uncarved.org blog

Sickboy - Owley Girl 12″ (JUNK02)

Second release for Aphasic’s JUNK label, and it’s a serious go-er. The title track is the expected mentalist twisted shit - fucked up beats, rolls and noises which almost escape into a gay S.A.W. disco stomp. Nice! One of those great 3 in the morning tunes which you thought would be all conventional but everything is toooo fucked…

“Junkcats & Alleyrats” brings a distinctive hip hop flavour to the proceedings - continuing the trend set by the first JUNK release for including some (relatively!) downtempo biz. A cartload of great vocal samples pillaged off tunes you never heard: “money is da object” says a female MC, and is that Master P somewhere in the mix as well?

“Trio Inferno” is sorta napalm death gabba with a bunch of wannabe MCs working on the waltzers at the fairground: “bring it back to the TOP”. Messy beats… in a good way. You also get about two seconds of “Real Rock” in the middle and are similarly tortured by an insane mash up of “Hey Ya” which is sadistically kept for the last few bars only. Dr Remix to the operating theatre!!!

“Owley Bass” is severe abstract beats, with some sort of alien funk lurking in its heating ducts. Zero gravity space-chase theme music.

Aphasic - We Are Junk 12″ (JUNK03)

It’s Jason’s label and he’ll release his own goddamn records if he wants to, right?

“Junkfunk” brings the ravemental doof doof doof from the outset, with added rumbling sub bass. Great breakbeat science (as in Mad Scientist going off on one rather than painstakingly chopping up breaks over a 10 year period or whatever it was Rupert Photek was supposed to have done. Was he actually called Rupert? I may have made that up.) Also some nice arcade type noises.

“Junkrock” is really weird beats and noise more like the Ambush “Voicecrack Remixes” than anything else. It’s all the better for it though - the synthy bass seems to be about quarter speed in places. Sheets of static & noise rain down on vicious breakbeats.

“True Shots” is off kilter space invader shit. A 50s b-movie soundtrack made by hyperactive kids. It makes marginally more sense at 33.

“Several Directions” is the winner here. A nice “builder” of a track (as opposed to a nice builder - who maybe whistles a merry tune whilst doing your grouting). A familiar bassline (which actually sounds like it may originate from a bass guitar, shock horror!), minimal beats and noises on top. It manages to be beautiful and stupid at the same time - that bass slowly drives the track on, reassuring you that the rest of the insanity will do you no harm. Arguably the best thing Aphasic has done to date.

The Bug featuring Warrior Queen - Aktion Pak (Rephlex)

I didn’t make the video shoot last night because the rest of the family went down with some fluey thing. I guess if you call your project The Bug, you bring this sort of thing along as baggage, eh?

So here’s some thoughts on the new single anyway. Warrior Queen is an excellent choice for a vocalist and hopefully this will be the first in a long line of collaborations.

She comes in hard with vocals that are every bit the match for the apocalyptic storm of the track: “me nah talk – a strictly action!” Ravemental stabs, diwali handclaps, bowel churning rumblings, bring it on! A Warrior Queen for sure – the proverbial x-rated lyrics do not disappoint: rude even when dubbed out or reversed…

World War 3 is more minimal with some ace squeaky noises atop the wobbly bass. WQ’s lyrics are pretty unrelenting – fast chat which sounds like she’s reading out loud from an armaments catalogue. The best bit is 3 minutes in when the Bug dubs it up and brings forth the break.

There’s another new vocal from Ras B over the old doof doof crunch we love so well.

AND! On the CD version there are 5 new versions of tracks from the Pressure LP. It is to Rephlex’s eternal credit that these are humbly presented as a bonus feature of a single rather than being marketed as a stand alone “Pressure: The Dub Versions”, which frankly is what they are. I keep coming back to these…

Politicians Version kicks off with some insane door slamming beats. Bomb Version is fucked up and tweaky. Super Version is all tracky – a real winner which brings to mind some of the more blurry Chain Reaction releases of yesteryear.

