CD Pressure
You can overdo the dark stuff. I’d been listening to the Crooklyn Dub Consortium compilations on Wordsound so much that my mental health was beginning to suffer. I got sucked into a downbeat, slightly drowsy, slightly depressed outlook for a while – the last time this happened was when I was listening to nothing by Wu-Tang stuff for about a month, 4 years ago.
Time to banish the darkside with a bit of light, so the weekend was spent on a steady diet of Studio One stuff – mainly the Soul Jazz compilations (Roots/DJs/Story) ‘cos when you’re washing up or mowing the lawn, the seven inch is not your friend (er, not that I have a massive stash of Studio One sevens or anything!). Anyway – mad keen on the cuts of “Throw Me Corn” which feature on these CDs:
Throw Me Corn – Brentford All Stars
Father And Dreadlocks – Charlie Ace And Scorcher (classic tune about a guy who comes home from university to tell his folks he has become a rasta – lyrics along the lines of “but son, what shall we tell the neighbours? Daddy – tell them I am fighting for the universal truth and rights…”
Annoyingly, I can’t remember the tune off “roots”. If I was a real blogger I would never admit this and would wait until tonight before posting, but maybe I’ll just do an edit later, heh heh…
Also been checking Paul Meme’s “Nervous Ragga” mix CD. Top stuff (of course) featuring a load of the most current riddims and so on.
Most interesting thing for me, knowing Paul so well, is the difference between the way we put mixes together. Paul selects in what I guess is a more techno-influenced way, in that he plays loads of cuts (i.e. 10!) of the same riddim, with much crossfader abuse, and can actually get two records going in synch.
Whereas I am keen on just chucking on a maximum of 4 cuts of each riddim, probably with just one verse, one chorus of each. Which means my mixes are in some ways “smoother” in terms of vocals, but maybe a little jerky in terms of the beats – Paul’s tracks are excellently mixed in terms of the riddim, but the vocals are mashed up in a way that William Burroughs would find most appealing. Paul also pitches his records up, which means he wins the prize for innovation and futurism (cos, as he says, this is what people in the UK do to music before creating entirely new genres) whereas I get the grumpy old man traditionalist award.
To continue the domestic theme, I caught about 45 minutes of the The Rootsman’s radio show online whilst doing the ironing on Sunday night. Great stuff and well worth a listen if you’re not up for David Rodigan’s bashment onslaught (especially now them tossers at Kiss have moved him to the 11:00-1:00am slot!). Some good Sizzla cuts and nice sets of Digital B pre’s. Also a great signal given my crappy internet connection at home.
I am also liking the new Muzik cover CD: “Bassline Pressure – It’s a ruffneck sound” (cliched title or what?). It’s been ages since I bought a proper dance mag, but I had a WH Smiths voucher left over from xmas and a long train journey to endure. “Bass” seems to be a category these days (hence the new-fangled digital TV channel – MTV Bass, or so I hear), which suits me fine. Good to see some ragga on there alongside the Garage and d ‘n’ b…
Got a taxi back from a mate’s house in Rotherhithe on Saturday around 1am and saw a massive queue outside of Ocean for the big UK cup clash. Sort’ve toyed with going to this at one point, but I’m not as young as I used to be, and I’ve never been that hardcore…
