Review:Red Bull Culture Clash, Passenger Shed

While this year sees Red Bull soundclashes in Manchester and London too, Bristol had the best lineup. Pinch’s Tectonic and DJ Die’s Gutterfunk were there to represent the city itself, while the out-of-town challengers were Butterz and Stylo G’s Warning Sound. 

As champions of last year Tectonic had to be there, and even as I walked in I overheard people chatting about the previous clash and Tectonic’s dubplates and soundsystem. 

If you’ve never been to a clash before, there are certain rules that apply. There can be no double plays of a track. At all. All night. Break the rule and you get disqualified from the round. 

The winners of each round are decided by crowd reaction or a decibel reader if it’s too close to call. 

A dubplate (a song which has had different lyrics recorded over it hyping up / trash talking another team) can make or break a round.

The four rounds go like this:

Pressure drop: A ten minute warm up for each team to showcase their sound.

The Selector: DJs play any style. Musical knowledge is a necessity.

Sleeping With The Enemy: Tables are turned as crews play each other’s sound.

Armageddon: Each of the systems bring out their biggest anthems to win over the crowd once and for all.

Gutterfunk kicked off the first round with some legendary drum & bass – a proper Bristol sound. They got the crowd hyped and ready for what the evening had to offer. However, Butterz finished the round off with ease. With P Money as their main MC, as soon as The Bug’s Skeng was followed by Slang Like This  the crowd knew who to yell for. They won the audience over early on but after dropping so much fire so quickly, could they keep it?

The way Tectonic took down Warning Sound in Round Two was a sight to behold. Not only did they bring out Lady Chann (an ex of one of Stylo’s MC’s – MC Stormin) but with their legendary soundsystem they annihilated some of the biggest jungle/dancehall tracks. Believe me when I say the trash talk stepped up a level when Lady Chann shouted over to Warning Sound to “stop pretending and put in your blue contacts.” Ouch!

Saying that, after the number of people Stylo G took to the stage in Round 3 (Lethal Bizzle, Chip, Fekky to name a few) and the number of dubplates he came armed with (So Solid Crew 21 seconds, Section Boyz Lock Arff , a Beenie Man dub freshly shipped from Jamaica) he took Round 3.

The energy that stage had when the whole crew was up there was mad. When a crew is that gassed it’s infectious. There may have been too many wheel-ups for me (I really wanted to hear more than 45 seconds of Fester Skank) but ultimately they made it a two crew race: Gutterfunk vs Warning Sound. 

By Round Four everyone was running from team to team but I have to give a special mention to the hardcore Warning Sound fans whose loyalty held them steady at the front of Stylo’s stage. Every team bought their ‘A’ game, but Gutterfunk tore the place down with their feelgood music. 

Every genre that makes you want to dance with the person next to you was brought out. Paul Johnson’s Get Get Down was my personal highlight. I don’t know what they mixed into it but jheeeeeez. Their-keep-people-moving-and-smiling approach is what encapsulates Bristol’s music loving mentality. When they brought out their Unfinished Sympathy dubplate sung to perfection by Bristol’s own Eva Lazarus the crowd went insane. 

It was a tough call deciding between Warning Sound and Gutterfunk and the decibel metre had to be used, but when Julie Adenuga came to the middle of the room to announce the winners, people had already started to gravitate towards the Gutterfunk stage.

Bristol champions and rightly so, Gutterfunk selectors Die and Dismantle showed that knowledge of your crowd will win their loyalty and you don’t need to trash talk to win.

Top pic: Gutterfunk mainmen Die & Dismantle. Photography courtesy of Red Bull Music Academy.