Droid Sez: Episode 48 comes from the one and only Woebot, who has (kind of) come out of retirement to contribute this set. There’s not much to add to Matt’s intro and post, simply that I hope you’ll all enjoy this musical ambrosia as much as I have….

Shunted off the stage and smoking in the alley. For a while Jazz had something like an Embassy but then its proponents drifted on to Reggae and Brazilian music. Now no-one (apart from you dear listener) gives a shit about it

-Woebot

Tony Sez: If you’d like to find out more about all things jazz from Woebot’s perspective make sure you check this out. Possibly the most amazing post about jazz I’ve read.

woebot.com
weareie.com

Tracklist

1. Yuseef Lateef – Plum Blossom
2. Andrew Hill – Illusion
3. Gil Evans – The Barbara Song
4. Marion Brown – Bismillah Raxmani Rahim
5. Don Cherry – Brown Rice
6. Mahavishnu Orchestra – You Know You Know
7. Roy Ayers - We Live In Brooklyn
8. William Fischer – Circles
9. Weather Report - Non-Stop Home
10. Billy Cobham – Stratus

Firstly: thanks to the mighty Droid for letting me take a crack at a Blogariddims mix. I hope y’all enjoy listening to this as much as I enjoyed doing it.

This mix is a deliberately genreclectic collection, ie it doesn’t plough any particular musical furrow. Instead, the tunes are linked around a vague theme of, erm, Ontological Hysteria – in that they all display some sense of impending pandemonium, either real or imagined…all the artists or songs here reveal some level of inner tension that manifests itself in the form of all sorts of batty symptoms from low-level teeth-grinding to full-on howling-at-the-moon midnight bareneck nekkid dancing. Songs on the Edge of a Nervous Breakdown, basically.

Of course, there a whole raft of musical nutcases and maniacal, outsider artists I could have accessed from Roky Erickson to Lee Perry to Syd Barrett and back again – in fact, I could’ve filled a whole mixtape with fucked-up Psych and Garage Rock alone – but I didn’t: I wanted something to make something a bit more playful and varied, and to create some unexpected linkages between artists and genres. But, most of all, I wanted this to be a fun listen.

There’s hopefully something here for everyone. A mixture of the obscure and the blindingly bleedin’ obvious. An hour of howling psychos would be more than most people’s patience could tolerate, so I played around with the pacing and the intensity, leaving plenty of points where your ears can take a breather. This mix isn’t about industrial-strength angst; it’s more about that moment just prior to things coming unglued; the pivot–point where joyous abandonment or gentle eccentricity can tilt into something darker and altogether more *eeek* obsessive.

I had faaaar more material than I could use in an hour-long mix, so a whole bunch of tracks got sacrificed to F’naklaax, the God of Musical Flow. So apologies to Anton Webern, Felix Kubin, Jean Luc Ponty, Gentle Giant, Kevin Coyne, 10cc, The Demons of Negativity, blahblahblah. These tracks all went direct from vinyl to .wav files on my PC, where they were then edited and sequenced, then ripped to a deliverable .mp3. I’ve left all the crackles and pops in place, ‘cos that’s part of the listening experience, innit. The only non-vinyl track was pinched from my mate Dom’s own “Variety El Punko #2” mix-CD when I realised to my incredulous horror that I didn’t have my own hiss-smeared copy of the seven-inch in question.

Okay, then: it’s time to pop a valium and swill it down with a large brandy – not that I’m, uh, encouraging irresponsible listening habits – but here comes the Ontological Hysteria Mix. And, oh yes, there will be violins.

-Kid Shirt

kidshirt.blogspot.com
weareie.com

Tracklist

1. Goblin – L’alba Dei Morti Viventi
2. Goblin – Zombi
3. Kalyanji Anandji – Disco Cammata
4. Amon Duul II – Dem Guten, Schonen, Wahren
5. The Doctors of Madness – I Think We’re Alone Now.
6. Ultravox! – Young Savage
7. Mick Ronson – Hey, Ma, Get Papa
8. Ennio Morricone – Danse Nuptiale
9. Ilhan Mimaroglu – Agony
10. Kurt Weisman – Happy Mouse Blues
11. Os Mutantes – Nao Va Se Perder Por Ai
12. Pasquale & The Lunar-Tics – Moon Madness
13. The Scouts – Mr. Custer Stomp
14. Tin Huey – Chinese Circus
15. Pere Ubu – Non-Alignment Pact
16. The Residents – Picnic Boy
17. Steeleye Span – New York Girls
18. Leo Sayer – The Show Must Go On
19. Aphrodites Child – Break

Goblin – L’alba Dei Morti Viventi
Goblin – Zombi

“They’re coming! They’re coming!” Two tracks lifted from the 1978 “Dawn of the Dead/Zombi” soundtrack and re-edited. It starts with a sense of creeping, lurching unease and notches its way upwards into a realm inhabited by ethereal Voodoo choirs and a staccato, drum-fuelled Dark-Funk work-out. Music to leave yr body to.

I looove Goblin; but they never fitted any standard Trad.Prog template. Euro-Sinestro, fer sure.

Kalyanji Anandji – Disco Cammata

Keeping it funky, but all wrong. Pounding Bollywood drums, off-colour Casios, crazed whoops and thunder-crashes: this sounds like the title-track to some obscure Curry Western with Ganesh coming to town in a sequinned chariot inlaid with ivory and armed with a Colt .45 that fires lightning-bolts. Let the disco range-wars commence!

