November Crate digging

Been a while I've written anything on this, so we'll keep it simple with a big cratedigging edition. For Black History month I picked up some bass heavy (not mid-range filth) dubstep to go along with the Jungle that I normally play. First up is a 12" on the Little Island label. Jing Bong Ting (featuring Canada's Jacky Murda, also known for his old skool ragga jungle flavas). It has the tracks Sundown, a ganja homage track and Drunken Master, with a nice propulsive beat for a dubstep track. Both have the vocals of Top Cat, whose been in the game for long any doesn't disappoint.

Next up on the dubstep is the one sided 12", a remix of Gregory Issacs' Emergency. Great echo chamber and bass heavy, though you do get the impression it's basically what happens when you get a man known for Lover's Rock on a conscious riddim. White label and no info on who remixed it.

The final dubstep track is on the Idle hands Label. No info on who built the tracks, but what is included is some class instrumentals. The Bass is great with some nice breaks for the rhythm. Well worth a listen.

Moving away from the Dubstep and back to the Jungle, this purchase was definitely a really useful one for some of my recent shows. A compilation from the mid-90s of some rare jungle even for then. There's lots of of collections and a lot usually have the same tracks, making them a bit useless. I can happily say I never heard of any of these tracks before checking this out, all are great and include VIP remixes and dubplates. Junglistic Hardcore Vol. 2, well worth the hassle.

 Back to the singles, a white label 12" by Prizna, The A side features Niggas in the Hood, heavy bass and rhythm track supported by samples from Black Americans having their say. Great track though in some ways standard fare. The B side has Eastern Promise, with the main highlight being the flute overtones to give it that eastern flare, and signal the shift in DnB that was incoming.

And finally for this edition of cratedigging, is another Junglistic 12". By Scarface on Joker Records, the A side is a sweet track, Only You, on what sounds like a early 2-step drumbeat is terms of rhythm and speed which has some soulful vocals above and a bass line that pulses to drives the track along. The B side isn't as good but Flat Eric does boast something not many old or new tracks have, that shift is speed and pace of the drym beat, it sets about different stages in the track from a chilled intro to a more standard frenzied DnB scenario.

That's all for now (but that's a lot to tack in anyway!) I'll be sure to keep on top more, with more crate diggings and musical pieces in general (there's a German/Turkish project to work on...)

Raving white label bizness

After finally figuring out which track was which, I can finally have an opinion on the latest single for cratedigging. Some time and labelling was needed for this, as shown in the ol' pic here...

Side A has Urban Shakedown's 'Some Justice' (Concrete Jungle Mix) and  Urban Hype's 'A Trip to Trumpton' while side B has Nookie's 'Gonna Be Alright' (Cloud9 Remix) and DJ Seduction's 'Hardcore Heaven.' Since it's a 1991 12" bootleg, it's all about the chipmunk squeals and breakbeats and vamps across the board. In the case of a trip to trumpton, it gets a little kiddy, but that's part of the charm. It's hardcore in all its glory, but that's what makes it interesting, and of course, its all part of the foundation of jungle!

White label business

This is a good week for music

There will be a final cratedigging for this month, courtesy of Vinyl Exchange for a £5 white label, with some hardcore rave bangers on it. Problem is at the moment I haven't figured out which track is which so bear with me!

the 16th is when the Jungle Hour kicks off its first show. 8pm every Friday is the time, Salford City Radio 94.4FM is the station and this is the web page:

http://www.salfordcityradio.org/shows.php?id=865

Won't regret it!

Latest Music Projects

This week sees the launch of a new show on Salford City Radio, the Jungle Hour hosted by yours truly. Tune in 8pm this Friday, the 16th, for the new weekly show. Links to the direct show profile will be sent out soon, for now, https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Jungle-Hour-Salford-City-radio/10150115970130392 will take you to the facebook page (previously the Bless Riddims Page) and in case you're wondering to expect, this should satisfy you

www.mixcloud.com/Griff01. This has previous shows and mixes so far. Also important as theres a new mix being planned. Expect lotsa funky beats thats for sure!

