New digital release from Texture - Synaesthesia EP

I have to admit to being down on some elements of Scottish hip-hop in the past - sometimes the guttural and clipped Scottish accent distracts rather than flows with the beats - but I felt ashamed after listening to Texture’s ‘Non-Sequitr’, debunking the idea that Scotland and hip-hop as married concepts do not follow. The track kicks off Texture’s new EP ‘Synaesthesia’, available for a donation (or free) on Black Lantern Music, a netlabel offering DRM-free mp3s from independent musicians.

It’s the second part of Texture’s trilogy of EPs, and follows January 2010’s ‘Asphasia’ release which tipped reviewers to declare him a “bookworm emcee” - a title which holds true on the chemical-compound, philosophical quipping ‘Synaesthesia’.

As Texture says: “Synaesthesia is a neurologically-based condition in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. Synaesthetes may experience smells as colours, or sounds as flavours - they may mistake indie for house music, or rap for dubstep.”

The latter part sounds like a condition which can commonly effect reviewers - after the 30th release of the day beats start morph into other genres and the definitions become so blurred you do start to become hazy about what makes a genre.

Through this haze comes four tracks which have visited Earth in some format or another in previous months; ‘Non-Sequitr’, ‘Silver Age’, ‘Echo Boomers’ and ‘The Dawn View’. If you’re a listener to Vic Galloway’s Radio 1 show, you might have caught ‘Echo Boomers’ when Texture performed it live, and followers of Texture’s previous work may notice that ‘The Dawn View’ is a reincarnation of a track on Texture and Morphamish’s collaborative LP, ‘Future Proof’, released under the Double Helix alias.

But back to the creeping feeling of shame and ‘Non-Sequitr’! The track looks at not so much the ‘plight’ of Scottish hip-hop but of a realistic view that it’s sidelined in some way by the over-hyped US dominance and bling culture - something which very much does not exist in Scotland. He name-checks other Scottish artists who have helped carved the way for Scottish hip-hop, but there is a slightly sombre note to this when considering they have all yet to make breakthroughs on a multi-national scale. Texture’s lyrics make reference to the stark differences in US / Scottish culture; working night-shifts; spitting rhymes in over-crowded basements; being told by people like Kayne to dress in diamonds, “when all we can afford is costume jewellery”; and drinking cheap mind-numbing substances like Buckfast. It’s a slow swagger of hip-hop to a 6/8 beat, decorated by acoustic guitar - composed and produced by Salem Anders and will definitely hold appeal for Scottish hip-hop fans, but will the rest be ready for a rebuke at popular culture hip-hop, bling and all?

Kid Ritalin, co-manager of Glasgow’s Little Rock net-label and artist, joins Texture for ‘Silver Age’, featuring bassy glitch-hop, broken beat and sparks of wonk, and encompasses the ‘bookworm’ title with its digs at TV and ‘cultural’ distractions. The beats help to impose the feeling of urgency in the message, so the track works well in a holistic sense. Long-time Texture collaborator, Morphamish, steps in to do beats and production on this track and the following two.

Previously performed on Radio 1, ‘Echo Boomers (Generation Why)’, is warped electro hip-hop spitting you questions on Generation Y; questioning whether you’re “human or consumer”, just as I try to surreptitiously slide my new android phone under a cushion. The ironies of smoking cigarettes while driving through Bhopal (site of serious chemical disaster); bank balances growing and swelling like tumours; Starbucks authors; romanticised Woodstock; we are all “wikipediphiles”; and living out the carcinogenic inheritance of Baby Boomers - from chemical-laden technologies to surviving on celebrity gossip. This song has the potential to chip away at international boundaries given that it nails issues which stretch into lots of different cultures.

‘Synaesthesia’ closes with the revamped ‘The Dawn View’, taken from ‘Future Proof’, and taking an optimistic view of what I prefer to call ‘the walk of shame’ - that walk home from the club while still bedraggled from the night’s partying on MDMA, just as the milkmen appear. It’s an upbeat fusion of indie and jazzy cumbia tinges with added guitar by Richard Lindsay that would have you dancing home ‘Singing In the Rain’ style rather than the obligatory hood up, eyes down, shuffle quickly routine!

The trilogy will be completed with ‘Parasomnia’ due for release on Black Lantern in January 2011.


If you're stuck for a gift for your nearest and dearest hip-hop-lovin' friends, download the EP here and watch the video (filmed in Edinburgh) for ‘Non-Sequitr’ below:

FUCKNO: Hell yes!

The long-awaited Little Rock compilation sequel is soon upon us - from the Glasgow crew who brought you NORAVE comes the delicately-titled and appropriately colloquial, FUCKNO! 30 Tracks from 30 bands available on April 30th, and in the run-up to release our good friends Shallow Rave will be giving away music from the artists, everyday!

FUCKNO - A NORAVE Re-contextualisation continues the joyous revel in new and underground music; from breakcore to glitch-hop and plenty thrashing in between. As before Little Rock will also release an eight track EP to coincide with the full-length album; compiled from the tracks which didn't make it onto the already extra-length LP, the Niallist explains that they "got sent so much stuff it's a shame to see it go to waste!"

