Gigs. Festivals. Concerts. What do you prefer? What have been your favorite ones?! Without sounding like a typical student, I do love my music and my festivals / gigs. I love that moment, when you're standing around with friends, laughing and drinking whilst some music plays, then it all goes dark, the music stops, and you know your favorite band are about to start.. it always gives me goosebumps, and it is arguably one of the best feelings in the world.
I tried something new tonight though... i got J tickets to see Magnetic Man at Heaven in London, and he took me with him. Don't get me wrong, they are an amazing band (i use the term 'band' lightly here) but I had never been to a small gig like this... "what do I wear?" "Does everyone go crazy? Or stand back and chill with a beer or something?" As you can tell, i was being typical girly and having a major dilemma.
Magnetic Man are made up of three DJs, known as, Benga, Skream, and Artwork. They use a laptop each to synchronize their music, with "one playing drum samples, one playing basses and the third playing leads and samples"* Together they produce their songs released as a group, as well as some of their individual work remixed into each other.
The venue itself was unlike anything I'd been to before - it was underground, and not very big (in comparison to somewhere such as Brixton Academy), and was made up of small arches - some used as passageways in between the bar and, what i can only describe, as a hall..., and some closed off and used for seating. Slightly surreal to say the least.
Like most concerts and gigs, they had a warm up act, who was actually Katy B, a young woman who sings on a few of their tracks (it was their song 'Katy on a mission' that got them mainstream). She definitely got the crowed going, despite only singing about five songs, due to not having recorded much solo stuff yet.
Thankfully, once she had finished it wasn't long until Magnetic Man started. Most concerts these days seem to have a warm up act, then leave you waiting for the main act for a good half hour or so, so this made a pleasant change!
They came on the (tiny!) stage like any other act, and after some screaming from the crowd, they were ready to go. They played various songs off of their album such as 'Ping Pong', 'Mad' and 'Karma Crazy', making the atmosphere seem as if you were in some type of underground club. The bass was heavy, the crowd were crazy, and everyone was singing and dancing like there was no tomorrow. Ms Dynamite was a special guest, and appeared to perform their song 'Fire' (although for some reason she wasn't around to perform her and Katy B's song 'Lights On'...) and Katy B also performed 'Katy on a mission', which is actually a remix of Benga's, 'Benga on a mission'' - just with much better vocals and beat!
The whole gig finished with 'Perfect Stranger', another well known song performed with Miss Katy B. It was then that the bass got heavier, the volume turned up, and it was to the near point of deafening. However, it was amazing, and they definitely succeeded with going out with a bang - although i think i can speak for everyone there, in saying that our poor ears were pounding once we had left the venue!
I found out afterwards, that this gig had actually sold out of tickets, and it shocked me slightly. Although it has been around for quite some while (back to around the '90s), Dubstep is only just starting to get mainstream. Made up of between 138 and 142 beats per minute, most Dubstep songs consist of heavy bass lines, with drum samples, some vocals (although not always), and various other samples.
Many clubs are starting to hold 'Dubstep nights', and there seems to more and more artists producing Dubstep, or Dubstep sounding songs these days. It is the next generation of music perhaps? We've had the 'club classics', r 'n' b, drum and bass, dance... is this what will come next?
Radio stations such as BBC Radio 1 are starting to play more of this music too, and not just on the late evening shows. As said earlier, 'Katy On A Mission', is what made Magnetic Man heard of, and got them mainstream. It was being played all over the radio, even on stations such as Capital FM, who normally only play songs in the charts.
Will 2011 be the year Dubstep artists get their name? Start getting bigger and better? Part of me hopes that yes, yes they do. Most music we hear these days is the same, so I think we need something new to mix things up. It would make a change to turn on the radio, and instead of hearing artists such as Tinchy Stryder and N-Dubz, to hear acts such as NERO, Modestep, The Prototypes, Flux Pavilion and Bar 9 (to say a few...).
Who knows, perhaps next year will be the year....
*source: http://www.benga.co.uk/info/magnetic-man.html (Bengas Official Website)
The venue itself was unlike anything I'd been to before - it was underground, and not very big (in comparison to somewhere such as Brixton Academy), and was made up of small arches - some used as passageways in between the bar and, what i can only describe, as a hall..., and some closed off and used for seating. Slightly surreal to say the least.
Like most concerts and gigs, they had a warm up act, who was actually Katy B, a young woman who sings on a few of their tracks (it was their song 'Katy on a mission' that got them mainstream). She definitely got the crowed going, despite only singing about five songs, due to not having recorded much solo stuff yet.
Thankfully, once she had finished it wasn't long until Magnetic Man started. Most concerts these days seem to have a warm up act, then leave you waiting for the main act for a good half hour or so, so this made a pleasant change!
They came on the (tiny!) stage like any other act, and after some screaming from the crowd, they were ready to go. They played various songs off of their album such as 'Ping Pong', 'Mad' and 'Karma Crazy', making the atmosphere seem as if you were in some type of underground club. The bass was heavy, the crowd were crazy, and everyone was singing and dancing like there was no tomorrow. Ms Dynamite was a special guest, and appeared to perform their song 'Fire' (although for some reason she wasn't around to perform her and Katy B's song 'Lights On'...) and Katy B also performed 'Katy on a mission', which is actually a remix of Benga's, 'Benga on a mission'' - just with much better vocals and beat!
The whole gig finished with 'Perfect Stranger', another well known song performed with Miss Katy B. It was then that the bass got heavier, the volume turned up, and it was to the near point of deafening. However, it was amazing, and they definitely succeeded with going out with a bang - although i think i can speak for everyone there, in saying that our poor ears were pounding once we had left the venue!
I found out afterwards, that this gig had actually sold out of tickets, and it shocked me slightly. Although it has been around for quite some while (back to around the '90s), Dubstep is only just starting to get mainstream. Made up of between 138 and 142 beats per minute, most Dubstep songs consist of heavy bass lines, with drum samples, some vocals (although not always), and various other samples.
Many clubs are starting to hold 'Dubstep nights', and there seems to more and more artists producing Dubstep, or Dubstep sounding songs these days. It is the next generation of music perhaps? We've had the 'club classics', r 'n' b, drum and bass, dance... is this what will come next?
Radio stations such as BBC Radio 1 are starting to play more of this music too, and not just on the late evening shows. As said earlier, 'Katy On A Mission', is what made Magnetic Man heard of, and got them mainstream. It was being played all over the radio, even on stations such as Capital FM, who normally only play songs in the charts.
Will 2011 be the year Dubstep artists get their name? Start getting bigger and better? Part of me hopes that yes, yes they do. Most music we hear these days is the same, so I think we need something new to mix things up. It would make a change to turn on the radio, and instead of hearing artists such as Tinchy Stryder and N-Dubz, to hear acts such as NERO, Modestep, The Prototypes, Flux Pavilion and Bar 9 (to say a few...).
Who knows, perhaps next year will be the year....
this sounds amazing
ReplyDeleteim usually at the front singin and swaying