Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Lars Ullrich still hates the internetz.
"The Internet gives everybody a voice, and the Internet has a tendency to give the complainers a louder voice."
No, Lars will NOT listen to you complain about the sound quality of the new Metallica album, and, no, you're wrong - the Guitar Hero version of the game is not better. "There's nothing up with the audio quality. It's 2008, and that's how we make records." Link.
DJ Vadim diagnosed with cancer
DJ Vadim, has been diagnosed with a rare form of eye cancer known as Ocular Melanoma / Choroidal Melanoma. He was operated on last Friday, in London. His wife, Yarah Bravo, has written about it on her myspace page.
"So many times has he had my back and lifted me up when i was down! And i wish now that we can all do the same for him! All i am asking from you, is to create a proactive boomerang….WORLD WIDE and please pray for him! Help him heal!! Send him all your energy and love, and think intensely about him surviving, recovering and coming back stronger!!!"

Here's hoping he is able to fight off the cancer and make a full recovery.

Friday, September 26, 2008

Friday freshness
Some tunes to get you thru the day...

TM Juke and Jack Baker trio
- 'Fortune favours the bold' (link) ... gloriously skittish funk
AFTA1 - 'Honey dip' (link) ... blunted hiphop blurred into dubstep electronics
The Bamboos - King of the rodeo (link) can you say Aussie funk?
The Phenomenal Handclap Band - Testimony (link) features members of Antibalas, Dapkings and more. They describe theur sound as "anthemic, dancefloor-oriented blend of progressive rock, disco, electro, and '60s soul with sprinklings of hip hop-styled orchestral breakbeats and moody, synth-heavy hooks."

If you like any of these, go and buy them! Enjoy.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008



Free music.

In case you missed it, Amplifier are giving away a tune off my new Dub Asylum EP, offer good til thursday. Grab it here.

Just heard that my song "Smash Thru" has debuted on the KiwiFM Weekly Top Ten at #10 -choice!

Also, got my first review of the EP, from Groove Guide. "Ba Ba Boom is the latest release for Dub Asylum and the five tracks are hiving and jiving and the perfect selection of songs to shake your booty to.

The majority of the music is written by Peter McLennan and he is also the man behind the mixing and engineering on the tracks but the EP also features collaborations with some of NZ’s finest. Musically it opens with “Smash Thru” which features the incredible vocal and lyric writing styles of MC Kyla. Such an upbeat banging track that I’d be surprised if it doesn’t make it onto indie radio stations top 10s.

The second track features the horn section of the WBC and there’s something friendly about the track that reminds me of Sesame Street in a very good way! The real dub starts to shine through from tracks 2-4 and it gets mellower and slower as it goes on finishing with a beautiful track that features Sandy Mill on vocals. Love it!" - Fleur Jack, Groove Guide #237, 17 Sept 08.
Trailer for Biggie Smalls film 'Notorious'
Watch it here.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Benny Hill riddim
"Producer and artist Leftside samples Boots Randolph's Yakety Sax, perhaps best known as the theme tune for The Benny Hill Show, to create a fast-paced bashment rhythm propelled by handclaps, sax riffs and parping brass stabs." Versions from Lady Saw and Elephant Man. Silly.
Get it here.
Kanye and his crazy comb-voice
Heard the new Kanye single? Dude is all autotune... it's hideous... "On the finished single ['Lockdown'], it sounds like he’s singing through a plastic comb with some toilet paper wrapped around it. Link.

Monday, September 22, 2008

?uestlove (The Roots) interview
Link. Dude's t-shirt days "Future community organizer". Nice.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Ring The Alarm, BaseFM, Sept 20 playlist
Today's show was a tribute to Norman Whitfield, legendary Motown producer and songwriter.