F-Yuhself Version is (as you would expect if you’ve heard the album) a stone cold killer. Kevin unleashes the full arsenal of rumbling, buzzing bass, vocals which sound like they’re buried in the depths of the no go zone underneath the Lea Bridge Roundabout. It all sloooowly builds up to a crescendo of Jah Shaka sirens… and then THAT growling bassline drops and before you know if you’re punching your fist in the air in the middle of Liverpool Street station at half past eight in the morning.

My hope is that the versions here will end up as source material for da yoot. How cool would it be to turn on the radio and hear the next generation of MCs dropping lyrics over these monsters?

It’s common, traditional, fashionable and pretty easy to slag off UK dub. But it has to be said that amongst the indentikit productions there are some tunes that leap out, that Do Goddamn The Job Right. The thing that frustrates me is that there’s actually loads of those tunes, but I never get to hear about them because of the shite coverge of homegrown stuff in this country (Reggae News excepted!)

I previously bigged up Conscious Sounds’ 10″ with Kenny Knots in my sleng teng piece. Their latest is yet another fantastic release - Dougie Wardrop has excelled himself with a tearing riddim and the Love Grocer are well up to their usual high standard of live horn input.

This is the shit, 2004 style, and people in years to come will be moaning about how tunes aren’t any good as they used to be and namechecking this as something to aspire to. They’ll be missing what’s under their noses. Again.

That old post-punk “cassette culture” is still going strong, you just have to look for it. Although regular readers of my comments boxes will note that it has a habit of coming to find me…

Godspunk vol. 1 was one of my favourites of last year, so I was well chuffed to be sent the latest instalment by the man like LDB. It’s a bit of a gargantuan effort this time round, with a whopping 34* tracks by 10 bands. (*Or perhaps, 27 tracks – confusing? Yes!).

Label owners Howl in the Typewriter inhabit low-tech techno & post-punk territory with a nod to Wire, 70s Eno, and a whole truckload of other influences. It’s definitely post-punk in “never went away” modus operandi way, rather than a revival cash-in. (Although hopefully they will do alright now that the stars are correctly aligned again for this sort of stuff!) Some good poppy tunes + cynical lyrics = HIT! “I’m not going to see the mormons again / I don’t think the mormons are my friends.” Innit.

Some more standout tracks from LDB: hip hop stylings which work precisely because he is too white, too old and too grumpy. This set builds on the innovation with the beats etc we saw glimpses of last time – samples of Candi Staton’s You Got The Love, the Pixies, etc. It’s incredible that he does all of this without the aid of a sequencer. Basically I reckon this is just as good as The Streets (but in another direction to them/him), but I am biased. Stadium R ‘n’ B is the HIT! here, Last Days of Rome is the head-nodder for walking those mean streets. Warrior, is the, uh, stoopid rawk number. (I really hope this is a one off!)

“Have you ever been porked? Ever had a man smoke your pole?” Gays In The Military contribute serious homo-swamp-rock topped & tailed with some great campsploitation film samples. Lyrically it’s a voyage into the underworld of yesteryear (?) “the yellow hankie boys/ they don’t like to kiss/ they just want to get down on their knees and drink your piss!” HIT!

Las Vegas Mermaids don’t seem to live in Las Vegas, but I reckon they really are mermaids. Their first track here is a tender, yet upbeat number – a touching daughter’s tribute to her father “you’re just a rich old man with his ball bag hanging out/please put it away/ I’m going to join a commune in France/ and get fisted on stage every night” HIT! Track two is Weevils – deeply twisted sub trip hop “weevils – insects of the night”. Errrrrrr?!

RooHmania’s remix of Howl in the Typewriter (one of their catchiest tracks from volume 1) is a bootleg mashup charting the history of UK pop. It covers Strawberry Fields, Satisfaction, Pretty Vacant, Blue Monday – all killer no filler! Their other track here is a rather fine skittery folk number, like a punkier Beta Band.