Amon Duul II – Dem Guten, Schonen, Wahren

My favourite band ever. Probably.

I won’t bore you with the whys and whathaveyous, suffice to say that I’ve always imagined this to be the soundtrack to the 1968 Situationist uprising if it had been perpetrated by a coven of cackling witches. An occult art-riot. With violins. Renate is just the best vocalist ever, if it’s shrill, screechy, collapse-of-civilisation type narratives that you’re looking for. And I am.

The Doctors of Madness – I Think We’re Alone Now.
Ultravox! – Young Savage

The Doctors were the perfect collision of art-school and stage-school: Warhol n Burroughs n druggy, whiney NY nihilism filtered thru D. Bowie. Street-smart, yet also mid-70s Brit nudge-nudge-wink-wink. They’re one of the great lost Rock bands, I think, inhabiting a twilight trench in the no-man’s land twixt Glam n Punk.

Like early Ultravox! they liked a bit of violin along with their Ballard and Burroughs, did The Doctors. Bloody drama queens.

And how great is that black n white photo on the inner-sleeve? If that had been the main album cover then The Doctors would be total fucking legends by now.

And speaking of UV!: here they are – back before they went all poncey, skinny-tied and synthetic – complete with an exclamation-mark and a hysterically breathless John Foxx vocal performance that leaves me puffed out just listening to it. This one’s for Dom. “Watcha, Warren!”

Mick Ronson – Hey, Ma, Get Papa
Ennio Morricone – Danse Nuptiale

Some shrill, overwrought Post-Glam from guitar-god Ronno, replete w/ pumping pub piano and parping ARPs. God, I love this record from the bottom of my platform-boots.

There’s a fine line between hysteria and slapstick and the next track gleefully straddles it. Morricone is renowned for his expansive/expressive Western themes – often peppered with Exotica and wilfully obtuse choices in instrumentation – but this is the musical equivalent of a bar-room brawl, with cow-pokes and can-can girls duking it out with custard-pies and synthesisers.

It’s like a flickering old silent-film whose missing frames are signposted by Pianola syncopation and rattling cutlery-rack percussives – the Old West populated by headless chickens! – it’s almost as if the track has little holes in it, moments that have fallen out the bottom of The Reality Film, creating a sense of pandemonium and blind panic as the celluloid unspools. Still, nice to hear someone squeezing in a quickie in the back of the stage-coach before the world ends.

Ilhan Mimaroglu – Agony
Kurt Weisman – Happy Mouse Blues
Os Mutantes – Nao Va Se Perder Por Ai

If the previous track exhibited a Fear of Impending Non-Linearity, then that sense of slapstick foreboding is made manifest here, as we skirt the edge of the Abyss itself, falling down into a tape-spliced soundrealm populated by every girl that ever dumped you, every dog that ever bit you, etc. And some horses.

Still, there’s some startling 1965-vintage tape- and modulator-generated sonorities on display here. Turkish Musique Concrete: who woulda thunk it, eh?

This neatly segues into a wonderfully fragile and out-there piece of gtr and laptop Folk-Pop by Kurt Weisman – the only contemporary piece in this mix. This is from a gorgeous EP that came out on James Toth’s Mad Monk imprint a couple years ago and I recommend you speed over there and try’n hoover up any remaining copies. It sounds like an Autechre (or maybe Notwist) rmx of Syd B fronting The Chipmunks.

It also fits rather well with the fuzz-toasted Pop.Concrete shapes roadtested by 60’s Brazilian Trop.Psych band Os Mutantes (Actually, I cheated here a bit and kept in a few seconds of the tracks that preceded and followed this.) This is from their ‘difficult’ second album (ie casual browsers always opt for the first one). My own vinyl is of doubious prevenence with a South Korean address stamped on the back.

Pasquale & The Lunar-Tics – Moon Madness
The Scouts – Mr. Custer Stomp

I genuinely don’t know anything about the next two records, though I did try Googling on them a few days ago to little avail. Suffice to say they’re a couple of faux-tribal (60s?) novelty cum garage-rock records. The Pasquale tune exhibits some seriously berserk echo-dek abuse that would even have Lee Perry reaching for the fire-extinguisher. “Mr. Custer Stomp” sounds like it should have been covered by The Fall: dig the cavalry-officer constantly ordering his men ever onwards like a bad case of verbal OCD…tho it sounds like he’s accidentally taken charge of a troupe of Injuns instead. It seems to somehow herald the complete collapse of authority in some obscure way. Both tunes are available on the Jungle Exotica series of albums that came out a decade or so ago.

Tin Huey – Chinese Circus
Pere Ubu – Non-Alignment Pact
The Residents – Picnic Boy

Another triumvirate of panic-stricken tunes for ya:

Tin Huey were a New Wave cum Beefheartian Proto-Quirk band that featured on Stiff Record’s Akron, Ohio comp. All sped-up vocals and ratchety Pre-Post-Punk gtr-work. Good to hear that they’re back recording and touring again after an absence of 20+ years.

Non-Alignment Pact: “It’s all because of you, girl! It’s! all! Because! Of! You!” ‘Nuff said.

