This article is the worst article in the world, ever.

I’m a big fan of Vice, and particularly enjoy the writing of people like Clive Martin and Joel Golby, whose takes on modern life are both refreshing and amusing. However, yesterday an article appeared on Thump, Vice’s music section, written by one Angus Harrison. The piece was called “Electro-swing is the worst genre of music in the world, ever”. As you might imagine, I didn’t see eye to eye with the premise of the post.

Angus’s article is flawed in many ways – the research was cursory at best. Here’s a tip, Gus: if you are going to ridicule an act for not having an imaginative name, it is probably best not to have invented the act in the first place. There is no act called ‘Electro Swing’ that I or anyone else in the scene has heard of. However, knowing what I do of Vice, I’m prepared to accept that this may well have been written with tongue  firmly in cheek.  In fact, the whole piece lacks the sort of coherent argument that I would expect of an op:ed, which makes me think the whole thing may just be an exercise in pisstaking. However, I don’t think we can let the piece stand unchallenged, joke or not. Perhaps I’ll come across as taking it all a bit too seriously… but then, that’s my job, really. In many ways I’d like to thank Angus: he has forced me to think about why I and so many others love electro-swing, despite its unremitting silliness.

As you may have gathered, Angus doesn’t like electro-swing. That’s fine. He doesn’t have to. We are all free to listen to Coldplay, we are all free to like Coldplay. We are even (though the circumstances under which this could happen escape me) free to think that Coldplay are the “greatest dance act of alltime”.  I may be reading it wrong (and after all, I like the worst genre in the world, so don’t trust me), but by my reading of the article can be summed up with the sentence – “I don’t like electro-swing because it’s all a bit vintagey and hipstery and I don’t like those things; and the fans all seem to actually enjoy themselves at gigs, whereas I like being moody and cool, and worse, my friends actually enjoy it too and now I feel left out, why can’t I join in?”

Well, buddy – I’ve got good news: you can. Just leave the attitude at home.

It takes Angus a little while to get going with his article. I suspect that he secretly knew he was thin on material and needed to pad things out a bit. Having expended 700 words explaining what electro-swing is, that he hates it, and that he didn’t like the night he went to while at University, he arrives at the main point of his article: “Why,” he asks, and you can almost hear the plaintive bleat in his voice, “Why in 2015 are these bands and DJs still getting booked? Why are offshoot nights like Itchy Feet still so popular? Why, despite it clearly being the worst genre of music in the world ever—and it is, this isn't an opinion piece alright?—does it sustain a following at all?”

Interestingly, many of the questions he rhetorically asks of his electro-swing loving friends (“"Why?" you asked them, tears welling in your eyes, "Why are you doing this? You don't wear brogues! You don't throw Alice in Wonderland themed tea parties! You don't own lace gloves! These aren't your people!") offer hints to answer the larger question as to how electro-swing continues to capture the imagination all these years on.

Here’s why Gus is wrong, and electro-swing is the best genre of music in the world ever:

It’s a ridiculously friendly, non-judgemental scene

You see, one misapprehension that Angus appears to be labouring under is that you can only like electro-swing if you like vintage clothes, vintage fairs and “vintage cockrings.” Nothing could be further from the truth

Speak to anyone involved electro-swing, and ask them what they like about it, and one of the first things you’ll hear is that it is an amazingly open and friendly scene. There’s no word of a lie when I say that electro-swing brings people together in a way that no other dance music does. It seems to transcend barriers of class, age and race, and brings people together in a positive atmosphere. There’s never any aggression at an electro-swing event, and more importantly, there’s no judgement. You don’t have to have a vintage trilby or lace gloves to go to an electro-swing event, and no one is going to look you up and down and sneer at your choice of outfit. No door-keeper is going to turn you away because he doesn’t like your trainers. Nor is anyone going to sneer at you for liking the wrong DJ, or get all beard-strokey about it. On the other hand, you may well pick up a compliment or two if you’ve made a bit of an effort, and the DJ may come and have a chat with you after her set.

Classic tunes are… classics

Angus seems to have a problem with the sort of people who like electro-swing, which is, as I have suggested above, a bit of a problematic position to take. To say that you don’t like the kind of people who like electro-swing is rather like declaring your distaste for everyone. The scene is not only universally accepting, but has universal appeal. The very definition of the sound – blending classic swing (and other) sounds with contemporary electronic music - means that it appeals to fans of those two broad styles. The source material, by artists like Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Ray Charles and Peggy Lee, is, nearly a century after it was first recorded, still instantly recognisable and evocative. Familiarity is a powerful thing in music, and to hear something that one knows well reworked and reimagined is always interesting.