UNIT storm in at the last minute to deliver four tracks which average about 2 minutes each. As you would expect they cover quite a lot of ground in that time – a humanist version of All Things Bright and Beautiful and a couple of anti-bigotry rants (one of which is the latest instalment in a long line of autobiographical incidents). Two Weeks in Malaysia is another classic UNIT pop ditty, tailor made for Andy Martin’s delivery: “I know this song isn’t very deep/and maybe it’ll send you fast asleep/but it’s better than pills/or counting sheep” – HIT!

Other tracks veer from experimental field recordings to politicised EBM.

I think it’s safe to say that you won’t find Godspunk vol.2 in the shops, but you can order it for just five quid (inclusive of UK p&p) via the Pumf Records website - while you’re there check out their other releases (including mp3s) by people including the excellent Ceramic Hobs.

The cover doesn’t do this album any favours. There’s obviously nothing wrong with summery island imagery (that’s where the music originates!), it’s just that this sort of graphic is more usually wrapped around yet another generic compilation featuring a bizarre mixture of Ace of Bass, Marleys Bob and Ziggy and Inner Circle’s “Girl I’m Gonna Make You Sweat” alongside whatever Trojan or whoever is licensing cheap this week.

Everyone knows that to be de rigeur you’ve got to have:

1) A mixing desk and or ganja leaf (dub)
2) A grainy shot of sufferah youth in downtown Kingston (roots – or you can go the whole hog and just ineptly rip off the designs that Intro do for Blood & Fire).
3) De gal dem inna de batty rider (dancehall)

In fact this record does feature the pop hits of the day, but not like you ever heard ‘em before.

Crazy Caribs is a Mad Professor project, with the indomitable Mafia & Fluxy versioning contemporary hit riddims and adding their own flavour. The production is as crisp and booming as you would expect. Mad Professor never gets the respect he deserves from the self-loathing UK reggae purists. Needless to say, he rises above the snobbery yet again here – the re-workings are inventive and the whole album is very listenable considering it is entirely instrumental.

This is partly down to the quality of riddims like Coolie Dance, Diwali and Fiesta/”Vitamin S”, but it’s also due to the varieties of studio trickery and instrumentation – some tracks are cavernous bass-driven monsters, some are more floaty and ambient. There are quite a few tunes where the vocal melody is still present as really effective steel pan sound.

Perhaps most surprising is how the imaginative choice of riddims creates a satisfying whole. 50 Cent’s P.I.M.P gets a absolutely wicked re-rub alongside all the bashment, and there is another chapter in the compelling history of the legendary soundsystem dubplate killer Kunte Kinte.

It’s great to hear some proper innovative dub workouts of dancehall riddims after so many mere “backing tracks” – hopefully this will be built on, and become a whole new genre of itself.

Plus, on a sweltering bus journey through London, it isn’t really so bad to be able to look at the cover and forget where you are… for a moment.

I’ve never been a massive Pixies fan, but they were a great band and there’s a whole load of nostalgia attached to their songs for me, and my sister, and my better half.

When I worked briefly at the Rough Trade warehouse it seemed like whole days were spent shifting copies of Doolittle along with Yazz’s The Only Way is Up 12″ (*bomp* baybeeeeeeeeeee!!!) and 3 Feet High and Rising. I even managed to blag a 4 track promo for Doolittle with “Wave of Mutilation” on it. Which I then promptly sold to cover my part of the printing costs for T.O.P.Y. London Bulletin 2 (a little A5 zine which we punted about 300 copies of in 6 months! I was stunned.).

I eventually got sacked from Rough Trade for nicking a copy of Nurse With Wound’s Alas The Madonna Does Not Function. I was gutted, but also somewhat amused by the unceremonious termination of the contract-I-was-never-given – people I worked with were parcelling up huge great boxes of LPs every day and sending them to “such and such record store” c/o their home address. You may as well be hanged for a sheep as for a lamb, as the saying goes. I imagine da management (although I think it was ostensibly a co-op?) were aware of the major “shrinkage” and I was made an example of. That, or I was just too cack-handed for a life of crime.

