It’s Rowdy Bashment Time

I've just completed a mix bringing together forty of my favourite rowdy bashment tunes from the last 12 months - over an hour of killer party-starters from the likes of Beenie Man, Ninjaman, Assassin, Sean Paul, Busy Signal, Elephant Man, Tony Matterhorn and loads more. Listen to it or download the mp3 here.

The release dates for our two upcoming projects with Soul Jazz Records have now been confirmed, with our very own slice of rowdy bashment, Things Change, dropping on 12" vinyl on the 18th of this month. Then on Monday 3rd March the official compilation of our An England Story mix comes out on double CD and quadruple vinyl. Featuring twenty one tracks by Jamaican-influenced English MCs, complete with extensive sleevenotes, archive photos, song lyrics and full interviews with Rodney P and Tippa Irie - essential!

Also in early March we're making our Fabric debut alongside Sinden, Switch, Boy Better Know, Sany Pitbull and many more. Finally, I've just now got round to uploading photos from the Bounce booty battle at Bar Rumba last year as well as last week's West London Heatwave Affair.

Posted by Gabriel Heatwave | Friday 01 February 2008 | Add a comment

Bar Rumba Booty Bounce

Played Bounce at Bar Rumba last night which was as busy and hype as ever. No photos this time but I did just come across this footage from one of the previous booty battles there:

Posted by Gabriel Heatwave | Sunday 03 February 2008 | Add a comment

The Heatwave Chart - February 2008

Sizzla goes bassline courtesy of an astounding Cheeksta/T2 remix of his classic 2004 vocal Give Me A Try. Our tune alongside Warrior Queen sits at number two, with killer uptempo bashment from exciting new Jamaican artists Charly Black, Timberlee and Erup not far behind. Pitbull and Lil' Jon's take on the Calabria earworm and Estelle's brilliant Swizz Beatz-produced Wait A Minute are also smashing it for us in the clubs right now.

1. Cheeksta & Sizzla - Baby (T2 Remix)
2. Warrior Queen & The Heatwave - Things Change (Piano Riddim)
3. Charly Black - Backshot Time (Set Up Riddim)
4. Timberlee & Ward 21 - Bubble Like Soup (Rae Riddim)
5. Pitbull & Lil' Jon - The Anthem
6. Meech - Thicka Than A Snicka
7. Erup - Click Mi Finger (Gear Box Riddim)
8. Estelle - Wait A Minute
9. Tarrus Riley - Protect Your Neck (Midnight Hour Riddim)
10. Elephant Man - Jook A Girl (Jook A Gal Riddim)

Posted by Gabriel Heatwave | Monday 04 February 2008 | Add a comment

Blazin Video Shoot

Pics from the video shoot for Ghislain Poirier's blazing new single alongside Face-T called, er, Blazin. Da Ghis is looking the real deal as the ice hockey coach! His heavy new album for Ninja Tune hits the shops on February 18th and he's in London that weekend as well, playing at Electrowerkz in Angel. The video will be completed by March - in the meantime you can watch the making of it.

Posted by Gabriel Heatwave | Sunday 10 February 2008 | Add a comment

New Mix CD From Riko - The Truth Vol 1

Riko's long-long-awaited mix CD will finally touch down on Monday 10th March - you can pre-order it from UK Record Shop, who'll be selling it exclusively for the first week of its release. Riko's been talking about this mixtape since he appeared with us at Rhythm Factory more than two years ago (!) so there's no shortage of hype and anticipation. We got a preview of some of the tracks a while back and it's blatantly going to be sick - a personal highlight was undoubtedly his brilliant reggae tune, Hard Life. Plus Riko's positive badman vocal, Mind How You A Talk on our Piano riddim, will come out about the same time, so March will surely be a good time for our favourite Roll Deep MC.

Posted by Gabriel Heatwave | Sunday 10 February 2008 | Add a comment

Rubi Dan YouTube Business

A couple of videos of our MC Rubi Dan on the mic, one freestyling and the other recording his track Bad Bwoy in the studio with producer/rapper JZA. We haven't fully got on the YouTube thing yet but, partly inspired by the excellent Dutty Artz TV, are planning to make a lot more video content and get it online this year. For now you can see all of Rubi's videos here or subscribe to The Heatwave YouTube channel.

