“I really wanted to bring to the UK a festival that celebrates the elements of UK club culture, and the community that surrounds it, that I have been lucky enough to be a part of over the years.” – Gilles Peterson
Having taken their name from the 2018 Brownswood compilation; a calling card for London’s bright-burning young jazz scene, We Out Here Festival sees integral members of the movement alongside legendary icons, genre-spanning DJs and young improvisers alike for four days of music in one of the UK’s most beautiful, landscaped festival sites.
Joining the musical dots between soul, hip hop, house, afro, electronica, jazz and beyond, WOH showcase both outstanding live music and some of the best record collections in the world. They also place an emphasis on high quality food and drink offerings, arts and cultural offerings, crisp sound and production, family activities and wellness: all to compliment quality-led musical curation.
During the lockdown of 2020, in which all UK festivals were cancelled, We Out Here Festival ran as a digital festival, online & on-air, bringing the best of the festival to people’s homes. From the inaugrual online festival of 2020, featuring live sessions from the likes of Marshall Allan’s Cosmic Tones, Ashley Henry, Collocuter, Kokoroko and Moses Boyd, as well as Dj sets from Channel One Soundsystem, Colleen ‘Cosmo’ Murphy, Alex Nut & Donna Leake, We Out here took the format a step further in 2021, with a Monthly onlne festival leading up to the main festival in Aug. Collaborating with players from within the scene around the UK, We Out Here online is able to showcase some of the best local DJs and live acts streaming their live sets to you at home.
Reform radio x Jägermeister represented Manchester to curate a showcase of DJ sets from the likes of Luke Unabomber, Mr Scruff & MC Kwasi & Konny Kon.
Ishmael Ensemble and SWU.FM were next to host, with a killer day of Dj and Live acts out of Bristol, including Waldo’s Gift, Om Unit & Addison Groove in aid of Bristol Food Union.
Next up on the We Out Here roster is 1BTN representing Brighton & Hove, showcasing a handful of bands and Djs from these fine shores, along with sessions from a few of our extended 1BTN family.
1BTN has curated 8hrs of bands and DJs and the stream will be aired this coming Thursday 24th Jun.
AÆE
UK Funky producer and DJ, who resides in Bristol, following a short stint in Brighton, where he joined the 1BTN family to produce a dope Monthly show. A few recordings for More Time Records have seen Aæe widely supported in the club by the likes of Martyn, Skream, Toddla T, Emerald and many more.
Aæe is a regular feature at club night’s in Bristol, also running his own series of events ESO which covers a wide range of music across the bass music spectrum. Aæe’ productions pack bags of energy and he is definitely a name to look out for in the future.
ANUSHKA (live)
Brighton-based duo Max Wheeler (producer) and Victoria Port (singer/songwriter) AKA Anushka transcend the UK jazz-electronic scene, melding dancefloor beats with sweet melodies, carried by entrancing female vocals. Having originally met whilst exploring Brighton’s legendary club culture, the pair bonded over a passion for making and recording music and a mutual love of Victoria sponge cake, gaining support from Gilles Peterson for their first single “Yes Guess” a few weeks after settling down to work on the track. Anushka signed to Brownswood Recordings in 2014 and released their “Distorted Air” EP which brought to life their love and understanding of jazz, musicality, connection with the living dance floor and the pull and push of love. Their debut album ‘Broken Circuit’ followed shortly after and gained support from the likes of Annie Mac, Phil Taggart, Jamz Supernova, B.Traits and Mary Anne Hobbs alongside features in The Guardian, The Arts Desk and Dazed. The success of the release saw the duo take to the stage at SXSW and alongside KAYTRANADA at Annie Mac Presents: Lost & Found Festival. Victoria and Max have spent the past few years building their own homes and families, letting go of expectations and settling into a sound they feel truly represents them. After working together for nearly 10 years, their journey has led to a musical exploration reflecting what inspires and moves them. Now signed to Brighton’s Tru-Thoughts record label you can expect dpe new music imminently.
DAISHA B2B FARO
Daisha, a 20 something selector from London, but has been based in Brighton for most of her life now. Daisha have spent many of her clubbing days at Brighton hotspot Patterns, where she is now a resident. Daisha has supported the likes of Gilles Peterson, Henry Wu, Dan Shake, Mella Dee, Mr Bongo, Harrison BDP and Afriquoi. Daisha’ 1BTN show, reflects her broad music taste and you can hear anything from Disco, Funk, Neo Soul and Afrobeat, to Nu Jazz, Breakbeat, House, Electro and Techno. after hopping between London and Ibiza. Faro finds herself back on the shores of Brightonia, where she has been DJing for around 6 years. Faro also has a residency at the much loved Patterns, supporting artists such as Honey Dijon, Dan Shake, Horse Meat Disco and more. Faro has a love for the soulful side of music whether that be House, Jazz, Broken Beat, Disco & R&B.