Lene Lovich! Everybody’s favourite Eurodisco scream queen neurotically yelps and gargles her way through a minute’s worth of throbbing synths and a Snakefinger solo sooo slippery that it sounds like he’s wrestling with a bucket of eels. That’s a great Victorian-style swoon noise she makes too. And I love the way she says the word ‘that.’

Steeleye Span – New York Girls
Leo Sayer – The Show Must Go On

My good friend Spike heroically loses it down the phone sometime circa 1997, not realising that one day he’d time-travel through the Void and introduce a Steeleye Span song. Shrill and trebly – a horsehair bow scraping at cat-gut strings – the violin is easily the best-known musical signifier of melodrama, neurosis and inner turmoil, but the ukulele can sometimes give it a run for its money in the comedic mock-frenzy stakes. Especially when the ukulele is played by that well-known paranoid-bipolar Peter Sellers.

And as for the vibrato technique so-beloved of English Folk-singers – well, am I alone in finding it queasily-neurotic and uneasy-on-the-ears? Still, Maddy Prior – an underrated vocalist, or what? Her performance on “Weary Cutters” is as haunting as anything on Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares or Liz Whatsherchops’ version of “Song to the Siren.” I’ll happily fight anyone who doesn’t like early Steeleye Span. Come and have a go if you think yr gaudete enough!

From ukulele to banjo (I think) as Leo wipes off the clown make-up and trashes the one-man band set-up in favour of a good ol’ fashioned middle-class whinge. This is Chas and Dave auditioning for a role in The Kids From Fame.

Aphrodites Child – Break

‘Course, I was gonna put a Demis Roussos track on this mix, but opted for his former band instead. Most of their “666″ album falls into the realm of full-on flat-out post-apocalyptic, intergalactic hysteria, but I’ve picked the most mellow (and probably best known) of their tracks cos it’s a cool ‘I’m outta here’ kinda song. Well, why the fuck not, eh?

I can’t do this beat-matching lark: skillfully coaxing all the of disparate parts into a seamless whole, all fecund and newborn and shiny. Instead, I look for the unassuming, quietly quivering bits, that will juxtapose without undue complaint. A quick snip and I offer the bloodied stump of one part up to the gaping wound of another in the hope that the host body won’t reject it and my creation may walk blinking into the sunlight. All done with audacity…. audacity indeed… and thus I thought let it be so for the blogpost…. a dozen separate parts….

Tracklist

DJ Zhao of the Ngoma Blog is on the decks for the latest instalment of the illustrious Blogariddims series and brings a heavyweight bass mashup mix to the table.

Ngoma is Swahili for drums, dance and song which is perfectly suitable for the sounds coming from young Zhao’s blog and his addition to Blogariddims. This mix is one our favourites from the series so lets hear what the man had to say about it…

[DJ Zhaoi] “This is made with material i prepared for Fusion Festival, and is also an attempt to communicate new conceptions of hybridity by fusing sounds from disparate locations and eras into cohesive new musical entities, with focus on traditional and regional music framed by urban bass and beats, or is it the other way around?”

“This part 1 is the relatively listening set, stay tuned for Part 2, which will be strictly for bouncing off walls.”

afroasiasound.blogspot.com
weareie.com

Tracklist

1. Deadbeat - Lost Luggage // Indonesia – Spring Water
2. Itoa - Sgt. Peppers Lonely Heart’s Dub Band D1 // Indonesia – Morning Sun
3. The Mahotella Queens – Muntu Wesilisa // Wiley – Bang Bang Instrumental
4. African Headcharge – Belinda // Blir – 19_4_04
5. Indonesia Traditional – Sanda Kandung // Unknown Grime instrumental
6. Benga - Half Ounce // [Burundi: Music from the Heart of Africa] bernadette ii
7. Indonesia Traditional – Ngantosan // Mark One – Slang
8. Danny Weed – Dirty Den // Huseyin Ali Riza Albayrak – Ey Zahid
9. Ragga Twins – Spliffhead
10. Burial - Unite
11. Dub Terror [ft. Echo Ranks] – Technology
12. Hiripsime - ces femmes qui me ressemblent // Cyrus – Random Trio – Bounty
13. African Headcharge – Run Come Saw // DQ1 – Wear The Crown
14. Indonesia Traditional – Padang Magek // Omen – Rebellion
15. L-Wiz – Sub // Armenia Traditional – Boulbouli Hid (Le Chant du Rossignol)
16. Vex’d – Destruction // from 2046 soundtrack
17. Hijak - Nightmares // ø – Toisaalia
18. Shackleton - Blood On My Hands / I Want to Eat You // Dashti – Abdoinaghi Afsharnia
19. Kode 9 – Magnetic City // Akhenation – 361 Degrees
20. Mulatu Astatge – Kulunmanqueleshi // Dj Hatcha – Just a Rift
21. Loka - Fire Shepherds – Freda Mae // Dubwoofa – Devoliz
22. The Mahotella Queens – Ndodana Yolahleko // Skream – Skunkstep

Mashups: a cheap one liner trend collapsing all narratives into a heap of meaningless garish post modern rubbish, or a new way of interacting with cultures, of thinking about the world, of experiencing and creating music? I’ve always been excited, if not by most of what i have heard, by what i imagined was possible.