A place in the history of popular music

This, of course, says nothing about how important to the history of western popular music that original swing sound was. Without swing there would be no rock n roll, no hip hop, no dubstep, no Coldplay (sorry Angus). It is also worth noting the social significance of the swing sound. Swing was the first true dance music in popular culture. You might think that boshing a few lines of marching powder on a Saturday night is a hyper-modern thing to do, but those jazz musicians were hoovering it up like Dysons nearly a hundred years ago. The fact that we are doing the same thing all this time later, to the same tunes, is very pleasing to me – there’s a lovely completeness to it.

The social factor

Electro-swing has been described as “the music of the first great depression mixed with the technology of the second”, and it is hard to overestimate the truth in this statement. It is no coincidence that the two movements – swing and electro-swing – took place against a background of financial upheaval and hardship. Just as in times of recession the hemlines of ladies’ clothes tends to creep upwards, in tough times people seek escapist experiences to deaden the pain of existence.  The glamour of electro-swing stands in stark contrast to everything else on offer in dance music. There’s no denying that deep house, with its moody minimalism, or dubstep’s industrial, urban grittiness offer much solace to those seeking respite from the grinding reality of everyday life.

The variety within the scene

So, with such great source material, the danger of utterly destroying it by dicking about with it is ever present. There is no denying that there is some truly shitty electro-swing out there, as with any genre. The success of acts like Parov Stellar and Caravan Palace has resulted in lots of formulaic, copycat producers appearing like a rash: token vintage sample with a 4x4 house track laid underneath – electro-swing by numbers. But this is the bad end of the spectrum. Forget Gramophondzie and “We no speak Americano”. Having interviewed a wide variety of electro-swing producers and artists in the last few years, one thing I know is that they are all extraordinarily talented, with a real appreciation for the skill of the original musicians. The best of them take the rhythms and melodies of the original swing style and weave them together with a variety of different styles to create something that reinvents while respecting the original.

Swing’s position at the root of all popular music means that it is remarkably versatile in terms of what it can be blended with. The formula house+vintage sample no longer holds true, and has spawned a variety of awkwardly named sub-genres: swingnbass; dubswing, swing-hop – there’s even some reggae-swing sets out there. Before I came across electro-swing I was into both swing and dance music, but I found that attending either sort of night could get dull, listening to the same types of rhythms all night. Drum n bass is all very well, but 6 hours of it is too much for me. An electro-swing night, on the other hand, can see the bpm moving right through the gears, taking is a massive variety of styles.  Artists are also experimenting with other source materials – blues is a fertile hunting-ground, as is funk, which has given birth to its own parallel genre “Ghetto Funk”. The musicality of swing comes though into the reworkings, so you get dancable music with meaningful (well, sometimes) lyrics and melody.

For me the contrasts, the juxtapositions, are what make electro-swing so much fun. Until you’ve heard a dubstep remix of the Pink Panther theme, you just haven’t lived.

It is sexy

It really, really is. All those stockings. And the wiggly bottoms.  

It is unremittingly silly

Angus is cynical about the ‘fun’ aspect of electro-swing, and rails against the idea that it can be seen as “an antidote to “boring” or “pretentious” club music.” To an extent, he is right – there is a sense in which electro-swing stands apart from ‘trendy’ music. He rightly worries about anything that sets itself up as ‘fun’. I personally hate this time of year for all the enforced festive jollity – sod off with your egg nog and hot wine, bugger off with your Christmas music and your Christmas markets – so I completely understand. I also understand his concern about electro-swing existing in opposition to mainstream club music.  

However, we have all been in club nights with some big-name DJ geeking about with deep house, only to be met with a sea of frowning, nodding heads, no one dancing, just instagramming each other photos of the DJ and making hand-hearts. You’re not going to see this at an electro-swing night. And that is because electro-swing is, with out question, one of the more ridiculous genres to have emerged in recent years. Electro-swing is silly. Really, really silly. There’s no sense in denying it. And I think that this is where Angus has missed the point, really. He thinks its all about posing, about being ‘different’ and proving oneself cool. But the reality is the opposite. It is basically impossible to be cool and be at an electro-swing event. The two are just mutually exclusive, like Britain First and the ability to spell, or Donald Trump and reasoned debate. If you want to go and enjoy yourself at an electro-swing gig you’re going to have to leave any hopes of looking cool at the door. The music, the clothes, the way it makes you dance: it’s not going to end well.

