Interview with DJ Yoda and Shlomo for Brixton Jamm, 8 July

DJ Yoda, the genius DJ known for his cut-and-paste style of remixing audio and video samples is due to collaborate with the beatbox alchemist that is Shlomo this Friday at Jamm, Brixton.

 

Buy tickets from TicketWeb 

It's how a DJ will work with a beatboxer that makes the evening exciting as both work off each other with their weapons of choice, plus we can't wait to see their approach as audio, video, and looped beatboxing clash.

You can now read this interview on our main site, here

Following last month's pre-Glastonbury Lyrix Organix at the Queen's Head in Angel, we expect a night of improvised music and one-off collaborations - Shlomo returned from America last year after winning the Loop Station Championships in LA, and DJ Yoda has just dropped his Yoda and Friends EP. Both are likely nursing post-Glasto hangovers.

DJ Yoda, famed for his audio/video mixing (VJing) which he was involved in pioneering for, believes his approach is changing the way that DJs think about their sets - see below.



"The new DJ technology has helped me make my DJ sets more interesting," he said. "I think the music industry is in a state of change, and record companies still haven't quite worked out their new role in the digital age - give them a few years yet and they will, I think."

So what should people expect from the DJ Yoda and Shlomo night at Jamm?
"I always try and let people expect the unexpected!" said DJ Yoda "I think I'm lucky that people know me now for playing right across the board musically, so I can see what the crowd seems to want on the night. If people are up for reggae or drum and bass or old hip-hop or whatever, I'll just take it in that direction!"

And as for the beatboxing?
"Using a combination of my beatboxing and looping skills I'll create a massive mix of continuous sound, including a whole heap of songs you will know and love mashed up in a new style, alongside some of my own bangers which will get your ears ringing and your feet moving," said Shlomo.

DJ Yoda is embarking on a UK tour at the end of July.

Meanwhile, Shlomo has finished on the festival circuit (which also included collaborations with our friends Lyrix Organix) and will return his one man show, Mouthtronica, at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival

DJ Yoda and Shlomo quick Q&A interview

Describe how you first got started in music.
DJ Yoda: I started by just messing around with my parent's hi-fi player pretending to scratch, as the music I liked as a kid had scratching in. I broke it, and then saved up to buy turntables and start practicing. I've always been based in North London. And my first track? That was Quid Control featuring People Under The Stairs - check it out on YouTube, I'm still really proud of it!
Shlomo: I was 18 living up in Leeds when I met the front man from Foreign Beggars outside a drum'n'bass rave. I was outside the club in a circle of people beatboxing full blast and he came up and took my number. He called me a few days later and asked if I wanted to come on their world tour! I ended up on the road with them for almost 4 years.

Has the digital revolution helped you take off and what do you think of music industry right now?
DJ Yoda: Definitely. The new DJ technology has helped me make my DJ sets more interesting - it's allowed me to do the Audio Visual shows that I do, and it definitely makes life easier. I think the music industry is in a state of change, and record companies still haven't quite worked out their new role in the digital age - give them a few years yet and they will, I think.
Shlomo: For sure, YouTube has had a massive impact on the beatboxing world - it's a skill that you need to see and not just hear. As a result the artform has been able to spread across the world in such a short time. Check out this on YouTube:


Is there anything fun/wacky/ or that we don’t know about you?
DJ Yoda: I am a breakfast cereal fanatic and I collect American breakfast cereals. And I like cooking jerk chicken!
Shlomo: Before I got my break from Bjork, I was working in an office typing out Lonely Hearts adverts. I got a voicemail on my mobile from Bjork herself. Everyone in the office thought it must be fake!

Jamm presents...DJ Yoda and Shlomo - LIve & In The Mix and On The Mic on 
Friday July 8th 2011 at Brixton Jamm, 261 Brixton Road, Brixton,  SW9 6LH, between 9pm-6am. 
Shlomo On Stage: 12-1.30am DJ Yoda: 1.30-4am
Tickets: £10 Advanced tickets available here

Who is the beatboxer and vocalists in the T-Mobile advert Welcome Home?

The T-Mobile Welcome Home advert has beatboxers in it! A week after Faith SFX 'appeared' as Bing Crosby in the Argos advert, beatboxing has made it into another commercial! T-Mobile Welcome Home. Flashmobs are cool, but this is better!

