I’m posting this pretty sheepishly as Darren Judge did one of thess podcasts for us a full 2 MONTHS ago. He left it to me to add the jingles and I moved house/studio and am still picking up the pieces. There are still no jingles for reasons i’d better not go into, but what there is, is two HEAVY mixes put together by the man currently garnering support from the likes of Solid Steel for his CLUBB ROCK project. #19 is everything you’d expect from a British born Jamaican. Tuff Hip Hop, raw breaks and some serious Kingston town leanings. #20 sees the Judge come over all smooth & soulful….in a ghetto style. Guess you can’t be raw all the time. He promises us there are more in the pipeline but for now, wrap your ears around these.
HH PODCAST #19:
As We Enter//Nas & Damian Marley Yegelle Tezeta//Mulatu Astatke Struggla//Skitz ft Rodney P, Kardinal Offishal & Skibadee Born Inna System//Skitz ft Buggsy Kill Em With The Flow (Remix)//Skandal ft Klashnekoff & P Money Shutterbug//Big Boi EMC (What It Stands For)//EMC Twilite Speedball//Mos Def Orange Murderer//Clubb Rock Lit Up//Flying Lotus & Declaime Geek Down//J Dilla 914//Pete Rock ft Styles P & Sheek Louch My Aggin (Inst)//OhNo
I first met Dan Bean via a mutual friend with whom he shared the Iality HiFi soundsystem. As you can probably guess from its name, Iality was a predomoinantly Reggae affair, and so I assumed incorrectly that Dan was just another white-boy with a penchant for the sound of Jamaica. When I bumped into him in Fabric’s Room 3, which was being commandeered by the Detroit Beatdown DJs (Norm Talley, Delano Smith and Mike Clark), questions began to form in my mind about his musical affiliations. Over time, pre-conceptions were replaced with truth. The truth is that Dan’s taste (both musically and otherwise) is impeccable and diverse. Add to that his numerous trips to Detroit to hang out with Techno’s A-List and dig for long deleted vinyl prizes and you can probably see where we’re heading.
While I was round at his for an excellent meal and shameless audio geek-out a few weeks back, his floor to ceiling vinyl collection spanning everything from synthed-out Sunny Ade to Madlib’s DJ Rels broken-beat project prompted me to ask him to do a podcast for Heads High. It just so happens, that Dan is part of the Bleep 43 organisation who take great pride in inviting House/Techno’s finest to our fair city for marathon sets of real music. Derrick May is coming to Bleep very soon and that provides the inspiration for this very special audio excursion. I’ll let Dan explain:
“While preparing for the arrival of Derrick May to play a six hour set for us on the 21st May, I couldn’t help pausing to think about his work. It’s fair to say that he hasn’t exactly been prolific in terms of releases. On the other hand almost everything he’s released has been game changing in some way or other. This is partly to do with the innovative drum programming that Detroit is quite rightly renowned for, especially on the Roland TR-909. You might even say that the sounds from that peculiar little box define techno but that’s only half the story.
Listening to Derrick’s tracks, it seems clear that it’s the power of the melody that somehow connects most deeply. The instruments for this must have seemed like an uninspiring selection of cheap keyboards at the time, the only tools available to broke musicians. However in true ‘dubwise’ fashion they were put to use in ways that their designers probably never anticipated. The result was a sound or feeling that has since become ubiquitous worldwide, sadly almost to the point where it’s become totally devalued.
Rather than compiling a series of Rhythim Is Rhythim tracks in a mix, it seemed like a better idea to review at least some of the history of synthesiser music. It’s by no means a comprehensive review (please don’t write in…) but I’ve tried to pick out a reasonably varied selection including some tracks that might have influenced Derrick and his colleagues. For instance, ‘Shine A Light’ was a favourite of The Electrifyin Mojo, a revolutionary Detroit radio DJ who melded an almost ludicrous range of boundary busting records on his show and must take at least some credit for the Detroit sound.
I’ve also looked back to some early attempts to harness the power of synthesis by pioneers such as Raymond Scott and the unfortunately named Dick Hyman, not to mention sterling efforts from persistent innovators such as Ike Turner and Eddie Harris. Add to that Germany’s own take in the form of Popol Vuh alongside their inheritors Stereolab and with some luck I may have illuminated some less frequented corners of the synthesiser universe. To round the picture out I’ve also included tracks from European masters such as Giorgio Moroder (Beat The Clock) and Jean-Claude Petit and some apparently accidental house music from Roy Ayers, as well as a contribution from Detroit’s prodigal son (and devout synthophile) Omar S.”
Bleep43 with Derrick May is taking place on Friday 21st May at the wonderful Corsica Studios in Elephant and Castle. It’s £15 on the door (£9 NUS) or £12 in advance. Derrick will be playing for six hours from 1am. Hope you can join us. More info here.
