DJ FORMAT & MC ABDOMINAL - gig details

Wideo

Wide O presents the UK’s biggest hiphop producer in years…

DJ FORMAT

& MC ABDOMINAL

Temple Bar Music Centre

Friday 13th June. 11pm till late.

Tickets €15 including booking fee from Ticketmaster, All City, Big Brother, City Discs, Comet, ROAD and Sound Cellar.

A fast-rising star no matter which way you measure it; Brighton’s DJ FORMAT released his debut album ‘Music for the Mature B-Boy’ to widespread critical acclaim last month (see ecstatic quotes below) for a grabbing blend of bumbling beats and humour that is rarely found outside the US. In fact, you’d have to go back at least ten years to find the last time such a buzz formed around a UK hiphop album.

The album release coincided with his first show in Ireland, when he lifted the roof off a packed Redbox while opening up for JURASSIC 5 with the help of Toronto MC ABDOMINAL. As with DJ SHADOW last summer, Format was the personal invite by J5 to support them on their whole European tour. Chali2Na and Akil also rapped on his last single ‘We Know Something...’.

This tour is to coincide with the release of his classic new bassline-driven single ‘The Hit Song’ which features MC Abdominal’s raps and is set to fill dancefloors all summer. A guest rapper of four of the album tracks, ABDOMINAL joins DJ FORMAT for this latenite show too.

www.thegenuinearticle.net/djformat

'There are references to every stage of Hip-Hops evolution, but rather than sounding like a pick and mix from the last 20 years, this is an album like they used to make 'em 10 bangers and no fillers....incredible. Recommended'. GRAND SLAM

'Grin-inflicting...Astonishingly good hip hop' MUSIC WEEK

‘Format’s album is an absolute winner – one of the best releases of the year so far’
SPINE MAGAZINE. 9/10

‘Defiantly old-skool in attitude, DJ Format wants to bring the block party vibe… a chunky slice of classic good-time hiphop’ UKhiphop.com

‘Clean, smooth, positive and dripping with fat organs and drums… DJ Format is a very talented producer who knows exactly what he likes.’ RTE.ie


DJ Format biography

'And I love hip-hop like Madonna loves diiiiiccccckkkk!' These immortal (sampled) words are taken from DJ Format's 'Vinyl Overdose' track on the 'Return Of The DJ Volume 2' compilation album released in 1997, albeit part of a compilation his first solo release bringing him to the world's attention. Rewind to the start ...and whilst growing up on a staple diet of Main Source, A Tribe Called Quest and other such hip-hop luminaries, Format took to the samplers and decks and began making DJ tracks in a cut-n-paste style... "I started sampling stuff around '90 or '91 when I got my equipment. When we were first trying to sample stuff, we were just going through our parents' record collections, just finding little bits and pieces."

Tapes and tapes of work followed, with Format experimenting with accapellas of the latest US 12"s over his beats - whilst keeping him out of trouble working alongside dedicated MCs remained his ultimate goal. After a stint with UK group Suspekt in 1995, Format carried on when the group fizzled out due to geographical reasons (one half of the group in Derby the other half on the South coast) and through a friend hooked up with Dave Paul @ Bomb Hip Hop Records in the US. After contributing the aforementioned 'Vinyl Overdose' to 'Return Of The DJ 2' the two of them stayed in touch and Dave released Format's debut single, the much-loved 'English Lesson' with a remix of 'Vinyl Overdose' called 'Vinyl Vasectomy' on the flip..
"I just wanted to do a track that used all my fast breaks, because that's what I loved. I didn't have a name for it, it was just a little track I was putting together and I think I just decided to call it 'English Lesson' as a bit of a pun - not because I thought it was worthy to be anything like DJ Shadow's 'Lesson 4' or Double Dee and Steinski's 'Lessons' series... I didn't want to invite myself into that 'exclusive club', if you like. It was just my cheeky little pun! I'm just an English guy and this is my lesson and maybe no-one's gonna acknowledge it - but, as it turned out, most people were pretty kind about it! "