And it is this that I think is stopping Angus from having fun with his friends. Stop worrying about whether its cool or not, old chap. It doesn’t matter. Just let those muted trumpets wash over you. Don’t fight it. It’s ok. It’s ok. Yeah. That’s it. Daddy’s got you. Just let it go. Just. Let. It. Go. There you go. So much better now.

You’ll be so much happier, and you’ll get your friends back.

But seriously, Gus, if you want to come to an electro-swing night and leave the judgement at the door, I’d be happy to take you.

 *everyone has one.

GUEST BLOG - DJR's Boomtown Report

Owing to my pal Benjamin deciding to get married on the same weekend as Boomtown  Fair I was unable to attend this year's jamboree. This was a sad state of affairs, since Boomtown is just a few miles from the my family's country seat, has the best Vintage Remix line-up of any festival in the world, and is one heck of a party. Fear not, dear reader - Ben has been chastised.

BUT, I would never leave you wondering what went down at an event like Boomtown, so I went on the hunt for a correspondent to give you all the lowdown.. Happily, DJR of the Free Breaks Blog stepped up to the plate. Without further wittering from me, here is what he had to say about the weekend.

Hey hey swingers and swingettes! Jack The Cad couldn’t make this year’s Boomtown festival and since I wouldn’t shut up about it he asked me to write a report of some of the goings on. In case you’re wondering who I am, some of you will know me from my own ‘Electro Swing Roundup’ over at Free Breaks Blog. For those who don’t, I’m DJR and I try to keep an eye on all the latest music in the scene. If you’re a DJ looking for fresh music, or just keen to hear the latest tunes check out my posts on the 1st of the month (or thereabouts!)at http://freebreaksblog.com/category/music/electro-swing/.

So. What was Boomtown 2014 like then? Well it’s a hard festival to sum up. They focus less on having lots of superstar names in favour of having an incredible strength and depth with every single small and medium size act they can find from a diverse range of styles, including swing, reggae, roots, ska, punk, and pretty much the whole spectrum of dance music (apart from mainstream house), and they seem to find a home for every single band in the country that has lots of members. Brass section? String section? 'Orchestra', 'Collective' or 'Ensemble' in your name? Yep you’re in. They also have a legendary attention to detail which means that the site looks incredible. In truth I can’t even start to describe it, so best watch this instead:



From a swing point of view they always have an incredible line-up, in no small part due to Town's Sherrif Kaptin (solo DJ and part of the Big Swing Soundsystem) who ensured that they continued to have the hottest line-up of vintage artists of any event in the country. Last year’s festival was triumphantly completed by Pavor Stelar, so this year they had to pull all their strings and ensure that they could match the line-up again; and match it they did, recruiting amongst (many) others Dunklebunt and the Secret Swing Society, Tape Five, Algorhythmik, and pretty much all the stars of the UK based swing scene. Here’s the promo mix they put together in advance:



I’d like to say that I managed to see all of these, however Boomtown is one of those festivals where due to the sheer number of stages (over 70 fully programmed stages for four days) you seem to spend lots of time missing everything you planned to see and discovering other incredible stuff instead. Therefore I’ll just talk about what I saw.

The main stage for vintage mayhem at Boom is the Ballroom stage which once again looked incredible. Over the weekend it was graced by a veritable who’s who of the swing world, plus circus performers, (if you’ve never seen them search 'hoop hooligans' online!) , burlesque beauties, and all sorts of vintage reprobates.

In musical terms my highlights were: 

Elle & the Pocket Belles who seem to be going from strength to strength since adding Mistatrick to their lineup. This means that they can choose between doing a classic swing style show, and doing a electro swing show where Mistatrick adds beats and bass. This is what they played in the Ballroom and it went down really well on the Saturday afternoon. Sadly there's no footage from their Boomtown performances, but here's a video of them shot at Glasto this year.






The Big Swing Soundsystem rocked it late on Saturday night, giving Kaptin a chance to relax from festival duties while Hypeman Sage did what it says on the tin and hyped the crowd. 
The Electric Swing Circus always go down a storm and this they did again, particularly with a great set in the town square early on Saturday, including The C@ In The H@ on FX and scratching duties.





