The audacity of hope

Three videos for today. US presidential election time. No words needed.

Mavado - We Need Barack | download mp3 here

Obama brushes off the dirt:

Cocoa Tea - Barack Obama:

Posted by Gabriel_Heatwave | Tuesday 04 November 2008 | Add a comment

Vybz Kartel - Duggu Duggu (Miniskirt Riddim)

My favourite Vybz Kartel tune for a long while. It's great to hear him return to the tight, clipped MCing that he does so well rather than the tuneless wailing he's subjected us to so much recently.

MP3: Vybz Kartel - Duggu Duggu

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Posted by Gabriel_Heatwave | Tuesday 04 November 2008 | 1 comment

Video: Beenie Man & Wiley - Rolex It Up (The Heatwave Refix)

Turns out someone's put together a video for my Beenie Man refix of Wiley's Wearing My Rolex:

Posted by Gabriel_Heatwave | Monday 10 November 2008 | Add a comment

Tippa Irie live set at Hot Milk

Manchester reggae promoters Hot Milk celebrated their third birthday last month with a live set by pioneering London dancehall MC Tippa Irie - listen below:

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The recording of our Hot Milk set alongside Warrior Queen from February this year is still available to download from our website.

Hot Milk is back again tonight at the Saki Bar with music from Country Culture, Jon K, Samrai, Prince Al and Little Joy alongside residents Irish Mash and Joey B - check the Facebook page for more info.

Posted by Gabriel_Heatwave | Friday 14 November 2008 | Add a comment

Soul Jazz - The Rise of Jamaican Dancehall Culture

I reviewed the latest Soul Jazz compilation, The Rise of Jamaican Dancehall Culture, for FACT magazine. The double CD accompanies Beth Lesser's book about the birth of Jamaican dancehall in the 1980s, also published by Soul Jazz.

You can read more about the book in recent articles by The Guardian, Independent and The Times. One of my favourite tracks off the album is Frankie Paul's Call The Brigade, employing the same melody as Courtney Melody's classic Bad Boy:

MP3: Frankie Paul - Call The Brigade

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Various Artists - The Rise of Jamaican Dancehall Culture (Soul Jazz)
By Gabriel Heatwave for FACT magazine

An excellent double CD compilation soundtracking Beth Lesser's new book of the same name on the Jamaican dancehall scene in the 1980s. Fittingly, the album is dominated by classic tracks from that fertile decade when a generation of Jamaican vocalists, musicians and producers left their stamp on the island's music.

Most of the big players are represented here: of course there are notable exceptions but this will always be the case on a compilation chronicling such a vibrant musical era. There's a nice mix of singers (Cornell Campbell, Frankie Paul or Gregory Isaacs) and deejays (Yellowman, Lone Ranger or Reggie Stepper), giving a variation sometimes missing from today's MC-dominated dancehall world.

The birth of dancehall is audible in the shift from rootsy, stepping rhythm tracks used by Trinity and General Echo in the late 70s to the stripped down sound of the Roots Radics band on Wa Do Dem, Bam Bam and Diseases. The rise of digital dancehall production is also documented, with the groundbreaking Sleng Teng rhythm included twice in the form of Tenor Saw's Pumpkin Belly and Super Cat's Trash & Ready. Earlier digital or semi-digital productions also feature: Horace Ferguson's brilliant Sensi Addict and Half Pint's syndrum-propelled stormer, Greetings.

The fully digitized, minimalist style of early 90s tunes by Chaka Demus & Pliers, Cutty Ranks and Early Black stands out a little on the compilation but their inclusion bookends the era nicely and gives a hint as to the next chapter in the dancehall story.

Posted by Gabriel_Heatwave | Friday 14 November 2008 | Add a comment

Dark side of the tune part 2

Read Ben's Dark side of the tune part 1

Sometimes you read something, or you hear something, which rings completely true to you. Something jumps out, a few sentences in an article, a passage in a novel, a few consecutive rants in some stand up comedy, a series of images in a film. It's rare, but occasionally I find myself floating in someone else’s stream of creativity and just totally surrendering control.

My friend Matthew played me this song a few months ago, and we jumped around his living room, gun fingers stabbing the ceiling, pulling back the needle on his portable turntable again and again. At the time I thought it was another excellent rant against the system, with a whole bunch of truisms and a decent rhythm under it. I suppose that is basically what it is.

But since then I have played it more and more regularly. The haunting monotony of the beat and the hammering truths have started to hypnotise me. It’s become a war march into oblivion. Standing on the edge, conscious, alert and watching the world crumble.

I think it's an amazing song - full of wisdom and anger.

MP3: Busy Signal - These are the days

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These are the fucking days
Yu affi hustle in the street like a fuckin slave
Then the boss a work the least get the fuckin raise
Yu nuh c say di leaders fi step up the pace

Listen to these fuckin facts
Who nuh hav a Smith n Wesson hav a fucking Glock
Coppa whistle somebody missin when you here it stop
Anotha madda bawl while she suffer the lost

Well up to these fucking streets
Chalk line white sheet regular we see it
Less fortunate get treated like sum refugees
But dont get fed up keep ya head up stay on yu feet

Right now we are at a fucking stage
This day and age is like we locked up inna fucking cage
A me a tell yu say the system need fi rearrange

Busy Signal - These Are The Days (2008)

Posted by Benjamin_D | Friday 14 November 2008 | 1 comment

Video: Charly Black - Bubble

Charly Black's latest tune, following up his 2008 hits Buddy Buddy and Backshot Time. Here he's telling the ladies that "hot wuk out of style...bubbling a dweet!"

