WHAT better way to bounce out of the January blues than to spend a weekend stretching those legs to the rhythms of acid-jazz, funk, dub and rap? If you overindulged in seasonal sloth, then four days of solid grooving is just what you need to shake off the inertia.
While everybody else has rushed off to join the gym (only to drop out a month later), the smart set is warming up for the second Heineken Weekender in Galway, which kicks off next Thursday night and continues until Sunday. Sounds more fun (and probably cheaper) than spending the weekend buried in mud at a remote health spa.
According to promoter's MCD, last year's inaugural Weekender was a big success, attracting a gaggle of groovers to see such acts as House Of Pain, the James Taylor Quartet, Mother Earth and Galliano. In fact, such a groovy time was had by all that MCD decided to have another one last autumn, this time in Dublin. However, apart from a massively-attended gig at the Point featuring Massive Attack Sound System, and a reliable showing by Jools Holland at the Olympia, the Dublin Weekender turned out to be a bit of a damp squib, with poor audiences for many of the late-night shows at the Olympia, and a marked lack of focus for the whole affair.
No such diffusion expected for next weekend's outing in Galway: the city is small and accommodating enough to attract dance fans from all over the country, and there is a good spread of venues from the Town Hall Theatre in the city centre to Leisureland in Salthill. Combine this with the free city-wide pub trail, and you could be grooving your way back and forth across the city, with something to keep you swinging at every stoop.
Once again, the concerts are generally being held in small, intimate venues with capacities ranging from 150 to just over 1,000 punters. The centrepiece show happens at 8 p.m. on Saturday, when Van Morrison takes the stage at Leisureland to perform his current jazzed-up repertoire, as featured on last year's How Long Has This Been Going On album. It's not exactly acid-jazz, more a Ronnie Scott's reunion, but Van is sure to be full of verve as he recreates some classics and reworks some of his own back catalogue.
Moving back up to date, this year also features two pretty hot names from the world of dub, Renegade Soundwave and the Mad Professor. We all know the Prof from last year's No Protection, a collection of dubbed-up remixes of Massive Attack's Protection, but he has been around since the beginning of the 1980s, when he set up his own Ariwa label and started the legendary Dub Me Crazy series.
With In Dub, Renegade Soundwave have instigated a classic series of their own, and last year's follow-up, The Next Chapter Of Dub, strips the group's urban/ industrial dance style down to its pure roots. Now a duo comprising Gary Asquith and Danny Briottet, Renegade Soundwave are a hand of varying frequencies, with deep dub on one end of the scale, and the wide-boy techno-rap of Probably A Robbed on the other. Should be quite a soundclash.
The new British rap fraternity is well represented by the Brotherhood, a London-based posse who rap in their own voices rather than mimic their American cousins, and whose music samples British prog-rock to explore the darker side of London life. Another UK rap act, Eusebe, is a real family, comprising a brother, sister and cousin, and their current album, Tales From Mamma's Yard, reflects their, own experience of being black and British without resorting to ghetto mentality. The Weekender's opening act, Kaliphz, will give their fundamentally Asian view on life in the UK.
This year also sees the return of Corduroy, the "Fabric Four" of Acid-Jazz, plus, Gilles Peterson, inventor of the term, "Acid-Jazz", top dog at Talkin' Loud, and one of the most eclectic DJ's around. Other acts to watch out for are Australian six-piece Skunkhour (smells like good-time spirit) and late additions Jazz Jamaica (Ska-cid Jazz).
Along the free pub trail, which takes in such venues as the Blue Note, Roisin Dubh, Monroes, the Quays, the King's Head and McSwiggan's, you will find such diverse dance acts as Inner Sense, Spacehoppers, Nosebag, Birdfood and Main Squeeze, plus a host of top DJs like Gerry Molumby, Stephen Grainger, Rory Kavanagh, Tim Murray and Neil Molloy.
No more jive-talk: just get your ass down to Galway and the vibe will follow.
