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John Eden: Austerity Reggae Mix by Johnedenuk on Mixcloud (download the mp3 direct from here but don’t go mad and use up all my bandwidth) In which I slam down a bunch of the tunes I took to play out last week on the loose topic of austerity, poverty and the general insanity of the system. Tracklist 1. Ansil Collings – Keep The Cost of Living Down (Magnet 7″) 2. The Abyssinians – Declaration of Rights (Studio One 7″) 3. Johnny Clarke – Declaration of Rights version (Jackpot 7″) 4. Earl Cunningham – I Want My Pay (Midnight Rock Music 7″) 5. Lorna Gee – Three Week Gone (Ariwa 12″) 6. Black Uhuru – Rent Man (DEB Music 7″) 7. Half Pint – Mr Landlord (Jammys 12″) 8. Lieutentant Stitchie – Promises (Digital B 7″) 9. Black Uhuru – Pain On The Poorman Brain (JR 7″) 10. King General – Broke Again (Conscious Sounds 12″) 11. Robert Lee – Leader (Fish Tea 7″) 12. Pliers – Rough This Year (Black Scorpio 12″) 13. Cobra – Poorman Shoes (Digital B 7″) 14. Anthony B – Nah Vote (Stone Love 7″) 15. Junior Reid – John Law (Blacker Dread 7″) 16. Joseph Hill & The Culture – Police Man (Mister Tipsy 7″) 17. Barrington Levy – Murderer (Jah Life 7″) 18. Barrington Levy & Beenie Man – Murderation (Xtra Large 7″) 19. Turbulence – Guns Bring Misery (Palm of Gold 7″) 20. Natty King – Guns To Town (2 Miles 7″) 21. Admiral Tibet – Da Pon Mi Guard (Ranking Universal 12″) 22. Dennis Brown – Revolution (Auralux LP) 23. David Harvey – Outro (Novara Media Youtube rip) Special Unauthorised Guest Appearance from David Harvey via Novara Media.

From the desk of Mr Grievous Angel: Remember that huge mix of dancehall-infused grime and grimey dancehall me and John Eden did a few years ago for the Blogariddims Podcast? Well, I’ve done a new master of it so it sounds louder, clearer and better than ever before. Maximum listening pleasure as well as a unique insight into the bashment, dancehall and one drop roots of grime. Hope you enjoy this and please tell your friends, fans and followers about it if you do. The link for the new mix is here: http://www.grievousangel.net/GAMixes/Grime_in_The_Dancehall_2013.mp3 BIG UP Droid, all Blogariddims crew, Woebot, Dan Hancox, Blackdown, all Woofah Magazine crew and all dancehall and grime selectors, producers, MCs, promoters, labels, record shop people, and dancers! WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEELL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Soon come: a special tribute mix for Keysound’s masters of garage weirdness, LHF. Thank you Paul / Grievous Angel John Eden & Grievous Angel – Grime in the Dancehall (2013 remaster) by Johnedenuk on Mixcloud Paul Meme Sleevenotes/Tracklist John Eden Sleevenotes/Tracklist To which I would reiterate that I was a total late comer to Grime. I heard it around the place but it never clicked until I saw Flowdan and Killa P perform alongside Kevin Martin at BASH at Plastic People. Then I dived in. By the time we did this mix in 2008 a lot of the people who had latched onto Grime early had decided it was desperately uncool. Which suited me fine. It meant I could easily investigate the early days and then develop my own opinions about what was good amongst the new stuff without jostling elbows with the hipsterati. This mix was a case of forcing a connection between dancehall and Grime really, to make a point. Of course, I didn’t need to do too much forcing – it was more a case of just joining up the dots in a slightly different way and then colouring everything in red, gold and green. As with Woofah, the idea was to get open minded reggae heads into grime and vice versa. The mix was a load of fun to do and went down really really well. It certainly still gets regular rotation here. I followed it up a few year later with an RSI Radio Grimey Reggae podcast. I have virtually zero idea about what is happening with Grime these days, though. Perhaps that’s a good thing – my daughter can’t decide whether my appreciation of Tinchy Stryder is cool or embarrassing.

Agit Disco has just been published by Mute Books, compiled by Stefan Szczelkun, edited by Anthony Iles  The launch takes place on 8th December 2011, 6.30pm – 9.00pm at The Showroom, 63 Penfold Street, London, NW8 8PQ. ‘Agit Disco collects the playlists of its 23 writers to tell the story of how music has politically influenced and inspired them. The book provides a multi-genre survey of political musics, from a wide range of viewpoints, that goes beyond protest songs into the darker hinterlands of musical meaning. Each playlist is annotated and illustrated. The collection grew organically with an exchange of homemade CDs and images. These images, with their DIY graphics, are used to give the playlists a visual materiality. Almost everyone makes selections of music to play to themselves and friends. Agit Disco intends to show the importance of this creative activity and its place in our formation as political beings. This activity is at odds with to the usual process of selection by the mainstream media – in which the most potent musical agents of change are, whenever possible, erased from the public airwaves. Agit Disco Selectors: Sian Addicott, Louise Carolin, Peter Conlin, Mel Croucher, Martin Dixon, John Eden, Sarah Falloon, Simon Ford, Peter Haining, Stewart Home, Tom Jennings, DJ Krautpleaser, Roger McKinley, Micheline Mason, Tracey Moberly, Luca Paci, Room 13 – Lochyside Scotland, Howard Slater, Johnny Spencer, Stefan Szczelkun, Andy T, Neil Transpontine, Tom Vague’. You can now order the book direct from Mute Books. The audio for my contribution is now available here: TRACKLIST 1. X/O/Dus – English Black Boys (Factory Records, 1980) 2. Audrey – English Girl (Ariwa, 1982) 3. Lion Youth – Three Million On The Dole (Virgo Stomach, 1982) 4. Steel Pulse – Handsworth Revolution (Island, 1978) 5. Maxi Priest – Love In The Ghetto (Level Vibes, 1984) 6. Papa Levi – In A Mi Yard (Level Vibes, 1984) 7. Papa Benjie – Fare Dodger (Fashion, 1985) 8. Laurel and Hardy – Video Traffickin’ (Upright, 1983) 9. Macka B – Bean and Egg (Ariwa, 1986) 10. Pato Banton – Gwarn (Ariwa, 1985) 11. Leslie Lyrics – Pull Back Your Truncheon (UK Bubblers, 1985) 12. Ranking Ann – Kill The Police Bill (GLC, 1984) 13. Raymond Naptali – On My Way (Fatman) 14. Lorna Gee – Three Week Gone (Ariwa, 1985) 15. Horseman – Horsemove (Raiders, 1985) 16. Daddy Colonel – Take A Tip From Me (UK Bubblers, 1985) 17. Tippa Irie – Complain Neighbour (UK Bubblers, 1985) 18. Demon Rocka – Hard Drugs (Unity, 1988) John Eden – Agit Disco Mix #22 by Johnedenuk on Mixcloud

Uncle Dugs on Rinse FM with a blazing 1991 selection. But even better than that, he gets Kool FM founder Eastman in for an extended interview. (interview commences at about 1:37:00) Some proper history, covering North London reggae soundsystem, early raves, Jungle Fever, and the full story of Kool FM. An amazing bit of oral history, loads of details and tales of scrapes. If you liked “Tape Crackers”, this is the side of the story told by the station crew rather than the listeners/punters. Kool FM is about to celebrate 20 years in the business. Thanks to Mikus for the tip off!

Nominated in The Quietus’ writers favourite DJ mix albums 2015… Back once again with a seven inch selection by me and post production tweaking, polishing and shining from the man like Paul Meme (check the link for Paul’s new postpunk and techno mixes also). You would think from some of the coverage of Lovers Rock that songs about love and relationships were unique to that particular late 70s London reggae subgenre. But of course heartache has been a staple of Jamaican music since before reggae even existed. This mix deviates slightly from “pure” Lovers Rock – as if such a thing was possible. It includes tunes from the sixties to the noughties, UK and JA productions. There’s some pop madness, some sweet soul and some boshing one drops included. Enjoy! Tracklist 1. Audley Rollins – What’s Your Name (Matador 7″) 2. Alton Ellis & Phyllis Dillon – Remember That Sunday (Treasure Isle 7″) 3. The Silvertones – Two Time Lover (Studio One 7″) 4. Harry Hippy – Cover Me (Pioneer 7″) 5. Ronnie Davis – I Won’t Cry (Love 7″) 6. Gregory Isaacs – Sunshine For Me (African Museum 7″) 7. John Holt – If I Were A Carpenter (Striker Lee 7″) 8. Chantells – Waiting In The Park (Phase 1 7″) 9. Terry Linen – Your Love Is My Love (Raggedy Joe 7″) 10. Leroy Gibbons – To The End Of Time (House of Hits 7″) 11. Tony Curtis – Let’s Go (House of Hits 7″) 12. Bobby Kray – Silly Games (Sun Land Mix) (no label 7″) 13. Lukie D – Young Love (Special Delivery 7″) 14. Gyptian – Pretty Darling (Special Delivery 7″) 15. Oba Simba – Whistling Bird (Special Delivery 7″) 16. Tairo – La Vie Qu’Je Mene (Special Delivery 7″) 17. Ava Leigh – La La La (Virgin 7″) 18. Toni Braxton – Yesterday (Sticky’s Lovers Remix) (Atlantic 7″) Track by track 1. Audley Rollins – What’s Your Name (Matador 7″) 2. Alton Ellis & Phyllis Dillon – Remember That Sunday (Treasure Isle 7″) 3. The Silvertones – Two Time Lover (Studio One 7″) 4. Harry Hippy – Cover Me (Pioneer 7″) 5. Ronnie Davis – I Won’t Cry (Love 7″) I don’t know much about these tunes, they are just things I’ve picked up on the off chance over the years and loved. The first three all came from the bargain bins under the spiral staircase in Rough Trade in Covent Garden. For about 20 pence each. Finding random records for 20p is something that is disappearing along with many of the record shops mentioned in this post. 6. Gregory Isaacs – Sunshine For Me (African Museum 7″) 7. John Holt – If I Were A Carpenter (Striker Lee 7″) With hundreds of Gregory love songs to choose from, the one that leapt out isn’t about his tumultous times with the ladies at all! “Sunshine for me” is about staying humble and keeping thing in perspective, in stark contrast to the invulnerable blinging gangsta supervillains one hears so much about. But how will that sit with the laydeez? John Holt poses that very question in a cover of American crooner Bobby Darin’s 1966 standard. 8. Chantells – Waiting In The Park (Phase 1 7″) Another tune about male vulnerability with incredible vocals. Many of us have been stood up, but I suspect we haven’t hung around in the park all night expectantly, even if we were “promised something that’s nice”. 9. Terry Linen – Your Love Is My Love (Raggedy Joe 7″) This was an absolutely massive tune around the turn of the Century, loving up the millennium! The sort of cover version that sorts the people who love music in all its pop glory from the record nerds. Everyone knows the Whitney version, right? What I hadn’t realised was that the song was originally a reggae-lite affair, written by Wyclef Jean. Terry’s take is much more to my liking. To be honest, most things not produced by Wyclef are more to my liking, but his bonkers selection of dubplate specials always raises a smile. 10. Leroy Gibbons – To The End Of Time (House of Hits 7″) 11. Tony Curtis – Let’s Go (House of Hits 7″) These turned up at a visit to Dub Vendor in Clapham Junction a couple of years ago. Beautiful upbeat modern productions and some killer vocals as well. 12. Bobby Kray – Silly Games (Sun Land Mix) (no label 7″) Much was made of Mr Kray around 2007 when this debut was released. In fact me, him and Ava Leigh (more of whom in a minute) were all quoted in a piece The Times ran on white people in reggae. I’ve not heard much of him since – and I daresay he is sat somewhere pondering my whereabouts also… I think I probably picked this up from Dub Vendor in Ladbroke Grove on one of my trips up west with a box of Woofah for Honest Jons. “Silly Games” loops back to the Janet Kay original on our Lovers Rock Volume 1 mix. I believe Dennis Bovell is involved with this tough relick too. 13. Lukie D – Young Love (Special Delivery 7″) 14. Gyptian – Pretty Darling (Special Delivery 7″) 15. Oba Simba – Whistling Bird (Special Delivery 7″) 16. Tairo – La Vie Qu’Je Mene (Special Delivery 7″) More modern riddim magic, from the same Dub Vendor haul as the “House of Hits” tunes above. I like the way this mixes up superstars like Gyptian with complete unknowns. The backing track is based on Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg’s “Je T’aime” which is audacious, and I like the way that performing a literal cover of that tune has been resisted. 17. Ava Leigh – La La La (Virgin 7″) Ava was another great white hop, who briefly fared quite well (compared to Bobby Kray at least). “Over The Brdige”, her collaboration with Manasseh, was one of my top reggae tunes of the noughties and it’s rumoured that she did this tune with London soundsystem stalwarts Abashanti-I. Youtube is littered with some good tunes by her, and you’d think that she would do OK post-Winehouse and alongside Joss Stone. Alas, it doesn’t seem that Ava’s initial momentum has been maintained by the biz thus far. “La La La” was on her first single for Virgin in 2007, backed with “Mad About The Boy”. Both tunes have subsequently been reissued and repackaged (in the words of Morissey) but not re-evaluated just yet. 18. Toni Braxton – Yesterday (Sticky’s Lovers Remix) (Atlantic 7″) I must confess to not being a huge fan of La Braxton, so this remix by Heatwave collaborator and 2step DON Sticky was a proper bolt from the blue. A seismic production which gives the diva vocals a much better background in my humble opinion. Sticky should be remixing everyone like this, by law. Rihanna next, please?

“I dub from inner to outer space. The sound I get out of Black Ark studio, I don’t really get it out of no other studio. It was like a space craft. You could hear the space in the tracks.” Lee Perry Kevin Martin (The Bug, King Midas Sound) and Stuart Baker (Soul Jazz, 100% Dynamite, Sounds of the Universe) have compiled this ace double CD and quadruple vinyl set of electronic dancehall riddims. A bad-ass selection with some undoubted classics like Street Sweeper and Peanie Peanie alongside more outre examples of JA music at its eeriest. Also some more modern and UK produced fare like Kevin’s own Aktion Pak riddim. I’ve had mixed feelings about the concept. On the one had I was championing the reggae/ragga afronaut connection a decade ago as part of the Association of Autonomous Astronauts and one of my first ever reggae DJ sets was at the Garage in Highbury during an AAA night as part of the 10 day Space 1999 festival. I even did an AAA presentation on dub as the basis for a new intergalactic architecture at a conference organised by Kodwo Eshun in Austria. More recently Wayne and Wax has produced an incredible critical survey of rasta imagery in science fiction in issue 4 of Woofah. On the other hand, I’ve previously been forthright in my condemnation of people who only seem to like their dancehall with the sounds of black voices erased. I think, on reflection, this criticism is hugely unfair on the curators of the current comp (and indeed Basic Replay who I previously tore into) who have done more than most to promote reggae music in its ancient and modern forms over many many years. But I have always come across a few techno fans who seem to hate ragga vocals and that seems a bit… odd. The conclusion I’ve come to is that a bass-driven sci-fi is a great alternate window to look at dancehall productions through, and this compilation seems like an excellent launchpad into that world, featuring a mad comic about aliens and bashment beats. The comic was originally planned to be a radio play, but apparently time and budget didn’t allow this. But the street finds its uses for everything, as the old cyberpunk saying goes, so I was chuffed to hear that Dino Lalič and the Sensi Smile crew at Radio Student Ljubljana were going to remix the source material from the comp and its comic back into a radio play last weekend. I think they’ve done a terrific job – the accented narration adds to the spookiness and conjurs up cosmonauts of yesteryear to my ears. I love the blending of ragga with more Joe Meek-esque sixties futurism and dubwise material as well. The Invasion of the Mysteron Killer Sounds Radio Play was part of a whole evening’s entertainment on the station, which also included interviews with Stuart Baker, Paolo Parisi (the comic’s creator) and my good self. Mine was a live telephone interview, and listening to it again I am amused to find myself being an old fart talking about that yearning for the sonic future… Much of the commentary is in Slovenian, so may not be decipherable to many of my readers, although the tunes are obviously universal – not to say outernational! Here are some time marks for you for the English language stuff: 1:23:00 Stuart Baker 1:51:30 Paolo Parisi 2:03:32 The Radio Play 3:08:22 John Eden

Jez: Look Mark, I’m a musician, in case you’d forgotten. Yeah? I answer to a higher law. The law of “if it feels good, do it”. Mark: Oh, that’s a great law isn’t it? What’s that, Gaddafi’s law? Jez: It’s the musician’s law. Colonel Gaddafi could not lay down a bass hook, Mark. That should be clear even to you! [Peep Show Series 3 – with thanks to Bandshell on Dissensus for the quote and for inspiring this post] Hopefully Gaddafi will be gone by the time this post goes live. I certainly won’t miss him, but I will grudgingly admit that he brought a certain erratic charm to international politics. In the eigties and nineties fascist idiots like Nick Griffin and Blood Axis’ Michael Moynihan fell for this charm, distributing the Colonel’s Green Book – seemingly in the belief that he was a profound thinker. fascist loons Nick Griffin and Derek Holland pose under a Gaddafi portrait in Libya Griffin actually went one step further and headed off to see Gaddafi in the hope that he’d be able to tap him up for some funding for the National Front. Apparently this didn’t come to anything (unsurprisingly!), but the episode is certainly worth remembering now that Griffin has gone pseudo respectable and rabidly anti-Islam. More enjoyable by far were the punks who recognised that Gaddafi’s charm was more about his flamboyant mentalism than any insightful philosophy. God Told Me To Do It were a Hackney-based band would be universally recognised as being rubbish, were it not for their genius sense for the controversial and a neat turn in slogans. Their artwork was liberally reproduced in Vague back in the day and they were notorious for winding up the po-faced. Having used the Colonel’s image on a few flyers, the group noticed in 1986 that the Libyan Embassy in London was temporarily  vacant, presumably in the aftermath of WPC Yvonne Fletcher being shot by one of its occupants whilst policing a demonstration outside… [All GTMTDI images found via Kill Your Pet Puppy.] Gaddafi also makes an appearance alongside some “loony left” tabloid bugbears in Stewart Home‘s black-humoured “Kill” which is available on the classic Stewart Home Comes In Your Face CD. The tune was later re-versioned as “Islam Uber Alles” by Blackpool psych-punk legends The Ceramic Hobs, but here is the original in all its dumb boot-stomping glory: More recently (and less interestingly), MIA has described Gaddafi as “always being one of my style icons”, and Asian Dub Foundation made an opera about him. Here’s hoping that Libya will shortly become “the land of the free” and with that Gaddafi will become history.