This was towards the end of 1999. Round about the same time, and as usual through music Format became friendly with Pablo from The Psychonauts and in turn this hooked him up with Mo'Wax for a couple of tracks. 'Last Bongo In Brighton' originally debuted on the Japanese 'Art Of War' compilation, while his remix of Nigo's 'March Of The General' and Major Force's 'Re-Return To The Original Artform' won him a completely new set of fans who'd never heard his work before. Around this time Format started chatting with the people at PIAS (who he knew anyway since driving Jurassic 5 round on their first two UK tours) and they were talking about starting a new imprint, Genuine. "I hooked up with PIAS - Play It Again Sam. They'd decided to start up a little subsidiary and call it Genuine and I signed to them - and that's where I'm at now! And, to be fair, I'm really glad how things worked out. It's like it all happened for a reason."

In between working on music thoughout 2002 Format continued to DJ around the UK and was naturally only to happy to oblige the personal request of DJ Shadow to play support DJ for Shadow's dates in London & Bristol in the Summer. 2003 and 'Music For The Mature B-Boy' is Format's debut album. A full serving of his funky flair and unique sense of humour (check-out the skits inbetween tracks) the album proves a substantial collection of tracks and songs. Inbetween the kind of instrumental & cut up gems he's famed for there's a clutch of MC collaborations with rappers from Toronto, Los Angeles and the UK keeping things hot throughout.

One of the songs you might be familiar with ... featuring the oral dexterity of Toronto MC Abdominal 'Ill Culinary Behaviour' was Format's first single for Genuine. Abdominal's battle-style spectacularly interspersed with Format's underground funk and quick cutting made this one of the most rated singles of 2002 picking up excellent reviews and plenty of praise from a usually hard-to-please hip-hop audience. Indeed Abdominal's style proves a winning match with Format's fluid production skills and for that we're thankful that he make's appearance on a further two songs on the album. “The vibe from the ‘Ill Culinary Behaviour’ single through to the album is my take on hip hop really. Some people who are into newer hip hop might not think of uptempo breaks tracks like ‘Last Bongo In Brighton’ as hip hop, but older b-boys will get it. That’s why the album’s called “Music For The Mature B-Boy”.

The UK scene throws in stellar performances: from Aspects on 'Charity Shop Soundclash' and MCs Mick Strace, Majesta and Spye (the latter two from Undivided Attention/All Creatures) feature on the vinyl-only track 'Pan Pipes And Mics'. Regarding Aspects, Format sums up their working relationship… "I'm quite picky with who I think would sound right over my music, and those guys have a good understanding of breaks and that but are also adept at injecting thing's with a sense of humour. We're like-minded people. We really hit it off, not just as friends, but also in the studio." Something that occurs often with DJ-fronted albums is they can sound very disjointed - and the chemistry doesn't flow like it should. 'Music For The Mature B-Boy' doesn't suffer any of these common problems... "We all kinda worked together around the same time and there's a good variation of styles. I'm still doing my b-boy stuff and my instrumentals, so hopefully there's something for everyone... There's influences from all kinds of things in this album." All angles are covered here. Abdominal appears on what is potentially the most infectious moment of the album in 'The Hit Song' 'though there's no doubting the catchy hook of 'We Know Something You Don't Know'. Featuring Chali 2na and Akil from Jurassic 5 this is an assured, laidback groove, while fans of the harder-edge will definitely be feeling 'Vicious Battle Raps' with Abdominal coming at you like a Canadian Percee P... 'B-Boy Code Part 2' takes the original track somewhere completely different as another Toronto resident Fatki spices things up vocally, displaying the same microphone skills we last witnessed on the 'Nautilus' single in 2001.

But it's not all about vocal collab's and fans of Format's instrumental works do not go home empty handed 'Here Comes The Fuzz', with its twanging melody, a downbeat gem in 'A Little Bit Of Soul' and new remixes of 'English Lesson' and 'Last Bongo In Brighton' will have all b-boys and girls reaching for the lino...throughout it feel's like the key thing that keeps the album together is the sense that fun was the motive is never far away. "The album's supposed to be fun - and I think that people are scared to do that, they think everything has to be serious all the time. I don't dislike records like that, but I like to enjoy myself aswell."

For more info/photos/interviews please contact declan@stocks.com or jill@tbmc.ie