Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Purdie Shuffle
Right up there with the James Brown's Funky Drummer. Spotted via Crate Kings..

A must read article about legendary drummer Bernard Purdie, the most recorded drummer in history who appeared with over 2,500 artists on over 4,000 albums. Vinyl diggers will know the name… others will need to do some homework.

The New York Times highlights the birth of The Purdie Shuffle along with other great stories including his being incorrectly fined by James Brown and his desire to leave recording sessions as soon as he was done with his part.

“You’d do a first take, and he’d put on his overcoat as if he was about to leave,” said Donald Fagen, the Steely Dan keyboardist. “The problem was that some of the other musicians had just become comfortable with the chords. You had to cajole him to do some other takes so everyone else could polish up their parts a bit.”

"Also be sure to watch the Purdie interview video at the middle of the page… very insightful.

Read the full NY Times article."

ADDED "Uriel Jones, one of the original members of Motown band the Funk Brothers, has died after suffering complications from a heart attack. He was 74. The drummer, who lent his talents to the music of Marvin Gaye, the Temptations and numerous others, passed away in hospital in Dearborn, Michigan, on Tuesday." Passed Tuesday 24 March.

Link. Hat tip to Ms Jen for this.

Nas gets reggae makeover - Jah's Son
God's Son album by Nas done over reggae style by June 22. Check it out here (hat tip to Different Kitchen). A few nice joints on this one. Still digging the Jay-Z reggae one too.
In defence of Twitter for musicians...
Watch this great interview by Andrew Dubber with musician Steve Lawson, talking about how he uses Twitter, and why it works for musicians. Link. Also worth a read: Steve's rant "Twitter sucks, so change your friends".

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Ring The Alarm playlist, BaseFM, March 28
Beat conductor - Caribbean path
20th century steel band - heaven and hell is on earth
El michels affair - Walk on by (off their new 'Tribute to Isaac Hayes' EP, more here)
Erykah Badu - Honey (Grant Phabao remix)
Joe Tex and U Black - Standardisation
Manasseh - Creation dub
Lee Scratch Perry - Everything start from scratch
JBs - Giving up food for funk
Lefties soul connection - 12 inch rims
Rufus Thomas - Memphis train
Staple singers - Blood pressure
Archie Bell and the drells -Tighten up (Bobby La Beat rework)
Phenomenal handclap band - 15 to 20
Bronx river parkway - Me toca
Onra - The anthem
Eric B and Rakim - Don't sweat the technique (UK flavor remix)
Scientist - Don't rush the dub
Amadou and mariam - Djama
Solomonic sound - Children of Israel
Kinny - Forgetting to remember
Kormac- Kormacs house
Specials - Ghost town (DJG bootleg)
Beat pharmacy - Strangers
Overproof sound system - King step (Unitone Hifi dub unreleased version)
El michels affair - Red rooster
Soul investigators w Myron and E - Cold game
Shingo Suzuki - 1000 nights
Phil Cohran - Frankiphone blues

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Mulatu soon come!
I've been going on about this new collaboration between Ethiopian jazz legend Mulatu Astatke and the Heliocentrics. It's infectiously good, funky, jazzy bizznizz. Its set to drop April 14, but here's a sneak preview, thanks to the kind folks at Strut. Read more on Mulatu at Wikipedia.

Mulatu Astatke & The Heliocentrics- "Masenqo" [download]
From: Inspiration Information (April 14th, Strut)

Strut are also reissuing the wicked comp they did back in 2001, called Nigeria 70. Grab a tune off it here... Peter King- "Shango" [download]
From: Nigeria 70: The Definitive Story of 1970's Funky Lagos (March 31st, Strut)

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

JRocc's easy six step guide to DJing
LA DJ and Stonesthow alumni JRocc was sharing his wisdom on Twitter yesterday, so I collected his thoughts on DJing... with a few cheeky comments from DJ Babu thrown in for good measure.

"Why is dj'ing the thing everyone wants to do when they're main hustle isn't working. Buying Serato does not make u a DJ.