And what i imagined was Digital Gamelan, Ethiopian Grime, Afro-Arabian Dubstep — sounds from far away and/or long ago fused in ways that are both surprising but also intuitive… i wanted to make a particular kind of mashup, producing results that people would want to listen to, maybe over and over. is it possible to make the fusion, the bastard Frankenstein assemblage, sound better than the original sources? a tall order for sure, especially when the original sources sometimes are master musicians, but one that i nonetheless hope to have achieved in some of the mashups included in this mix. judge for yourself — admittedly a little difficult since you can not hear the originals next to them — so i suppose just go by how well the hybrids work…

i am always hearing the same beat patterns, the same compositional devices, the same dynamics, the same arrangements, in music made both spatially and temporally far apart from each other: i think ultimately i absolutely believe that the traditional non western music are the roots of modern music, and indirectly perhaps, but absolutely, deeply connected to the most current forms dance music evolution is taking. (this has to do with the “Afro Asiatic Roots of Classical Civilization” but that’s a HUGE topic for another day).

enough BS, please to enjoy:

DJ Zhao

[Droid]: Haven’t had the time to write something for this, and I’m away for a week starting tomorrow, but in the interests of keeping to schedule, I thought it best to post this short note about Blogariddims 44, a set that we did for the ‘Underground’ exhibition running in the basement of Road Records here in Dublin for the next week or so.

A selection of Irish electronica from the late 90s to today.

Sequenced in Ableton by droid + slug for the ‘Underground’ Exhibition 27/06/08 – 14/07/08 in Road Records, Dublin.
dublinevents.com/events/exhibition/underground

Tracklist

1. The Soul Gun Warriors – A Beginning – (Unreleased)
2. Slug – f minus d – The Fear Recordings (Unreleased)
3. Dennis McNulty - BabyBarioPool – Sao Paulo Se – dennismcnulty.com/
4. Deasy - The Closing Door (extract) – Music is not Hygiene – The Fear Recordings
5. Decal – Carpenter – 404 Not Found – Planet Mu
6. Deasy - New Generation MIx – Shut Up and Make – The Fear Recordings
7. Naphta - Tough Love (extract) – DEAF 2003 Sampler
8. Rollers Sparkers - Spumeral – Second Level Crossing – LazyBird
9. Sunken Foal – Colloidal Silver – Fallen Arches – Planet Mu
10. Daniel Figgis – Egg & Anchor – Skipper – Rough Trade
11. Decal - Remembering Waves – Little Sketches – decal-artifacts.com/
12. Margaret Noble – The walk home on Ashland – Acroplane
13. Ambulance – Hymn – Planet Mu
14. Solen – Block – Alphabet Set
15. Deasy – Pondlife (droid + slug’s Pondeath mix) – The Fear Recording (Unreleased)
16. Spectac – Cyborgs in the face of every child – Front End Synthetics
17. Booger - Majik – Front End Synthetics
18. Colz - Salvia Remix - myspace.com/deejaycolz
19. Twoc – Attica Blue – Alphabet Set
20. BEW - Glock Dub – Acroplane

Loris is another contributor from the non-blogging community who has put up some nice mixes in the past, and this set is no exception, featuring a sweet and mellow selection of roots and dub classics alongside an equally nice write up.

This marks No 43 in the illustrious Blogariddims mix series, helmed by Droid and co. at weareie.com. If you’d like details on past podcasts, check out the site for a round up of the first 40 that Droid has conveniently summed up. Suffice to say its been a constant source of new music and ideas to me. The breadth of this project never ceases to amaze me.

So, without further ado here is Sir Loris Cawthorne to introduce you to his mix:

“As with the majority of music hobbits who lurk on the net, I don’t really dj on a professional level, instead I’ve got into the incredibly bad habit of amassing more records than I know what to do with and not really taking the ‘playing gigs’ part of the job very seriously. Despite all that it is still a huge amount of fun putting collages together from time to time and seeing what a hidden audience make of them.”

“The weekend before I assembled this mix I’d set my decks back up and dug out all my old reggae to listen to. After a few hours of non-stop listening I’d managed to put aside a worthy pile of favourites that I would later include in a blogariddims mix. Thanks again for inviting me to be a part of it.”

“The overall theme of the mix was to use a collection of tracks that had some meaning to me. Music I enjoyed and understood. I’m not a devout reggae head but some of what I have picked up over the years I still get huge satisfaction from. This mix centres around dub for the most part but does include some roots and lovers rock in places, albeit quite sparingly.”

weareie.com

Tracklist

1. Techniques - Born To Love
2. Love Joys – Jah Light
3. Grandpa Culture – Production Dub
4. The Travellers - South Africa
5. Ansel Collins – Portebello
6. Wackie’s All Stars – Take Time
7. Morwells Esquire – Never Gonna Give You Up
8. Barry Brown – Big Big Pollution
9. The Arabs Feat. Prince Far I – Long Life
10. Linval Thompson - Roll RiverJordan (version)
11. The Simeons – 16 Track Rock
12. Dennis Bovell – Scientific
13. Vivian Jackson – Tubbys Vengeance
14. Thompson Sound – Guide Me In Dub Style
15. Sugar Minott - International Herb

1. Techniques – Born To Love
- This was first the first dub record I remember buying so using ‘Born To Love’ as an introduction to the mix seemed quite fitting.

