In The Mix: Bush's '90s bust and an All-Star house set

Jamz All-Stars: Jamz All-Stars begins their set at the famous Boiler Room in London and build up their performance in a very neat way. The team of DJ’s consists of Royal-T, Preditah, Champion, Holy Goof, Flava D, Elijah & Skilliam, and more. Overall the mix can be categorized in the genre of house music. At the start, the team keeps a fast, constant rhythm. There after, their DJing skills really begin to emerge.

The team of DJ’s alternate in showcasing their mixing and producing abilities. The female of the team (Flava D), gets us started by incorporating hard womps and house music, “Ready or not, here I come!” This DJ turns the club from warming up, to a steamy dance party. She finishes her portion by adding a new melody and hard bass in the background.

The mix continues with an island-like voice to a fast tempo. Jamz gives you the option of head-banging and going crazy to the music, or simply chilling and bobbing your head back and forth. The crowd certainly turns up toward the middle of their performance, when almost everyone is seen dancing in the Boiler Room.

At 9:42, the performers take it back a notch and slow it down for a second. They return with an even harder tone and sound, still remaining in that hard-house music genre.

As we approach 16 minutes in, the mix gets even faster, with more rhythm and incentive to dance. These DJ’s are so incredibly talented in transitioning. One song completely different from the next, mixes together in the smoothest way possible.

The DJ seen in the white hoodie, better known as “Holy Goof,” has the most genuine smile on his face, making the performance even more meaningful and enjoyable. He is then interrupted by another DJ in this set who insists on him finishing the end to a bottle of Capitan Morgan rum exclaiming, “Don’t even think about it, you know what you have to do. Finish it.” The happy DJ Holy Goof finishes the liquor in that moment, and the crowd roars with excitement.

Throughout the performance, fans interact with the Jamz squad and the DJ’s are inclusive and appreciative in return. Elijah and Skilliam complete the 30-minute performance and absolutely tear it up. Before the beat drops, “Leeds” is recited in the song several times and the audience is encapsulated in a set that no longer belongs to one genre.

Tracks Included: Charly Black & J Capri - Wine & Kotch (DJ Q Edit), The Fugees - Ready Or Not (Skepsis Bootleg), Riddim Commission - Dem Tings Dere (ft. D Double E), Holy Goof - Different, Bass Boy - Babycakes, DJ Q - Breathe VIP, TQD - Ghosts, Dr Cryptic - My Style, Lil Silva - Seasons (Edit ID), Subzero vs Bassboy - Yes Acapella Dubplate, TS7 - All Night Long VIP (ft. Slick Don & Specks), Rae Sremmurd - Black Beatles (DJ Q Edit), DJ Q - Danger T2 - I Want You. 


Razorblade Suitcase – Bush: This album released by Bush in 1996 has faced a great deal of scrutiny for mirroring Nirvana’s individualistic style. Conveniently on this album, the grunge rock ‘n’ roll band worked with Steve Albini, former producer of Nirvana’s second album, In Utero.

While the name of the record (Razorblade Suitcase) is intriguing, the content itself does not equate to a memorable 90s album. Being the second album released by Bush, the band made an explicit approach to being different, and ended up sounding like a cover band.

From start to finish the album goes from having great potential, to sounding off beat and unorganized. ‘Personal Holloway,’ is the first track of the EP, and actually establishes a great hook for the album. Unfortunately, this will probably be the peak of your experience. The instrumentation of this first track is indeed recognizable as a Bush song. The beginning of the album is a great effort on Bush’s part. Songs like ‘Swallowed,’ and ‘Insect Kin,’ are distinctive to Bush with different sounding tracks under the same common genre.

As the album continues, a constant style is brought to our attention to the point where it can sound like one long song with the same guitar riff and impressive, yet depressing vocals from Gavin Rossdale. With songs such as ‘Distant Voices,’ we can gather why so many consider this album to sound like Nirvana. This is one of my favorites of the album, as it is more melodic than most of the tracks, but does sound painfully similar. The lyrical content of the record is impressive and introspective, like some sort of spiritual journey, “I’m going to find my way to the sun.”

Bush made subtle attempts at being unique by incorporating a violin sound at times. The band also tries to stand out through their use of silence and comebacks in a couple of these tracks. In ‘Bonedriven,’ a violin plays in the background to support some of the core notes of the song. ‘History,’ is another tune in Razorblade Suitcase that interestingly ends with a distorted tune from a violin.  

‘Mouth,’ is a track that really shifted me toward an unfavorable view of the band's second album. ‘Greed Fly’ is one of the only songs where I discovered some differences or originality in the bands sound, that greatly peaked my interest.

The instrumentation and vocal quality of Bush is unquestionably great, but I am not confident this band really proved that to us with this album. The music and talent is there, but the album is not distinct or particular to their sound.

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