Drop 'n' Dukie

So here's one I missed... which is odd, since it involves one of my favorite bands going, the mighty, mighty Dub machine known as Fat Freddy's Drop. Apparently, Ninja Tune operative and confirmed Russian DJ Vadim did this whole remix EP without informing me. Which just goes to prove that Russians are dicks. Actually "remix" doesn't even quite describe what he does to these songs, as he's also added vocals from a female singer and a rapper. Interesting...



If you like this one, all 6 tracks are available for DL. And you can hear the Drop's amazing singer, Joe Dukie, in this week's radio show...

Shuffleupagus Radio Ep. 08 by Shuffleupagus Radio on Mixcloud

Enjoy...

Fat Ridim De Best Ridim!

Not a particularly meaty post today... the artist is meaty enough himself...



Fat Man Ridim Section may be the best named studio backing band ever. The Fat Man himself was a dude named Roger Lewis... which is all the information I got about him. But Reggae legends Sly & Robbie were also members, so yeah... they were pretty good, too.

Fat Man Ridim Section - Joshua A Loaf (ysi)

Have a good weekend. I'll be seeing the amazing Bonobo tomorrow night, so expect a full report Monday...

Another Max Effort Post

With the passing of MCA, I'd be quite inclined to do an All-Beastie Boys week... but since every other blog in existence is also doing that, I'll just go with business as usual...



Short Story: Two Dub legends, Augustus Pablo and King Tubby, got together, smoked several pounds of weed and turned out a stone-cold Dub classic. Then they ate like a million Doritos. And watched a shitload of Family Guy, even though it didn't exist yet. It was really good weed...

Augustus Pablo & King Tubby - Corner Crew Dub (ysi)

Tonegents: the place for award-winning fiction writing since 2007... or not.

Not terribly ambidexterous...

So it's been pretty hard getting blog posts done the last couple of weeks... since I squashed the middle finger of my left hand in my car door like a damn idiot. Now, don't call off work or anything... I'm okay. But it's been pretty wild seeing just how hard it is getting by on just one hand. You don't even realize what you do with a certain hand until you can't, ya dig? What I'm trying to get at, and what I only share here because I know no one reads this is this... the horrifying discovery that I cannot, for the life of me, properly wipe my ass with my right hand. I mean, normally I am a tidy, efficient wiper... but trying to do it with my right hand, you'd think I'd just been potty trained or perhaps even had a touch of the palsy. Especially shocking since I'M FREAKING RIGHT HANDED. Paradigm shifted...



Not that any of that has anything to do with today's song. It's by Dub Syndicate, one of the many projects of famed Dub practitioner Adrian Sherwood... this one came out when I was in college and I fell quite in love with it for the Jim Morrison samples, which is the kind of thing that white college kids do...

Dub Syndicate - Stoned Immaculate (ysi)

Okay, I'm gonna be late for wiping practice. Toodles...

Boo-Boom!

I desperately want to own the truck on today's album cover...



The only two things I was able to find whilst Googling The Simeons were... jack and shit. Ha! Ok, the only two things I was able to really find out were that this is their only album and that apparently this guy was a member. Barry Boom? Nice. He should get married to Betty Boo. DOUBLE HA! Well, whatever the story, it's a nice little Dub record. Mad expensive, too. Worth it? You tell me...

The Simeons - Cool Stepping (ysi)

I would not fault you for acquiring this album through nefarious means. Barry Boom however, might stab you. YOU DON'T MESS WITH BARRY BOOM'S PAPER, SON! You have been warned...

Lee & The B's

Here's another one in the "Almost 1000 posts and I can't believe this dude hasn't come up yet" pile...



I, like (I'd imagine) most white people, first heard of Lee "Scratch" Perry was when the Beastie Boys name-checked him in "Sure Shot". But it's not how you get the information that matters, it's what you do with it, no? So eventually I found out that this Scratch guy was pretty good at the Dub Reggae, and went and got me some of his tunes. And THAT is some fucking gripping music blogging, right there...

