Amazing vibes and inspiring performances from everyone involved, Mr Elephant is full of good vibes after last night.

Massive love, props and gratitude to all who bought the vibes and all who made it happen.

Together we raised just over £300 for Haiti, and created a night we wont forget.

Here’s a little video of some footage of a few of the artists caught on camera last night, until the “proper” footage shot by our man Jack, gets edited together.

(There’s also proper photos coming from Emily)

Mr Elephant Presents “Live & Free Haiti Fundraiser” – Friday 26th Feb @ Adam & Eve – FREE ENTRY til 4am

Its one month ago today that Haiti was struck by the magnitude 7.0 earthquake. Obviously a collossol disaster with 200,000 killed, 1 million homeless, huge international response…everyone is aware of the details.

Something that the quake has thrown up is that there is an urgent need, now moreso than ever, to address the fact that Haiti as one of the world’s poorest and least developed countries is in a very vunerable position.

The long history of oppression by dictators has markedly affected the nation and so as well as provding aid, we must also work towards enabling the people to create a sustainable infrastructure that isnt at the mercy of big businesses or powerful governments, like many previous reconstruction attempts have been (and shown).

Haiti needs rebuilding from the ground up and local economies need to be built in small towns and villages. Local people need to be trained and equipped with skills so that the economy can be built from the ground up, and not the top down.

herefore for this fundraiser, we are looking at 2 (Now 3) organisations, who are setting up long term solutions – http://www.earthship.org/haiti-disaster-relief & http://www.haitifoundation.org/ If you can suggest any other options please feel free to let us know. (UPDATE : We have emailed earthship to define their position, as we werent clear on exactly how the money would be used & are looking at http://www.standwithhaiti.org/haiti as an alternative)

This is a totally free event and on til 4am. Musicans and Djs from Birmingham & Bristol are coming together to produce a quality line up. All costs of the gig will be covered before the event, so that 100% of donations can go directly to two organisations

There are more artists being added to all the time, and the set times and more info will follow next week, but here are the confirmed artists so far.
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DUB MAFIA (Live jazzy drum n bass & dub) – http://www.myspace.com/officialdubmafia

Coming all the way from Bristol, and with one of the most played videos on youtube, this band features seriously talented Vocals, Keyboards, Guitar, Drums, Bass, Turntable, Percussion, Saxophone, musician and are set for very big things. Possibly the only chance to see them (for free) in Birmingham before they go on their big festival tour in the summer.

THE HIDDEN HALF (Flamenco Fusion) - http://www.myspace.com/thehiddenhalf

World fusion at its finest, with spanish guitar, latin percussion, and 2 vocalists. The Hidden Half always go down a storm at our Live and Free Events. Check our website for past videos

EVA LAZARUS (Acoustic and vocal) – http://www.myspace.com/evalazarus
Making a huge storm in Bristol, the vocals are quite simply jaw dropping. Another artist you may be more aware of via a you tube vid that went viral, this exclusive solo performance is going to be something very special.

GARY WILLIAMS (Special Live Acoustic Looping) – http://www.myspace.com/garywilliams74

A legend on the live scene in brum and the man behind many bands from Dr Dan Blues remedy to the ever impressive Playing Django. If you are in anyway interested in guitar or musicianship then very special live looping performance will be a treat.

SMILEY MIC – www.smileymic.co.uk

Another live looping performance but this time in a very different one man band style with human beatbox, acoustic guitar, vox & xylophone. Smiley mic has rocked two of our previous Mr Elephant events and recently supported De La Soul, so if you havent check him out yet, get there early as he’s opening the live sets, and you prob wont have heard anything quite like him before.

GEORDIE BLAKE (Shana Tova) – http://www.myspace.com/shanatova

Inspiring singer, guitarist & part of some of Brums finest bands over the last ten years from the Starries to Baxter, this guy made his solo debut last year at our 4th Live & Free and was literally that good, he caused 2 reviews to be written the very next morning! Another probable early performance as he has two gigs on that night.

JODI ANN BICKLEY – http://www.myspace.com/onenoneblonde

A poet that is making big waves in brum and london at the mo, witty, honest and charming poetry delivered with personality. Just back from a string of special performances in London don’t miss this.

SKELETON (The Beat Suite/Trigger/Mr Elephant) – http://www.rhubarbradio.com/programmes/beatsuite/

Host of the Beat Suite, Resident at Trigger and here at Mr Elephant, Kipp is one of the most versatile and talented djs. We couldnt find any video footage of the turntablist style he’ll be playing on the night, but you can rest assured you’ll be treated to a very special scratch set from one of the city’s best djs.