Other acts worth mentioning are the Chicken Brothers who seem very at home on the big stage now; Chris Tofu who is always in his element at any festival both performing front of house, and backstage controlling the multitude of bands and ensuring that the show went on; Smokey Joe & The Kidd with their great live and VJ show; and Madame Electrife who followed last year's Chinese Laundry with a new General Store Venue in the Wild West district.

The weather did make the festival. It was a little challenging at times, particularly on the Friday night when it did turn nasty, creating a lot of mud to contend with (on a very hilly site!) however, apart from one small glitch, the Ballroom, being indoors was a brilliant respite from the elements.

Alex’s Last Gigs With Dutty Moonshine

For myself and many other swing fans, one of the most important, 'can’t miss' moments of the weekend was Alex Furley's last gig with Dutty Moonshine.

As was reported in this blog (check here if you missed it: http://jackthecad.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/alex-leaves-dutty-moonshine.html ), Alex has decided to move on from Dutty Moonshine and focus on other projects both within music and his career. So how would they sign off with their time with him? Well to start with, newest member of the group Danny managed to get himself locked out of the site after returning after the 10pm curfew when everyone had to be inside the site. This was sad for him, but maybe appropriate for Mike and Furley that they signed him off as they started – together.

So with a packed Ballroom stage at 3am on Friday night, Mike and Furley tore into their customary swing & bass set for about 20minutes before Mike handed over the controls fully to Alex and let him do what he wanted. I think even Alex wasn’t quite sure what he was going to play, because he tore into a set of big bass heavy hip-hop classics, mixed unpredictably and at a furious pace. There was no swing in sight, however Furley clearly enjoyed having the freedom and it went down really well with an excitable crowd. Then finally to sign it off, Mike called Furley to the front of the stage, and well, this happened...



Athough this was treated as Alex’s proper last gig, in actual fact it was the day after when, all three of them this time(!), played a much lower key set at Charlie Brown's across from the Ballroom (a spectacular speakeasy populated with gangsters and molls in brilliantly rendered style).

The post-script to this farewell is that following on from this gig, I actually managed to catch Dutty Moonshine play a week later in Birmingham. This time they had a much smaller crowd, however Danny and Mike will clearly have fun together because they showed they are still masters at rocking any venue big or small. Danny’s clearly enjoyed the ride so far although he is going to have some work keeping up with Mike’s infamous partying! Still they did get to be put on the side of a building.

While I’ve got the chance, there’s one more slot I can talk about. 24 hours after the Dutties' big sendoff, I had the privilege of playing the Ballroom stage to close the Saturday night lineup. Following on from the ever reliable C@ In The H@ who had the crowd rocking to his bass heavy shenanigans, I had a great set, enjoying the chance to play quite heavy for once and dropping in plenty of bangers transitioning from hip-hop tempo right up to drum & bass including a healthy dose of swing, soul & funk and rock & roll. If you fancy checking it out have a listen to this:



That’s it. I hope I’ve whetted your appetite, and I’ve barely even mentioned everything else that went on... the best reggae stage in the country, the mighty Arcadia (if you don’t know – check Youtube) and so many other stages also featuring the cream of their particular scene. In fact, don’t bother listening to me just see me on the dance-floor next year!

Lifestyle - Sharps Barbers - Windmill Street, London

This post heralds the arrival of a new section of the blog - a section about businesses and events associated with electro-swing, but not of it, namely clothing, drinks etc. This one deals with the bristly issue of barbering.

I was invited to the launch of Sharp's Barbers new flagship store in Windmill Street last week. As those who have met me know, I am extremely attached to my 'tache. However, I have never been professionally barbed (is that the right verb), so I was keen to find out more about these guys, who are keen to promote the idea that 'Maintenance Matters'.

They are trying to offer a service aimed directly at gentlemen, an alternative to feeling awkward in Tony&Guy or the 'what can I do you for' brigade and their electric clippers. The shop has a pleasing retro feel, with vintage barber's chairs and a table tennis table in the waiting area - gone are the days of leafing through ragged copies of Esquire magazine!

Although at the launch we were served proper drinks (the G&Ts I had may have played a small part in my leaving my laptop on the tube later that evening), they will be serving high quality, barista-style coffee and will even have a pop-up food event later next month.

