uncarved.org blog

Carnival warm up time in London town!

Check out these events in the next few weeks:

First up some sweet FREE madness in Kings Cross organised by Whydelila and The Large. Great line up with foundation UK dancehall represented by Saxon and a more contemporary take on those sounds by the man like Wrongtom amongst many others. I would hazard a guess that tunes old and new will be played. Should be ace.

Secondly, east London sees the launch party for the second issue of No Ice Cream Sound fanzine.

A great line up once again, not sure if there’s a door tax or not though. There’s probably more info on the facebook page if you’re on facebook.

The zine itself is said to feature:

Exclusive interviews with SIZZLA, WARD 21, SOLO BANTON and CAROLYN COOPER

A special look into Japanese Dancehall from our JP correspondent

Exclusive illustrations from Gabe (seen-site.com), Smutlee (YoYo) and Karen
Cazabon (HDD)

A huge dancehall chart from Al Fingers

Gabriel Heatwave’s exclusive review of Showtime!

AND MORE! 50 pages of dancehall badness!

Oh and a modest piece by me, if it made it though the rigorous editorial panel…

My review of the first issue is here.

This just in from Nik at Housmans – sounds good, but I’m not too sure about the claim that Pauline was “the only woman in a movement dominated by men”. What about The Bodysnatchers, an all-girl band on the Two Tone label? The group included Rhoda Dakar, whose harrowing solo-single “The Boiler” I’ve written about here.

‘2-Tone London’

with Pauline Black

Wednesday 3 August, 7pm

£3, redeemable against any purchase

Launching her autobiography, Pauline Black, lead singer of The Selector, shares her recollections of the 2-Tone music scene, as well as her personal experiences of growing up in multi-racial London.

The only woman in a movement dominated by men, Pauline Black has plenty to share about the 2-Tone music scene of. As lead singer of The Selector Pauline was very much the Queen of British Ska.

But even as she found success in through music, Black struggled with her ethnic and cultural identity. Born to Anglo-Jewish/Nigerian parents, she was later adopted by a white working-class family in Romford. In her talk, Black recounts her struggles to find her way in a community that made her feel different at every turn, and shares her personal view of early multicultural London.

Combining her life at the top of the 2-Tone phenomenon with her search for her birth parents, Black will speak about her experience of London, as told in her new autobiography, Black by Design: A 2-Tone Memoir.

Housmans Bookshop, 5 Caledonian Road, King’s Cross, London N1 9DX

Tel: 020 7837 4473

www.housmans.com

Entry: £3 redeemable against any purchase

Nearest tube: King’s Cross

Forthcoming events include:

‘The Glorious Times of the Situationist International’
with McKenzie Wark

‘Thirty Years on from the Brixton Uprising’
with Alex Wheatle

‘Chavs: the Demonization of the Working Class’
with Owen Jones

“Support the shop that supports your campaigns!”

Hacker Farm gig – tomorrow! I probably can’t make it – but you should!

Hacker Farm is Kek-W and Farmer Glitch.

I previously bigged them up on here when they came to town to do the Exotic Pylon radio session. That was before I heard their CD, “Poundland”

In my ADD twitter feed, I’ve described this release variously as:

“low-fi pulsing cheekiness… like Ekoplekz, but on a farm, on acid. In the 1730s… darkside agricultural nightmare soundscapes. Side effects of that bootleg fertiliser… Crawling down the lane.”

Hacker Farm’s willful lo-fi, low-tech, low-down-dirty not giving a fuck about anything except the important stuff attitude is compelling. Obsolete equipment, operated by rusty geezers on a mission.

I’ve been listening to the CD a lot and I am gutted about not being able to make the gig. Mr Mugwump’s nights are always worth checking and the set from Ekoplekz earlier this year was especially satisfying. Go along, and then taunt me with stories about how good it was.

More info on the gig here.

Poundland is available here.

Special bonus feature in The Wire with audio.

I’ve been sent some amazing DIY music over the last few months and I need to make time to do a podcast so people can get a taste of it…

More promotional material for this Saturday’s events. Kinda.

Dr Black: “I asked the Yello B for an image and he produced this. I said it was minimal and he said the music should do the talking not the picture. So yeah.”

Hard to argue with that!

Come down if you’re in the area, it will be fun.

SATURDAY 11TH JUNE 2011

The Clapton Festival Presents…

A Reggae Sound Connection featuring…

The Mighty
GLADDYWAX SOUND SYSTEM

(formerly of the awesome and much missed Wax Unlimited record shop on Northwold Road)

Alongside the Heavy Weight
SOLUTION SOUND SYSTEM

(Stoke Newington fixtures and one of my favourite sounds)

With Special guest selectors
TREVOR SAX (Saxon, and formerly of Regal Records Clapton)
MANASSEH (UK Dub legend, see Woofah issue 3)

4PM TIL 10PM
@ THE ROUND CHAPEL, LOWER CLAPTON RD, HACKNEY, LONDON E5
ONLY £3 ON THE DOOR

This is a Clapton Community Event.

