Monday Murkage at Subspace became Tuesday Murkage at Sankeys last week, as for one night only promoter David Lewis brought the weekly grime night to a new venue for a special live PA by UK hip-hop artist Sway DaSafo. All of Monday Murkage’s regulars plus many more were out in force for their chance to see Little Derek himself in the run-up to the release of his second full length album, following several underground mixtapes.
Musical support before the big man himself came out was provided by the multi-talented David Lewis, who not only co-ordinates the Monday Murkage nights, but also makes his own music which itself is making waves in the world of UKG. His song, ‘Hands on Her’, which features on the most recent Pure Garage compilation CD, went down very well with the crowd, and by the time Mr Lewis left the stage, they were hyped and ready for Sway. But the anticipation built up more, as a second support act took to the stage. Bubbz, whose unique fusion of rap with beats you wouldn’t necessarily have thought of (like Bloc Party’s ‘The Prayer’) initially took the crowd by surprise, but soon had everyone nodding their heads in agreement.
Around 1am, accompanied by Dean Martin’s song entitled ‘Sway’, Mr DaSafo graced the stage, and launched straight into his set, beginning with ‘This Is My Demo’, the title track from his first album. With the crowd still chanting his name, Sway then performed his current club banger and street single, ‘F Ur X’, followed by a quick burst of ‘The Way We Go’, an electro house track by Jukey on which Sway features, and then ‘Little Derek’, Sway’s biggest single to date.
At this point, Sway informed the crowd that “this was all he had time for” and we’d been “a great audience, goodnight”, promptly leaving the stage. However, he fooled no-one, as the crowd simply began chanting his name again and it wasn’t long before he re-appeared with a smile on face and played out with the underground smash ‘Up Your Speed’, to which it seemed every mouth in the building knew the words.
With a free copy of his current mix-tape, ‘Dotted Lines – The African Nations Edition’, for everyone, and the promise of the release of The Signature LP on 5thMay, Sway fans went home very happy from this gig.
10/10
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