Bass Festival has come around again this year’s theme is DNA…
Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) forms the building blocks of life and controls the development and functioning of all known living organisms. But what does DNA mean to us individually in the 21st century? Identity, test tubes, control, heritage, science, ID cards, family, databases, samples, genomes, protest?
The fifth BASS festival will explore how DNA varies and develops, whether caused by external forces, or by personal development, enabling us to rethink our evolving identities.
There is a full programme of events and exhibitions celebrating black culture and creativity, take a peek at the flyer and website for all the details.
Photos from The MF Gaslamp Killer at the Hare & Hounds can be found at Better Never Than Late by Witts. It was an incredible night, thanks to all of those folks who came out. Props to Adam Regan, Blacksmile and Guy C for their hard graft.
He is a fully paid up member of the new wave of experimental beat makers…alongside the likes of Flying Lotus and FlyamSam .
The self-professed Animal-style DJ, Gaslamp Killer — a reference to his hometown of San Diego and its beach-brah’s Gaslamp bar district — has been holding it down at the front counter of LA’s Turntable Lab. His real home, however, is behind the turntables, where his wild style takes DJing into the realm of freak fest psychedelia.
Gaslamp Killer DJ sets are something else… Bass that feels like someone is sitting inside your stomach rearranging your internal organs and drops so heavy you feel like you are falling down a well wearing a pair of Smeg fridges as earrings. His brutal mix of Dubstep, Hendrix, Futuristic Hip Hop, Leftfield Electronica and Dilla are delivered with a truly eccentric energy that one might describe as a kind of hybrid that would include Animal from Sesame Street, Einstein and Doc from Back to the Future all conducting the crowd in a truly passionate, energetic and intensely captivating way.
I cannot tell you how much you have to witness this…Tonight at The Hare & Hounds. Details here.
This Sunday…”Ink will Spill”. This is the qualifier, for the background story read here.
We all know that the first rule of fight club is don’t talk about fight club but nobody said a girl can’t blog about it. Birmingham’s answer to fight club uses pens and poscas rather than bare knuckles and fists, but is just as underground and sometimes just as moody.
Secret Wars has been a revelation – A cultural movement that is spreading across the globe! Started in March 06’ (By Monorex kingpin, Terry Guy in London UK) as a testing ground for artists to show the public what they can do. The idea quickly evolved into a knockout cup style contest that now attracts huge crowds of people anywhere it is held.
Seeds, Slobz and Keefy run and maintain the Birmingham rounds.
Secret Wars is the world’s premier live art battle, and in Birmingham…. things get very live.. Illustrator vs graf writer vs comic book writer vs street artist vs toy maker vs animator vs graphic designer etc etc etc …
This dissident group of artists meet regularly at The Rainbow to battle one and other, the rules are simple:
- 90 MINS ON THE CLOCK
- BLACK PAINT ONLY – ON WHITE WALLS!
- NO SKETCHES / NO PENCILS
- INVISIBLE MIDDLE LINE WITH AN ARTIST EITHER SIDE
JUDGED USING A 3 POINT SYSTEM – 2 GUEST JUDGES AND A CROWD VOTE (USING A DECIBEL READER)
GO BIG OR GO HOME!
Much like the 1984 comic Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars the key players from the scene, both evil and good get summoned to the planet “battleworld” in a distant galaxy (The Rainbow in our case) to duel to the death. I wouldn’t like to speculate on who the heroes and their opposing villains are in the Secret Wars Birmingham series but just like in the comics, world domination is getting to look quite attractive. The boys in charge have decided to put together a crack team of artists that can compete in battles throughout the UK and Europe.
Representing our city will be a squad of 5 artists, made up of previous winners Phill Blake and Newso with all round heavy weights in the field of graffiti illustration; Chu & Agent.
With four already in the crew the hunt is on to find the 5th member, this place will be given to the overall winner of the mini series that kicks off at The Rainbow on Sunday 4th October at 4pm, then on every Sunday through October and November. The official draw was pulled on the Secret Wars radio show on Rhubarb Radio and is as follows: AS-ONE / MIKEY BRAINS / POSH-ONE / ROO / SOL1R / SYLPH / TITLE / TX
For all the info on round one check the facebook page …Let the battle commence!
