CityLife

Interview: Murkage Cartel

Murkage Cartel

For too long, Manchester’s new music scene has been unfairly pigeonholed as a Factory churning out Oasis and Stone Roses tribute acts.

It’s a perception perpetuated by lazy outsiders who think that literally everyone in Manchester waddles around in a parka, finishing their sentences with “D’youknowwarramean?” (when we all know that only about six per cent of Mancunians behave like that).

In fact, the city’s music scene (although perhaps that is the wrong word to describe something with such a disparate array of sounds) is in rude health.

From the amazing Dutch Uncles to robot poppers The Real Dolls, Manchester music is more original than ever.

And no longer does the guitar serve as the only weapon of choice for our city’s musicians: increasingly, the production desk is where audio wars are waged.

This couldn’t be truer of dozen-strong musical, DJing, fashion and writing collective the Murkage Cartel, whose latest track, Paperweight, was recently dubbed the most important release in 15 years by these very pages. 

You may be more familiar with the Cartel from their popular weekly grime, hip hop and dubstep session, which was also given a nod in this year’s CityLife Clubbing Awards.

“Murkage started off as a club night. As it grew it attracted various talented waifs and strays; DJs, MCs, bloggers, graphic designers etc,” explains leader David Lewis.
 
“This evolved into what is now the Murkage Cartel.  What started off as a few of us messing around in the studio ended up as the band people now know as Murkage.”

And despite the group’s futuristic sonic qualities, the Murkage approach to songwriting follows, they say, a rather traditional model.

“We write together like a rock band. It’s an iterative process. We come up with an initial idea and then write and re-write until we think we’ve got it.

“We tend to work to some kind of skeleton beat, taking breaks to gas about bull**** and eat takeaway.

“Our first song was a Baltimore booty crunk anthem called Big In Japan. It will never see the light of day. Things got serious when a posse of idiots entered Downing Street.”

Indeed, few could have anticipated the politically charged vitriol present on the likes of Paperweight, whose video depicts band member Gaika spitting rhymes through a megaphone as massed ranks of disaffected revellers converge to smash the system, in their own grime-loving way.

The band recently launched a competition for followers to create an audio ident – the ‘Murkage Sound’ – that would become symbolic of the movement they head up. The response has been phenomenal, even prompting thoughts of future musical hook-ups with the best entrants.

“It’s a chance to interpret our sound and win a whole load of goodies; a Sony Vaio laptop, WESC headphones, a £300 voucher for lessons at the Manchester MIDI School.

“We’ve had some incredible sounds uploaded so far and we’re also looking for producers to collaborate with for the next record, it’s a great way to find them.”

Away from the band, Murkage remain committed to their weekly club session, which has found a new lease of life since moving to the freshly refurbished South, more familiar as the home of Inspirals man Clint Boon.

This year’s CityLife Clubbing Awards heralded the party as the most exciting in town – a reputation the Murkage Cartel relish.

“The Murkage club is a place where there are no rules. Do what you want, wear what you want, be who you what.

“You’ll hear a range of records, from Rick Ross to Flux Pavilion to Nirvana, all at ear shredding volume. Punters run up in the DJ booth and drink our beer, we openly encourage it; there’s no line between us and the people who come to our parties.”

Finally, what does it mean to the crew to be promoting in Manchester, the widely regarded capital of the clubbing universe?

“Manchester is a great place to be making music and putting on parties.

“It really allows you creative freedom, and the size of the place means there’s so much scope for cross-pollination.”

Murkage is every Thursday at South, see listings. You can enter the Murkage Sound competition at murkagesound.com.