Lee "Scratch" Perry - Bad Luck (ysi)

What, you expected some kind of dissertation on the man's career and musical legacy? Oh, and here's the Beasties doin' it live...



I've had a listen to their new record, btw, and it's fantastic. Wait a minute, wasn't this post supposed to be about Lee Perry? Ah, whatevs...

It's good to be the king...

Let that post title stand as your warning that you're not gonna find a lot of original comedy material in this one...



Apparently Prince Jammy is one of the guys who invented dancehall... so despite the fact that that eventually led to Sean Paul (man, that reference is obscure already, no?), I guess we can thank him for that. Heck, he's even been promoted to King Jammy now. Gets his own Piss Boy and everything...

...

...

Yeah, that's all I got today... a big ol' Costco-sized vat of jack shit. But this is some nice old Dub...

Prince Jammy - Old Country Dub (ysi)

And hey, here's a cool old video! Watch the man work the old school board while his ridiculously stoned homies just try to remain standing...



Things might get a little hectic 'round my way the next couple of days... so I'll see ya sometime between now and Friday...

Everything's all 'asploded...

So... last week something quite apocalyptic happened. The library file in my iTunes got raped by drunken gremlins fatally corrupted. What that means is it has to be rebuilt, manually. This is a process which will hopefully be finished by... well, I hope it's finished before 2012 comes and I'm fleeing for some big spaceship with John Cusack. The result of this is that you will see a certain alphabetical progression to the bands picked by the shuffle over the next few million posts or so. Starting with the numbers, no less...



3 Foot People is one of the many aliases of the man also know as Freddie Cruger or Red Astaire, a maker of many funky beats for feets. On this one, he gets his skank on with the help of Reggae singer Desmond Foster who must be pretty easy to spot in a crowd in Sweden. Just sayin'...

3 Foot People - Simply Fresh (ft. Desmond Foster (ysi)

I am kinda stoked for that movie though, especially the part where L.A. literally falls into the ocean...



I hope I'm out of town when that really happens... :P

A band you may have heard of...

Even when you tell the record industry to fuck off, they still have ways to make money offa yer ass...



I've said before that I don't particularly feel the need to post on Radiohead so much even though they are by far my favorite band... I figure, oh, every other blog in the world has them covered quite nicely. BUT the shuffle just so happened to land on a sweet rarity from one of the recent record company cash-grabs reissues that I couldn't pass up. Now, let me get one thing clear... I did not go out like a Beatles fan and buy the same songs AGAIN because I'm stupid. No, I did the smart thing and cruised the Interweb tubes, trolling the bonus discs to see if there was anything I for some reason didn't have. And sure enough, um... there was. I have no idea how this one slipped by me, considering how much heterosexual man-love I have for Fila Brazillia as remixers, and I can't be arsed to hunt down the background info, so just dig it as the FB boys turn this one into a heavy, heavy dub experience...

Radiohead - Climbing Up The Walls (Fila Brazillia Remix) (ysi)

And here's the originoo, live from Glasto 2003, because fuck yeah...



Okay, back to being purposely obscure tomorrow, I promise...

Just enough time for a quickie

No time for the jibber-jabber today, so...



... enjoy this classic bit of DubReggaeJungle from the amazing first album by Bristol's Smith & Mighty, with none other than Mr. Horace Andy on the vocal... I think... I'm reasonably sure...

Smith & Mighty - Down In Rwanda (ysi)

Sorry to rush, but I gotta go...

Ranking Tone, Big Up!

So, I'd have to say that the highlight of my weekend was the part where "the rangers have been notified and (my) picture taken for prosecution purposes". But that's all I'm gonna say about that...



Starting off the week with some heavy heavy dub ('cuz that's the best kind), courtesy of Reggae veteran Ranking Joe along with relative newcomer Twilight Sound System, whom I've posted on before, on the production. I like the term "ranking" in the Rasta slang. Means "highly respected". I would like to be called Ranking Tone from now on, if you don't mind. I think I've earned it. Okay, maybe not... I'm probably more of a "lagga head". I'm sure you can guess what that means...

