Pauline Black and “2-Tone London” at Housmans

This just in from Nik at Housmans – sounds good, but I’m not too sure about the claim that Pauline was “the only woman in a movement dominated by men”. What about The Bodysnatchers, an all-girl band on the Two Tone label? The group included Rhoda Dakar, whose harrowing solo-single “The Boiler” I’ve written about here.

‘2-Tone London’

with Pauline Black

Wednesday 3 August, 7pm

£3, redeemable against any purchase

Launching her autobiography, Pauline Black, lead singer of The Selector, shares her recollections of the 2-Tone music scene, as well as her personal experiences of growing up in multi-racial London.

The only woman in a movement dominated by men, Pauline Black has plenty to share about the 2-Tone music scene of. As lead singer of The Selector Pauline was very much the Queen of British Ska.

But even as she found success in through music, Black struggled with her ethnic and cultural identity. Born to Anglo-Jewish/Nigerian parents, she was later adopted by a white working-class family in Romford. In her talk, Black recounts her struggles to find her way in a community that made her feel different at every turn, and shares her personal view of early multicultural London.

Combining her life at the top of the 2-Tone phenomenon with her search for her birth parents, Black will speak about her experience of London, as told in her new autobiography, Black by Design: A 2-Tone Memoir.

Housmans Bookshop, 5 Caledonian Road, King’s Cross, London N1 9DX

Tel: 020 7837 4473

www.housmans.com

Entry: £3 redeemable against any purchase

Nearest tube: King’s Cross

Forthcoming events include:

‘The Glorious Times of the Situationist International’
with McKenzie Wark

‘Thirty Years on from the Brixton Uprising’
with Alex Wheatle

‘Chavs: the Demonization of the Working Class’
with Owen Jones

“Support the shop that supports your campaigns!”

Invasion of the Mysteron Killer Sounds radio play and interviews

“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…

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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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

Hacker Farm, live at The Vortex tomorrow

Hacker Farm gig – tomorrow! I probably can’t make it – but you should!

Hacker Farm is Kek-W and Farmer Glitch.

I previously bigged them up on here when they came to town to do the Exotic Pylon radio session. That was before I heard their CD, “Poundland”

In my ADD twitter feed, I’ve described this release variously as:

“low-fi pulsing cheekiness… like Ekoplekz, but on a farm, on acid. In the 1730s… darkside agricultural nightmare soundscapes. Side effects of that bootleg fertiliser… Crawling down the lane.”

Hacker Farm’s willful lo-fi, low-tech, low-down-dirty not giving a fuck about anything except the important stuff attitude is compelling. Obsolete equipment, operated by rusty geezers on a mission.

I’ve been listening to the CD a lot and I am gutted about not being able to make the gig. Mr Mugwump’s nights are always worth checking and the set from Ekoplekz earlier this year was especially satisfying. Go along, and then taunt me with stories about how good it was.

More info on the gig here.

Poundland is available here.

Special bonus feature in The Wire with audio.

I’ve been sent some amazing DIY music over the last few months and I need to make time to do a podcast so people can get a taste of it…

Mix: Shake The Foundations vol 1

This is the first proper mix I ever did, back in those pre-blog times of 2002. I was interested in tracks that blurred the lines between reggae, dub, electronica and dance music. I still am, but it seems harder to find interesting angles on it these days.

Thanks to Kate Bakhaus for helping me out with a copy of the mix when I found out that my CDR master had gone glitchy.

Sleevenotes

“For some of us the experience of reggae was far more unsettling than a mere alphabetised clutch of Wailers LPs. People get warped by dub and reggae, and they never recover. And there are reasons for this.” Ian Penman

Received wisdom has it that “real” dub was made in Jamaica in the 1970s, by engineers mutating tracks by “proper” musicians. None of the tracks on this CD meet all of these criteria. Very few meet any of them.

Without wishing to dis the golden age of reggae (indeed – check for future mixes) there has been a wealth of music recorded more recently that tries to build on the studio sorcery of Tubby, Perry et al in a way that looks to the future rather than upholding some kind of bogus tradition.

Arguments abound as to whether dub is a genre, or a technique, with purists favouring the former and visionaries ploughing head-first into the latter. This ism-ing and schism-ing is all too easily upset by the continual flood of gimmicky product – insipid ambient digi dub that doesn’t even qualify as nice background music, or perhaps “dub techno” in which yet another workmanlike 12″ tries to rescue itself from obscurity by the addition of a bit of echo and reverb.

As ever, the selector’s role is simply to wade through the dirt looking for the jewels. The tracks here vary from experimental electronica to techno, to the much-maligned “UK dub” steppers played by soundsystems like Jah Shaka and Abashanti. If there is anything that holds them together other than “dub” it is a certain edge – a dread intensity far removed from the image of reggae as summery beach music. It’s cold inna babylon, as a wise man once said.

This mix was hammered out live, in two takes – and it shows. What you hear is what was played. If I was playing these tracks out, you’d get more version excursions and some selections representing the other flavours of dub and reggae.

