Screw grime

Published Jun 17 2005, 02:51 PM by webteam

Everyone seems obsessed right now with pushing UK grime into bed with Screwston hip-hop, so maybe it was inevitable that someone would release a chopped-and-screwed version of the first major post-Run the Road grime album: Roll Deep's In at the Deep End. But, like, before the album's even officially out? By some Swedish dudes living in, like, France or something? For free on the internet? Clap your hands say yeah for Radioclit, who've done just that. It's sort of the perfect combination: grime is really fast, the syrup slows it down, and you end up with regular-speed tracks that still feel low, heavy, and slow-motion-y without losing momentum: sorta like stoner rock. Also, you can finally understand what these dudes are prattling on about.

Whole album's up here.

Our personal pick to click:
Roll Deep, "When I'm 'ere" (Chopped and Screwed by Radioclit) (mp3 via Radioclit)

Man, we wish Jace "DJ/Rupture" Clayton was here so we could ask him what to think about this kind of post-authentic polyglot rigamarole. Oh, wait: he already dropped New Yorker-grade science on it. Following graf will end up in a textbook some day:

"I've always thought of screw music as a fine example of American Negro Lazy Genius: take a song, slow it down, then sell it. In the hands of DJ Screw this became contagiously brilliant, this strange syrupy thing that probably wouldn't have been possible in a country where whites didn't steal Africans and force them to work for several generations. Grime is work-ethic music, strivers' shouts. Screw
is watermelon-patch process, droopy and militant at zero reparations. Why should we sweat if we didn't ask to be here?"

Seems as good a time as any to remind you: go listen to Rupture's futuro-diasporic welcome-to-the-junglist Low Income Tomorrowland mix, [UPDATE: now PITCHFORK APPROVED!] over at the Lemon-Red Mix Series (which, to bring everything full circle, will host an exclusive mix by the Radioclit dudes next month or so. Stay tuned.)

TONIGHT:
1. Alanis Morissette, Caesars and the Soundtrack of Our Lives, and Wellfleet's garage-rock weekender.

2. Also, some dudes called Keys to the Streets of Fear are showing off some kind of insane DJ soundsystem that involves playing records through a PA, then hanging guitars in front of the speakers, then running that through a guitar amp. They call it "The System," and we bet it makes Carpenters albums sound like Guitar Wolf. They're at the Cellar in Cambridge.

3. Last but not least, THREE REASONS TO GO TO P.A.'S LOUNGE TONIGHT:

Reports, "The Hostess" (mp3, live on WMBR, via Reports site). Their first gig with Officer May's drummer.
Pretendo, "Cherry Tomatos" (mp3, via Pretendo site). People with "Skeleton Key" and "Enon" on their resumes.
Headband, "Dance Upon Their Grave" (mp3, if link doesn't work, just go to their myspace page and download from there). We've been told to see these guys even if we have to skip the Scandinavian rock extravaganza. Thinking about it.