Dub dot dash

Ring The Alarm playlist, BaseFM, Saturday August 20, plus some other stuff.
Family Choice - Reggae beat goes on
Love Grocer - Salute to Sam
George Benson - The ghetto/El barrio
Delegates - Pygmy part 2
Collen and Webb - Jamaican jerkoff aka Golden (Jill Scott reggae mashup)
Hopetoun Lewis - Sounds and pressure
Manu Chao - Merry blues
Meters - Tippi toes
Cedric Im Brooks - Idleberg
Turbulence - Notorious
Sola Rosa feat Paul St Hilaire - Breezes blowing
Stevie Wonder -I wish
Ballistic Bros - Peckings
International Observer - London dub
The Clash - Revolution rock (for Joe Strummer's birthday, and the Joe Strummer Day down at the King's Arms, featuring a variety of musos and DJs including one Jordan Luck, who has never written a song that betrays even the slightest influence of The Clash)
Anthony Cruz - No gun a dance (Real Rock Return riddim)
Elephantman - Chapter a day (Real Rock Return riddim)
Tosca - Bossa on the boat
Dangermouse: Jay Z vs The Beatles - Change Clothes
Flirtations - Nothing but a heartache
Recloose -Mana's bounce
Jackie Mittoo - Earthquake
Sabres of Paradise - Wilmot
DJ Fitchie (aka Mu) -Bam bam vs junglist (got this off the Fat Freddy's Drop website - go there and click on 'Radio Fitchie' and you get a DJ set from the man).
Freddy Cruger feat Desmond Foster - Something good
Mad Lion - Take it easy
Katzenjammers - Cars (Gary Numan on steel drums – ace! Reissued on Red Hook)
Yush2K - Fade away


Read the new isue off Xlr8r magazine at the weekend - there's a review in there of a new release from German reggae label Echo Beach, which is called New Zealand Dub (cover above). Not the greatest title, bit bland, but hey. The reviewer went on at length about beautiful scenery and lush tropical surroundings, didn't mention any artists, although they noted that there was a lack of vocals in most tracks. The comp came out back in April, and was put together for Echo Beach by Loop Recordings outta Wellington. Track listing here. Another review here, where the reviewer notes that this comp is more techno than dub.

Tom Bailey of International Observer discussed NZ reggae in the NZ Herald (not online, which is odd, given that they always put their entertainment reporting up on their site) noting that the lyrical concerns here were very lightweight, far removed from the lyrics he used to hear back in the UK, which was more miltiant, more political. Bailey labelled the NZ reggae style as 'barbecue reggae'.

BaseFM DJ and University lecturer Nabeel Zuberi has some similar comments on his site....

"I have to say that I agree with him [Bailey] and don’t think this is just the bias of a Brit in the Antipodes. There’s a summery good time tropical feel to reggae in the Pacific. It’s bland and too complacent and the lyrics generally suck. Even when they’re political they tend to be simplistic and cliched. The sound is more concerned with chug-a-lug ambience.

It’s like Bob Marley’s ‘Jamming’ and ‘Could you be loved’ are the models, rather than the many versions of ‘Green Bay Killing’ or Junior Murvin’s ‘Police and Thieves’. Even bands that are not strictly ‘reggae’ artists have this kind of all’s-well-with-the-world vibe and make affirmative noises that lack grounding in the material of daily ‘politics’ (with a little p, not just a big P). Bu-bum-bum-bum.

In Jamaican music, the names of the rhythms respond to stuff going on, and the lyrics from people like Papa San, Capleton and others just talk about the ordinary stuff of daily life including the nasty stuff, even if they’re offensive some of the time. And they go on about Iraq and the Middle East and about the police and stuff like that.

A lot of New Zealand dub-influenced music is just too NICE: ‘let’s all chill and smoke another doobie so that we might enjoy the view. Sweet as. I can feel my culture in my veins.’ The naff advertising for fruit juices and rum drinks says it all. Let’s have more blacks grinning on TV. I thought it couldn’t get any worse than the Magnum ads with the black mammy. New Zealand likes its darkies, nah?

I’m not against the downbeat blues-y aesthetic and I’m not just a 1970s roots reggae nostalgialator. My favorite dubbed up track right now is Kode9 & Daddy Gee’s “Sign of the Dub” which is a really dread adaptation/version of Prince’s ‘Sign of the Times’. It makes Rhythm & Sound’s glacial dub pacing seem like happy house tunes. It’s ‘as serious as cancer’ but also has a dark sense of humour.

I don’t want all music to reflect the times or the zeitgeist in an obvious and direct way, but I’d welcome more of our music to be engaged with the serious shit that’s going down on the local and global levels."

I also went back to Real Groovy to have further dig thru the sevens, found some Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight and the Pips doing Heard it thru the grapevine, Jackson 5 - The love you save, Maze - Colourblind, Dazz - Let it whip, Olympic Runners - Dump the bump and a few other bits and pieces. Oddest find - Valley Girl by Frank Zappa (no, I didn't buy it). Don't worry Smackie, I left you Rick James - Super freak and some Grace Jones too. Think they musta all come from jukeboxes, found some labels for em in there. Also found the bonus ep that came with Stevie's Songs in the key of life album - I have this on vinyl without the bonus seven, so now it's a complete set, which pleases the collector in me no end.


via No R'N'R Fun... "We're sure that Ray Charles would be delighted to know that he's now become a street name for heroin cut with clenbuterol. Nice to leave a lasting legacy, isn't it?"

ADDED: Rapper takes tough stand against drugs: Diddy says no to P.