Paul's Boutique

I was shocked and hugely disappointed to hear 1xtra’s DJ Flight announce last night that she was actually broadcasting her last show. I’ve tuned in regularly to listen to her show for the last five years and had no idea that it was coming. Despite consistently featuring in 1xtra’s top 10 ‘listen again’ ratings, it transpires that the BBC are ’shaking up’ the DJ roster and have let Flight and L Double go. It’s a huge shame for Drum & Bass fans, not only because Flight was responsible for airing lots of music and promoting artists that other DJs weren’t playing, but also because she represents another minority within the scene - women! You can read the official BBC press release here. At least they’re retaining Bailey.

Her last show was excellent, and I’ll soon be posting a link to it before it drops off the ‘listen again’ facility on the 1xtra site. The new 1xtra roster features Tim Westwood and Trevor Nelson, who will also retain their Radio1 shows. I’m wondering what they’re going to do differently for 1xtra…

Huge respect to Flight and hopefully you’ll be snapped up by another network or broadcaster that values the contribution that you’re making to the scene.

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With a song that sounds like it was written for a junior school competition and then performed by Catherine Tate I find it incredibly hard to believe that Kate Nash is an artist with material to take seriously. And yet she’s somehow on the ‘play once every show’ playlist at Radio 1 and has even made it onto the 6music playlist… Is her dad high up at the BBC? When will this current slew of regionally accented not-singing-not-rapping-just-talking talentless kids be recognised and dropped by the powers that be in media-land? What’s happening? Clearly I don’t get it. Am I alone or does anyone else experience revulsion at the sound of her burbling “…cos they are much fit-ter”? Someone please explain!

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This month sees the release of two eagerly anticipated albums (well, that I’ve been particularly excited about anyway). Queens of the Stone Age release ‘Era Vulgaris’, something that I’ve been waiting on for what seems like a very long time, and which I was lucky enough to receive a pre-release of last week. The other album is Dizzee Rascal’s third, entitled ‘Maths & English‘ - I’ve only heard two tracks from this but if they’re anything to go by the album won’t disappoint. Sirens and Pussyole(Old Skool) both see his lyrics super-tight, delivery styles switching up all over the place and some heavy production that gives more than a nod to Hip Hop from the 80s and 90s (apart from the blatant Rob Base / Lyn Collins sample I’m thinking that thematically Sirens is very similar to Ice T’s 6 in the morning and NWA’s 100 Miles and Running, only with an East-London lean).

Era Vulgaris is a welcome return for QOTSA and is fresh and exciting from the opening grimey percussion of Turning on the Screw through to the final strains of Run Pig Run. Familiar tracks from live performances make welcome appearances as studio recordings (Into the Hollow, Make it wit Chu) and they’ve taken their mix of blues, driving hard rock, technical ability and dark electronic sounds to a new level. I love it - can you tell?

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OK, I so I had to head up to London yesterday for a meeting with Booktrust in the afternoon. Then i found out this morning that I missed a tiny QOTSA gig at the 100 club. I was in town! I could have gone. Admittedly I didn’t have a ticket and it would have cost me more than my right arm’s street value, but the thought of missing seeing them play in a tiny (non festival/stadium) sized venue, and that room being full of record company and ad-agency people that aren’t that interested fills me with angst. Aagh!

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