Anyway, I digress. It was also a time of my life when I was going out a lot and this even involved going to the occasional indie club where dancing drunkenly to “This Monkey’s Gone to Heaven” was de rigeur. Good times.

Plus obviously the Pixies were the architects of the whole “quiet bit/shouty bit” which is now a staple of every pop punk boy band you care to mention. It’s all about the dynamics, and the controlled mania of the lyrics, folks!

We missed the support cos of putting the daughter to bed on the other side of the river.

The Academy was rammed, huge numbers of people were singing along to every word, it was an impressive atmosphere considering the band just steamed through loads of their best songs without any banter whatsoever. It was, as my beter half pointed out, “a non arse-wiggling gig”. But that’s alright. Once in a while. Anyway it turns out that she likes all the mental thrashy ones and I like the girly Kim Deal ones like “Wave” (which got two outings – version excursion!) and “Heaven”.

It has been a long time since I went to a gig where young men clutch gigantic posters afterwards.

Bug’s Life

The Bug Vs The Rootsman ft. He-Man: “Killer” (Soundmurderer & SK-1 ‘Badman Rewind’ Remix b/w Enduser Remix) Razor (mi)X 7″

Bring it on! Stupidly adrenalised tear-out reconstructions of the Bug’s anthemic “Killer” - available for a limited period from a dealer near you (but almost certainly on CD at some point as well, I would imagine).

Soundmurderer’s mix is what you would expect - extreme mashing up of amen breaks, timestretched vocals and the rest.

As usual I find this all a Bit Much, there’s no breathing space at all and so it ends up being claustrophobic, but not in funky “ordered to dance” sort of way. Having said that, things calm down for the last third of the track and there are some wicked bits where all the beats are echoing around.

Enduser I know nowt about, but they/he/she turn in a great tech-steppy version with a superb two note droning bassline and some nice crispy breaks as well. The vocals work really well with the darkness of the track, lifting it up. I must dig out those old Optical and Ed Rush twelves sometime soon… This is tailor made for your more discerning dancefloor and I’m sure it’s going to turn out to be something of an anthem at places like Sick & Twisted.

Wayne Lonesome: “Go Fuck Yu Self” (Raw Mix) b/w “Go F@$K Yu Self” (Radio Mix) Run Things 7″

Now this is a bit of a curio - looks like “the ubiquitous Wayne Lonesome” (copyright Dubversion over at Pounding System) grabbed his vocal from The Bug’s album and released it on his own label (he’s listed at Executive Producer…) in Kingston as a proper bashment cut.

Trouble is, it all sounds a bit easy listening compared to the “original” - I guess nobody can come close to that intensity. You can make the lyrics out much better now, and this should prove to be an essential addition to the armoury for your version excursion. Play this as an intro and then bring in The Bug!!!

Quite why anyone would want a “clean” version of a song called “Go Fuck Yu Self” is beyond me, but there it is on the flip. Yer usual reversed out bad words - it’s probably my sick mind but I reckon you still hear it as “fuck” anyway. There should be a top ten of sound effects used to disguise “foul language” in dancehall - maybe that’s a job for another day…

Twilight Circus featuring Big Youth – Love Is What We Need 10″ EP (M Records)
Twilight Circus featuring Luciano – What We Got To Do Now 10″ EP (M Records)

After several days of blazing heat – down came the rain. Lightning FLASH Thunder CRASH over Liverpool Street station. All the commuters soaked in their summer clothes – hair dripping, make up running. Heh.

Boom weather for boom tunes. Twilight Circus operates out of Amsterdam and is the vision of one man, Ryan Moore. Ryan makes wicked reggae and dub and is another post-industrial refugee, being a (former?) member of weirdo psychedelia merchants Legendary Pink Dots.

My soggy pocket contains two promo CDs cadged off Greg Whitfield. First up is a tough tough collaboration with Big Youth: “Love is What We Need”. I guess this came out about a year ago – lyrically it transports us back to a time of Weapons of Mass Destruction and debates with the UN. Jah Youth is on top form here – chanting down the war mongers.