Lo-Quality Music is celebrating the auspicious occasion with a full-length interview with the Little Rock bods - The Niallist, Boag and Kid Ritalin, so without further ado get your gums round these info gems.

CAUTION: This interview done gone contain them big words, approach with a dictionary and prudence.

Starting with a most nationalist question, who are the 'homegrown' talents we need to listen out for on the compilation?

The Niallist: "Well, loads of the tracks are by Glasgow and Edinburgh bands. It seems churlish to single out any particular acts, apart from Geoff Before Dishonour, Yoko, Oh No!, Kids On Tv, Blood Of The Bull, Hannas Barber, Boy Army, Divorce, Miaoux Miaoux, Dam Mantle, Blue Sabbath, Noisy Pig, Tokamak, Sileni, Dr Nojoke, Blackhead, NYRR, Gatr, Headless Kamikaze, Doxy, J-Lab, Texture, Ultimate Thrush, Vars Of Lichi, Weenliz, and anyone else we may have forgottten."

Kid Ritalin: "Well, Niallist forgot me. However, I'm really pleased to be able to give space to Gatr and Blackhead, two child proteges whose rude-as-fuck breakcore would make Raffertie prolapse in horror. They're both Stow College students, and I'm really glad to be able to give a leg up to kids I think are going on to greatness. The same goes with Ultimate Thrush - they're rising stars who we've booked in the past, written about, talked about and generally pushed down everyone's throats, and are now seeing going stratospheric."

Why the name 'Fuckno'?

Boag: "NORAVE is in the past; FUCK NO. We've moved on, and killing who we used to be is a big part of becoming someone else. NORAVE was hopeless and jaded, coming down hard with all the brutality and weirdness that comes with that. This year we've taken our psychoses and run with them. Far from being cowed by the comedown, freaked and tweaked in the corner of our own minds, wandering through a dystopian imagination borne of a rave-induced schizophrenia, FUCKNO is about saying FUCK NO to the fear of the evil that lurks. We've embraced our demons and we're taking them clubbing. The music we'll make with the endless and evil ecstasy-fuelled egregore others might run from? We call it FUCKNO, because that neologism is about the only word that seems to fit."

"I think 'Not-Dancing' should be a chuckable offence in clubland, right up there with spewing or falling asleep." - Boag

Kid Ritalin: "FUCKNO is a non-statement - a negation; a decision to go against assumed knowledge and memetic inheritance. From the noisecore of Radiation Line and Blue Sabbath, to the sonic deconstructionism of Gatr and Blackhead, this compilation is about artists who resist convention and change the face of music by doing so. Net Audio and saying FUCKNO to the financial bullshit of mainstream music consumption has been one of the biggest changes in music consumption over the past couple of years, and we've tried to include some artists who we respect for using it as a tool; Black Lantern crew like Texture and Sileni, Berlin's Dr Nojoke, Winning Sperm Party / Glasgow DIY scene guys like Blood of the Bull and Ultimate Thrush."

Texture (left)

What have been the changes for Little Rock since the NORAVE release?

The Niallist: "We have moved beyond the download-only market to embrace making vinyl and CDs, even though our focus is still on being a net-label. Some of the acts we have released have moved onto bigger labels. Apart from that we have also launched a radio show and now run a blog, both of which are going very well."

Kid Ritalin: "As Niallist says, we're attempting to change our outlook to include things like limited-run CDs and vinyls, whilst staying true to the freeconomics mindset, and pushing as much of the alternative and unusual music that we love. The blog and the Radiomagnetic show have been great opportunities for us to expand our horizons and spread the word in as many diverse ways as possible. We've managed to get a lot of our favourite artists to come on the radio and play records / mix / perform live."

FUCKNO has been touted as a move away from "dance music you can't dance to" - what sort of body / bodily movements are you hoping to induce in unsuspecting musos?

The Niallist: "Some extreme bowel movements, hopefully. Though I have recently been rather taken with the urban dance form known as "crumping". So, a combination of crumping and bowel movements would be nice."

Boag: "As long as people move, I'm happy. I'm bored of able-bodied people who go to clubs to stand about. I think 'Not-Dancing' should be a chuckable offence in clubland, right up there with spewing or falling asleep."

And finally, in the interest of conspiracy theories, is there a significance in the 30s? 30 tracks, 30 artists, April 30, in 2010 (20+10 = 30)?

Kid Ritalin: "Magic and coincidence are intertwined and essentially the same. We can't explain the details of this spell, otherwise it ceases to be either."

On that spooky note, Lo-Quality thanks the Little Rock / Shallow Rave crews for sharing the FUCKNO lowdown! A special gig is currently being planned ("We're looking forward to birthing this monster into physical form" - Kid Ritalin) and will either be very limited entry or invite only so check who your pals are ;).


Visit Shallow Rave (tag: april) for more info and free FUCKNO tracks!