A post shared by Johnathan ‘Spoony’ Joseph (@djspoony) on Jul 22, 2018 at 6:25am PDT

The Setup

Locking down the world-renowned Barbican is no mean feat – nevermind for a nostalgic Saturday night rave ‘for the people dem’. But it couldn’t have been a more appropriate location for the garage-meets-classical mashup, expertly conducted by composer and conductor Katie Chatburn and hosted by Spoony (who did everything from work the turntables to playing the trombone!).

The Ignition Orchestra

I’ve seen a fair few orchestra collaborations in my time – Kanye West’s Late Orchestration at Abbey Road studios in 2006 is still my favourite –and over the past few years, there’s been a rising trend of gigs in the capital offering clever interpretations of classic hip-hop and R&B albums. Sure, it’s a bit gimmicky, but there’s nothing like watching a collective of gifted musicians breathe new life into your favourite tunes. The Ignition Orchestra (reppin’ for Manchester) was also made up of a young bunch of virtuosos who probably weren’t even born when UK garage was in full swing – not that it mattered. They were a joy to watch and played their parts beautifully.

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The Setlist

Considering the ridiculous range and volume of a genre like UK garage, Spoony could’ve had an impossible task ahead of him. But there were some joints that were obvious contenders for the 20-song setlist (like Do You Really Like It, My Love and Gabriel to name but a few). There were also plenty of pleasant twists and turns, with instrumentals and a trio of backing vocalists shining as much as the various artist cameos (including Elizabeth Troy, Pied Piper, MC Neat, Lifford, Na-Na, MC Creed, So Solid and Kele Le Roc).

The Crowd

Put a bunch of old school garage heads in a room together, and what do you get? Pure euphoria and vibes on 100. People could hardly stay seated once their tune dropped – for obvious reasons!

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The possibility for more

As mentioned, there were 20 songs on the setlist, but with that, a  fair number of omissions – such as Ms Dynamite, Shola Ama, MJ Cole, Tina Moore, Monsta Boy, Lonyo, Shanks & Bigfoot, Craig David: the list goes on. But I can only imagine the next Garage Classical will fill in the blanks and then some with another night reminiscing over the good old days… booooooo!

DJ Spoony Presents Garage Classical is at the Eventim Apollo on 14 December. 

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Anyway, as it turns out,  he’s part of this new album called Two Beats, One Soul – a project featuring a bunch of American and Cuban artists coming together to make, well, music. And it’s pretty good. Other guests on the release include Jon B, Louie Vega and Shaggy, so if you’re here for those latin beats with a little twist, it’s definitely worth a listen.

But back to Eric Benet coming to town. I’ve only known and loved one his albums – 1999’s A Day In The Life, which I distinctly remember buying in Birmingham City Centre before rinsing it to death. Can we talk about Love Of My Own? Georgy Porgy? Why You Follow Me? Love The Hurt Away? That’s tune after tune after tune after TUNE.  I just hope those make the playlist at his gig this Thursday at the Electric Brixton. Anyone else going?

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Check out the playlist below – it’s currently on Spotify  and if you like what you hear, spread the word, follow Five Dope Tracks on Twitter, send me a message, or leave a comment below!

(PS – I did two playlists this month because the music made me do it (lol). Here’s part 2.)

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• getting new music in the post
• rating – or slating – that new music
• attending “album playbacks”, sometimes with the artist in attendance
• interviewing artists (new and old, promising and legendary), sometimes on the phone, occasionally in another country
• going to those musicians’ shows – sometimes in this country, sometimes in another city

It was a charmed life – a poorly paid one, mind you, but I had fun. Eventually, the love for the game died and I realised I preferred scrutinising starters at restaurants and hanging out in art galleries than waiting for the music industry to produce artists I could get excited about – like really excited about, not “you’ve flown me halfway across the world to listen to a wack album but I’m gonna pretend to like it because free flight and hotel innit” excited. Trust me, it’s happened.

Anywho, to prevent this becoming unnecessarily ranty, I officially like music again. Dare I say, I even love it. I started flirting with Apple Music, eventually put a ring on it (aka £9.99 a month) and it’s opened me up to a whole new world of music in the way my favourite mags did back in the day (Vibe, The Source, XXL, Black Beat, Blues & Soul, Trace, Touch, Tense, Undercover the lot).

It also doesn’t hurt that I’ve been covering gigs for The Evening Standard since the beginning of the year which means going to a lot of shows – some fab, others a bit meh – and remembering why I fell for music in the first place.

So to consolidate my new-found appreciation of it all, I’ve launched a little something-something called Five Dope Tracks. It’s a regular round-up of the tunes I’ve either come across recently or back in the day and reckon you might like – five tracks at a time. It’s short, sharp and sweet.

The June 2017 Edit is kicking it all off, featuring Mr Jukes (London, stand up!), Ohmega Watts (a conscious rapper from Brooklyn I’ve been loving off for years), Beleaf (a ‘dad’ rapper from Baltimore who’s got a hilarious YouTube channel starring his wife and kids), Rob Araujo (a very cool jazz man from LA) and Pool Cosby (an indie-ish group from NY who’ve done this nice summery collabo with man like Raekwon – who’d have thunk it?)

Check out the playlist below – it’s currently on Spotify – and if you like what you hear, feel free to share it, follow Five Dope Tracks on Twitter, send me a message, or leave a comment below!

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Pic: Fabrice Bourgelle

Pic: Fabrice Bourgelle

Pic: Fabrice Bourgelle

Pic: Fabrice Bourgelle

Pic: Fabrice Bourgelle

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Did you make it to Afropunk London? What did you think? Let me know in the comments! 

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The return of NuBrandFlexxx

Amped, energetic and brilliantly reckless, the grime gang flew through their known hits. I wished I recorded the ecstatic crowd reaction to their anthem and 2000 Nu Brand – folk were really all up in their emotions. Also, I got to see a bit of Kano in a tent (which made no sense whatsoever – give the man main stage already!).  If I’m gonna be real with y’all, I felt so uncomfortable in the midst of the mosh,  I needed to back out and find a space where I could breathe. I’m way too old for all that pushing and shoving. But naturally, I stayed long enough to get a few snaps, so here’s my pictures from the Friday of Lovebox Festival 2016:

Lovebox festival 2016 – at least the weather was good.

Matchy matchy

Locked and loaded – inside the Visions tent to see Nu Brand Flexxx

Lively.

Man like Peigh.

In the zone.

Inside the FabricLive tent, waiting for Kano

King Kano. Solid set from one of the UK’s finest.

The next fest I’ll be heading to is Jazz Re:fest on the 31st, which is totally up my street. I wentchecked it out tlast year so I know this year’s event will be just as brilliant. Can’t wait. 

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Check ’em out on Jimmy Kimmel:

Here’s my favourite song from Ego Death, their latest album that got nominated for a Grammy:

And here’s my favourite track from their previous album, Feel Good:

Gosh, I miss bands!

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