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

Charly Black - Buddy Buddy

Following in the footsteps of selectors-turned-artists like Tony Matterhorn, Fire Links and Richie Feelings is Charly Black of the Bass Odyssey soundsystem. He's scored a couple of hit singles in Jamaica recently with the high-energy hype of Backshot Time and this tune, Buddy Buddy:

MP3: Charly Black - Buddy Buddy

The joyful combination of soca-style bounce and fast chat slackness can't fail to light up any dancefloor. As is so often the case with bashment tunes currently, the song hasn't been released as a single, but it's featured (by 'Charlie Blacks') on the upcoming Greensleeves compilation, Ragga Ragga Ragga 2008.

Posted by Gabriel Heatwave | Tuesday 29 April 2008 | Add a comment

Love Music Hate Racism free carnival this Sunday

This Sunday's Love Music Hate Racism free carnival in East London's Victoria Park celebrates the 30th anniversary of the first Rock Against Racism concert, which took place in the same park back in April 1978. It's not just rock acts performing any more, though funnily enough RAR's inaugural event two years previously featured a singer called Carol Grimes - and there's certainly a lot of grime artists performing this weekend.

Bashy, Chipmunk, Jammer, No Lay, Roll Deep, Tinchy Stryder and Wiley are all appearing alongside other artists and DJs including Akala, Alex Mills, Benga, Dennis Bovell, DJ Hype, Heartless Crew, Jocelyn Brown, Juggy D, Nihal, Ny and Skream. If the weather's nice it'll be unmissable...

Here's the Roll Deep track Racist People from Wiley's Tunnel Vision Vol 2, which includes eloquent verses from Scratchy, Trim and Wiley himself:

MP3: Roll Deep - Racist People

Last year an official Love Music Hate Racism video was made for the same track without Wiley and Trim but with the addition of Riko Dan and his memorable line, "BNP - your time soon dun out". Indeed.

Posted by Gabriel Heatwave | Friday 25 April 2008 | Add a comment

Heatwave sets in New Cross and Shoreditch this weekend

We're playing alongside Wiley and Tomb Crew at Amersham Arms in New Cross tonight for the Deadly Rhythm vs No Pain In Pop night, and then at the Patchwork Pirates monthly Thugs'n'Hugs at The Legion in Shoreditch on Saturday.

Fully expect to see Wiley (and the crowd) doing the Rolex Sweep, as described by him and Skepta in their eponymous follow up to Wearing My Rolex:

MP3: Wiley & Skepta - Rolex Sweep (Radio Rip)

Check the video below for the full dance - I can't help thinking that it would've been better if it was simply restricted it to the Signal Di Plane-esqe sweep of the arms without the other Macarena-style elements.

Posted by Gabriel Heatwave | Friday 18 April 2008 | Add a comment

Dr Evil & Elephant Man - Wild Out

Fun party anthem from Leftside's comedy alter ego, Dr Evil aka Mr Evil, alongside the Energy God, Elephant Man. As well as being one of Jamaica's best modern dancehall producers, Leftside's an underrated singjay with hits like Tuck In Yu Belly, The Tribute, No STD and More Punaany under his belt, both as himself and as Dr Evil.

MP3: Dr Evil & Elephant Man - Wild Out

The rhythm track's got a retro, skanking feel not dissimilar to the Daseca production for Assassin's Pum Pum Surveillance. Should be a big tune for the summer that's hopefully only around the corner now.

Posted by Gabriel Heatwave | Sunday 13 April 2008 | 1 comment

Woofah Issue 2 - Dancehall Reviews

My dancehall reviews for the second issue of the excellent reggae, grime and dubstep fanzine Woofah, which came out last month. It also features excellent pieces on Ninjaman, Iration Steppas, Durrty Goodz and (the lack of) live grime events in London - buy it here.

Beenie Man - No No
Fambo - Happ'n
Vybz Kartel - Money Fi Spend
Big Ship - Bee Hive Riddim
Though still a teenager, Stephen McGregor (son of the reggae singer Freddie) has already earned the nickname 'Di Genius' thanks to his prodigious talents - he wrote his first song at five and played five instruments by the age of ten. Recently, his futuristic, uptempo productions like Tremor, Power Cut, Red Bull & Guinness and Ghetto Whiskey have been among the biggest riddims in the dancehall world. The Bee Hive riddim retains McGregor's trademark synths but here he changes up his style, looking back to the 90s with a slower-paced foundation ragga beat, ased around grinding, whirring percussion. Dancehall veteran Future Troubles continues his renaissance since renaming himself Fambo while big hitters Beenie Man and Vybz Kartel drop the stand-out vocals on the riddim.

