After the MOG rescue team apparently did a database rollback or something the like, my post from Sunday night just disappeared and with it all of the comments. So here's a second try, as I wrote for hours an this review and it luckily was still was in the buffer of my text editor. So don't read this, if you already have - it's all the same ;).
Finally I visited the long awaited turntable marathon session of Mr. Scruff in the Koko in Camden (London). The whole thing began at 9 pm and lasted until 3 am when they closed the club.
First of all I have to say that the Koko is a wonderful location. I would even go so far to say that it is the most beautiful club, that I have seen so far. Held in a dark bordeaux red, what happens to be one of my favorite colours, and beeing a former theatre from around 1900 is has four levels and one big dancefloor at the lowest level. The other "levels" consist of former loges in a half circle around the dancefloor so that at the very beginning everybody is staring at the empty dancefloor and at DJ and decks.
The latter mentioned has a reasonably big area in the front area of the dancefloor and is a level higher than the ordinary masses on the dancefloor. If you should happen to be the first one to shake your ass, you can be sure to be watched by hundrets, why it needed some time until the masses diffused to the lowest level and filled the dancefloor. when I entered th Koko at maybe quarter to half past nine, Mr. Scruff had already begun his musical journey with some beautiful top notch soul and soulful tracks, which where all unknown to me. The quality of the sound system in the Koko is fantastic. All frequencies were represented adequately so that the music could spread all of its glory and produce a wonderful atmosphere. As he was located so high above the crowd and behind a massive desk of turntables and mixer I sadly couldn't aks him for some of the tracks ... damn.
I finally went out smoking, happened to meet there some other guys from continental Europe had a small chat with them, returned maybe 15 minutes later and boom:
the dancefloor was packed, the volume had increased and the genre had changed to something that went straight into the direction Reggae and Dancehall without ever arriving there. I was a bit disappointed, as I like soul a lot more than Raggae and the increase of volume also had led to a decrease of quality as some frequencies disappeared with the volume. But well, the crowd was shaking, so I don't want to be the one to backbite. Anyway, I never would have believed that the time of two cigarettes could change that much - there must have been a kind of stampede in direction dancefloor while I was outside.
The next three hours were musically seen a mix of different genres of electronica, that are hard to classify. A bit of breakbeats, a bit of Dupstep and also more monotonic things there tended to techno, but never relly were techno. He sometimes went back to more organic music, but without loosing the drive.
To the left and right of the DJ desk were huge screen, where Mr Scruffs funny artwork, which consists of his minimalistic cartoons where showed and modulated according to the music. The good thing, that I really like about him, is his non-serious style what alleviates the chance of aggressions on the dancefloor, that can appear easily with techno and base heavy music. But with slogans like "Drink more tea", "two pieces of sugar please" and "Wobble your legs" this is hardly going to happen.
Essentially they look like this (ignore the first 10 seconds)
The first time, when I heard his very own tracks, was at quarter past two. But I had been smoking meanwhile a few times so that I'm not sure if he had thrown some of his tracks in between before. His more base heavy tracks were announced with "Maximum rumblage" on the screens and he held, what this saying promised. The whole Koko rumbled a lot and they brought me back on my feet again after an hour of weakness or so. The last track - and the only one that I could get hold of - was "Sexual Healing" of The Hot 8 Brass Band, which is the posted song. Recapitulatory I can say, that it was a quite nice night and I'd like to recommend Mr. Scruff as DJ to everyone, who likes to let his hair down and the Koko as a wonderful location.
My Trusted MOGs
Never been to the Koko. From your pictures it not only looks gorgeous, but very festive as well. I dig the "Sexual Healing" remix/cover.
My Trusted MOGs
Yeah, you can call it 'festive' too. The charm of more then one century is not to deny. And I just read, that it's sound system would be one of the best ones of London. And at the beginning of the session the quality was relly awesome for such a big room.
My Trusted MOGs
yeah Hermes- u take those shots? i love em! Sounds like a swell time.
My Trusted MOGs
No indie, due to the lack of a digicam I didn't take any shots ;). Just googled for those picks to loosen the text a bit.
My Trusted MOGs
Will do that, Michelle! If I only wouldn't have to pay 20 Pounds only for getting to London and back. That sucks a bit and limits my musical excursions to the big town.
