BASH: plastic people 230206

Niceness in the place – from the moment we entered Paul Meme got overexcited because Loefah was doing the door. After Paul’s finished bigging him up we head inside to find Sgt Pokes laying down a fine fine roots set including the Mighty Diamonds, Dennis Brown and Johnny Clarke. He’s clearly having a Good Time as the place fills up. It’s infectious.

There’s a great vibe to the crowd, people chatting and getting the beers in, no po-faced bizness. A few people comment that it’s like a house party with a really good soundsystem, or like they hoped their living room would be on a really good night…

Kode9 and Sgt Pokes at BASH

Kode9 and Sgt Pokes at BASH

Next up is Kode9. Now… when a bit boxed in your living room, you might play a load of records just cos you felt like it, because in your head they have their own connections and logic. Maye you’d play Cornell Campbell on Burial Mix and then some early digi ragga, followed by a jungle lick-over of the My Conversation riddim followed by “I’m in Love with a Dreadlocks” followed by “Warrior Charge”…

You might do that in the privacy of your own home, but Kode9 had the crowd eating out of his hand with that selection. Which says a lot for both the punters and him – and what I guess Bash is all about. Pokes tears across the dancefloor and reaches over the decks to do his own rewind, and Kode9 looks completely unphased. Maybe that happens to him all the time, I dunno. An MC who might be Space Ape comes across with some nice poetics. KNine brings Cutty Ranks into the equation. And on and on…

The Bug mashes the place up

The Bug mashes the place up

Tactical Thursdays – how long can you hang on? How far can you push it and still deal with work on Friday? The arrival of The Bug and crew puts paid to those kind of considerations… a man with a big box of tunes and effects, some geezers with a load of energy and rhymes. Yeah. Fuck yeah. Sleng teng, street sweeper, Papa Levi, Warrior Charge relick. The MCs go completely hell for leather over the Eighty Five riddim. Ras B ramps up the consciousness, Ricky Ranking chats larger than life, Seanie T does his thing…

MCs - three the HARD WAY

MCs – three the HARD WAY

The Bug’s own riddims get an airing towards the end of the set, taking it up another notch on the Richter Scale. If I was going to sort out a club of my own it would be… exactly like this. It feels like coming home or something. Does that sound corny? Were you there, tho? Did you see it all going off? By this point there’s nobody lurking about in the sofas area, everybody has either fucked off or is ramming out the dancefloor.

Loefah finishes us all off at BASH

Loefah finishes us all off at BASH

Loefah takes over with a tune that might be digidub or dubstep. I dunno, but it sounds good to me. He goes on to play some brittle ragga. By this time Paul has gone and I’m worse for wear, but it doesn’t matter. Loefah drops “Ghetto Story” by Cham and a load of killer tunes… finishes up with “Ring The Alarm”, Bushman’s “Too Much Violence” on stalag and then Johnny Osbourne’s “Buddy Bye Bye” on sleng teng. The lights go up and there’s no more. Everybody still there is going to tell all their mates, but you never forget your first time.

Old Skool Dark Ambient Mix

“Every man does his thing a little way different”
Errol Dunkley

“Don’t get downhearted because of the dementors out there, just slip them the odd nasty Debbie Gibson / Jive Bunny megamix or some Merzbow teeth-pulls every now and then to keep em on their toes…”
Loki

This mix is the first one I ever recorded, back in 1998. I’d got a new job a few years previously and used the extra cash, month by month, to gradually sort myself out with a decent hi-fi and then eventually saved up to buy one deck, a mixer, and then another deck.

The mix was originally conceived when I had one deck, a mixer and an ordinary domestic CD player. So, no beatmixing but some nice looooooong ambient pieces. It was eventually reworked with two records and a CD playing at the same time when I had amassed all the kit. I didn’t really do very much with at the time, partly because I had no way of copying tapes and partly because I was still labouring under the illusion that I’d become some kind of shit hot drum and bass DJ. Quite clearly that was never going to happen, but it was great fun mucking about with records. And still is.

A lot of these tunes represent the last gasp of my serious interest in industrial culture before plunging into dub in a big way. With the exception of one track, it still sounds fantastic to these ears.

