Julio Bashmore – ‘Battle For The Middle You’

Seriously, this week of dancing has done my head in. I’ve spent about five straight days in the thrall of one of the best crews the UK has ever blessed our shores with, Young Turks, who prior to this outing I only knew as the label responsible for SBTRKT and Sampha, but since found out boast a huge roster of amazing DJs and artists, all of whom I am now completely and utterly bonkers for like it’s 2006 and I’ve heard a live mix for the first time ever. Granted, going from work to home and then back to a club around the corner from my work until 2am, only to return home, sleep for a few hours, go to work in the same area and then see SBTRKT later that night just down the road probably wasn’t the smartest move ever. But like a dog with a scent, when I get into something, I chase after it for hours. Not since the Ed Banger crew or Diplo’s Mad Decent has there been a force in electronic music like Young Turks. In the week leading up to SBTRKT’s second performance in Sydney in under a year, the Ladbroke Grove label and flagship imprint of XL Recordings (The xx, Adele, et al) they have completely taken my city hostage and I for one am certainly not complaining. So today’s song comes via that crew, by way of a certain DJ, as tipped off to me personally, beingthe techno luddite that I am by our man Frames. Basically it’s the result of me watching a set at a music festival and not knowing what one particular track was and harassing my friends about it. I must be heaps annoying to other people. But hey, we got there in the end.

Scene setting, if you will. Most of us have been listening to fuzzed-out indie bands like Yuck and Cults at Australia’s premier hipper-than-thou festival and we suddenly realise that in addition to getting their man SBTRKT to a headline slot, Young Turks have actually set up their own stage out the back of the venue and are throwing their own mini-rave. Our in-the-know British correspondent and mixtape master Sarah Crane is vibing out to my left, Frames a bit ahead and we’re watching the extraordinary DJ Oneman, who honest to god is more of a musician than a DJ anyway. He’s this amazing little guy who runs his hands across what seems like vinyl decks, CD-Js and a laptop seamlessly, dropping beats and mixing disparate elements together like a conductor. His energy is electric and with an appetite that extends across every subgenre and bass-heavy schema worth even vaguely knowing about. I am unsure about whether to dance or just stand there and gape like a moron, which is exactly what I did when he played on the aforementioned work night three days prior. As Crane puts it, the guy has golden ears. He’s pulling out rare and unreleased tracks that would never have otherwise seen the light of day and making them sound like old favourites. I’m almost certain there’s two minutes in there when he drops a grime cut in 10/4 time. But then he gets to the opening strains of Julio Bashmore and everyone promptly goes bananas.

I say that now, but of course at the time I have no idea who or what this song is. There’s nothing worse than being the one guy at the party who doesn’t know the key cultural touchstone of the Rinse FM movement and I’m Shazam-ing and SoundHound-ing surreptitiously and crazily but it’s not fucking working and oh my god, what is this song? Frames screams it to me mid-whirlwind, and there’s too many words so I ask him again. He says he’ll tell me tomorrow, and I catch something that sounds like a Spanish name and ‘bashing’. I go home after a ten hour festival and Google the living shit out of it. That’s how into it I am. Also I’m insane. ‘Battle For The Middle You’ is like all the sound I’ve liked but never been able to classify rolled into one excellent package. It is an impeccable piece of post-garage-dub-something. The bass is low but pure, and it only comes in after a minute but when it drops out of Oneman’s formidable speaker set, it sounds like Christ preaching to the apostles. No, there aren’t a lot of words. Yes, it has limited sections and variation. But straight up, it’s piqued my interest and stuck there long enough that I’m still spinning it three days later. Thanks to Oneman, then, for schooling me well and proper. Take me back to London with you, please.

Julio Bashmore – ‘Battle For The Middle You’