Passed Clouds - A Story of a Dying Club Culture

Tally ho, you lot. Normally I like to keep this blog fairly lighthearted and try to avoid getting too political about things, but today is a bit different.

Below you'll see a short film made by one of our talented correspondents - Max - about the steady decline of club culture in the UK. I know that a lot of you are based overseas (bad luck), but the principals discussed in this film are pertinent to all big cities.

The last few years have seen a number of famous and not so famous clubs close their doors in the face of heavy handed local authorities, outdated licensing laws and the predations of planning authorities.

The club that this film focuses on, Passing Clouds, was the sort of venue that our scene relies upon. We're never going to be in a super-club like Fabric, which can rally the support of thousands of passionate followers. We need these open-minded venues to support our scene, which the mainstream are not going to back.

In fact, Passing Clouds was one of London's top vintage remix venues - in my top five places to check if I wanted a last minute night out. Around the same time that PC closed its doors for the last time, another of vintage remix's first homes shut down, the Bedroom Bar.

As Chris Tofu indicates in the film, the developers and incomers are not interested in preserving cultural hotspots if they can make more money by turning them into flats, while in the unlikely event that a venue doesn't disappear during a 'regeneration' project, the chances are they're going to want to play mainstream, middle of the road music. They're risk averse, these developer types.

Anyway - Check out the film, and have a read of Max's 'Director's Notes' below. And if there's a venue near you that's under threat, stand up and do your bit to protect it, lest we all have to listen to Deadmau5 and his ilk forever more.

Toodle pip

Jack the Cad

‘Passed Clouds: A Story Of A Dying Club Culture’ is a documentary about Club Culture and the closure of clubs throughout the UK.

This documentary was originally made for my final university project, and it is about an issue which is very close to my heart. Nightclubs and grassroots music venues are seeing their doors shut, up and down the country, many of which receive no fanfare at all.

The documentary intends to bring a focus on to clubs such as Passing Clouds and bring attention to other grassroots venues that have faced similar fates. As a DJ myself, I performed at Passing Clouds and Bedroom Bar only a few weeks before they each had to shut their doors. I had some of my first ever gigs at those venues, and to see them get shutdown was totally devastating.

It is fantastic to see people rally to save clubs such as Fabric, but unfortunately most clubs don’t have the following or financial capabilities to keep their doors open in hard times.

The closures come down a few key reasons: the price of property, increases in rent, drugs, noise issues, as well as local councils enforcing difficult to meet restrictions & being unsupportive of the nighttime industry.

In the documentary I speak with a number of industry professionals who share their thoughts on the closures and the reasons behind them, as well as sharing their personal anecdotes of what club culture means to them.

I also explore how clubs and music venues play an invaluable economic role to our society, but even more importantly, how they play a significant role in bringing people together and creating communities which otherwise might not have existed without these venues & spaces.

Last year the BBC made a short documentary on the topic of club closures, but I felt that it trivialised and failed to truly show the meaning that club culture plays in many people’s lives. One of the key problems I found with was their choice of interviewees. One on whom was Steve Aoki, an American EDM DJ. I felt he was highly unqualified to speak on the topic of UK club culture, and that his fame was the only reason for being in the documentary. It ends up coming across as very corporate and unrepresentative of real underground scenes. My documentary attempts to try and look at the topic from the people who are really involved in the scene, and to give an unfiltered view into how the people who are really being affected feel (Rather than a multi-millionaire DJ who doesn’t even live in this country).

The main purpose of the documentary is to inform people about the significance that club culture plays in many people's lives, and to show that it is more than just going out and getting pissed with your mates on a Friday night; but rather it is about music, love & human connection.

It doesn’t matter what music you like, whether it’s Electro Swing or Jungle or Techno, if you care about your subculture, it is time to stand up and protect it, because if things keep going the way they are, there will not be anything left to protect.

