WOOKIE (soul II soul / lovestar)
GEENEUS (rinse fm)
VARIOUS PRODUCTION (live)
ALEXANDER NUT (rinse / eglo)
BRACKLES (apple pips)
FACT DJS (fact)
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We at FACT have long been dedicated to putting on high quality parties with dirt-cheap entrance fees, but even by our standards our upcoming party on May 2 at Cargo is ridiculous value for money. We'll be bringing together three generations of cutting edge UK bass music for your dancing pleasure - Wookie, Alexander Nut, Geeneus, Brackles and Various Production are all on board - and it’ll cost you absolutely nothing to attend.
Let’s start with our headliner. Arguably the name to emerge from the late nineties UK garage scene, Wookie’s production style – a meticulous blend of RnB, drum and bass, house and reggae that he honed with Soul II Soul’s Jazzie B – is burned deep into FACT’s subconscious thanks to classic singles like ‘Battle’, Scrappy’, 'Storm', 'Duppy' and ‘What’s Going On?’, and in his time he’s worked with such luminaries as Masters at Work, Zinc and MJ Cole, supplied remixes to Nas, Destiny’s Child and Public Enemy, and produced one of garage's definitive albums (2000's shimmering Wookie). And if all that seems nostalgia-heavy, check his more recent singles, ‘Sunshine in the Rain’ and ‘Fallin’ Again’, which scream pure pedigree.
Speaking of legends, where do you even begin with Geeneus? For a start, he’s one of the finest producers of the last decade, from his grime productions under his own name and his Wizzbit alias ( ‘Poppadoms’, ‘Jam Hot’ and ‘Wickedest Ting’), to his current scene-defining UK Funky anthems ‘As I’, ‘Yellowtail’ and ‘In To the Future’. As a former member of Pay As You Go Crew, the owner of Rinse FM and a vital cog in the FWD/Tempa/Ammunition machine, he’s helped nurture the past decade of UK underground dance music – from 2step, to dark garage, to grime, to dubstep, to funky – and developed alongside it. As a DJ, he’s never been better – his recent sets at Beyond have found him effortlessly drawing links between the legacy of US house and the current state of UK Funky; moulding both styles into a whole that’s both sultry and thrillingly, subversively danceable. He’s an underground legend, and there’s never been a better time to see him play.
Various Production have been one of our favourite acts since their formation in 2003. Listening now to early 7"s like ‘Hater’, it’s unbelievable how they predict, and better, most contemporary dubstep, and their first full-length album, The World Is Gone on XL, did the seemingly impossible - successfully combining aspects of spectral folk and pop with heavy-duty bass music. If their recent singles for Fire Songs, particularly their stunning remix of Georgia’s Horse’s ‘As It Stops Raining’, are anything to go by, then the duo’s well of creativity isn’t even close to drying up, and we’re psyched to have them here, playing live with MC V.E.X, who’s worked with the duo in the past on tracks like ‘Bruk’ and ‘Fool’.
Alexander Nut is the host of Rinse FM’s Mixed Nuts show, and with Rinse 08, his contribution to the label’s mix CD series, he’s usurped modern luminaries like Skepta, Spyro, Skream and even Geeneus himself to curate what we reckon is the best entry to date. Playing everything from 2562 and Peverelist to floatingpoints and Class of 3000, his recent sets at Plastic People have had the entire club dancing like idiots to all manner of tempos. Put simply, Nut is reinventing hip-hop for jaded modern ears; miss him at your peril.
Last but emphatically not least is Brackles, the young man who we’ve called our favourite DJ in the world (we were being deadly serious). Very, very few selectors possess his combination of taste and whippet-quick skill on the decks, and his own productions continue to go to strength to strength with the likes of ‘Broken Harp’ and ‘Getajob’; look out for his forthcoming 12" on Apple Pips. Whether playing at FWD, Night Slugs or Futureproof, we’ve never seen this guy not steal the show. We basically love him.
Oh, and it bears repeating: entry is free. We’re not ones to belittle our readers, but if you’re in town and you’re not at this then really, what are you doing with yourself?
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