Son Raw’s local label could use some help
As was discussed on le Twitter recently, it’s easy to fetishize Bristol. The place is home to less than 500,000 people yet puts out some of the world’s best music year in and year out, often in tiny vinyl-only quantities that completely ignores the very idea of blowing up. Through a lucky confluence of history, geography, and DIY grit, the mythical “scene” there punches massively above its weight, even as locals assure the world that the city itself is suffering from the same plague of gentrification afflicting every place worth living right now.
Still, it’s hard for me to feel too bad when your local record shop is the massively on point Idle Hands, and your local label celebrating an anniversary is bass music heavyweight Tectonic. Those bad feelings wither away entirely when said record shop and label team up with Radar Radio for an all day takeover with sets by Loefah, Ishan Sound, Gemmy, Joker, Pinch (with Riko Dan), Guido, Ipman, Headhunter, Peverelist, 2562, and a half dozen more leading lights and legends. Booking one of those names here and coming out ahead would be a challenge.
I haven’t listened to the entire day’s worth of content yet because hey, I do things on Sunday, but while tuning in and out I heard dubstep, futuristic bass music, don’t-call-it-techno, and practically every other dance music sound worth paying attention to. It’s a show of a force from one of the very few bass music imprints from the late aughts still delivering compelling ideas for each release, and a great opportunity to hear guys like Loefah, 2562, and Headhunter return to their roots for a quick sesh. Plus the entire day’s output feels only slightly longer than Culture II.