If you are interested in reading more about the topic, here are a couple different reports which I used in my research for making this documentary:

Nighttime Industries Association: ‘Forward Into The Night’:

http://www.ntia.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Forward-into-the-Night-Report.pdf?567959&6658f1

Mayor of London’s ‘Rescue Plan For London’s Grassroots Music Venues’:

http://www.nordicity.com/media/2017131avpcrxmdg.pdf

London Remixed Festival - 5th - 7th Feb - preview

I grew up on a farm with two younger brothers. We are all  quite close in age, and when we were aged between 8 and 13 our mother found that having three young lads charging in and out of the house covered in dust, mud and the nameless detritus of a farm yard, fighting and generally being boys was quite hard work. She got around this problem by not letting us in the house for weeks at a time. This may have you hunting out the Childline number but let me stop you there, as it wasn't quite as barbaric as it sounds (though there was a hint of Lord of the Flies about her solution). Instead of sleeping in bedrooms like normal people, Mum preserved the orderliness of her house by making us camp on the farm.

At the start of the summer we'd pitch a number of tents on the farm and each evening we would pile onto one of the farm vehicles shortly before dusk and trundle up to the campsite, where we would produce that particular type of cremated-on-the-outide-raw-on-the-inside sausages that only a really good campfire can deliver. The next morning we would return to the house and spend the day frolicking in the garden and hitting each other. I don't recall how we washed, but I suspect that we were not that concerned. The summers were long and dusty, hot and seemingly endless. What days.

I mention this childhood memory as it was painfully reminded of it as I struggled to pitch my tent against the biblical rain at Boomtown this year. I reflected, as I cursed and wiped the rain from my eyes, that camping seems to have lost some of its appeal in the intervening 20 years. For one, the tent seems far smaller, and my ability to spring from my sleeping bag full of vim and joi de vie after a night sleeping on the grass is very much reduced. 

It is for this reason that given identical lineups and all the rest, I'd pick an urban festival over one in a field. Swingamajig in Birmingham is an excellent example of the breed, but the schelp back from the midlands to London the following day is a brute.

That's why when the promo material for the London Remixed festival starts arriving I feel a little frisson of excitement. Organised by Continental Drifts (Chris Tofu's event production company), it comes at just the right time in the year to help banish the rapidly blurring memories of Dry January (why would you do that to yourself?!), and to get the juices flowing ready for spring.

If you haven't been to London Remixed before, its a "a celebration of the best emerging musical talent and genres and will offer creativity, fun and madness, complete with buzzing atmosphere". As the name implies, the festival is all about the remix. Over the course of the weekend you can catch  Latin Grooves, Afrobeats, Tropical Bass, Vintage-Remix, Desert Remix, Balkan Beats, Urban Roots, Acoustic Soundclash and Brass Band Remix. But you'll be most interested in the electro-swing, Vintage Remix and whatnot.

My top tip is to make sure you catch Symphonica & Mr. Switch. I missed them at Boomtown and can't forgive myself. Just check out these videos of what to expect. Its not electro-swing. It's not even vintage remix. I don't know what to call it other than "thoroughly splendid".

Other acts to catch over the weekend include the Temple Funk Collective (whose brass section also forms part of the Dutty Moonshine Big Band) and brassy hip-hippers 'Dat Brass'.

I know this blog has lots of readers who also make music - if that's you, don't miss out on a day of free ‘Remix Workshops’ with professional music production tutors and established music producers. This is a unique opportunity to mingle with industry professionals and to gain tips on how to progress creatively. Along with sessions for beginners and intermediate remixers running throughout the day, there will be another Remix Speed Dating session for bands, producers and industry bodies to meet up and swap ideas at Rich Mix.

Aye, aye, Kaptin - Jack meets the man behind BoomTown's music

As the world gears up for Glastonbury, and those of us who didn't manage to get a ticket start to feel those pangs of jealousy and #FOMO, I thought I'd try take your minds off it by reminding you that there arejust a couple of months to go until BoomTown Fair. I spoke to Kaptin is Dead, one of the men behind BoomTown and one half of Big Swing Soundsystem, to get his story and his take on the festival. Read on to find out why BoomTown knocks Glasto into a cocked hat. Glasto-goers, fear not, most of the artists mentioned here are also playing this week at Worthy Farm, though you might have to look a bit harder for them.