Rufige Kru review

As promised I can now finish off my review of the latest cratedigging. The Rufige Kru remix EP, on metalheadz, has on the first 12" Terminator, the Danny C remix and Ghostlife Total Science, the second 12" has Angel Teebee mix and Terminator cujo remix. The Ep is more DnB than Jungle, as u you might expect. The 1st Terminator remix has 3 main parts, sampling quotes heavily and processing them, having raving parts as well as serene parts and is definitely worth the listen. Ghostlife is my favourite simply it sounds like something Omni Trio would make, cracking beats that would just wash over you.

The second 12" unfortunately has the weakest tracks. Angel starts well with a quiet intro before, in my opinion, ruining it by turning into a standard drone track. the terminator track on the D side features almost no vocals and as a result is a little more boring than the danny c mix.

All the same, for my more ragga influenced stuff this is a nice variation, at £4 i can't complain either

Latest Cratedigging

Getting paid means more vinyl to pick up. 3 purchases made so far, New Blood's Worries in the Dance was the first.

This was one of my favs to pick up. There was the original I could pick up for £15 but I found the one on No Frills Label for £3 instead. This is the original 90s mix with the A side a DnB mix by DJ Ron. Good effort too, as he manages to get some decent vocals on a jump up track.

Next up is Omni Trio's Who Are You/Together V.I.P on Moving Shadow Label. Another £3 banger (might coin that) both are cool, chilled tracks, with the flipside having old skool drums that wash over you rather than make you rave.

The 3rd purchase was a metalheadz release, the rufige crew remix ep. Not listened to it properly yet so get that opinion out ASAP, though from what I can tell its defo DnB heavy rather than the the junglism. And no it wasn't £3, it was a steeper £4


STOP PRESS!- My Jungle show is being sorted as we speak. the debut episode should be ready for 16th September (my birthday!) so I'll post links and update old pages (ie the Bless Riddims page) nearer the time, hold tight for this one! Salford City Radio is the station

Yasmin ft. Shy FX

Discovered this the other day. Great singer, killer beats, and sometimes that's all you need...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UhnGvcKMIQ

Remarc-Unreleased Dubs 94-96 & Scientist launches dubstep into outer space

Well I've had time to listen to this new CDs I got earlier in the month, starting with Remarc...

The CD is a compilation of unreleased dubplates between '94 and '96, the peak years of popularity of Jungle, with Remarc being a legend in the game for using the 'Amen' break so well. I've generally enjoyed the collection, though the only stand out track that sticks in my mind is 'Fire', the track remixed by Remarc originally done by Prizna. Maybe its because of the vocals by Demolition Man, which are pretty distinctive for a jungle track. Otherwise this is more expanding the knowledge rather than out right raving, then again, maybe that's the tracks were unreleased in the first place...

The Dubstep collection on the other hand, was more instantly enjoyable. Featuring dubstep tracks by artists such as Kode9, Mala and King Midas Sound and remixes by the legendary Scientist makes this one collection you need. This is the Dub and bass heavy style of dubstep, not the filthy and anthemic stuff popular at the moment, for some, it beats their point of dubstep (those converted by filthy), for others its what dubstep has always been about. This is less of a rave and more reggae style skank, and by extension chilled out music as well, and that's part of what I loved it for. Stand out tracks include Kode9's Abeng and RSDs After All. All are heavyweight bass tracks though, and you won't be disappointed shelling out of this

Endless Dubstep Mix

Just uploaded on mixcloud my latest mix, Endless Dubstep which can be found here

http://www.mixcloud.com/Griff01/endless-dubstep/

the end was cut off by mixcloud (cheers...) but most of what makes it is in there. Ideas for my next one will be junglist, and probably have some thing to do with the riots down in london. Enjoy this in the mean time. I've had chance to listen to my new cds I mentioned so I'll get reviews on those ASAP