Rose Royce - Sunrise
Temptations - Psychedelic shack
Temptations - Ma
Rose Royce - Do it, do it
Rare earth - Big John is my name
Jackie Mittoo - Chicken and booze
Brigadier Jerry - Ram dance master
Jimmy London - I'm your puppet
Bornx river prkway - Donde
Ernie K Doe - Here come the girls (Andy Smith reboot)
Dub Asylum - My sneaker collection weighs a ton (get it free from Amplifer)
Roy Ayers - Boogie back
20th Century steel band - Papa was a rolling stone
Overnight players - Shaka the great
Black seeds - Year of the pig
Ozomatli - Super bowl sundae (Peanutbutter wolf remix)
Nina Simone -Taking care of business (Pilooski re-edit)
Scritti Politti - Absolute
Temptations - War
Temptations - Ball of confusion
Madd racket - Get it (good god!)
Meters -Tippi toes
Hypnotic brass ensemble - Brass in Africa
Mungos Hifi - Ing dub
Hortense Ellis - People make the world go round
Temptations - Papa was a rolling stone
Money money money
Thanks to Robyn for posting this on the Public Address forums... It clearly explains just how the financial mess in the US came about.

"There's an hour-long special on NPR's All Thing's Considered radio show which explains the subprime crisis in simply, entertainingly yet thoroughly.

'This American Life producer Alex Blumberg teams up with NPR's Adam Davidson for the entire hour to tell the story—the surprisingly entertaining story—of how the U.S. got itself into a housing crisis. They talk to people who were actually working in the housing, banking, finance and mortgage industries, about what they thought during the boom times, and why the bust happened. And they explain that a lot of it has to do with the giant global pool of money.' There's a transcript too if you want to read it."
I read the transcript, well worth it. Made a lot more sense than the various long-winded reports in the Weekend Herald.

Friday, September 19, 2008



Free Dub Asylum download for you!

Listened to my new EP yet? It's good, I tell ya! Here's what the folks at Radio RDU's The Joint had to say... "Stand out track for us is the heavyweight title track "Ba Ba Boom!" - with its skankalicious horns it sounds like something King Tubby wrote for a marching band."

Anyways, if you want to get a taster of my new tunes, the folks at Amplifier can help you out... read on...

Free Download Dub Asylum - My Sneaker Collection Weighs A Ton
"Dub Asylum (a.k.a. Peter McLennan from NZ music legends the Hallelujah Picassos) returns from the wilderness with five songs of funky goodness, mixing up dub, ska, hip-hop and down-tempo.

Dub Asylum have recently released the Ba Ba Boom! EP which serves as a taster of their second album (the follow-up to She Dubs Me, She Dubs Me Not from 2002), due to drop at the end of the year.

Thanks to Peter My Sneaker Collection Weighs A Ton is free to download for a week from the 18th of September.

Click here for your FREE download."

Papa was a rolling stone
From Funky 16 Corners - listen to the original, and a beautiful reggae version by the Pioneers. Other audioblog tributes here, here, and here.

I was digging thru my records last night, and damn, I own a ton of Norman Whitfield productions. Three Rose Royce albums, five Temptations albums, a Rare Earth disc, some Marvin Gaye, and the soundtrack for Car Wash...

Whitfield revolutionised the classic Motown sound at a time when its star was starting to fade, introducing a psychedelic soul sound most famously heard on 'Papa was a rolling stone'. His extended soul-workouts are something to be heard, like Sunrise off Carwash, or Zoom of the Temptations' album '1990'. Echoed strings, brass, wahwah guitar, minimalist bass plucking - it's a sound with so much space.

He also wrote (in collaboration with songwriting partner Barrett Strong) songs like War, Heard it on the grapevine, Papa was a rolling stone, Ball of confusion, Aint too proud to beg, He was really saying something, so many more...

Ma by Undisputed Truth on Soul Train, bugged out soul...

