How often do you see people f/s bigspin down triple sets? Now think about how often you see them do it whilst weaving through security guards? Never, right?
Watch the clip below to see Justin Brock do just that as well as one of the sickest lines you might see this week in his chapter in Quiksilver’s The Skateboarding Collection video series.
24H
W+K Tokyo Lab / EMI Music Japan
hifana.com/24h
Openly billed as a concept album, the latest release from the Japanese breakbeat duo Hifana may well be the first of its kind in the perpetually underground genre. After all, the world of turntablism rarely considers unifying themes in an LP to be anything more than superfluous, and it’s hardly frequent as it is to come across a breakbeat album by one artist that isn’t indistinguishable from a compilation CD.
In 24H, the duo that so fluidly blend the old and the new, take their bag of traditional Japanese instrumental samples and beat-up MPCs to the notion of everyday living in a fast-paced contemporary city. Hailing from Tokyo, their hometown seems a more than adequate locale.
It begins with two unhesitant and pounding tracks that grow rapidly from a stereotypical university student’s morning-themed soundscape to a groggy bass wobbler. The growling bassline of Robot Namesake is the closest rendition of the noise I make every morning upon waking I’ve heard yet. Chinza Dopeness furthers the haze, as he yawns his way through a sleepy rap while machines cook breakfast and alarms are left running behind more bass assaults in ‘Wake Up’. Then, we progress through to ‘Work It’ and ‘Damn It Ringtone’, both of which are coherently evocative of that daily struggle in an epic slave-song meets Jet Set Radio urban beatfest, but from that point onwards I’m a little lost.
I attribute this to my knowledge of the Japanese language being extensive enough to cover ‘ohayo gozaimasu’ (‘good morning’) and that’s about it. UFO and Touring Tour could well be littered with post-modern poetry about rush-hour or standing in line at a bank machine for all I know. Rest assured, though the message may not reach you, the sonic brew is consistently boiling over throughout their scholarly follow-up to 2007’s Connect. If Flying Lotus created a cosmic opera with the intricate Cosmogramma then Hifana have likewise penned an unfinished urban symphony that’s forever on repeat for the daily downtown vernacular.
Stanley
Thornes Park in Wakefield will be hosting Gravity’s 2010 Concrete Carnival and there are a vast amount of sponsors giving away stuff so you better be writing this down: it’s on Sunday 22nd August.
It all kicks off at 11am so get yourselves down as there are planned comps for all ages with prizes from every skateboarding company you can see on the flyer below.
The CSC are quite appropriately rinsing Cardiff’s new plaza of concrete and wonder and are concluding a month of shredding with the grandly titled CSC World Championships on August 30th. How much do you want to bet that CSC are going to win?
With the usual skate, beer, barbeque and giveaways in store this is definitely another event you should be adding to your must-attend lists.
Welsh heads can keep up to date with the all the news updates celebrity gossip and lies at the CSC website. For genuine information, check the flyer below.
It feels weird to write the word colour without a ‘u’, but then it’s strange enough to see a Mystery section that has colour in it.
It’s no surprise to see that Jimmy Carlin has put out yet another ridiculous section though. Here’s what turned him pro, click the image below and get stuck in. Wow.
6th – 8th August, 2010
Port Lympne, Kent
With a line-up to make any fan of modern heavy music squeal in delight, Hevy was an exciting prospect. And, other than a few minor organizational issues which are only to be expected at a young festival, this was an event that delivered everything it promised. Pretty cheap tickets, wildlife park next door, small so easy to get to every part of the site and a line-up consisting of some of the best new talent and much-loved established acts around. Glassjaw, Sepultura, Gallows and Comeback Kid were billed alongside up-and-comers March of The Raptors and Chickenhawk with buzz bands Trash Talk, Cerebral Ballzy and Pulled Apart By Horses thrown into the mix.
Unfortunately for us, we missed Cerebral Ballzy but we can be pretty sure that their raucous performance went down a treat with all assembled seeing as they played to a packed-out sweatbox Old Blue Last in London earlier that week. Trash Talk ended up being first on our agenda and they standardly made jaws drop with their rambunctious approach and no-holds-barred aggression. Despite coming across as a tightly wound angry beast, this band have unparalleled ability to entertain and their set at Hevy is no exception. Once you get involved, it’s a fun experience rather than a confrontational one.
March of The Raptors help to start filling up the Rock Sound tent and the people assembled enjoy the band’s full-on metally punk rock immensely. By the time Pulled Apart By Horses play the same tent, it’s absolutely rammed and hard to get a look-in but the band sound at their top-notch best as they reel off numbers from their enthralling debut including most recent single ‘High Five, Swan Dive, Nose Dive’. Fucked Up bring us back to the main stage with their innovative punk-with-a-twist and they lay the foundations perfectly for fellow Canadians Comeback Kid who clearly become the band of the weekend for many who watch their set. Vigorous hardcore with plenty of singalongs including a slowed-down intro to eternal rock-club-anthem ‘Wake The Dead’ which rouses pretty much every voice present and segues into the original speedy version of the track. Gallows follow admirably with their ever-entertaining on-stage antics, bringing the night to a superb close.
Sunday kicks off for us with Chickenhawk in an absolutely RAMMED Rock Sound tent, rocking the fuck out of an eager crowd. Catching a bit of Failsafe on the main stage, it’s definitely clear to see why they’ve built up a strong underground following. We hear Canterbury from a distance and although they could be seen as slightly out of place on a mainly heavy bill of music, the tunes are solidly catchy and we’re sure they got some people nodding along. Young Guns sound massive on the main stage as their huge-rock tunes get everyone more involved and they leap around like men possessed despite only just arriving from a heavy weekend at Boardmasters in Newquay. Despite our superbly-laid plans to watch The Plight, Polar Bear Club and Glassjaw later that evening, we had to return home and only found out about their performances from enthused tweets and the ensuing online reviews. Still, we did pretty well. Some awesome bands for your buck at Hevy this year. Let’s hope they do similarly well next year!
