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