Baking Beats, best of Breakbeat

It was officially hilarious viewing, as the trivial adolescent Dizzee Rascal fumbled across the colossal stage of Wembley Arena. An unexpected support band for the likes of the Prodigy, but once underway, it was clearly understandable; it was only an amplification of their own mind-blowing performance.

The Essex-born band was the peak of the nineties, pioneering the industrial, hardcore electric music genre. In spite of my fear as a child of Mr Keith Flint’s manic head-bobbing, selling over 16 million records worldwide, it’s no wonder that crowds come in swarms rather than trickles- a little like their melodies. Expect nothing less than an explosion.

The pungent odour of sweat shrouded the arena, and despite the slipping and sliding of ten thousand fan’s dirty perspiration, it made the ambience all the more invigorating. Every Prodigy addict beamed from the rave crater, jumping in unison to classic 90’s hits such as ‘Breathe,’ followed by a full blast of ‘Firestarter.’

Sitting what seemed to be as far as India made hailing Keith Flint slightly challenging. I highly doubt that he could see my attempt at a double horn rock gesture, nevertheless with ten thousand people doing the equivalent; my work was evidently cut out for me. The atmosphere was literally electric, as dozens of multicoloured lights strobes synchronised with the psychedelic pulsations of ‘Smack my Bitch Up.’

The only way to end the night was a breathtaking amalgamation of reggae and electronika. ‘Out of Space’ epitomized the final moments of the performance, as the audience dazed to the skanking rhythms and lingered to Voodoo People; naturally polishing off with a good old fashioned sing-a-long.

Their high-quality live sets never fail to dumbfound their audiences, definitely your money’s worth.

Young Classical Close-ups at the Southbank Centre

Little did I know that the Royal Festival Hall is just one of three venues inside of the Southbank Centre, conveniently located at the heart of London. After several minutes of searching, I enter the ‘Ballroom hall’ expecting fishtails and tuxedos, instead am enticed by the decadent sounds of Xuefei Yang, China’s answer to John Williams and classical guitars.

For those students spending hours on Youtube and playing air guitar, you may know that Xuefei Yang is at the top of the directory when it comes to classical guitar music. The 28 year-old female artist is a pioneer in her field, not only as the first guitarist to enter a music school in China, to launch an international guitar career from China, as well as (yes, despite the grumbling) the first Chinese guitarist to sign with a major record label (EMI)!

I stroke my chin and grin as she starts to pluck the famous ‘Deer Hunter’ piece, ‘Cavatina’ by Stanley Myers. As desperate as I am to shout out ‘I know that one,’ I indulge in absolute finger-picking fluidity, flawless in every way. As the £12,000 Australian rosewood echoes along the festival floor, it is purely a hand-holding sort-of moment as she progresses on to prevalently known ‘Romanza de Amor,’ in other words the ‘Love Story’ theme. But if romance is not your cup of tea, then marinate your ears in Argentinean tangos like ‘La Campesita.’ My eyes seem to blur at the speed of her flamenco form, just another skill to add to her youthful array of talent.

Xuefei Yang’s popular classical repertoire does make the average so-and-so say ‘she is not that special, she only plays routine classical pieces,’ but in her own words, “it’s nice to hear different versions and dimensions to important pieces of music- you have more to prove that way.” And with that, we nod in agreement- she makes it her own with a gentle smile on her face.

Suswati Basu meets Reverend and her Maker

The first word they utter is political- and they mean business. “Our words are edgy because we make music to send out a message, not like the average indie band today.” So it seems that beyond the music industry lies more then just great tunes for us listeners, there is something to learn from the artists after all.

The ‘Reverend,’ Mr. Jon McClure has come a long way since collaborating with his present band the Makers in 2005. From Eastern influences, first band named Judan Suki to the formation of the Makers, the Sheffield band, keeping to their roots refused major record labels and signed with the independent label Wall of Sounds. Being alongside the Artic Monkeys, it was easy to get side-tracked with fame and fortune. However as McClure testifies “a lot of people don’t like the ‘sensitive’ substance we use in our songs such as talking about the ‘State of things’ these days. The music industry doesn’t like hearing the truth or going against the government and we like telling it.”

From a quick remark about ‘freedom fighters’ and all things against the war came a full-on discussion about the Reverend’s music within a corrupt society. McClure and percussionist Stuart Doughty’ frank comments about how bands are today epitomises their take on music- “they take drugs and then publicise it. It’s like who cares? But then you see them on the front of a magazine!”

Shadowing the band on stage gave a real sense of what the music was about- attitude and implications with a surface of indie-electronika. The atmosphere seems energised as the crowd and band jump in unison, the rhythms pounding and the guitars resounding- it was like the Reverend was making a sermon and the people answered “Hallelujah!”

One final vow: Reverend and the Makers are set to kick up a storm this year whether by their toe-tapping catchy tunes or priceless controversial words; you will definitely see them bless our music systems.