MOBO Nominations Launch 2011

So, voting season for The MOBO Awards has officially been declared open. On Wednesday at London's St Pancras Renaissance Hotel, this year's nominees were announced to a packed house, full of members of the press, bloggers, artists and their labels. Oh yeah, and I did the voice-over for the VT everyone was shown which was pretty cool.

This year has seen MOBO introduce their first ever Award category exclusively voted for via Facebook. 'Best Newcomer' exists to recognise the hard work of newly established artists, with nominees for the category including Jessie J, who cleaned up at The BRITs earlier this year, Rizzle Kicks, Emeli Sande and Wretch 32.

I was lucky enough to be at the event, interviewing nominees for MOBO TV (something else I do) and even got to break the great news to some of the nominees before the announcement had been officially made! Check below for some of the best interviewing you will likely have EVER seen. Joke. 

There are loads more interviews from the event at www.mobo.com where you can also vote for your favourite artist. Check it out!

Although we all probably have our suspicions as to who will win the main categories, legions of less established artists' die-hard fans using social networks, especially in the 'Best Newcomer' category, are set to keep the bigger names on their toes this year.

Check the video below for the full nominations list!

- MOBO Nominees 2011 on MUZU.

The Rebirth of UK Garage

Rewind your minds back to the late 90's/early noughties and I don't know about you, but the main things that come to mind are seemingly pointless Adidas Popper trackies, Tony Blair as Prime Minister and last but not least, raving to UK Garage at the weekend.

When the reign of UK Garage as the UK's most popular dance genre ended, I felt like part of me had died. However, as the popularity of Dubstep gradually fizzles out, a growing number of producers are turning back to the UKG genre in the form of 'future garage' and the more familiar sound of 'two-step.'

Someone who is at the forefront of this rebirth is North London based producer Mike Delinquent, who has been a big player in the UK Garage scene since the early noughties. Testament to the growing popularity is the increased number of UKG remixes being commissioned by record labels at the moment, many of which are being netted by Mike Delinquent, who has stuck to a more traditional 2-step style in his productions.

Another big indicator for me is the recent decision of MoS to release a new compilation mixed by label plugger DJ Fiskin entitled 'The Sound of UK Garage.' Far from being a mix of old classics, the CD is well balanced between old and new, giving an overview of the entire history of UKG to date. Go buy it if you don't know about MJ Cole, The Wideboys, or Sunship.

Travel leftfield and go further underground and you discover a plethora of new styles, all influenced by the sound which dominated my adolescent years. From bass heavy to extremely chilled out, the UKG influence is everywhere. Even Jamie XX recently recorded an acoustic UK Garage influenced album which has proven extremely popular.

Another aspect of UK Garage which has seen a revival in the past few months is grime. Perhaps due to the success of peers such as Dizzee Rascal, Tinie Tempah, Tinchy Stryder and the like, many up and coming MC's have taken to making 'proper' grime again. By 'proper,' I refer to any track which has a dark beat, and lacks a flowery, female vocal hook. Its refreshing to see the scene bounce back so well lately. I did begin to wonder who Logan Sama was getting his tracks from for a while. All the MCs who used to make grime music had tried to follow in the footsteps of their peers who had made it to the charts and were trying to mimick the commercial sound which had proven so successful for them. Kickstarted by the success of Tempa T with 'Next Hype,' I think grime may be the next genre to make a meaningful comeback on the underground circuit.

Is this new emergence of UK Garage something to shout about? I say yes. Dubstep, in my opinion, is done and dusted; as is the fate of any genre which manages to make it to chart success. People's ears are growing tired of the predictable wobbling basslines and seemingly generic beat patterns which are coming out of the dubstep scene right now. All I can say is welcome back UK Garage, I missed you.

Kry Wolf - Wonga

I'm from Portsmouth, a fairly dull, uninteresting place not exactly renound for producing great music. I had to eat my words however, when a promo came through from a record label who used to run the only 'real' Hip-hop night in Portsmouth, Sounds of Sumo.