An interesting podcast about the New Cross fire, which includes documentary spoken word (both archival and new) and music: Some of the music is taken from the Lovers Rock mix I did with Paul Meme. I find this recontextualisation very interesting (and saddening). These tunes may have been the last sounds that 13 of the people at 493 New Cross Road ever heard. (14 are commemorated on the plaque and elsewhere because Anthony Berbeck, who was also present on the night, committed suicide two years later for reasons believed to be linked with the trauma of what he witnessed.) So the heartbreak and love evoked by the songs Also featured is a haunting tune by Zena Edwards which was one of many highlights at the recent evening remembering the fire at The Albany. There is more information on the podcast here.

Large Up » Cockney & Yardie: Heatwave 2010 UK Bashment Update Great round up for London dancehall runnings from Gabriel Heatwave with lots of photos and youtube business. There’s loads going on and this made me feel completely out of touch! Which means lots of lovely new stuff to check out,  so that’s fine by me. On a similar note, the Heatwave crew just uploaded a new London Bashment mix with some ace selections and a good few specials as well as contributions from their MC Rubi Dan (who Paul Meme borrowed for the anthemic “Move Down Low”). Check http://www.theheatwave.co.uk/ for full tracklist, details of Heatwave nights and a whole heap more. More London Bashment in the newly published No Ice Cream Sound fanzine, including Heatwave’s top riddims of the noughties. More about the zine soon…

  John Eden presents RSI RADIO 5: grimey reggae 2010 by Johnedenuk on Mixcloud   A quick thing I threw together last night – a round up of reggae and dancehall infused grime from 2010, with a bit of muttering from me. Enjoy!

  So what about this situation with the lovers rock versus dub scene? C: “A party is nothing without girls and the girls check for lovers.” (from Soundsystem Splashdown 1981 NME feature) As I said in my lecture at Audio Poverty, I got into UK MC reggae records because they were cheap, because I liked their local lyrics and the fact that their existence told a story about the city I live in. Personally I would rather spend time rummaging through a pile of cheap vinyl than scouring the internet for those RARE collectors items everyone seems to be after. But inevitably things change, and the prices of UK MC records have gone up. Tunes that were knocking about for two or three quid eight years ago are now selling for up to 5 times that. It’s hard not to feel validated by this, but I’m obviously wary of letting the market dictate what is good or not. Certainly you can’t put a price on the pleasure that my copy of Peter Bouncer’s “Rough Neck Sound” 12″ has given me. And anyway, the rummaging continues. These days it’s often accompanied by some raised eyebrows: “7 quid for Tippa Irie’s ‘Panic Panic’ 12” – are you sure?”. But then perhaps the eye is drawn to the floor beneath the seven quid racks, to a pile of dusty records alongside a notice in felt tip pen proclaiming their unpopularity: “everything in this pile £1”. Ah… hello, my friends. Most record collectors are male – boys seeking boys’ things. So it is hardly surprising that the reggae records which have been most resistant to collector-mania have been the ones which don’t deal with the sort of things that blokes check for. There are lots of Ebay Earners about war, overcoming tribulation, weighty spiritual issues and smoking ‘erb. So yes, these days much of the bargain bin reggae was originally sung by, and ultimately aimed at, teenage girls. Teenage girls are like kryptonite for record collectors, I think. I’m not going to lie, there have been a good few things that I’ve picked up and then chucked out after hearing 30 seconds of screechy singing over artless digital backing. And yes, some of the tunes here are widely recognised as being the pinnacle of the sub-genre (and in some cases would make many people’s top 100 reggae tunes ever, I think). This mix was thrown together one night a year ago whilst I was playing with a new effects box. I figured it was a bit rough and ready and I would get around to re-doing it one day. Then Paul Meme expressed an interest in collaborating on a mix again, so I bunged it his way. He is responsible for actually bringing it to your earholes, so praise is due. Paul has added a ton more effects and removed my most heinous mistakes as well. There are still some ghostly echoes of other things in mix, but I think that adds to it all. I make no claims at being definitive, there are other places to go for that (see especially the compilations “The Lovers Rock Story” on Kickin’ and “This Is Lovers Rock” on Greensleeves). I would also wholeheartedly recommend Menelik Shabazz’s film “The Story of Lovers Rock”. I would like to dedicate this mix to my long-suffering partner. I’d like to, but I won’t. Whilst she appreciates a good bassline, she finds high pitched vocals akin to scraping a cat down a blackboard. Track by Track 1. Louisa Mark – Caught You In A Lie (Safari 7″) “You… said she was your cousin…” It all started here, in 1975. Apparently “Caught” was originally a soul song by Robert Parker, but I can’t bear to track that down after hearing this. Louisa was 14 years old when this was recorded for south London soundman Lloydie Coxsone. You can really hear all that adolescent anguish being channeled into the grooves. I was in a lock-in the other night where someone insisted in playing anthemic stadium rock. Louisa Mark reaches peaks of emotional intensity that middle aged rockers can only dream of. The backing band here is Matumbi, who we will hear from again in a little while. 2. 15-16-17 – Black Skin Boys (DEB Music 7″) Again, the group were schoolgirls – their name came from the age of each singer in the trio. Lovers with a bit of afro-positive consciousness snuck in for all the rastamen in the dance. (See also Brown Sugar’s “I’m In Love With A Dreadlocks”). DEB was Dennis (Emmanuelle) Brown’s label whilst he was based in London. 3. Matumbi – After Tonight (from “Lovers For Lovers vol 3” LP) UK reggae legend Dennis Bovell’s group in fine form, with the man himself on vocals I think. And yes, this is off a compilation album with a soft focus photograph of a naked couple on the cover. 4. Shade of Love African Blood – Tell Me Bout The Love (Arawak 12″) Arawak is Bovell’s label, but the production on this is credited to B Spencer, D Luetaim and P Dover. No idea who they are and still no clue as to the identity of the vocalist. I think “Shade of…” is the name of the group rather than an individual. Any clues welcome! 5. Lorita Grahame – Young Free And Single (Intense 12″) Bit of a disco number, almost into “Woo” Gary Davies Radio One Roadshow territory, but not quite. Lorita would go on to be a member of indie group Colourbox in the eighties, notably re-doing Jacob Miller’s “Baby I Love You So”. The NME did a double header feature with them and Augustus Pablo in 1986. 6. Melanie Fiona – Sad Songs (Island 7″) Melanie is a new Canadian vocalist. Island snuck this out about a year ago, in a nice replica of their sixties seven inch singles. It obviously and blatantly leads us to: 7. Janet Kay – Silly Games (Scope 12″) Everyone’s heard this, right? It was a number 2 hit in the national charts ferchrissakes! Still an outstanding record to this day. Dennis Bovell (for it is he, on the buttons, once again) is very amusing about this in the book about The Slits. He was producing their “Cut” album in some posh rural studio (where the legendary mud and flesh cover photo was taken) when Ari Up told him “Silly Games” was playing on the radio. So he dashed from The Slits to perform alongside Janet Kay on Top of the Pops. Contrast or what? Janet recently appeared as a fairy godmother in panto at the Hackney Empire, much to the pleasure of all the Dads present. We even got treated to a brief rendition of this tune into the bargain. 8. Peter Hunnigale – Mary J (from “Free Soul” LP) Mr Hunnigale is proper UK reggae grafter. To say he seems popular with the ladies is something of an understatement. This track is a bit of an anomaly – is it a love song or reality lyrics about a woman forced into making ends meet any which way? The LP this is taken from is superb – all sweet Hunnigale vocals over crisp original Studio One riddims, courtesy of the Peckings label. 9. Joy Mack – Reality (from “Lovers For Lovers vol 3” LP) Yeah it’s that comp again, sorry purists, if you made it this far! I don’t know much about Joy, but this is a belter. In recent years she’s appeared in the stage version of “The Harder They Come”. 10. Maxi Priest – Strolling On (Level Vibes 12″) Pretty much everything I wanted to write about Maxi is already here. Check the comments to see some of the love that abounds for the man. This is still one of those tunes to put on to reassure you everything is alright. Summer vibes in the middle of winter. 11. Massive Horns – Flowing On (Level Vibes 12″) Massive Horns did loads of dubs for Fashion, including a whole album, “Merrie Melodies” which is awesome. They are credited on that LP as Annie Whitehead (trombone), Tim Sanders (alto sax, tenor sax), Al Deval (tenor sax) & Barbara Snow (trumpet). Whitehead is a bit of a legend, having also worked with Evan Parker, The Penguin Cafe Orchestra and Jah Wobble, who is very nice about her in his autobiography. I need to get around to researching the rest as well. 12. Kevin Henry & Kate – Born Again (Rhythm Force 12″) I think this was the first Lovers Rock tune I bought. It was a dull day in Leicester, where I’d been sent by work. I found a record shop on the first floor near a market and it had about two things in I was interested in, the other being Greensleeves late 90s ragga twelve. This is proper trippy, sort of a Rhythm & Sound thing going on with it. I’ve not heard that many duets in Lovers Rock, but I think the vocal combo on this is stunning. It’s a Clem Bushay production – he also had a hand in some of the Louisa Mark tunes, for example her other huge hit “Six Sixth Street”. No idea who Kevin Henry, Kate or the band here are though. 13. Janet Kay – You Bring The Sun Out (Black Roots 12″) I try not to repeat artists on mixes, but I will make an exception for Janet Kay in this (and indeed, in most things!). This is produced by Studio One’s keyboard king Jackie Mittoo and features him tinkling the ivories over the riddim pon the flip. I’m guessing this was recorded while Jackie was in London, right? 14. Trevor Walters – Love Me Tonight (Magnet 12″) Easing into cheese territory perhaps, but Paul adds an avalanche of brutal effects to restore a healthy balance. In fact that tension between hard bass and sweet vocals is what makes all the tunes here work. 15. Kofi – Didn’t I (Ariwa 12″) Mad Professor production – for a while he was releasing just as much lovers as roots and dub material, which just goes to show how popular the genre was. Kofi was originally in Lovers Rock super-trio Brown Sugar, alongside Caron Wheeler, later of Soul II Soul.

Beyond The Implode Anarcho Punk Podcast for Youarehear by Johnedenuk on Mixcloud A collaboration between Martin and the good folks of Youarehear. With some help from me. Classic and obscure tunes with some verbal commentary both refined and rabid. Unfortunately anarchopunk wasn’t able to overcome the contradictions of capitalism and all the main players seem to be threatening each other with legal action right now. Martin recently reviewed the recent reissue of Crass’ “Feeding of the 5000”. See also the uncarved.org Critical Look At Anarchopunk for some good reading. Oh and if you’re on twitter get on the all new @BTi_Enquiries stream. STOP PRESS: Full tracklist and charateristically self-deprecating write up is now available at Beyond The Implode. STOP PRESS 2: Nice review and commentary at History is Made at Night.

Or: Pseudo Gay Rastas part one Sex Boots Dread – Tickle Tune (Rinka, 1980) A nice bit of traditional toasting over the Pick Up The Pieces riddim: Me think about the lion as him rest upon the sand Me tink about the help that me have from white man And me want to crying Becah me listen to the lying Me know when me talk that me [real break something – not sure?] Me know that me mix up with real good friend Good [earth or ‘erb ration – not sure?] It not absurd situation Because me black and me proud and me Rastafari Me and yah people we nah see eye to eye Which then deviates jarringly, and hilariously, from the norm: There’s a difference in me lifestyle There’s a difference in me dance style What a difference in me case file Because me black and me proud and me Rastafari And me homosexual Homosexual Homosexual The lyrics then move on to some explicit and jaw-droppingly funny descriptions of gay sex, before concluding with some more philosophical musings: And me mind goes asunder with the wonder of life ‘Ow people give you pressure for to pick up a wife And me know it not a sensible Brrrrr! me know it not a sensible. Because me like all me brother and me like all me sister Me like everybody and me not a resister Me open up me mind guy Me open up me mind guy And me love, me love, me know about love me also think of sex and me know it from above and me like a man cocky style East west north and south I take it up the arse and I take it in me mouth North south west and east I play the beauty and me boyfriend play the beast North south east and west Sexual freedom – always the best! Sex Boots Dread – Pentel (Rinka, 1980) Pentel (aka Pentil) is in a similar vein, covering Mr Boots Dread’s relationship with an a young Indian bloke – their love life taking place in his parent’s cornershop with an increasingly bizarre variety of the merchandise used as props. I like these tracks – they are very well done with an obvious affection for reggae and a who give a fuck attitude to the prevailing sexual codes of conduct. And they are very funny. I first heard of Sex Boots Dread on Woebot’s blog. These tunes came out on a 12″ and were rumoured to have been given a great review in the NME because of their pro-gay lyrics – something unheard of then and now for what seemed to be a Jamaican artist. But there are a few clues, just from listening, that suggest everything is not what it seems. For example “think” is pronounced think and the more patois tink in the first two lines. And the sexually explicit content is very different from the usual “slackness” of the genre. Sex Boots Dread is rumoured to be the work of comedian and personality Keith Allen. The actual evidence for this is a bit sketchy, especially as I haven’t read Allen’s autobiography, “Grow Up” (Ebury Press 2007). But I’m more interested in writing about the context the record might have been made in, than who actually made it. So there. West Side Sex Boots Dread also appears on an album entitled The Roughler Presents The Warwick Sessions Volume 1, which came out in 1987. The album also features Keith Allen, and is a product of the eighties Ladbroke Grove scene in West London. The Roughler was a fanzine which was set up to cover news of the Rough Trade cricket team (a concept nearly as incongruous as occult order the Ordo Templi Orientis having a baseball team, but apparently this is also true – I’ve never had much of a grip on sport) which operated out of The Warwick pub. As fanzine veteran and West London historian Tom Vague puts it: “Of all the local mags, the Roughler most definitively represents Notting Hill and the area’s contrasting psychogeography. Originally the scoresheet and fixture list programme of the Rough Trade cricket team, the Old Roughians, the satirical mag/fanzine/website etc was founded in the early 80s by the local pub legend Welsh Ray Roughler-Jones. The Roughler covered the scene at the Rough Trade pub, the Warwick Castle at 225 Portobello Road, and the activities of Keith Allen, the Comic Strip actor who was in the local groups, the Atoms and Tesco Bombers, and arrested in the ’76 Carnival riot. In the mid 80s Allen achieved further local notoriety with his ‘first gay Rasta’ spoof record, Boots Sex Dread’s ‘Tickle Tune’.” [link to whole publication – Entrance to Hipp: An historical and psychogeographical report on Notting Hill compiled by Tom Vague for HISTORYtalk Vague 44] Tom also states that Keith was involved with legendary reggae pirate radio station Dread Broadcasting Corporation. I’ve not found any corroborating evidence for that, but here he is interviewing Lepke of DBC for Channel 4 in 1982: It seems like Keith had a project called “Breakfast Pirate Radio” which was either a station or released on cassette or both. Either way, that also featured Sex Boot Dread tracks: (relevant section commences 56:30) The show also includes Gerry Arkwright, the “northern industrial gay” character and a very camp presenter. Allen clearly felt homosexuality was great source material, and it is certainly worth remembering how transgressive this must have felt at the time. There are also a fair few pops at politicians and middle class people which suggest an anarchist influence. Ian Bone and an early incarnation of Class War used to knock about in Ladbroke Grove too. According to Bone’s autobiography “Bash The Rich”, Keith once played drums in his band “The Living Legends” and filmed several hours’ worth of footage of Class War’s “Bash The Rich” excursion to the 1985 Henley Regatta. Although it’s fair to say Mr Bone was less than impressed with one of Mr Allen’s latest ventures. Dogging A piece in the News of the World reveals the source of the record label name: “Keith becomes uncharacteristically coy when he records a night of lust with one of the biggest stars in British drama. He refuses to name her but teasingly reveals she was later honoured with the title Dame. He won her over with the bizarre story of how he came by his tattoo of a dog’s head and the word Rinka. Keith had it done in a fit of anger over Seventies Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe being found not guilty of plotting to murder male model Norman Scott, his alleged gay lover. In the drama leading up to the case Scott’s dog Rinka had been shot through the head. It was an odd chat-up line to a top actress but Keith reveals: “An hour later we were in her bedroom snorting amyl nitrate—her with a pair of headphones on, listening to opera, and me with my tongue all over her. And no, it wasn’t Judi Dench!” Rinka Records also released a seven inch by The Atoms in 1979, featuring Keith Allen on vocals and piano. That record has a catalogue number or R23, but it may explain the Rinka2 imprint on the Sex Boots Dread label. Sex Boots Dread: The Movie “Tickle Tune” appears in the 2001 Larry Clark movie “Bully”, which I haven’t seen – but apparently it’s playing in a nightclub. The track credited as follows, but does not appear on the official soundtrack CD: “Boots Sex Dread” Performed by Rinka Written by Rinka and J. Cafritz Published by Just Send the Money to Us Music (BMI) “J. Cafritz”?! Well that turns out to be Julia Cafritz, former guitarist of Pussy Galore and now of Free Kitten infamy. Kim Gordon and Julia Cafritz Julia confirmed her awesomeness by dropping me an email and asking about the track when she found me discussing it over at the Chatty Mouth reggae board. I was happy to bung her an mp3, and took the opportunity to ask her what the crack was: “it was a mythical track, in my mind some total concoction of Thurston [Moore, Sonic Youth] and Byron’s [Coley, music critic best known for his writing in Forced Exposure, now writes for The Wire amongst others]…since they had a hand in it getting on the soundtrack.” That’s the only reason for me to be falsely given writing credit. ‘Just send ALL the money directly to us’ was Free Kitten’s publishing company…they even got that wrong. The track must be a total joke. Having spent my entire childhood traveling to Jamaica every year, there were definitely some gay rastas on the down low…but none with such a keen sense of humor in such a homophobic culture.” Sure enough Byron Coley bigs up the record in this piece for Vice Magazine: “Sex Boots Dread” – Rinka – worth $1,000 I have the only copy of this 12” you’re ever going to see outside of Jamaica. It’s from the early 80s and it’s about Rinka coming out of the closet and and getting into heavy toasting about the pleasures of anal sex. Larry Clark used it for a club scene in the movie Bully. So there you have it, a cracking record with quite a story behind it. I guess all of this might explain why Lily Allen, Keith’s daughter, has so much of a reggae influence in her work…