Ranking Joe - Poor Man Version (ysi)

But more importantly... have you downloaded The Happy Holiday Hullabaloo yet? I think you should. It's quite festive. Toodles.

A quick one, like Usain Bolt

This week is shapin' up to be pretty darn random...



... but I like random. I seemingly only listen to my iTunes on random these days, which I know makes me one of those people, but if that's the case, so be it... I like to be surprised, dammit! Anyhoo, today we got the man from Montreal, Deadbeat, and his brand of deep electronic dub. Yep, that's what we got... so... here it is...

Deadbeat - Melbourne Round Midnight (ysi)

Dude's got several albums worth of such goodness that also take it up to a nice Dub Techno bpm on occasion, so look into it...

... oh, and in case you're wondering, it is the official position of Tonegents that Usain Bolt is awesome. But you probably knew that...

Monsters and destruction!

This ain't no feel-good music...



I think we can all agree that a vampire is about the coolest thing you can be, no? You're immortal, you have all sorts of cool powers and, most importantly, you score a lot of babes. I mean, being a vampire is so cool that even Tom Cruise seemed kinda cool when playing one (back off, I said seemed kinda). Anyhoo, the point of this is that any concept album about vampires is gonna get a listen from me, which brings us to Dub master Scientist and this awesomely named record. This is truly the heavy, heavy monster sound...

Scientist - Dance Of The Vampires (ysi)

Extra bonus points awarded for this album being used in one of the best video games ever, Grand Theft Auto III. If there's a better video game moment than getting the tank in GTA III, I don't know about it...



Now, a vampire with a tank? Two words... fuck and yes. Somebody invent that game right now...

Blog-achella 08: LKJ

Today we start with probably the most "serious" guy on the bill...

Linton Kwesi Johnson



Who he is: Jamaican-born, British-raised, highly educated speaker of truths. I mean, he's like only the second living poet to be published in the Penguin Classics series. Now, I really have no idea what that means, but I'm sure it's very impressive to those who do... :P

What he sounds like: LKJ is known as the "dub poet"... he does a spoken word style over dense dub beats in a Jamaican patois that only barely resembles English and that I am quite fascinated with. I mean, look at the title of this song... what the hell does that mean?

Linton Kwesi Johnson - Come Wi Go Dung Deh (ysi)

What I think: This certainly ain't no UB40 shit here (not that I have a huge problem with UB40... they were really good until they got old and started doing nothing but bad cover songs), this is some real intense stuff. Spark one up and get some knowledge...

Across the ocean, across the styles

A little genre-bending trans-continental remixeroo action today...



... as L.A. (by way of Colorado Springs(!)) hip-hoppers The Procussions meet Parisian DJ/Remixer Grant Phabao and we get some rap inna rubba-dub style. The Procussions have recently broken up to pursue solo stuff, but they put out a couple of nice albums of laid-back, jazzy hip-hop worth peeping. Mr. Phabao is one of those guys keeping the name of King Tubby and the like alive with his dub stylees. This was one of those remixes where nobody ever met anyone, but they sent stuff back and forth on the Interweb tubes and voila!

The Procussions - Simple Song (Grant Phabao Remix) (ysi)

And since this joint was all unofficial-like, it was made available for free at Paris DJs.com, so you can snag it and enjoy it guilt-free... not that you have any guilt about downloading music, ya jackals... :P

Ya don't say!

Had a request for some more Dub-style goodness, and I aims to please... although this isn't quite traditional dub...



Actually it's more of a jazzy dub/drum & bass combo deal thingy courtesy of France's Sayag Jazz Machine. I just got hipped to these guys and they have an interesting combo of beats, live horns, turntablism and such going on. I can't find out much more though, because all the info I can find on them is in French, which is all Greek to me. (Wow, that was a bad joke even by my standards.) The record's called No Me Digas, which means "Ya don't say!". I ran the song title through Babel Fish and got "Before it does not speak", which makes not much sense. I'm all about the translations this week...

Sayag Jazz Machine - Avant Qu'elle Ne Parle (ysi)

Nice stuff. These guys are also heavy into the video element. Check out this cool-ass "trailer" for their live show.