2. Love Joys - Jah Light
- Off their dazzling ‘Reggae Vibes’ LP on Top Ranking.

3. Grandpa Culture – Production Dub
- Sly & Robbie lay down one of their signature drum workouts for us here on the wondrous Production Dub. Unfortunately I can’t find very much info about this 7” other than it was a High Note release without a catalogue number.

4. The Travellers – South Africa
- Errol Nelson’s angelic voice is what really runs things on this track. Soul music on another level, you can play this virtually anywhere and it’ll always get a good response.

5. Ansel Collins – Portebello
- With that dreamy, seductive melodica running through it. Straight up bad tunes – make no mistake.

6. Wackie’s All Stars - Take Time
- Unruly pops and horns peppered over the mix. Complete musicality in these tracks, both of them as infectious each other.

7. Morwells Esquire - Never Gonna Give You Up
- Highlighting the more traditional side of what reggae artists were doing around that time.

8. Barry Brown - Big Big Pollution
- Light hearted reggae that does what it says on the tin!

9. The Arabs Feat. Prince Far I - Long Life
- Drums literally falling over themselves, strings that sound like they’re being plucked from nowhere, and this vibe to it almost like it’ll go on forever.

10. Linval Thompson - Roll RiverJordan (version)
- You only hear the odd glimpse of Thompson’s unmistakable voice in this tune, but that’s all you need, it’s the bassline and depth that really make this work. Deceptively laid back in style, this is relentless, purposeful dub at its best.

11. The Simeons - 16 Track Rock
- The Simeons hail from the UK and only ever made one record. I managed to find this in Oxfam on Kentish Town Road a few years ago. Drawn to the cover with a magical Rasta bus on the front, it was pretty obvious this record would have at least a couple of outstanding cuts on it when I picked it up. Well worth purchasing if you ever spot it anywhere.

12. Dennis Bovell – Scientific
- I felt compelled to include this because of the crazy intro. The vocals are pretty nifty too – if a little cheesy.

13. Vivian Jackson – Tubbys Vengeance
- Expertly produced and as deep as it gets. Check the arrangements on this one.

14. Thompson Sound - Guide Me In Dub Style
- I tried not to double up on the same artist whilst putting this episode together, but felt the ending was lacking something so I bit my tongue and pulled this out of its sleeve.

15. Sugar Minott - International Herb
- Spooky roots reggae at its best this.The original version features on his Jamming In The Street LP but was later reissued by Wackie’s on 10”. A slightly different cut I think, though you can never be sure. Personally I’d buy them both…

This marks No 42 in the illustrious Blogariddims mix series, helmed by Droid and co. at weareie. If you’d like details on past podcasts, check on the link for a round up of the first 40 that Droid has conveniently summed up. Suffice to say its been a constant source of new music and ideas to me. The breadth of this project never ceases to amaze me

And now here’s Vamanos with a bit more about this mix:

“Sun and bass. Two things I love. I don’t see enough sun in the UK. Bass however, is another thing.

When I was asked to do a mix for Blogariddims I initially had issues about what I could provide in such an awesomely diverse series. I couldn’t think of any one particular genre that I’d want to listen to for 60 minutes so I just thought I’d make something that I’d want to hear if I was on holiday at a beach party, rum flowing, bass hammering.

Not the most specialist or obscure concept but the kind of music that I’ve been writing about here and why I started Ghetto Bassquake. The mix is a clash of sounds that I’m influenced by: From where I live in Brixton, south London – The UK’s Bass shattering sounds of reggae, grime, drum’n'bass and dubstep. And the Latin American & Jamaican bass party music of the Caribbean and South America – dancehall, cumbia, baile funk, reggaeton, soca with a bit of baltimore thrown in for good measure.

ghettobassquake.blogspot.com/
weareie.com

Tracklist

Intro
1. Shark Records Remix - Joyride
2. Lady Saw - Sycamore Tree
3. Wayne Wonder – Bashment Girl
4. El General – Muevelo
5. Unknown – Panamanian Reggaeton
6. Lucky Kumbias - Tocando Palmas RMX
7. El Hijo De La Cumbia – Bombon Asesino Version
8. Mims – Why I’m Hot (DJ Panik Remix)
9. Jowell & Randy - Bajaera De Panty
10. The Bug feat. Warrior Queen – Poison Dart (Original Mix)
11. Coki - Spongebob
12. Rusko – Cockney Thug
13. Terror Danjah - Reloadz Rmx feat. Durrty Goodz, Badness & Shabba D
14. Trim – I Can C U
15. Ghislain Poirier – No More Blood feat. Face-T (Deadbeat Remix)
16. Dj Jeff ft Kiss – Cavalier ô Dame
17. Machel Montano – One More Time (Remix)
18. Japanese vs Toy Selectah – Cocobola Tripiton Remix
19. DJ Amazing Clay – Montagem Aquecimento do Sambinha
20. Scottie B feat. Moleque Bil – Mais Ela
21. Cobra Krames feat. Rye Rye – Get Familiar (Start The Violence! Remix)
22. Ricky Blaze – 2 The Beat

1. Shark Records Remix – Joyride

This is from random Ragga hip hop cd I picked up in Brooklyn a few years back. Its the Joyride version with some AV8 style rap loops to get the party cracking. Simple but effective.

