Before becoming a stellar producer and whacking out the brilliant 'Blood & Fire' in 1970, Niney The Observer was already Gibbs' sound engineer and had pretty much launched Dennis Brown's star career. 'Blood & Fire' created a storm and was even awarded Jamaican Record of the Year in 71. Like a lot of his tunes, its charm lies in its simplicity, its stark heaviness and its uplifting rhythm.No won...
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Looking back is always important, the past informs the future, right? If that is the case then the future of Bashment is totally rowdy. In this fine tradition, The Heatwave have graced us with a brand new mix chronicling the last year in Riddims and Deejaying. In their own words: "A portable party for your mp3 player: over an hour of the most rowdy and x-rated Jamaican bashment from last year m...
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..is how UK Dancehall MC Serocee describes himself. A venerable veteran of the UK dancehall scene he has found favour with a new generation of Dancehall/Electro/Bastard Batty Bass producers such as Sheffield's Toddla T and Detboi. He is releasing his debut solo album 'Second Generation Windrush Pickney' this year.Visit his website for hilarious tracks he has produced to thank you for visiting. ...
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What happened to the Duurrty South here in the UK? Weezy still holds the publics attention but there seems to have been a major drop in interest in general, my theory being that this decline coincided with the rise of Bassline/Niche/Whatever and therefore lost fans to the power of the BASS.I believe there's still life in the Old Girl (or should that be Ole' Guurrl) yet. The inimitable Mike Jone...
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There's been a little ruckus around our yard in recent times. Unfortunately it seems the Victorians didn't build their walls with a sub-bass in mind, so turns out my household is heading swiftly and surely for an ASBO. And, no doubt, it made me think of a series of classic reggae tunes about noisy neighbours, from both sides of the tragic story.'Man Next Door' (aka 'Got To Get Away', 'Man in my...
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The Caribbean Connection Some real corkers out of JA this year, but where to start? I already listed a couple of riddims in part 1, but the usual suspects have really reeled in the goods, Busy Signal had a busy year and Mavado also managed to keep the momentum going nicely after last year's anthem 'Wah dem a do'. A couple of great collaborations made the charts too, like Junior Reid feat. L...
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Riddims, Recession and Retirement Well 2008 certainly has been an eventful year: grime turned electro, dubstep went wonky and hip hop went Romanian (you'll see what I mean later). I present you with my usual thematized top picks and a couple of duds from the year that saw Alton Ellis do his final rocksteady, a song about a watch sweep the nation and the recession turn everyone nutso. Re...
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Riddims, Recession and RetirementWell 2008 certainly has been an eventful year: grime turned electro, dubstep went wonky and hip hop went Romanian (you'll see what I mean later). I present you with my usual thematized top picks and a couple of duds from the year that saw Alton Ellis do his final rocksteady, a song about a watch sweep the nation and the recession turn everyone nutso.RetirementR...
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In case y'all hadn't copped the latest soother to keep us quiet (and extremely happy) til the real record drops in 09, here's the Clipse mixtape, courtesy of Complex. Expect the usual dirtyass beats, cokefiend rhymes and general nastiness. 'Intro' has some Jr. Reid goodness too. WAMP WAMP. Get your goodies here.
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The fourth instalment of Jammer aka Murkleman's 'Are You Dumb?' mixtape series hits the shelves on the 8th of December...roll on. I've been avoiding the grime recently, don't really know why, maybe it's songs like this. Seems like everyone's heading for the cheese, and even Dizzee is making a dance album this time round. Who'd have thought one Rolex might leave grime this way? 'Are you D...
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Massive B is a soundsystem out of Brooklyn who have been putting out some pretty massive tunes on great riddims for a decade or so - No Borders, Kingdom and the brilliant Go Go to name but a few. Burro Banton is probably their biggest success story - he released his second record with them in 95, got headhunted by Steelie and Clevie and subsequently released some heavyweight dancehall anthems....
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Rocksteady legend Alton Ellis passed away a few days ago....in his memory, a couple of classics.Alton Ellis - Girl I've got a dateAlton Ellis - Baby I love you
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If you hadn't heard, Dubstep Forum has decided to shut its digital doors. After 3 years of solid contribution to the population of bass addicts (apparently 20,000 of em), it's all over, the fat lady has sung. Who knows what this means....but fear not, there are some new net-based dubstep forums for those who want to chat wobble and white label - getdarker.com is a personal fave. So the dubstep...
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Following on from my RSD/Henry and Louis post, thought it might be appropriate to introduce some new dub on the scene. It seems like new dub acts are pretty hard to come by, but there are some quality ones out there, like Montreal's Mossman & Bunny, Sound Imperium, Easy Star All Stars and whatnot....but I recently came across Austin-based dubster Mcpullish. I really dig his frequent use of real...
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Pre-pubescent pop stars have never had it easy, as any of Musical Youth's stars will tell you. After the failure of pretty much everything post-'Pass the Dutchie' (what could top that?) one of the group's members ended up having a nervous breakdown, turning to drug abuse and dying in jail at the ripe age of 24. And don't even get me started on the Jacksons and the Osmonds. But there is a new tr...
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Now I'm pretty sure it will be obvious to those who have ever had a yearn to explore, whether it be from your own home or not that Google Earth is pretty much the most amazing thing ever. With a Sun Ra soundtrack, I can search for American military instalations in the South Pacific and cousins in Colombia simultaneously. Sweet.Sun Ra - A Bird's Eye View of Man's World
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Each time I go back to my home town, Bristol, I have little else to do than go rooting in Rooted records. This place is run by none other than dubstepper Peverelist, so it's pretty much THE place to go if you're a Punch Drunk fan, or you're looking for white label in the Briz. This time I picked up an 'unknown' (it stinks of RSD, with that heavyweight dub sound) white label featuring a dubstep ...
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"how much for me journey, mrs lover-lover mmmm"This has just absolutely made my day/made me look a little mental in the internet cafe...jon culshaw impersonating shaggy and ringing a taxi office. There's a whole bunch of them if you've got nothing else to waste your day laughing at...I certainly haven't.
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As any Beatsmith worth their MPC2000XL will tell you, soundtracks are a producers best friend. From the schticky patriotism of the Rocky theme (sampled by Brand Nubian amongst others) to the sublime funk work in Lalo Schifrin's Enter the Dragon S/T (sampled by Alkoholiks and Dre etc etc.) it seems that some soundtracks refuse to go away. One S/T in particular that has consistently entertaine...
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