Spread the word!

http://www.solutionsoundsystem.com
http://www.facebook.com/solutionsoundsystem

Followed by:

This just in from the desk of my man Crofton:

Dr Black meets the Yello B

Please drop by Luigi’s basement, aka the Stokey Records Bar, on Sat. 11 June for an unprecedented night of heavy tropical sounds.

It’s a north versus south thing with me taking on the Yello B in a musical showdown that is set to encompass roots, dancehall, soca, gwo ka, hip hop, highlife, soukous, zouk and whatever else we can dig up on the day.

Spread the word, tell your friends, come early, stay late, and so forth.

It’s free to get in and it’s conveniently (for me) located at 98 Stoke Newington Church Street, N16. Go through the restaurant and down the stairs at the back.

We’re running from 9 til 3.

Facebook people can signal their desire to attend here:
https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=128137053932621

Heatwave always guarantee a great party but it looks like they’ve outdone themselves this time.

The convergence between dubstep and reggae now seems everyday, humdrum even. I still find the grimey reggae lash up far more rewarding. That’s how I got into grime – seeing Flowdan and Killa P over raw riddims down at BASH.

I’m excited like a little kid at the prospect of Asher Senator sharing a stage with Wiley. Chuck in General Levy too and you’ve got a clear link straight through key players from UK reggae soundsystems to Jungle, to Garage to Grime… all in one night.

Click on the flyer for more info. It is said that some exciting pre-party publicity is planned…

It’s been pointed out to me by a certain Mr STN that Max Schaefer, author of “Children of the Sun” is doing a reading in my neck of the woods as part of Stoke Newington Literary Festival.

Other topics include the life of Alexander Baron and Ska in Hackney.

The festival takes place from 3-5 June in a number of venues.

More info: http://www.stokenewingtonliteraryfestival.com

ONE LOVE ONE AIM

Southbank Club 124 -130 Wandsworth Road SW8 2DL
proceeding to New Scotland Yard

SMILEY CULTURE MARCH FOR HUMAN RIGHTS AND JUSTICE FOR ALL.

Saturday 16th April 2011 – Assemble at 12 noon

Its time to  bring an end to all deaths in custody.

Please do now allow your emotions to compromise the objectives of the masses and give the media ammunition to discredit our campaign.

Speakers: Merlin Emanuel, Lee Jasper other speakers to be announced.

No Justice No Peace!

Called by the Campaign for Justice for Smiley Culture.

Tero Kaski and & Pekka Vuorinen – Volcano Revisted: Kingston Dancehall Scene 1983

“208 pages, paperback, full of colours! paypal accepted”

More info here

This is a new edition of a legendary book that was originally published in the eighties. I’ve never seen a copy despite being on the hunt for ages. So I’ve ordered my copy already and am very much looking forward to getting my mitts on it…

Hit Me With Music (dir Miquel Galofre, 2011)

A new film covering more contemporary dancehall. World Premiere is at the East End Film Festival on April 30th.

More info here (and another 19 trailers on youtube!)

The festival also includes a film about Norman Jay that could be interesting.

The campaign for Justice for Smiley Culture (aka David Emmanuel) continues apace. It has been heartening to see the family make links with other deaths related to police activity such as that of Ian Tomlinson (who was killed by police two years ago whilst walking home during the G20 protests), and the more recent case of Kingsley Brown.

Kingsley died just two weeks after the mysterious death of Smiley Culture. He called the police to protect him and his young son. The police took him into custody instead, and admitted him to hospital in a critical condition. Kingsley Brown died on the 31st of March. His family are alleging that the police beat him prior to his arrival in hospital.

Justice 4 Kingsley Brown & Smiley Culture (AKA David Emanuel) Meeting in Birmingham

Location: The African Caribbean Millennium Centre
339 Dudley Road, Winson Green, Birmingham.B18 4HB

Email:  info@acmccentre.co.uk or phone 0121 455 6382

Time: ‎6:30PM on Friday, April 8th

“The family of Kingsley Brown will now join the  family of David Emanuel at the meeting this Friday in Birmingham. Two families united in grief . One people committed to securing justice.”

London March: 16th April, 12pm

Assemble: Southbank Club 124-130 Wandsworth Rd SW8 2DL
JUSTICE MARCH to SCOTLAND YARD, VICTORIA

Interview with Merlin Emmanuel in Socialist Worker

More tributes

“Smiley was one of the true originators of British rap-ology and will always be remembered for his unique lyrical skills.”
- David Rodigan

An interview with lovers rock singer and UK MC Lorna G has been placed on youtube.

Lorna also performed at Smiley’s nine night alongside Asher Senator:

(Part 4 of 4 – check the rest as well!)

Resources

downloadable flyers and radio advert (mp3 and wav)

Dubstep advert for the April 16th march:
Smiley Dubstep ad for justice march by Merlin Emanuel

Campaign Facebook page

Youtube channel