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Wire did not get a complimentary thighmaster after meeting Suzanne Somers
Genius headline courtesy of Idolator, video clip over here.
RIP Norman Whitfield
Legendary Motown producer, famous for his psychedelic soul productions for Temptations (think "Papa was a rolling stone"), Marvin Gaye, Rose Royce, Undisputed Truth, Rare Earth and more.
More here and here.

ADDED: "My thing was to out-Sly Sly Stone," Whitfield told Marvin Gaye' biographer, David Ritz. "Sly was definitely sly, and his sound was new, his grooves were incredible, he borrowed a lot from rock. He caught the psychedelic thing. He was bad. I could match him though, rhythm for rhythm, horn for horn." Link.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

"Vinyl is back!" MSM angle, version #342
See here. Wall St Journal - "The 12-inch vinyl LP record - in decline for the past two decades, clung to only by DJs, audiophile nerds and collectors - is making a stand amid the digital revolution."
Wow, really?

Previously... "New York Times Offers Yet Another Lesson In How To Write A “Vinyl Is Back” Trend Piece" link


Sonseed: The Last Word (Complete With Suggested Last Meal)

Link to Christian ska band video from a while back, and the response, via Idolator. "Over the weekend we got further evidence of the video's veracity via a very heated e-mail from one Salvatore Polichetti. The subject line? "How full of shit are you? Lots!"
Wale's mixtape about nothing - Wale meets Jerry
A while back, rapper Wale put out a A Mixtape About Nothing, inspired by the tv show Seinfeld. A few weeks back, Wale got to meet Jerry Seinfeld after one of Jerry's shows...

"Me: Hey I’m Dan Weisman, really nice to meet you, this is Wale
Jerry: Oh, Wale. Yes. I really liked your thing.
Wale: Thanks man, that means a lot. I really liked your thing too.
Jerry: (turns to road manager) This is Wale, that rapper who made the mashup mixtape thing with the theme song and bits from the show. I really liked it; listened to it quite a few times.
Wale: That means so much man, thank you. I’m a huge fan and the show was so inspiring to me.
Me: You weren’t offended by the mixtape?
Jerry: No! I’m a comedian. I loved it.
Wale: That’s great cuz I became kinda famous off it." Go see the photo.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Jack Benny interviews Isaac Hayes in 73
Or more accurately, Jack Benny drops a few clunky gags with Isaac as the straight man. Watch here.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Ring The Alarm, BaseFM, Sept 13 playlist
Melaaz - Non non non
Winston Francis & Brentford rockers - Going to Zion
Dumatix feat Prince Blanco - Pressurise me
Dillinger - Cocaine in my brain (Groove Corp remix)
Red Astaire - Follow me
Bronx River Parkway - El rasbalon
Gay Flamingos steel band - Black man's cry
Roy Ayers - Red, black and green (Playing live in Akld, October 25!)
Magic circle express - Magic fever
Archie Bell and the Drells -Tighten up (Benny la Beat rework)
Faith Evans -Mesmerised
Pacific Heights - TK funk
Dark angel -Free da minds
Kolab - Inner beat (JBrown relick)
Mungos Hifi feat Top Cat - Herbalist
Wiseguys - Oh la la
Rodriquez - Sugarman
Roberto Roena - Take five (Nicola Conte remix)
Pointer sisters - Yes we can can
Trouble funk - Drop the bomb
Dj Mujava - Township funk (Ashley Beedle re-edit)
Roots Manuva - Again and again (Moody boyz remix)
Jah Mason and Dubwize - Put Jah above
Lightning Head - NPG

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Frenzy
Late yesterday, Newstalk ZB reported that...

Murdered Mangere officer was in Split Enz.
"The undercover police officer murdered outside a suspected P lab in South Auckland was once a member of Split Enz.

Sergeant Don Wilkinson was shot dead yesterday morning after he and a colleague tried to put a tracking device on a car outside a suspected P lab.

Superintendent Ted Cox has spoken to the officer's mum and dad and they have told him how proud they are of their son and the work that he did. Police also said Sergeant Wilkinson was a keen guitarist, even playing lead for Split Enz in their early days.

