http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yW910SKXu5k
Friday, 29 April 2011
Tuesday, 15 March 2011
Wednesday, 2 March 2011
Tuesday, 1 February 2011
Just thinking about the most influential people in my life....and thanking them.
Recently, there's been quite a bit of internet buzz about the predicament that DJ Kool Herc has found himself in, and just on a tangent, it has made me think about the people who's creations have shaped the way i think about music, and who i owe thanks to for doing what they did, and the resulting pleasure i have personally gained from their creativity....
So who helped make me the person i am today? here's a list, but it is by no mmeans comprehensive....in a couple of days i will probably remember someone else that i owe a debt of gratitude to....
Anyway, here goes, in no particular order.....
JamMaster Jay from RUN D.M.C.
Jay did the first scratch that i actually ever heard...on "Walk this Way" By RUN D.M.C. and Aerosmith. That simple "Duvva Duvva Duvva Duvva" sound set something in my brain on fire, and made me want to learn how to make that noise for the rest of my life. When i first saw the video to that track, i was so awestruck by the beats and the cuts i nearly cried. I actually did shed a tear when i heard he was shot dead in 2002, and i still carry the sadness around with me that i will never be able to say "thankyou" to him either in person, or by email....God rest your funky soul Jay, and Thankyou a million times from the bottom of my heart.
DJ Kool Herc.
Herc is widely regarded as the Father of HipHop, Born in 1979 @1520 Sedgewick Avenue (HipHop, not Herc!). It was at his sisters party he threw down the newest of his DJ'ing ideas...something he called "The Merry-go-Round", which was basically looping up and mixing the breakbeats from his records.
This innovative approach to DJing led to all sorts of creative ripples flowing out from it's epicenter....It led to a whole new approach to DJ'ing, as well as paving the way and clearing the road for MC's to step in and toast the instrumental breaks with their own lyrics and vocal stylings. If you like HipHop in any way, shape or form, you owe Herc a nod of thanks at the very least! Thanks Herc, you are a true musical pioneer, and i owe you!
GrandWizzard Theodore
GrandWizzard Theodore is credited with the invention of the scratch, an artform i have loved and loved more every day since "walk this way" hit my ears. It never ceases to amaze me how much Theodore's trick has evolved and mutated through the years, and how many people have jumped on that train (including myself) to try and see how far they can take it, and we haven't seen the limits yet!!!! Thankyou Theodore, for inventing the sound that changed my life!
Tim Westwood
Back in the days when i first got into hiphop, there wasn't a hell of a lot around in small town Scotland....the only place i ever got to hear fresh new HipHop was sat in my little Vauxhall Chevette with my mates listening to the Tim Westwood Show on BBC....This was in the early nineties, when all the golden hiphop was bursting out....The Rap industry was still young, and just about everything that came out sounded funky, individual and fresh as hell! I loved those days, so yeah, The Big Dog Westwood gets a mention! Thanks for exposing me to that whole music scene Tim!
My Mum and Dad
Ok, aside from the obviously fine job they did of raising such a nice young man and amazing DJ, *ahem*, they had an AMAZING music collection.....Now i think about it, i have heard most of the tracks that some of my favourite HipHop tracks are made out of....Mum was really into her Soul and Tamala Motown, and Dad was into his Led Zep and Hendrix type stuff....perfect combo of soul and chunky-ass beats!! They weren't too down with Rap music, but they were HipHop without knowing it :D
Thanks Mum and Dad, i owe you everything. (especially that £100 i borrowed.....eek!)
pic to be uploaded :)
That's all for now, can't be arsed typing anymore, need to hit the decks for a bit.....more to come soon!
Tuesday, 18 January 2011
New Mix for 2011 :)
Free stream or download from my bandcamp :)
http://chrismacgroove.bandcamp.com/track/multi-genre-mash-mix-2011
http://chrismacgroove.bandcamp.com/track/multi-genre-mash-mix-2011
Monday, 27 December 2010
Euro Tour Dec 2010 part 2
Whoaaaaa that was one mental gig!!!
SO.....the crowd was just starting to get heated up as myself and Pocketlips came onstage to quickly set the gear up, the venue filling up nicely with loads of heads all willing and able to bounce around to some heavy tuneage!
As soon as the boys had all their kit ready to rock, I started to give the crowd a good Hype-Up by playing some rapid-fire oldschool HipHop favourites and bouncing around like a madman (no change there then....lol).....After around 15 minutes of making the crowd "Jump,Jump,Jump,Jump", el Dave snuck in behind his drums, and gave me the nod.