JAM JAH (Robin G) – http://www.friendlyfiremusic.com/

We’ve said it time and time again, but Jam Jah sound is something to beholden in Birmingham, and is why we at Mr Elephant never fail to get them playing wherever possible. Legends. (Again this footage doesnt do them justice, but gives an idea of the sound at the start of the vid)

JIBBERING (Tangawizi) – http://www.jibbering.com

Jibbering for over 10 years have been bringing bands to Birmingham, the majority of which have gone on to be huge. Tastemakers in their own right with each core member a dj and blatant music devotee, so any opportunity to hear their record collections is always a treat. Tangawizi has a huge spectrum of music and while the vid below is all we could find at the mo, expect funk, soul, reggae, hip hop and maybe even some more underground bizness as he surfs the decks with Jam Jah til 4am.

Vj BLENDSTATE – http://www.blendstate.com

A huge part of Mr Elephant ever since the 2nd event where he bought the indymedia films for the chillout room. Now one of the leading vj in Birmingham3 years later, and a promoter in his own right, with his own cinephonic event going from strength to strength and his managing of the party rockin mammal sessions over the last 6 months. Footage adorns many mr elephant videos, but this is one that doesnt get seen regularly, with soundtrack from another bristol guest from our 2nd birthday mr dub fx.

VENUE – http://www.theadam.co.uk
Located on the 50 route at the top of bradford street, in Digbeth, and a short walk from the city centre, the venue has been putting on music events every week for years. A place to chill and chat, as much as it is to see quality local and international bands and / or dance til 4am. There’s a cool heated smoking area, pool table and chilling areas, quality bar and proper friendly staff, great in house engineer and just they’ve spent loads on new bassbins, so expect the sound to be even bigger and crisper than every before.
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Final note. (Sorry this has been such a loooong event page!)

We moved this event to a Friday as there as there is another haiti fundraiser on from subvert on the Saturday. As we normally do Saturday - http://www.mrelephant.com/category/events/live-and-free we were a little aprehensive, so if you can help spread the word in anyway it’ll make a big difference and be very much appreciated by all involved.

Obviously everyone is coming together to put on a great free night in the hope to raise money, but also we hope will appeal to a wide range of tastes and make for a proper memorable one, so if you’re in birmingham, and can drop by for a beer, drop a few quid into the donation buckets etc, it should hopefully be another night to remember….and raise plenty of cash for where its needed.

Facebook event page is here – http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=479592425470&ref=ts

Mr Elephant favourites Munchbreak, (this time with multi genre skills of Home Cooking djs) & the mighty Jam Jah once again showed us why Birmingham is packed full of flavour with 2 inspiring live performances and 4 dj sets which kept our last live and free event of 2009 nice and toasty all the way until the 4am close.

Here’s a little video of part one of Munchbreak where they took us back to their seminal jam session days.

Despite being probably the wettest, coldest night we’ve had thus far, nothing seem to hinder a whole pub full of revellers. Robin from Jam Jah kicked things off with their unique blend of roots, reggae, and dancehall.

Followed by some choice genre hopping funk style crowd pleasing cuts from Maxwell from Home Cooking

Then it was time for the headline live act of the night in the first of two sets. First the Jam session you can see above, and then their full live set. Here’s a little more footage this time from their 2nd set.

and if you want more, do go check out their album. It’s well recommended

P.s there are more photos here and our mr elephant facebook group is here.

This week on the Mr Elephant Radio show we’re with Marc Reck who’s taking us through 2 diverse mixes, some brand new promo’s and a whole host of genres.

Hope you enjoy the show, please check out any artists you like with the last fm links below and hope you can join us next next monday live on Rhubarb Radio at 6pm – 8pm

Mr Elephant Radio Show 14 – Hosted By Marc Reck – 021109 by marcreck

Mr Elephant Presents – Party Rockin’ Mammal Sessions 1st Birthday – 2nd October 2009

The Party Rockin’ Mammal Sessions have become synonymous with playing floor filling underground dancing music, guaranteed to make your tail feather shake, and a reliable way to find some of the best underground djs in the city.

Celebrating it’s 1st birthday, and final party at the Bulls Head, great vibes were in full effect, with balloons, kazoos (& those lighty up things) adorning a lovely and well up for it crowd, whilst superb sets were thrown down with celebratory style from Marc Reck, VJ Blendstate, DJ Lopan, & The Beat Suite, all of which kept  the birthday mammals stomping with a dancefloor journey through hip hop, glitch-hop, funk, breaks, drum ‘n’ bass and jungle!

New residents, The Beat Suite, are a Birmingham-based duo, who can scratch, genre hop, and rock the party, joining the Mr Elephant collective at the 2nd Cinephonic. Comprising of Skeleton and Dolhasz, these two DJs began their journey at the venue filling (and much missed) Open Beats events alongside Skeleton’s residencies at Trigger. Now they host their own radio show live on rhubarb radio every Wednesday at midnight, and watch out for big things from the new 4 way partnership in 2010.