The officer has had a varied career working in places like Antarctica and worked for the UN in Bosnia." 12 Sept, 17.19 NewsTalkZB

A number other news-sites, like NZcity, picked it up (see here), buta brief search on Google will show you that the guitarist in question was Wally Wilkinson, and Don Wilkinson was 11 when Split Enz started in 1973. Newstalk ZB have since amended their report.

Friday, September 12, 2008

Howl Festival punk panel
Via Brooklyn Vegan,panellists are Richard Lloyd (Television), Ari Up (Slits), Cynthia Sley (Bush Tetras), Judy Nylon (Snatch), Walter Lure (Heartbreakers), Arturo Vega (Ramones), Steve Garvey (Buzzcocks), Moderator: Mary Harron. Clip runs for 60 mins....


Friday Freshness.

Got a tune for you peeps...

Bomb the Bass - "So Special" (Radio Edit)
http://www.zshare.net/audio/185993706558824f/

"a record that's fresher than anyone might have expected from an outfit that got its start in the '80s." Future Chaos is a synth-rich album boasting guest vocals from Jon Spencer, Mark Lanegan, Fujiya & Miyagi's David Best, Toob, and Paul Conboy.

Bomb The Bass - Future Chaos Out September 30th, 2008, !K7 Records

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Menahan St Band
I got my hands on a copy of this wickedly funky album after Sharon Jones and the Dapkings were down this way back in March. Tommy Brenneck plays guitar in the Dapkings, and this is his band and damn, they hot.

"The MSB sound is less like what the Dap-Kings themselves turn out and more on what I'd call "soul meets cool jazz" tip, not unlike what Leon Michels has done with the El Michels Affair over at Truth and Soul and not surprisingly, many T&S players are featured in the MSB."

"Many of you will remember them as the group sampled on Jay-Z's "Roc Boys". As legend has it, their song "Make The Road By Walking" was discovered by Diddy's production team at some point in between their presumably lengthy cheesecake runs. Tommy Brenneck, the founder of the band, has been quoted as saying that Jay-Z laughed at him when he asked if MSB could get a well-deserved shout-out on the joint. "

Listen here, or here. Album out on Dunham Records (Daptone's sub-label) Oct 14.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

DJ Mujava - Township funk
This tune is going to be everywhere in a minute. Watch the video over here and check the Ashley Beedle edit. Full release on 12" out thru Warp, Sept 15 (or digital right now - try iTunes). Hat tip to Jubt.

From Warp's site... "21 year old Mujava got his break when taxi drivers - who had heard him play on community radio and act as independent grassroots music distributors in South Africas urban townships - started spreading his sound in their cab stereos and selling CDs they had acquired from visits to his house directly to their customers accross Pretoria."

ADDED go listen to Bobby LA Beat's Archie Bell & The Drells - Tighten Up rework. Sheeet is tight.
"How the Music Business Spent the [US] Summer Killing Itself"
snip... "All in all, it's been a depressing summer for the delusional record industry. We're seeing a total disconnect between labels' unrealistic, old-school revenue expectations and what the market can bear. On the streaming-music front in particular, the sad reality is that advertising revenue isn't, and may never be, there to fully support the music industry's wishful-thinking profit margins.

As Advertising Age Editor Jonah Bloom said to me last week, labels "can't help looking at what they used to earn from a big band's latest release and wondering why they can't score that. ... The trick is to get your costs in line with your anticipated sales based on current revenue rather than former revenue." Link,
hat tip to Nigel.

Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Outsourced.
Spotted at Coolfer "Today it was announced that Warner Music Group will distribution and market physical product for EMI in Southeast Asia [Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Korea and Thailand]. The companies have had a similar arrangement for India, the Middle East and North Africa since 2005. I was wondering about North America, not smaller and developing markets, but I think such partnerships here are inevitable. A permanent reduction in distribution workforce would have considerable cost savings. Since the number of labels and the number of titles released are not growing, physical distribution needs to be rightsized."