We had previously discussed some kind of turntable/drums intro to the set, and we had a fairly good idea of what we wanted to pull off, but we didn't manage to get any form of practice in before the gig, so we just freestyled it, and damn, was it sounding heavy for an off the cuff jam!
The plan was this; i drop an angry bass tone, Dave kicks out some ill beats, then i proceed to cut up the bassline and some samples to give it a verse-chorus-verse feel! And yeah, the crowd were well hyped up from it!!
Now the crowd were PROPERLY in the mood for bouncing off the walls, so it was time to bring out the rest of the Pocketlips crew and bang on with the set. NOW i don't know if you have ever seen Pocketlips live, but these boys have massive stage presence....I'ts kinda like watching the Beastie Boys beating themselves up for fun, using anything onstage, including any poor member of the audience who makes it on to the stage! Poor little Margeux (the lovely girlfriend of the dopest geezer around, Andy Roads) got picked up onto Petes shoulders and was given the mother of all whirlygigs....i seriously thought both of them were gonna helicopter themselves off the stage!!!!
AND that wasn't the rowdiest part of the gig....earlier on, Pete had managed to "borrow" some flightcases off of another band for some extra stage height! So there was things onstage that we could all jump off if the need took us (and of course it did!!) Around half way into the set, we suddenly realised that Fred had somehow made it up into the lighting truss, (which was easily 15 Ft off the stage) and was slowly climbing along to the middle of stage, where he then managed to end up hanging by the backs of his knees, upside down, over the band!
I was rather impressed by this act of acrobatism, so i ran out from behind the decks to give him a double high-five. Unfortunately one hand missed it's target, and he managed to slap me straight in the eye lololol!!!!!
Pic 1.....a millisecond before accidental eye-slap!
So yeah....needless to say, this gig was LIVELY!!!After our set we packed up, and went back up to the lovely GreenRoom to raid the fridge of all it's alcoholic content. I started to hear some seriously dope as hell mixing coming through, so i wandered back down to the stage area, and managed to catch one of the best DJ based acts i have ever seen doing their stuff live...They were called Smith&Smart, and boy can they rock a crowd!!!! Pure party vibe hiphop mashups live !!!! Check em out if you ever get the chance, you WON'T be dissapointed!
Pic2.....apres giggidy drinkies with the pocket crew and one of Smith&Smarts.
Big up everyone i met out there, and extra bigups to everyone involved in the gig!
I'm still suffering from Tour Flu, so i'm gonna stop now.........
SO.....the crowd was just starting to get heated up as myself and Pocketlips came onstage to quickly set the gear up, the venue filling up nicely with loads of heads all willing and able to bounce around to some heavy tuneage!
As soon as the boys had all their kit ready to rock, I started to give the crowd a good Hype-Up by playing some rapid-fire oldschool HipHop favourites and bouncing around like a madman (no change there then....lol).....After around 15 minutes of making the crowd "Jump,Jump,Jump,Jump", el Dave snuck in behind his drums, and gave me the nod.
We had previously discussed some kind of turntable/drums intro to the set, and we had a fairly good idea of what we wanted to pull off, but we didn't manage to get any form of practice in before the gig, so we just freestyled it, and damn, was it sounding heavy for an off the cuff jam!
The plan was this; i drop an angry bass tone, Dave kicks out some ill beats, then i proceed to cut up the bassline and some samples to give it a verse-chorus-verse feel! And yeah, the crowd were well hyped up from it!!
Now the crowd were PROPERLY in the mood for bouncing off the walls, so it was time to bring out the rest of the Pocketlips crew and bang on with the set. NOW i don't know if you have ever seen Pocketlips live, but these boys have massive stage presence....I'ts kinda like watching the Beastie Boys beating themselves up for fun, using anything onstage, including any poor member of the audience who makes it on to the stage! Poor little Margeux (the lovely girlfriend of the dopest geezer around, Andy Roads) got picked up onto Petes shoulders and was given the mother of all whirlygigs....i seriously thought both of them were gonna helicopter themselves off the stage!!!!
AND that wasn't the rowdiest part of the gig....earlier on, Pete had managed to "borrow" some flightcases off of another band for some extra stage height! So there was things onstage that we could all jump off if the need took us (and of course it did!!) Around half way into the set, we suddenly realised that Fred had somehow made it up into the lighting truss, (which was easily 15 Ft off the stage) and was slowly climbing along to the middle of stage, where he then managed to end up hanging by the backs of his knees, upside down, over the band!