Yep, I think I'd like to see that!

Well, it certainly gives his alias layers...

So, do you like your dub with a side of sexually confused?



Okay, I'll explain. Lightning Head is an alias for Glyn Bush aka Bigga Bush of the awesome-but-now-defunct Rockers Hi-Fi. Now, upon meeting someone who goes by such a name and produces such music, one would assume that this person was quite possibly a large, dreaded black man. One would be mistaken. Actually, Mr. Bush is a large, white, skinny... cross-dresser. Well, I don't know if that's how he rolls 24/7, but he was on the night I met him. Make-up, mini-skirt, the works. Bit of a surprise, to say the least... not that there's anything wrong with that. But hey, doesn't matter when you make good tunes, and that's what Mr. Bush does... so throw on your favorite sundress and check out the heavy heavy dub stylee...

Lightning Head - Stilla Move (ysi)

Rude bwoy, er... girl... er... whatever...

Two great tastes that go "huh?" together

So, for some reason, this morning as I went about getting ready for my day, I decided that these two songs would go together. Why? Beats the hell outta me...



I don't post a lot of Rock around here, but I've got plenty of it in my collection, because I'm all well rounded and shit. I've always thought black dudes who rock are a bit extra-cool, and D.C. punk legends Bad Brains sure know how to rock out... for a bunch of Rastas, that is. Smokin' all that ganja usually makes folks kinda mellow and Dorito-fiendy, but not these dudes! I think I've always particularly loved this song for the cool a capella intro, but it's pretty damn kick-ass all the way through...

Bad Brains - Soul Craft

Yup, sometimes you just gotta throw on the ol' combat boots and hop in the pit. I used to do that, but because I weigh a buck-40 soaking wet, it didn't work out too well for me sometimes. Dudes would literally pick me up and throw me around like a football. No bueno!

But how about some music you would expect from Rastas... only from a Canadian ex-pat living in the Netherlands...



I'm talking about the heavy heavy dub, and ya can't get much heavier than this record by Twilight Circus Dub Soundsystem. I remember picking up a promo CD of this at a dollar sale that had crayon drawing on it with gold and silver stars stuck all over. Weird. But in it's own way, just as intense as the Bad Brains...

Twilight Circus Dub Soundsystem - The Ride

Talk about a track living up to it's title, eh? So, to recap... um, err... who knows? It's a random kind of week, folks...

Hope for a generation

And here is one of my favorite bands of the last couple years, courtesy the best DJ selecta in the world...



Fat Freddy's Drop are a reggae/dub band from New Zealand, of all places, made up mostly (I believe) of mostly native Maori dudes, and led by singer Joe Dukie, whose vocals have appeared on a bunch of cool tracks by other folks as well. Seeing their full-length, "Based On A True Story" won the Worldwide Winners Album of the Year a couple years back, it's no surprise that this track comes courtesy of one of Gilles' many compilations for Trust The DJ (always good advice by the way... in that respect, we're like doctors and stuff... so, girls, you know it's totally cool if we see you naked :P ). Tried to but had no luck on details for this version though, which I say because it is almost completely different than the album song of the same name. I think it may be live, but no matter... because it's fantastic...

Fat Freddy's Drop - Hope

Kiwis feel da jah vibe too!

On Planet Dub, the trees smell really good

I must ask that you don't let the horrendous cover art scare you off of this one :P



... cuz, ya know, a giant, crazed space moth smoking a huge doobie can send, um, mixed signals, I suppose. But never fear! This is actually a pretty good 2-disc set from the now defunct Planet Dog Records, which had a good run in the '90s as one of the better trance-related labels, featuring Eat Static and Children of the Bong at the top of it's roster. Planet Dub features some pretty trippy, Orb-like electronic ambient/dub goodness and also some slightly more traditional-sounding dub selections, like this track by some dudes I won't even pretend to know anything about...

A.N.R. ft. Roots Lepkie - Rockers Rising

It may not be Lee "Scratch" Perry or Mad Professor, but it's pretty close. I gotta go now, though. I need to buy a can of Raid. That moth is freakin' me out...