We used to live in a flat in London. It wasn’t the biggest block of flats in the world, but there were about twelve flats in the block. We had the ground floor flat and the only noise from anyone we ever heard was from the flat directly above. Every now and again, they would have a party that went on well into the night. If it hadn’t been for the awful wedding DJ style music they played at these gatherings I’m not sure I would have been that bothered, but being kept awake at all hours by Paul Young‘s Love of the common people really is beyond what any sane human could bear.
I went up once or twice, and they were very nice, apologetic, and to be fair to them they always turned it down when I asked. But they kept on doing it month after month, and I just felt if there was a way that we could give them some kind of idea of what it was like they might just stop. A taste of their own medicine.
Similar things are happening in the new video to Leeds roots nine-piece Gentleman’s Dub Club’s new track Give it away, where the noise next door (and this is my interpretation of it) makes the lead character, experiment with music making machinery, through the getting together of (oddly enough) a nine-piece roots band, possibly from Leeds, until we see the vinyl being pressed (all taking place in his increasingly messy room) and he settles down, presumably, for a little noise related revenge. The track has this dubby roots feel, heavy on the brass, with this keyboard sound chugging its way through the chorus. There are moments, when the echo peters out and we’re left with genuine moments of something approaching Indie pop, but these are quickly banished, and the party starts again.
The band themselves are one of the bands on the rise in the Uk at the moment, partly due to their incendiary live performances, including at last weeks Tramlines when they blew everyone away here in Sheffield. Influenced not only by Jamaican reggae and roots, but also by jazz, jungle, electronica and a lot of other things, their debut album, due out in the autumn, is one of the ones to watch.
I too eventually got my little bit of noise related revenge on the upstairs neighbours. We had a baby, who didn’t take to sleeping at night very much, and suddenly the parties stopped. Take that Paul Young.
http://www.Gentlemansdubclub.com
