Noname. Outdoor. Dubstep. Rave. Newcastle. Free. Tomorrow.

This is a track by Coki. One half of Digital Mystikz. He plays No Name in Newcastle tomorrow, which is a club night taking place outside a pub (The Tyne) underneath some railway arches over looking the Tyne river.

It's an example of how quickly dubstep has infected underground dance music heads. A year ago you would have struggled to find any dubstep in Toon. Now humungous d&b night Turbulence has dubstep in the backroom (Skream guested last time), producer/DJ Dynamix hosts Heavyweight, and No Name are doing nights like this (Benga to follow on August bank holiday weekend - and I will be there).

If I was Yoda I might say, 'In Newcastle, Strong is the force of dubstep.'

I also have to flag up and big up newcastle beats for being the one stop shop (forum) for anything breakbeat and bassline related. Dark Skies has connected all the d&b, breaks, dubstep nights, headz, promoters, ravers, producers, DJs and built a very impressive breakbeat/bassline coalition .

Here's my preview of Tomorrow's No Name, which appeared in Newcastle Metro today (hopefully).


CLUB

Coki at The Tyne

Saturday’s No Name is the first of two free outdoor parties under the arches adjacent to the Tyne pub, the scene of last August’s notorious No Name with Berlin’s impish electronica upstarts Modeselektor.

No Name has again sourced the very best in contemporary electronic music with headline guest Coki (Digital Mystikz). The South Londoners who make up Digital Mystikz, Mala and Coki are hugely in demand DJs as the dreadlocked poster boys of dubstep, the epic sound that amalgamates dub, twostep, jungle, techno, house and rock, into deep, heavy bassline music that rattles your ribcage.

Born out of the dark garage scene of the early noughties, dubstep’s tipping point came 18months ago when Digital Mystikz’s intimate, bi-monthly club, DMZ was full to capacity with 1,000 people outside desperate to get in. In typically welcoming Digital Mystikz style, DMZ shifted to a larger venue mid-proceedings, where it’s remained since, and draws fans from as far afield as New York, Baltimore and Helsinki.

Dubstep continues the UK’s proud tradition of soundsystem culture that’s spawned dub, rave, jungle, and drum’n’bass. And just as these sounds caught the ears and imagination of the UK, so has dubstep with The End, Fabric, Subdub in Leeds, and Bristol’s Subloaded regularly hosting nights. Internationally New York and Berlin are hotspots, with Digital Mystikz wowing Francois K’s Deep Space earlier this year, with an audience including King Tubby’s son and Public Enemy’s Bomb Squad producer Hank Shocklee.

Yet if you were to ask gentle giant Coki, or Mala, what music they make the answer would not be dubstep, theirs is a sound that deals in progression, and it’s unlike anything you have ever heard before. Think monstrous sub bass-powered dub soundscapes, that vary in mood from eerie to warm, imbued with a depth, time and space, and fused with the dancefloor energy of rave, techno, jungle, ragga and house.

Coki and Mala’s humble, accessible personas recall roots reggae’s one love ethos and their progressive mindset has seen their sound conquer all tribes from avant-garde electronica fans to bass junkies, via ravers, A-list techno titan Ricardo Villalobos and tastemakers including Gilles Peterson.

Sat, The Tyne Pub, Malin Street, 9pm til midnight, free!!!

www.no-fi.org.uk

big up to Nik Barrera and Lee No Fi for all the info and most importantly hosting the event.