uncarved.org blog

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…

SICK AND TWISTED

gabba digital hardcore drill & bass industrial techno breakcore eeeeeeevil noize

FRIDAY 12 MARCH

APHASIC ( breakcore from the co-founder of Ambush records and head honcho of the new JUNK label)
live on stage 11.15

plus dj’s
DIONYSUS (Breakcore a go go - Holland) 12 - 1.30

ALEX B 1.30 - 3
DJ BROKEN YOLK 10 - 11.15

UPSTAIRS @ THE GARAGE
20 - 22 HIGHBURY CORNER
LONDON
OPP. HIGHBURY & ISLINGTON TUBE/BR
10pm-3am
£5/£4 cons

info - sickandtwistedATntlworld.com

Business as usual for the first 10 seconds – Hrvatski’s tearing amens, noise, adrenaline… but what’s this? It all fades out into a beatless noise montage with detuned guitars phasing away, and there’s just a tinge of squawking saxophone in there too. It’s Ambush’s very own ‘Jazz Odyssey’! “No, I said DJ Scud ABOVE the puppet show!!!”

Such are the difficulties of pushing boundaries until they cave in. Ambush have to take a lot of the credit (and perhaps some of the blame) for the proliferation of Records of Total Destruction (”the only solution!!!”). These days you can’t move for industrial-ragga-junglists mashing the place up, but it’s been a long haul. Plus, there was always more to it than that for the originators: check Aphasic’s more abstract tracks. Even Ambush’s dancfloor tear-outs had more depth and dynamics than the rest of the ever expanding crowd of genericists.

Hardly surprising, then, that they want to diversify a little. Scud has paved the way with his experimental releases as Amen Fire (with Craig from I-Sound) and Aphasic now combines hardcore mash ups with more downtempo spacey biz as JUNK.

So… Exhibit A is still something of a surprise – a CD featuring remixes of stalwart Swiss noise experimentalists Voice Crack. I have no recollection of hearing anything by them before, so it’s all in the mix, and that is a good thing.

Aphasic keeps it nice and minimal. ‘Hyperion’ sounds like someone has stripped out all traces of musical instruments from a dub track and left all the effects in.

Matmos’ contribution is sort’ve random bursts of sound which has the feeling of travelling through some sort of industrial plant. On Mars. Ripped to the gills on night nurse. Naked.

Moslang smothers amens under a pillow and then fights with them for several minutes before they finally expire. “Oh no! They killed Jungle!” “You Bastards!”

Haswell & Hecker make fucked up noises. Possibly the absolute panacea of anti-turntablism, but you’d have to ask them about that. It’s pretty disorientating and funny in a Nurse With Wound “go mental/ have a long pause/ go mental/ make random farty noises” sort of way.

Toby Reynolds (aka DJ Scud) finishes off with ‘Final (k)’ – brilliantly off-kilter, yet structured, slightly menacing, atmospheric piece. Drones and snatches of voice give it real depth. The quiet bits actually had my stomach turning over in anticipation – this is the real deal.

Ngozi - roots riddim of the year so far. A sort of watery, medieval soundscape with lots of plucked strings and that bassline, pulling you down.

Inevitably this has been caned by Rodigan in the weeks before payday so that I’ve only been able to get hold of two of the cuts - the rest gone gone gone, please don’t let it be forever… records fall out of the ether on Sunday night and Monday morning… are they this great or is it just fatigue and futile resistance to sleep, the coming working week… tape rolling and some pointless adjustments to the aerial before bed… 5 more minutes…

Luciano - “World Peace” and Bushman “Jah Deliver Me” - both great vocals on timeless (or formulaic, depending on your cynicism) themes. Great stuff, but I’d kill for a copy of the Tony Curtis selection “crabs in a barrel” and maybe do some GBH for the others.

“Sounds of Ethiopia stepping out of Babylon; sounds of Zion stepping out of Stoke Newington. JAH Tapper Zukie, King of sounds and blues, rocking the musical atmosphere, under heavy duty manners…” – Penny Reel

7:00am Stamford Hill and the cold is biting into my shoulders like something highly metaphorical that I am sure I would be able to come up with if I was more awake. The train timetable is freaky at this time of day and I’ve just missed the bus. “MPLA… Natty going on a holiday”. Yes, Tappa! But what were you thinking of, eh? Conservative JLP militant pens ode to Angolan Marxists. Gets released on Virgin and lauded by Patti Smith. Dyon Dyon… Dyon Answa. De doo De doo de doo doo. You can do little version excursions in your head like that sometimes.

“King of sounds and blues, rocking the musical atmosphere, under heavy duty manners. Truths and rights from Ras Tafari inspiration- know your dread, sound say, know your culture.” – Penny Reel

Rewind to the early 90s. Tom Headbanger’s editorial mentions that it takes an almost superhuman effort to get out of a warm bed and leave a warm woman to cross the cold Denver morning and print up a newsletter. That’s it in a nutshell, Tom.

