"Summer is here," Martha Reeves once chimed, "and the time is right for dancing in the streets…"
Clash once again joins forces with Skiddle to pick out some of the month's musical highlights – from Bristolian bass excursions to hip-hop legends in Leeds, from punk at the Roundhouse to Ghostly goings-on in Edinburgh…
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Live shows…
Mike Servito – Sneaky Petes, Edinburgh (June 29th) – TICKET LINK
Mike Servito is someone who has devoted his life to electronic music. A renowned crate-digger, his dexterous sets and emotive productions eventually drew him into the orbit of vital American imprint Ghostly, with whom he has struck up a fertile creative relationship.
Continually one step ahead of the game, this show finds Mike Servito touching down in Edinburgh to play renowned club Sneaky Petes – a resident at the Bunker in Brooklyn, he knows how to make a room sweat.
Mad Professor’s Dub Club – Thekla, Bristol (June 16th) – TICKET LINK
Bristol has reggae music running through its veins. Mad Professor is a legend in the city, developing a vital partnership with seminal Bristol group Massive Attack.
Mad Professor’s Dub Club is a new venture, making its first Bristol appearance at floating house of music and mayhem Thekla. It’s a superb booking – one of the country’s best venues, and a true legend of echo chamber mind expansion. Recommended.
Midnight Riot – Brixton Rooftop, London (June 10th) – TICKET LINK
Brixton is practically a city in itself. The London borough even has its own currency, for use in some of its defiantly independent outlets.
Midnight Riot taps into this ethos, with its Brixton Rooftop parties treading their own path. Lovebirds, house guru Justin Robertson, Judge Funk and more unite for this instalment – dress to sweat.
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Gigs…
Peaking Lights – Soup Kitchen, Manchester (June 25th) – TICKET LINK
Husband and wide duo Peaking Lights possess some of America’s most advanced ears, with their material sluicing together disco, funk, psychedelia, and other mind-expanding aural devices.
Returning to the UK, this show at Manchester’s Soup Kitchen is the ideal place to see them: a snug venue, great soundsystem, and a Manc crowd who want to hear something different.
Kamasi Washington – O2 Academy, Liverpool (June 30th) – TICKET LINK
Often described as a one-man revolution in jazz Kamasi Washington is a singular voice in creative music. A wonderful live performer, his billowing improvisations brush aside the boundaries between hip-hop, electronics, and of course jazz in order to reach for the spiritual. Oddly, this is his first visit to Liverpool, a city whose harbour past means that it continually looks out towards North America, and also The New. Part of a brief flurry of UK shows, this Kamasi Washington date is worth the visit.
Kool G Rap – The Wardrobe, Leeds (June 20th) – TICKET LINK
Leeds is set to welcome a bona fide rap legend this month, when Queens kingpin Kool G Rap hits The Wardrobe.
One of the most influential MCs in the game, Kool G Rap’s style is informed by life on the wrong side of the tracks – an influence in everyone from Nas to Eminem and Jay Z, this is a chance to catch a living legend of the game.
The Skids – Roundhouse, London (June 16th) – TICKET LINK
When punk hit, The Skids were just a bunch of kids in Dunfermline, a Scottish town that felt completely divorced from the revolution Down South. Forging their own world, The Skids became one of the era’s most individual voices – the rebel yell of ‘Into The Valley’ was more than just mere rabble-rousing power chords, and remains their calling card.
Hitting London’s Roundhouse on June 16th this is a chance to watch one of punk’s most inspirational groups, a band whose legacy can be felt everywhere a righteous chord pummels its way through the air.
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