WOEBOT

Dirty Canvas represents a highly unusual foray of Grime music into “uptown” culture. Curated by aficionado David Moynihan and convening at The Whitechapel Gallery, the event is planned to be the first of many opportunities for bohemians shy of visiting grassroots events like FWD and Eskimo Dance to feel the true underground vibe. It’s no surprise to long-standing supporters of the music that it has leap-frogged conventional venues directly into a gallery. The evening’s supremely over-articulated thuggery, as evidenced in Ruff Sqwad’s pugilistic logos juggernaut, is a neat counterpoint to the gallery’s day-show, Paul McCarthy’s work with its Rabelaisian currents and themes lifted from Viennese aktionism and Pirate theme to boot.

From Left to Right: Tinchy Stryder, Slicks and Dirty Danger

There should be no doubt as to the threat posed to the established order by the monstrous energy Ruff Sqwad represent. On the Thursday Ofcom raided 44 Pirate Radio Stations, seized 53 transmitters, disabled 17 more and harvested 43 mobile numbers attached to Pirate activity in a bid to clear the airways for the London Fire Brigade and National Air Traffic Services. While Section 3 of the Communications Act 2003 with its aim to “secure optimal use for wireless telegraphy of the electro-magnetic spectrum” was invoked, official comment swiftly dovetailed into critique of the “direct link between some illegal broadcasters and serious crime.” What this has to do with a supposedly practical exercise run by the Office of Communications is anyone’s guess. All told, that freethinking institutions like The Whitechapel gallery (here out-stepping the ICA) have started to make room for Grime’s destabilizing noise is a deeply positive sign. Too often supposed “alternative” culture chokes on that which isn’t produced by the white middle-classes, settling for the comfort of the bourgeoisie’s self-appointed “radical” culture.

From Left to Right: Fuda Guy, Rapid, Dirty Danger and Begg.

The evening started slowly with a tiny crowd hugging the venue’s back wall as Ruff Sqwad performed their sound check, a scenario reminiscent of teenage discos with girls and boys tittering at either side of the dancefloor. Fortunately by the time Tinchy Stryder, Rapid, Slicks, Danger and crew hit the stage the place was reasonably well stocked. The reaction to their delivery of what amounts to Grime’s greatest tracks of the past two years was nothing short of ecstatic. “We Bring it Down”, “Underground”, “Don’t Truss”, “Anna”, “Lethal Injection” and “XTC” were greeted with uproarious cheers; Roachie of Roll Deep’s cameo on “All Night Long” cranking the excitement up to an almost unbearable level. Ruff Sqwad’s form, as many as seven MCs accompanying their own instrumentals spun by a DJ, is reminiscent of that of the earliest Hip-Hop outfits, wherein a progressive social democracy and the collective generation of energy eclipse in importance beatnik ideals like the artist’s ego.

From Left to Right: Fuda Guy and Roachie.

Ruff Sqwad’s signature high-velocity sonic combines the crash of early Hip-Hop (crudely, think Marley Marl on 45) with the trilling synth patterns of Swizz Beatz. However the speed of the riddims, and the breathless xenoglossic delivery push everything into the red, forming a molten, strikingly Avant-Garde mess. More than on record, more than on pirate radio, live before a crowd is the best place to witness this. The evening was a total and unexpected success, Ruff Sqwad delighting in and “feeding off” the crowd’s energy, unselfconscious in the face of what proved to be a smaller cultural gap than many anticipated. This was a most auspicious start to what promises to be groundbreaking series of events.

-----
Extended version of live review published in The Wire.
Link