Posted by Gabriel_Heatwave | Monday 17 November 2008 | Add a comment

The Heatwave and Warrior Queen live at The Scala this Friday

This Friday we're doing another live show alongside Warrior Queen as part of Deviate's three-room extravaganza at The Scala.

Check our previous 2008 sets alongside the queen of UK dancehall and dubstep for a flavour of what to expect from The Heatwave on the night:

Warrior Queen and The Heatwave - Live at Hot Milk in Manchester

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Warrior Queen and The Heatwave - Live at Immediate Sounds Carnival Party

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Other performers this Friday will include Audio Bullys, Chef b2b Coki, Reggae Roast DJs, Louis Slipperz, Man Like Me, Blaise Bellville, Joe Lickshot and Mark Solution.

We've got a bunch of places on the discount guestlist to give away - just send an email to info@theheatwave.co.uk with full names for the list. You can also buy advance tickets from Ticketweb.

Posted by Gabriel_Heatwave | Wednesday 19 November 2008 | Add a comment

Everything crash: recession, Obama and George Bush

Four topical reggae/dancehall tunes on the global economic and political situation.

MP3: Al Moodie - Everything Crash

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The contrast between the joyful ska rhythm track and Al Moodie's pessimistic economic forecasts is almost unsettling. Similarly, the video juxtaposes synchonised line dancing with images of a family losing their home:

Perhaps this nicely sums up the tensions between the positivity surrounding Obama's victory ("Yes we can!") and the progressively worsening state of the global economy...

Beginning with chants of "Obama! Obama!" and ending with an echoing, dubbed out "Yes we can" from the man himself, Beniton The Menace's Recession explicitly references the political situation but concentrates more on the personal and practical consequences of an economic downturn:

MP3: Beniton The Menace - Recession

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It's a recession but I'm still gonna party
Tell these bill collectors please don't call me
Cos it seems like they want me go the jail route
Finally we have a black man inna di White House

It's a recession yes I'm gonna have fun
And try my best not to pick up the gun
The people dem say dem want a better income
More funds, more funds

Dem can't stop the yout dem weh a hustle pon the street
Can't stop the yout dem cah dem need food fi eat
Can't trust nine to five cos the government a tief

Mavado, Cocoa Tea and Capleton expressed their support for Obama. Sizzla has offered his congratulations to the president-elect. Now Beenie Man chips in with the imaginatively-titled Obama, a song of upliftment:

MP3: Beenie Man - Obama

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No more ghetto youth fi a wipe no car window
Every youth fi try turn president like obama
Every ghetto youth fi wise up
Every youth fi rise up
Open unno eyes up

Lee Scratch Perry, as ever, has his own esoteric take on the whole thing, focusing on the lame duck president George Bush and former prime minister Tony Blair.

MP3: Lee Scratch Perry - Chase The Devil (Special)

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This dubplate special recorded for reggae sound Sideways Outernational also has Perry ranting inexplicably about the British royal family, which despite his rather lacklustre delivery is nonetheless pretty entertaining.

Stupid George Bush - your days are numbered in office
George Bush - you are the devil
Tony Blair - you are satan

Queen Elizabeth - you are a old whore
Prince Philip - you're the Nazi
Prince Charles - you can see you killed Diana...you couldn't stand Diana power

George Bush - you're a Freemason
Tony Blair - you're a Freemason

Posted by Gabriel_Heatwave | Wednesday 19 November 2008 | 3 comments

Kardinal Offishall & Keri Hilson - Numba 1 (Tide Is High)

New single from Canadian dancehall artist Kardinal Offishall featuring Timbaland protégé Keri Hilson on the hook.

MP3: Kardinal Offishall and Keri Hilson - Numba 1 (Tide Is High)

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I like John Holt's original version of The Tide Is High but now I can't help thinking of Atomic Kitten when I hear this tune, which is a shame! Kardinal makes the track though, and hopefully exorcises the Atomic curse.

Some of his MCing in the past hasn't entirely convinced me but his flow and melody have been much more impressive recently. And his lyrical conceit here is pretty neat, contradicting the true love sentiment of Keri Hilson's chorus. In doing so, Kardinal also provides us with another memorable badman commandment: "Badman nah go badda with the wife wife ting".

And Keri Hilson is definitely wicked in the video, which also features a sneak preview of Kardinal's hip hop/ragga relick of the My Conversation riddim, Nina:

Both tunes are on the latest Kardinal Offishall album Not 4 Sale, which is of course actually for sale.

Posted by Gabriel_Heatwave | Tuesday 25 November 2008 | 8 comments

Big Toe’s Hi Fi alongside The Heatwave this weekend

This Friday at our monthly bashment The Heatwave Affair we'll be joined by special guests Big Toe's Hi-Fi all the way from Edinburgh.

Big Toe's run a monthly reggae dance at Edinburgh's intimate Wee Red Bar, powered by their self-built and highly decorated bass-heavy soundsystem. They've also released some fine 7"s over the past few years, mixing and blending music from the likes of Coki, Phoenix, Junior Demus and talented Jamaican/Scottish MC Daddy Scotty.

Check out Scotty (in the kilt) and Barba Poppa Choppa (boiler suit and hunting cap) repping the "Big Toe farm sound" on a recent video shoot:

Posted by Gabriel_Heatwave | Wednesday 26 November 2008 | Add a comment