Two super dope selectors and we are proud to have then represent anywhere, anytime.
EBI SODA (live)
Emerging from the outskirts of London’s contemporary jazz scene Ebi Soda thrive on the idea of contradiction, seemingly more inspired by the atmosphere inside a rave than the sounds heard inside a jazz club. Their only debt to typical jazz being to attempt to innovate and experiment at every opportunity. The Brighton based quintet’s sound is characterised by erratic drum breaks, multi-effect soundscapes and searing trombone lines – Ebi Soda keep a post-punk DIY ethic close to their hearts, with songs often birthed from sweaty smokey bedrooms rather than that of the big band hall. Ebi Soda have just signed to Brighton’s own Tru-Thoughts record label. You can catch Ebi Soda across the UK over the coming months with a number of tour dates announced. Tour dates & ticket links are here:
10th July – Mostly Jazz Funk & Soul Birmingham
17th July – 42 Degrees Festival Hutton-in-the-Forest, The Lake District
14th August – Doune The Rabbit Hole Festival Cardross Estate, Stirlingshire
19th-22nd (TBC) August – We Out Here Cambridgeshire (SOLD OUT)
2nd October – Ipswich Sound City Ipswich
Ebi Soda’ back catalogue is now available digitally via the TT website. Limited Edition coloured vinyl pressings of the ‘Ebi Soda EP’ and ‘Bedroom Tapes EP’ are now live to pre-order on Bandcamp.
GIRLS OF THE INTERNET (live)
Girls Of The Internet burst onto the global house scene in 2017 with When U Go, and have kept up an impressive release schedule ever since, with a whole raft singles on such well-respected labels as Defected, Classic and Midnight Riot, as well as their own Drab Queen imprint, and two full-length albums under their belts already. Girls Of The Internet are a collective rather than a band or an individual, the name an umbrella for main man Tom Kerridge and whoever he happens to be working with at the time. Specialising in midtempo, pop-tinged house grooves with strong disco and soul influences. It’s all quite a long way from Kerridge’s former life as head of the Ramp Recordings/Brainmath label family, where he brought us glitchy dubstep, downtempo hip-hop and leftfield electronica from the likes of Flying Lotus, Zomby, SBTRKT, Falty DL and Count Bass D.
Girls Of The Internet have in just a few short years carved out their own distinctive niche in electronic dance music, perhaps because Kerridge is a man who takes inspiration from a lot of places other than the dancefloor of his local nightclub or the Beatport Top 100. See, for instance, Drab Queen’s record sleeves, which all feature Kerridge’s own portraits of drag artists.
J FELIX (live)
Producer and multi-instrumentalist Joe F Newman aka J-Felix released his debut album as J-Felix titled ‘101 Reasons’ on Tru Thoughts in 2015, which received high praise from NME, Don Letts and Huey Morgan (BBC 6Music), to name a few. The LP houses a collection of vibrant instrumental cuts of the ‘80s funk and boogie variety, interwoven with smooth vocals from himself and a handful of collaborators. He returned with his sophomore album ‘Whole Again Hooligan’ for the label in 2020 showcasing his trademark future blend of boogie, p-funk, disco and soul.
Joe cut his teeth in an eclectic range of bands and musical projects including playing guitars for Alice Russell and Swindle – being an in-demand DJ (holding residencies at Patterns, Brighton and Queen of Hoxton, London), hosting a radio show on 1BTN, supporting the likes of Roy Ayers and George Clinton, the list is endless… through which J-Felix’s penchant for all things funk has been perfected. Not to mention absorbing a mind-boggling array of influences, from The Clash to De La Soul to Snarky Puppy – before deciding the time had come to zoom in on his own sound. He was right to take the plunge; stepping out under his solo moniker, J-Felix, with just a few demos to his name, he found his woozy, heart-on-sleeve, P-funk laced songs being quickly snapped up by Tru Thoughts.
