muck and dunder – devizine.com

Barry Ashworth, one half of the mighty big beat pioneers The Dub Pistols is heading to Devizes in November for a DJ set at our fantastic Caribbean holiday at home rum bar, The Muck & Dunder….

Dance music in the UK came of age in the mid-nineties. Subgenres blossomed from the rave scene, but left maturing ravers adrift. Appeasing an upcoming generation, ‘hardcore’ rave separated into “happy” and jungle, while house music began to get tiresome. It was, as it ever is, up to the UK to progress dance music, and they’d use the indigenous breakbeat house, a fusion of hip hop and reggae.

What Coldcut, the Prodigy, Norman Cook, and acts like the Chemical Brothers laid down next was a phenomenon, naturally, the next stage, and filled a gap. Big Beat would accommodate our love of hip hop and dub reggae, fuse them into a universal party style. This is where The Dub Pistols fit into the story.

Formed as a DJ duo around 1996 in London, Barry, and Jason O’Bryan, created a fluctuating collective and began recording tracks by 1998. No strangers to Wall of Sound, The Social and Brighton’s grounding, The Dub Pistols are prolific, amassing seven studio albums to date, and working on numerous film and video game soundtracks.

Aside my Uncle Albert moment, what we can expect from The Dub Pistols isn’t akin to my retrospective waffling, though Jason left the collective fourteen years ago, Barry and the band has continued to progress the sound to suit contemporary dance music, collaborating with UK rappers like Rodney P, and remixing tracks from Ian Brown, Limp Bizkit and The Crystal Method.

I think we’re in good hands for a large night, and again, The Muck & Dunder bucks the Devizes stalwarts of particular musical genres to provide us with quality dance music acts. The Dub Pistols’ Barry Ashworth comes to The Muck on Friday 8th November. Tickets are not available yet. Follow them on social media for updates, I’ll share the news on ours or pop into Muck for a Piña Colada or three; you’re worth it!

Okay, clever clogs among us I’m sure will tell me the Eskimo Nebula is a bipolar double-shell planetary nebula, 6,500 light-years away which is surrounded by gas making it resemble a person’s head surrounded by a parka hood, hence its name. I knew that already and didn’t need you to tell me, or Wikipedia, honest, but I’m talking closer to home; the Bristol dub duo due to skank up Devizes on the 11th November. Quit the astronomical smalltalk, pass me a piña colada, there’s a good chap, we’re off to The Muck!

Yo, gotta love the Muck & Dunder, it’s like being on a Caribbean holiday right here in Devizes. I kinda fell out of there scanning the Brittox sulking, oh, it was just a dream, I’m not maxing relaxing on Mullins Bay. But more to the point, they bring us diversity to our music scene, and I don’t mean a dance troupe. We’ve seen the likes of The Allergies, The Scribes, and Gardna, we’ve bore witness to sporadic salsa street dancing outbreaks, but, it’s a rum bar, we need reggae.

This one, I believe, is down to our resident Vernon Kay and all-around good guy skateboarder, James Threlfall, who likely won’t speak to me for weeks after that quip(!) as he’s featured Eskimo Nebula on his BBC Introducing in the West show, and for the record I love Vernon, it was a compliment. Thank you, James, Stuart and Shelly, for bringing them to the Muck, because I hadn’t heard of them, thought I was a nilly know-it–all about reggae, took one listen online and was like, that’s up my street knocking loudly on my door.

Their agents, Diplomats of Sound, describe them thus: “Eskimo Nebula are a husband and wife electronic duo, taking influence from Jamaican and UK sound system culture. Their music is a blend of hard hitting dub, high spirited reggae and powerful bass, all brought together by their own joyfully uplifting and recognisable sound. Multi-instrumentalists Adjua and Dean Forrest, who together fronted eight piece reggae outfit Backbeat Soundsystem on Easy Star Records, have joined forces to pursue their passion for electronic production. Their show is a live/electronic hybrid performance, where you can expect a dynamic fusion of synthesisers, dub sirens, huge bass, live instruments, killer vocals and trippy effects.”

“Revered for having a captivating stage presence and for connecting with the audience on a deep level, Esikmo Nebula will leave you inspired, empowered and energised. With continuous support from BBC DJ’s including reggae legend David Rodigan on BBC 1Xtra, this exciting new project is speedily on the rise and their live show is not to be missed!”

Nuff said, if it’s good enough for good ol’ Rodigan, it’s good enough for me, and as for the rest of you, I’ll drop some YouTube and links below to convince you to join me, tickets are a brown one, get ’em HERE.