Brisbane-based DJ / MC / producer Suckafish P. Jones certainly has something of a hectic (not to mention prolific) musical schedule in his hometown – between hosting his weekly radio show on 4ZZZ “Forcefed Fistfuls’, which places the focus upon grime, baile funk and dancehall, he’ also somehow found space to decimate dancefloors alongside the likes of Monster Zoku Onsomb, Potato Master and Kid 606, whilst also regularly performing as member of Trundle Clack All-Stars. Just slightly preceding the release of his debut EP proper Mr Cloak and Dagger, this self-released CDR mix Stagger/Swagger Vol.1 acts as the first of a series of planned “beat-tapes’ and shows Suckafish constructing a nicely rough around the edges 34 minute long mix of his own tracks that wanders through hip-hop, dancehall and dubstep styles (the latter certainly representing a vital local scene in Brisbane currently), over its relatively petite running length.
The interest factor certainly immediately gets perked from opening track “Return Of The Iron Fist’s onwards, with a sampled dancehall MC’ call-out swiftly giving way to the sort of vintage Chinese opera strings that RZA would likely sample, shortly before rapidly cut-and-mashed hiphop breaks and brooding bass synths drag things off in a jazz-noir direction that’s far more illbient in nature. Just as things start to drift out towards headnod territory however, “Dirt Music’ featuring Hykoo and Lodeck snaps things sharply back to reality over a jazz-funk meets tribal percussion backing, before the well-worn “Under Mi Sensi’ accapella rides “Tectonic Riddims’ scrapyard backdrop of off-centre double bass twangs and beats, before rapidly accelerating into a breakcore frenzy. From there, Macromantics takes things back to hip-hop, as Suckafish places bleeping synths and rattling dancehall rhythms around her vocals on storming highlight “Eerily Spookily’, placing her rapidly-packed delivery in one of the best sonic contexts I’ve heard to date, shortly before things shift towards dubstep; a stylistic mood that dominates much of this mix’ second half. Throughout, bass-testing inclusions such as “Hawaiian Grubstep Merchant’s and “Gunshaat (Codeine Steppa mix)’ manage to easily stand amongst some of the strongest Australian dubstep productions I’ve personally encountered to date, with the imaginative deployment of metallic, off-centre polyrhythms particularly marking out Suckafish as a local producer to keep tabs on. An extremely impressive first taster from Suckafish P. Jones that seriously whets the appetite for his upcoming debut EP.
Chris Downton