Saturday, September 06, 2008

You freak me
So, late Friday arvo call, and what do you know - I've got tickets for the Crosstown Revue. Yay! Off to see Supergroove and guests at the mighty Civic. Two sets, intermission at a gig, seated venue hmmm..

First set starts with Supergroove joined by Gin Wigmore. What great songs! Word is she's just signed a record deal for the US. Not hard to see why, she is a huge talent. A few Supergroove numbers, then they try out a new song that is... new. Kinda midtempo rock tune, with a chorus that includes Che singing something about "when the shitstorm hits you..." Moving along, Hollie Smith comes out, and sits at the keys and wails thru a few of her numbers, ably backed by Supergroove. The crowd love her. And then its intermission. Strange thing - no-one at the gig in Supergroove t-shirts. Time was, back in the early 90s, you couldnt walk thru town without seeing someone in their tshirts with that logo on. They were everywhere.

Set two opens with the curtain coming up to reveal Scribe sitting on a stool mid-stage, with Supergroove on stage playing a moody intro that shifts into his song Stop The Music, with Gin Wigmore tastefully filling in for that pitched-up vocal sample (wacky ol P-Money). Straight outta that and into Tim and Nick on the horns, honking out that distinctive three-note riff that is Not Many. You get Scribe rapping, with Che and Karl backing him. Choice. Scribe even lets Karl handle lead for one of the choruses, leading my mate to suggest "Look, its Donald Duck onstage!" He does flail most energetically, that boy.

Other highlights - Che's Fade Away, with Hollie and Gin backing him up. And of course, You Freak Me, Scorpio Girls, Can't get Enough, For Whatever Reason (with extra rap added midsong from Scribe) and Chains, featuring Scribe, Gin and Hollie - Killer.

Karl asked the audience for a round of applause for the Civic, and then Che added "Put your hands up if you saw Star Wars here, return of the Jedi" - a few folks cheered and then he laughed and said "heh, you old!" There was a lovely version of Che's tune Misty Frequencies earlier too, with bass, keys, drums and Gin and Hollie on backing vocals.

A great night's entertainment. And at the Civic, one of the most under-used venues in this city. And then there's the Wintergarden too...
Ring The Alarm, BaseFM, Sept 6 playlist
Dennis Brown/Dillinger - Jah is watching you
Prince fatty - Meltdown
Wayne Paul - Take the train
Quantic - Westbound train
Joni Rewind - Uptown ranking
Bobb deep - Got it twisted
Katalyst - Say what you feel
Freddi Henchi - Funky to the bone
Esther Phillips - Use me
Palvov and Mishkin - Brothers
Tony Allen - Sankofa (Hypnotic Brass Ensemble rework)
Patato and Totico - Dilo como yo (Anitbalas remix)
Ernest Ranglin - 54 46 was my number
The lions - Sweet soul music
Techniques - Little did you know
Stranger Cole - Rough and tough
Prince Fari - Hello, love brother
DLT and Che Fu - Chains
DJ Day - Close your eyes
Dub Asylum - My sneaker collection weighs a ton
Amrals Trinidad Cavaliers - 90% of me is you
20th century steel band - Heaven and hell is on earth
Moodorama - Sweet toffee
Freestylers - B-boy stance
Keith Lawrence and Rodney P - Style and fashion
Roots Manuva - Again and again (Moody boyz remix)
Lee Perry vs Moody boyz - God smiled dub take
Benga - B4 the dual
Grooverider pardoned.
From Bigshot mag... "UK drum ‘n’ bass DJ Grooverider (Raymond Bingham) has been pardoned by the Dubai Royal Family. He was released from prison on Thursday after serving ten months of a four year sentence for possessing 2.16 grams of cannabis and pornographic material. Grooverider was arrested at Dubai airport last November, and although he claimed he was unaware of the contraband found in his bag and the country’s no-tolerance policiies, the DJ was convicted and imprisoned."