2. Lady Saw - Sycamore Tree
3. Wayne Wonder - Bashment Girl

Staying with the Joyride riddim, a couple of bashment anthems. When King Jammy made the Sleng Teng riddim, loads of Jamiacan DJs complained as it had such a big bassline that it was hard to find anything to follow it. Same with Joyride. Weight.

4. El General - Muevelo
5. Unknown - Panamanian Reggaeton

I picked up these tracks in Nicaragua off a taxi driver. He was playing this incredible cd really loudly while speeding driving around the city. I managed to persuade him to swap it for another cd. Having never really heard spanish reggae, it blew me away. Later on I learned this is old school Panamanian reggaeton from its birth in the early 90s. I love this stuff, El General especially- over a minimal beat, the mc flows just keep you hooked. Video here. If anyone knows the second unknown artist please hit me up.

6. Lucky Kumbias - Tocando Palmas RMX

DJ/Rupture posted this on Negrophonic. A great piece of texas crunked cumbia from the Lucky Kumbias mixtape vol.1 where the traditional mexican cumbia has been given a US bass heavy sound for the clubs.

7. El Hijo De La Cumbia - Bombon Asesino Version

This is from the Bersas Discos record, the first proper physical release of Nueva Cumbia scene centered around the Zizek night in Buenos Aires. This dub version is crazy, quite psychedelic, it almost turns into dubbed out drum ‘n’ bass. Future Latin music.

8. Mims - Why I’m Hot (DJ Panik Remix)

Another excellent texas cumbia, this time a mash up with Mims. The acapella has had plenty of outings but it sounds hot over the bumping cumbia shuffle.

9. Jowell & Randy - Bajaera De Panty

Rafi Mercenario produced this who I think is one of the best reggaeton producers, he also made also Don Omar’s La Batidora. His beats are always really hard and stay true to the dem bow drum heavy origins of the genre which always does it for me. My spanish is pretty bad but I have a feeling this track is quite rude.

10. The Bug feat. Warrior Queen – Poison Dart (Original Mix)

There’s alot of swirling depth in this track, Warrior Queen’s sweet vocals riding a massive dub bassline. London FYA from The Bug.

11. Coki – Spongebob
12. Rusko - Cockney Thug

Two fairly recent big dubstep bangers that I’m feeling. I’m generally not massively into dubstep as i find it a bit dull but tracks like these are alot more exciting and dancefloor friendly – it seems to be going this way. Spongebob does sound a bit like a dentist drill on the rampage however so probably best to avoid if you’ve got a headache. Loefah played it at DMZ’s third birthday and it went off. Rusko’s Cockney Thug is a more reggaefied dancefloor roller.

13. Terror Danjah - Reloadz Rmx feat. Durrty Goodz, Badness & Shabba D

This is a heavy track from Terror Danjah’s Harddrive vol.1 cd. Great rhymes and tempo switching all over the shop. He’s a massive talent in UK music right now and he can turn his slick style to loads of genres. This is like an old school drum’n'bass banger.

14. Trim – I Can C U

A heavy new Radioclit produced track from Trim’s excellent Soulfood Vol.3. I like the minimal African drums and samples in this. Less is more. A very ungrime beat underlaying Trim’s stream of conciousness flow.

15. Ghislain Poirier - No More Blood feat. Face-T (Deadbeat Remix)

Ghislain sent me this recently and its awesome – lyrically positively on point and futuristic production. Ghislain makes music like no one else, he has his own genre.

16. Dj Jeff ft Kiss - Cavalier ô Dame

This is from a cd that I picked up from a guy selling bootleg African music in a market in London a few weeks ago. I don’t know anything about what genre it is but I’m really feeling the accordian sound and rattling beat. Check out the video.

17. Machel Montano - One More Time (Remix)

I posted this on this blog a while back. The tranceish production goes great under Machel’s vocals, dare I say erm uplifting….I’m not really into trance or soca particularly but this is one of those tracks that makes me wish it Notting Hill Carnival every weekend.

18. Japanese vs Toy Selectah - Cocobola Tripiton Remix

This was posted up on Mad Decent. Japanese is an excellent Panamanian MC who is currently pretty massive in Central America i’ve heard. From the original reggaeton beat, Mexico’s Toy Selectah’s remixes it into a driving juggernaut of a tune.

19. DJ Amazing Clay - Montagem Aquecimento do Sambinha

From what i’ve read, the Aquecimento has been massive in Rio for a year now, at first I didn’t get it but now I do, its just nuts, pushing the funk sound forward like the Tamborzao did. Amazing Clay, who I wrote about here has cut it up with the berimbau and other traditional baile samples to make a blazing Montagem. I think a version of this appeared on his Baile Funk Masters EP on Man Recordings.

20. Scottie B feat. Moleque Bil - Mais Ela

Another track from Man Recording’s Funk Mundial series. A really basic beat from one of the Baltimore originators, Scottie B, with cut up baile funk vocals from Moleque Bill, an MC from Rio’s Bonde do Sonho crew. It feels like a totally pure clash of two bass music ethos, sparse unrelenting, with a bassline straight from ‘88 . Simply Baile funk Vs Baltimore.