John Carpenter//Main Theme from Escape From New York Jean-Claude Petit//Stones Of Law Omar S//Hot Ones Echo Through The Ghetto Rhythim Is Rhythim//Beyond The Dance Sparks//Beat The Clock (Alternative Mix) Jimmy Ross//Fall Into A Trance The Graingers//Shine A Light Roy Ayers//Chicago Cloud One//Atmosphere Strut Cat Stevens//Was Dog A Doughnut Fern Kinney//Groove Me Ike Turner//Thinking Black Dick Hyman//Give It Up Turn It Loose Raymond Scott//The Happy Whistler Stereolab//Refractions In The Plastic Pulse Popol Vuh//Aguirre I Yusef Lateef//Technological Homosapiens Eddie Harris//Carnival
Easter weekend. Four days off and very few excuses not to record a podcast so here it is. Heavily inspired by the ritual bank holiday dig through the collection, a selection taking in rootikal dubwise, golden age pirate radio anthems, fresh boom-bap and forthcoming 130 BPM sub bass excursions…..enjoy:
The Observers//Organ Satta Big Youth//Love Jah Jah Children Horace Andy//Lets Live In Love Jah Bunny & Ras Elroy meet Dougie Conscious//Dub 2 King Tubby//Antique Dub ELUCID//Laser Days SBTRKT//Inamillion Blackpocket//U’re a Star (Martyn Remix) Hem ft. Terrible Shock//On a Mission (Shortstuff Remix) Ragga Twins//18″ Speaker Pursuit Grooves//Whisper U.N.I. ft. H.O.P.E & Shawn Jackson//Cali Soul Ski Beatz ft. Mos Def//24 Hour Karate School Bullion//Don’t Talk Madlib//Floating Soul Dabrye//Magic Says Chico Mann//Levanta Pursuit Grooves//Cosy Portformat ft. Blaktroniks//It’s On (Swede:art Remix) Erykah Badu//Turn Me Away (Get MUNNY) Georgia Ann Muldrow//So Far Ski Beatz ft. Mos Def & Whosane//Taxi
She’s been lurking (and working) in the shadows for some time now and she’s decided it’s her time to shine. We’re happy! She’s got ridiculously good taste in music, and she pleases herself before making any concessions for you or I….our kind of girl….check for yourselves. This is her first podcast mind so go easy on her. We were all first-timers on the mic once:
Tracklisting
Strong Arm Steady feat Talib Kweli// Get Started Medina Green feat Mos Def// Party Done DTMD// Fantastic Jneiro Jarel// N.A.S.A Olivier Daysoul// The Walls Pollyn// Still Love (Debruit Remix) Will Powers// Adventures in Success (dub) Mulatu Astatake// Esketa Dance Shafiq Husayn// Nirvana Bei Bei and Shawn Lee// Into the wind Robert Glasper// The Robert Glasper Experiment Gill Scott Heron// Me and the Devil P.O.S// Goodbye Atmosphere// Shoulda Known Dabrye feat Doom// Air Janelle Monae feat Big Boi// Tightrope Big Boi// Royal Flush (Clean) Juggaknots// Settle Down Cunninlynguists// Mic Like a Memory Mos Def feat Talib Kweli// History Doom// Ballskin Oddisee feat Tranquil// It’s Over
After an inexcusably long hiatus, the Duke drops some fresh gems on y’all. Detroit House, Hip Hop, Raw Roots music from Africa to the Caribbean? It’s all here:
John Roberts//White Chez-N-Trent//All about You Bookworms//African Rhythms Donaeo//Riot Music (Shy FX Mix) Marcé//Ca Ca Ye (Frankie Francis Edit) Georgia Ann Muldrow//Jina Langu Ni Afrika (my Name Is Afrika) Brittany Bosco//Black Keys Will – I – Am//Money Pal Joey//Breakin’ Necks House Shoes//The Makings Georgia & Dudley//Shine On Dabrye//I’m Missing You Reggie B//Spoken Lenny Flying Lotus//Quakes Jay Electronica//Exhibit A (Transformations) Fatima//Higher Black Joy Edits//Edit 10 Red Earth Collective ft. Manasseh//Hard Times Dub Vincent Taylor//Living A Lie Connie Bell//Vampires Midnite//Enter Nneka//Africans Baloji//Karibou Ye Bintou
I hate Twitter. That living your life online ish isn’t for me. Tucking self-promotion between tweets about how good your Cornflakes taste and how you feel about sitting on a bus in traffic jars my spirit….I still use it though. And as much as it pains me to say it, I have to admit its not all bad because it’s thanks to a tweet from the Brownswood BPM that I found out about Bookworms.
His bumpy yet hypnotic re-imagining of Mi Ami’s African Rhythms is currently smacking up the real and virtual worlds and his dense, unreleased dubs have rumbled their way onto the playlist of Ms Mary Ann Hobbs more than once over the past year. With our current wave of hot beat producers, you’d be forgiven for thinking Mr Worms is yet another fresh-faced talent jostling for position in the Bass Music marketplace….not so. He’s been doing this for a minute.
“…since around the year 2000, I was 17 years old…making beats on PlayStation recording to boom-box. The first music I ever let anyone hear was a couple Bjork remixes I uploaded to this old website called bjorkremixweb. This was around 2000. Then I produced and worked with some punk and hard-core bands who met through friends from high school. I also made beats for a couple mc’s from around the way. Around 2003 I got really into making my own beats and instrumentals, mostly because other people were too hard to work with…I guess you could say it was a natural progression.”