One of the great things about reggae’s “version culture” is how getting your mitts on a new tune can reactivate whole swathes of your collection. I stumbled across a storming UK twelve on the Boops riddim recently and spent a very pleasant Saturday afternoon on a version excursion tip, fishing out classics and long forgotten cuts from the dustier corners of my vinyl shelves. So here’s a little mix for you, done live in one take – with a little bit of post-editing before the last track. In some ways it’s a companion to my Answer one-riddim-clash mix, but no war business with Paul Meme this time. Yousendit download link or:   John eden: boops specialist riddim mix by Johnedenuk on Mixcloud TRACKLIST 1. The Ethiopians – Last Train to Skaville (1966? – from “Celebration: 25 Years of Trojan Records” LP) 2. Toots and the Maytals – 54-46 (1969 – from Soul Jazz “400% Dynamite” CD) 3. Johnny Ringo – I And I Number (From “JA To UK M.C. Clash” LP, Fashion 1985) 4. Asher Senator – Abbreviation Qualification VIP Mix (Fashion 12” 1984) 5. Horace Andy – Cool and Deadly (Tads 12”) 6. Superman and Spiderman – Roadblock (From “Superman & Spiderman” LP, Kingdom 1985) 7. Papa Face and Bionic Rhona – To the Bump (From “Great British MCs” LP, Fashion 1984) 8. Concrete Jungle Overcoat (from “Rubble Dub M.C.’s Choice” LP, Rubble 1986) 9. Supercat – Boops (Techniques 7” 1986) 10. Pam Hall – Dear Boopsie (Blue Mountain 12”, 1986) 11. King Kong – Don’t Touch My Boops (Unity Sound 12” 1986) 12. Papa Charjan And Jack Reuben Featuring Higgy Rygin – Moany Moany (Shuttle Records 12” 1986) 13. Bayley & Chacka Demus – One Scotch (Unity Sound 12”) 14. Papa Charjan And Jack Reuben Featuring Higgy Rygin – One Scotch, One Tennants, One Brew (Shuttle Records 12” 1986) 15. Rebel MC and Double Trouble – Street Tuff (Desire 7”, 1989) SLEEVENOTES The Ethiopians – Last Train to Skaville (1966? – from “Celebration: 25 Years of Trojan Records” LP) The Ethiopians started in the 1940s and passed through Studio One in the sixties before recording this for WIRL. This opening track is a little on the quiet side, partly because that’s how I like to start, but also because Trojan have unwisely included 10 tracks per side of this LP. Which, to be fair, did make it good value – just not so great for playing out. Toots and the Maytals – 54-46 (1969 – from Soul Jazz “400% Dynamite” CD) Everyone has heard this, surely? So the story behind this tune is that Toots Hibbert was busted for ganja and the title of the tune was his prison number. Unfortunately that is just a story. Toots says he was busted (for what isn’t clear) whilst trying to pay bail for a mate – and the number is just something he made up. So yeah, these first few tracks are off compilations and not crackly seven inches. People get snobbish about that I guess, so here is full disclosure. Both of these comps are brilliant, by the way. Johnny Ringo – I And I Number (From “JA To UK M.C. Clash” LP, Fashion 1985) JA MC on tour in the UK cuts album underneath the Dub Vendor shop, riding the riddim with some nice “definition lyrics”. Unfortunately Ringo died in 2005, his passing was noted by me here. Asher Senator – Abbreviation Qualification VIP Mix (Fashion 12” 1984) Saxon MC Asher’s first single, which I’ve written about previously in my Born To Chat: The Asher Senator Story.   Horace Andy – Cool and Deadly (Tads 12”) Sleepy brings his take on “ABC” by the Jackson 5 to the party. This raises the musical levels after Asher’s lyrical onslaught. I often play the two in combination like this on the increasingly rare occasions that I am trusted on the decks in public. Superman and Spiderman – Roadblock (From “Superman & Spiderman” LP, Kingdom 1985) Mysterious trademark-infringing duo in the mould of Michigan and Smiley. Superman was born in Birmingham, but raised in JA. He now records UK Dub material under the name of Sandeeno. Spiderman I know little about but seem to recall he was JA born and bred. Of course, superhero imagery has been well used in reggae, from Tony McDermott’s great covers for Scientist dub albums, to these labels: Papa Face and Bionic Rhona – To the Bump (From “Great British MCs” LP, Fashion 1984) “Nuff man chat on the Shank I Sheck, but me no hear no-one pon this one yet” Underrated duo, previously written about here. Rhona is an uncarved.org reader, Face has continued to MC as mic man for David Rodigan and is a regular fixture behind the counter at Dub Vendor. Concrete Jungle Overcoat (from “Rubble Dub M.C.’s Choice” LP, Rubble 1986) Very talented musicians at Fashion. Their riddims and dub albums never get proper credit, but it’s nice gear. I meant to write about them all for Woofah but it didn’t quite happen. Gussie Prento production. Super Cat – Boops (Techniques 7” 1986) “And when you check it out Friday ah payday” The tune that started the craze. Super Cat tells the story of an older guy who has the girls flocking – but only because of his wallet. The Techniques lick of the riddim is proper loose (in a good way) and even has a bum note towards the end. Pam Hall – Dear Boopsie (Blue Mountain 12”, 1986) “Since you’ve been gone – I’ve forgotten the taste of wine” Pam is the sister of Audrey Hall. Dear Boopsie attempts to give some female perspective on the Boops phenomenon, though it’s hardly an advert for womens’ liberation. Oddly this seems to be the only tune in the mix which has troubled the UK Charts, skirting around the mid 50s for a few weeks. The tune even appeared in one of the few reggae charts featured on ITV’s The Chart Show. King Kong – Don’t Touch My Boops (Unity Sound 12” 1986) “Gorgeous smile and she had pretty looks” This is a King Jammy production which was licensed to Hackney’s Unity Sound label because of their strong connections. Pretty soon Boops was inescapable, as is evident from Daddy Kool’s pre-release chart of April 19, 1986: 1. King Kong – Don’t Touch My Boops – Jammys 2. Anthony Red Rose – Me No Want No Boops – Firehouse 3. Michael Prophet – Nah Call Me John Boops – Techniques 4. Sugar Minott – John Boops – Cornerstone 5. Lyrical – No Try No Boops – 10 Rossevelt Avenue 6. Pompidou – I Love My Boops – Striker Lee 7. Super Dad – See Boops Ya – Blue Mountain 8. Radicals – Rum Tree – Roots Radics Gang 9. Ringo – See Foreign Deh – Harry J 10. Delroy Williams – Watchdog – Rockers Sly and Robbie hit the national charts one year later with their own take on the fad… (major labels being unable to keep up with the street commentary of reggae culture). Papa Charjan And Jack Reuben Featuring Higgy Rygin – Moany Moany (Shuttle Records 12” 1986) Shuttle operated out of Haringey, with offices around Turnpike Lane and Green Lanes. This is a Fatman production. Fatman runs a longstanding soundsystem and label. There’s a nice piece on him here from Penny Reel’s 1981 NME Soundsystem Splashdown feature. At that time, Fatman’s selector was Ribs (interviewed here). But Ribs then left Fatman to start his own Unity Hi-Fi sound. Charjan and his brother Reuben were two of Unity’s first deejays (soon to be joined by Peter Bouncer, Navigator and the Ragga Twins amongst many other key ‘nuum figures). But then Charjan and Reuben really upset the applecart by leaving Unity and joining Fatman. Apparently the animosity is made abundantly clear in Fatman/Unity clash tapes from the mid eighties. Whatever the history, this is a boss tune which equals most of the Boops ouevre for its slightly dodgy gender politics. In fact it’s intriguingly similar to “Rabbit” by that other cockney MC crew Chas and Dave. Charjan and Reuben’s double delivery on the chorus is breathtaking and there are some neat rhymes here also. Admiral Bailey & Chaka Demus – One Scotch (Unity Sounds 12″ 1986) Bailey and Chaka rework John Lee Hooker’s blues standard for Jammys, with added bonus reference to the Joe Gibbs oddity “In Heaven There Is No Beer (It’s Why We Drink It Here)” by The Happs. Papa Charjan And Jack Reuben Featuring Higgy Rygin – One Scotch, One Tennants, One Brew (Shuttle Records 12” 1986) “If you like drinking, let’s go on a drinking spree” Charjan and Reuben come again with a London ting. Frankly the prospect of a scotch, a can of Tennents and a Special Brew is enough to make me feel decidedly queasy. Still, might be one to test out one weekend, purely in the interests of research… Unfortunately my copy didn’t come with the ace picture cover, so it’s thanks to discogs for that. It does have this sticker on it though: Other odes to Tennents Super include Alabama 3’s “Old Purple Tin” and “Purple Boy” by Smart Alex and Clever Cloggs. Rebel MC and Double Trouble – Street Tuff (Desire 7”, 1989) Not everyone realises this is the same bassline as Toots and The Maytals’ “54-46” but then it is at 120bpm or thereabouts. A big chart hit, which will always remind me of everyone on the cheese factory production line grooving away when it came on Radio One. Rebel MC went on to mutate into Congo Natty, but I guess everyone knows that now? ADDENDUM The Boops riddim was reversioned again earlier this year, but none of the tunes particularly grabbed me. So this remains an archival selection for your delectation. As usual this is simply what I’ve picked up over the years so I make no apology if your favourite cut isn’t included. Feel free to have a heated debate in the comments boxes, or do your own mix – or simply enjoy the music for what it is!

Including music by Madtone, Wrongtom, King General, Robert Lee, Icho Candy, Dixie Peach, Tippa Irie, Asher Senator, Andrew Paul, Pato Banton, Peter King, Brother Resistance, Crazy and The Kalico Band, Dot Rotten & Papa Levi, Flowdan & Killa P, Skepta and The Cimarons.

1. Tony the Tiger Frosties Icon. Nowhere near as awesome as the Weetabix Skinheads, but still loads better than the Honey Monster or those goody goody Rice Krispie goons. 2. Tiger Woods Troubled golfer. Macka B did a song about him which came out as a seven inch on Mad Professor’s Ariwa label: 3. Tigger Hyperactive Winnie The Pooh sidekick. The original junglist: Tigger: Come on, Rabbit. Let’s you and me bounce, huh? Rabbit: Good heavens! M-m-m-me bounce? Tigger: Why, certainly! And look, you’ve got the feet for it. Rabbit: I have? Tigger: Sure! Come on, try it! It makes ya feel just grrreat! Tigger was also the name of my first two cats, who both met untimely road deaths. 4. The Tigress of Jowlagiri Bodycount of fifteen. Do not mess. 5. Tamil Tigers Possibly the inventors of suicide bombing, and also an inspiration to MIA. Not exactly a great legacy. 6. Tygers of Pan Tang Never really liked this lot, they always seemed to appeal to the rockier punks who fancied themselves a bit. Martin recently had one of their tunes up at his which was alright, but I can’t find the link now. 7. Tiger Beer Yes. An easy link into ragga MC Cobra here, please note for future entry. What other beers have similar names to reggae artists? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUmQf6rIB2w 8. Le Tigre Electro punky post-riot grrrrls. First heard this track on Tricky’s “Back To Mine” compilation which I got out of the library, like we used to in the olden days. 9. Tiger Tiger A nightclub in London, site of 2007 car bomb. Easy to dismiss as the emodiment of Western meatmarket Decadence. But of course not every punter is as complicit as the stereotype suggests. I had a work Xmas “do” there once, for example. 10. Mac OS X Tiger Which is what this has all been written with the assistance of. The latest “Snow Leopard” installment is obviously a lot cooler, but I’m not about to stump up for that. Please add any more Tigers which spring to mind in the comments box…

Great stuff from 2am last Friday morning, now available courtesy of the rinse podcast. Elijah and Skilliam also present and correct.

