Buzzin Electronic Music

12×12 @ The Scala, London – 11th March 2010

When do you get to have 12 of the most influential music producers of the last twenty years playing back to back for 12 minutes a piece in one space?  You don’t.  This kind of line up is something you could only concoct if making a play list at home.  But Red Bull Music Academy turned this musical fantasy into a reality at the Scala last week.  And boy, was I pleased to have witnessed it.

The Influential Music Producers

Arthur Baker, A Guy Called Gerald, Jazzie B, Martyn Ware, MJ Cole, Peter Hook, Robert Owens, Roni Size, Shy FX & Stamina MC, Shades of Rhythm, X-Press 2 and Zinc & Dynamite MC were given 12 minutes each to play their 12 inch anthems and also various tracks that had influenced their musical sounds. Jazzie B was began the session and dropped the first big song of the night, Soul II Soul ‘Back to Life.’ Miss Dynamite made a very welcome return to the stage during Zinc’s turn on the wheels of steel singing their new track ‘Wile Out’ and showed us just why she was such a successful MC early last decade.

My personal highlight without fail was Roni Size who bucked with the trend by playing his own track ‘Brown Paper Bag’ at the end of his dance hall and hip hop set. Robert Owens soothed us with his voice as he sang ‘I’ll be your friend.’  I loved his outfit of studded belt and tight black long sleeve t… it showed off his slight middle age paunch.

In fact, the passing of time seemed to be unifying theme in a night of very different music styles.  We were celebrating definitive tracks created by these people years ago, which has influenced and changed the course of music today.  Everyone was getting on a bit, the hairlines were receding, and the lines around the eyes more pronounced.

I was a wee nipper when some of the tracks were first released, others I remember and bought with gusto when they came out.  What was universal on that night was that good music IS timeless.  Fact.

This couldn’t have been made more clear than by the final set of the night given to Peter Hook of New Order who played three different interpretations of ‘Blue Monday’ leaving us all high and replete to shuffle out the doors home.