Now based in Brighton, but originally from Bristol, Joe’s approach to music was originally inspired by those he saw taking the DIY route back home where he grew up on a diet of d‘n’b, hip hop and dubwise music. After discovering the original sources of so many of the samples found in early d‘n’b, trip hop and US hip hop, he fell in love with all things funk, jazz and soul, later developing a particular taste for the P-funk and boogie sounds which now come through heavily in his music. Eager to create his own sonic stamp, J-Felix decided to steer away from samples in his own work, instead often layering up recordings of his own vocal and instrumental performances. Self-taught on a range of instruments including drums, guitar, bass, keys and synths, he has a pretty impressive selection of sounds to choose from at his fingertips.
His wide-ranging appreciation of music makes J-Felix a killer DJ, too; you may have been lucky enough to have seen him play at Glastonbury, Soundwave, or support Gilles Peterson in Brighton. With his full live band he’s also shared a stage with George Clinton (Parliament- Funkadelic), Roy Ayers and Soul ll Soul over the course of his career. His new record “Whole Again Hooligan” is an album that allows us all to escape the divisive world around us, a retreat of positivity, with good times guaranteed, and of course continuing in the boogie lineage, evolving from P-funk to the distinctive idiosyncratic sounds of J-Felix funk aka J-funk.
K-LONE
The last six years have seen the Brighton-based producer, real name Joe Gladwell, release a string of EPs for Idle Hands, Dr Banana and Wisdom Teeth, the label he co-founded with childhood friend and frequent collaborator Facta in 2014. The London-based imprint is part of a wave of labels channelling UK-born, bass-heavy sounds – albeit occupying a specific corner of the UK scene, aligned with Bristol’s music history; a successor to influential labels Livity Sound and Idle Hands, and peer to Parris’ Soundman Chronicles or Ossia’s Hotline Recordings.
It was Joe’s 2019 single Sine Language that pushed the label further into uncharted territory, blending trap rolls, Miami bass stomps and weightless ambient interruptions. The track, he explains, is an example of what he calls “coherent experiments”, the likes of which pepper his wide-ranging catalogue. It’s this ability to shapeshift that’s allowed such stylistic variation in his music, from bleep-driven dubstep (BB-8 / Barbarossa), aerated downtempo dub (In the Dust) to the smoother side of UKG (DRB08). Cape Cira, his debut LP, shores up his own knack for mutation, breaking new ground yet again. Far from being built for the dancefloor, the album – the first full-length on Wisdom Teeth – is characterised by repetition and what he calls “natural sounding” sonics, built around polyrhythms and humid textures. There are shades of his previous work – the pointillistic Woniso or the stepping bounce of last year’s Dance of the Vampires, but taken as a whole the album feels more meditative, rooted in our earthly surroundings. Perhaps because it’s the product of a concentrated burst of creativity while Joe was travelling at the end of 2018.
“When I started I was very concerned with having my own sound, whereas I realised I made more music when worrying about that less and just trusting my own process and ear,” he claims, adding that this is also driven by his commitment to DJing. “I’m not the best digger. I listen out for new stuff but often if I want to play a certain sound at a gig, I’ll just make it.”
MR. BONGO
It began in Venezuela 30 years ago – filling suitcases with amazing latin records to bring back to Europe. And it continued ever since; private warehouse visits in the US, dusty back street basements in South America, houses and garages in Africa, and lesser-known spots in Europe and Asia. Mr Bongo bring eclectic and unexpected Brazilian, Latin, African, Jazz, Soul, Reggae and Psychedelic flavours to the dance-floor with a seemingly bottomless stock of weird and wonderful selections.
Starting life in 1989 as a small record shop underneath Daddy Kool’s Reggae Store on Berwick Street in London, Bongo were the first shop to sell vinyl releases from independent hip hop labels such as Def Jam, Rawkus, Nervous and Big Beat outside of the USA. They also became an established bearer for hard-to-find, classic Latin music, particularly Brazilian, outside of the Americas. Over the following years Bongo moved three times within Soho and opened in Shibuya, Japan, They moved their offices to Brighton in 1999 and closed all shops in 2003.
20+ years on now Bongo have a recording roster featuring some of the best Brazilian, Latin, reggae, African and Jazz music by artists including Terry Callier, Jorge Ben, Joyce, Seu Jorge, Prince Fatty, Incredible Bongo Band and Marcos Valle. In 2004 the label moved into world cinema, a venture that has grown to compliment the music. In keeping with the record label philosophy, Bongo carefully select and source films from around the world and their catalogue now includes works by esteemed directors including Scorsese, Coppola, Has, Bertolucci, Rocha and Dovzhenko amongst others. Bongo aim to unearth iconic, stylish, hard-to-find gems and cult classics and make them readily available to cinema lovers.
