From the desk of Mr Grievous Angel:
Remember that huge mix of dancehall-infused grime and grimey dancehall me and John Eden did a few years ago for the Blogariddims Podcast?

Well, I’ve done a new master of it so it sounds louder, clearer and better than ever before. Maximum listening pleasure as well as a unique insight into the bashment, dancehall and one drop roots of grime.

Hope you enjoy this and please tell your friends, fans and followers about it if you do.

The link for the new mix is here: http://www.grievousangel.net/GAMixes/Grime_in_The_Dancehall_2013.mp3

BIG UP Droid, all Blogariddims crew, Woebot, Dan Hancox, Blackdown, all Woofah Magazine crew and all dancehall and grime selectors, producers, MCs, promoters, labels, record shop people, and dancers! WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEELL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Soon come: a special tribute mix for Keysound’s masters of garage weirdness, LHF.

Thank you

Paul / Grievous Angel

John Eden & Grievous Angel – Grime in the Dancehall (2013 remaster) by Johnedenuk on Mixcloud

Paul Meme Sleevenotes/Tracklist

John Eden Sleevenotes/Tracklist

To which I would reiterate that I was a total late comer to Grime. I heard it around the place but it never clicked until I saw Flowdan and Killa P perform alongside Kevin Martin at BASH at Plastic People. Then I dived in.

By the time we did this mix in 2008 a lot of the people who had latched onto Grime early had decided it was desperately uncool. Which suited me fine. It meant I could easily investigate the early days and then develop my own opinions about what was good amongst the new stuff without jostling elbows with the hipsterati.

This mix was a case of forcing a connection between dancehall and Grime really, to make a point. Of course, I didn’t need to do too much forcing – it was more a case of just joining up the dots in a slightly different way and then colouring everything in red, gold and green. As with Woofah, the idea was to get open minded reggae heads into grime and vice versa.

The mix was a load of fun to do and went down really really well. It certainly still gets regular rotation here.

I followed it up a few year later with an RSI Radio Grimey Reggae podcast.

I have virtually zero idea about what is happening with Grime these days, though. Perhaps that’s a good thing – my daughter can’t decide whether my appreciation of Tinchy Stryder is cool or embarrassing.

This snuck out at the end of 2012, a pitched down version of the riddim used by Beenie Man for “Who Am I?”:

Get vinyl here. (A lot of the No Hats No Hoods vinyl back catalogue is going cheap right now also, so fill up!)

It’s followed by this EP which includes a aggy reworking of the noughties Coolie Dance riddim:

Get vinyl here.

An interview I did with Hackney-based producer Spatial is now published exclusively and for the first time at The Liminal.

This piece was originally intended for issue 5 of Woofah, but has been fully updated. (It’s the last outstanding thing I wrote for Woofah, which makes me a bit smiley and a bit weepy!). Spatial is an interesting guy and is well worth checking.

2. MORE TURBULENT TIMES ACTION

Idwal Fisher did a lovely review of my Turbulent Times fanzine, along with other publications.

The zine now has its own page if people are interested in ordering it or knowing about distributors etc.

I have properly started work on the new issue but can’t say when it will be out!

3. AND FINALLY, SOME ADVERTS:

3rd Official Trailer for A Noisy Delivery, by Pete Cann from GX Jupitter-Larsen on Vimeo.

Ten years ago today I signed on at Blogger* and kicked things off with posts on an article by Greg Mario Whitfield about Bass Culture and a new issue of Datacide Magazine.

Paul Meme and I had been avidly following Simon Reynolds’ Blissout website for a few years and had noted his move to Blogger the previous October. Paul then found this guy blogging as That Was A Naughty Bit of Crap (TWANBOC). And we thought “Oh, ok, WE could do THAT…”.

I started my blog a week after TWANBOC began and Paul followed with Shards, Fragments and Totems (which I always thought was a terrible title) nine days later.

Simon Reynolds’ Blissblog logo

We weren’t alone. An explosion of music blogs had commenced. Initially nobody had a comments facility. (Indeed, the internet was a very different place  before Myspace, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr existed). Back then, if you wanted to respond to people’s posts you would have to write something on your own blog.  You’d find out about new blogs from mate’s blog entries and through links in people’s sidebars. Sidebars got quite political after a while, with huffy handbags-at-dawn “Well! I’ve DELETED you from MY SIDEBAR!!!” anguish from some of the emerging primadonnas. Beyond The Implode’s astute take on this was characteristically essential.

For an old git like me, blogging echoed the democratic responsibility of fanzine publishing.

I gave a talk about my take on blogging and fanzine writing (and how they differ from journalism) at the Audio Poverty festival in Berlin. The audio of the talk is available via that link.

My pre-history of blogging

But actually my written and self-published output was quite like blogging before blogging was possible.