Kry Wolf, a duo hailing from Portsmouth have just released this new offering, entitled 'Wonga', which features Portsmouth-based MC, Mongrel (who I actually recall proverbially 'hanging up the mic' a few years back) providing a stonking vocal to the track. The track is available via digial download (links can be found here). Remixes are available from the likes of SDM, Mr Vega (my favourite mix) and loads others.

The track has been recieving heavy support from the likes of Dave Spoon (also from Portsmouth), Kissy Sell Out, Rob Da Bank, not to mention of course our very own Nick Bright on BBC 1Xtra, also (kinda) from Portsmouth!

I Luv Live 07/03/11 - Dot Rotten

Same night, different artist. This is what happened when I caught up with grime artist Dot Rotten ahead of his headline performance at I Luv Live, check the cameo from the waitress...!

I Luv Live 07/03/11 - Lovelle

Yo!! So last night we rolled into the east end but not to see Ian & Phil but to catch acts like Shorty, Dot Rotten, Lioness & a lady called Lovelle. Now after the later finished her sound check she took the time out to speak to me out in the freezing cold smoking area (oh the glam) and this is what went down!

Secret Ed Sheeran Gig.....at the Green Note

So last night I headed down to a top secret gig in Camden at which singer, songwritter Ed Sheeran was headlining. The buzz around the show on Twitter was mad with Ed tweeting a load of clues and then straight after me tweeting that I was going even I was bombarded with pleads to reveal the location. Anyway I didn't tell and I rolled up to a tiny restaurant/bar called the Green Note in Camden Town, it was a really humbling feeling to know that Ed is still cool to play in small venues like that as the night before he was smashing the Islington o2 helping out his pal Devlin. He had support from Soul singer Louise Golbey, who was really good doing a cover of Katie Perry's 'Firework' & some other bloke who's songs all sounded exactly the same, I was relieved when he said 'this is the last one from me'. Anyway up stepped Ed who performed a barrel of new material some of which he had never even tried out in public before as well as some of the Sheeran classics we love such as 'A-Team' & 'You Need Me, I Don't Need You'. The tune of the night for me though was one he said he'd written about his girlfriend when he was drunk, sounds like it would be terrible, but it was actually really good, promise. The tune is called 'Wake Me Up' and in his words 'this track is about my girlfriend and all the stupid things about her', do you think that's why he's still sleeping on a sofa? Who knows but what I do know is when he broke it down into his own rendition of Gyptian's 'Hold Yuh' the crowd reaction was crazy. If you get the chance to see Ed Sheeran play live you have to do it before this kid is selling out the o2 Arena and you have to watch through binoculars....just sayin!

Devlin at the O2 Academy, Islington Gig Review

So, last night we rocked up to the O2 Academy in Islington, North London to see the second gig of Devlin's 2011 Bud, Sweat and Beers tour.
Among the line up of various support acts were cameos from artists such as Ghetts, Griminal and new signing to Atlantic records, Ed Sheeran.

When we initially got there, it became apparent that we were pretty much the oldest people there (at our grand ages of 23 and 24)... bar a few parents who had obviously tagged along with their young'uns to make sure they didn't get into trouble.

That didn't bother us though; the warm up performances from Ghetts, Griminal and Ed Sheeran blew the roof off the place, although there were times when said artists had to ask the sound engineer to turn up the mic volumes. The biggest performance during the warm up had to be that of Ed Sheeran's, who managed to get the crowd chanting his name in a football match style... Pretty impressive considering he was only one of the support acts!

Then Devlin came to the stage. Kids were screaming and throwing blown up condoms off the mezzanine floor (don't think we used to do that in my day) and declaring their undying love for him. I don't think I've seen anything like it since Take That. Seriously. He went on to perform several of his tracks, including 'Let It Go,' 'London City,' and 'Runaway.’ Throughout the show he also made use of his support acts, performing 'Lately' alongside Ed Sheeran and 'Finally' with Ghetts.

Overall, a really impressive show with live band and great supporting artists throughout which kept the show interesting all the way to the end. Still annoyed I could only see it on the screen or through people’s legs but still well worth going!

The show has now been extended with extra dates in May, all of which are available on Devlin's website or on our blog from last month which featured the tour dates. Check the video below for Devlin's closing track of the night, 'Runaway' featuring Yasmin.