I was rather impressed by this act of acrobatism, so i ran out from behind the decks to give him a double high-five. Unfortunately one hand missed it's target, and he managed to slap me straight in the eye lololol!!!!!
Pic 1.....a millisecond before accidental eye-slap!
So yeah....needless to say, this gig was LIVELY!!!After our set we packed up, and went back up to the lovely GreenRoom to raid the fridge of all it's alcoholic content. I started to hear some seriously dope as hell mixing coming through, so i wandered back down to the stage area, and managed to catch one of the best DJ based acts i have ever seen doing their stuff live...They were called Smith&Smart, and boy can they rock a crowd!!!! Pure party vibe hiphop mashups live !!!! Check em out if you ever get the chance, you WON'T be dissapointed!
Pic2.....apres giggidy drinkies with the pocket crew and one of Smith&Smarts.
Big up everyone i met out there, and extra bigups to everyone involved in the gig!
I'm still suffering from Tour Flu, so i'm gonna stop now.........
Saturday, 18 December 2010
Euro Tour Dec 2010
So.....the other day i got invited to play alongside the infamous PocketLips band for a quick tour round Europe!!.........
We have just finished the soundcheck at the venue in Strasbourg, called the Molodoi. This venue is SICK!!! massive stage, lovely soundsystem, friendly staff, HUGE comfy Green Room area with loads of munchies and free booze!
The journey from Cambridge took round about 23 hours from Cambridge to Strasbourg, due to some exceptionally scary driving conditions. It was snowing pretty damn heavy all the way, we had lost the left hand side's wing mirror, and the heating in the minibus decided to completely not work for the entire journey!!!! However, despite these adverse conditions, spirits were kept high with the regular application of cheese, red wine, cheap French beer, and a continuous rousing round of sing-songs, ranging from 80's pop tunes to television theme tunes, with a repetitive appearance of variously styled renditions of "Lord of the Dance" from Pocket Pete!
We were all feeling waaaay less than human by the time we finally arrived, but were soon sorted out after crashing out at our contacts house, followed by a roasty hot shower.
Our contact was a geezer called Simon, who plays bass with a band from round about these parts.....i think his band is called "Electric Suicide Club", and they are well heavy and tight !!!! Check his band out on Myspace!
So we just waiting for our turn to hit the stage now, chilling in the lovely (and warm) VIP lounge!
So ends part one of this epic for the time being....
Cast and Crew are as follows;
FOV crew;
Pete Pocket--Helmsman
Steve Steed--Navigator
Dougie the Doug--Wing(mirror)man
ROV Crew;
Fred--Tour Mechanic
Haidee--honorary lad and ROV diktat
Mike--Pocketlips pet alcoholic
Dave--"just Dave the Drummer"
and of course, me, ChrisMacGroove, MidShip Interjector and Interceptor!!!
We have just finished the soundcheck at the venue in Strasbourg, called the Molodoi. This venue is SICK!!! massive stage, lovely soundsystem, friendly staff, HUGE comfy Green Room area with loads of munchies and free booze!
The journey from Cambridge took round about 23 hours from Cambridge to Strasbourg, due to some exceptionally scary driving conditions. It was snowing pretty damn heavy all the way, we had lost the left hand side's wing mirror, and the heating in the minibus decided to completely not work for the entire journey!!!! However, despite these adverse conditions, spirits were kept high with the regular application of cheese, red wine, cheap French beer, and a continuous rousing round of sing-songs, ranging from 80's pop tunes to television theme tunes, with a repetitive appearance of variously styled renditions of "Lord of the Dance" from Pocket Pete!
We were all feeling waaaay less than human by the time we finally arrived, but were soon sorted out after crashing out at our contacts house, followed by a roasty hot shower.
Our contact was a geezer called Simon, who plays bass with a band from round about these parts.....i think his band is called "Electric Suicide Club", and they are well heavy and tight !!!! Check his band out on Myspace!
So we just waiting for our turn to hit the stage now, chilling in the lovely (and warm) VIP lounge!
So ends part one of this epic for the time being....
Cast and Crew are as follows;
FOV crew;
Pete Pocket--Helmsman
Steve Steed--Navigator
Dougie the Doug--Wing(mirror)man
ROV Crew;
Fred--Tour Mechanic
Haidee--honorary lad and ROV diktat
Mike--Pocketlips pet alcoholic
Dave--"just Dave the Drummer"
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