Thursday, September 05, 2024
Friday, August 30, 2024
Monday, August 26, 2024
Sunday, August 25, 2024
Track Of The Day: Linton Kwesi Johnson - 'Di Eagle an Di Bear' live with Dennis Bovell
Some crucial cold war vibes steaming out of this excellent performance. Oh, we’re still living in it?
Thursday, August 22, 2024
Track Of The Day: Big Youth - Screaming Target (Trojan)
If there’s one track that transports me to the Cockpit Country, by way of downtown Kingston, it’s this one. Which is funny because I’ve never been to Jamaica. Big Youth’s ‘Screaming Target’, from his eponymously titled debut album has one of the slinkiest grooves imaginable. It’s the musical equivalent of a snake sloughing its skin. It feels like it’s falling off the edge of a very high mountain. A song that is just at home in pastoral, as urban, surroundings. I feel that reggae really peaked in the 1970s. I know that sounds like a boring and predictable take, as throughout the 1980s there was plenty of amazing music being made, but the context of the decade and the other emerging parallel genres all layered and coalesced to really elevate the sound. Big Youth was a reggae DJ/toaster who was more associated with dub than most of those who had gone before. Something that simultaneously thrust him into the limelight while keeping him left field.
Wednesday, August 21, 2024
Black Rave Culture - Quick Game EP (Black Rave Culture)
Title: Quick Game EP
Artist: Black Rave Culture
Label: Black Rave Culture
Cat Number: BRC4
Genre: Black Rave Culture
1: Dick Control
2: Jambu
3: STOMP EM OUT
Well, I’m sure I have no idea what ‘Dick Control’ might allude to. However, I imagine that it’s one of those “club weapons . . . best suited for listening after midnight, in dark rooms with rumbling subwoofers and vibrant urban dance floors.” Somethjiong that I would currently have no idea of. Although I can say that listening to this in the cold light of day, in my dining room at lunchtime on a Wednesday, it does feel over before it’s begun. A brief glimpse into a paranormal subculture that underlays the waking life it seeks to subvert. ‘Jambu’ is cut from much the same cloth. Repetitive, digital call and response. A collection of verbal grimaces set to a primeval hoodoo hoe down. And then we’ve got ‘STOMP EM OUT’. A track whose brevity is perfectly relayed by the necessity to subject its title to the all caps treatment. A fidgety melody that sounds like a migraine set to music. “Black Rave Culture blends styles like footwork, techno, and two-step across this entire EP - continuing to showcase their uniquely gifted talent of fusing styles from multiple genres into one.” Is a succinct synopsis of this release and says it better than I can. I’m all about impressions though and I generally like that this release takes me to places where others cannot reach.
Monday, August 19, 2024
Track Of The Day: Yargo - Bodybeat (Arthur Baker Remix) (London Records)
Whatever happened to Yargo? I listened to their first album an awful lot during a short spell in the late 80s. Very overlooked and slipped under the radar unfortunately. Another great band amongst many out of Manchester. This is an Arthur Baker remix of said LP’s title track. Minimal and funky, it’s a great showcase for Basil Clarke’s raw vocals.
Sunday, August 18, 2024
Track Of The Day: Weekend with Keith Tippett - Nostalgia (Rough Trade)
The first trip to Amsterdam ended after a weekend. We had meant to stay for four or five days, but spent all of our money. The second trip went on for a bit longer, or it felt like it did. Time very quickly lost all meaning when, on our first full day there, we dropped a load of acid and set out across the city making random purchases. And the album this track comes from, ‘Weekend With Keith Tippett – Live At Ronnie Scott's’ was one of them. Myself, Dave, Jim and whoever else . . . Vin, Pete?? Sat down at a record shop listening bar and this was playing at the time. We all demanded a copy and started listening with headphones on. I bought a copy and so did at least one other. To call it an impulse buy would be an understatement. Having said that, it still sounds great and very much captures a moment in time. Sun kissed, just like the day it bought on.
Friday, August 16, 2024
Track Of The Day: Calm - Long Summer Dream (Hell Yeah Recordings)
I know nothing of Calm, nor his ‘ Long Summer Dream’. I got here via Chris Coco’s excellent Balearic playlist on Spotify, which does occasionally have its uses; “I never paid for it in my life, and I’m not going to start now!” Thankfully the best things in life are still free, and that includes this piece of blissed out, ambience that hovers in the sun kissed middle distance. Calm is Japanese, and Hell Yeah Recordings hail from Italy. Who knows how they met? A cross pollination of random eastern decadence has resulted though and on days like these we should all be thankful for such mind altering gifts.
Thursday, August 15, 2024
Track Of The Day: Will Long - That's What They Understand (Sprinkles Overdub) (Comatonse Recordings)
Once you’ve had a listen to this, everything else feels irrelevant. The space time continuum takes a new course and opens new portals to hitherto unknown parallel universes. Aural dopamine. The real meaning of dub. What I like most about DJ Sprinkles’ dubs, overdubs and whatnot, is that first of all they give you more than enough time to get lost in them. More than enough time is important as there’s nothing worse than being found too quickly when you’re in that fugue state. The use of spoken word as well. Subtle but incredibly effective. The pads are heaven throughout, and that little bit of syncopation around them, that sounds like its wrapped on a vocal sample. Lovely dense handclaps carry this tune along under the power of its own positivity. And when the vibes come in there is a coalescence of gargantuan proportions. Not just the soundtrack top a new day dawning, but to that of time itself. I do love a cliché.
Tuesday, August 13, 2024
Track Of The Day: Millsart - Fake Rolex In Times Square (Axis)
A casual browse along the shelves and I’ve rediscovered this gem. None of the tracks have names on the release, ‘Every Dog Has Its Day Vol. 3’, but I’ve found out that this one is called ‘Fake Rolex In Times Square’ which, along with ‘Condor To Malaga’, is up there with Mills’ best song titles. And what a track this is. A dreamy, narcotic loop is underpinned by some sort of intergalactic samba. Comments on this release’s Discogs page reveals that everyone seems to be enamoured of the following track D2 ‘The Early Years’. It’s good, but more predictable as far as the melodic techno credentials are concerned. This one, on the other hand, is moody, magnificent and funktastic. An atmospheric scene setter like no other.