Winey G
So our video edit competition in association with The A-Team brought in some fantastic little edits from scenes, crews, skateparks and some other things we’re not so sure of. Some were funny, some were rad and others were just very odd. We had a great time watching through all of them.
Here’s our six finalists that were been sent to Geoff Rowley to decide who the winner is. One of the crews below got their hands on the mammoth prize package and the winner has now been announced here.
Big props to all those that entered. Keep it real and keep having fun skating.
CHRIS BROMLEY
MAX KING
SWILL POSSEE
REVOLUTION SKATEPARK
K-TOWN LURKERS
BEN CORNISH AND PRIME SKATEPARK
I have been sitting on this review for two weeks, still hesitant to write it even now. The issue with skate videos is that they have the awful tendency to rise up and fall out of the ever-shorter attention span of skateboarders who lurk the internet specifically for that one quick hit, that three minute section that’s perfect for those three minutes only. Every week I hear or read the phrase ‘that’s literally the best video I’ve ever seen’ and it made me a little nervous when my brain’s hypophysis was sending those potential hyperbole-ridden endorphins around my body on the first watch of Pontus Alv’s newest film. I simply couldn’t bring myself to physically write that this is not just the best, but the most important skate video I’ve ever seen so soon after watching it. Films must be watched again and again, they must be researched and you must speak to the director before you should even consider talking about it in such a way. So, over the next two weeks I did just that and I’ve reached a conclusion that I imagine won’t change any time soon.
In Search Of The Miraculous is definitely the most important skate video ever made.
The reason? For a start, it’s difficult to describe this as a skate video, even a film. ‘Film’ has been tainted by Hollywood and marketing in the same way that skate videos are scarred by industry input and the purpose to sell a product overriding the reason why we turn a video camera on our friends and go skating in the first place. Pontus does not sell you anything other than a narrative; his personal experiences that skateboarding has either dominated or heavily influenced are pieced together in what is essentially a visual window into Pontus’ soul. A soul that’s experienced a lot more since the darker Strongest Of The Strange; this is evident in the brighter colours, the upbeat music and the rainbows. Here we look into the light of skateboarding and remind ourselves that beautiful things, like Steppe Side, summer sessions, life and this video, are temporary. As a skateboarder, watching the video is an unending motivational, inspiring and euphoric ride. It’s timeless, beautiful.
Photo: Nils Svensson
Now despite what impression you might have from these words do not think that the skateboarding takes a back seat. It’s constantly at the front. Even when the film’s early 20th century cinema influences are in full force and there is a man standing on a beach screaming at a sky that morphs into flying balloons, birds, rainbows and smoke, this is all skateboarding.
We are guided (through consistently polite subtitles that run throughout the movie, varying from the necessary to the witty to the downright unexpected and ridiculous) through all of the hand-built spots that Pontus and his friends have made. The barrier spot gets an explosive eye-opening montage before the animation and wonderful Pontus stuff kicks in. You want gnarly stuff, you got it.
Watching the skating is thrilling on a number of levels, not just how impressive the skating is (and it’s really fucking impressive). Vicarious highs are an important thing for me when watching a skate video, and not once do I not feel every grind, every whippy transition at the ever-changing Steppe Side, I feel like I’ve skated all of these spots I’ve never seen before; I can also guarantee there’s more untouched spots here than in any other video released this year. More than this, I feel the session, the good times being had and the highs and lows associated with spot hunting that is rarely captured – even by the most respected filmmakers – at all let alone throughout the entire film.
The music is perfect and like in Strongest Of The Strange, manages to amplify everything. Mr. Danijel Stankovic’s (formally Todorovic) incredible section is only enhanced by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros (you know the song). Johan Linö-Waad joins Danijel in representing Malmö, a hometown to be proud of from the skateboarders it’s produced alone. Scott Bourne makes another appearance and as ever, it’s a pleasant surprise to see those black arms flailing around while he tears shit up. Günes Özdogan is another name that springs to mind quickly when trying to recall highlights but there’s just so many; the film in its entirety is very re-watchable and it deserves to be seen again and again to take it all in.
Pontus of course has a wonderful section and skates in the way many of us wish we could, with that loose, unhinged freedom that’s met with pure control as if there is indeed a telepathic connection between Alv and his skateboard that makes all those wallrides possible. He frequently appears in other sections throughout the entire film also: a visual reminder that this is his film and his story that he has shared not just with the people in the film, but with everyone watching it. After the seventh viewing I can only echo and pass on what he himself writes at the end… Skateboarding will always be beautiful, so go out there and skate as much as you can, while you can.
Stanley
Watch the full film here:
Pontus Alv – In Search of the Miraculous from Martin Ottosson on Vimeo.
A good friend Bartosz Nowicki recently posted online a cover photograph he took for Polish hip-hop magazine Playa. I asked him, ‘how on earth do you know Dibble?!’
So is Dibble moonlighting as a successful rapper in Poland? You decide…
Pendulum have put the Making Of the video to their recent single Witchcraft live online.
The track is taken from their number 1 charting album Immersion. Don’t forget the band are also heading out on an Arena tour in December at the dates below as well as headlining the Radio 1/NME stage at Reading/Leeds.
1st – Glasgow, Braehead Arena
2nd – Birmingham, NIA
3rd – London, Wembley Arena
4th – Nottingham, Trent FM Arena
7th – Bournemouth, BIC
8th – Manchester, Central
9th – Newcastle, Metro Radio Arena
10th – Aberdeen, AECC