Son Raw is back in the U.S.S.R. Not many club nights manage to attract attention outside of their home cities, particularly small, producer oriented ones. For all the hype around FWD and Low End Theory, theses were not (and are not) bacchanalian parties full of drug consumption and excess, they’re community run events by and […]
| Gage, Mr. Mitch and the maleability of genre | February 25, 2014 |
Son Raw is looking for a new room. Is genre even remotely useful anymore? From its earliest days as a tool for segregating “race” and “hillbilly” music in shops to its current status as a driver of ultra-specificity in dance music (minimal-psy-breaks anyone?), subcategorizing music into neatly defined boundaries has created as many problems as […]
| 12 tracks of fire: An exclusive interview with JT The Goon | February 11, 2014 |
JT The Goon is a legend and U.O.E.N.O it. From his days storming East London Pirate Radio as a teenager to his production for Grime’ legendary Slew Dem Crew, JT didn’t just have a front row seat for the foundation of UK street culture, he played an active, if oft unappreciated role. Now, after a […]
| Question in the Form of an Answer: Coyote Records | January 3, 2014 |
Son Raw on the interview tip for 2014 Nearly a dozen new Grime labels have popped up over the past 2 years, but only one capped off 2013 with a full-length compilation. Coyote Records is the brainchild of Mixmag Editor and Grime-advocate Tomas Fraser and is one of instrumental Grime’s most vital new outlets. Across […]
| Mr. Mitch – Suave MOFO | October 17, 2013 |
Son Raw lives for the funk but dies for lack of good weather. The funkiest man out the Boxed crew, Mr. Mitch might also be the producer least beholden to Grime’s past among a cluster of artists seeking to redefine London’s millennial sonic boom. Having already made noise through the anthemic Skittles on Butterz and […]
| Oldschool Methods and Failed Gods | September 24, 2013 |
Son Raw is a gawd. No pastries required. Reconfiguration is the word to play in UK dance music right now. Long past a single-genre singularity and finally distancing themselves from the post-everything soup of “Bass Music” that characterized the Dubstep diaspora, today’s producers are combining Afro-Caribbean riddims with London darkness, Grime’s sparseness to bassweight and […]
| The sound of Slackkness | May 29, 2013 |
Son Raw will abide no cursing and foul language. A genre’s vitality can be measured by how fast and how often it’s willing to reinvent itself. When movements and musical signifiers linger too long or worse, refuse to change altogether, things get boring but when the music evolves so quickly that multiple strains and ideas […]
