reggae reggae to the maximum

A week is a long time in politics. In the world of blogging it must be a fortnight. In my world its just seven days. Which brings me nicely to the purchases over the last seven days. As the post's title suggests there may be some reggae involved.

I'd like to herald the arrival of a new seven inch from All City Records that has just hit the shelves. It's a new tune by T-Woc called 'Warning' and it features Brother Culture on vocals. It's a proper stepper and there's a great dub version excursion on the flip. Check it out.

I ventured down the back of Tower Records ground floor the other day and a Trojan seven inch box-set was staring me in the eye. It's the 'Haunted House' Skinhead Sevens selection and it features some real skinhead reggae gems on it by the likes of The Upsetters, The Cimarons and The Black Diamonds. It has eight seven inches in the box-set and a great picture on the cover. See above.

I dropped into Oxfam today and came across the third Bstrd Boots seven inch release for one euro. It's the Drums of Death remix of two Roots Manuva tunes, 'Witness' and 'Join the Dots'. I'm really liking it. This means I now have about 8 different remixes of 'Witness'. That could be a future podcast.

I also picked up some other prize gems in the same shop. Three twelve inches from the early nineties. The first is a Sabres of Paradise release that was released to raise awareness in the UK about the Criminal Justice Bill. Its the 'Repetitive Beats' EP and features tunes by Primal Scream and On U Sound. The second record was the seventh release on the Philly Blunt label, an off-shoot of Roni Size's V Recordings. It's called Bass-Switch and its by Firefox and Glamour Gold, who are better known as Roni Size and DJ Krust. It's not a patch on the earlier Philly Blunt releases but it still holds its own considering an awful lot of shite jungle was being released around this time (1996). The final tune from Oxfam is an old Shut Up and Dance release from 1992 by IC3. It was simply called The EP and featured MC Duke. Duke later produced for the jungle label Suburban Base. The tunes on the e.p. veer towards the rap sound that SUAD were into at the time. It still sounds deadly.

Keeping with Shut Up and Dance, I popped into the new premises that Beatfinder are occupying and I think I made the first purchases in the new premises. The first was another SUAD record by PJ and Smiley called The Art of Moving Butts. The second was a Hal Roach comedy album recorded live at Jurys Cabaret. I can't wait to mix those up.

the drugs do work!

This new kid is really eating into my blogging time. Before its arrival I had great stretches in the evenings to sit down and muse about the various inconsequential things in lfe. These days blogging is restricted to the late hours and consequently its becoming more infrequent. In addition there was a bit of a lull in interesting releases on the seven inch format and I've also put a moratorium on any turntable purchases for the foreseeable future.

Thankfully there's been a glut of releases on seven inch over the past week or so and I'll run a quick rule over some of the ones that I've picked up.

The ridiculously catchy 'That's not my name' by The Ting Tings is out on seven inch and boy are my kids happy with that purchase. They jump around the gaff singing 'they call me stinky' at one another. The b-side features an inspired 'TNMN - Your Mix' which has guest vocals by lots of fans who rang an answering machine and left their name. Smashing.

Next is a little ditty penned by the legendary Tom Waits and sung by Bafta winning actress Scarlett Johansson. It's a bit weird to be honest. The production is great but Scarlett somehow manages to sound like Sinead O'Connor singing down a chimney. David Bowie seems to be doing backing vocals which makes it even stranger. I'm not sure but I think I like it.

Santogold has released a new seven called 'Les Artistes' and it starts off like something from one of David Kitts early albums. Simple guitar riff and a drum machine. But lo and behold the dulcet tones of Kittser are replaced by Santi White. You can catch Santogold in Crawdaddy on the 1st of June. Pencil it into your diary or use your fancy touchscreen phone if you have one of them.

A spur of the moment purchase was 'Black Moon' by A Human. Its reminiscent of early eighties new wave music that seems to be all the rage this weather. It's a funny tune to be honest but once again I think I like it. It must be the nostalgia factor.

Another blind purchase was 'Mother Mary' by Foxboro Hot Tubs. Apparently they hail from somewhere in the US but they sound like they could have been supporting The Housemartins somewhere in Hull back in the eighties. It's neo indie jangle assuming that's an actual genre.