Click here for a complete list of entries in the series  “the first 23 gigs I can remember going to”. 12. Siouxsie and The Banshees, The Fall, Wire, Psychic TV, Gaye Bykers On Acid. Saturday 25th July 1987, Finsbury Park Supertent. My ears were still ringing from the Big Black gig the night before, but a handy crew had assembled for some post-post-punk frolics in Norf London. In a big fuck-off circus tent. The promoters needn’t have bothered with the tent, the weather was fine. Quite a nice way to spend a summery Saturday afternoon in fact. I must have worn my gleaming new Psychic TV t-shirt because I remember we were accosted on the way from the tube station to the park by someone flyering for a squat gig who got chatting to us about the group. This confirmed my view that London was full of awesome freaks, but obviously he was there for the same reason we were, not just passing by… One of the other memorable things from the gig is that I bought a copy of SMILE Magazine by Stewart Home from a bloke outside the tent who had laid out his wares on a blanket. I think he may also have run the “skidmark” t-shirt stall on Camden market, back when there seemed to be some genuinely subversive and sinister goings on down there. These days it’s all trance CDs and goth boots. It was in the eighties as well, so yes I was probably just young and naive. But back then Camden did have stalls, like the aforementioned Skidmark, which gave me genuine “what the FUCK” moments. He had a nice hodge podge of t-shirts including Crowley stuff, Stewart’s “I love Hackney” design, and some off the wall things like the classic “Joy Through Disobedience” as modeled here by Stefan. Shirts like that weren’t band merchandise, they weren’t even flogging a political ideology. They were just weird and hinted at a whole subculture of weirdness which I was magnetically attracted to. And then you’d have the zines as well – strange occult stuff like Joel Biroco’s Kaos nestling up against “Towards A Gay Communism”. There was this spooky ephemeral undercurrent of ideological nihilism and polymorphous perversity. The zines and shirts hinted at people creating and consuming them: a whole mysterious underground culture – tantalisingly out of reach… I’d read about SMILE in Vague and some of the Coil literature put out by R&D Group 28. It freaked me out a little when I read it the day after. My sister found the magazine hidden under my bed and got very disturbed by the de Sadean aspects of the pulp fiction and the “SAY NOT TO DEMOCRACY” centre spread. I was more bothered by the deranged manifestos and theoretical texts. I met Stewart a couple of years later at Beck Road and later still hitched up to the Festival of Plagiarism in Glasgow in the summer of 1989. But that’s another story. As for the gig, I remember watching Gaye Bykers On Acid from the back of the tent and not being overly impressed. I think this may have turned into a bit of a “wandering around with a beer” session rather than studiously watching the bands. It is entirely possible that a vast quantity of goth girls may have had an impact on my attention span. To my eternal shame I didn’t make strenuous efforts to see Wire. We all piled down the front for Psychic TV though, and eyed up the rest of the crowd. Genesis P-Orridge came on in a Siouxsie wig. Jokes! This gig was later released as part of the PTV series of live LPs and it sounds like a pretty good psychedelic freak out to these ears. There’s stuff on the net suggesting the Chaz Jankel was laying keyboards for them. Really? How did that happen? The Fall were brilliant – John Peel had been caning their album “Bend Sinister” since it came out, so I was well up to speed with tracks like “Lucifer Over Lancashire”, “Hey Luciano” and “Mr Pharmacist”. I guess the line up included Brix Smith on keyboards and all that. I’ve never been obsessed with The Fall but have always had a healthy arms-length appreciation of them. The first time I ever heard Siouxsie and The Banshees was during an especially dull Christmas visit to my grandparents in Weymouth. Actually that’s probably uncharitable of me, because they took us all into their home even when I would have been a snotty 14 year old. I’m sure I got some good presents as well. But after that it seemed like nothing was happening and it was all really polite. For an eternity, like that Tony Hancock show about a Sunday afternoon. We went out for a walk. Somewhere, somebody was playing “Dear Prudence” really loudly. It echoed around the streets, filling the dead air with life and energy. But this gig was four years on from that. The Banshees had just done their covers album “Through The Looking Glass” and were still touring their “Tinderbox” LP of original material (including the single “Cities In Dust” which I doubt many people remember, but it was pretty good pop-goth with BIG EIGHTIES STUDIO SOUNDS). The well-worn formula of teenage drinking has eroded any trace of recollection of their set, so I am guessing it was passable but not especially good or bad. According to this link they did a bunch of older material, so I expect we were all pretty chuffed with that. We got the tube back to Kings Cross and I sat there proudly with my SMILE “SAY NO TO DEMOCRACY” centrespread open on my lap. A woman next to me giggled about it, which was not the effect I was after.

A marvelous chaotic time in the studio as Mr Johnny Mugwump played host on Saturday. Giant Paw were in fine form and it was great to see them expanded into a five piece, with some new material to boot. I’d brought enough tunes for a short post-punk dub mix but ended up alternating with the band and our host instead. More info here, or check it out below: Stay locked, or subscribe to the podcast via itunes Recent shows have featred Melissa Bradshaw (who has a new swanky blog at some fashion magazine) and Position Normal. They are still available to check in the archives. Next Saturday Mr Woebot is stepping up to the decks with an exclusive and mysterious mix.

mp3 of the radio show on Saturday is below. Thanks to Mr Mugwump for hosting. Nice to hear the selection from 10-20 and to bump into Thorsten who runs his label – Highpoint Lowlife. Droid on form as ever (stick to music, mate. I am afraid you will never make it as a swingball player…). Two mixes – some very special ambient material forthcoming on The Fear (including new Naphta tracks) and some junglist brock out business later on. http://www.exoticpylon.com

berlin backyardradio » Blog Archive » John Eden: The Roots of DIY. Blimey, more from Berlin! I’d forgotten I’d done this – an interview with the lovely people at Backyard Radio whose studio is based in the Haus der Kulturen der Welt. Check the site for more stuff including an interview with Kodwo Eshun and Steve Goodman.

Jonny Mugwump's Resonance FM show featuring a DJ set and conversation with John Eden and a live performance from Portia Winters.

Olaf is a reggae writer and fan outta Cologne. We previously interviewed each other for the Audio Poverty programme. We also played some tunes to close the festival. They laid on a great soundsystem for us. We were preceded by Quarta 330, a really cool Japanese guy who fiddled with a load of gameboys to produce this whacked out wall of digi noise that I really liked. He gets lumped in with dubstep because he’s had a record out on Hyperdub, but (as with Hyperdub artists in general) he has a load of different stuff going on and has obviously been influenced by a bunch of different stuff. My set was the usual combination of UK MC classics and JA bizness, with the odd bit of dodgy mixing I am afraid. Only 45 minutes too because I wanted to stop hogging the stage (out of everyone at the festival I was the only person with 3 slots, heh heh). The plan was for me to return and do a second set later but Olaf was doing pretty great, so the free beer beckoned… Also see this page on the Audio Poverty site for mp3 sets from DJ Rupture, Awesometapesfromafrica and Quarta 330 alongside a lot of even stranger sonic and spoken word material. Get stuck in! Shamefully, I managed to miss Martin’s conference debut at Goldsmiths recently, but he has kindly written it up over at Beyond The Implode, complete with scans of a rare as hen’s teeth Ninjaman record.

Recording of presentation from Audio Poverty conference in Berlin, 2009.

Kodwo Eshun + Steve Goodman aka Kode9 (that isn’t a secret is it?) doing their “Beyond The Long Tail” presentation at Audio Poverty in Berlin. I haven’t listened to this again, but I really enjoyed seeing it in the flesh. I’m not a fan of people reading prepared texts, especially overly theoretical ones, but I think Kodwo and Steve bring a poetic sensibility to it which gets across both the ideas and also a kind of style, I think – which leads to other ideas or leaps or whatever. It works. Much more to come from AP soon!

…was mainly spent in the post office and drinking (tho not at the same time). It amazes me how many people come out of the woodwork this time of year who have no idea about post office etiquette. Like, yes, you have to bring your own box for the things you are sending – and n0, it isn’t ok if you wrap it all up while we wait in the queue. I take my post office and distribution role very seriously. Hell, I’ve even introduced some new security since the new issue of Woofah was printed. All issues are now guarded by our fearsome kitty-guard whilst sitting in the postroom at Woofah HQ: I’ve sent out over a hundred copies of Woofah issue 3 over the last week and about 400 have gone to distributors. So now is the time to grab yourself a pre-christmas treat if you were hesitating. Buy direct or from our recommended stockists. Whilst waiting in line to be served by the nice ladies (and gentlemen) at the P.O. I have had a chance to catch up with some podcasts and stuff: Mr Trick and Wrongtom do a podcast for Resonance FM (who should let them on the airwaves again!). Really great eclectic tunes and some excellent chat – I really like the interplay between the two and it’s quite relaxing to listen to people speaking about music for a change rather than seamless mixes. Their xmas speciall went up today, so check that out if you want to feel festive. Paul STN brought this to my attention because the Hertfordshire accent of one of the duo reminded him of me. Grievous Angel – 4×4 Hell Mix – Paul Meme brings the garridge flava with some great warm basslines and even the odd snatch of Burning Spear vocal. Great stuff for warming up. Dusk+Blackdown+Trim: Rinse FM show. Nuff said, really! A rare return to radio for Trimbal. Cassava Outernational: test press for Hiders show mix – some Rhythm & Sound, reggae and dubstep, exquisitely blended. Pale Rider flagged this up in the comments boxes here, so out to him. Wiley vol1: Grimetapes.com compilation of the man’s finest moments on pirate radio. Sufferah’s Choice – DJ Stryda, denizen of UK Dub and the Bristol reggae scene. Radio show from Passion FM – this episode featuring Mark Iration in characteristically lively form. Still to hear: Heatwave’s best of 2008 mix for FACT Magazine D Double E – Grimetapes comp similar to the Wiley one above.

Includes music by Tommy McCook, Junior Murvin, Lorna Gee, Smiley Culture, Papa Levi, Nasty Jack, Million Styles, Micchie One, YT, General Levy, Lukie D, T-Woc & Brother Culture and Jammer.

(or: Smash the National Front – part two) A little bit of audio for you after all that book-reviewage last week: Here is a short mix of reggae tunes concerned with the National Front. There is a track by track breakdown below, but what I found surprising was how few tunes there were given the NF’s popularity in the seventies when conscious reggae was coming into its own. Indeed one of the defining factors in the explicitly anti-NF Rock Against Racism movement was UK reggae bands sharing stages with punks. Above is a photo of members of Steel Pulse and The Clash standing outside NF head honcho (and closet homosexual) Martin Webster’s house, for example. (Obviously I wouldn’t bother to mention his sexuality were it not for the fact that he was a key player in a movement which sought the extermination of homosexuals.) Steel Pulse’s most famous anti-racist tune is “Ku Klux Klan”, released in 1978 on Island. I’ve always been slightly curious about this, as obviously the KKK have had virtually no presence in the UK. A bit of digging around turned up this 1978 NME article on the rather excellent unofficial Steel Pulse site. Seems that many black West Indian families who settled in Britain during the early ’50s and strived peacefully to integrate themselves into their new surroundings, haven’t – in the present imflammable atmosphere of racial disharmony – taken too kindly towards Steel Pulse making waves by performing songs with titles like Ku Klux Klan and National Front. So the group actually had a tune named after the NF, but didn’t release it? Reading on, the possible reasons for this become clear: And, according to Steel Pulse’s main man David Hinds, himself a first generation British born black from Handsworth, they haven’t been reluctant to voice their disapproval. “They feel,” says Hinds, “That we’re being too heavy, too outspoken.” Apparently, after seeing Steel Pulse in a recent Sight & Sound programme attired in Klansmen’s hoods chanting Ku Klux Klan, friends of their families warned them of openly inviting trouble. “They want to avoid any trouble with the white community…want to keep the peace and don’t think Natty Dread helps keep the peace. See, the truth only stirs up trouble!” If, in Hinds’ opinion, speaking the truth causes a degree of trouble, so be it. Even if it means that despite its chart entry, Ku Klux Klan was, with few exceptions, ignored by practically every radio station in this green and pleasant land. “The radio stations don’t ban records any longer because they realise it only helps to sell them and when such a record makes the charts, they’re embarrassed because they’re not playing it.” But the National Front do get a mention in “Jah Pickney” on their 1979 Tribute To The Martyrs album: Rock against Racism, smash it Rock against Fascism, smash it Rock against Nazism, me say smash it I’ve come to the conclusion that We’re gonna hunt yeh yeh yeh The National Front – Yes we are, We’re gonna hunt, yeh yeh yeh The National Front Cause they believe in apartheid For that we gonna whop their hides For all my people they cheated and lied I won’t rest till I’m satisfied Unfortunately I only found that out after I’d done the mix! Steel Pulse are still a bit of a shameful blindspot in my knowledge of UK reggae. The scene in the film Babylon where Ital Lion’s HQ is turned over and vandalised with fascist grafitti is rumoured to be based on a real incident which happened to Aswad. However the Rock Against Racism band which came off worst for wear is almost certainly Misty In Roots. Misty grew up together in Southall, West London. They worked collectively, opening a squatted community centre called “People Unite” as a place for people to gather, rehearse, get free food. People Unite was also the name of their record label. Southall is inextricably linked with the history of the far right in the UK. In the 60s some of the then predominantly white population were so shocked by the influx of asian immigrants that the residents’ association ended up supporting British National Party (NB, this BNP predated the NF and was eventually absorbed into it) candidates in the 1963 local elections, where they polled a respectable 27.5% and 13.5%. Tensions remained high, it seems. Then in July 1976, 17 year old Gurdip Singh Chaggar was murdered in a racist attack in Southall. His attackers were 3 white men who were apparently inspired by the National Front (although I have not been able to pin this down with a reference). Southall youth took to the streets. Sir Robert Mark, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner commented “The motive was not necessarily racial.” The response from NF chairman John Kingsley Reid was “that’s one down, one million to go”. When Reid was tried for inciting racial hatred for this unbelievable outburst, the Judge lined up behind him: “In this England of ours, we are allowed to have our own view still, thank goodness, and long may it last…I wish you well in your project”. So when the NF called an election meeting at Southall Town Hall on St George’s Day 1979 most people were clear that this was nothing less than a provocation. The People Unite community centre was used as a base for the protests and the police decided to close it down: “The building was so badly damaged by the police action that afterwards, it had to be destroyed. Officers with batons smashed medical equipment, a sound system, printing and other items.” And people. Many of Misty in Roots were present. Clarence Baker, Misty’s manager, was beaten into a coma by the cops. Two members of the group were arrested and jailed on trumped up charges. Perhaps they got off lightly – Blair Peach, another anti-fascist protester, was killed later in the day after a blow to the head from a member of the Special Patrol Group. The day and aftermath is chronicled in more depth here. There are some comments from Misty’s singer Poko here, but I particularly want to highlight this: For the people of Southall it was something that could never be forgotten. We had all been involved in an uprising, the police had bloodied us, and they were still there terrorising us long after the protest had finished. But among the fear there was also a sense of unity. The whole thing raised the consciousness of the young Asians in particular. And there is still a connection to 1979 to this day. Across Southall there are Asian-run reggae sound systems – a tradition that started not long after the uprising. A lot of Asian kids began to relate to the spirit of resistance that you find in reggae. It is easy to forget, when reading the above, that fighting the NF wasn’t always big demonstrations like Lewisham 77, or concerts, or marches. It was a two way street with Enoch’s “rivers of blood” in the gutters. NF supporters were suspected of firebomb attacks on music venues like the Four Aces in Dalston, and Acklam Hall in Ladbroke Grove. Not to mention the petty intimidation and outright racist violence that was part of the everyday landscape in the 1970s. The “cultural war” of Rock Against Racism has to be seen alongside the groundwork of community organisations, politicos, “squadists”, and even everyday people who just had a chat with their mates when they were spouting bollocks. Compared to all this it seems a bit pathetic to be rummaging through some dusty vinyl once again, but that is what started me off on this whole post which has now spiraled slightly out of control. So here goes: Chant Down The National Front: tune by tune The Phantom – Lazy Fascist (Cool Ghoul 7″ 1978) This is quite a mysterious record, produced by persons unknown. There are a number of quite suspicious aspects to the track- the vocalist’s accent is faux American rather than (faux) Jamaican, “Cool Ghoul” could be a “ghost face”-esque reference to whiteness? At least one record dealer has speculated about it being a secret project of Tom Robinson, but that may just be to shift records, so I am sceptical. More importantly the lyrical content focusses more on the economic aspects of colonialism: “you call us when you need our labour…” than the more usual slavery and displacement. The “chase those fascists out” chant is straight off a lefty demo and the line “If this song offends you – you’re a fascist too… fascist!” IS Vivien off the Young Ones. The less said about the racial stereotyping of “You pad your pants to try and look like a man / And we’ve been pumping iron gonna move like lion” the better – except to point out that the “lion” is the track’s the only nod towards rasta imagery. One of the people involved was interviewed in Black Music magazine and quoted in Dick Hebdige’s Cut and Mix book:“[The National Front] love to hear the Rastas talking about repatriation ‘cos it makes their jobs a lot easier” I find this interesting when contrasted with the ambiguous comments made by Jah Shaka on the subject which lead to an extended discussion on the Blood and Fire board. Blazing Sons – Chant Down The National Front (DiKi 12″ n.d.) This also originally came as a Cool Ghoul 7″, but was re-released on a Belgian label as a 12″. A marked improvement both lyrically and musically, with some nice steppers business on the version. Sufferer Sound – National Front (Tempus 12″ 1978) I can’t put it any better than Bill Dew in his article Dub – The Vinyl Frontier: A delightfully, distinctively British cut from a label most commonly associated with Dennis Bovell. Indeed, I would hazard a guess that Blackbeard had a hand in this production, a very loose rendering of ‘Norwegian Wood’ positively brimming over with idiosyncratic flourishes. The dub spotlight glances off the melody, extending and accentuating certain key notes by accident and design before imploding, ‘transformer’ style, in an ecstatic liquid rush of stellar phase effects. Can nobody mix dub like this anymore? Bovell has always been pretty outspoken about the effect that Enoch Powell’s speeches had on black people living in the UK. His band Matumbi played the first ever Rock Against Racism gig at the Royal College of Art in December 1976. But this is an instrumental… Linton Kwesi Johnson – Fite Dem Back (From “Reggae Greats” compilation, Island, but originally released on “Forces of Victory”, 1979) Admirable militancy from the man like LKJ. I could also have included “Reggae Fi Peach” (in tribute to Blair Peach, see above). But this is more fitting for the mix, really. Dennis Bovell produced the track, of course. “Fight Dem Back” is also the name of an Antipodean anti-racist organisation. I know this because the nice man who runs the Slack Bastard anti-fascist blog steadfastly links to my piece on Nicky Crane every time he comes up in conversation. Al Campbell – National Front (Soul Vybz 7″ 2006) Proof positive that the fight against fascism is always with us. I believe this is a French reworking of a tune off Al’s 1985 “Forward Natty” album (but I haven’t heard that – can you help?). So it’s now directed straight at the head of Le Pen and the French NF. I really like this because it avoids preachiness by including great lyrics about how Al is going to: “Hit them with the bassline Smash up them waistline Hit them with the riddim Stop them ism and schism”