My Trusted MOGs
great review. so sorry for the loss of post.
i know you're on strike an all but all i can say is, it's sure not for a lack of trying. trust me. ask our families and friends who don't see us anymore.
that's why i don't fully get the strike. it's not like we don't care. we care so much it kills us. the strike won't get us to work harder because that's not possible.
contrabandwidth crossed the picket line and is back. don't kick a man while he's down brother.
peace and love (we do love y'all)
-d
My Trusted MOGs
O.k. David, if it helps you I will just "restore" my ordinary picture and go on a silent strike until next week. My primary goal was to unburden system, if overloading should happen to be the root of the problem. The last thing I intended was to hurt this site or to run some investors - or whereever the money for this site comes from - away from this site. Don't punch your programmers too much - extreme pressure is usually not the best basis for solid work, a bit of it is usually not the worst idea - that's my experience with myself ;). I really appreciate your efforts. Beeing a computer scientist I know, that those machines sometimes can really suck.
My Trusted MOGs
hermes, trust me. i learned the hard way. in the past, at mog, i pushed too hard and they some left.
and... thanks for this comment. i means the world to me and the team.
My Trusted MOGs
here is more info on the Mr. Scruff thing i mentioned:
http://www.mixmag.net/content/mr-scruff-launches-ninja-tuna
It's called "Ninja Tuna"! he has always been on Ninja Tunes, but they're taking it a step further. that's all... it sez:
Along with his label (Ninja Tune), Scruff will releasing various bits of Scruff 'ephemera intramedia and post-prandial devicing - music, clothing, merchandise, art, technology, widgets, wall vinyls, videos, refrigeration devices, you bloody name it' to support his musical releases.
My Trusted MOGs
Yay I love Mr Scruff! I've found so many good groups/DJs off the Ninja Tune label. Ahh I live in London at weekends, become a county bumpkin by weekdays... Anyway it all makes for good musical weekends which is the point. I love going to gigs at Koko almost as much as I love FWD/Rinse and Durr nights at The End... if your in london you should check them out, and the little random free gigs at Vibe Bar, they always have some new/interesting artists. ooo and thanks for the welcome, makes joining all worthwhile :)
My Trusted MOGs
oooh and i forgot, if you like the hip-hopped 30s jazz styley tracks of the Scruff (like the famous Get a Move On) then defos check out The Correspondents... their musicman Chuckles is amazing. I recommend Hit Back or The Pumpkin Bump http://www.myspace.com/chucklechucklechuckle http://www.myspace.com/thecorrespondentsmusic
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krooju - cool info mate! thanks for the links...
My Trusted MOGs
Koko is a fantastic club; Used to practically live there in the 80's when it was known as Camden Palace and it had Feet First every Tuesday night....
My Trusted MOGs
Sorry guys for the late late reply. I haven't been around in MOG for a while.
Had a lot of formalities to do here, and the European championship also robbed a lot of time - but that's a nice time killer ;).
@Moli: Thanks for the info. I looking forward for the stuff he will release there.
@krooju: it would love to live my whole weekend in London. But I just don't have enough money for this. Sadly it's as simple as this. Yesterday I missed one of the
DJ gigs of The Herbaliser. But it's end of the month :(. Many thanks for the tips.
Never heart of those clubs/bars and I will surely check them out at some point.
And thanks for the links to Chuckles and The Correspondents. I'm currently listening to them and what I hear is so far up my alley.
@Neill: You were a lucky man. I'd love to live in Camden. On the other side it might would be only hard for me with the money, that I earn in the moment. Just having this great club near and not beeing able to go there would be a serious pain in the ass. Intersting to hear that the theatre already was a club before the renaming, I didn't know that.
My Trusted MOGs
i don't know what was wrong with me when i first commented, maybe the strike had done my head in... i forgot to mention how wonderful this review is! totally top notch review and it sounds like a sizzling good time. i'd love to see Scruff live, especially after hearing all the electronic-type genres he tickled during the set. i didn't mention it before, but better late than never - great post and thanks for sharing!
My Trusted MOGs
Thanks for the props. I didn't have time to post lately. And our internet connection at home sucks big time - English infrastructure, hah ;) Mr. Scruff is definitively a good DJ, though he attracts here such a young audience, that I felt a bit like a Scruff veteran there ;).