If I meet one more celebrity DJ who doesn't have their own headphones or Serato vinyl......shazbot

U want names. Well,Macy Grey asked "Can I borrow your headphones?"...um No. To top of off she just downloaded Serato before the gig...

I'm sure she's a better DJ now.

Celebrities. I will teach you how to DJ. Holler at your boy. $400 an hour. Chuuuuch.

1st step of becoming a DJ. Only do it if you reaaaallllly want to be a DJ. You don't get cool points for becoming one.

Step 2. Practice before you start dj'ing at the clubs.

Step 3. Practice some more. You still suck.

Step 4. Do not play files that are 192 and lower.

Step 5. Bring some vinyl with you to the gig for the switch over. (ooops! You don't own any records)

Step 6. Remove your computer as SOON as your done with your set. The next DJ is not trying to wait for you to get your props.

A DJ that is not a DJ is not a DJ. You are a human iTunes.


djbabuforeal: step 7 make sure u steal the nice technics 45 adapters if they're not already taken

djbabuforeal: step 8 make sure to say the strippers name before And after each dance and encourage patrons to tip

djbabuforeal@jrocc sumthin I learned from @Rhettmatic: step 9 bring ur computer to the gig

jrocc: Babu added some funny steps but on the real....step 10. Please don't bite another DJ's mix.

Once had a famous dude tell me he liked my "Sex Machine Today" mix and he does a few of those mixes. --what part of the game is that?

Also. DJ's worldwide. if you come to the west coast to spin.....don't do the dr.dre/snoop dogg set....please.


djbabuforeal: step 11 when people make requests say "of course I'll play some t-pain!" then don't

djbabuforeal: step 12 see step 117 minutes ago from Tweetie in reply to jrocc

djbabuforeal: step 13 if u scratch with ur mouth please wipe of the mixer

djbabuforeal: step 14 when u play Simon says make sure there are 2 hot chicks standing next to u to rub on their titties2 minutes ago from Tweetie in reply to jrocc"


As you can see, this went on for a while - damn funny, tho.

If you're on Twitter, add em... @jrocc and @djbabuforeal.
U2 reinvent themselves again, says reviewer... again...
NBR's David Cohen has been looking at the previous reviews of U2s recorded output. He found some intriguing similarities.

According to the Herald’s review of the group’s latest album, No Line On The Horizon, U2 has finally broken with its “safe and predictable” sound. Best not to get “too comfy” with the new album, reviewer Scott Kara warned last Thursday, “because delve deeper and it reveals itself as the most radical U2 album in years - perhaps ever.”

Delve a little deeper into the Herald archives, though, and something else is revealed: a startlingly similar critical take on the group’s last big-ticket album, How to Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, which was also hailed as something that “goes from being just another think-big U2 album to something great.”

But wait. So, too, it appears — at least in the Herald’s view — did the band’s album before that, All That You Can Leave Behind (“the first proper U2 album in years”), which also apparently saw the group having “figured out how to write songs again, and how to grow old gracefully.”

...Rewinding again through the paper’s review archives, to 1991, and another, eerily similar critical verdict was passed on the band’s album of the time, Achtung Baby, with the review serving notice that “while U2 were in the studio working on this radically altered album the number one rule was no songs that sound like U2 songs, please. Well, they succeeded.”

But U2 also succeeded in shucking off the U2 sound with their earlier album, The Joshua Tree, as well, according to another Herald review published at the time of its release, in 1987, which declared Joshua Tree to be, first and foremost, an album that “doesn’t sound like U2."

Read it in full here
Vinyl record collectors fair on this Saturday March 28
The Auckland Vinyl Record Collectors Fair takes place Saturday March 28 at Polish House, Morningside. Stalls include New Zealand vinyl and New Vinyl Imports and foreign, 60s, rare, dance, reggae etc vinyl. Murray Cammick will be there too, selling more funk, soul vinyl, vintage music magazines etc. The event also has stalls selling turntables & accessories.