74 minute special! Lyrical onslaught! Shocking out! You can also download the mp3 and all previous episodes (which you should do, definitely) direct from http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogariddims/ or via itunes music store. Details of how to subscribe to Blogariddims Direct link to the mp3   00:00 Introduction 00:26 Neckle Camp feat. Jammer, Rinse FM 01:02 Turbulence acapella 02:06 Turbulence – Notorious (THC Muzik 7”) 2005 02:40 Trim & Radioclit – Turbulence remix (from Soulfood vol 1) 2007 06:45 Richie Spice – Marijuana (from Spice In Your Life 2004) 08:25 Jammer – Burning (from Are You Dumb vol 2) 2007 10:45 Bob Marley and the Wailers – So Much Trouble in the World (from Survival, 1979) 14:05 Mercston – Trouble (from Da End of Da Beginning) 2006 16:31 Skepta – Blood, Sweat and Tears (from Greatest Hits) 2007 19:32 All In One – Flows (from Bless Beats – A Hard Days Graft) 2008 21:14 Frisco – Skeng Man Mode (from Peng Food) 2008 23:24 Slix – Maniac (from Down vol 1) 2006 26:12 Neckle Camp feat Jammer, Rinse FM 27:39 Baby Cham & Mister Easy – Funny Man (Mad House 7”) 1996 28:53 Lady Saw – Sycamore Tree (Mad House 7”) 1996 30:01 Frisco Kid – Rubbers (Mad House 7”) 1996 31:05 Buju Banton – How It Ago Go (Mad House 7”) 1996 32:08 Tanya Stephens – Yuh Nuh Ready Fi Dis Yet (Mad House 7”) 1996 33:37 Slew Dem – Joyride Vocal (Slewdem Productions 12”) 2005 35:13 Dutty Doogz – Pum Pum Stealer (Night Flight 12”) 2003 36:35 Harry Toddler – Good Good (Night Flight 12”) 2003 36:49 Flow Dan – Galist (Night Flight 12”) 2003 37:16 Jamaka Bi – Zoom 4 Pum (Night Flight 12”) 2003 39:15 Kano and Vybz Kartel – Buss It Up (679 7”) 2006 43:16 Neckle Camp feat. Jammer, Rinse FM 44:01 Yami Bolo – Top Shotta (Black Diamonds 7”) 2002 45:48 Junior Reid – Rise Up (Black Diamonds 7”) 2002 46:32 Half Pint – Bounce (Black Diamonds 7”) 2002 47:37 Lukie D – One In Ten (Black Diamonds 7”) 2002 49:12 Rossi B and Luka – Nobody Knows (from The Legacy EP, Heavy Artillery 12”) 2007 51:29 Ini Kamoze – World a Reggae Music (from Sly and Robbie’s Taxi Sound, Auralux LP) 1984 53:03 Rossi B and Luka – Run 4 Cover instrumental (12” white label) 2005 53:48 Rossi B and Luka feat. Nasty Crew – Run 4 Cover (12” white label) 2005 56:45 Neckle Camp feat. Jammer, Rinse FM 57:13 Breeze – Ice Rink (Wiley Kat 12”) 2003 59:16 Tinchy Stryder – Ice Rink (Wiley Kat 12”) 2003 60:36 Kano – Ice Rink (Wiley Kat 12”) 2003 63:56 Riko – Ice Rink (Wiley Kat 12”) 2003 65:58 Sizzla – Give Me A Try (from Rise to the Occasion) 2003 67:18 Jammer – Give Me a Try (from Are You Dumb vol 2) 2006 71:04 Sizzla Vs Rhianna – Give Me A Try (remix) 2007 It’s war on the streets! Young people, out of their minds on hi-grade skunk and turkey twizzlers run amok on the buses, traveling free courtesy of insane communist overlord Ken Livingstone! No alley is safe, no tower block lobby can evade the evil mob of grunting hooded young thugs happy-slapping decency into the gutter of Brown’s Britain! At the root of this epidemic of anarchy is the unholy trinity of the Playstation, liberal do-gooders and menacing Grime Music. Yes, that’s right, Grime Music, which is made entirely on Playstations by CONVICTED CRIMINALS beaming their amoral message into YOUR CHILDREN’S SKULLS. Grime Music cannot be heard by adults, the SINISTER SOCIOPATHS behind it have ensured that its atonal rhythms can only be picked up by the tender ears of stoned kids. And as for the words… I got into Grime via Dancehall and Reggae but I was never sure if the lines I was drawing between the two were actually there. Certainly it’s easy to see the similarities – MCing over mad riddims about what is happening on the streets, pirate radio, lyrical beefs, aggro, girls. Bass. That made me happy, but I felt like an old fart saying it – “ooh it were a bit like this in my day! We used to love having a dance around the gramophone at the weekend to a bit of reggae”. Plus it seemed like a lot of grime fans and producers saw jungle as ancient history – further back than that things got blurry – prehistoric stuff best left to archaeologists. Turns out I was worrying unduly, I just had to listen a bit more instead of making things up in my head. When I reviewed “An England Story” in The Wire I mentioned that Grime was the point at which cockney, yardie and a heap of other influences converged to form a new dialect which was pure London 21st Century. Those other influences include a tonne of African language and culture, but Jamaica is always there in the background – bashment patois being a fearsome weapon in the armories of Riko, Flowdan and Killa P to name but three. And the ancestry isn’t just cultural – it’s genetic in some instances. Grime don Jammer has talked about his dad being involved with soundsystems and counts Benjamin Zephaniah as a family friend. Trim’s mentioned his father being a reggae artist. When rising star Skepta was interviewed for Woofah he went out of his way to talk about how great Ninjaman’s flow is. Through my nerdy glasses it looks like JA music has had just as much, if not more influence on Grime than hip hop has. Grime Mixtapes are a weird artifact – 20 track CDs of often variable quality. It’s been argued they came to prominence when the raves started getting shut down and there was nowhere to go to jump around to riddims juggled on 12″ vinyl anymore. The two best things about mixtapes is their price (6 quid for an hour of music), and the space they give MCs to experiment with different styles, moods. They are an arena which allow the various influences on Grime to emerge, which allows opportunists like me to join up the dots. Gathering together all the reggae influenced grime I could find and jiggling it about has been great fun, but as usual I owe everything to Paul’s technical skills in making it coherent. The original idea behind this mix was to create a gateway drug for reggae and dancehall fans – to seduce them into Grime. Right now I’m just happy to play the thing over and over again to myself and smile. There is a lot we left out, and there is a fair bit which has come out since we finished as well. Not all Grime is as reggaefied as this by any means, so see this mix as a little glimpse at how things work in our heads – our personal selection. Paul’s comments on the tracks and the blends and mixes are now up over at his place. Track by Track 00:00 Introduction 00:26 Neckle Camp feat. Jammer, Rinse FM I dunno where to start with Jammer, except to say we had to start with Jammer! 01:02 Turbulence acapella 02:06 Turbulence – Notorious (THC Muzik 7”) 2005 02:40 Trim & Radioclit – Turbulence remix (from Soulfood vol 1) 2007 Turbulence is from JA, Trim is out of East London and grime super-crew Roll Deep, and Radioclit are French. I first heard Turbulence on a few Xterminator 7″ around 2000 time, but Notorious was a bolt out of the blue when it was released. It featured at the climax of the mix me and Paul did for BBC Radio Lancashire’s legendary On The Wire Show. I first heard Trim’s take on it on the way to work. Standing on the platform at Liverpool Street, mouth open, other commuters barging past me. Trim is lyrically out there even by Lee Perry’s standards – seriously deep, meandering stream of consciousness stuff which gets better the more you let yourself into his world. Investigate. 06:45 Richie Spice – Marijuana (from Spice In Your Life 2004) 08:25 Jammer – Burning (from Are You Dumb vol 2) 2007 Richie Spice gets refixed by a dubstep producer who shall remain nameless, Jammer leaps on board – inserting his flow in the gaps. Which is exactly how U Roy intensified the whole deejay thing in Jamaica – busting his rhymes in the spaces on old Treasure Isle rocksteady tunes to nice up the dance. 10:45 Bob Marley and the Wailers – So Much Trouble in the World (from Survival, 1979) 14:05 Mercston – Trouble (from Da End of Da Beginning) 2006 Tip of the hat to Paul for all his little touches here. And a doff of the cap to Mercston. What I like about this is Mercston’s denial of politics at the end of such a great conscious tirade. Grime isn’t usually the arena for people to bang on about international affairs or the Iraq war, but like a lot of great music its strength is its ability to articulate the concerns of working class urban yoot, which is probably more relevant in any case. 16:31 Skepta – Blood, Sweat and Tears (from Greatest Hits) 2007 Continuing the conscious theme, Skepta comes correct with some nice reggae references and good anti-gun sentiments. There’s a bit of schizophrenia in a lot of grime artists’ repertoires, which is another thing in common with dancehall. Skepta is probably best known for his “god forgive me if I bust my nine / If you diss my Mum then you’ve crossed the line” bars but here is coming on all responsible. This isn’t anarchopunk so I don’t think anyone expects the artists to have a rigid ideological framework for their lyrics and there is a playfulness to the MCs’ personae that I think outsiders can often miss. 19:32 All In One – Flows (from Bless Beats – A Hard Days Graft) 2008 21:14 Frisco – Skeng Man Mode (from Peng Food) 2008 Some more great mixing from Paul here – can you spot the transition between the tunes? Wicked riddim from Bless Beats who is out of Wiley’s Eskibeat camp – the minimalism here is so effective you don’t want it to end and it’s yet another grime riddim you want to come out on a 12″ doublepack so you can mix it up all night long. Anyway Frisco’s kindly warning everyone here that he is likely to go a bit mental on occasion, so people better watch out. One of the more awkward incidents in grime radio was the recent on air meet up between Frisco and some guy who had been openly sharing his whole mixtape online. 23:24 Slix – Maniac (from Down vol 1) 2006 Impossible to argue with this – stupendous riddim from Maniac, the teenage producer interviewed in Woofah issue 1, with vocals from Slix out of premier league crew Ruff Sqwad. As I’ve said before – the skank on this is ridiculously compelling and should knock any scepiticism from reggae fans who have listened this far into a cocked hat. 26:12 Neckle Camp feat Jammer, Rinse FM 27:39 Baby Cham & Mister Easy – Funny Man (Mad House 7”) 1996 28:53 Lady Saw – Sycamore Tree (Mad House 7”) 1996 30:01 Frisco Kid – Rubbers (Mad House 7”) 1996 31:05 Buju Banton – How It Ago Go (Mad House 7”) 1996 32:08 Tanya Stephens – Yuh Nuh Ready Fi Dis Yet (Mad House 7”) 1996 33:37 Slew Dem – Joyride Vocal (Slewdem Productions 12”) 2005 Getting a more bashy than reggae here with the exhumation of one of Dave Kelly’s classic riddims – in fact forget that – one of the classic 90s riddims full stop. Paul manages to include some records I feel guilty about owning, submerging Baby Cham and Mr Easy’s less than enlightened lyrics under Lady Saw’s dextrous verbal assault. Tanya also puts her hand over Buju’s potty mouth and basically gives all the boastful geezers a well deserved tongue lashing. You go, girl! Slew Dem purloin the riddim for an epic pass the mic session of adrenalised geezers staking their claims. 35:13 Dutty Doogz – Pum Pum Stealer (Night Flight 12”) 2003 36:35 Harry Toddler – Good Good (Night Flight 12”) 2003 36:49 Flow Dan – Galist (Night Flight 12”) 2003 37:16 Jamaka Bi – Zoom 4 Pum (Night Flight 12”) 2003 When Woebot used to write about grime, this is the sort of thing he used to cover. There are clear lines between this and contemporary dancehall, not least because of the format – several sides of vinyl all featuring different MCs on the same riddim. Also Harry Toddler is an actual JA deejay who came up the rankings with Elephant Man when they started out in Scare Dem Crew in the late 90s. One of the weirdest thing about the actual records is the labels, which are pretty gynaecological photos of… well, some lady’s pum pum innit. I can see the consistency and honesty in that, but it’s not something to leave on the decks really. What confuses me is why someone has gone to the trouble of sticking little gold stars onto some of them as if to prevent offending minors and the innocent. Or is it like a gold star to say “well done”? Dutty Doogz, is now Durrty Goodz – cover star of Woofah issue 2. Flowdan is a Roll Deep stalwart who has also done major damage with The Bug. This section actually features me doing a bit of proper vinyl juggling for a change – sometimes these things just work out ok… 39:15 Kano and Vybz Kartel – Buss It Up (679 7”) 2006 I think this ranks as the first actual vinyl collaboration between a grime MC and a JA bashment one and it’s pretty damn good into the bargain. Kano has had a disastrous foray into mainstream label middleground output which pleases nobody. “Buss It Up” is much more like it. 43:16 Neckle Camp feat. Jammer, Rinse FM 44:01 Yami Bolo – Top Shotta (Black Diamonds 7”) 2002 45:48 Junior Reid – Rise Up (Black Diamonds 7”) 2002 46:32 Half Pint – Bounce (Black Diamonds 7”) 2002 47:37 Lukie D – One In Ten (Black Diamonds 7”) 2002 49:12 Rossi B and Luca – Nobody Knows (from The Legacy EP, Heavy Artillery 12”) 2007 It amuses me that some people try to establish their reggae credentials by slagging off UB40 or Shaggy or Sean Paul, all of whom have made some brilliant records in their time and are held in high esteem by the reggae industry and fans in Jamaica. One example of this is veteran producer Fat Eyes grabbing the riddim for “One In Ten” a few years back and getting a selection of foundation singers to voice it. Yami Bolo kicks things off with a message to all the badmen, whilst Junior Reid exhorts us all to stand up for truth and rights. Half Pint brings us back down to earth with an enthusiastic invitation to get down in the dancehall, and then Lukie D polishes off the selection with his take on Birmingham’s finest conscious anthem. Which leads us nicely to Rossi B and Luka’s take on the tune. Nobody seems to have a bad word to say about these two – and the way manage to straddle both dubstep and grime is maybe a signal that garage various offspring are now ready to regroup. There are so many dodgy producers who grab a bit of reggae in the vain hope that a bit of “yard cred” will redeem their rubbish tunes that you forget sometime that some people actually know what they are doing. I guess that’s what this mix is about and we make no apologies for include two Rossi B and Luca productions here – they are dons at this and you should check out their releases every time you see them. Also check the myspace for mixes aplenty. 51:29 Ini Kamoze – World a Reggae Music (from Sly and Robbie’s Taxi Sound, Auralux LP) 1984 53:03 Rossi B and Luca – Run 4 Cover instrumental (12” white label) 2005 53:48 Rossi B and Luca feat. Nasty Crew – Run 4 Cover (12” white label) 2005 Damien Marley’s “Welcome to Jamrock” was a very welcome salvo of commercial one drop in 2005. I only hope Ini K got some decent dunza from being used as source material. So here is the original, an astounding bit of Sly and Robbie business from immediately before the whole world went digital. Rossi B and Luca’s take is pretty brutal, not least because of the addition of Nasty Crew. NASTY apparently stands for Natural Artistic Sounds Touching You and I’ll leave you to be the judge of whether or not the excellently named Nasty Jack, Kassimo, Stormin and Teddy Brukshot live up to the acronym. The sheer energy here is stunning. I’m still kicking myself for walking out of Shoosh early and missing a set from Nasty Crew founder Marcus Nasty… 56:45 Neckle Camp feat. Jammer, Rinse FM 57:13 Breeze – Ice Rink (Wiley Kat 12”) 2003 59:16 Tinchy Stryder – Ice Rink (Wiley Kat 12”) 2003 60:36 Kano – Ice Rink (Wiley Kat 12”) 2003 63:56 Riko – Ice Rink (Wiley Kat 12”) 2003 Woo yeah! Back in da day Wiley was running tings with whacked out minimal riddims and everyone was begging for rewinds at his Eski dances and all that. Except me, obviously, I was listening to reggae and studiously ignoring it all on the grounds that I couldn’t afford a new vinyl addiction. Paul really excells himself here. Even if you’ve played your copies of Ice Rink to death I think his mashup of 4 takes on the riddim are well worth a listen. Breeze is an original back-in-the-day Pay As U Go Cartel – the crew who kinda mutated into the juggernaut known as Roll Deep. I don’t know much about him tho. Ruff Sqwad member Tinchy Stryder must have been still at school when his cut was done? His voice has come on some in the last 5 years – the Cloud 9 mixtape is his latest release and is good. As I said above Riko has an incredible yardie flow going on his intense hatred of informers is legendary. This tune also makes an appearance on the “An England Story” comp which no doubt you have all picked up by now, but here we have Paul chopping away on the crossfader like a man possessed. There are another 4 vocals on Ice Rink but I’ve not been able to get hold of them for anything resembling a sensible price. 65:58 Sizzla – Give Me A Try (from Rise to the Occasion) 2003 67:18 Jammer – Give Me a Try (from Are You Dumb vol 2) 2006 71:04 Sizzla Vs Rhianna – Give Me A Try (remix) 2007 And so we finish things off with some nice garridge flava. Jammer pushes all our buttons once again, nice-ing up the place with Rihanna and Sizzla providing back up.