76. The seven and the six clash. On the top deck with my bag in the aisle seat. Because at this time in the morning I don’t want to be sociable with anyone elses’ outer thigh – even those cute, but sorta warrior-looking commuter girls who seem like they spend about 2 hours getting ready in the morning. And I’ve not even had breakfast yet.

“From the lickle youth of sixteen years, who made I and I jump and twist with Viego Sound System; from the iry dub vendor, feeling high at the Four Aces…” – Penny Reel

Dalston Junction. The Four Aces, formerly the Dalston Palace of Varieties - opened in 1898. Soon to be picturesque ruins. And then the East London Line. “You’re gonna wake up one morning and know what side of the bed you’ve been lying on! Loves… /A chance to do it for more than a month without being ripped off/The Anarchist Spray Ballet/Lenny Bruce/Joe Orton/Ed Albee/Paustovsky/Iggy Pop/John Coltrane/Spunky James Brown/Dewey Redman/KING TUBBY’S sound system/Zoot suits and dreadlocks/Kilburn & the High Roads/Four Aces Dalston/Limbo 90–Wolfe/Tiger Tiger–Bester/…”

“right now, I man lick I cup and you can never get a suck; right now you can only I chew the smell, as I would say- from messages to pork eaters and black cinderellas; from chalice to chalice and I live upright;” – Penny Reel

I live upright but that doesn’t mean my eyes are open all the time. Echo, phase and those blazing horns. Sleep…

“from Zukie fashionwear, and Junior Ross and the Spear with ‘Freedom’, ‘Babylon Fall’ and ‘Rasta Man A Say’; from ‘MPLA’- seven miles of Black Star Liner coming in the harbour- to rockers in a Camden Town; from them was looting down in a Ladbroke Grove;” – Penny Reel

The City of London. “Babylon you are a sore. Babylon you bound to fall.” Tappa – you knew who to get in the studio, didn’t you? Junior Ross & The Spear, Prince Alla, Knowledge. Class. Pound those riddims into the dust of the control room floor.

“from Judge I O Lord God Ras Tafari; from my father before, and his father before, and his father before, tell I about Marcus Garvey- when Zukie day ah, we all go cross the river out of Babylon.” – Penny Reel

Hold tight across Blackfriars Bridge. The wind, the moon, the water. One foot in front of the other, one step forward, two step backward, step out of Babylon. Take a wrong step and you might end up underneath, with bricks in your pockets.

“Right now the weird thing’s right and I man no care if there is no light: for right now, rhythm rule I. Tapper pon top and a weak-heart drop.” – Penny Reel

And yet, incredibly, the sun has actually risen. You have to give Ra his due, he has to go off on a big ruck with the denizens of the underworld every single fucking night. All I have to do is show up at an office and make convincing noises at a keyboard. The-weird-thing will be mollified by coffee. You must appease the beast.

“I would like idren and bretheren, Sons and Daughters of the most high JAH Ras Tafari, and all friends and fans of the star Tapper Zukie to learn their culture, as the brother would play. No matter who you are or who you may be. Make we sing great songs, down in a Babylon. Love it uni-versally; love it i-fficially. Awake from your slumber and answer this call.” – Penny Reel

Pointless, now, surely to produce the fanfared second part of k-punk’s end of the year round-up - only eight days into the year and all that stuff just seems so old.

He’s right of course, but I notice it doesn’t actually stop him doing it either

Under the counter, guv

1. 2 x CDRs of early Greeensleeves 12″ courtesy Andy on the Blood & Fire Board

2. Paul Meme - Nervous Ragga mix and lots more

3. The Bug Vs Soundmurderer soundclash on John Peel

4. Hollow Earth - Gangsta Techno mix

5. Woebot – Brickwall mix

6. Woebot SS – Resonance FM show

7. Inglistan – Roots CDR

8. Dubversion – Riddim mix

9. Stuart Borthwick – Rasta mix

10. Herve’s mate’s roots mix

Uncarved

1. The Bug

2. Abashanti - Greg Mario Whitfield

3. Adrian Sherwood - Greg Mario Whitfield

4. Small Space Dynamics CTRL-ALT-DELETE

5. pirates, politics, parochialism

6. Nocturnal Emissions

7. Throbbing Gristle

8. Various ruminations on Whitehouse and industrial culture

9. Luther Blissett on contra-acting and consultancy

10. Nihilism

the rest

Shake The Foundations volume 2 mix/dj-ing at some brilliant parties including BOTH UK-Dance bashes and Riddim/Greg Mario Whitfield’s deep bass philosophy and evangelism/Sick and Twisted – Bong Ra, Aphasic, Sonic Belligeranza sets/Seeing Shaka again/Solution Sound @ Arcola Theatre in April/Dr Beck’s bastard bootleg mash ups at the ICA/The Bug and Aphex @ Neighbourhood/City of God/8 Mile/Dirty Pretty Things/Six Feet Under/Scratch/24/Hackney IWCA/everyone who kept me relatively sane for another year (you know who you are)/blogs/boards/pints/curries/me partner/our daughter

Big up Jason Aphasic for the first release on J U N K.