In many ways it is a sister mix to Paul Meme’s classic Ambient Industrial selection

Another live mix. 48 minutes long because it was designed to fit on one side of a C90 (remember them?).

Download a zipped archive including the mp3 file, cover art and details of how to get a 4 page pdf of sleevenotes from here. (65megs).

Rules:

1) If I see people linking directly to the file, I will take it down. (Link instead to https://uncarved.org/blog/?p=790)
2) If my bandwidth goes ballistic, I will take the file down.
3) A very limited number of CDs are available for dial-up people who have already been in touch with me (or who I know from internet forums, etc) – email me or leave a comment.

The mix will be up for about a week, all being well.

Anchormix Radio: Anchormix Version Four: Rounds One & Two

“…a soundclash of King Tubby versus Scientist inna Anchormix style. The goal was to pay tribute to two dub heavyweights while using the songs as elements themselves and weaving in the vocal talents of Omnibus MC.

In a four-round clash, DJ’s Andren and Scott Allen took turns re-mixing, looping and dubbing each track into a brand new song.

Our modern take on dub is to remix the dub tracks on the fly and create a ‘dub soundscape’ that, when mixed with live vocals provides a live element that can never be recreated.”

Download the standard version over at Anchormix Radio

Register on their forum for access to a high quality download and more besides.

just buggin’

Some great updates on Kevin Martin’s crucial project The Bug.

First off Rephlex are finally going to release the Razor-X “Killing Sound” compilation at the end of February. It’s a double set with one disc of vocals from Cutty Ranks, Daddy Freddy, Warrior Queen and a load more, and one disc of versions. Some of this previously came out on absurdly limited sevens (which I think I have all of, ha!) but most of it looks unreleased. Razor X = The Bug + uk soundsystem veteran and dubplate cutter The Rootsman.

Secondly you can listen online to the recent BBC Radio 1 Breezeblock session, which included about a million MCs and more mayhem besides.

Finally, there is this:

BASH

Bash @ Plastic People (Curtain Road, EC2)

Thursday 23rd February, 10pm-2am, £5

Rephlex Records’ ragga renegade The Bug has joined forces with Loefah from dubstep bass dons Digital Mystikz to bring dancehall partyseekers the latest bashment rhythms, classic ragga, heavyweight dub and reggaefied hip hop.

Guest DJs on rotation include Adrian Sherwood, Trevor Sax, DJ /Rupture, Mary Anne Hobbs and Seanie T.

 

they shall not pass

In response to this

Date: Mon, 13 Feb 2006 22:33:47 +0100

From: redbullmusicacademy

To: Eden

“We are shocked and appalled that such a link could appear on our website, and would like to be clear that it would never be the intention of Red Bull Music Academy to give any sort of platform to these kind of forces whatsoever. Our links try to give people unbiased and free information relating to music and the Academy, which in this instance has evidently been abused by a third party and gone awfully wrong. Please accept our apologies for not having noticed this sooner, and our thanks for bringing it to our attention.”

“cos they ain’t got nothin’ in them”

——– Original Message ——–

Subject: Why does redbullmusicacademy.com link to the National Front site?

Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2006 19:34:23 +0000

From: Eden

To: Red Bull Music Academy

Thank you for your great site, which was flagged up on the Blood & Fire discussion board earlier today.

I have very much enjoyed reading the lectures there by David Rodigan and Dennis Bovell – it is great to see reggae discussed in such a passionate and informed manner from people who are such luminaries in the UK.

I was however extremely disturbed when I noticed a hyperlink on this page of the Bovell lecture:
http://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/LECTURES.95.0.html?act_session=153 which goes straight to the homepage of the neo-nazi National Front.

I do not think this is in keeping with the Red Bull Music Academy’s aims and I am sure that Dennis Bovell would not approve.

I am writing to you to request that you remove the link because I don’t think a platform should be given to the NF by your organisation. Indeed, I don’t think you providing their website with traffic does you any favours whatsoever.

It would be helpful if you could confirm you have received this email and let me know your thoughts on this matter. I will look forward to hearing from you.

John Eden

[edited to add – response and resolution here]