Looks to be a great weekend for Londoners… Friday sees the first night of this: Organised by bass comrades (and Woofah contributors) Lower End Spasm. Bok Bok has done a little five minute promo mix for the night you can grab here. All Sarf Londoners should head down there, it will be wicked. Then on Saturday, some serious decisions have to be made, with the return of the legendary: over Wembley way. Tempting though that is, I am also wavering on: Iration Steppas will be bringing the entirety of their eye watering sound system down especially for the Deviate crowd. Benga will then be playing an exclusive set on the Iration system (London first) Hmmmm. Or:

Dub producer Scientist forcefully responds to allegations about his performance blowing speakers at the Sierra Nevada World Music Festival in the 2000s.

Recordings by Paul Nomex from the Dead by Dawn club nights at Brixton's 121 Centre in the mid 1990s. From the Dead by Dawn double LP on Praxis Records.

D.O.T.S. last week was just excellent. A great little club with some amazing djs (and me). I kicked off with some 70s roots and dub, brought things up to date with some 21st century reggae sevens and then closed with a digital selection. It went down well and I even managed to throw on the odd CD without cocking things up. Jason Munro from Dallas followed me with a load of his own dubplates. What he does is take whopping great bits of reggae records and put gigantic wobbly basslines underneath them, which is often very effective. He is a very animated chap behind the decks as well. Benga, tho – wow. This was proper legendary stuff. His set was of old 8-bar 12″ – basically the ancestor of dubstep and grime circa 2000. The tunes were fantastic – there was an incredibly fluid swing to them with space and womph in exactly the right combination. I have no idea what records he played. I imagine very few people would! It felt very special witnessing the set and everyone in the place was grinning like a loon throughout. Woofah contributor Alex Bok Bok kept up the momentum with some bassline house, but I missed Boomnoise’s performance art dj set of 80s classics cos I had to get home. Get down there if you are on the southside for definite – it’s a great night. Hello to everyone I had a good natter with as well. Next month: D.O.T.S DANCE N PRANCE at PLAN B 6TH SEPTEMBER SKREAM (exclusive funk / disco / soul set) WADADDA (punk / reggae / dub) ONEMAN (dubstep / garage / house ) VERSION (dub / reggae) SUBEENA b2b DOT (dubstep) INFINITE (no idea!) 8pm – 2am £5 / £3 conc www.myspace.com/joindots CHECK SKREAM’S recent FUNK podcast courtesy of RINSEFM.BLOGSPOT.COM “Hold tight all the mums and dads”

riddim / original label / producer Broke Bottle / Q45 / Desmond & Rupert Blake1. Egg Nog – Getaway Driver2. Beenie Man – Always Be My Baby3. Harry Toddler – Get Gal Easy4. Version Baddis Ting / Hi-Profile / Richard Browne5. General Degree – Miss Gotti6. Chico – Grudgeful7. Mr Vegas – Jacket8. Version Black Widow / Shines / Shane Richards9. Buccaneer – Sha La La La10. Daddy Screw – Baby Bounti11. Cobra – No One Style12. Beenie Man – Gwaan So13. Goofy – Anything Can Happen Powerplay / How Yu Fi Sey Dat? / Redrose & Malvo14. Beenie Man – Nah Bow15. Delly Ranks – No Talent16. Ghost – What Have You Done17. General B – Ziggy Ziggy18. Version Bagpipe / Steelie & Clevie / Steelie & Clevie19. Nitty Kutchie – Happy Go Lucky Girl20. Zebra – You See Me21. Squidley Ranks – Tek It Off22. Beenie Man – Year 4 (Sticky Remix) Medina / 2 Hard / Jeremy Harding23. Monster Shack Crew – Wanna Make Noise24. Tanya Stephens – Bounce Me25. Red Rat – Yu Nice26. Sean Paul – Strategy Filthy/Filthier / Main Street / Danny Brownie & D. Juvenile27. Beenie Man – Let Him Go28. General Degree – Traffic Blocking29. Mr Vegas – Heads High Fade Away / Opera House / Andrew Bradford30. Buccanner – Fade Away Now Thing / How Yu Fi Sey Dat? / Redrose31. Mad Cobra – Nuh Watch De Pum32. Lady Saw – Sloppy In A Bed33. Redrose – Red Red Red34. Sean Paul – Report To We35. Tony Curtis & Future Troubles – Can’t Smoke The Weed In Peace36. Version Playground / 2 Hard / Jeremy Harding37. General B – Scream38. Mad Cobra – Pet and Pamper39. Dutty Cup Crew – Stick Up40. Beenie Man – Who Am I41. Sean Paul – Infiltrate Earthquake / Big Yard / Robert Livingston & Sting Pizzonia42. Merciless – Sharp Shooter43. Rayvon – All Day All Night44. Version Sexy Gal / Big Yard / Sting International45. Merciless – One of Them How to get it http://www.weareie.com/audio/blogariddims/Blogariddims.xmlis the link. Here is an idiot’s guide of what to do with it You can also download the mp3 direct from http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogariddims/ or via itunes music store. You really should subscribe – just take a look at the rest of the mixes at that feedburner link. You want them downloaded directly to your player every fortnight, yeah? Exactly. Suckers To The Side, I Know You Rate My 98! Following on from Naptha’s thunderous 1993 selection, I am contributing a hot 1998 bashment mix to the blogariddims series. Nine years ago I was going out every weekend and a lot of this stuff gradually seeped into my consciousness over time. A band called Chin had a residency at Disgraceland on Essex Road in Islington – they were outstandingly good, a true combination of hip hop and a little bit of punk. After their set, Danny (their DJ) would play a load of brilliant records including some Aphrodite jump up and this tune that went round and round in my head… something about “zim zimma”… Buying some Scientist and Lee Perry records in the Rough Trade shop, I heard this crisp bassy tune coming out of the speakers and was entranced by its quirky percussion and vocals. I asked the bloke behind the counter what it was and he held up a copy of the latest Ragga Ragga Ragga compilation LP. Another addition to my Lee Perry collection could wait until next payday… The climax of these encounters was a house party off Green Lanes in Haringey. I’d been told to bring some records along but it became clear that the usual highly competitive young dj politics were in play and there was no chance of me getting a go on the decks. Two italian crusties had decided that as there was two of them they could play their godawful acid trance for a 2 hour set. But there was this one guy… He had the biggest box of seven inch white labels you have ever seen, many of them tied together with elastic bands. He didn’t do anything fancy with them, just whacked them on the turntable and whizzed over the crossfader. Tune after tune came out of the speakers – bass, vocals, eccentric percussion. Someone asked him what the a particular track was and I was able to lip read him saying “I dunno – look, they’re all white labels!”. Maybe it’s me, but 98 seems like a much more innocent time in retrospect. Certainly none of the tunes I’ve heard feature people trying to outdo each other in murderous homophobia. It was also a year when what was happening in JA was exactly what was needed to fill an aching gap in the UK pop charts. (This happened most recently a few years back with the slew of Sean Paul and Diwali tunes). So here is my tribute to that year. I’d love to be all cool and say that I bought all these on the day they came out, but the truth of the matter is my buying patterns have been somewhat erratic. Quite of bit of “back filling” has been required to get this tracklist together, which has involved me at my most nerdy. After taking the piss out of trainspotters with their spreadsheets and matrix numbers, I found myself getting deep into excel after realising that greensleeves alone released over a hundred seven inches in 98, most with exactly the same stock labels. The 2nd hand tunes cost me anything between 20p and 4 pounds, but there were very very few absolute stinkers. Indeed, my hardest job was cutting the mix down to an hour – so there may be a part two at some point, possibly extending into 1999. But that is another story… Greensleeves phased out their seven inches a few years later in favour of the now ubiquitous “Rhythm Albums” featuring 20 cuts of the same riddim. I can’t help feeling that people now pay less attention to the actual vocals. Some of the riddims on this mix came out in just 3 cuts, i.e. the ones that they got right! There also seems less scope now for big labels like Greensleeves and VP releasing “one away” tunes like “Fade Away” and giving them a big push. At the time of writing it looks like JA vinyl production is slowing down as selectors switch to digital formats. So perhaps the time is ripe for Greensleeves et al to fill the gap by releasing sevens again? I doubt I could make a good business case for it myself, but one can hope! more commentary to follow – you don’t think you get off that lightly, eh?

Here is my contribution to this week’s big news. John Eden – Answer riddim mix clash by Johnedenuk on Mixcloud 45 minutes of prime reggae, rocksteady and dancehall – on varied (but all excellent) cuts of the Answer Riddim. A one take live mix, with a few exclusive contributions from Hackney’s best female MC. Tracklist: 1 Slim Smith – Never Let Go (Studio One) 2 Lone Ranger – The Answer (Soul Jazz) Starting out with a foundation selection because building a mix without a foundation is like building a house on sand. 3 Brigadier Jerry – Pain (Roots Tradition) 4 Little John – What is Katty (Roots Tradition) “Pain” is dedicated to my wrists. “What is Katty” is dedicated to Paul’s wrists. 5 Sister Nancy – Transport Connection (Techniques) Moving nicely with Sister Nancy while other selectors stand still. 6 Carlton Livingstone – Rub a Dub Session (Roots) 7 Early B – History of Jamaica (Roots) Carlton’s off to dance the night away while Early B educates certain people who are new to all this and perhaps don’t know the full story beyond tunes and warring. 8 Tippa Irie & The Colonel – Just A Speak (UK Bubblers) 9 Daddy Rusty – No No Way (UK Bubblers) 10 Daddy Sandy – Riddle Bubble (UK Bubblers) 11 Tannoi – Gunshot Salute (UK Bubblers) Bringing it back to mid 80s London with the cream of Saxon Studio International in full swing. Meanwhile the enigmatic Tannoi has had enough of the macho warring in the dance ‘cos it’s ruined his date. 12 Peter Metro – Police In Jamaica (Jah Life Time) Peter Metro also did Police Inna England for Jammys. On this tune he ends up in the nick with Nicodemus and is concerned that his sparring partner is cracking under the pressure whilst he remains calm and righteous. No further comment needed! 13 Paul Blake and The Bloodfire Posse – Rub a Dub Solider (Revue) Paul Blake brings the digital vibe pre-sleng teng. Goes out to the all the 9 to 5 soldiers! 14 Dennis Brown – I Can’t Stand It (Joe Gibbs Music) 15 Junior Vibes – The Man In Me (Joe Gibbs Music) 16 Little U Brown – Locomotion (Joe Gibbs Music) 17 U Mike – Loving Galore (Joe Gibbs Music) Everyone raves about Junjo in the 80s but Joe Gibbs’ stuff is just as good in my opinion. Proper! Little U Brown may or not be related to U Brown, but he is right about being “Big Inna London”. Surprisingly I haven’t been able to find any tunes about MCs being “big inna Sheffield” but I guess Paul has cornered the market on those with his mix. 18 Earl Sixteen – Batman + Robin (S.C.O.M.) 19 Jah Screechy – Walk & Skank (Blacker Dread / S.C.O.M.) 20 version (S.C.O.M.) >> Stephen Marley feat Damian Marley + buju banton – The Traffic Jam (Tuff Gong) 21 Eek A Mouse – A Wah Do Dem (Blacker Dread) 22 Capleton – Punchline (Blacker Dread) 23 Super Cat – Vineyard Party (Wild Apache) Possibly the definitive post- Studio One version of the riddim – and it was recorded in London! Credited to Blacker Dread at Easy Street studios with a line up including Jackie Mittoo, Horsemouth and Peter Chemist. Nice bit of rave crossover with Earl 16 going on to work with Leftfield and Jah Screechy forming the basis of SL2’s “On A Ragga Tip”. At some point Blacker seems to have recorded a mentalist cross-fader dominator version which seriously does the business anywhere. I first heard the Capleton cut on the Still Blazing LP and, well, blimey. Traffic Jam is dedicated to Droid. Shout out to all the pedantic posse! 24 Smiley Culture – Police Officer (Fashion) Classics? I hate to belabour the point, but it’s a London/JA thing. Failsafe party stormer which still gets hands in the air when dropped by The Bug. 25 Marcia Griffiths – I Shall Sing (Penthouse) Marcia’s singing and so am I. Because I only sing when I’m winning. You can check out Paul’s absurd attempt to outdo me here . Once you have listened to both you can vote for which mix is the best (i.e. for me) over at Dissensus. (You will have to register if you are not a poster there already. It’s easy to do and you should check out Dissensus if you like this blog in any case.)

This mix came out as part of the excellent blogariddims series in December. 1. Elizabeth Welch – Stormy Weather 2. The Passions – I’m In Love With A German Film Star 3. Yazoo – Nobody’s Diary 4. Foxx – S-S-Single Bed 5. “Malcolm McLaren” (i.e. Bow Wow Wow) – Sexy Eiffel Tower 6. 2 Unlimited – Let The Beat Control Your Body 7. Technotronic – Pump Up The Jam 8. Divine – Native Love 9. Mel & Kim – Respectable (Club Mix) 10. Spy 51 – Cake 11. Mambo Taxi – Do You Always Dress Like That In Front of Other People’s Boyfriends 12. The Shangri-Las – Give Him A Great Big Kiss 13. The Angels – My Boyfriend’s Back 14. Shampoo – Shiny Black Taxi Cab 15. We’ve Got A Fuzzbox And We’re Going To Use It – Rules & Regulations (Splendiferous Mix) 16. Daisy Chainsaw – Love Your Money 17. Colourbox – The Moon Is Blue 18. Nancy Sinatra – Sugar Town 19. Angel Corpus Christi – The Day John Kennedy Died A tip of the hat to Paul Nomos who assembled my quotes/clues into the following over at Dissensus: Teens of Eden “I’m the Ice Queen” (1986) Everything I have is gone Trying not to pose Perhaps if I held you The pleasures of night The pleasures of night (Chorus) Ice Queen Ice Queen All I have is gone Ice Queen Ice Queen You know that I’m the one It didn’t matter that he was tame It penetrates your brain A place to stay I never get enough Conversation is interrogation You’re like a big expensive drug trip She looked down on me He’s not evil He’s not evil (Keyboard Solo) Now you’re going to get a beating Sleazy brown dirty macs Leave your job and have some kids Yes we do Scorched and dieing Never had a friend or wanted one A criminal on the take Criminal on the take… (Chorus x4) Winners Joint 2nd place: Martin BTI and “Stinky” Jim 1st place: Jenks Big up all the entrants and those too intimdated to enter who still told me they enjoyed the mix.