Cratedigging coming up

Because of the taxman I have less money to throw around this month, so I won't be cratedigging this month but instead I've ordered myself Unreleased Dubs 1994-1996 by Remarc and Scientist Launches Dubstep Into Outer Space! by Scientist. These will be more reviews rather just saying what I've discovered, though the unreleased dubs should give a few nice surprises

Japan

Reading Simon Reynold's Retromania (not trying to plug his book, honest!), there's a chapter, with the basic gist looking at how Japan, rather than take on a music style and add their own twist to it, actually it copy the music to a tee. This isn't just the music itself they copy, but the entire subculture, case point:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJh6vH6V_to

I mean, on one level, impressive. They've learnt the moves and for people with no jamaican influence on a national level, and I can't imagine there are too many Japanese people with Jamaican heritage knocking about, this is impressive. Hell, those who go the length will speak better patois than me, the one with jamaican family. My main gripes go to culture and musical production.

The problem with copying a culture like this is twofold. 1st, there's a balance problem with actually living a culture and how its represented. Yes, people from other cultures latch on to those that don't inherently relate to their own, that's how cultures spread. But these guys copy a culture meticulously. Could you imagine anybody in this club, coming from a deferential place such as Japan, coping with ruffneck Jamaica? This goes for any culture they manage to copy. This is a personal gripe though, and doesn't matter as much as the fact that the Japanese never add anything to the musical culture they take on.

Take Britain, our history is to take American forms, make it our own, and give it back to the Americans. Metal for example was bastardized RnB, the Americans have since changed it for their own purposes, and a culture for this strand of music has grown over the decades. There would have been those in those days that copied the RnB to a tee, but it's been those kinds of groups and people who take a known form, fuck around with it and make something new. There seems to be no room for this in Japanese culture, which is a shame when you consider that Japan is a nation that with everything else is seen as one of the best for adding its own touches. For technology, adding their own twists to new things, anime that invariably has Western themes told in a Japanese style, so why can't their music scene do this?

The last point links to the musical which affects everyone who just copies without adding their own quirks. The Japanese artists can make the music to a tee...which means by a paradox the music sounds wooden, like they are trying too hard to get everything right. Here's one example

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVzFwDoG8D0

This is Sleep Walker's Wind a bought a while back. The singing seems nice, the playing is tight, everything is right...too right. I mean, there's is nothing about this track that, or this band, that's stands out to me, its just a nice, jazz band. As I say the Japanese aren't the only ones who suffer this, but they seem to be the only ones who suffer for carbon copying as a nation

Cratedigging #2

A trip to town today (24/07)saw me pick up a couple of singles i've been hankering for, and a nice surprise:

Ding Dong-Bad Man Forward Badman Pull Up (The Bug and Flowdan Remix)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfxN3zEkBAw&feature=BFa&list=PL3ED0374DEA13BC5F&index=2

Definitely Greensleeves thing to push ragga influenced and bass heavy dubstep, kinda needed when both the underground and mainstream is being dominated by the 'filthy' stuff. Comes with Dub version





Progression- 150BPM/Lost in the Jungle

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyvNc7jqSLc

Classic banger from '92 from Ibiza Records

And this editions surprise:

Dance Squad- Yu-A Raggamuffin/ Ganjaman

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hflQG5OUsEE

Was actually looking for something else and stumbled across this. the ragga names did the trick

Coming up Next

A taster on what to expect on this blog in the next week or 2:

Japan:- My views on the Japanese taking on Western musics and subcultures

Turkish germans:- Little side project on how the Turks, Germany's biggest minority, have influenced the German music scene

Cratedigging: As I get paid at the end of the month, I take a trip, definitely to Vinyl Exchange, probably Eastern Bloc as well, to see what I come across

Cratedigging

After going for some vinyl in vinyl exchange and realising the vinyl i wanted wasn't up to scratch, I discovered their crate section of £1 vinyl for DnB, worth a listen from dons:

Pascal: Johnny 2003

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34XjG4CJD5k

Roni Size: out of breath ( Roni Size for a pound? Bargin!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttaExv4SIjQ

and yippee I actually found some bassline, in Manchester on vinyl!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKUD_MPk7Ik

video, tacky? a bit

Bands today

This blog has usually looked at underground electronic musics, and usually black-orientated ones (that's my thing) and if memory serves me right I've tapped into a little bit of today's bands. Well today I have another go hacking into bands of today.