The production is equally top notch – straddling UK and classic JA, tight but loose with fantastic live horns. The dub is a stormer, opening with some crisp rim shots and phased brass. When the vocals float over the top, everything is present and correct. Perfect!

I’m a bit wary of reggae “remixes” – it means someone feels that version is not sufficient. However the remix here is a different kettle of fish – a complete reworking of the backing track with some great jazzy stylings (and let’s be honest, when have you heard me say that before, eh?)

“What we got to do now” is a further collaboration, with Luciano – one of my favourite contemporary vocalists. A nice plea to come together to solve the world’s problems. The mix is much less “traditional” than the Big Youth. Beats are more binghi tinged and there is a whole spectrum of weird noises and stuff going on in the background – even the bass is taken down a notch. This makes it all much less immediate but rewards are paid if you pay it all the requisite attention.

The version is dub at its most spacey – we are in “sounds echoing across an alien landscape” mode for sure. But surprisingly, the remixes hold the key. Again, I was aghast at the idea of a “club mix” – expecting clod hopping trance or lame hip hop. But Twilight Circus are wiser than that. Club mix here means a techno relick in the same neighbourhood as Rhythm & Sound. In terms of tempo it reminds me more of some of the Chain Reaction stuff I’ve heard but it really works well – exactly the sort of mutant cross-over people have been crying out for.

The closing track is an acoustic number with vocals and guitar only. Really moving stuff.

Outside of the Crooklyn Dub Consortium compilations this is the first time I’ve given Twilight Circus due attention. They certainly hooked me in, though. There’s enough creativity and talent here to warrant serious further investigation.

[Both tracks, but not all the versions or mixes, also feature on the recent Twilight Circus album "Foundation Rockers"]

v/a – Amharic (Greensleeves Riddim #46)

Obviously this has been out for approximately a million years on JA pre 7″ and indeed for 6 months in this form. It ain’t my fault people kept on getting the copy out of the library, ok?

But it’s great – a rare beast of a one-riddim LP you can actually listen to without going mad at the repetition of it all, or needing to savagely mix it all up. The basic riddim kicks off with some Arabic acapella and then springs into a downtempo ragga skanker. Several of the cuts have some nice subtle variations. Riddim science – makes all the difference! The producer is Jammy “Jam 2″ James, ably assisted by Lloyd “John John” James on the mix. Their dad, (the one, the only) King Jammy, was obviously doing something right when he brung ‘em up.

Greensleeves have grabbed vocal cuts (no instrumental, which is a shame) from the usual mixture JA’s finest, with a few unknowns thrown in the mix for good measure.

Lyrically it’s business as usual – some nice twists and turns and within the dancehall spectrum there’s reasonable variety in terms of themes. The most common obssession this time seems to be designer labels. You wouldn’t think that fitted well with the title of the riddim – referring as it does to the language of Ethiopia, most famously used (in reggae at least) on the rasta anthem Satta Massa Gana by the Abyssinians (recently anthologised by Blood & Fire).

Things kick off with Vybz Cartel featuring Ward 21, which must have been a pretty packed session as there’s about five members in each group iirc. Nice lyrical twists:

“Rise up my berries
or rise up your berry
Shot them from primary
go straight to tertiary

Make them burberry
Catch a fire, like
Michael Jackson’s Curl jeri
In a de Pepsi Ad”

(The usual disclaimer with regards lyrics applies – I might well have misheard any or all of this…)

It goes on in the same way with Irv Gotti and R Kelly getting a mention – Vybz Cartel’s vocals are obscured under all sorts of effects, which makes unpicking them extra complicated (like a puzzle). Great stupid-fresh rhymes to bring a smile to your face on a rainy night.

