SLIPPYVISION.SELECTS [15.04.26]
Rave Encounters 002: Accidental Meetings x Saccade x Bristol
It’s Friday evening and I am, at last, paying Trinity Centre a visit. The programming is always on point and I’ve been told the sound quality and acoustics are impressive for a repurposed Grade II listed building.
Since my first encounter with Purelink at Cafe Oto last year, the Brooklyn trio have added guitar, vocals and strings to their live formation. Their soundworlds swirl and pulsate, drifting through weightless liquid ambience anchored by percussive dub undercurrents. With music this incremental and intricate, there is huge pay-off for an attentive audience. A rumbling kick enters the fold, sending heads rolling as bodies rock from side-to-side.
ML Buch follows with her lush, pastoral reveries. As the opening notes of ‘I’m A Girl You Can Hold IRL’ sound through the hall, a memory surfaces (circa 2021). On the top floor of Auckland Uni library I slouch in front of my laptop screen - a half-written essay awaiting completion, this track playing on a loop through my headphones. The city views from this level are supreme. It’s a warm Tāmaki afternoon and the breeze glosses my cheeks as I crane my head out the open window. The economy of daydreams is a worthy distractor for such an occasion. Five years later, on a dreary Bristol evening across the globe, I remain entranced by ML Buch’s creations.
Heading into Saturday afternoon, I get confused with timings and only catch the last 30 mins of Mad Professor in Strange Brew’s front room; yet his bath of echo, reverb and delay immediately succeeds in loosening my frame. “You never know what you’re gonna get”, he quips after throwing a 7” dubplate to a nearby dancer. The brains and beatmaker behind Ariwa Sounds is a testament that dub reggae engineers and mixers were some of electronic dance music’s very first producers. As he isolates and unifies each element in the mix, I give thanks for all those who planted the seeds of sound system culture across this hostile land, despite the costs and to whom we are all indebted.
Shell Company’s disposition feels frighteningly aligned with my recent headspace. This nocturnal melancholia emanating from Fixed Abode and like-minded labels taps into an existential dissonance that plagues 21st century British life. Alienated and bruised by infrastructures of power and control, we make home in the trappings of perpetual collapse. SC’s drugged-out, haze-ridden atmospheres capture an insularity that invites intimacy; monologues of doubt and self-examination narrate the deflated meander home. A thousand words caught in the web of a single second.
The Wolfgang Press then offer us a slice of 4AD post-punk history in Strange Brew’s front room. For Milan W., the crowd is hushed; some sitting, some standing, yet all spellbound by this Belgian crooner and his weeping guitar.
Moments later, John T. Gast meets Devon Rexi in the now steaming Rough Trade room. “Why is this room so hot?!” someone at the back bellows with jest, to ripples of laughter. “Everybody stop breathing”. Prior to their collaborative record Breathstep - released on AM in early April and already one of my picks of the year - I hadn’t listened much to either artist. Growling bassline and metronomic drums tussle with screwed incantations and peripheral mutations, as the four players increase the temperature on their cauldron of bubbling cosmic grunge. I can’t quite explain what’s going on right now or where each sound is coming from, but it works fucking well.
Well-curated festivals achieve a cross-pollination of intergenerational subcultures, fusing established sonic traditions with novel and fertile artistic formulations. It is through this organic melding of subjectivities that musical beauty flourishes. The weird and wonderful come out to play with heartfelt abandon and we are all the better for it. I suppose these creative intentions are made clear in the name itself: Accidental Meetings… you didn’t expect this to happen but you’re glad it did. Whilst feeding the life cycles of grassroots music scenes can often be tiring and resource-draining for those involved, Saccade acts as a reminder that we each come to and remain in these spaces because of our desire for musical beauty. Creating and sustaining something with others - collaboration in its purest form - is a beautiful practice.
What moves us and what are we moved by? What do we want to be moved by and what do we need to be moved by?
I really want to catch aya but my stomach is getting needy and so I catch a bite. Oh well, next time! Shout out to Ifsa and Alex, a lovely couple from Manchester who I meet during the day-night transition and end up dancing alongside for most of the moonlight hours.
We’re welcomed into Strange Brew’s back room with Cumbian rhythms reaching through past, present and future timelines, served up by San Jose-based producer and DJ, Turbo Sonidero. He mixes vinyl with live electronic instrumentation, rolling out a masterclass in Latin American grooves and hip-hop ethic.
We then wander over to The Island, now implementing a one-in-one-out policy. The venue’s labyrinthine entrance leads us down a zigzag passageway before opening onto a long courtyard. The high brick walls shield outsiders from the wind and there is ample space to gather, inviting unhurried smoking area conversation. I’m later told that The Island site used to be a prison - another reminder that the spaces we make music and move in are situated within wider political geographies and histories of dis/place(ment), thus remaining sites of active contestation.
We catch the closing 30 of Carrier + Gavsborg’s b2b, before mad miran + Om Unit take to the controls. The music across both venues is growing deeper, darker and more skeletal. Returning to Strange Brew’s back room, local hero k means and Barcelona-based MBODJ of Jokkoo Collective steer us through vortexes of tension←→release, coupling deft mixing techniques with expert curation. The careful and deliberate distribution of sonic energy exhibited by each DJ tonight is a remarkable skill, achieved through extensive experience in the field and an unwavering commitment to craft. As my feet begin to tire and my head grows fuzzy, Mia Koden’s ‘Wait A Minute’ skitters across the cavernous back room, beckoning me to stay just a moment longer before calling it a night.
Thank you to the AM crew for hosting what was undoubtedly one of my favourite city festivals to date, to the tech crews for such high production standards, to the venue staff for maintaining these comfortable spaces to enjoy the music in, to the respectful and generous-hearted crowd, and to Ben and Rose for letting me stay in your cosy home for the weekend.
Until next time <3 :)
Other Bits
SLIPPYVISION: This month’s radio show is now available for playback. I was joined by my good pal and the very talented multi-disciplinary artist, Intibint. We went all over the shop with our selections and had a v fun time doing so. I sometimes get ‘tunnel-vision’ and overly serious when I do solo radio, so it was great to be a little more adventurous and responsive to the vibe Noha and I were co-creating in the moment.
3 Albums in Heavy Rotation:
→ Tony Njoku - ALL OUR KNIVES ARE ALWAYS SHARP [Studio Njoku] (2024)
Quality guest features adorn this cinematic conception that leans into big emotions with maximal effect. (Get down to one of Njoku’s monthly Conjuring group improvisation sessions at Club Cheek if you can - I went to #2 and it was incredible.)
→ Caterina Barbieri & Bendik Giske - At Source [light-years] (2026)
Modular explorations and improvisational sax synthesise to achieve a deep-focus state.
→ Shy One - Mali [Touching Bass] (2026)
Spring is springing (mostly) and what better way to enjoy myself than a stroll through my local, Ruskin Park; weed vape in hand, watching the world go by. This album is gonna be a classic - I can feel it in my bones.
Pick a Mix: Cooly G treated us to an array of soul-infused funky steppers as she opened up Room 2 at the final Hyperdub x Corsica link-up last month. Since then, I’ve been bopping around my flat to the 30 min mix she recorded for Sherelle’s BBC Radio 6 show last year.
Radio Highlight: This year I’ve fallen in love with the vast, storied musical world of Lebanese singer, Fairuz. Luckily for me, Omar Disku recently recorded a show for Radio Alhara that pays tribute to the artist’s life, her extensive discography, and the political and cultural significance of her art for Palestinians across the diaspora.