This goes a bit off of the ordinary Concussion music styles, but there is one particular event here in HK that I’ve really been waiting for:
Hidden Dragon presents Mungo’s Hi Fi – Sound System Champions – and Shanghai’s Uprooted Sunshine, in Hong Kong at Backstage Live, 27th March 2010.
Scotland’s Mungo’s Hi Fi came into being in 2000, with a desire to hear decent music in their own city of Glasgow and the serendipitous occasion of finding some speakers in a skip. Since then Mungo’s Hi Fi have become one of the most progressive forces in international reggae and dubstep, unleashing a myriad of highly sought-after releases on their Scotch Bonnet & Scrub a Dub labels, while playing over 1000 sell-out gigs throughout the UK and Europe in the last 8 years alone – fast becoming the most in-demand sound system in Europe.
On their China Tour we are lucky enough to have one of the two founding members of the crew, Tom, who is also the creative genius behind their riddims: working on a computer for synths and programming, but then mixing it all live on an analogue desk with spring reverb, analogue delay, and external effects – in a classic King Tubby’s/Scientist stylee. As if Hong Kong isn’t lucky enough to just have Mungo’s Hi Fi on the bill, we are exceptionally fortunate to have China’s No. 1 sound system – Shanghai’s superb Uprooted Sunshine.
—————————
Of course Mungo’s Hi Fi makes this event a must for attending, but the Shanghainese Uprooted Sunshine itself would be enough for me to do the decision. China as an environment isn’t really the first place where you’d expect some quality reggae soundsystems, but Uprooted Sunshine is a perfect example contradicting those prejudices. I have to admit I wasn’t familiar with them until two months ago when Disrupt handed me cd with Uprooted’s ChaCha doing some guest-MCing in Mandarin Chinese. It blew my mind and I had to do some further research. Uprooted Sunshine is organising regular events in Shanghai and now I got a chance to witness them in HK. Go Chinese reggae!
BTW, this event has some awesome poster design. I have to get myself a hard copy somewhere..