The venue is the Polish House Hall, 1 McDonald St, on the corner of Ethel Road, off Sandringham Road, opposite Eden Park. The fair runs from 10am to 3pm. There is a $3 entry fee. You need more records, right?

Monday, March 23, 2009

S92A - gone by lunchtime.
This controversial clause in the new Copyright Act will be scrapped and rewritten.

"... The legislation was put in place to combat unlawful file-sharing which facilitates copyright infringement on a large scale, but "...allowing section 92A to come into force in its current format would not be appropriate given the level of uncertainty around its operation," says Simon Power. The legislation needs to be re-examined and reworked to address concerns held by stakeholders and the government, he says. " Link.

"The Telecommunications Carriers Forum (TCF), representing all major ISPs, has being working on a draft code of practice, and discussing it with copyright holders, lead by Rianz (the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand)." Link.

They were given an extension by John Key last month, til March 27, but have failed to come up with a code of conduct that is acceptable to all parties involved, which suggests that S92a was hopelessly flawed and too vaguely worded to ever be effective in any meaningful form.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Whitefield Brothers - In The Raw
Great reissued album from this German outfit (incl members of Poets of Rhythm, Karl Hector and Malcouns), originally released back in 2001 on defunct label Soulfire, now available thru the folks at Stonesthrow/Now Again. Try a sample here.

"Let’s rewind back to 2001, shall we? The Modern Funk and Soul scene was for a select few. When this record first came out, there were no Dap Kings yet. Sharon Jones had just started to do her thing via her 45s, and the El Michels Affair were just wee ones playing gigs as the Might Imperials (Thunder Chicken anyone?).

Here’s where the founding members of The Poets of Rhythm, Jan and Max Whitefield come into play. At that time, they came from Munich, Germany to New York to record this very record.

When they approached now defunct Desco Records honcho Phillipe Lehman to record their African inspired Funk, (think Fela Kuti doing Meters covers, heavy drums and that great African rhythm), he was game.

The sound, some may say is an acquired taste, like say, a Belgian white beer. What premonition guys like Gabriel Roth (co founder of Desco and Daptone Records), Leon Michels (El Michels Affair), and Neal Sugarman ( Daptone co-founder with Roth) had when they agreed to be involved with this project."
RIP Eddie Bo.
"Eddie Bo was a lifelong New Orleans resident, piano player, producer, and ambassador for the City..." most well-known tune is Hook and Sling. Passed away aged 78. Link.
Ring The Alarm playlist, BaseFM, March 21.
Dub syndicate - Pounding systems
Lee Scratch Perry - Killamanjaro
Big Youth - Feed a nation
Barrington Levy - Shine eye girl dub
Singers and players - Snipers in the streets
Junior Soul -Super love
Prince Fari - Hello love brother dub
Mophono - Edge remix
Little sister - Stanga
Miriam Makeba - Lumumba
Maceo and the Macks - Soul power 74
Aural Exciters - Emile
Beat Pharmacy feat Space ape - Ghostship
Noel Ellis - Stop your fighting
Junior Murvin - Cool out son
Kyenie - Lambsbread
Shingo Suzuki - Echo form the sky
Onra - The anthem
Unity - Dont wanna change (Nostalgia 77 remix)
Fantasy funk band - Smoove (Nina S vs James B)
The Emotions - I like it
Butch Cassidy sound system - Rockers galore
Lee Scratch Perry - Lucy charm
Don Carlos -Late nite blues (DJG bootleg)
Tosca - Springer
Lee Scratch Perry - International broadcaster
Nat King Cole - Day in, day out (Cut Chemist remix)
Singers and players feat Prince Fari - Bedward the preacher

Friday, March 20, 2009

Did a Black Band Invent Punk Rock Back in 1974?
"The original Afro-Punk? The group is called Death and you can read about this group's pioneering work in The New York Times here." From Different Kitchen.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Fab Five Freddy sets the record straight on Illmatic.
Check this out. Hiphop pioneer Fab Five Freddy talks about "the subject of XXL Magazine's recent feature "Still Ill" where they go back 15 years ago into the making of Nas' first album masterpiece "Illmatic"... we start discussing how MC Serch, interviewed for the XXL piece, says some kinda flagrant sideways shit about Fab, his involvement in "Illmatic" and how he allegedly made the completion of said classic album very difficult..." Link to Fab Five Freddy interview.