"Enough!" I hear you cry. "Did you let them near your 'tache?" In the end, and to my great satisfaction, the barber and I decided that it didn't need any work, and that my nail-scissor trimming of the lip-hedge had been accurate enough, despite the shakiness of my hands in the mornings. That said, the barber in question (Andy, I think his name was), did give me a fantastic haircut - he really listened to what I asked for, and then gave me some tips as to how to achieve the same effect.

Some bounder getting a haircut

My one moment of concern was when he suggested the use of a hairdryer to 'add volume'. Quite apart from not being prepared to be someone who worries about whether their hair has volume (this is a musical term, no?), hairdryers are very noisy and I tend to be a bit fragile before about three in the afternoon.

Their price list is very reasonable. If you just want your facial topiary straightened out (perhaps you are due in front of the magistrate for pinching a policeman's helmet, or have to meet the mother of that heiress you met last weekend) it will cost you a mere £16.50 - pennies for avoiding ten days without the option or the withering glance of a protective parent. I strongly recommend trying them out.

SwinGrowers take the Rebel Colonies by storm

For the last few weeks the SwinGrowers have been touring the USA and Canada. Despite lots of travelling and plenty of gigs, they took the time out to have a chat with me. I have been interested to see how long it would take for electro-swing to really take off in the States, especially given the rise of EDM (ptui!) and the debates it has provoked both in the States and in the wider dance music world. The reception these guys get should provide a good barometer or litmus test. [Jack the Cad - bringing you not one but two clichéd metaphors to choose from] 

For those who don't know them the SwinGrowers are an Italian outfit, consisting of DJ/producer Roberto Pisk, vocalist Loredana, and manouche guitarist Alessio. They hail from Sicily, but have been touring hard. Their album "Pronounced Swing Grow'ers" came out last year and was one of my top 5 releases of the year.

The tour has seen them drop in on Speakeasy Electro Swing Montreal, the longest running electro-swing night in North America, and other venues in San Francisco, New York and a host of other glamourous places.The first thing I wanted to know was how they have been getting on in the land which gave us swing music in the first place. "Everything is going great!" they tell me enthusiastically. They say they have been shown fantastic hospitality, great support from the promoters and a lot of pampering. Montreal has been the highlight so far: " There is a big electro-swing crowd there, and the whole audience was there to see the SwinGrowers. In any case, the cities where we have been have all been great because each one is different from the other and because they are all completely different from home. Here, everything is a surprise." 

North Americans, in the eyes of lots of Europeans, have taken a while to really appreciate dance music, so I wanted to know how audiences have reacted to their sound. Happily, it seems they have been well received. "We have had nothing but  positive reactions! At the end of every show people we get loads of compliments. There are parts in the show where people go crazy: when Pisk sings with the vocoder, or during Alessio's solos, or when Loredana gets the audience dancing." They must have done something right as their New York show sold out.

And how do the crowds across the water compare to those in the UK? Favourably, it would seem: "The U.S. audience is giving us lots of feedback. It is an interactive audience that receives and then gives it back. If we wanted to compare the U.S. and the UK crowds, we can say that they are very similar! Both warm and active. The only difference perhaps is that in the UK we are always inside of Europe, so we can say that we are "at home", whereas in the U.S. and CANADA we are on the other side of the ocean, so people are really excited to find the Italians on stage!"

We can see what they are talking about in this fantastically cool little video of Lore doing her thing in Tompkins Square Park in the NYC.




At the time of writing they have two gigs left in North America: Toronto on Friday 26th April and 27th April in Detroit. Having said that, they also promise further dates to be added, so keep an eye on their Facebook page if you are in that part of the world. 

One thing I forgot to ask them... when will you be back in the UK guys?

Photo Diary: The Swing Dig' with Elle and the Pocket Belles

A couple of weeks ago I was fortunate enough to be invited along to see the delectable Elle and the Pocket Belles performing at "The Swing Dig", supported by DJ Fred Balkayou. Elle and the girls performed with their Big Band, and put on a typically polished performance. 

The venue, The Nursery, is in a railway arch near Southwark and was packed to bursting. The place is a sort of multi-purpose space and the whole event had a pleasingly home-made feel to it. In place of a cloakroom there was a clothes rail, while in the absence of an entry stamp the chap on the door drew a unicorn on the back of my hand. 

It was particularly nice to bump into DJ Shefitza, the lady behind SwingStep, an electro-swing night  in Shepherd's Bush.

Below are a few of the pictures from the event, some taken by me, and others by Neil Gordon, to whom I am very grateful. (NB - Neil's are the ones that look professional)