[Shards Fragments and Totems]
Me and John have guested on Dave Stelfox’ brilliant reggae column over at Pitchfork this month. We’re talking about top fast chat records, with Dave adding some quality tuneage of his own. I think it’s all turned out rather fab – many thanks to Dave for giving us a shot! And we look forward to dinner and beer in Stoke Newington with the great man some time soon.
Hold tight for some hot Pitchfork action in Dave Stelfox’ reggae column this month…
This month I’ve done the 17th mix for the mighty Blogaridims podcast series. It’s a load of my favourite dub, roots and dancehall tunes, done “live” on decks and dubbed up using an Access Virus synth as an FX box. I inflicted some serious damage on these tunes with that hardware.
(Edit: many years later I sold the Virus to UK bass producer Chris Lorenzo, who is an extremely nice guy and very knowledgable, also a great producer.)
Download here:
http://www.grievousangel.net/GAMixes/Tons_of_Boxes.mp3
Mixcloud:
I originally did this mix back in late 2001 or early 2002, a few months after moving back up to Sheffield from London, and while experiencing withdrawl symptoms from not having seen Shaka for a while. It’s a heavy mix – 20 minutes of hard dub followed by an increasing amount of vocals (leavened with some out-there FX), melting into sweet soul reggae and a couple of classics, before dissolving into cold, painful dub. I sent a 74 minute version of this out on CD to a few people at the time but this is the first time it’s been available as a download. Editing it down to an hour and re-mastering it has made it a bit punchier in my opinion. Enjoy…
0.00 Velvet Shadows: Dubbing & Wailing
3:32 King Tubby: Explosion Dub
7:29 Gregory Isaacs: Leggo Beast
10:51 Sly & the Revolutionaries: Cocaine
14:31 Roots Radics: Mission Impossible
17:38 Barrington Levy: Rob & Gone
20:34 Ranking Joe: Choice of Colour
24:20 Mikey Dread: Barber Saloon
29:12 Linval Thompson: Don’t Cut Off Your Dreadlocks
32:25 Big Youth: Pride & Joy
34:51 Big Youth: Pride & Joy (Grievous Angel Dub)
37:33 Lee Perry: Bury the Razor
40:58 The Silvertones: Feel Alright
43:27 Niney The Observer: Blood & Fire
46:22 Delroy Wilson: Better Must Come
48:59 Scotty: Riddle I This
51:27 Susan Codogan: Do It Baby
54:26 Linval Thompson: I Love Marijuana
57:43 Linval Thompson: Marijuana Dub
1.02 Ends
0.00 Velvet Shadows: Dubbing & Wailing
Absolutely killer, deep-funk loping roots Tubbys dub of the Velvet Shadows Wailing Of Black People.
3:32 King Tubby: Explosion Dub
The absolute solid gold classic Tubbys dub, justifiably famous and here given a seriously overdriven, squelchy makeover.
7:29 Gregory Isaacs: Leggo Beast
Gregory entirely absent sadly, but devastating instrumental steppers intensity is present and in full effect. On the Swing Easy / Spirit of Umoja riddim and apparently produced by Dennis Brown and Augustus Pablo, but I have no more information than that…
10:51 Sly & the Revolutionaries: Cocaine
A slight downshift in mood but still in militant steppers territory, this was featured on Sly Dunbar’s 1980 Black Ash Dub lp. Made by Sly’n’Robbie, Ansell Collins and Bingy Bunny, and mixed by Scientist. Fabulous.
14:31 Roots Radics: Mission Impossible
Pure deep space dub rocking from 1983’s “Scientist & Jammy Strike Back” LP.
17:38 Barrington Levy: Rob and Gone…
from Levy’s 1983 Poor Man Style LP. Gets into some serious dub distortion.
And now we’re into the vocal selection. … and my fuckd up WordPress won’t let me post any more than that…
And the result is – John wins! 10 votes to 2 at the time of writing, so it looks like he’s done it. Well done, he does have one of the best reggae collections around so it’s not that surprising. I’m just pleased he upped his game and did some proper mixing!Naturally he’s taking the whole thing terrible seriously, which is amusing.
I am a bit embarassed to have included a tune with some lyrics John has suggested are homophobic, but to the degree to which I was aware of what Anthony B was really talking about on Global Awareness, I thought he was just taking the piss, rather than being truly nasty. If it’s offended anyone I can only apologise. If it makes any difference I did leave off King Rolex’ Hard Road – wicked, grating vocal tone (tempting to sample his moaned “Harrrrrd Rooooaaaaadddd” lyric and stretch it out even more), appalling lyrical sentiments.
Anyway, people have said lots of nice things about my mix which I’m very grateful for… maybe the next round John should take on Droid for the title of “finest selector in the blogosphere”, with follow-up bouts with others…
John and my mixes in the “Answer” riddim soundclash are now up.
John’s is some huge long 45 minute epic, but mine is a more appetising 25 minute workout. My mix track listing is:
Dennis Brown: I Can’t Stand It (Joe Gibbs)
Little John: Say What You’re Saying (Midnight Rock)
Josey Wales: Kingston Hot (Volcano)
Brigadier Jerry: Pain (Ffrench)
Super Cat: Walk-A-Ton (Midnight Rock)
Jim Brown: In Time (Midnight Rock)
Anthony B: Global Awareness (Blacker Dread)
Spragga Benz: Mark Death (John John)
Turbo Belly: Hot Like Fireside (John John)
Bounty Killer: Spy Fi Die (Kingston 11)
Junior Cat: Who So Ever (Kingston 11)
Couple of amusing cross over tunes in our respective mixes.
Vote at Dissensus for which one is best.
John’s is very good BTW.
Yeah. Comments no longer work. Just as I get the spam thing sorted. Actually, maybe there’s a relationship between those two facts.
Proof if any needed that computers are rubbish.
I’ll fix it if I can.
John Eden appears to believe that he is anything other than a dibby dibby soundboy.
I can confirm that this is not the case and shall demonstrate this on February 23rd.
should be hot and i hope i can make it… just like when loefah played here i am sick… am writing this from a miserable hotel room garret in london, laid up…
Er, yes. Peter Murdertone has a new blog and it’s really good.
It’s part of the wonderful Versionist community.
Top blog on south east London music, politics and under-the-counter-culture: http://transpont.blogspot.com/