Friday, September 05, 2008

an interview with TRICKY
on his new album, dubstep, grime, Bernard Butler("A horrible little man"), Switch, M.I.A. and more, link.

Thursday, September 04, 2008

Carl Craig goes classical
"Carl Craig and Moritz von Oswald will tackle the works of Maurice Ravel and Modest Mussorgsky in October.

In the third edition of Deutsche Grammophon's ReConfigured series, the duo have remade one of the most famous classical works of recent vintage, Ravel's "Bolero," as well as Mussorgsky’s "Bilder einer Ausstellung" and another Ravel piece entitled "Rapsodie Espagnola."

The album comes at a particularly classically-inclined time for both, as they'll be playing a show in Paris the day after this album's release in which they will perform what we're guessing will be one or more of the works on the record alongside one of classical music's minimalist icons, Steve Reich. The album follows in the wake of the two previous editions in the series, undertaken by Mattias Arfmann and Jimi Tenor." (link)

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

How Sonny Rollins beat heroin.
"In his six-decade career, legendary saxophonist Sonny Rollins has claimed many a triumph. But his greatest may have come during a quiet period in Chicago." Link, plus videos.
New York Times" Offers Yet Another Lesson In How To Write A "Vinyl Is Back" Trend Piece
"This week, the Sunday Styles section of The New York Times took on the "vinyl is back" trend, thus becoming the 1,495th publication in the United States to do so in the past year." From Idolator. Worth a read, very funny. Expect the same story to pop up in the Sunday Star Times any weekend now (The NZ Herald has already done this story, in Canvas, a while back).

Monday, September 01, 2008

Muxtape's Legal Defense To RIAA: Seriously, You Guys Should Just Leave Us Alone
Link.From Silicon Alley Insider (that's their heading above), and Coolfer.

"... some questions were posed to Muxtape founder Justin Ouellette about Muxtape (his music sharing site that has attracted the attention of the RIAA):

• How is that legal? A non-answer.

• How to make money with Muxtape? Another non-answer.

• What happens when labels start calling? "I would like to work with all labels of all sizes and with individual artists.... Everything I've been thinking about for the future has been related to, What can we do to create an equitable landscape for everybody?"

Earlier, when asked about a scenario in which a label complained about copyright infringement, Ouellette said, "I have to honor that. I think that some people will make a decision that they don't want to interact in that space, and I think they're foolish not to. But I have to respect it. I really do."

Spring has sprung mix
Some audio for you - just signed up to 8tracks.com (similar to muxtape) and made you a mix. Everything from Roots Manuva to Barrington Levy - the kind of stuff I spin on BaseFM. Enjoy. Let me know if you like it and I'll do another one.



How To Build an Album Art Wall on the Cheap

"While sprucing up our place earlier this year, we decided the wall above our mantle could use some art. Rather than pony up for frames, artwork, or blown up photographs, I decided to take advantage of the cheap albums in the dollar bin of my local record store to add beautiful artwork to my living room. With just a few bucks and about 30 minutes, I built an album art wall to display some of my favorite album art—both for albums I love and for albums that I love to look at. The best part: You can easily switch out the albums on display any time. Here's how I did it." Link, Lifehacker.
What We Do Is Secret: Germs biopic
"Rodger Grossman’s long-gestating portrait of the short-lived ’70s punk band the Germs, which was barred from playing Los Angeles clubs by the time it got around to recording an album, focuses on Darby Crash (Shane West), the now-textbook head case/“genius” who founded and disastrously fronted a band whose members couldn’t play their instruments...

... The film’s only watchable scenes are the musical performances, which are always chaotic, frequently mesmerizing, and come closest to reflecting punk’s grimy rawness. The rest is High School Musical with needles and dye jobs." Link. Trailer also.