'll break 1,000 followers, which would be fun.Damn I just broke 1000, congrats to Kiev dubstepper Glacial for being the 1000th. Hope you enjoy the Skream 12" fella. And if 15,301 of you lot add me, I'll break even with Skepta, which would be mental. Until then I'll just continue to conversate with @Shadrack_Mandem. It's made my day. Laughing is good for you you know, even if Shadrack & the boys make me laugh so hard and so randomly I must look a little weird. I think my funnybone might need re-calibrating. - OKZHARP
 Photo: fly on the wall by Gerv LVI was standing outside Plastic People after the Hyperdub 5 CD listening party last year when someone came up to me and introduced himself. His name was Gerv and what he said made me laugh: turns out he knows the Keysound photographer's sister, who used to be my old flatmate and he's in a band called LV, did I know them? Know them, we'd been playing their dubs on Rinse! We began chatting and after a few Budvars, I confessed my love for a lost dub, "Early Mob" which will - to cut a long story short - be coming out as part of a LV EP on Keysound in April. While sorting out the EP, he IMed me this infectious South African house track. It set off my "wtf" alarm... Then he mentioned that not only was he heading to South Africa for Christmas, but he'd clocked some mad music being made, often being circulated by taxi drivers affiliated to local soundsystems. I was fascinated, so when he got back I sent him some questions and sent the boys round to give all of LV Chinese burns until they made a mix to share. Here's what happened... Blackdown:What brought you to South Africa for this trip? Gerv LV:I was born in Cape Town and came to London when I was about 6 so Im kindof English in South Africa and South African in England. Ive got a lot of extended family over there so the first reason for this trip was to connect with them. B:Can you outline loosely what you were up to and where you went? G:I decided to extend my trip and use it as an opportunity to explore a bit. I got put in touch with a couple of people who put me in touch with a couple of people and I wanted to soak up as much as possible so I just went wherever the music took me. I was based in Cape Town for just over a month but I also got to visit Johannesburg, Stellenbosch, Grabouw, bits of the Eastern Cape. Some random collaborations came together while I was out there which was really exciting, it was great bringing it back to LDN and playing it to my LV guys. B:We talked before about you having heard of a culture of taxi drivers affilliated with soundsystems, did you encounter any of that while you were there? G:The taxis are pretty fascinating to me. The way they seem to operate outside the law, the way they zoom past you on the hard shoulder at a million miles an hour. Each taxi is a soundsystem. Normally you hear them before you see them. Always with the DOOF DOOF DOOF DOOF. Some have brightly-coloured designs and names like Thunderclap or Masterblaster. I heard that every year there is a taxi soundclash convention somewhere up in the eastern Cape where they all get together for raves and drag races on the beach roads. Music is clearly vital to the taxi culture. You often hear people referring to taxi music. To be honest, it amazes me that noone has found a way of using the taxis as a way of getting music into peoples ears in a more organized kindof way. I suppose this is just a sign of how embryonic the local music industry is out there, it seems like those channels are all still being formed. South Africa is a big place so people have to travel huge distances all the time. Last time I was in South Africa years ago I took a bus from Durban to Cape Town and the driver only had 3 CDs. By the time we reached Cape Town 14 hours later I knew every tune backwards! In fact, one of the tracks I remember from that busride was that Mzo Bullet track which has pricked a few ears over here. I did hear of a couple of people that have benefited from having their music played by the taxis. An early mixtape by DJ Cleo got picked up by one of the Cape Town taxi firms and that really helped him. Hed come down from Gauteng (an area in the North of South Africa) to play parties in Cape Town and people were already familiar with his stuff. I also heard that DJ Mujava used to drive a taxi in Pretoria and he would play his own music in his taxi, selling cds for a couple of bucks out the back. Pretty soon word got out that his taxi was playing good tunes so other taxi drivers and people with bars or shebeens would ask him for cds. B:What new-to-you musical sounds and styles did you discover while you were out there? G:So. Much. Music. Everywhere I went. Inevitably lots of the music you hear is that suffocating piped-in mall music you get anywhere in the world but most of the radio stations have SA quotas so you do get to hear the odd local thing. When I was in Joburg I got taken to a great late night place and the dj was sat behind the bar playing all this wicked stuff. I got chatting to him and he was telling me about all this kwaito/house hybrid music coming out of Durban. Zulupower! He played a tune by some people called Big Nuz that I had to try and find (You can hear it in the mix). Most of the music that really excited me over there was this sped-up kwaito stuff. Really imaginative party beats with loads of inappropriate noises and bits of vocal and synth chatter The first totally-new-to-me thing I came across was this dance called Pantsula. There is a whole music thats grown around it. Im not really sure how it differs from Kwaito but people seem to talk about it as a separate thing. Lots of the South African rappers make pantsula versions of their tunes. Mostly it sounds quite sluggish to me but I heard a few things I liked. The other cool thing I heard was people mixing Jamaican sounds with the local sounds in whatever way they can. Theres always been quite a vibrant reggae scene in South Africa, my uncle played the bass in a group called Sons of Selassie that were quite popular anti-establishment party-starters from the Observatory area of Cape Town. I met a Xhosa reggae singer called Teba Shumba who remembers performing with him back in the day. Michael Jones RIP. B:Any particular tracks or artists really grab your attention? G:First thing was Big Nuz. I love the way the 3 of them call and respond and bounce off each other, sometimes overlapping. My mate Spoek told me that their bars are killa but I havent got a clue what theyre on about most of the time, though occasionally you get an English phrase like til the break of daaawn. And the beats are wicked, lots of odd tuned percussion and percussive synth lines. Its just straight coolness. Soundtrack to many a hot car journey.
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