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Clued in >> Investigating Lionrock's Justin Robertson by RUPERT BOTTENBERG
Could be, or it could just be all those great English detective shows we see so frustratingly little of over here--Rumpole of the Bailey and Cracker and such. "I tell you what I like is Brother Cadfael, the mediaeval one. Have you seen that one? That's genius. "I'll tell you what I like from the States, though. I used to love Streets of San Francisco. Karl Malden once appeared to me mystically. I was sitting in a hotel in L.A., I was with a mate of mine and we were a bit worse for wear after a night out--this was the Chemical Brothers tour. I said, 'Wouldn't it be genius if Karl Malden was on television now?' At the very moment I said it, Karl Malden's face appeared on the TV screen! He was on a chat show talking about something or other. Karl Malden appeared mystically in front of me!" Okay, now that's just scary. Although Robertson is hesitant to compare his music-making to detective work--"It's more like being an exorcist"--he nonetheless shows a talent for digging for clues that runs a bit deeper than most. Lionrock's as dubbed-out as anything going, but give a track like "Rude Boy Rock" a spin and you'll find out that there's more to it. "A lot of people come to reggae initially through dub, that's their first point of contact with it. But once I got into that, I found the roots of those sounds, those old Studio One rhythms; that's the stuff that really started to inspire me. I like the raw soulfulness of it." Speaking of soul, what's the state of the Northern Souls, those quintessentially British celebrations of Yank R&B at places like the legendary Wigan Casino, back in the '70s? Do those even happen anymore? "Well, the Casino shut down years ago, but there are still dos going on. There's this thing they do in Manchester on bank holidays at the Ritz, it's really big. "Basically, it's old, rare soul records from the United States, really small labels. Everyone has their own different place they like--Detroit or Chicago or New Orleans or Memphis--everyone has their city that they think is the roots of soul. It's about scarcity, it's about having the best shit... that's why it was picked up on by mods. It's fairly like trainspotting, searching for records on the most obscene level, really." That kind of detective work, at least, is still in vogue. "There's a whole undercurrent now," says Robertson."I don't know how to describe it... I suppose it's a new balaeric scene, where people are trying to out-weird each other. That's a big thing in the U.K. at the moment--people are pulling out the most ludicrous records. "Disco's very trendy here right now, but what people are taking from it are not the sort of staple tracks that you'd get at Paradise Garage. What they're doing is looking for the really weird records, disco by the Who or the Steve Miller Band. Recordspotting among DJs is very much alive, still." Robertson's a bit, um, balaeric himself, as Cream-goers will no doubt discover next week when he takes the turntables in his hectic, eclectic fashion. He's already gigged with everyone from Chemical Brothers to Jon Spencer, Björk to the Beasties, Tortoise and even old-school Krautrockers Faust. "I didn't get to meet them, but I know our bass player and one of our keyboard players ended up talking to them. They tried to get them to relinquish all their worldly goods. They're quite strange people, really... trying to get others to renounce materialism." Robertson's investigations have led him to major metropolises around the globe, and it's what he found there that closed the case on Lionrock's latest, City Delirious. "It's like a soundtrack to urban living, you know. It's got those sounds of the city, but not in a bad way. A lot of times people will take an urban environment in a way that's very negative and grey. Sure, there are bits that have a real dark edge to them, but it's more of a celebration. I find cities quite exciting places, where there's a lot going on... a hub of creativity, really." Justin Robertson opens Cream '98 at Cabaret, Thursday, Sept. 3, 10pm, $12
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A debut disc called An Instinct for Detection, a publishing company called Sherlock Holmes Music, a club soirée called Sleuth... I think one can deduce that Manchester's Justin Robertson, award-winning DJ and chief instigator of Lionrock, has an obsession with detectives. "I'm not sure where it comes from, actually," he says. "I guess it must be something deep within my genetic make-up."