Georgie Rose - Photo by Stephanie Webb Photography
For those of you that are familiar with Sounddhism, you will know that it always guarantees a tremendous cocktail of quality live music with a mixer of club night. Those of you that aren’t familiar with Sounddhism... you need to seriously assess your life.
The Bodega faithful were spoiled with an arousing all-star line-up featuring some of the baddest (bad in a good way) hip hop outfits, outrageously talented singer songwriters and beastly party animal bands.
Georgie Rose only relatively recently gave up the football lark and picked up a guitar but she has already made an incredible impact on our scene. The unfairly talented musician has been stunning crowds across Nottingham over the last few months with her heartfelt lyrics and soothing voice. Performing at Sounddhism was no different as Georgie soothed the half drunk crowd with her beautifully crafted melodies. New track L.O.V.E being a particular highlight amongst other favourites. This girl has already performed at the Olympics in Hyde Park and will play the Eden Project...she is only 17.
Ill Citizen - Photo by Stephanie Webb Photography
Ill Citizen step up to the oche and immediately you can sense this lot have a bit of swagger about them. Hip Hop that has more grime than the men's urinals upstairs with frighteningly fast raps that are dangerously contagious. Lyrically impeccable with a heavy skankers vibe about them these guys are like heroin - you know its bad for you, its probably going to kill you but once you've had it you can't wait for the next time. If you ever get the chance to catch these guys then don't miss out.
Harleighblu - Photo by Stephanie Webb Photography
Harleighblu has been in our scene for quite a while now but is still very young. Her incredibly powerful soul voice is way beyond her years and a joyful live performer. The honey dripping soul is impossible not to been blown away by and her on stage charisma is also a treat. The big sound had The Bodega bopping along to the point where people don't even mind spilling their beer anymore - and you know that means a lot.
Jimmy The Squirrel - Photo by Stephanie Webb Photography
Souped up reggae outfit Jimmy The Squirrel take to the stage and get the crowd skanking the night away. Their sped up reggae ska vibe is probably the perfect festival sound going. Cooler than Snoopy in a blizzard and more fun than doing Takeshi's Castle on acid. Their set flys by and they leave the crowd lusting for more. I guess we will just have to all follow them around town begging them to perform, either that or just go to their next gig.
25 Past The Skank - Photo by Stephanie Webb Photography
25 Past The Skank have previously been described as 'The Specials on crack' so you can understand the excitement before this performance. They were better than I ever could have imagined. The croaky quick acapella intros builds up to the drop of the sound kicking in and my god what a sound. A mad infusion of sexy sax, turntablism, tribal vocals and fuck knows what else are thrown together creating a genre destroying, dancefloor engulfing, jungle dub timebomb. If you havent seen this lot before then I seriously suggest you add it to the bucket list, perhaps replacing swimming with dolphins as they are cocky little shits anyway. Fans of the Hallouminati will rejoice.
Royal Gala - Photo by Shaun Wootton
Royal Gala take to the stage and immediately it is intensely chaotic. The frenzied madness of frontwoman Lou Barnell infects The Bodega like a virus before everybody in the place is losing themselves to the frantic noise. This is pure fun. The eighteen legged dance-funk-trumpet fiesta monster seem to have no direction or plans. This is not a criticism though, it is beautifully crazy. It is like random uber-talented musicians have been thrown together by a drugged up terrorist and ordered to perform at gun point to satisfy his Taliban skanking needs. They play as if their lives depended on it.
Sounddhism as usual was ridiculously good fun and a clear indicator to anyone that still isn't convinced are scene is on fire that it is infact a raging inferno of talent that is about to explode and engulf the nation. We salute you Nottingham.
The Sounddhism Summer Festival took place at The Bodega on Saturday 4 August 2012.


Comments