Mr Bongo also have a publishing arm with an in-house team that produces and licenses music for use by third parties. Our clients include advertising, film and TV companies around the world; brands such as Bacardi, Nike, Adidas, Fosters, Nissan and Guinness have used their music. Mr Bongo also deal with worldwide royalty collection for artists and organisations.
SAMUS
Sam Smith (no not that one sadly) AKA Samus, started collecting records in his later teens and slowly amassing an eclectic selection over the last 10 years. Originally hailing from South London, where he’s now returned to, Sam spent his most formative musical years in Brighton. Spanning over 7 years or so he got to grips with club layouts as a punter, as a promoter for his own concluded night ‘Between The Tropics’, and more intimately as a DJ. Sam has guested for some of the other independent nights as well as a regular face behind the decks at Patterns. His regular bi-weekly show for 1BTN ‘Forget What You Heard’, hosted alongside musical confidante Jack Siddall, aims to showcase an equal representation of whatever music touches them, with no style untouched or dismissed. Music ranges from ambient, to hip hop, jazz, soul, disco, broken beat, electro, house, jungle, you name it! Anything with soul in whatever form is considered. He’s supported the likes of Byron the Aquarius, K15, Henry Wu, Baltra, Mr Bongo, Tash LC and many more… Catch his show every other Thursday. There last show is available to listen to below and an archive of all of the shows can be found on their Soundcloud page.
TY ABIODUN
Hailing from Manchester but now residing on the shores of Brighton, Ty, was a child of the seventies, as he says “Music was always a constant and i was great period to grow up. I lived through one of the most fruitful years of pop/songwritting (to me anyway) – the 80’s. And then I was there for the emergence of house music here in the UK. Which was a very special time.
I’ve had an up and down musical journey, which has taken me from attending raves, going to funk and punk gigs and late night shebeens to actually Djing on pirate radio, at festivals, and venues across the UK.
Radio always played a part of this journey, It provided the opportunity to hear and discover new music and listen to DJ’s sharing their passion and knowledge”
Ty collects records, which he showcases on his excellent 1BTN show entitled ‘Through The Trees’. Ty describes his show as “a no-fixed-genre kind of show and is for the curious, the lovers and loungers, the comedowners, the groovers, the get-uppers, the bakers and tasteful makers”. Expect to hear classics, pop muzak, upbeat bhangra and unknown gems. Ty also invites regular guest selectors to drop mix from time to time. Always dope and on point.
WHEEL UP (live)
WheelUP is the moniker of West London’s broken beat revivalist, producer, DJ and Balamii resident – Danny Wheeler. Releasing his debut EP “Bulawayo” on the legendary CoOperation Records; singles “Self Healing Machine”, “Vitruvian Man”, EP’s “Ndebele” and “Wanezi” on his home label Tru Thoughts, as well as a double AA side single for Future Bounce (Jamz Supernova’s imprint) – all in all Danny has cemented the WheelUP name as part of the new school of bruk – garnering approval from respected radio and club DJs such as Gilles Peterson, Toddla T, Mary Anne Hobbs, Ben UFO, Bonobo, Laurent Garnier and more.
Influenced by the likes of Duke Ellington, Quincy Jones, LTJ Bukem, Krust and Kaidi Tatham, as well as being personally mentored by Afronaut and Adam F, Danny grew up inside the epicentre of BRUK, being studio neighbours with some of the key players in the game including IG Culture, Bugz in the Attic and Goya Music (the leading vinyl distributor of bruk music). Originating from the drum and bass world as Danny Wheeler, Danny turned his hand to the burgeoning sound of West London’s resurgent scene, Wheeler was knighted the name ‘WheelUP’ by non-other than Afronaut, the founder of ‘Bugz in the Attic’ and a pioneer of the broken beat genre, who has cited WheelUP as “the best thing to come out of the broken beat scene right now!”
Recently released ‘Good Love’ is the debut album from WheelUP. In the words of the artist: “Good Love is something that I generally want to see in the world. This LP is my pursuit of broken beat excellence”. ‘Good Love’ is an amalgamation of WheelUP’s history and success, a record that places him alongside legends within the scene such as IG Culture and Marc Mac, as well as contemporaries EVM128 and Neue Grafik. “The future is not yet defined, but it is currently called broken beat, bruk or the West London Sound”, WheelUP preaches.
We Out Here online w/ 1BTN in aid of The Clocktower Sanctuary. Thursday 24th Jun 2021.
Find out more here – https://www.facebook.com/events/2933194296961294