Wayne Marshall then barges both crews out the studio and takes centre stage with We Roll. A tune about not fronting, as it probably isn’t called now by anybody under the age of 30: “Fake Jacob, fake Diesel, that’s not the way we roll. Pose off in friend’s vehicle – that’s not the way we roll”. There’s probably acres already written about defining “realness” in terms of conspicuous wealth. The list of hip brands here reminds me of walking through expensive shopping malls, and despite the fantastic melodies it’s ultimately just as alienating. I guess the primary JA fanbase of this record has little option but to go for “fake Diesel” anyway…

There are a couple of overtly roots tracks on the album, which provide a welcome breather. The first one is Peace by Sizzla. A bit of acoustic guitar heralds the best new Kalonji track I have heard for some time (not that I am up to speed or anything). A strange title given his usual compulsion to ‘burn fire’ on everything. The breakneck pace of the verses complements the poignant chorus:

“Love ’cause there is hope
And do not fight
I know you can work it out
We don’t want no war

So many lives go to waste
All those loved ones –
No-one can take their place”

The other rootical track is a combination from Anthony B and Courtney Melody. AB chats righteously and rhymes ganja with Rwanda. Courtney comes correct with a beautifully plaintive chorus “Progress… the things some people do for success.” Nice criticism of bling and Anthony B chimes in straight away with “For their fast car… they forget who they are”. So simple, but so true.

I worry about quoting these lyrics here sometimes. It’s not like lyrics can ever be some rigorous ultra-left text with footnotes or anything. Maybe they sound trite outside the context of the music, I dunno. I like them, which is enough for me.

Ward 21 win the prize for the best opening line: “Big Up Spongebob Squarepants!” and proceed to mumble on incomprehensibly about pineapples in a rather entertaining fashion. Jam2 ups the clickety clackety backing as well, which is nice, but the rest of the lyrics fall flat after the genius of the first few bars.

Daville is completely new to me. Lovely soulful voice on the geezer. The lyrics aren’t Shakespeare but the way he delivers them certainly are: “Party on ’til the break of dawn. Ain’t going to leave the lawn til the early morn.” (bear with me, ok?) “Tell me can you feel the viiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiibe” - the sustain somehow makes the rest of the tune sound a little overdriven, like a soundsystem pumped to the max.

It’s difficult to describe, but there’s something about this track which makes it my favourite. Maybe it’s because it seems so innocent compared to some of the other tracks here. (Like Spragga Benz & T.O.K.’s collaboration which essentially and repetitively deals with the fact that they “want pussy”.)

Other newbies to me are Taz & Chico, who do a nice gruff/trebly combination on Erica: “buy her a smirnoff… she a turn off… under mi Guinness… calories burn off…” “says she like me style she a nah go get turn off… put on me lubricant to keep the germ off”. Trebly guy (no idea if its Taz or Chico, but I am guessing the latter) gets the girl…

Honorable mentions:

Ce’cile - All Night – essentially a demand for a man who is up to the job.

Kid Kurrupt – Grey And Old - purely for the line “she’s dancing calypso when she’s listening to rockers”. Signal!

Lady Saw is a Hot Gal Fi Life, with an eye on the competition.

Anyway, check out the soundsamples over at the Greensleeves site if interested.

Blacka T “Run Come Ya” (Rockers)

“But some deejay a mash up Jamaica
Dem a talk ’bout slackness
Dats outta order
Anything me chat a roots and culcha…”

Blacker T, self styled lyrics ambassador, lives up to his title chanting his verse in vigorous style over a suitably insistent digital rhythm. [...] Pablo’s modern style is a long way from the brooding depths of his late seventies sides. And people who love that style hold that his nowadays stuff doesn’t compare. But then those same critics would probably find fault if he stayed the same. Give it ten years and its probable that tunes like this will be sought after almost as eagerly as say ‘Cassava Piece’ or ‘Pablo Armageddon’.

- review in Boom-Shacka-Lacka issue 3, Sumer 1989

15 years later, the prophecy is fulfilled! Maybe this isn’t at the top of the auction lists, but history has done it proud, not least because it sounds like a foundation Iration Steppas selection…