The Roadhouse is situated on the outskirts of Manchester’s Northern Quarter, an area thriving with both cultural and musical innovation. It’s in this area that bands such as ‘The Arctic Monkeys’, ‘Muse’ and current chart favourites ‘Kings Of Leon’ have slogged it out, performing to crowds of sometimes no more than a hundred people, in their attempts to live the musical dream. Tonight is the turn of dubstep duo ‘Tek One’, who with their eclectic sampling abilities and live drum sets, have gradually been making waves amongst ravers and rockers alike.
Dubstep has tightened its stranglehold over the music industry in 2010, and it’s largely because of the versatility with which it can be produced. Tek One exemplify this with maximum skill and intensity, tossing out samples from emerging pop-star Eliza Doolittle, and Yorkshire’s metal-core band ‘Bring Me The Horizon’. Pretty much the chalk and cheese of the musical world!
It’s emo outfit ‘Lights Go Blue’ who breathe the first signs of life into the two hundred or so fans who’ve semi-packed out the venue, with their high tempo synthesizers getting the crowd moving. A full house it is not, but this is more than compensated for by the intensity which can be felt spreading across the dark and dingy room. Admittedly the support act stink of ‘Enter Shikari’s’ leftovers, but their music is easily digestible for the young audience, and doesn’t tread on the toes of tonight’s headliners.
Local MC Tonn Piper is the man taking care of the evening’s proceedings, which he tackles with aplomb. Fraternising with an audience so engaged in the atmosphere, Piper could have had them singing nursery rhymes if he’d really wanted. Thankfully though he didn’t, and instead he went about introducing Tek One, to which the crowd responded ecstatically. DJ and Producer Howard Newman is the brains of the outfit, and having parted ways with previous drummer Felix only weeks before the tour began, the role of percussionist has been bestowed upon newby Bo Morgan.
Between the two of them, there is an intensity generated which is as gripping to listen to as it is to watch. Newman rarely stops moving as he mixes a brilliant blend of genres into a set of heavy dubstep, all of which is well received by a frantic audience of adolescents. So strong is Newman’s desire to be raving with his audience, he ditches the headphones on more than one occasion to dive head first into the crowd. Even Piper is in disbelief as he continues to reel off skits and lyrics from various sampled tracks as well as his own catalogue of freestyles.
Morgan meanwhile is left hammering his drum kit in a robotic fashion reminiscent of Stephen Morris (Joy Division) and Dave Hyde (The Futureheads), the difference being that neither of the aforementioned drummers ever attempted live drum & bass loops. It’s a feat which appears mighty complicated, however upon asking Morgan after the show, he quite casually shrugs as if to say “all in a days work.”
Shortly after finishing their set, Piper has the words ‘Tek One’ resounding around the venue. The duo’s early slot means that the crowd aren’t even nearly content yet, and so it’s justified that the pair reappear from backstage to give their doting fans one more dose of their heavy sound. Probably the best song of the night, Newman delivers ‘Original Nuttah’, an exclusive Shy FX track which raises the roof. The drummer from Lights Go Blue appears from the side of the stage to fearlessly fling himself into the audience, where he joins several pumped up fans, all of whom are repeating the words ‘Manchester you what, you what!?’ back to Piper, who looks genuinely stunned by the energy which the audience have provided.
Tek One hail from Croydon, or “Croydub,” as they refer to it, and are currently on a headline tour of the UK. It’s difficult to determine whether or not you can expect to see bigger things from the pair, as there are so many DJ’s practicing the art of dubstep in contemporary music. From the bedroom of an aspiring teenager to the ‘Top 10’ of the UK singles chart, dubstep as a collective is rampantly bulldozing its way into contention as the most popular genre of music in the country right now.
There is a theory that every 7 years the constitution of chart music shifts, and a different genre evolves and dominates the airwaves. Indie had its day in the early 2000’s courtesy of mega-bands like Coldplay and Snow Patrol, and R ‘n’ B seems to be the current trend, but thanks to the likes of Tek One, it seems that dubstep will almost certainly be the next genre to take its turn in the spotlight.
© 2010 Manchester Live. Words by Chris Tancock. Photo's by Chris Balmer
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