Bank Holiday weekend in London

Tonight we're playing at the ManMakeMusic vs Bruk party in south London's Corsica Studios. The soundsystem is fearsome, the line up includes DJ Cameo, Skull Juice and Cotti and it's only a fiver to get in. Bound to be a rowdy way to kick off the three-day weekend...

On Sunday night, the fire man Capleton is in town for an all star reggae concert at Stratford Rex which also features I Wayne, Junior Kelly and Fantan Mojah. Given the quality of the line up I'm surprised it's not sold out yet, but that's good if you don't have a ticket still - get them online or by phone from Ticketmania. Here's a brand new tune from Capleton on the excellent Rub A Dub riddim, which also plays host to great vocals from Richie Spice (Di Plane Land) and Morgan Heritage (Nothing To Smile About):

MP3: Capleton - Same Old Story (Rub A Dub Riddim)

Other things worth checking this weekend include Heatwave playing bashment and hip hop at Bar Rumba on Saturday and then foundation dancehall at This Dog Puts Out Fires in Stepney on Monday. Plus the Reggae Roast crew are indulging in another marathon bank holiday all dayer at Big Chill House on Sunday, featuring DJs like Dom (The Nextmen), Louis Slipperz, Dasha (Rodigan Jnr), Moodie and Shepdog (Nice Up) playing reggae, dancehall, ska, dubstep and more.

Posted by Gabriel_Heatwave | Friday 02 May 2008 | Add a comment

The Heatwave Chart - May 2008

Brand new tunes from Sharps, Busy Signal, Sizzla and Saxon 5 plus summer anthems from the likes of Wiley, Mavado and Jay-Z and our own production for Riko Dan.

1. Riko Dan & The Heatwave - Mind How You A Talk (Piano Riddim) - listen
2. Mavado & Jay-Z - On The Rock (The Mission Riddim) - listen
3. Sharps & Major Trouble - Big Up Yr Punani - listen
4. Tifa - Crawny Gal (Dem Gal Sittn Riddim)
5. Wiley - Wearing My Rolex
6. Busy Signal - Grades (Club Banger Riddim)
7. Sizzla - Request My Love aka I'm Gonna Give You Love (Black Blood Riddim)
8. Saxon 5 - Tell A Story
9. Elephant Man - Gully Creepa (Creepa Riddim)
10. Gyptian - Too Late (Apologize Riddim)

Posted by Gabriel_Heatwave | Thursday 08 May 2008 | Add a comment

Heatwave interview and mix on Kiss radio

Last week I went on Joe Ransom's radio show on Kiss to do an interview and a 25 minute mix featuring new and unreleased music from the likes of Blak Twang, Sean Paul, Busy Signal, Riz MC, Ricky Blaze, Cauto, Mungo's Hi Fi and Lil' Wayne.

You can listen to the show online until this Friday and I'll be archiving the interview and mix on this site in the next few days too.

Posted by Gabriel_Heatwave | Tuesday 13 May 2008 | 2 comments

Reggae/hip hop set in Brixton this Friday

This Friday I'm playing one of London's top hip hop nights, the weekly Fidgit jam at Plan B in Brixton. I'll be playing mostly 80s dancehall, 90s ragga and reggae/hip hop refixes. Plan B on Friday nights is always rammed and a lot of fun - check the events section for full details.

Also playing on the night are Bryce from Fly Music and Nu Money, alongside the Fidgit residents. I've got couple of pairs of free tickets to give away and some spaces on the discount guestlist: email info@theheatwave.co.uk with your names if you want to come down.

Posted by Gabriel_Heatwave | Thursday 15 May 2008 | Add a comment

New Heatwave 7” and download out now

Following the success of Warrior Queen's Things Change, two more cuts on our summery Piano riddim are now available to buy on 7" vinyl and mp3/wav download.

Riko Dan's Mind How You A Talk, one of the few straight-up dancehall tracks voiced by the Jamaican-influenced Roll Deep MC, is currently riding high at #7 in the DMC UK urban charts. Check out his excellent mix CD The Truth to hear him riding the classic Sleng Teng riddim alongside grime, drum'n'bass and more.

Heatwave MC Rubi Dan drops the third piece on the riddim, Higher Heights, spitting his distinctive Bajan/London ragga/hip hop flow over the skittering drums and reverb-drenched piano riffs. You can hear all three vocals on the Piano riddim being juggled as part of our recent mix for Joe Ransom's Kiss radio show.

Buy this release

• Vinyl: Juno, Phonica, Turntable Lab, Fat City
• Download: Boomkat, Juno, Beatsource, Kudos

Posted by Gabriel_Heatwave | Wednesday 21 May 2008 | Add a comment

Sizzla - I’m Gonna Give You Love

I started out writing this post planning to rave about this new Sizzla tune, but then got a bit distracted by what I think of Sizzla's artistic method, his unpredictable genius and the similarites he shares with grime godfather Wiley. But anyway, the tune first:

MP3: Sizzla - I'm Gonna Give You Love aka Request My Love (Black Blood Riddim)

This is one of those Sizzla songs that makes you forgive him for his numerous mediocre or even appalling releases. I've long been a fan of Sizzla's incredibly prolific, scattergun approach: I'm willing to wade through the crap as long as he continues to produce moments of genius like this. Or, in recent years alone, material like the Rise To The Occasion and Soul Deep albums plus singles like Live and Do Right, Chant Dem Down and Too Much Gang War.

It struck me that the approach of London grime producer, MC and entrepreneur Wiley to making music is not dissimilar. Both artists somehow manage to produce more albums or mixtapes than you think would be humanly possible, the contents of which are admittedly not always of the highest standard. But both occasionally produce these moments of genius, and when a tune's big, it's really really big.

From a commercial standpoint, it seems obvious that it should make sense to exercise more quality control. But it's kind of compelling when musicians lay out their creative process for all to see and allow listeners to hear the extremes of what they produce. When Sizzla's strained falsetto becomes a thing of beauty, as it does on the intro to I'm Gonna Give You Love, it's perhaps more satisfying if you've previously heard him ruin several perfectly good rhythm tracks with that same screech.

Both Wiley and Sizzla are also unwilling to sign away their considerable creativity to any one label, preferring to license individual projects to whoever seems most appropriate. I like the recognition implicit in this move that their urge to make music is too strong to be contained by the traditional music industry model of promoting one album at a time and staying out of the studio between projects. I also like the way that the big deals which turn out to disappoint (Sizzla and Damon Dash or any number of Wiley projects) soon become just more studio time in a long line of creative and productive sessions.

Anyway, ramble over and back to more specifics: the Black Blood riddim, produced by Mark from UK Cup Clash champions Bass Odyssey. At 147bpm it's right at the faster end of dancehall's recent exploration of tempos around 130/140bpm, and brings out the best of the MCs that ride it in terms of oral dexterity and clarity of diction. It's been interesting to see Jamaican producers working at these speeds, though I'm not always a fan of the rhythm tracks that seem to get stuck in something of an undanceable, half-time sludge.

Black Blood avoids this trap, marrying a dark, grimy undertow with a super hype garagey beat propelled by rattling background percussion, hypnotic synths and exuberant handclaps. There's other good cuts on the riddim from Charly Black, Dada and T.O.K. among others, though nothing I've heard so far has reached the bar set by Sizzla.

Posted by Gabriel_Heatwave | Thursday 22 May 2008 | 3 comments