Galway, The City of the Tribes, west of Ireland.

April 4th, in a pub.

That’s where will be held the 9th edition of one of the most wanted turntablism event on the planet, the 9th edition of the Community Scratch Games. 2 days full of shows, scratch sessions with G.O.D. (Grandeurs Of Delusion), Oslo Flow, Lewis James, Backtrack Valance Drakes, Fidel Cutstro and many others. The legend states that previous editions saw tablists coming from everywhere battle each other on the decks for a bag of meat. Basics.

Community Scratch, is a non-profit group of DJs and producers (humans such as Jimmy Penguin, Vince Mac Mahon, Manipulate, Deviant, Naive Ted, Danny Deepo and Mikey Fingers to name a few) dedicated to promoting the arts of hip hop and DJ culture through workshops, seminars, concerts and music releases. For the past 9 years, they have released no less than 32 projects, available for free download here, soon to be followed by Jimmy Penguin and Djackulate’s Turbo Gangsgter Sandwich EP and Penguin & Manipulate’s Penguins’ Hatetank. Some physical releases are also available here.

So, what to expect from a 2 days scratch session from those guys?

« Skratching in the pub. For two days. With some of the best vinyl manipulators in the world. From battle-hardened world champions to experimental turntable musicians. From grizzled vets to fresh faced youths. Performing together to promote not only themselves and their art, but to come as one for the good of an artform that unites them.

Of course, no-one could (or should) endure two whole days of skratching. Sure you’d go mad. So the festival has evolved to include friends and collaborators across the musical spectrum. Thus, the finest live musicians, rappers and beatmakers alike take their place amongst the turntable hysterics.

World champion DJ Chile opens the festival with a freestyle set at 5pm on Saturday. Chile will also be performing the following day with G.O.D.’s Jimmy Hatetank and Galway skratch hero Jimmy Penguin in new skratch project Wat Tyler’s Soundcard.

The meteoric Rusangano Family continue their quest to blow apart every venue in this country and showcase their hyper modern, soul-filled, hip-hop grime in the Bierhaus on Saturday evening. Conversely, emerging rappers Clerk 5 and Same D4ence, as well as young Clare DJ Daithi Curtin, make their Galway debuts earlier the same day.

Galway locals Noid the Droid and Zinc bring their respective brands of esoteric and forward thinking live music to the Sunday showcases while turntable veterans Naive Ted, Djackulate and Danny Deepo create three very different skratch messes the day before. The hip-hop DJ’s DJ of choice Handsome Paddy makes his CSG debut seeing out the Saturday shenanigans.

Freestyle skratch nuts Darcy, Symatic & Kutclass make the trip across the Irish Sea to open the Sunday event. Emerging producer Nyt Bloomer showcases his beats and bleeps a little later and Hobo Convention’s JusMe will bless everyone’s ears with one of his choice DJ sets from across the musical spectrum.

Electronic bass explorations are the name of the game late on Sunday as Rick Soul & Lewis James combine forces before the mysterious bass enthusiast KOI>3.2^6 takes the stage for a rare live show. B-Music representative Christine Kelly wraps up the weekend on Sunday night with a vinyl only set of psychedelia and rowdy rare grooves.

All that and we haven’t even mentioned the cornerstone event, the coup de gráce, the Community Skratch Games Open Freestyle Battle Royale. Previous editions have featured total novices and battle veterans, young upstarts battling alongside world champions. All for a bag of meat. And this year, for the first time ever, a really fancy skratch crossfader from Pro X Fade. But really for the craic. And maybe the fader. Tis the most fun a battle has ever been. Fact.

The incomparable Ray Wingnut will be holding down hosting duties for the two days and there will be new music releases, merchandise and the maybe even the odd surprise and impromptu performance.

The weekend also sees the launch of a new era for Community Skratch as they move towards releasing tools for skratch DJs, beginning with ‘CSM Skipless’ later this year. »

CSG actually started a Kickstarter campaign to gather more support and release their brand new scratch tool, used here by Jon1st (DMC Online World Champ 2013) and Jimmy Penguin.

Stay tuned for the Turbo Gangsgter Sandwich EP (around May).