Today we’re going to have a little round-up of the big stories from the world of music in the last few weeks.
Starting things off, a couple of sad stories. The untimely deaths of legendary DJ and musician Andrew Weatherall, and young rapper Pop Smoke, shocked their fans.
First off – the tragic death of Pop Smoke, shot dead in LA. The circumstances are still a little murky, but what we do know is that multiple suspects turned up at his rented property in the Hollywood Hills in LA, one entered the property around 4.30am, shots were fired, and Pop Smoke was killed. Many theories are flying around – his address was visible in social media posts that day on luggage tags, which led some to speculate that this was a robbery gone wrong. But the fact that the masked gunman appeared to exit without anything, and the others didn’t enter the property (according to sources who claim to have seen CCTV), seems to contradict that idea. Police are investigating the possibility that it was a gang-related hit – Pop Smoke has been linked with the Crips by some officials. Whatever the circumstances, its a terribly sad loss, and a tragic death for a young rapper on the verge of really crossing over into being a huge star.
Check out this New York Drill playlist, featuring several of Pop Smoke’s big tracks.
Moving on to Andrew Weatherall, who died in hospital of a pulmonary embolism, at the age of 56. He is probably best known as the remixer behind the classic Primal Scream album, Screamadelica, one of the seminal albums of the rave revolution in the early ’90s. He completely reinvented their blues-rock sound into something quite unique, creating multiple magnificent anthems that catapulted the band to stardom. I was a huge fan of his sound – I went to see Primal Scren at the time, had the famous sun logo on various T-Shirts, and I saw Weatherall DJ in all sorts of venues, at all sorts of times of day.
To me he was, without doubt, the best electronic DJ in the world. A master selector, drawing on genres as diverse as techno and rockabilly, with an incredible grip on dynamics, of tension and release – the key to a great dance music set in my view. He first rose to real prominence at the famous Shoom night, one of the earliest Acid House parties, and the one best known in the Acid House revolution in London in the late ’80s and early 90s. He went on to form Boy’s Own Records, and was instrumental in laying down the blueprint for Trip Hop.
One of the fascinating things about Weatherall was his career trajectory – he easily could have become a superstar like many of his contemporaries went on to be, but chose instead to stay true to the music he loved. Memorably, he was quoted saying
“It’s a lot of work, once you go up that slippery showbiz pole, and it would keep me away from what I like which is making things. I mean, I had a little look in the early nineties. I stood at the bottom of that pole and looked up and thought to myself ‘The view’s pretty good. But it’s very greasy and there are a lot of bottoms up there that I might have to brush my lips again. So, maybe I’ll give it a miss’.”
As a result, he remained a relatively underground figure, but absolutely beloved and universally respected within those circles. A true gentleman, an incredible story-teller, and a real one-off.
Every time I saw him DJ, I would be blown away by his selections, almost never recognising a single song. Even with the advent of Shazam, I would rarely be able work out what he was playing, other than that it was brilliant. I last saw him in the late afternoon in a converted warehouse in Hackney Wick late last summer, and he played a magical, mid-tempo, disco-tinged set as the light from the windows slowly changed.
If you are curious to hear more, fans have compiled a truly incredible goldmine of his sets here, in what has been dubbed the Weatherdrive. Over 900 hours of his mixes, spanning decades, with more to be uploaded.
Staying in the UK, news came out this week of something which may make a huge difference for DJs across Europe.
New visa rules for performing artists were announced, to take effect from January 1st 2021. A tier 5 visa of this sort would cost £244, and last for between 12 and 24 months, and would be required by both the artists, and their crews. Politico reported that they would be needed for live performance as well as competitions, auditions, promotional activities, workshops, talks and taking part in cultural events. Its not clear if this is a final position, or if this could be subject to change should the UK government manage to arrange a deal with the EU. As someone who DJs regularly across Europe, and loves to see the best European DJs play in London, I will be following this closely. It certainly could have a huge impact on small and medium level clubs, promoters and acts, where margins tend to be razor-thin.
In more light-hearted news, Eminem has launched what he is calling the Godzilla Challenge. Its certainly a hell of a challenge to spit that fast, and that precisely! He’ll be reposting the best efforts, and awarding prizes, and it’ll be interesting to see what talent this unearths!
“Fill ‘em with the venom and eliminate ‘em” @triller #GodzillaChallenge is on. Who can spit it? Reposting + got prizes for my favorites. https://t.co/jWfW83X7P8 pic.twitter.com/jKMpJH7nw7
— Marshall Mathers (@Eminem) February 25, 2020
Over in Ibiza, bass-driven event Together at Amnesia has announced its line-up for summer 2020. Chase & Status will be performing 10 shows to mark them playing at Together for 10 years, and the likes of Shy FX, Sub Focus, Holy Goof, Wilkinson, Redlight and more will be joining them.
The Brit Awards 2020 took place earlier this month, which I wrote about here.
And finally, The Roots were honoured by Philadelphia City Council by having a stretch of East Passyunk declared “Avenue Of The Roots”, a well deserved recognition of their incredible career!
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