Jack the Cad: Afternoon Cap'n, thanks for agreeing to chat. First of all, can you let everyone who you are, in terms of Big Swing Soundsystem and BoomTown?

Kaptin is Dead: I'm the Sheriff of BoomTown, but I also get to programme most of the music at the festival. Matt The Hat and I started Big Swing Soundsystem but we've also been DJing together since 2004.

JtC: You're a pretty big deal in the festival world - how did you first get involved?

Kaptin: I knew I wanted to be involved with festivals the first time I performed at Glastonbury in 2004, I was rapping with a band called Dark Chunk and also a contemporary Dance group called Reform Dance, although I'd been to Glastonbury a few times before, that weekend changed my life. The next year Matt and I took an Inflatable Church to Bestival and through that many festival friendships were formed.

JtC: How did you first come to be involved in the Vintage Remix scene?

Kaptin: We first began as The Chaps back in 2005. We dressed up in boaters and blazers and played a mixture of Old Swing, Nu-Swing and what would later be classed as Electro Swing. We even had an extremely short lived band, playing silly swing covers. We carried that on until we ran out of Pimms and moved on to the next incarnation, which I seem to remember was a Swedish Apres Ski duo called Stefan and Jurgen. 


Big Swing Soundsystem Summer 2014 from Something Creatives on Vimeo.


Many years later Chris Tofu introduced us to the idea of Electro Swing and we realised it was just a continuation of what we'd been doing as The Chaps, so we instantly clicked with it. We started a night called In Full Swing at a club we were running called Cardiff Arts Institute, and as we didn't actually know many Electro Swing DJs back then, we booked various bands that fitted the bill and took up most of the DJing ourselves. Eventually the brewery shut us down for being too outrageous and we realised we'd have to find other places to play.


JtC: You're a proper muso - what is it about VR that grabbed you?



Kaptin: I think more than anything it was the excuse to be silly and have fun. I think both are incredibly underrated ways of being. I was raised on Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band and Spike Jones and his City Slickers, and I'd say both of those were instrumental in my love for Vintage Remix. Even now, although I play all sorts of music under different hats, I have the most fun playing Vintage Remix.



JtC: There's not many festivals with such a huge area dedicated to the VR sound - to what extent are you responsible for BoomTown's MayFair Avenue?

Kaptin: Well Chris Tofu and the Word's Tallest DJ are responsible for bringing Vintage Remix to the festival and they still run The Ballroom, which is our main venue in Mayfair Avenue. Even though I do the music programming there now, I still make sure I run everything by them and take on board any of their recommendations.

JtC: Vintage Remix, and in particular Electroswing, seems to be a bit of a Marmite sound, especially given the recent Eurovision travesty - why do you think it causes such differing opinions?

Kaptin: Because it's such a broad spectrum and different sides of it appeal to totally different people. I was chatting to someone on New Years Eve who kept stating that he hated Electro Swing, but then admitted he came to all of our In Full Swing nights and loved every minute of it. Plus you do have to dig through a lot of tripe to find the good stuff, but as an old vinyl digger, I quite like that.

JtC: I'm going to be picking my 'Don't miss these guys' list - which acts would you, with your intricate knowledge of the line up, recommend for readers of this blog?

Kaptin: Well I love everyone on the bill but as a lot of the French acts don't get to play here that often, with maybe the exception of Caravan Palace, I'd say definitely catch them. I went to see Deluxe (part of the Chinese Man Records family) in Bourges a couple of months back and they are one of the best live bands I've seen all year. Also a Gypsy-Swing Hip-hop band called Soviet Suprem are a lot of fun, or if you like Electro Blues then Scarecrow are not to be missed. Plus there are some great French DJs such as Bart & Baker, Grant Lazlo and Kiwistar.



JtC: For those who haven't been before, tell us why BoomTown is so different from other festivals.