2000-2002: I’d been doing monthly updates to my website with a hooky copy of Dreamweaver and then uploading the pages via FTP. It was fun, but a bit fiddly – and there was hardly any way of getting feedback. There’d be reviews, links to articles I’d published, links to interesting stuff by allies, charts, etc.

1995-1997: The first six issues of Turbulent Times had similar content, except they’d come out three times a year and be mailed out as a four page A4 leaflet, with inserts. Like blogging, this slotted into a community of like-minded groups such as the Neoist Alliance, London Psychogeographical Association, Decadent Action, Manchester Area Psychogeographic, The Equi Phallic Alliance, Parasol Post and the Association of Autonomous Astronauts – all of whom published newsletters in a similar way.

Some sheets from The Sheets Project

1994-1995: Before that, there was what came to be known as The Sheets Project. Once a month I’d post out 50 copies of an untitled A3 sheet with various diary entries about what I’d been up to. Mr Autotranscend would give me some of his A.K.C.T. fiction to include as well.

“The Golden Age of music blogging”

It feels like a long time ago now. I think I’ll always associate some blogs with a particular period in my life, and the music that accompanied it. It was all incredibly fertile – blogs spawned other blogs, online forums, social meet ups, relationships, online mixes like Blogariddims, publications like Woofah and a ton of music projects.

Some bloggers became paid journalists or produced books. (Some were already in this position, but I preferred to see them cut loose online, being gloriously subjective and personal.) Other people came and went – some of them deleting their entire blogs when they’d had enough. I met some amazing characters, both online and in the flesh.

The blogosphere was an incredibly chaotic, fluid, seething mess. I loved it. Even the idea that everything was available online was subverted by falling into a maze of sidebar links and finding that new amazing blog – and then never being able to locate it ever again. People had a laugh AND took it seriously. Tried to out-do each other, but also supported people.

Blogging in 2013

Changes in technology and software have diluted the community aspect of blogging. Now that most music can be heard online, it seems that many people don’t see the point of writing about it. Wankers.

My RSS feed is a bit bereft these days, although I have stayed in touch with a surprisingly large number of people and am vaguely aware of what some of the more conventionally successful ex-bloggers are up to. I think people tend to specialise more these days, which is good if you share an interest with someone, but it’s all a bit tidy.

Simon Reynolds now seems to be running an insane twenty nine blogs, so it’s hardly surprising his original Blissblog has lost focus a bit. (“Crowd sourcing” material for blog posts about drum patterns! Dearie me!)

Matthew Ingram transformed TWANBOC into WOEBOT and then experimented with a fine array of new formats, culminating in his own online TV documentaries before chucking it all in and making music.

He’s now republished his blog as an 800 page kindle/e-book thing. It’s great – really good to see those articles again. A new entry from Matt was the kind of thing you’d surreptitiously print out at work for the bus ride home, but then read it online anyway when the boss was out of the office because you were too excited. Let’s put it this way – I downloaded a kindle app just so I could read it on my computer at home and I wouldn’t do that unless I had to – and I already read most it anyway…

The self-publishing aspect seems to have diminished recently, with people preferring to contribute to online magazines or uber-blogs. I can see why they would do that – you want people to read your stuff and they are less likely to when it is hidden away on a music blog these days, bar a few exceptions. I’m the same, with pieces I’ve contributed to Datacide or Woofah or Agit Disco.

We have “evolved” from people composing blog posts, to forum threads, to Facebook updates or 140 characters on Twitter, to posting nothing but Youtube links or context-less images on Tumblr, to “liking” something with the click of a mouse. Convenience has a lot to answer for, but I think there are still lots of interesting conversations happening too.

And me? Like everyone I’m in a different situation than I was ten years ago. Technology has moved on, my interests have shifted and I have less time/more commitments. There’s nothing subcultural right now that I feel I can slot right into. I feel less need to  write about whatever I am thinking about on a daily basis. There’s too much going on, so it’s a good time to focus.

I’ve returned to fanzine publishing as a bit of an experiment, but the blog is still here to flag up whatever I think people should know about. It’s great that Matt has published Woebot as a book, but I feel far happier having ten years of my blog still available for people to stumble on when they are at work randomly googling things. I don’t feel the need to anthologise my writing because (unlike Woebot) most of it was very much of its time.

So! Thank you if you’re still reading this, or have ever left a comment, or sent me a nice email. Or sent me a letter or your music or bought me a pint. Maybe see you in another ten…

Greatest Hits

Asher Senator

The first 23 gigs I can remember going to series

LONDON ACID CITY: When the Two 8’s Clash

Mixes

Nicky Crane

Occultural roots of “Inna Gadda da Vida”

Papa Levi

Pseudo Skins

Punk Comics 3: Straight Edge

Reggae Noughties

Secret Ska History of Stamford Hill (by Malcolm Imrie, not me!)