John Eden – June 2002

Tracklist

1. spectre vs scotty hard – the joust (wordsound)
2. pole & manuela krause – mein freund der baum (monika)
3. luciano – final call (dub) (xterminator)
4. rhythm & sound with shalom – we been troddin (burial mix)
5. (gregory isaacs – easy take it easy) (joe gibbs)
6. dub syndicate – ezy take it ezy (ruts dc remix) (on-u sound)
7. rootsman – wadada (sema mix) (virgin)
8. disciples – return to addis ababa (boomshakalacka)
9. disciples – message (version) (boomshakalacka)
10. iration steppas – killamanjaro (version) (universal egg)
11. winston fergus – can’t take no more (dubwise)
12. vibronics – one drop (tandoori space)
13. unitone hi-fi – racehorse (wordsound)
14. mannaseh – skenga (version) (response)
15. iration steppas – high rise (version) (universal egg)
16. chris jay – rough version (dubwise)
17. centry – release the chains (universal egg)

The mix was played on ResonanceFM in London, a community radio station in Hamilton, New Zealand, and out of Iain Watson’s window, to an unsuspecting Edinburgh public.

A slightly tongue in cheek account of the frustrations of recording it is here.

two new Dancehall books

I’ve reviewed both these books in the new issue of The Wire (with Roy Harper on the front and an ace advert for the new Bug/Soul Jazz bashment riddims comp “Invasion of the Mysteron Killer Sounds on the back).

Both books are produced by independent publishers – and are available by clicking on the covers above.

A Brief History Of Grime Tapes with Michael Finch and Rollo Jackson

I wrote about the film Tapecrackers a while ago – a touching and affectionate look back at Jungle and Garage pirate radio tapes of yesteryear.

My review generated quite a lot of interest and a few people asked about how they could get to see the film.

I’m pleased to say that it’s now available on DVD via Will Bankhead’s The Trilogy Tapes.

The film’s chronology ends with the beginning of Grime, and I was left fair gasping for a sequel that did this era justice.

Now The Wire’s Derek Walmsley has stepped up to the plate with an excellent Resonance FM show featuring Michael and Rollo from the film – and their cassettes, vinyl and minidiscs from the dawn of Grime. It’s as good an intro as any to the early days the genre – done by proper hyped up enthusiasts interspersed with proper hyped up music.

If you have even a passing interest in this sort of thing, then you need to check this.

You can listen to the show here.

When you’ve done that there are some complete tapes uploaded here as well. Nuff vibes!

Dr Black and Yello B

More promotional material for this Saturday’s events. Kinda.

Dr Black: “I asked the Yello B for an image and he produced this. I said it was minimal and he said the music should do the talking not the picture. So yeah.”

Hard to argue with that!

Come down if you’re in the area, it will be fun.

Reggae in Hackney this Saturday

SATURDAY 11TH JUNE 2011

The Clapton Festival Presents…

A Reggae Sound Connection featuring…

The Mighty
GLADDYWAX SOUND SYSTEM

(formerly of the awesome and much missed Wax Unlimited record shop on Northwold Road)

Alongside the Heavy Weight
SOLUTION SOUND SYSTEM

(Stoke Newington fixtures and one of my favourite sounds)

With Special guest selectors
TREVOR SAX (Saxon, and formerly of Regal Records Clapton)
MANASSEH (UK Dub legend, see Woofah issue 3)

4PM TIL 10PM
@ THE ROUND CHAPEL, LOWER CLAPTON RD, HACKNEY, LONDON E5
ONLY £3 ON THE DOOR

This is a Clapton Community Event.

Spread the word!

http://www.solutionsoundsystem.com
http://www.facebook.com/solutionsoundsystem

[photos added later]

Followed by:

This just in from the desk of my man Crofton:

Dr Black meets the Yello B

Please drop by Luigi’s basement, aka the Stokey Records Bar, on Sat. 11 June for an unprecedented night of heavy tropical sounds.

It’s a north versus south thing with me taking on the Yello B in a musical showdown that is set to encompass roots, dancehall, soca, gwo ka, hip hop, highlife, soukous, zouk and whatever else we can dig up on the day.

Spread the word, tell your friends, come early, stay late, and so forth.

It’s free to get in and it’s conveniently (for me) located at 98 Stoke Newington Church Street, N16. Go through the restaurant and down the stairs at the back.

We’re running from 9 til 3.

Facebook people can signal their desire to attend here:
https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=128137053932621

Heatwave’s MC mania

Heatwave always guarantee a great party but it looks like they’ve outdone themselves this time.

The convergence between dubstep and reggae now seems everyday, humdrum even. I still find the grimey reggae lash up far more rewarding. That’s how I got into grime – seeing Flowdan and Killa P over raw riddims down at BASH.

I’m excited like a little kid at the prospect of Asher Senator sharing a stage with Wiley. Chuck in General Levy too and you’ve got a clear link straight through key players from UK reggae soundsystems to Jungle, to Garage to Grime… all in one night.

Click on the flyer for more info. It is said that some exciting pre-party publicity is planned…