The inspiration for this comes from me and a pal starting to jam together, em on bass, him on guitar. I got into bass originally because of post-punk (Joy Division, PiL, Talking Heads etc, look em up), before getting into hip hop, soul, funk and reggae properly (as opposed to being household background music). I eventually moved on from those musics to British urban, for want of a better word, and picked up the decks and getting onto radio for  a time, at the time of writing. My pal on the other hand got majorly into hip hop, before slipping out of that and now bases his guitar playing on blues, old style RnB and Hendrix-esque playing styles.

The point of this background? Not to delve into how these might be looking too much in the past (I've moaned about that already, and Simon Reynolds book Retromania has a stab at that notion as well) but to give a flavour of how these styles might gel together. My pal is the one with the ideas bustling inside him, it would be hard to de-rail him. He wants a raw style, that he argues isn't currently in modern bands. I see a lack of vibe in a lot of modern electronic styles too, music I'd rather listen to at home than a club (garage is the biggest criminal of this, clearly not having a catalyst to take it out of the garage frame altogether). I for one have little interest in modern bands, that's probably more down to taste. As far as my bass playing style goes, I want a groove to it, hence the styles I mentioned. Now it's early days, but essentially a melding of complicated grooving basslines with a raw rhythm guitar could the scenes own catalyst, creating a new vibe for the 2010s.

There was a time where bands did this kind of melding and re-interpretation. Bands like the Stones and Beatles had their own take on RnB (my pals current period) and the psot punk bands mixed the energy of punk with abrasive guitars and funky bass (how I picked up the bass). Nobody these days seems willing to do this. The alternative scene is mainly white dominated, fair enough. The problem is now it's pretty incestuous, there's little exploring outside of 'white' playing styles. There's almost no touching of modern technology, the new taboo that would somehow ruin the authenticity of the music. Strictly guitar-bass-drums on both sides of the Atlantic.

There have been some examples of bands going to the unknown, such as the Reverand of the Reverand and the Makers going for his 'dancehall' album. I'm a bit sceptical of this, sounds like he's trying to do a modern version of doing what the Clash and John Lydon did in their time rather than anything groundbreaking. More importantly, this isn't likely to be incorporating dancehall into his own, but his interpretation of it, and it's unlikely to be a similar result a la the Beatles.

My message for bands of the day, of whatever style, but mainly of indie/alternative fame, break out of doing just the one style, It doesn't have to be black music you look at, but understand that part of the reason people will look back at eras with bands with bigger legacies is because they though outside the box

Reggaeton

This this a while back for a MOBO competition, no expert on the subject but you might learn something, holla on what you think,

It has been in existence for almost two decades now, with a stable and growing audience. Even Carlos Tevez has recently admitted his love for it. But what, exactly, is reggaeton? On first listening, it is easy to pick out familiar themes from this Latin American urban style. Reggaeton adapts styles such as reggae and dancehall, Hip Hop and electronica but then combines it with local South American styles such as salsa, latin pop and cumbia. The dancehall links are perhaps the strongest outside of the Latin ones, indeed, dancehall artists such as Beenie Man and Elephant Man have been known to appear on reggaeton tracks, whether DJs are borrowing their vocals for their latest mix or the artists themselves actively contributing.

For a style that begun in the 1990s in Panama, it has done relatively well. It has become a staple for most Latin American urban dances, as well the Spanish-speaking Caribbean and has even begun to break into North America, Europe and Asia, particularly is there is a sizable Spanish speaking community. This of course raises a seemingly simple question, if reggaeton is that awe-inspiring, why is there so little mention of it in the urban scene?

Language is one obvious factor, Britain possess neither a huge Spanish speaking community, or a population willing to speak a language other than English. In Britain at least, the Caribbean community, especially the Jamaican section, has had a huge influence on the British urban scene, a scene that prides itself on electronic music more than its Latin counterpart, so it’s also partly to do with taste.