Smiley Culture

Squids

*This blog was initially hosted at Blogspot, then moving to my friend Dnyl’s chaos.org.au site before finally being fully integrated into uncarved.org. All the content from each incarnation is here, but some of the older stuff is a bit scrambled after everything got hacked last year.

Turbulent Times #9 is selling steadily and is now also available from these recommended stockists:

Norman Records

Turgid Animal

I know that the cost of overseas postage is putting some people off, so you might want to order a couple of things along with your zine and reduce the p&p charges that way.

Norman Records is good for the Libbe Matz Gang/Xylitol split, Pete UM and IX Tab. Turgid Animal stocks all kinds of noisy dark shit that it’s worth taking a punt on if that is your thing.

The interview I did with Jordi Valls of Vagina Dentata Organ is now online at the Datacide site along with other great articles from the new issue.

I have updated my VDO fan site with a collection of material concerning the recent amazing performance as part of the Extreme Rituals festival in Bristol.

My own review of the event will appear in Turbulent Times #10, to be published at some point in 2013…

I am very bored of “best of 2012″ lists and will not be doing one. Check my reviews in Turbulent Times or Datacide and scroll back through posts on here if you want to know what I rated!

Happy new year to you all.

“You’ve done a 48-page fanzine about noise? WHY?” – Paul Meme, Grievous Angel

“Been devouring it this weekend. Awesome zine.” – Ekoplekz

“My fonts logo catches my focus just about every time I see it. That a person is superb. Quite great publish!” - A Spambot

“The ‘zine is essential reading. It has a kind of Idwal Fisher attitude and a ‘toilet reading’ air. Not irreverent and not snooty – ‘I know more than you do’ – like some ‘zines I could name just a damn good read. Easy, informative and not that serious as ‘Eraciator’s History Of Harsh Noise’ proves. That piece made me laugh.

There’s a recent interview with Nigel Ayers and Libbe Matz Gang…I’ve seen their name pop up a few times now in various ‘zines and internet boards, might be time to dip the toe so to speak. There’s a piece by Jupitter-Castrol GTX on revolutionary noise anthems and the obligatory record reviews .. also some live reviews, which is coming uncommon in the printed ‘zine….good to see. The cover did promise knitting, but I have scoured the ‘zine from cover to cover and there’s no mention of knitting! As a subscriber to The Knitter and Yarn Wise I was very disappointed. 

I am saving some of this fanzine to read on the train to Bristol this coming weekend… Turbulent Times is A5 sized (pocket porn) and about 50 pages… and like I said at the start… essential.

The back cover features an excellent picture of a guy trying to shove his shirt in his ears at a Rehberg & Schmickler gig at Cafe OTO. ” – Steve, MuhMur Blog.

“The Consumer Electronics live review is priceless.” – Jonathan, old-school veteran TT reader

“Deep investigations into dub noise hybrids, things on cassette, and so on. Highly recommended.” – Fade2

“Wow… John Eden’s new fanzine is like a slip into the 80s… We need this kind of thing right now almost as much as we needed it then…” Loki, IX Tab

“Turbulent Times #9 is a seditionary act of genius. Definitely Hacker Farm’s Fanzine of the Year: a twisted labour of love.”
-  Kek-W, Hacker Farm

“Harsh Noise History get a metal salute from me for starters!” – Pete Um

“Best zine in yonks. Worth it for the hilarious ‘My Summer of Noise’ article alone.” – BTi Enquiries, Beyond The Implode

Turbulent Times issue 9  still available from here.

(Tweetah issue zero is now  SOLD OUT)

48 pages A5 (half-size). Mainly by me. Design is even less professional than Tweetah. Content is even more cynical.

Trades/Blags/Distro offers are welcome.

Nocturnal Emissions – Nigel Ayers talks about his recent “Spinal Correction Shred” cassette amongst other stuff.

GX Jupitter-Larsen – The Haters mainstay on revolutionary noise anthems, nihilism etc.

Adventures in Noise Dub – A voyage into the cassette underground. Can we believe the hype?

Libbe Matz Gang – The cult lo-fi electronics unit play hard to get.

GRMMSK – Alienated doom dub from the frozen wastes.

Harsh Noise History – Eraciator’s less than helpful genre guide.

My Summer of Noise – live reviews

Audio Reviews

UK: £2.50

Europe: £4.50

Rest of World: £5.00

I raved about the Xylitol track a while back for FACT Magazine so can’t wait to hear it on vinyl…. lord knows what the LMG track will be like!

Get yourselves here for more info and ordering details:

http://libertatiaot.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/spectral-set.html

http://xylitolmusic.blogspot.co.uk/

Some related fanzine action from me very soon.

Link for more info and cheap ticket guestlist.

20 pages A5. Mainly by me, but with contributions from 2ndFade and (unbeknownst to him) Martin.

Trades/Blags are welcome.

(Images below are a bit compressed – the cover looks redder and slightly less ragged)

UK: £1.50

Europe: £2.69

Rest of World: £3.33