  A festive session featuring divas, teenagers, ice queens and those in between 1. “Everything I have is gone” 2. “Trying not to pose” 3. “Perhaps if I held you” 4. “The pleasures of night” 5. “It didn’t matter that he was tame” 6. “It penetrates your brain” 7. “A place to stay” 8. “I never get enough” 9. “Conversation is interrogation” 10. “You’re like a big expensive drug trip” 11. “She looked down on me” 12. “He’s not evil” 13. “Now you’re going to get a beating” 14. “Sleazy brown dirty macs” 15. “Leave your job and have some kids” 16. “Yes we do” 17. “Scorched and dieing” 18. “Never had a friend or wanted one” 19. “A criminal on the take” How to get it http://www.weareie.com/audio/blogariddims/Blogariddims.xml is the link. Here is an idiot’s guide of what to do with it You can also get it direct from http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogariddims/ or via itunes music store. You really should subscribe – all the previous mixes rate amongst the highlights of my year. I’m slightly reticent about lowering the tone with this one, but only slightly   What’s it all about? Blogariddims doesn’t have an office, which is just as well – given the people involved I doubt that much work would ever get done. That doesn’t mean we can’t have an office party, though, does it? Crack open your chosen festive tipple and blast this out whilst wearing your most ill-fitting suit. For my part I created the correct atmosphere by chugging down a pint of mulled wine before even touching the turntables. So, swing your arms in the air… think about who you will try to catch under the miseltoe… scan in your arse. Despite my state of inebriation, I take full responsibility for the music here – this time of year is not the point to get obscure and credible. Bonus blogariddims festive competition Blogariddims being what it is, some of you may be less extrovert than others. Never mind lurking in the corner, we have a special ice-breaking party game for you lot. Being attentive to detail, you will have already noticed there is no tracklisting for this mix. Instead, each track is flagged up by a short quote from its lyrics. Your mission, spotters, is to identify as many tracks as you can and then email the name of the artists and tunes to me by midnight on the 17th of January 2007. Use the [eden at uncarved dot org] email address with the subject line “blogariddims festive competition”. The person who gets the most artists and/or titles correct will be sent a CD of my “Best of 2006” mix, which will not appear online anywhere, and will only be burnt to 23 CDs. The full tracklist of the Office Party Mix will appear here on this blog on the 18th of January.

Including music by Bobby Ellis & Revolutionaries, Sugar Minott, Billy Boyo, Anti-Family, Flaming Fire, Madtone, Aphasic, Les Trolls, LFO Demon, Toe Cutter, Bryan Lewis Saunders.

Eek-A-Mouse’s “Anarexol” has come back into vogue recently because the live version is heavily sampled on Junior Gong’s excellent “Khaki Suit”. You can hear both of these on Per’s wicked Discobelle mix over at computerstyle.org. This is the original studio cut and features the radics doing real rock like only they know how. Lyrically Eek is commenting on a craze amongst JA ladies to take a drug designed for anorexics so they can bulk up – the stick insect look never really caught on in jamaica! Eek comes back from a trip abroad to find that his woman has got considerably more curvy and wonders what the hell is going on? Is it the pills, is she seeing another man? As the tune segues into an awesome dub, we still don’t know the answer. General Echo’s “Drunken Master” is one of several Sly & Robbie productions appearing here. I always figured that “drunken” martial arts were about monks getting off their tits. A conversation with a mate of mine who used to teach kung fu revealed that it’s actually a style which involves a deliberate staggering about – presumably to disorient the opponent. There is a lyrical riff here which nods back the The Happs’ “In Heaven There Is No Beer” (Joe Gibbs) which cropped up in a recent thread on the B&F board about people’s least favourite tunes. Russ D nominated The Happs, which basically seems to be an old fashioned drinking song. I quite like it, as it happens. With all the focus on weed in reggae lyrics it’s easy to forget the place that beer has in the dancehall and indeed in JA politics. JLP supporters have always allied themselves to the green of the Heineken bottle whereas PNP supporters opt for Red Stripe. You could put yourself in serious physical danger by asking for the wrong beer in the wrong area. This (and several other tracks on this mix, AND several other essential tunes) are available on the Auralux Sly & Robbies Taxi Sound compilation. Pad Anthony – “One One Coco” Josey Wales – “It’s Raining” I’ll never be able to praise King Jammys 80s productions enough – unbelievably swinging primitive digital bizness. Pad Anthony is similarly underrated and so there are two outing from him on this mix. “One one coco” is an old JA proverb – I’m not entirely confident about the meaning but it seems to be along the lines of “take it slow and steady, one step at a time, and you’ll get there.” Trevor Spark’s take on the old “Bye Bye Love” standard worked really well in the OTW mix, so here is the man like Josey Wales approriating Wilson Pickett’s “In The Midnight Hour” for his own ends. Elfiego Barker – “Indiscipline”. All I can say about this one is I know nowt about Elfiego, it’s over George Phang’s take on “boxing” and it is worth considerably more to me than the 20p I paid for it. Pad Anthony – “See Them A Come”. Genius spacey early 80s dancehall business with the man like Pad Anthony returning to the mix. Paul goes to town on the dub to devastating effect. Johnny Osbourne – “Them A Terrorist” Admiral Tibet – “Terrorist” Shabba Rankin, Admiral Tibet, Ninjaman – “Serious Times” A few tunes originally recorded in the late 80s and early 90s, stuffed in the mix about a year ago which remain eerily relevant today. I like the Osbourne and Tibet tunes because they both try to compare terrorists with either local badman or international multinational agents of terror (whether they be governments or religious loons). The central message is that all this badmanism is something else that people at the bottom of the pile have to deal with alongside everything else in their fucked up lives. So, serious times indeed. As I write this there are a load of armed police parked up on my estate, presumably keeping a watchful eye over the properties which were raided on my road last week in connection with the latest alleged terror swoop/outrage. Junior Delgado – “Fort Augustus” More funky robot production from Sly and Robbie. I’m not wild about this one so I’ll let Paul tell you why it’s on here. Sly & Robbie were on Radio 4’s Today Programme last year when they did that album with Sinead O’Connor. It was an awesome 5 minutes of interview with them and a bit of their history. Very confusing to have that going on when trying to find a clean shirt for work, I can tell you. Barrington Levy – “Black Roses” Dennis Brown – “Revolution” Wicked. Only Loefah and Kevin Martin and the Plastic People bar staff know this, but these are the tunes which kicked off my set at BASH the other month. Barrington’s famous “Here I Come” was also loosely based on this riddim, and took him to number 41 in the national charts circa 1985, trivia fans. Red Dragon – “Hol A Fresh” Flourgon – “Hol A Spliff” Shall we finish off with some party tunes, then? Yes, I think so. Red Dragon and Flourgon are connected by blood as well as by riddim here – apparently they’re brothers. Nice bit of early ragga 12″ business from the Techniques camp which is now widely available on the outstandingly recommended Dancehall Techniques compilation put out by Maximum Pressure/Pressure Sounds. Incidentally, I would not advise people to take up Flourgon’s suggestion for man to wake up in the morning and build a spliff, especially if your work involves operating heavy machinery. Shabba Ranks – “Wicked In A Bed” Cinderella – “Bad In A Bed” The two sides of Shabba are nicely captured on this mix, and I have vague plans to do a post on his early more “conscious” work with Bobby Digital, much of which is brilliant. This is, to say the least, a bit less lyrically complex. He gets extra points for confidence, for sure and I bet this goes down a treat with the dancehall queens. Everybody loves a good counteraction and Cinderella doesn’t hold back whilst laying into men who talk the talk but can’t back up their words when they get between the sheets. “Slam Bam! Thank you Mam / Then them gone a dreamland” For all dancehall’s critics laying into its mysogyny and homophobia it has to be said that its lyrical dissection of sexual politics is often more direct and insightful than pop music in general… Bunny General – “Donkey Man” Lyrical madness first covered in my blog post on reggae and sexual health here. Wicked King Tubbys digital business to round everything off. Shout out to Danny for this platter.

  Paul’s fucked off to Wales and left me and my dodgy wrists to do the write up for this one. http://www.weareie.com/audio/blogariddims/Blogariddims.xml is the link. Here is an idiot’s guide of what to do with it You should also be able to get at it direct (and free) from itunes music store or http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogariddims/ You really should subscribe – the 3 previous mixes have rocked my world and the series has only just begun… Droid did a nice look into his creative process when he kicked off the series, so here goes with ours: Paul moved to Sheffield some years ago, when the gritty urban realism of Brixton became too much for him. He has characteristically become an evangelist for the (no doubt numerous) delights of ‘oop north’ and often takes the biscuit by slagging off The Most Beautiful City In The World (i.e. London). Which is a bit rich as he seems entirely reliant on London for both his work and indeed most of his cultural input (cf: Dubstep, uk fast chat, me, BASH, Shaka, virtually all of the shops selling records on our mixes etc). I have pointed out this amusing contradiction to him on many occasions but he amiably responds that consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds, or something. So anyway, despite loathing London, Paul has stayed round mine lots and lots of times for the last few years. I reckon in 2004/2005 he was probably down at least every other week for a couple of nights. The general running order is that Paul would show up, tell me how much better Sheffield was than London, whack an M&S curry in the microwave and then change out of his suit. After we’d downed some red stripe we’d get to “work” by me hauling out some of the best tunes ever made and sticking them into some kind of order, whilst Paul nodded his head, shook his head, or (usually later in the evening) danced around the room shouting “YES! YES! This is the best record ever made!!!” If you’ve ever met Paul you will understand this. Sometimes we’d discuss prospective mixes or the state of the world on my balcony as well. We’d generally record all the tunes onto my Sony CD-Recorder. Paul would take the CD away and weave some magic(k) with it, possibly involving a computer and other stuff. Next week he’d bring it back and we’d play it in the living room. Loud. I’d congratulate him on mending my most heinous errors, and berate him for including wacky sound effects every 6 seconds. Sometimes we’d tweak the running order or maybe come up with some new sections, but mainly things sounded great as they stood. Sometimes the mixes would come out of an idea (i.e. to promote UK fast chat material, or capture a certain era of reggae music) and sometimes they’d just be what sounded good. The tunes on this mix are the latter. They’ve been thrown together by Paul out of the several evenings we spent laying down tunes for the mix for On The Wire on BBC Radio Lancashire. They’re not so much out-takes as what would have been on the mix, if it had been twice the length… Having taken the trouble several weeks ago to dictate the tracklist over the phone to Paul I’m buggered if I’m going to type it all up: OK, so I just typed up a massive commentary on all the tracks and then got hit by a wordpress “500 internal server error”, wiping it all out. Not enough wrist-time to do it again. Sorry. Perhaps another day.

I’m still unable to type too much, so I’ve decided to chat at you all instead.Some of it is a bit rough and ready but pretty cool for a first attempt… Thanks again to Paul Meme for hosting and tech support. Includes music by Deadly Hedley, Lloyd Brown, Luciano, Bushman, Capleton, Slim Smith, Scotty, T.O.K., Fantan Mojah, Richie Spice, Chuck Fenda, Unity Hi-Fi, Madtone, Ice, The Bug, Izmo, Errol Dunkley, Sizzla, Joseph Hill, Asher Senator, Horace Andy.

Fast chat dancehall reggae mix broadcast on Dave Stelfox's Resonance FM show in 2006

This is an absolutely breathtaking mix to download from none other than The Rootsman. An unbelievable line up and some of the best performances you will hear from name artists on dubplate. You cannot buy this music anywhere… THE ROOTSMAN Featuring D.BO GENERAL – FROM THE DUBPLATE BASKET VOLUME 1 1. ROBERT LEE – BANG BANG 2. MICHAEL BUCKLEY – CRY OF A SOUNDBOY 3. SUGARBLACK – RUB A DUB 4. ANTHONY JOHNSON – OH WHAT A DAY 5. EARL 16 – REGGAE ROCK 6. U BROWN – ROOTSMAN SOUND 7. TONY G – IF I EVER 8. SAMMY DREAD – THEY DIDN’T KNOW 9. GYPTIAN – JUDGEMENT NIGHT 10. YT – WICKED ACT 11. D.BO GENERAL – MAMA 12. ECHO MINOTT/HOPETON JAMES – DON’T TEST 13. JOHNNY OSBOURNE – HE CAN SURELY TURN THE TIDE 14. TURBULENCE – ON MY WAY 15. FRISCO KID – REVENGE 16. ROBERT LEE – LIVE GOOD 17. D.BO GENERAL – STRANGE THINGS 18. PHILIP FRASER – COME ROOTSMAN 19. BRAVEHEART – RED EYES 20. EVERTON BLENDER/DETERMINE – TIME LIKE THIS 21. JUNIOR DELGADO – KING OF KINGS 22. D.BO GENERAL – FREEDOM 23. TAFFARI – MORE ROOTSMAN 24. JOHNNY CLARKE – BABYLON 25. BUSHMAN – YADD AWAY HOME 26. BONGO CHILLI – READ YOUR BIBLE 27. LUCIANO – FINAL CALL 28. EARL 16 – CHANGING WORLD 29. FRED LOCKS – BLACK STAR LINER 30. JOSEY WALES – SLACKNESS DEAD 31. EARL 16 – PRESSURE 32. TURBULENCE – NOTORIOUS 33. LYMIE – LOVE WE MUST HAVE Download from here while you still can.

T-WOC – Reign Blood (ABCEP005 CD EP) Nice 7 tracker out of Dublin. I wonder if any Slayer fans with pick it up by mistake and realise the error of their ways? It’s a bit eclectic in focus. The first couple of tracks are mindfuck mash up beaty affairs which bring early Squarepusher to mind. (Glastonbury, 1997? on my birthday, we get up and go to see Squarepusher. He’s off his head. “Hands up everyone whose been up all night drinking! Right – the rest of you lot can fuck off…” It’s the only time I’ve ever been to Glastonbury “oh bollocks, I forgot to play my bass”) Yiks has lots going on and a lot of it is mentalist. I didn’t like this too much at first but it’s grown on me after a few listens – especially the slightly jarring keyboards which come in about halfway through and dominate the rest of the track. Mad organist in haunted chapel stylee. Badu is even more mash up breakbeat bizness with little hints of that mad gabba “bassline” noise. Robotic big band drummers malfunctioning in an abandoned spacestation. Furball and its accompanying dub are my favourites. Some kind of “stadium hip hop” loop on top of two sets of interlocking breakbeats. Love this. There’s a great violin gliding through the middle of it and a nice bit of the old skankin going on alongside air raid sirens. All the ingredients, perfectly mixed for a tasty treat. The dub ramps up the echo chamber and siren. T-woc knows his dub for sure – a great use of space and subtraction here to give the crucial (de)emphasis on hidden parts of the original. Twins is those big band robotic drummers getting their shit together because Fuzzy Jones has docked with the spacestation and they want to impress him so much he’ll stay. I reckon he’ll dig it, but it’s good to see our automated friends giving it their all anyway. Simmons SE has some ace squiddly synths going. Iration with flashes of jittery techno. East From Vibro is steppers on a sunday afternoon, ambling along rather than sprinting. Great intro with some glitched up oriental plucky stuff given the treatment. T-woc is definitely someone to keep an eye on- check out the mp3s and invest in a copy if you like the tunes as much as I do. Running time 33 minutes. Available from http://t-woc.alphabetset.net/

There are some people you don’t hear from for a long long time, but maybe stumble upon their name in an old email or address book. And you think to yourself, “I wonder what they’re up to now?” because you know it’ll be something interesting. This has happened a lot to me recently because I’ve been trying to transfer everything over to a new computer and I’ve found a load of old emails that I meant to do things with, but (because of my usual uselessness) never managed to. Keir wrote the piece on Punk and Autonomia which got republished on Uncarved. He’s now rejigged it into When Two Sevens Clash: Punk and Autonomia which appears alongside some other texts on the Free Association site. A lot of stuff about summits like the G8 and counter-summits, etc. Personally I have mixed feelings about the whole “summit hopping” phenomenon, but a good case is made on the site. The first draft of the autonomia piece has apparently been translated (by persons unknown) into Finnish and Russian. Patrick Maun was the man behind vienese ambient industrialists Immolation by Scum, who I’ve previously mentioned here. Patrick was one of many interesting people flung my way via Peter Rehberg (now of Mego fame). Referring to comments at the old blog site (which I have yet to upload here), Patrick writes: “I saw there was some curiosity as to what I was/am up so thought I’d fill you in. I moved back to Minneapolis in ’93, then moved to Amsterdam, then moved back to Minneapolis. I am still recording music but have been working under the name maun since about ’95. While I have been actively recording, music has kind of taken a back seat to the visual art I have been making since the early 90’s. You can check some of it out at http://www.patrickmaun.com. Sound does play a big role in most of my installations and videos. The music I have been making is pretty similar to what I’ve always done. It’s either quiet and rhythmic, or loud and abrasive. I’ve done a lot of work with various choreographers, so a lot of the music is reflective of that. You can check some of it out here. I also have CD’s of many of my live performances including the show at the Scala and the tour of Czechoslovakia. Let me know if you’d like copies of them. Actually, now that I think of it, I’ll just throw an MP3 of the Scala show online and you can grab it there. I am sitting on several CD’s that I’d love to release, so if you know anyone interested in distributing them, let me know. Patrick’s current artistic output “explores the interplay between technology and society, authenticity and power, communications and history”. His site is well worth checking. Trevor Blake wrote the critique of Whitehouse collaborator Peter Sotos which I reprinted on Uncarved. I was very pleased to see that this was, for some time, the top google hit when you searched for Sotos. The article was culled from OVO Magazine, which was one of those great lost 90s zines which managed to combine regularity with high quality writing on all sorts of subjects (including many “themed” issues). Lost… until now… Greetings Thank you for publishing my review of PURE from OVO 10 Mayhem. That issue and all the rest (500+ pages) have been scanned, entered into the public domain and posted online. Each issue now has a new introduction, a new issue has been published (theme: sperm) and other issues are in the works (theme for the next issue: AntiChrist) [that issue is now out – JE]. Uncarved looks great, going to spend some time checking it out. Trevor Blake The site also includes a nice potted biography which is well worth checking.