21. Cobra Krames feat. Rye Rye - Get Familiar (Start The Violence! Remix)

This is one of those tracks that I can’t stop listening to. Cobra Krame’s warm rave synths are perfect over a sick switch-esque bassline. I feel like you could play this anywhere and people would be feeling it. Rye Rye’s got the most party starting flow that i’ve hear in a long time. Baltimore goes rave.

22. Ricky Blaze - 2 The Beat

Finally from Brooklyn’s Ricky Blaze, He shouts out the all the dance crews, instead of going on about himself, which is nearly as original as the acidic trance beats he uses. Heater!

This marks No 41 in the illustrious Blogariddims mix series, helmed by Droid and co. at weareie. If you’d like details on past podcasts, check here for a round up of the first 40 that Droid has conveniently summed up. Suffice to say its been a constant source of new music and ideas to me. The breadth of this project never ceases to amaze me.

So, firstly, big thanks to Droid for asking me to contribute. It was daunting, to say the least, given the scope of the whole series and the calibre of all involved.

The mix covers some angles of my DJing/listening habits, with somewhat of an emphasis of dubstep, but also propped up with bits and pieces that verge on that territory, while remaining pleasantly immune to convenient pigeon-holing While its not exactly enormous in its breadth, hopefully it covers a bit of ground, I get bored either playing or listening to 20 tracks in a row linked by nothing more than the fact that they all came from the same section in the record shop. For me, it was hearing dubstep in a similar context to this that really made it click for me initially, most notably through a few mixes by El Kano and the Gutterbreakz radio series (RIP), taking in techno, electro, breaks and various mangled electronics in addition to dubstep.

It also pretty much reflects the direction from which I got into it; from an interest in dub, as well as through DJing techno/electro. So it seemed like a logical progression from Basic Channel/Rhythm and Sound, bass heavy techno like Christian Vogel, Neil Landstrumm, as well as the breakier side of UK things – from MuZiq through to Si Begg, etc. I had little or no knowledge of UK garage, through which a lot of people reached this point, and while jungle was an influence, Id pretty much missed all the good times when I started buying records around 95/96.

I made this using 75% vinyl/25% Serato, in one shot, except for the pitch trickery on the final track. It was my first time making a mix using Serato, and a lot of the run up to recording this involved just trying to get my head around the sheer quantity of music that was suddenly at my fingertips. Im still in two minds about it. In some ways, budget limitations aligned nicely with being able to really get to know and make the most out of the music I bought, whereas this seems like another highway to disposability.. we’ll see.
Anyway, its like this…
Owen Howard

www.weareie.com
www.myspace.com/friedblackswan

Tracklist

1. Pharaoh Sanders – Colors – Impulse!
2. Boxcutter- Sunshine (12″ mix) – Planet Mu
3. Globetrotting – L.V and Erol Bellot – Hyperdub
4. Timeblind – Ontological Ground of Being – Soot
5. Shackleton – Naked – Skull Disco
6. Badawi - Anthrax Sandwich (Today’s Special) – Asphodel
7. Pinch – Chamber – Soul Jazz
8. Wasteland – Untitled – Transparent
9. Vex’d – Angels - Planet Mu
10. Christian Vogel – Tasty Mission – Tresor
11. Timeblind - Myanmar – Soot
12. Rustie – Response – Stuffrecords
13. Elemental – Deep Under – Hotflush
14. Remind – Direckt Jive – Detroit Underground
15. Digital Mystikz – Anti-War Dub – DMZ
16. Invisible - Monolake – Imbalance Computer Music
17. Drexciya – Digital Tsumani – Tresor
18. Kode 9/Massive Music – Find My Way – Hyperdub
19. Rhythm and Sound w/ Jah Cotton (Sleeparchive Rmx) – Dem Never Know – Burial Mix

1. Colors – Pharaoh Sanders – Impulse!
From the 1969 Karma release, though I have it on a best of that I got for 99 cents.
Pharaoh Sanders bigs up Nature/colour. This is gorgeous.

2. Sunshine (12″ mix) – Boxcutter- Planet Mu
It floats over the Boxcutter track nicely too, I think, whose debt to Sanders is fairly evident, not least in the title of this EP – Tauhid, – referencing Sanders album of the same name. I think before I actually heard Boxcutter, Id read this, which in retrospect, was pretty bang on.

3. L.V and Erol Bellot – Globetrotting – Hyperdub
Next up is LV featuring Errol Bellot. Shades of Rhythm and Sound here, and a really restrained accompaniment to Bellots vocals, with a gradually swelling bass and organ skank. Hyperdub showcasing the exact opposite of the more common cut and paste approach taken when it comes to the requisite Jamaican vocal content.

4. Ontological Ground of Being – Timeblind – Soot
This Timeblind track is the first of two in the mix, released on Dj /rupture’s consistently great Soot label. Timeblind’s been pumping out quality techno forever, appearing early on in the Missile and Plus 8 catalogues, as well as sometimes ragga-inflected, mangled electronica on Kit Claytons Orthlong Musork, so this seems a logical trajectory. The production is immense on this, as with the whole EP. Also this one also syncs up melodically quite nicely with Shackleton’s Naked.

5. Naked – Shackleton – Skull Disco
I think this might be the first Shackleton track I ever bought. I remember listening to it beforehand through crappy computer speakers on Boomkat, and the bass drop still blowing me away. Some interesting commentary from him on the influence of Sufi, Muslim Gauze and PiL on Dj Rupture’s radio show here .

