Brownswood recordings, Gilles Peterson's musical home base, teams up with Peggy UNLTD for a series of Summer parties at Cargo. The Summer Bubblers nights are to showcase the freshest talent inhabiting the left of center regions in the world of contemporary Pop, Soul and Hip Hop. The first installment of the night casts its net in the direction of NYC, and the vocal talents of rapper Melo-X as well as the deep crates of the Midnight Rockers Express crew. Welcoming them to our city, soulstress extraordinaire Rox, beatmeister Seiji and Get Me! founder Lixo will act as their knowledgeable guides. Their collective talents will definitely not be lost to us.
From a very early age Rox has been home-schooled in the art of singing by a very musical family. Rox tells of family gatherings that would often end with with all the older generation singing old gospel songs with about 10 different harmonies. No wonder then that from as young as 5 Rox became obsessed with harmonies and how they could colour a melody. This obsession of hers pushed her to study the art and techniques of the most accomplished singing voices in the field. When a singer names Lauryn Hill, Mary J Blige, Sade, Mahalia Jackson, Portishead, Common and Rufus Wainright as musical influences you know someone's been doing their homework. And boy does it show. Rox writes songs from the heart and delivers them from her soul with a vocal range, both in style and execution, that is simply mind-blowing. - Recognising this, Rough Trade have just signed her to their ilustrious label. - At times understated and intimate, others positively festive, Rox has the power to move both your mind and body with just her voice. Why she isn't a house-hold name yet is anyone's guess; as far as we are concerned, Rox is a star.
Maybe it's something in the air. Or maybe even in the water. But there definitely is something slightly spooky about the rivers of talent currently flowing from the NYC borrough of Brooklyn. One of the many voices making waves States-side and currently vying for our attention in the UK is that of singer slash song-writer Melo-X, Theophilus London's partner in crime during his latest European tour. Poet, composer, modern day Casanova, Melo-X is all this and then some. Proud of his art and meticulous with his craft, Melo-X is surrounding himself with the best New York has to offer. His latest track "Let It", produced by Machine Drum, is next level ish of the highest order, and we can't wait to see him plying his trade from the hallowed stage at Cargo.
Seiji did his electronic music apprenticeship as a Drum & Bass Producer/Artist recording for the seminal Jungle/Drum & Bass label Reinforced. He was a founder member of Bugz in the Attic where they set up a studio, a label and carved out a strong reputation, both individually and collectively, as top remixers and underground electronic Artists. They also jointly ran the legendary Sunday club night/institution, Co-Op. Seiji left Bugz in 2007, since then he has worked with Roisin Murphy producing and co-writing much of her album, "Overpowered", including the single of the same name. He has also individually remixed Amy Winehouse, Erykah Badu, Frankmusik, Jazmine Sullivan and released a compilation of his remixes on BitaSweet. We are discovering nothing new by inviting Seiji to the first Summer Bubblers but in exchange we are getting assured value for money and guaranteed heat on the dancefloor.
The Midnight Rockers Express is a collective of DJs and producers from New York City whose creative output includes a mix series, a blog site, edits and versions and a sound system. The MRE's featured DJs span three generations and are a true representation of the city's musical fabric. They include Carlos Ramos who began DJ'ing as a teenager in the 70's playing disco at nightspots in the Bronx. Uptown's Elijah All-City gave up his spray cans for turntables as a teenager after his mother took him to see Frankie Crocker of WBLS play records at Bond's Disco in Times Square. He earned his stripes on the downtown party scene in the early 90's where he and a young cast of DJ's including Funkmaster Flex and Mark Ronson. The MRE's youngest DJ is GetLive who came up in Queens on the b-boy scene and through turntablist battle sessions (he was BET's 106 + Park Battle DJ Champ in '05). His skills as a live DJ have seen him rock in clubs and on-stage with Blaqstarr, Benji from Good Charlotte, Theophilus London, Blu, Wale and AOK. GetLive will be representing the MRE sound at Cargo on his way to a headlining DJ set at the Open Air Festival in Switzerland.
A good party cannot be complete without a solid dj warming up proceedings, and they do not get any more solid than Lixo, the founder of West End dj collective Get Me!. Lixo has shared turntable duties with a host of djs and artists including Prancehall, Kode 9, Seb Chew, The Heatwave, Young Turks, Mumdance, Little Boots, Cocadisco, Dances With White Girls, Isa GT, The XX, Holy Fuck, Sinden, and A Skillz.
LIVE : ROX + MELO-X
DJS : SEIJI + MIDNIGHT ROCKERS EXPRESS + LIXO
8-3
£10 adv ,£6 b4 9, £12 after