DJ Lopan was welcomed back with his record bag full of party breakbeat, and dirty electro, with some fine turnatablist skills, alongside fellow resident VJ Blendstate who delivered without doubt the finest visuals yet seen at the venue.

whilst resident sock-rocker Marc Reck once again brought his magic to the turntables with a massive crowd pleasing breaks and drum and bass set,

followed by The Beat Suite’s 2nd set of the night with some huge jungle which set the place on fire.

One of the 4 regular nights from the Mr Elephant collective, the next Party Rockin’ Mammal Sessions will be on Saturday 14th November. Sadly saying farewell to the Bulls Head, but happily taking up a new Saturday night residency at the Hare & Hounds, where it will be on rotation with Cinephonic every 2nd Saturday of the month (though the next Cinephonic will be on Friday Dec 11th for a xmas movie mashup!)

Look out for other nights belonging to the Mr Elephant family including Live and Free @ the Adam & Eve, (great live music til 4am for free!), the return on Intermix in 2010, the bi yearly festival style events, and of course the Mr Elephant radio show live on www.rhubarbradio.com every Monday evening from 6pm – 8pm.

More photos of the night can be found here

Little feature on Mr Elephant appeared in the recent Night Times publication which gives a little overview of what we do as Mr Elephant.

20, 000 copies of the Night Times have been distributed this month to showcase the best of brums underground and music nightlife to our new arriving students. Copies can be found for free at your local music venues in Birmingham and for those that havent come across the paper, its a must follow publication in our opinion and we lucky to have it in the city, featuring music reviews, events and local information. As far as we know its funded only by advertisting and the fact they make the advertising really affordable and really useful to underground nights and local people who dont have much money, means its something that needs supporting, so get in touch with them if you have something you want to share with the birmingham masses.

Here’s our little biog, and click here to read a bigger version

After kicking off to a great start with Quantic back in June, Cinephonic well and truly settled into its groove with it’s second outing this month. It was a monster weekend with the Mr Elephant team also ramming the bull’s head the night before with a funk flavoured Party Rockin Mammal Session. A little sleep later and we’re back again at the Hare and Hounds for a very different animal.

Video by Jack Brabant

As always with Cinephonic we base the visuals of the night around a theme. This time around it was all about the road movies. Marc Reck opened us up with a great bit of chilled trip-hop, the room nicely filling up to the warm sounds of artists such as Kruder & Dorfmeister, Thievery Corporation & Barry Adamson.

Mr Vj Blendstate was on the light fantastic, craftly mixing up some killer clips from Thelma & Louise, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103074/ David Lynch’s lawnmower powered movie “The Straight Story” http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0166896/, and the classic Easy Rider http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064276/ as the pace picked up ready for our special guests.

Rhurbarb Radio favourites Skeleton and Dolhasz perfectly translated their radio show ‘The Beat Suite” http://thebeatsuiterhubarbradio.blogspot.com/ into a live environment. Covering a massive range of genres just like a certain resident of ours loves to do, the experimental pair seemed a perfect match for Marc and the night.

The Beat suite’s 1st set saw some great scratching from Skeleton & some seamless blending from Dolchasz. Taking it from the trip hop into the hip hop and building up into choice dubstep and big room breaks, their style, vibe and mixing was 2nd to none and kept the tension building and the party rockin vibe flowing!

Despite the soaring temperature the place was nice and full by 11:00 and our DJ’s responded accordingly cracking the tunes up and getting everybody moving. The visuals hit overdrive with some feedback powered cliff driving, motorcycle acrobatics, and Lawnmower action for good measure.

Midnight came and it was time for Marc’s 2nd set. Starting from breaks and switching it up with each track, it seemed our resident was looking for what was the crowd wanted in order to set the place off.

After breaks, a little swing, it was the huge bite from the liquid drum and bass which set the place on fire and took us into a great hour of crowd pleasing jungle & drum & bass!

Blendstates visuals were creating a filmic visual narrative that bought the cinema to the dancefloor with impressive skill and inspiring imagination! Skeleton & Dolchaz took to the decks for their 2nd set and displayed why they are two of the moste versatile djs in brum, effortlessly jumping from jungle to drum and bass, from breaks to dubstep, dropping in some cheeky numbers and keeping the floor locked and jumping all the way through.

Massive thanks to all those who came out and created a truly lovely vibe creating a proper night to remember. Also special thanks the venue for staying open an extra half hour allowing our DJ’s a unanticipated B2B set at the end!

Cinephonic will return on the 10th October with details to follow soon. If you’d like to keep posted automagically, please subscribe to the rss, or join the facebook group (invites for each event)

Supersonic Sound Wave by Emily Poyser

Monotonix in crowd by J D Robinson

Synonymous with bringing anything to the table, Supersonic Festival offered willing musos experimental delights from around the globe. This three-day miscellany of music brought together folk, breakcore, metal and chaotic beats – a daunting task for some, but not Supersonic.