Although other artists proved hard to work with, it would seem Bookworms has no problems making friends with different genres. Listen to any one of his original productions or remix efforts and you’ll hear traces of Punk/Rock, Hip Hop, Detroit Techno,Disco, Dubstep and Experimental Electronica all present, all correct and all somehow managing to compliment one another.
I need to know more about the San Francisco scene. There’s some hot music out there and by the looks of Bookworms’ discography, he’s busy remixing a lot of it. Lemonade are a San Fran based band who have been getting some hype this side of the water recently and sure enough, who do we find on their ‘RemixTape’…
“My ex girlfriend used to work at a used-clothing store in SF with the Callan from Lemonade, so we knew each other from around SF and going to shows. They’re cool dudes, we talked about it at a show and they sent me the files to remix ”
Talking to Bookworms it soon transpires that many of his links are a direct result of long nights spent listening to loud music on herbal foundations. Take the Solos label that’s put out his version of African Rhythms as a case in point.
“Solos is on some crazy shit, it’s electronic music. It’s all across the board. I met Roche at a warehouse party Solos was throwing in Berkeley, I wanted to smoke and he was rolling a blunt, so we smoked and then I gave him a CD. A week or so later he asked me if I wanted to put some music out with Solos. The rest is history.”
Probing further, I discover that sadly, not all of Bookworms night-time trips have such a happy ending
“…back in about 2006 I went to Big Sur, California for this weird show where San Francisco bands Tussle, Brookhaven, Lemonade and the Drift were playing. Now Big Sur is way out in the woods and nature so I was a bit out of my element and it was hella dark….to cut a long story short I end up jumping off a motor home into the darkness and spraining my ankle really bad outside the show…not a good way to end the night…”
We feel you on that one…moving on to happier times we’ll focus on the music, or rather how Bookworms would like it to be received.
“I would like people to listen to my music on headphones while riding around a medieval city on Tron light -bikes. I am trying to expose parallels between sounds and samples and styles of music. I hope to share that with others.”
Shared it he has. Sounds to me that he’s read a little too much Sci Fi though. Well I guess with a name like Bookworms you can’t fault the brother for hitting the books…
“I like Simple Takes A Wife by Langston Hughes… anything by Isaac Asimov and [I read] lots of Sci-Fi end of the world stuff when I was younger..Reading helps me come up with names for songs…sometimes.”
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Finest Dearest – Slow Going (Bookworms Rmx) Brookhaven – Something Must Remain Of Us (Bookworms Rmx) Brookhaven – Static In The Valley (Bookworms Rmx) Mi Ami - How Can I (Bookworms Rmx) Mi Ami – African Rhythms (Bookworms Rmx) Lemonade - Sunchips (Bookworms Rmx)
LP’s, EP’s and singles
Bookworm Kills (Demo cassette)
The Hidden Staircase LP (Solos Records)
Mandarine Hits CD (Expel Records)
Folks: Remixes (Self released)
African Rhythms CD (Solos Records)
Yeah I know, this should have been posted last Friday but it’s been hectic times at Heads High HQ. I could have done it yesterday but I promised myself I’d take one whole day off the LCD and actually interact with real people ALL day. It was nice. I’ll do it again someday….
Anyway, here’s the missing selection. One of those ones that I wasn’t too happy with when I recorded it but listened back and was pleasantly surprised…A little rags in places but the rawness is the realness. Enjoy….
Dark Knight // Mutant Funk Bookworms // African Rhythms Zomby // One Foot Ahead Of The Other Silkie // Spark Red // I Should Tell Your Mama On Ya Baatin // Marvelous Jimmy Castor Bunch // It’s Just Begun (Larry Levan Mix) Holzer & Kamura // Pure Love Players Association // Let Your Body Go Don Armandos Second Avenue Rhumba Band // Deputy Of Love Fallout // The Morning After Martyn // For Lost Relatives F // Epilogue (Ramadanman Mix) Kode 9 & The Space Ape // Do You See What I See Elemental // Talk
We’re gradually getting back on top of things in here. Decent content, regular podcasts, we’re loving you the right way. Here’s a selection from the Duke to make you feel nice. He lost his voice half-way through but it’s all good, the music speaks for itself…
Lizzy Mercier Decloux // Hard Boiled Pearson Sounds // WAD Sole Fusion // Bass Tone John Robertson // Blame Reggie Dokes //Walk In Deepness New World Aquarium // Tresspassers Block 16 // Morning Sun (Pepe Bradock Refix) Lightening Heads // Message Beats Nanyo Addo // Wo ba wo ba shue Jimi Tenor & the Kabu Kabu // Fast Legs Silkie // Purple Love Elemental // Braindrops James Blake // Air and Lack Thereof’
Build an Ark Remix (Unknown – Help us out!) Amede & The Soundsmith // Tip Toe ft. Shanazz Dorsett Sa Ra Creative Partners // Soul’s Brother
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