Kaptin: It's actually really hard to explain for anyone who's never been. The whole concept of a pop up city seems to baffle a lot of people, especially when you start trying to explain the Post Office, the Job Centre, the Leisure Centre, the Town Hall, etc. It's definitely something you're a part of, rather than simply an observer and it's a completely different, rather twisted, but ultimately magical land indeed. It's worth reading up on the storyline that runs though the festival, I hear there's whisperings of revolution this year. Plus even if you don't like Vintage Remix, we have lots of different stages with all kinds of music. There's no focus on cool and trendy bands whatsoever, the bookings are all based on the quality of music and performance.

JtC: Finally, where can we catch BSSS and what can we expect from your performances?

Kaptin: Unfortunately I don't really get any time off during the festival so we shall be closing The Ballroom on Sunday night and going out with a bang. We shall, of course, have our partner in crime Hypeman Sage with us, but also plenty of special guests as well.

You can also catch us at Glastonbury, Secret Garden Party, WOMAD, Camp Bestival and Bestival.

Boomtown presents MayFair Avenue

Boomtown preview

Following my recent rant about Eurovision I feel like we should focus on something positive with this post. Happily, there is something really worth getting excited about on the horizon. This Saturday sees Electric Brixton play host to a killer party: Boomtown presents MayFair Avenue.

Boomtown is more than just another music festival – it is more of an alternate reality. I grew up near the festival site in Hampshire, and it was always known in my family as ‘the place where the aliens land’, as every year the field was richly decorated with crop-circles. Maybe the barriers between our reality and others are thinner there, as walking through the gates is like entering a parallel universe with its own detailed history. This alternate history saw BoomTown founded and prosper, before the inevitable moral decline set in just a year after the town was founded by Mr. Nicholas Boom. In year three the town authorities embarked on a massive urban redevelopment project, giving existing areas a facelift and developing entire new city districts. MayFair Avenue was one of these districts.

 A far cry from the grime of the Old Mines or the anarchic mayhem of Downtown,  MayFair avenue is home to casinos, gentlemen’s clubs, ballrooms…  everything that might appeal to the thrill-seeking bright-young-things of glamourous society. On MayFair Avenue the realities of two great epochs of hedonism – the Jazz Age and early 21^st Century – blur into one another, creating a fantastical, kaleidoscopic dreamworld inhabited at one and the same time by aristocrats and gangsters, royals and rascals. As with everywhere in Boomtown, MayFair Avenue has a distinctive soundscape, with the rasp of Sachmo’s trumpet cutting through throbbing bass lines – Vintage Remix’s natural home.

With Boomtown presents MayFair Avenue, another tear in the fabric of reality [with apologies to Sir Terry Pratchett R.I.P] opens up, allowing the denizens of that simultaneously seedy and sparkling street to appear in one of London’s coolest venues for just one night. As one might expect, only the very cream of Boomtown society will be there, both on stage and off.

Boomtown Teaser

Among the performers will be the likes of Molotov Jukebox, a long-time favourite of this blog. This six-piece band is fronted by Natalia Tena, who you may also know as the Wildling Osha in Game of Thrones, but for the evening she will be abandoning the wastes of Westeros to pound out the gypsy- and latin-influenced gypstep sound that the band’s army of fans find so irresistible.

Also on stage will be [Dunklebunt] & Secret Swing Society  – the live incarnation of pioneering electro-swing DJ/producer Mr. Dunklebunt aka Ulf Lindemann. All the way from Vienna, their sound is coming together of sounds as diverse as balkan beats, hip-hop, swing, and dub to create something that just makes you want to dance.

As the night becomes the early morning, Slamboree Soundsystem will be the ones bringing the audio-fire, and if the ‘soundsystem’ is anything like the full live show it should be pretty mindblowing. I took my fresh-off-the-boat Kiwi housemate to see them last time they played in Brixton and he enjoyed it so much that this time he is brining about 5 other antipodeans to experience the madness that is Slamboree. If you haven’t seen them perform before, it’s a but like being inside a tumbledrier that that been set alight and then placed inside a bass-speaker.

Among the DJs performing are the Rumpsteppers, who blend Balkan beats, electroswing and a heck of a lot of energy; Odjbox, who has just released the  rather lovely little mix below, and the ubiquitous DJ Chris Tofu. There’ll aslo be a set from jungle legend Deekline with his partner in crime Ed Solo. I had this remix of Dawn Penn’s No, No, No on in the office the other day and couldn’t keep still.