Video: T-Mobile Welcome Home advert


No doubt once again it's time for some beatboxing trivia: Who are the beatboxers in the T-Mobile advert?

It's ok, I've done the homework.

With thanks to Hobbit (Beatbox Championships finalist 2010 and the soundscape provider of Ghost Boy) on the HumanBeatBox forum, I (although really, he) can reveal the beatboxers are Lianhart, Bellatrix, Andy Frost and Toby from Swingle Singers.

Swingle Singers

Turns out the Swingle Singers are familiar with covert flash mobs too, having plugged Lovebox on the London Underground.

Video: Swingle Singers: Expect the Unexpected

Lianheart

This video of Lianheart is sure to blow. Your. Mind. ONE video on his YouTube channel. 100,000 video views!
Video: Lianheart - Human Beatbox Sample

Bellatrix

Here is Bellatrix (the one who scratched during Return of the Mack), who beatboxes with the amazing vocal group The Boxettes.
Video: Bellatrix interview


Unfortunately as of when this blog was posted you'd have missed Shlomo and the Vocal Orchestra at the Southbank Centre so I guess the only way to know the next beatboxing event is to Like TooMuchFlavour on Facebook and look out for updates!

Who is the beatboxer as Bing Crosby in the Argos advert?

Have you heard the Argos beatboxing advert? It's badd with two Ds!

Video: Argos beatboxing advert - Bing Crosby White Christmas

A classical scene featuring Bing Crosby holding his microphone in hand about to grace awaiting families at Christmas with a crooning song before breaking into beatboxing! Badd! Not too sure how well it scores for relevant audience, but I'll leave the critiques to the experts, I like the fact beatboxing will be seen by millions.

People will soon be asking who is the beatboxer in the Argos advert?
A lot of people might wrongly think it's Beardyman, but Beardyman has a different style. I have reason to believe it's this guy (see update below to find out who it actually is):

MC Zani, 2008 beatboxing champion. The dude's toured with Jay Sean and more, plus judged at this year's Vauxhall Beatbox Championships 2010.

By the way, Zani's got his own Stylophone Beatbox machine, which Argos don't actually stock!

UPDATE:
I was mistaken. Just found out the beatboxer FaithSFX, world beatbox heavyweight.
Video: Faith SFX freestyling in the studio

'Nuff respect. Faith also has the respect of Kool DJ Herc backing him up. Said Herc: "Faith SFX is the best thing coming out of the UK at the moment."

Word.


By the way you can read all our beatboxing articles on the main TooMuchFlavour site.

Thanks to AJ for bringing this to my attention.

Vauxhall UK Beatbox Championships results

Reeps One is Vauxhall Beatbox Championships winner once again.

A report of the event will appear here later today, please keep checking back or fan us.

Below are the results of the event with the winners of each round highlighted in bold.


Wildcard battlesBass 6 v Funktion
Yasson v Beatfox
Motormouf v Unome
Pikey Esquire v Drift

Quarter finals
Funktion v Layth
Yasson v Lucas the Beatbox
Unome v Reeps One
Pikey Esquire v Hobbit

Semi finals
Layth v Reeps One
Yasson v Hobbit

Final
Reeps One v Hobbit

Beardyman Freestyle Project at the Udderbelly, Southbank Centre

A year ago, the first time I went to a beatboxing jam and knew very little about it, the host, Stig of the Dump, remarked that "this is a real beatboxing jam - some of you have only seen beatboxing watching Beardyman on YouTube!"

Well truth be told... I hadn't seen Beardyman myself! To be fair, it was the first time I'd investigated beatboxing.

Click here to check out all of our Beatboxing feature on the site

All is about to change, however, as following Shlomo's run of Boxed there's not one but two more beatboxing performances as part of the E4 Udderbelly.

Freestyle Project is bringing together beatboxing with slam poetry, emceeing, visuals and guitar for a hip hop mash-up of everything that makes organic hip hop so wonderful.

As your eyes peruse the flyer, you'll see that Stig of the Dump is also in the line up, as is the poet Dizraeli whose talent I have mad respect for (apart from trying to put one past the audience at Shaking Spears). JFB, DMC Champion 2007, is on decks, and 'J'm Black, who I'd offend trying to pronounce his name, is on guitar.
Throw a loop station into the mix and the result is going to be pretty cool!


