Two decades ago for crying out loud (& I seem to remember it was on a Jockey Slut CD a couple of years before that)
YES! 🔥 the Mark King slap bass cast is what everyone’s been waiting on
Vibes at Croc Fest yesterday, it was all good - particular highlights were Grail Guard bringing it once again, Los Fatsos Libres & Dan Goatham doing a banging Bernard Cribbins version
The Congos were really great last night, and nobody minded that they called Birkenhead Liverpool all night!
We did a couple more lockdowns in 06 & 07 - with live percussion & MCs & whatnot, in the end the jungle / dnb got folded into the main night - strange to to think in 2006 Jungle was still a bit of an outlier given how much it’s part of the aural landscape now.
That man @brassneckrecords.bsky.social travelled up from Cardiff played a set & took some photo’s of the night - look out for youthful serious jungle face !
11. Dead To Me - melodic punk from San Francisco - they live up to the billing - rabble rousing singable stuff that stands up next to the best of the west coast Skatepunk you’ll know from the 90s - a great finish
10. Fucked Up - Canadian experimental hardcore - they lived up to the billing, veering between really fast aggro stuff & sometimes full atmospheric sludgey stoner rock - really enjoyable & unpredictable show
9. Perkie - a very nice interlude, Perkie makes lovely lovely synth pop and has a great voice, the show is amiably ramshackle & features audience participation humming, which was a first for me
8. Currls - blues rock punk, Alabama Shakes are certainly a reference point, but it’s punkier & more distinctive, the singer has a fantastic voice, have all the potential to be very 6 music friendly, one’s to watch
7. Cause A Riot - melodic hardcore from Finland - I didn’t know it could be melodic either - turns out it can & also even a bit proggy, their penultimate song is a multi-part hardcore epic - wonderful stuff
6. Pengshui - an @tomlin.bsky.social recommendation - driving bassy heavy metal hip hop - they were outstanding, major circle pit action (& the guy from Deadwax came on & did a verse with them too)
5. Deadwax - grime x metal x punk x jungle, but mostly UK Rage Against The Machine - loved it, (if we were still doing Funkdub, these & Autonomads would’ve definitely have been on the list to put on)
4. Dry Socket - hard core from Portland Oregon, with a properly wild eyed performance from the front woman, unrelenting aggro start to finish - very good indeed
3. Autonomads - Dub Punks from Manchester, I caught the start of a set of theirs late last year & it was great, very happy to catch a full set - excellent band
2. Habak - Crust Punk from Mexico (Apparently there’s a difference between Crust & Black Metal but 🤷) slight surprise to see the singer was female - the vocals sound like someone who’s been gargling slate, generally don’t like unintelligible growls for vocals, but by the end this got quite hypnotic
1. Grail Guard - Hardcore punks from Coventry doing songs about the grinding experience of racism being a British Asian - really heavy & loads of fun, they’re getting quite popular, the venue was jammed at 3pm!