TF Archives

Fabric18 - Beige, Baby Mammoth & Solid Doctor

Author: DMC
Thursday, September 23, 2004
We music industry types spend too much time thinking, speaking, and meeting about things that are not important. Actually, they are important, but not when set against the fact that wonderful people all over the globe are making such inventive, infectious, exhilarating electronic music. The other stuff shouldn't be dominating our thoughts.

And I know here in London we have grime, but there are other places in England, and there are other unique, indigenous sounds. Like the music made by the grounded folk of Kingston-upon-Hull. These are people like you and I. By that I mean they don't want a big bill on their mobile if you call them abroad, they like being in pubs during the daytime, and given half a chance to play in a nightclub, they invite all their pals and have a blast.

Where they differ a bit from us, is that they are supremely talented in a recording studio, and prefer to make tracks than watch shit telly, write, or try and make leeks cooked in Chardonnay. It's exactly the same as Akufen's Montreal mates, and Michael Mayer's Cologne kids. They're doing their own thing, and loving the fact they're doing it.

So stop whatever it was you were up to, have some tea, read the biography they've done, stick the CD in and press play. Oh, then write about it, if you have the chance. Some extra titbits: Hull is home to one of the biggest football stadiums outside the Premiership (25,404 seats no less), has no Top Shop or Starbucks, and is where England's greatest ever poet, Phillip Larkin, wrote his greatest words. We've just been up there; you should go too.

This mix was put together by three people: Mark Blissenden (half of Baby Mammoth), Beige (half of Momma Gravy), and Solid Doctor (Steve Cobby of Fila Brazillia). Here's a quote from those about to take you (cough) to Hull and back:

"We're driven by serendipity, and happenstance. Happy accidents. We have carried on in the same vein we started; it was born from a will to experiment, and discover other paths, rather than thinking 'right, let's write some songs to get played on the radio'." Solid Doctor (Steve Cobby)

"I come from a working class family. My mum worked in an Elastoplast factory most of her life, and my dad was a glazier, he used to read plans, and put double glazing in buildings. At school, when it rained and they brought you in off the playground, they used to have this 'One Pence Disco' you could pay to get into and that's where I heard a lot of the stuff I love now." Beige (Robert Ellerby)

"When I was 19, I was training to be a civil engineer, and I was in a serious car accident. A friend who was sat next to me ended up in a wheelchair. From that point, I thought 'Bugger this', I'm going to have a go at something I can feel passionate about, something that really means something, something that seemed tangible." Baby Mammoth (Mark Blissenden)

01 - Baby Mammoth - Elephunk
02 - Baby Mammoth - Blind Date
03 - Baby Mammoth - Finale
04 - Raw Cliff - Bewilder
05 - Momma Gravy - Shut Up
06 - Momma Gravy - Boy With A Comb
07 - Momma Gravy - Bottle Back
08 - Momma Gravy - Sizzling Finch
09 - Momma Gravy - Did You Piss On My Guitar
10 - Fila Brazillia - Bullshitrecords
11 - JJ Fuchs - Stick it in T'Middler
12 - J*S*T*A*R*S - Spansules
13 - Mandrillus Sphinx - Pigeon's G-Spot
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