The mix me and Paul Meme did for On The Wire went out as planned on Saturday which turned out to be the 21st anniversary show. Paul now has an mp3 file for download over at his place. [direct link to file]. He also remastered it in 2020. Check it: 1. Delroy Wilson – Keep on Trying (Music Lab 10″) 1982 2. Carlton Livingstone – You Make Your Mistake (Black Joy 12″) 1981 3. Lone Ranger – Collie Dub (Black Joy 12″) 1981 4. Yellowman – Soldier Take Over (Sonic Sounds 7″) 1982* 5. Welton Irie – Army Life (Pressure Sounds “When The Dances Were Changing” LP) 1982/1998 6. King Kong – Don’t Touch My Boops (Unity Sounds 12″) 1986 7. Admiral Bailey and Chaka Demus – One Scotch (Unity Sounds 12″) 1986 8. Shabban Rankin – Roots and Cultue (Digital B 7″) 1989* 9. Pinchers – Bandolero (Jammy$ Records 7″) 1991* 10. Frankie Paul – Pass The Tu Sheng Peng (Greensleeves 12″) 1984 11. Frisco Kid – It’s OK (Jammy$ Records 7″) 2002 12. Trevor Sparks – Bye Bye Love (Jammy$ Records 7″) 1987 13. Admiral Bailey – No Wey Better Than Yard (Live & Love 12″) 1988 14. Pinchers – Agony – (Live & Love 12″) 1987 15. Admiral Bailey – Big Belly Man (Live & Love “Kill Them With It” LP) 1987 16. Shabba Ranks – Trailer Load of Girls (Shang 7″) 1991* 17. Cobra – Yush (Penthouse 7″) 1991 18. Cutty Ranks – Dominate (Penthouse 7″) 1991 19. Killamanmachine – Amen (Clash 7″) 2004 20. Bong Ra – 666MPH (FFF vs Dionysos Remix) (Supertracks Records 12″) 2004 21. LFO Demon – Utterly Wipeout (Rave for Communism) (Sprengstoff 7″) 2003 22. Prince Jammy – Jammin for Survival (Grievous Angel’s Jammin’ on Distortion Mix) 1979/2005 23. Initial T – Tricks and Trade (Tree House Cannabis Music 7″) 2005 24. Turbulence – Notorious (Tree House Cannabis Music 7″) 2005 *courtesy of Danny!

I’d been banging on to everyone about how great LFO Demon’s “Rave for Communism” single is for ages and ages so I was well chuffed to see that he was on the bill at Sick and Twisted. It’s impossible to overstate the importance of the night in providing a regular well-organised platform for this sort of music in a friendly environment (i.e. not some ket and mugging-fuelled terrordrome on an industrial estate). Laptop sets, eh? Fortunately this one was really good because: a) I was a bit stunned that the guy who made all this great music and knocked up some great texts like Battyboys are alright – the homophobia FAQ was so… young. b) The music was absolutely tearing and made the crowd (and the performer) get seriously animated. Bonkers high speed ragga mash up business. This bloke knows what he is doing and you should all go and check out his new online mix. Oh and his MIA remix, heh heh. c) I managed to get completely distracted, spending far too much time talking to Alex B and DJ Brokenyolk (above), a motley collection of regulars (hello!) and Martin. My usual self-control was in short supply. Me and Martin ended up nattering on the stairs and eventually got chucked out by the bouncer who was hugely nice and understanding and all that about our drunken remonstrations to stay in the way of the fire exit talking bollocks. And so the night ended – battered, downstairs, drinking lager with ice cubes floating in it.

Johnny Ringo R.I.P. Sad news reaches us via Rootsman on the B&F board. Apparently veteran deejay Johnny Ringo passed away earlier today. Readers of this blog will be familiar with his work through the Lyric Maker mix, where his tracks “Dedicated to Jah”, “New Yorker” and “Nice and Easy” battled it out with some Asher Senator tunes on the same riddims. The album from which these were taken was recorded whilst Ringo was in the UK in 1983 with Gemini Sound. Ringo is probably also quite well known for his classic “Working Class”, which appeared on the Pressure Sounds’ Hitbound Selection: When The Dances Were Changing compilation of early Channel One dancehall productions. There’s something very wrong with a world in which talents like Ringo not only die early, but die without their contributions to the world being fully recognised. All we can do is offer our thanks in retrospect and think good thoughts when the records are played – and played they will be…

John Eden vs Paul Meme – Boom Boom Bashment Mix Quite clearly there is no way I’m going to out-do the sheer balls-out hyperbole of Paul’s sleevenotes, so I’ll keep it personal… For me, this mix started before Shake The Foundations volume 1 was completed in the summer of 2002. I was much more immersed in the current goings on of ragga then – listening to Rodigan every Sunday night, tuning into pirates, devouring the monthly catalogues from Dub Vendor. It was a mania I have more under control at the moment (for now anyway). Actually buying the tunes was something of a problem because I was pretty skint and the sevens had a habit of disappearing by the time I got the cash together to show my face in the shop… But those Rodigan tapes went round and round in my head. The occasional one-riddim LP was snuck into the house, and Hackney Libraries came out on top with most of the Greensleeves one-riddim CDs in their racks at a very reasonable hire charge of 80p. Basically this mix would be impossible if I didn’t live in London. I lived and breathed the CDs – on the way to work, at home in the evening on headphones (because only obsessives want to listen to 20 cuts of the same riddim in a row, yes?). Some of the riddims were rubbish, some of the great riddims had mainly rubbish performances on them or had great cuts which were spoilt half way through because of the obligatory bunning of the bogeyman, er, “battyman”. Slowly but surely the cuts were whittled down… ticks and crosses. It’s safe to say that this mix falls short of what the usual audiences expect – trad reggae fans (cf trad jazz fans) won’t generally listen to anything after 1985, whilst the bashment massive won’t listen to anything that came out before last month. The furious issuing of one-riddim albums, on an almost weekly basis by Greensleeves and VP has meant that a lot of tunes get completely overlooked in the stampede, and also that quality has been superseded by quantity. At one point it seemed all Sizzla had to do was to gargle over the latest riddim and it would be all over the pirate stations like a rash. With labels needing to provide the “big 2” with 20 cuts of a riddim (or 40 in cases like Martial Arts and Sledge!) it seemed like nobody was listening to some cuts more than once – not even the people who produced them. Which is why, in traditional white-boy crate-digging style, it’s not bad to spend a bit of time raking over the ashes. In 20 years there will be a new cohort of trad reggae fans paying big bucks for some of these tunes on ebay, whilst bemoaning the fact that ALL reggae made in 2045 sounds awful. The mix was originally going to be entitled “Girls, Guns, Ganja”, those being the traditional preoccupations of most deejays. Of course many of the good cuts are actually from girls, and the lyrical preoccupations do move way beyond the basics. Half the fun is deciphering the vocal codes for yourself, though, so I won’t get into it line by line. In terms of the actual music you have the subtle minimalism like Double Jeopardy, and the pounding Forensic. The Wu-tang and spaghetti western influences on Lightning and Mexican rub up against the more traditional African elements in Amharic and Nine Night. As ever, I feel like a total blagger working with such excellent material. Most of what I do is re-presenting other people’s work in a new arena. If you like this mix the credit is due to the producers and artists and the best way to thank them is to stump up some cash for their work. Tracklist 1. Double Jeopardy Riddim Kings Of Kings (Ce’Cile Charlton & Cordel “Scatta” Burrell) 2001 Jah Mason & Chrisinti: Up Up Up Madd Anju feat. Cecile: Feel So Good Pinchers & Norris Man: Set Dem So 2. Bushy Bushy Riddim Extra Extra (Debbie Harding & Harvel Hart) for 2001 Ce’cile: Spider Danny English: Right Ya Now Elephant Man: Sex Sizzla: Bus Out A Dis Alizade: Energy Ce’cile: Spider 3. Mexican Riddim Pot Of Gold (Richie Stephens) 2002 Bounty Killer: Dem Bawling Mad Cobra: Fool Ninja Man: Sharp Like A Knife 4. Rice & Peas Riddim Natural Bridge (Rohan “Snow Cone” Fuller) 2002 Fat Bastard: Rice & Peas Lady G: Girls Know What Guys Want Spragga Benz & Elephant Man: Warrior Cause Frankie Sly: Dem Nuh Know We Shano: School 5. Lightning Riddim 2 Hard (Jeremy Harding) 2001 Ward 21: Don’t Push It / Pacemakers Bad Man Gabriel: The Powers Kurupp, Mr. Vegas, & Sean Paul: Eye For Eye Buccaneer: Oh My God 6. Liquid Riddim 2 Hard (Jeremy Harding) 2001 Sean Paul & Cecile: Can You Do The Work Devonte & Tanto Metro: Give It To He Madd Anju: Someting For Dat Lady Saw: Tell Me What You Like 7. Amharic Riddim Jam II (Jammy “Jam 2” James) 2003 Sizzla: Peace Cecile: All Night Lady Saw: Hot Gal Fi Life Spragga Benz & TOK: We Waah Spragga Benz: Dem A Chat 8. Tai Chi Riddim B-Rich (Richard “Shams” Browne) 2002 T.O.K.: Cree Sean Paul: Time After Time Wayne Marshall: Need A Girl Tonight Tanya Stephens: Please Me Lady Saw: Yeh Yeh 9. Nine Night Riddim Studio 2000 (Steelie and Clevie) 2001 Lexxus: Gwaan Trace Red Rat: Fright Night Mister G: Old Crook Captain Barkey: Wine Baby Wine Wicker Man: Girls Gungo Walk Sasha: Poppy Determine: Rappin’ Up Rhymes 10. Forensic Riddim In The Streetz (Mr. Vegas & “Computer Paul” Henton) 2003 Kerry: I Got The Man Determine: Round And Round Cecile: Weh Yu Up To Turbulence: Hype in Jah Mr Vegas: Fuck Face 11. Big Up Riddim Taxi (Sly and Robbie) 2004 Wayne Marshall: Big Up Lady Saw: Messed Up Bounty Killer: No More Suffering

Ladies and Gentlemen, we present for your delectation, a load of rough with a dab of smooth, the massive sounds of… Now hosted by the good people at http://www.londonsoundscape.net/ Tracklist: 1. pierre henry – la dixieme symphonie 2. king tubby – a rougher version 3. sweet sweetback’s badass song 4. bong ra – soundwave 5. parasite – boombaklat 6. drop the lime – serious lover 7. patric c – vip 8. modeselektor – black barbie remix 9. ove naxx – warte 10. bogdan raczynski – i will eat your children too – track 1 11. blaerg – shower scene 12. drop the lime – sweet desire 13. norma fraser – first cut is the deepest 14. panacea – total destruction remix 15. parasite – innabong 16. dj scud – put up your lighters 17. jahba – warpigz 18. mully – boom boom hexagonal mushroom 19. shitmat – crap Idol 20. nathan barley icecream loop 21. venetian snares and speedranch – unborn baby 22. the alessi brothers – oh lori 23. barrington levy and beenie man – two sounds jungle (tom and jerry remix) 24. bad company – the fear 25. alice cooper – black widow 26. drop the lime – summat or other 27. schoolly d – saturday night 28. istari laserfarhi – bass terror 29. masonna – noisy shit 30. nathan barley squeaky loops “oh and somewhere in there there’s a bit of venetian snares ‘twelve’ and a bit off panicstepper’s ‘the shuffler'” Interview with DJ Broken Yolk, April 2005 Tell me a bit about your musical background – first influences, dodgy teenage bands and all that… As a teenager, I got into a ridiculously broad range of music thanks to radio shows like John Peel and On the Wire and from mining the collection at the local library. Got involved with the Molotov organisation – a group who liked to do anything as long as it was stupid – religious club nights with a preacher, fake tours of art galleries, and a fanzine called Idiot Soup, that was a bit like a flat A5 Stephen Hawking but without all the science, and mostly about wrestling. They appealed to me, cos they were funded by this American culture-jam organisation called RTmark, which meant that I got paid loads of money to play records, as long as there was a CD running underneath with masked messages and speeches. At this time no-one would let me play anywhere, never mind pay me. Afer the funding eneded, played out for a while with the Twonk sound system – highlight of which was a few events in a converted public toilet called spend-a-penny, with strict restrictions on themed playlists – easy listening and fucked up noise, the five elements – all crowdpleasing stuff – we got thrown out after three nights… At this time, played in the only group I’ve been in – The London Toy Orchestra. We played toys. Sometimes I’d do vocals through a space-alien voice changer. When and why did you first start dj-ing and what are the origins of Brokenyolk? Seemed silly to not be dj’ing with a stupid large record collection, and most club nights scared me off with monotony and being trendy, and having DJ’s that were good and stuff. All that guff about seamless mixing… The name Broken yolk came from watching a scene from Russ Meyer’s Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, which as part of an “excitement on entering the big city” sequence (skyscapers, planes landing, busy streets, also featured a shot of someone standing on an egg. I rewound it and watched it about twenty times I thought it was so beautiful. Some people believe the egg is a symbol of the soul… For the completely uninitiated, what sort of music do you play? Easy listening and records from charity shops. Fucked up noise, ragga, dancehall, jungle, fast bleepy electronica that isn’t too speccy with bits of dirty hip-hop: in a word – yardcore. Tell me about your involvement in the Sick and Twisted nights I went along to the night nervously offering a mixtape. I hadn’t much of an idea of any type of scene or playlist – I just played the noisiest records I had and threw in bits of acid house randomly and circus music. The next month I was playing at the night and they kept inviting me back. It took about a year or so until I realised that I was a resident, and it wasn’t just that they had forgotten to ask anyone else. It’s a wicked night – it’s all about the music and a wide variety at that: they’ve never given me any hassle (although there was a raised eyebrow the other month when I played a whole James Brown record without bringing in the gabba guns). You’re generally stuck in the “warm up” slot at S&T – does that piss you off? Occasionally I prefer a later slot, as its very rewarding seeing the dancefloor respond to something special – whether it’s a new tune or your mix, but it’s also an exciting challenge doing the first slot. Gives you the chance to build things up slowly and mess around a bit more without having to keep people dancing – but trying making sure they are by the end of the set. Gives me lots of freedom to play experimental stuff and recordings of films. (midnight slot at S+T on Friday 13th May) Where else have you played and what are the maddest/baddest/best things which have happened when you’ve been on? I did a hip hop and funk set on the ragga system that was at Brixton Reclaim the Streets – which managed to draw a huge crowd and a breakdance contest started – it was a exciting day and moment, and felt like I was in a film. Having people Nailing eggs to a cross during a religious themed set at OMSK with a live preacher. My favourite event was about a year ago. I collaborated on a German dance project in Dusseldorf. I played a short set that started very calm and peaceful and ended in absolute punishing abusive noise. The audience had been herded into a very small scaffolding box covered in bin bags, in the dark. It was a very hot day indeed – an experiment to see how long they would take the abuse before they burst out. They lasted five and a half minutes. I broke the amplifier and had to scream instead. I’d love to do it again, but it is hard to find somewhere where no-one has a high regard for health and safety! In the last year I’ve done a few sets at festivals in Europe – it feels good to play outside of London where people can be less reactive. It’s nice to be taken at face value too – next one is the wonderfully named Noxious Festival in France in June. What other projects are you involved with – do you make tracks of your own, or plan to? There’s an ongoing project of making short films about “Outsiders” – street poets, untutored musicians etc. I’ve gots some good footage of amazing subjects and can’t wait to edit it into very short films – I want them to be condensed – full of impact and interest. What is it about noise? I think there’s a catharsis and excitement and exaggeration that takes place with noise, that can just enhance the feel of it perfectly – like a Bo Diddley record or the Channel One sound system – it just takes the essence of a sound further into your ears, penetrating more deeply. Radio 4 answer: Without silence, noise is empty… hmmmmm (strokes chin).