Read the inspiration for our flip with Strictly Hardcore & Abjection Live.
Inside spread of our release. Left photo by heinousviolence.com. Article below.
Metalheadz (the label) was right time, right place, right sound. You’d go down to Music House (a popular Jamaican-inspired cutting studio in London), & it was a little social club where people would experiment and cut dubplates for each other. It would define where the music would go in the next couple of months. You’d still be there at 9 PM clinging on to get a dubplate off someone even if you thought you might be missing your gig… It was a bit like gardening: you plant a seed over here by giving a DJ a dubplate, he’d go and play it out, and then a few months later it’d be growing its own little scene over in this corner.
Lemon D (Kevin King), 2014.
Continuing our search for the best underground clubs, we struck lucky this weekend in the friendly city of Newcastle, United Kingdom…
Only a minutes walk from the city’s extremely popular heavy metal club, we found down a back street, a venue with an enticing foyer and front wall – Planet Earth, est. 1993. Previously host to Ella Fitzgerald, The Beatles, & the Kray twins as La Dolce Vita (Italian for ‘The Sweet Life’), in 30 years time the space had ushered in a new wave of voguish electronic acts, such as Chicago disc jockey Marshall Jefferson & London house vocalist Alison Limerick.
The special effects decor within the club were second to none & gave the place a most definite underground feel… A large pillar by the dance floor was see-through, containing coloured water gently bubbling away, & entering the toilets was an experience on its own. The facing wall housed several inset fish tanks full of different coloured water, again, just bubbling away, and pictures, paintings of graphics giving a display of how the earth was formed – in the right state of mind, could definitely get you wondering. This club had definitely received a lot of thought & imagination that made you feel like you were in a different time zone.
Still, the story behind Planet Earth hails deeper – a year prior, Brixton producer Lemon D founded a UK Break-beat hardcore & jungle label of the same name. Referencing the origin of his moniker, French newspaper Le Monde (The World), the title also reflects his range in drum & bass production. Sampling Anita Baker vocals to Bernard Purdie back-beats to contemporary archivist Zero-G (Ed Stratton) to Public Enemy verses, Lemon D was one of the most prolific foundation-setters for the cultivated world of the Jungle genre today. Only two years later, at the tip-off of a longtime friend Dillinja regarding a new record label on the rise, Planet Earth was absorbed into the infamous Metalheadz crew…
Find a copy & other exclusives this Saturday at either event. Click the images for RSVP/tickets.