Rubi Dan - Freestyle

Rubi Dan - Bad Bwoy

Posted by Gabriel Heatwave | Friday 15 February 2008 | Add a comment

An England Story - Album Cover

To find out more about the album, see the tracklist, read the feedback and listen to mp3 previews, click here.

Posted by Gabriel Heatwave | Friday 15 February 2008 | 4 comments

Elephant Man - Hey Nikki

Elephant Man rips off revitalises yet another pop hit, this time recasting Toni Basil's 1982 hit song Mickey as a saucy uptempo dancehall banger.

MP3: Elephant Man - Hey Nikki

I feel like I shouldn't really love tunes like this as much as I do, and sometimes Elephant Man takes it a bit too far - notably in his use of I Will Survive for his 2005 hit tune Willie Bounce. But with the Energy God's hyper MCing and melodic but rowdy singing and a bashy, bouncing beat courtesy of producer of the moment Stephen McGregor, what's not to like? Plus there's an inexplicable cod-Spanish intro, which can only be a good thing: "It's tranquelo (sic), it's mucho mucho...muy caliente!". Hot indeed.

Posted by Gabriel Heatwave | Wednesday 20 February 2008 | 5 comments

Rubi Dan’s Nang on BBC 1Xtra

Rubi's wicked new grimey bassline/garage tune produced by Sub Zero was played by DJ Cameo on BBC 1Xtra earlier this week. The show should be online for the next week or so and here's the full length, high quality mp3 to download:

MP3 (320): Rubi Dan & Sub Zero - Nang

Incidentally, I heard recently from teachers I know that the use of 'nang' to mean 'good' sprung from there being particularly fit Vietnamese girl called Nang at Kingsland School (now Petchey Academy) in Hackney. Turns out that Urban Dictionary says the same thing - not sure whether to think that confirms it as true or just shows that the (urban) myth is strong...

Posted by Gabriel Heatwave | Thursday 21 February 2008 | Add a comment

Joe Gibbs Tribute

I read yesterday on the Blood & Fire board that legendary reggae producer Joe Gibbs died of a heart attack last week. I thought it'd be nice to put together a short mix of my favourite Gibbs productions as a tribute:

MP3 Mix: Joe Gibbs Tribute (16mins, 22mb)

1. Culture - Two Sevens Clash
2. Bo Jangles - Prophecy Reveal
3. Joe Gibbs & The Professionals - Prophecy Dub
4. Culture - This Train
5. Lady Ann - Informer
6. Glen Washington - Rockers Nu Crackers
7. Althea & Donna - Uptown Top Ranking
8. Trinity - Three Piece Suit
9. Eek A Mouse - Virgin Girl
10. Queen Ifrica - Babylon Blunder (Rocky Gibbs)
11. Capleton & Junior Reid - Forgive Them (Rocky Gibbs)
12. Bascom X - Lonely Heart (Gibbo Records)
13. I Wayne - Living In Love (Gibbo Records)

At the end I've also included productions by Joe's sons Carl aka Rocky Gibbs and Stephen aka Gibbo. It's good to see that he passed on his skills and talents to the younger generation. For more in-depth compilations of Joe Gibbs material, you should check this Algoriddim podcast or the Soul Jazz album.

Posted by Gabriel Heatwave | Tuesday 26 February 2008 | Add a comment

The Heatwave Affair This Friday

It's our first party at Salmon & Compass this Friday - check the event page for more info:

Posted by Gabriel Heatwave | Tuesday 26 February 2008 | Add a comment

Feature on UK MCs in Time Out

Previewing our Soul Jazz compilation, An England Story, and interviewing some of the main players on the album including Tippa Irie, Warrior Queen and Riko Dan. Tippa even calls out Wiley, Kano and Dizzee to clash him, Macka B and Papa Levi - would love to see that! Let's see if we can't arrange something along those lines for the album promo gigs in London and Paris... Read the full article here or click on the image below to view the full size scan:

Posted by Gabriel Heatwave | Wednesday 27 February 2008 | Add a comment