Also discovered that Dante Ross (A&R credited with signing ODB, Pete Rock and Cl Smooth, Brand Nubians, Everlast, and Busta Rhymes,) has cool blog at slamxhype. And his own site is wicked, the layout is based on an MPC sampler. He's got a bunch of cool magazine articles (under Writings) there, and another blog.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

New Tosca tune for you.
"Tosca, the collaborative duo made up of electronic music heroes Richard Dorfmeister and Richard Huber, are back with their fifth LP, No Hassle out April 28th on !K7. Check out the first track to leak from the album, "Springer," linked below. Streaming audio, a video interview, and a free track are available at http://www.tosca-nohassle.com.

Tosca
- "Springer" [download]
No Hassle (April 28th, !K7)
http://www.tosca-nohassle.com (video interview, streaming audio, free track & more)

Monday, March 16, 2009



Dust and grooves

Another post from this splendid blog cataloging record collectors and their records. This time talking with DJ Prestige of Fleamarket Funk. Check it!
Mighty sounds a-coming
RSD, Bristol bass and drum music stalwart Rob Smith (one half of respected production duo Smith and Mighty), has been pushing bass heavy rhythms for more than two decades.

Under the moniker RSD, Rob Smith produces fresh, innovative bass music that simultaneously pays dues to his deep soundsystem roots while pushing things ever forward - he remains firmly at the forefront of Bristol's endlessly inventive music scene.

And this week sees RSD hits NZ for three shows - Thurs 19, Welly, Fri 20, Dunedin & Weds 25, Auckland - check NiceUp for RSD interview & Top Ten!

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Ring The Alarm playlist, BaseFM, March 14.
Sharon Jones and the Dapkings - Inspiration information
Eli Paperboy Reed - Gonna getcha back
Big bud - Bubblin dub
Horace Andy - Just say who
Ini Kamoze and Capital D - World a reggae
Michael Rose and Twilight circus - No burial
Sola rosa feat Baijka - Humanised
Nat King Cole - Day in, day out (Cut Chemist remix)
Idris Mohammed - Express yourself
Sister Nancy - Only woman dj with degree
Shinehead - Raggamuffin
Phillis Dillion - Rocksteady
Nosaj thing - Aquarium
Paul St Hilaire -Office
Manasseh - Zion city
Skatalites - Collie bud
Jackie Mittoo - Disco Jack
Hikoikoi - Vibraphone
Phenomenal handclap band - You'll disappear
Amanda Diva - Heartstrings
Dusty - Voodoo (Romanowski's remix)
Jean Knight - Carry on
Rufus and Chaka Khan - Once you get started
Speech Debelle - Searching
Bob Marley - Mr Chatterbox
Dub Aslyum - New untitled tune I wrote last week (and am giving a test drive on the radio)
Tom Waits on the big screen
Spied this at the Anti Records blog... Tom Waits picks up his on-again-off again acting career with a few gigs round the place... "He has also collaborated with Kool Keith on N.A.S.A.’s recently released The Spirit of Apollo.

Currently, Tom Waits is in the midst of filming The Book of Eli, directed by Albert and Allen Hughes (From Hell, Dead Presidents, Menace II Society, among others). Eli is a post-apocalyptic Western, in which a lone man fights his way across America in order to protect a sacred book that holds the secrets to saving mankind. The film stars Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman with Tom Waits in a small role as “Engineer.” This will mark Waits’ second teaming with Oldman as Waits’ played Renfeld to Oldman’s Count Dracula in the Francis Ford Coppola version of the classic vampire film.

In other film news, Waits stars as Mr. Nick (the devil) opposite Christopher Plummer in Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, which is also Heath Ledger’s last film..."