The Freestyle Project is on Monday 7 June 2010 at the Udderbelly by the Southbank Centre.
It's £14 (Concessions £11) 8:30pm – 10:00pm. Box office: 0871 663 2538

Beardyman Unshaved is the second beatboxing event, a fortnight later on Monday 21. Prepare yourself for a standby ticket, as it's been entirely booked up!

#waacking The Waacktitioners at April's Throwdown: Throw It Down and Waack It Up!

By Waacktitioner Princess Scribbles 

At the end of the first day of the year that actually felt like spring, came April’s Throwdown. The change in season brought with it a little more skin from host/'teaboy' Charlie Blue, and a new addition to a line-up which in the past has featured battles and showcases from graffiti artists, beatboxers and all manner of dancers from breakers, poppers and even pole-dancers. This Thursday’s Throwdown welcomed The Waacktitioners.

As a member of The Waacktitioners, I am aware of and trying hard not to get swept up by the hype that has suddenly surrounded waacking. There’s no denying we stand out - as we arrived on Thursday night while it was still quiet and the b-boys were warming up, it was easy to pick each of us out in our shiny leggings and killer heels, as if the cast from Fame got lost in Brixton.

However, waacking is a funk dance, a club dance created in the 70s alongside locking and popping - it belongs on dance floors, and in circles in venues like Plan B (although not on the lino - they had to take that up lest we puncture it with our shoes!). It’s great to be a part of the waacking whirlwind, the word is very definitely spreading and an invite to Throwdown, where urban authenticity is maintained and celebrated (even the barman can do a flare) is a mark of the recognition it’s gathering.

Rumour has it that even Madonna wants a waack-attack: amongst those summoned to audition for her privately last week were The Waackers from LA and The Waacktitioners’ own Rhimes, aka Roxy 7.

Thursday night’s Throwdown line-up was characteristically entertaining with a warm up from percussionist Kwake of the Speakers’ Corner Quartet: a unique brand of live acoustic drums over a sample pad. More performances punctuated the night as he accumulated more members of the classically trained foursome including flutist ‘Biscuit’ and Emcee Huntley Brown creating a melodic, atmospheric twist on straightforward hip hop. Kwake calls it a tribute to producers, it’s like a DJ set but even more live and improvised.

You can catch them on 14th April at Charlie Wrights, 45 Pitfield Street, London N1.

The battles began with the beatboxers who were very well received, judging from the number of phones in the air, it’ll be all over Youtube.

The b-boy battle was massively oversubscribed with 26 b-boys and one b-girl showcasing to get on the grid, the crowd was five-deep and the dancers came hard. The final came down to Manny, Spin and ADF, after three rounds each, the judges still needed one more round to choose between Manny and Spin of La Familia Crew, finally awarding the bragging rights to Spin.

'Track from the hat' rounded off the show nicely with UK locking champion, 'Rowdy' making her debut on the wheels of steel and serving up funkstyle tracks that would otherwise never make it onto the lino; the musical lucky dip included Cotton Eye Joe, No Limit, Firestarter and I’m Too Sexy.


The Waacktitioners’ showcase, despite a couple of musical hitches, delivered our brand of bespangled disco groove. A friend of mine, when asked for her honest feedback wondered whether the Throwdown audience was ready for sequins and funk and perhaps that will remain to be seen.

Were you there? What do you think? You can comment below

New videos on 2MF YouTube channel! BoxCon 2009

Last weekend was the international beatboxing convention, BoxCon.

To mark its return, "flash jams" were planned around London's tourist spots. Like flash mobs (think of the T-Mobile advert at Liverpool St station), the organisers intended to surprise members of the public by spontaneously bursting out into a beatboxing frenzy!

I followed the guys all around London with my trusty camera to capture the moments. Go see what "flash jams" are all about! They're... different!

Flave

This Easter weekend...

Get yourself down to Southbank Centre which will be holding TWO events - with a lot of stuff to do for free!

The first is B.Supreme 09, celebrating the contribution women to hip hop culture, featuring a gang of special guests, battles, and a free popping, breaking and house classes.

The next is BoxCon 09, the international beatbox convention, where emcees will astound and amaze you with their microphone skills.

As I said, most of these events are FREE to check out (except for the main shows and concerts, all reasonably priced under a tenner), so get on down!

News and updates are on the site.

Have a great Easter

Flave