The Capsule gang: the masterminds and curators of the festival, now into its seventh year, took over the Custard Factory in fantastic style – utilising the factory and outside spaces for not only music, but cheeky pockets of artwork and film.

It had been passed down the grapevine that 2008 was going to be hard to beat, but Capsule seem to have recreated the perplexing balance of eclectic and experimental. The weekend seemed to offer a platform for new and emerging Birmingham talent, alongside established and international acts.

People came from all corners of the UK to descend on a not-so-sunny Birmingham, almost selling out the festival on all three nights.

Friday’s highlights

Friday saw the bemusement begin in supersonic style with Drum Eyes belting out psychedelic sounds in the Factory Club. Scorn followed shortly after with stirring downtempo minimalist beats and deep baselines. The former Napalm Death drummer Mick Harris served a unique fusion on trip-hop and dub revellers.

The Custard Factory outside stage, inhabited by a 300-strong army of hardcore Sunn O)) fans, were treated to their juxtaposition of ambient sounds and black metal. Accompanied by only their guitars and what seemed like an unnecessary amount of amps, Greg Anderson and Stephen O’Malley couldn’t fail to make an impact.

Smoke filled the outside stage through which droning guitars, feedback and other sound effects could be heard at an incredible decibel level.

Thirty minutes into the performance, still with no discernible beat, body numbers had reduced significantly; the mob of hardcore fans persevered in classic style.

Sunn by J D Robinson

The only endurance test which could follow the might of Sunn O)) was Venetian Snares, aka Canadian mind-bender Aaron Funk.

This legend could be described Aphex Twin meets your little cousin f**king around with your old breaks records, whilst drumming a skip with chop sticks. He seems to have mastered experimental electronic blending anything from reggae to classic techno at around 4000 bpm!

Saturday’s highlights

Saturday saw an arcane line up, with Nisennenmondai welcoming the evening on the outside stage. These fine Tokyoites gave definition to Japanese punk, with the female three piece enticing the crowd into a frenzy.

Staying in East Asia, Japanese band Corrupted played their first gig in the UK and offered Space 2 (the Custard Factory’s warehouse space) a bleak and forceful sound. The band demonstrated brutal riffs-drones, as well as a drummer who maintained an unbelievable striking force on improbable slow tempos.

Bobby Previte and VJ Benton offered a fully immersive audio-visual experience straight from New York. Zu, scheduled slightly awkwardly afterwards, shifted down-gear and left the crowd somewhat indifferent.

The reminder that music festivals shouldn’t be taken so seriously came in the form of Monotonix.

Easily the hairiest men at the festival, the Tel Aviv trio closed the Saturday night on the outside stage in unparalleled style. By far the most energetic performance of the festival, these guys sported some courageous shorts and offered some old-fashioned entertainment.

The equipment, originally set up amongst the crowd, moved to all four corners of the venue throughout the performance (with kit being passed everywhere, it’s a miracle if they got it all back). As the drum kit and singer edged the crowd further away from the stage, enticing havoc at the back, VJ Blendstate and the front of house team were almost taken out.

The crowd numbers soon doubled, then tripled to a full house. The crowd sat down thanks to the singers barking instructions and one guy almost got a clout round the head – carrying the debacle on for a further ten minutes.

Banned from most venues in Tel Aviv, hopefully, they’ll be frequenting the city a little more often.

Monotonix by J D Robinson

Sunday’s highlights

A credit to Capsule’s programming, Theo (aka Sam Knight) worked his one-man magic on a rainy afternoon. To see this talent live is something of wonder with his looped layers of delicate sounds echoing on the factory walls.

Each song moved effortlessly to the next as his impressive guitaring and drumming baffled an attentive crowd. His rhythmic melodies and beats induced a trance like state as he improvised and worked off the crowd.

The Black Country’s finest industrial export, Head of David, played their first live show in 23 years as the original line-up. Sunday’s headliner, Italian legends Goblin followed with nothing out of the ordinary.

Goblin by J D Robinson

Old Supersonic favorites Caribou closed the outside stage offering building blocks of divine melodies. Programmed as a “perfect slice of bedroom psychedelia from someone for whom melody and emotion are ten times as important as collectible obscurity”, they certainly didn’t disappoint before bed time.

Time and time again, Supersonic gets described as the best organised music event in the Midlands by gig-goers, crew and artists. Everyone seems willing, friendly and this creative hub becomes a place where metallers meet the folk fairies.

And don’t forget the cake…

You can listen to this tomfoolery and genius on Rhubarb Radio and catch a look on the Flickr group.

Photos taken from Flickr group – Jwrobinson’s photostream

Review written by Emily Poyser on behalf of Mr Elephant – emily_poyser@hotmail.com