Not one but two new seven inches from Hot Chip. Well actually the second one is a remix of the first. You've probably seen the video for 'One Pure Thought'. A pure piece of pointilist brilliance. I wasn't digging their new album at first but I'm coming around to it now. This tune has a nice samba driven riddim running through it includes all the usual pop hooks that these guys have in abundance. The Toddla T remix on the second seven inch takes the original riddim and turns the tune into a ragga influenced techno grime dancehall mash up. It's the business.

Something else that I found in the crates recently is the Masters at Work remix of Seeline Woman by Nina Simone. It's a promo 12" released to promote the first Verve Remixed album back in 2002. Its a sparse epic that retains most of the beauty of the original.

Charting Music (Pt 2 of an occasional series)

parish notes

There's been an upsurge in activity relating to Dublin record shops in recent days and it looks like its going to continue into the foreseeable future.

First up, All City Records have witnessed the passing of Kilkenny hip-hop legend Cool C. Don't fret folks, he ain't dead, he's just moved to Valencia in Spain to be with his girlfriend. The things we do for love. His departure leaves a mighty void in All City but I'm sure it will be suitably filled in time. I'm going to miss my lunchtime chats with Cormac so it looks like OB will be bearing the brunt of my rants for the foreseeable future. On a related note they also got some transition year students in on work experience and made them clean the toilet. Put that on your CV lads.

It also appears that Big Brother have had enough of the cohabitation with All City. Like a Cinderella that's been locked in the basement (no Austrian puns intended) they've decided to move somewhere where natural light is available. As it turns out, they're only moving around the corner onto Fownes St, just in front of the Central Bank plaza. In related news, it appears that they wish to make a clean break with the past because they've gone and gotten themselves a brand new name. Henceforth they shall be known as Beatfinder (which for some reason makes me sing Teethgrinder by Therapy every time I hear it).

Not to be outdone with all this moving and shaking, Road Records will play host to an exhibition/installation by Peter Maybury and my aul arty mucker, Dennis Mc Nulty. They'll be comandeering the basement in Road (which coincidentally was a former home to Big Brother) in order to unleash some arty stuff on the music and art loving public. I don't know much about it yet but I do know that its concerned with reflecting on the changes in independent music culture in Dublin over the last fifteen years (or so). It's called UNDERGROUND which is very apt.

provincial round-up

After a quiet night in on Friday night the weekend called for something to kickstart it. Luckily the Don Rosco was on hand to whisk me off to the Sibín Festival on Saturday night. It took place in a far flung part of North County Dublin called Man O'War. It was a last minute thing and we only got out there around midnight. It was in the middle of nowhere but the set up was pretty good as these things go. The whole thing was in full flight when we arrived and it was a good buzz to see a load of heads that I hadn't seen in ages. I had a great conversation about The Wiggles live show with Giles from the Electric City crew. Both he and Sunil Sharpe were playing in the techno tent. The Man O'War pub housed the Worries Outernational crew who were blasting out the reggae and dancehall vibes. The Reach crew had a dubstep/drum and bass tent where I caught sets by Bailey and Storm. The organisers had managed to get a big top from Fossetts circus and there were live acts playing in it. I caught some of the set by Noise Control and much of it owed a massive debt to the Underworld back catalogue. I also saw General Levy but he was a load of pony. Unusually for a full on rave in the middle of nowhere it was fully licensed and the police came in and had a good mingle but found nothing untoward. Fair play to the organisers. Top buzz.

After that country break I felt it necessary to catch up with some action in the city on Sunday night. I'd planned on going to hear Kittsers weekly DJ set in Hogans but instead found myself down in The Dice Bar. I'd stumbled into a rockabilly night in full flight. Walking throught the bar I felt like an extra in Grease. There's a whole new generation of rockabillys on the Dublin scene. I was having a chat with a few of the tribal elders who informed me that the resurgence is due in part to the great interest in inking and also the style element of the scene. They ruefully mourned the fact that the newer members of the rockabilly tribe weren't into the music and dancing as much as the older ones were. That's young people for you.

Like Detective Columbo returning to the scene of the crime i found myself back in North County Dublin today, about three kilometers away from Man O'War. Today I was in Ardgillan Castle, an old country house on a rolling estate. Apparently most of Dublin took the same notion as there were thousands of people out there. In good Irish fashion I got myself one of those nice tans that involves a burnt neck and nose. I look like I've done a hard days work in the bog.