Then there is that PR monster that is Hip Hop and R&B, such is the strength of these two urban styles that UK Garage and Grime struggle to get past England in popularity, never mind the rest of the world. What hope does this music, that doesn’t even have English as a first language, have?

Well, amidst all this doom and gloom, there is hope for this commercially fledging style. Internet forums are buzzing, helping the scene to develop and grow. There is even a UK equivalent in the world of forums, keeping that niche audience going against the onslaught that is British and American urban music. Artists such as MC Magico and the Latin Clan combine with local DJs such as DJ Jose Luis and DJ Loco to provide their own tracks, or tap into the musical reservoir that is Latin America.

Presumably North America is having more success, with more Spanish speaking immigrants. As far as the scene in Britain is concerned, the best tactic would probably be to consolidate its position, before leaving its London fort for an all assault on the rest of England, slowly but surely pushing its way up to the Northern frontiers. From the point of view of this writer, I certainly hope this battle plan is taken up. In this day and age of multi-cultural Britain, reggaeton would be a fresh and exciting perspective to take up, and would certainly pump something new into an unsuspecting British urban scene.  

Back from the dead

23rd December, Band on the Wall the Venue in God's Country (aka Manchester) to see an 11 piece ska outfit, Baked a la ska the name, trying their damnest to comically go back to the Two Tone era, with a lead singer trying to be terry hall and suggs at the same time, with his Rasta sidekick shaking a maraca litterally to his own beat, because it certainly wasn't to the drummers.

That rinsing was inspired by a mock review I've done for that band in a media project, but does make me wonder about the obession about going back to the past when it comes to music, a golden era.


Rock and its various sub-genres (yes I'm including metal, folk etc, anything that has been inspired by the original Blues and rock n' roll) have usually been the worst for it. After the 1960s heyday of woodstock, and prog rock taking over, there's been this constant battle to make rock what it used to be in its various forms. Some are simple carbon copies of the music, such as the 1970s mod scene, and really add nothing to the revival beyond people living a musical world away from where they are at. Others, such as punk and Two Tone, looked to the past but put their own edge, punk at its best going back to the  1950s 3 chord pop song but with attitude, while two tone took punks energy and social message of the time to speed up Jamaican ska.

That is perhaps my biggest problem with revivals, the lack of social message. Most revivals, or flogging a dying scene, have no connection to the mainstream social situation. Part of the reason for the success of Two Tone and punk is that it was a reaction to the problems of the time. Racial violence was at its height in 1979, a racially mixed movement in Two Tone, from the West Midlands no less, was more powerful than say, an all white band playing ska in its original format.

When you have people nowadays still trying to live the Northern Soul life, it rings hollow when it is little more than pure escapism, rather than its own movement, particularly when people who weren't even alive in its heyday want to live the life.

So far its rock types and implicitly whites I seem to have had a go at. Electronica is not always guilt free by far. Jungle, a genre I'm very fond of (and no, I was too young for it's heyday) has its revival from North America, reggae over fast beats. The point is missed two fold, first of all it wasn't just reggae over fast beats, there was a proper fusion of hip hop, dancehall, and the music of mainland Europe. Of course North Americans struggle to grasp the special relationship England has with Jamaica which the original jungalists knew how to implement. North America absorbs Jamaicans into Black America so quickly the 2nd generation just act like any Black person in the area, only the first generation of blacks have any attention paid to them.

The second point again is that Jungle came out of the rave movement, which was powerful in Britain, and Tory Britain which had a huge affect in the inner cities, again born in the here and now. The attempts to get reggae singers on board sound hollow in comparison. Fact is nobody will stop looking to the past, there is forever something romantic about old styles because they are out of fashion. The thing is to avoid relying on the past too much, instead keep pushing forward with new sounds and things to talk about. Try a new trick on the guitar, make a new sound out of the sampler. Instead of shanking on the streets, or sloganeering, talk about something else and do it different. We shouldn't have to rely on the past for so much inspiration.