(repost) droid + slug on RTE digital radio

This got lost during a recent server migration, so, for the record, here it is again...

More radio business. Our dubtronics mix for blogariddims will be played along with a short interview on RTE's digital dance station Pulse FM tonight at 12am.

Tonight

Democracy When?

Don Rosco and Stacks sez:

Powerfm's live 99.5fm broadcasts continue. Live all over the greater Dublin area on FM and always online at www.powerfm.org

Tonight we have a rare treat. New music from Dublin's own Naphta. With his last release on The Fear gaining a coveted 'album of the month' or 'super duper record' or whatever on boomkat.com and highly praised all over the camp, this has to be something special.

This will be released on vinyl only on Dublin's D1 records.

Tune in to the Don Rosco and Stacks show to hear exclusive excerpts, the recordings that inspired it and an informal chat with the man himself about the music.

I'll also attempt to make him judge a 'teacake face-off' as I think this all sounds a bit serious and high-falutin!

Midnight tonight on Power Fm.

Sting we a Sting

This is 5 months after the fact of course, but I just found a good summary on Youtube so here's a brief dip into the lunatic and increasingly cynical world of dancehall stageshow clash.


For those that don't know, Sting 08 was the latest escalation of the fued between the Gullyside (Mavado) and Gaza (Vybez Kartel) crews, with Mavado (aka Mafraudo) ostensibly representing the Alliance... and Kartel (aka Bleach Boy) representing the Portmore empire. I'm not a fan of either artist to be honest, and things have been going downhill on the clash side of things since the melee at Sting '03 in my opinion, but it is worrying that with all these alliances and factions (and the blind loyalty they elicit from fans), dancehall seems to be becoming more and more reflective of garrison mentality and the seemingly intractable and perrenialy antagontistic political scenario in Jamaica...

Droid + Slug on Power FM

We're guesting on the Don Rosco and Stacks show tonight between 12 and 2am playing a selection of ruff ragga and smooth 95 rollers, plus a little bit of crucial early 90's dancehall, and maybe a touch of garage and bleep n' bass - if you're feeling restless and wanna tune in, go to the Power FM site.

Should be a laugh - we havent had a chance to get even a semblance of a proper set together!

20 Best Ragga 7"s

Me over at FACT magazine with the 20 best Ragga tunes of all time (youtube vids included). The original request was for a '20 best: dancehall', which is of course impossible - but even after severely narrowing the category down this exercise still proved heinously difficult - there's just so many great tunes out there! I ended up going all super-subjective whilst also trying to represent as many worthwhile artists and producers as I could (though I'm still not sure how I ended up with no Bounty Killer).

Upshot of it all (as I quake in my Clarks bootees awaiting the DHR style backlash) is that I have discovered a new found sympathy for those who do this kind of thing...

Shut Up and Dance

Seeing as it's now almost sold out, I've posted an extended version of my SUAD interview from Woofah issue 2 over at blogtotheoldskool. This is the first and last time that anything I write for Woofah will be republished online, so enjoy - and if you have any sense you'll keep an eye on the Woofah site and buy the new (and back) issues so you can get this stuff straight from the source in future...

Très Très Fort

So, after a couple of years with nothing but youtube videos to drool over, the Staff Benda Bilili album is finally out, and yes, its as brilliant as it should be. Kek has done a demystifying review and interview over at FACT, which says pretty much everything that needs to be said.

Believe the hype, folks: Très Très Fort, the new album by Staff Benda Bilili, is truly fantastic. I’ll be genuinely surprised if I hear much else this year that displays half the musical ingenuity, wit and energy that these guys can muster when they’re in full flight. And if I do, then the artists responsible for it will have almost certainly come from the Democratic Republic of the Congo too.

In the west, contemporary pop-culture seems to be stuck in a perpetual spin-cycle, flip-flopping between fads and corporate-driven revivals. It’s like a dog constantly chasing its own tail – not for a flea, but for the fiver that someone stuck there as a joke. Lazyitis is the new Rock n Roll.

But Staff Benda Bilili - like fellow Congolese musicians Kasai Allstars and L'orchestre Folklorique T.P. Konono N°1 de Mingiedi (that’s Konono N°1 to you) – have opened up a Pandora’s box of musical possibilities. Their imagination and determination puts most UK bands to shame. What they lack in resources they make up for with sheer inventiveness, literally conjuring their songs from out of nothing, using home-made instruments, discarded junk and their own bodies and voices.

One thing about the album that did surprise me slightly is that it doesn't sound quite as 'out there' as I was expecting. My favourite tune; 'Avramandole' is as blisteringly funky as the youtube previews suggested, and the cod-country/reggae of 'Sala Mosala' is infectiously incongruous, but most of the tunes aren't a million miles away from the straight up Soukous of my favourite Congolese artist: Pablo Lubadika Porthos - not that this is a bad thing at all I might add!

Here's a couple more of those videos to whet your appetite, including one of 'Poliomyelite' filmed during the recording of the album (BTW, can anyone tell me where the main chord progression in that tune comes from? Its very familiar but I just can't pin it down and it's driving me mental...)