Friday, March 13, 2009

Serene Roots of Korean Free Jazz
I just had to repost that, cos it's the best title for a blog post in a long time. From WFMU. As fro Korean free jazz, explore at your own risk.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

People's Potential Unlimited
Heard Recloose raving about this label on his radio show on GeorgeFM, check em out. Very cool reissue label. Link to WFMU blog.

"One of my favorite recent finds on the interweb is the oeuvre of DC based Peoples Potential Unlimited, a small 7" only label devoted to re-issuing obscure and private press early 80s funk. Much like the Numero group has made a cottage industry of unearthing several volumes of home made "eccentric soul", PPU mines the Jheri curl synth-laden past and comes up with some great finds.

My favorite so far is the BallPlayers EP, a short collection of laser heavy dance tunes that are supposedly the work of major league baseball players Lenny Randle and Thad Bosley recorded during downtime from their day jobs. My initial reaction was that this was a Clutchy Hopkins style fake backstory but the label insists its true. For good measure I'm also throwing up another cheese funk number by Cruise, a New Orleans based group whose masters were all wiped out during Katrina..."

Monday, March 09, 2009

Simon Sweetman does NOT like Fat Freddy's Drop
Link. Music reviewer Simon Sweetman has never been a fan of Fat Freddys, but finally succumbed and saw them live recently. Still not convinced, apparently.

"...What I ended up seeing was as monumentally underwhelming, insipid and uninspired as I had always assumed the band would be when playing live..."

"... I will never understand the appeal of this group. Good on them for selling over 100,000 copies; remarkable when considering the cloaked intentions of a boring album were stitched together with some of that ingenious invisible thread. The smoke and mirrors, rather than the band, must be applauded..."


ADDED... From the 125 comments on the story, here's #19 from Chris "My scientific test for discerning whether a band is sweet or not is by considering my parents contemporary, as opposed to youth acquired, music collection. Unfortunately for FFD my mum got their CD for Christmas about three years ago. Sorry dudes, you've been relegated to the ranks of parental lovemaking soundtracks. Oh. My. God. I'm. Gonna. Barf."

Me, I like Fat Freddy's Drop, and have enjoyed their live shows in the past. Am not convinced by the new singles yet, so will wait and see what their new album is like.

Sunday, March 08, 2009

Ring The Alarm, BaseFM, 7 March playlist
Special thanks to Flo, one of my listeners, for bringing me up some homemade cookies - that's so awesome!

Beat pharmacy - Sunshine
Basic channel - Remake basic reshape
Joe Ariwa - The train
Manasseh - Western world version
JDilla - Won't do
Mulatu and the Heliocentrics - Cha cha
Miriam Makeba - Ibande
Ayah - Pusherman 2008
Phenomenal handclap band - 15 to 20
Myron and E and the soul investigators - I can't let you get away
Noel Ellis - Dance with me
Horace Andy and Ashley Beedle - Rasta don't
Dub funk association - Enter the chuzzler
Daktaris- Its all a big hustle (Mad Professor remix)
Bits and pieces - Don't stop the music
Seran paul and Dapkings - Get busy ticklah mix (B.cause edit)
Amadou and Mariam - Djama
Como mamas - Trouble in my way
Issa Bagayogo - Dibi
Liquid liquid - Cavern
Rufus thomas - Funky bird
Izza kizza - Walk the dog
Onra - The anthem
Sola rosa - Humanised
Kaleta and zozo afrobeat - Baba Nia iya (intense suffering)
Jackie Mittoo - Mother funk
Pitch black - Rude mechanicals (Sound guise remix)
Prince fatty - Cow foot and gravy

Friday, March 06, 2009


Mulatu Astatke Meets The Heliocentrics interview feature
Link to video. Mulatu Astatke & The Heliocentrics- Inspiration Information (out April 14th 2009, Strut). Seriously good, jazzy, funky business. One of the most exciting things you gonna hear this year.