Possibly one of my records of the year. Two out and out hardcore junglist stormers (one of which was the climax to his last Sick & Twisted DJ set - features everything but the kitchen sink, including some utterly stoopid happy hardcore bits which are great). Plus two more downbeat tracks which are incredibly atmospheric and menacing - as if the Ambush records “style” (if that’s the right word for such a varied label) has been given a bit of space to breathe in. Essential stuff on first listen. Mp3s on the site.

Sick and Twisted, Friday night

S&T is becoming a bit of a regular event for me. Which is a good thing, because it’s one of those excellent, little clubs which has its own scene going on with fiercely loyal regulars who are by and large a nice and friendly bunch. I generally only head up there for the industrial-ragga-jungle breakbeat stuff, rather than the doof doof DOOF gabba (gabber?) business.

And so it was that DJ Broken Yolk kicked things off with some very good cuts of the aforementioned industrial/ragga/jungle, including tracks by The Bug. A good way to warm the room up and nice to listen to at the bar whilst having a chat with Riccardo Balli and Nomex. It had been a while since we’d seen each other so there was a quite a bit of catching up.

Nomex had some great pictures of his battle bus – a VW Camper Van with an absurd array of loudspeakers around the outside of the roof. This has apparently gone down with some confusion and hostility when making appearances at various squat parties, though that is possibly down to the confrontational nature of Nomex’s noise. He is also working on some tracks which sound like the ultimate head fuck, but I won’t go into them until they’re safely out.

Second up was a “live” appearance from Darkside. He’d brought a desktop “tower” and monitor rather than the usual laptop and so fair play to him for lugging all that about. However the usual reservations about watching people tap away whilst swigging from a can of lager apply. This was compounded by the computer resetting itself just as things were getting into full swing, the audience cheering when the familiar sound of the Microsoft Windows “start up” jingle came through the p.a.! After that, the boy done good, it was gabber or gabber-inspired but it had a nice linearity about it which I found easier on the ear than the stuff at the Rephlex night.

DJ Balli aka Sonic Belligeranza was this month’s international guest. Me and Riccardo go back a long way. He was a stalwart of the Italian AAA and organised the 2nd Intergalactic Conference which took place in Bologna in 1998. He also put together the rather excellent Italian AAA book Anche Tu Astronauta (AAA Editions) and generally fed a load of great stuff into the network.

The Sonic Belligeranza label has pumped out 4 releases and are now setting up a sublabel for “conceptual noise” as well as the dancefloor stuff. Balli seemed in his element behind the decks and got the crowd dancing… lost them when everything became too abstract and uncompromising… got them back again! Some mad mash up tracks which incorporated Italian folk music were the highlight for me. A great start to the weekend.

Alex from Sick and Twisted took over with some nice tracks which nonetheless started to grate a little as the inevitable tiredness kicked in. The posse was back to mine for some sleep…

So…

The Rephlex night on Tuesday was pretty amazing. I think we were all pretty knackered, but the place was heaving with people who were well up for it. Just as I was thinking that seeing Richard D James playing a bunch of oldies (”20 seconds to COMPLY!!!”) was less than inspiring and a bit like being round someone’s house (but with more expensive beer) he ramped up the sound and proceeded to unleash a series of wicked acid tracks and some top junglist excess which actually got me out on the dancefloor. (The man Meme had showed the rest of us up by grooving from the off).

From then on things got better and better - young people were coming and asking us for pills, which set me off into Victor Meldrew mode “drugs?! On a TUESDAY NIGHT? I do not believe it!!!” but good for them. Actually none of them asked me personally - just Paul and Matt, which probably means that I either look less dodgy than them or like an undercover copper or something.

Mr Aphex was followed by some geezer who played a load of mashed up gabba which was engrossing for all of… 3 minutes. I think it suffered from being TOO mashed up, which meant you had to concentrate on it rather than just let it pummel you into submission. It became a bit of an endurance test, to be honest. One which not everyone passed!

Just as we were about to give up, Kevin Martin took the stage. Everytime The Bug has played this year I’ve had reasons not to attend, so I was well looking forward to this and it did not disappoint.

4 MCs, serious sound, much wibbly sirens and boom boom bass. The MCs were great - really hyping up the crowd (and joining them, in one case) messiness ensued. Lots of riddims from the album got a reworking with new vocals. Great. Sheer power. Nice vibrant scene. What more do you want?