At the time of writing the ‘Early Bird’ tickets had sold out, but it looks like there are some tickets available. If you’re not sure about whether Boomtown is the festival for you, this event offers a perfect chance to sample some of the flavours of the festival. On the other hand, if you’re a seasoned Boomer, the evening will serve to whet the appetite that little bit more.

In addition to all the great music I mentioned above, there will be live walkabout performances, a strict 1920s dress code, a casino and… wait for it… 



wait for it... 

unicorns!

If that doesn’t have you heading straight for the ‘buy tickets’ page, I don’t know what will.

Jack's Boomtown Picks - 4 acts not to be missed at this year's festival

A week or so ago the national media got all hot and bothered about the fact that there were just 100 days to go until the General Election, but for me there is more important event on the horizon – Boomtown 2015. If, like me, you are counting the days, I can tell you that at the time of writing, there were 177 days to go until the gates open and the craziest town in the world is open for business once more.

Last week May-Fair Avenue’s aristocratic overseers Mr and Mrs Fitz-Sloane released the full programme of performers for this year’s festivities, and bugger me sidewise with a magnum of champagne, it’s a veritable Who’s Who of Vintage Remix royalty.

Closer to the time I will do a more in depth post about the whole line-up, but for now I am going to pick out a few of the names which have already got my heart racing in anticipation and my ever-so-shiny dancing shoes twitching.

First off, it is hard to miss the fact that Caravan Palace, pioneers of the electro-swing vibe, are top of the bill. Having seen them perform in sweaty, crowded London venues, I am very much looking forward to seeing them in a festival setting, where hopefully the cooling Hampshire breeze will allow for some vigorous dancing. Their on-stage energy and Zoé’s perfect vocals make them one of the unmissable acts of the festival. I can’t quite work out which stage they will be playing, but given how fast their shows sell out when they come to town, let’s hope its one of the bigger ones.

Another performance about which I am so excited that I nearly soiled my trousers (something which my tailor would be very unhappy about) is ‘Brass Band Remix’. Taking the concept of Soundclash to a place never before imagined are two of the biggest names in the Vintage Remix world: Dutty Moonshine and Chris Tofu. They have teamed up with the Temple Funk Collective and the Brass Funkeys respectively to create what may be the epitome of the electro-swing sound: Live brass bands remixed live.

Speaking to Mike from Dutty Moonshine earlier today, he told me that the Dutty Moonshine Big Band "is made of several existing acts. Hypeman Sage on vocals, Maria Laveau - a female singer and rapper of Oxford Jazz Hip Hop outfit Voodoo Collective - plus the seven-piece brass section and drums come from the Temple Funk Collective."

They have performed with this set-up only once before and like an idiot I missed it, but in my head it sounds (and looks) a bit like a lorry-load of drums and synths crashing into a marching band at 150mph (or should that be 150bpm?): loud, messy, and with the potential to cause serious, potentially irreparable damage.

There so many excellent DJs on the poster that I’m struggling to work out which is top of my list, so instead I am going to pick out two names I have yet to catch live: DonJohnston, the man behind the amazing video below; and Grant Lazlo, who is joining his fellow Frenchies Caravan Palace in hopping over the channel for the event.

For all the details and info on the MayFair Avenue performers, and those on the other stages, head over to the Boomtown website, and watch this space for more Boomtown related posts from me.

London Remixed Festival - 23rd November

Continental Drifts & Global Local the producers of the most rocking festival stages across the globe are back, joining forces once again with their long stand-ing musical partners Movimientos, Two for Joy (Magpie’s Nest), Wormfood, Blue Lotus, Kazum, White Mink, Electro Swing Club, Focus Organization , Freshly Squeezed Music for the return of LONDON REMIXED FESTIVAL 2013.

From the powerhouses behind Glastonbury's legendary Shangri-La stage, via rocking tents at Bestival, Secret Garden Party, Boomtown, Wilderness, Lovebox and Kendal Calling, they bring you the festival after-party of all after-parties.