Thursday, March 05, 2009

RIP Steve Android.
Just saw this via Simon Grigg's blog.
"Stephen (Steve Android). Passed away suddenly on Sunday night March 1, 2009."
See NZ Herald Classifieds: Deaths. Gig to follow at a later date.

Tuesday, March 03, 2009


Babylon you lose
Horace Andy is one of my favourite reggae vocalists - his dulcet tones have hit the spot on his solo work and with Massive Attack. Now he's hooked up with UK dance producer Ashley Beedle(X-Press 2 / Ballistic Brothers / Warbox / Black Science Orchestra) as part of the Inspiration Information studio album series on Strut Records.

"Recorded during an intensive five-day writing and recording session in London during September 2008, the album is a revelation for those that know and love Horace Andy’s music as he stretches out lyrically on a series of wry, topical commentaries around brotherhood, love and the family, all rooted in his rasta beliefs... Andy also voices two diverse covers, Bob Marley’s plea for reconciliation, ‘Hypocrites’, and a new acoustic take on The Rolling Stones’ classic, ‘Angie’.

Says Beedle, “We created some demo backing tracks to run past Horace before the sessions but found ourselves stripping them back when we went into the studio proper – we’ve tried to let the tracks breathe and allow Horace’s voice to shine as much as possible.”

The album package design follows on from the first Inspiration Information (provided by Sly & Robbie and Amp Fiddler) with a forthcoming volume on the way from Mulatu Astatke & The Heliocentrics. For info on the series, check out: http://www.inspiration-information-series.com/

Remixes coming soon from Soul Jazz Orchestra • Pinch • Toddla T • Cosmodelic.




Horace Andy & Ashley Beedle Inspiration Information (March 3rd, Strut)http://www.strut-records.com/inspirationinformation_two/
Free track download, streaming audio, interviews and more


Babylon You Lose" download • Watch interview feature • Video of "Angie" behind the scenes

Monday, March 02, 2009

Judith Tizard lets rip
From today's Dom Post.
Ms Tizard says New Zealand music makers have been losing out because of piracy. "What we were worried about in particular was peer-to-peer file sharing. New Zealanders who make music and films can lose everything almost overnight if their work is illegally posted. One of the big recording studios told me that whereas a couple of years ago they were fully booked and when they were giving time away it was at 4am, now they are only about 60 per cent booked."

No, that would be due to home recording getting easier, cheaper and more accessible. NOT due to piracy. But wait, there's more!

"Protests against section 92a that saw some websites temporarily removed and bloggers black out their photos were "childish", she says.

"It is not going to get us any further forward. While I understand the concern of internet users who think that their rights to free music and free films are threatened, the right is not to steal New Zealand music and film makers' work. The right to use the internet is a vital one, but libraries can provide it."

But libraries are also liable under S92A, and must police their users. Oh Judith, your future as a comedian is assured. Just don't try and weasel back into Parliament while we aint looking, um-kay?

Sunday, March 01, 2009

Ring The Alarm playlisyt, BaseFM, Feb 28
Bronx river parkway - La valla
Ray Barretto - O elephante (Shh remix)
DJ Hen Boogie w Kissey Asplund - Adore
Dub colossus - Shem city rockers
Noel Ellis - Stop your fighting
Johnny Osbourne - Line up
Horace Andy and Ashley Beedle - Babylon you lose
Jean Knight - Carry on
The Emotions - From toys to boys
Sons of slum - Right on
Sly and the family stone - Remember who you are
Fred Wesley and JBs - Blow your head (undubbed version)
Guilty Simpson - Mans world
Scientist - Dub 16
Love grocer - Salute to Sam
Manasseh - Pharaoh's dub
Mulatu and the Heliocentrics - Mulatu
Issa Bagayogo - Dibi
20th century steel band - Heaven and hell is on earth
Unity - Dont wanna change (Nostalgia77 remix)
Midnight star - Do it to me one mroe time (dub mix)
VV Brown - Crying blood (Andrew Weatherall dub mix)
King midas sound - Cool out
Hugh Masekela - Maseru
Sharon Jones and the Dapkings - Inspiration information