6. Anthrax Sandwich (Today’s Special) – Badawi – Asphodel
The Badawi ( Raz Mesinai ) track is takes that mid-east percussion of Shackleton a step further. This is from the Final Warning EP on Asphodel , and all the tracks have this same ridiculous frenetic drum lines in them with looped reedy melodies over the top. Really interesting producer.

7. Chamber – Pinch – Soul Jazz
This is probably my favourite track of the Soul Jazz comp it comes from which I found a bit hit and miss. It’s a cavernous tune. Really simple and reductionist approach by Pinch , and every track you mix into it seems to sound better as a result.

8. Untitled – Wasteland – Transparent
….like this one. Wasteland is a collaboration between Dj Scud and I –Sound. Both probably better known for their other projects, Scud as Ambush label boss and producer of raw as fuck industrial –esque jungle and I Sound as part time collaborator with To Roccocco Rot (Also former buyer for the excellent Kims NYC, where I probably bought half these tunes, so respect for that!). The Wasteland stuff is covers fairly brooding atmospheric hip hop paced material, this track being one of the more danceable, with these great ravey stabs. Leads in nicely to the Vexd track too.

9. Angels – Vex’d – Planet Mu
God, is this already 3 years old? Sounds great still. Vex’d really perfected that dark hard edged dubstep sound without the monotony that seemed to plague a lot of ‘breakstep’. I also loved how their sound complemented straight up techno so nicely, finding their way into Surgeons sets regularly.

10. Tasty Mission – Christian Vogel – Tresor
Which is where Christian Vogel comes in here. Constantly innovative techno from this guy, and maybe one of the few still mining that vein that used to bang out such off the wall techno that still had a ton of gritty funk to it – Subhead, the Scandinavia and Sativae labels, etc

11. Myanmar – Timeblind- Soot
The second Timeblind track is a remix of Nettle a Dj/rupture-related project on the NY based Agriculture label. This whole remix series is stunning by the way, with excellent mixes from DJ Scud, Leafcutter John and Com.a, to mention a few. This one in particular ive played to death, but I love it. Completely haphazard, constantly evolving.

12. Response –Rustie- Stuffrecords
Then comes Rustie. Boy of the hour lately with his wildly fucked midrange synths but I still prefer this 2007 release over any of the new ones, which make me feel a little seasick after a while. Dubstep vibes, but crammed with more colour than the mans hoodies. Ive never really gone in for the plastified reggae of Skream so much, but theres something about the dayglo skank in this track that I fucking love.

13. Deep Under – Elemental – Hotflush
One of my favourite Hotflush releases, and my favourite
Elemental release by a long shot. This track has ridiculous momentum, propelled along by a big rolling break and swathes of bass echo.

14. Direckt Jive – Remind –Detroit Underground
I have to confess to only finding out who this was yesterday, in preparing the tracklist, although Ive been caning it since I first got it,. Though its partly cause the Artwork on Kero’s Detroit Underground releases, which is lovely, are really hard to read. My excuse anyway. So its Direckt Jive apparently, who I know very little about, but regardless, Ive been buying these releases on sight. This is taken from Vol. 3. This is a real gem, coming along in a series that’s covered fairly spannered electronica of the Schematic variety – Kero, Venetian Snares, Richard Devine, Otto Von Schirach, to name a few – , but for me this track stands out.

15. Anti-War Dub – Digital Mystikz – DMZ
It also seems to have been made to be mixed with Mala’s seminal Anti War Dub, so I can barely imagine them individually at this point. This still bowls me over. I think I heard it at Dub War in NYC in 2005 for the first time – the first time Id heard any dubstep on a proper rig, so it all clicked.

16. Monolake – Invisible – Monolake / Imbalance Computer Music
I wanted to put something by Monolake on here, and as usual, was spoiled for choice in terms of deep weighty techno with really impeccable production. This almost has this two steppy feel to it too though, so I figured it fit with what went before.

17. Digital Tsumani – Drexciya – Tresor
What to say about this? This takes heads off. This tune I heard for the first time in a Dj Stingray
set. Possibly the greatest 4/4 Drexciya track going in my opinion, taken from the Harnessed the Storm Album. I remember cranking it out of the headphones while staring really intently at the screen of my computer, frowning like hell. Its fast as fuck, so I had to wind it down to -6, but it still barrels along. Unsurpassable.

18. Find My Way – Kode 9/Massive Music – Hyperdub
More Hyperdub action here. I felt weird about mixing anything with a skank in it into Drexciya, but this seemed to work. Kode 9, the bossman.

19. Dem Never Know – Rhythm and Sound w/ Jah Cotton ( Sleeparchive Rmx) – Burial Mix
Finally, some nod to Rhythm and Sound seemed called for, as oblique as this one is. This is from the See Mi Yah remix series on Burial Mix Id only picked up the Carl Craig remix, and ignored this one based on a few Sleeparchive tracks Id heard that I wasn’t crazy about. This is a whole different story though, and couldn’t be further from the uber-cold minimalism of Hospital Tracks releases. Its got a nice intro of minute or two before the half-time 4/4 comes in, so I used that to crank it down to its proper tempo. Cant be having Jah Cotton toasting at +8!