Following on from last year's successful festival debut, LRF welcomes performances from the world’s best live remixing talent to the capital, showcasing a beautiful array of styles and cultures from around the world.

Expect remixed sounds from ghetto funk, drum and bass, reggae, anarchic hoedown, Latin breaks, brass band hip hop, electro-Afro music, Balkan beats, blues remix, electro swing, tropical bass, Ethiopian dub, DMC scratch masters + more. London Remixed Festival is a celebra-tion of the best emerging musical talent and genres.

This one ticket, multi venue city festival will offer the creativity, fun and madness, complete with buzzing atmosphere & music… but without the mud, rain or hassle of camping! Village Underground, the Bedroom Bar, Rich Mix, and new to the team Strongroom will host a live musical cocktail of Global London, remixed for the 21st Century.

The guys behind this include the Swingrower's manager Giulio Castronovo and festival legend Chris Tofu. Tofu ran the amazing Ballroom stage at Boomtown, so if this is half as good as that it should be a banger. The venues are some of my favourites in London, and with access to all 7 with one ticket, there is really no excuse for not attending. There will be plenty of electroswing, a smattering of electro-blues and a load of other wierd and wonderful mashup/remix genres being played - get along there and fill your ears with musical joy.

Here is a list of some of the performers you can see.

REMIXED PARTY
DJ Chris Tofu (White Mink)

DJ Kobayashi (Gypsy Hill)

Subculture Sounds

DJ Tim Whelan (Transglobal Underground)

DJ Ashley Slater

DJ Malaka (Rumpus)

VINTAGE REMIXED
DJ Eclecktic Mick (Electro Blues)

Electro Manouche (Live)

DJ Jon Bongly (Electro Swing Club)

Ghetto Funk All Stars

DJ Dolphin Boy (Bagpipe Rave)

Kaptin Is Dead

BASS6 (Beatbox Collective)

Electro Swing Club - London

It is to my great shame that I had never been to this event, even though it is the longest running in London - the timing has always been a bit of an issue - the third Saturday of each month is quite some distance from payday and funds always seem to be a bit low. This month was different as it was the Hon Rumple Fuddly's birthday, so a group of us trooped over from West London to Liverpool Street and thence to The Book Club on Great Eastern Street.

Clearly the length of time that this event has been running has worked in its favour, as when we approached we were rather surprised to find a huge queue. Using a certain amount of chicanery we were able to bypass this and get out of the rain pretty quickly.

The venue, which covers two floors, is pretty big, but there were a lot of people there. The ground floor, which has lots of seating, played host to Aunty Maureen's Silent Disco, which looked like it was drawing lots of Shoreditch locals. Downstairs was the main dancefloor, where DJs Globalution, Woolfie, and Kitten and the Hip played some great tunes.

We decided that we would rather be downstairs, but there was not a lot of seating. A little exploration revealed a small room at the back, so we piled in there, only to be told that it was a private party. Happily, Ruth, the guest of honour at that party, graciously allowed us to take a table as a base of operations - thanks to her we achieved our second blag of the night.

From this auspicious start things just got better. The DJs surpassed themselves time and again. The real climax of the evening for me was the final set from DJ Woolfie. His swingstep and swing-hop set completely blew my mind. One track in particular, a remix of Dead Prez's "Hip Hop" was so pleasing that I had to go and ask him what it was - it turned out to be the first track on this little mix from DJ Twister.
  Swing Session Vol. 1 (preview) available now at JunoDownload by Dj Twister

All in all I think it was probably the best electro-swing night I have been to. The main dance floor had just enough space for some vigourous dancing, without being empty, and the people were extremely friendly. I love to see other people really getting into the music, so it was especially nice to be able to share a couple of dances with complete strangers - a sign, I feel, of the friendliness of the crowd.

In the absence of any pictures from the night, I offer you instead this rather lovely little mix from Woolfie. The title says it all really. Note that the whole mix is available for download from Soundcloud.

Wolfie - Razzmatazz Whomp Concerto no.5 by Wolfie Razzmatazz