Buju Banton - Flava
Elephant Man - Wife Material
Timberlee & Ward 21 - Bubble Like Soup
Ward 21 - Rae Riddim
The multi-talented and Ward 21 crew produce the goods once again with a hype, staccato rhythm punctuated by exuberant shouts of 'Rae', which also pays more than a cursory debt to 90s styles. Underrated female artist Timberlee teams up with riddim creators Ward 21 for my favourite vocal, though it's hard to choose between the others. Vybz Kartel and Mad Cobra deserve a mention, though ultimately it's got to be about Buju Banton and Elephant Man, their low-slung voices riding the riddim flawlessly in a rapid-fire style. Buju especially is perfectly at home; the cadences of foundation dancehall bring out a style of his that I prefer infinitely to his singing over one-drop reggae.

MP3: Timberlee & Ward 21 - Bubble Like Soup

Chukki Starr - Party Wid Me
Lady Chann - Ease Off
Starrdom - Party Time riddim
Brand new production from English dancehall veteran Chukki Starr, with vocals from himself and Suncycle's Lady Chann aka Baby Chann. The rhythm track isn't outstanding and lacks a certain gloss that the top level Jamaican productions have, but the beat bounces along nicely, propelled by congas and skipping hi-hats. Chukki Starr combines bubbling vocals with a plea to bring no trouble to the party and have a good time, but it's Chann who takes the riddim with her super-tight flow and engaging lyrics. Her clever, self-referential wordplay takes in slackness, tongue-in-cheek badgalisms like, "cap your knees off with my sweet talk" and even a call to revolution while her style and pattern never falters.

Posted by Gabriel Heatwave | Friday 11 April 2008 | Add a comment

Assassin - Pum Pum Surveillance

Brand new tune from one of my favourite bashment MCs, Assassin, over a riddim built by the Daseca production trio. You've got to love the fat bassline, echoed keyboard stabs and stuttering drums harking back to the foundation days of dancehall.

MP3: Assassin - Pum Pum Surveillance

As is so often the case with Assassin, his lyrical innovation and excellence is very much in evidence as he cleverly relates a funny story about men's futile attempts to keep tabs on their girlfiends:

De bwoy pussy watcher just a follow back a
A hitch up back a di gal like how Blacker follow Macka
Him just a trail and a follow like a tail
But a next man still a prevail

Posted by Gabriel Heatwave | Monday 31 March 2008 | Add a comment

DJ Cheeksta & Sizzla - Baby (T2 Remix)

This Sizzla refix from the end of last year is still cutting a swathe through numerous bassline house mixes in 2008:

MP3: DJ Cheeksta & Sizzla - Baby (T2 Remix)

Leicester based grime/bassline producer DJ Cheeksta works some bass-heavy magic with that keening Sizzla falsetto. The snippet of acapella is taken from this track on Sizzla's excellent Rise To The Occasion album:

MP3: Sizzla - Give Me A Try

Rise To The Occasion saw Sizzla Kalonji team up with Donovan Bennett aka Don Corleon - Jamaica's most prolific vocalist meeting its one of its most prolific producers - to put together his most forward-thinking album of recent years.

From sinuous bashment to melancholic R'n'B, Rise To The Occasion's super-synthetic production style and catchy melodies made it ripe for the bassline reinterpretation and Sizzla might now be the genre's most unlikely rent-a-diva. Jodie Aysha watch out! Get the rest of the album at the revamped Greensleeves Records online shop.

Posted by Master G | Friday 28 March 2008 | Add a comment

Beenie Man - Wine Gal (TJ Records)

Big big big tune from Beenie Man on an irresistible pocomania/dem bow-style production by Lloyd 'King Jammy' James's brother, Trevor:

MP3: Beenie Man - Wine Gal

The Jammy's clan is on fire right now with the King's sons Baby G, John John and Jam II behind recent hits like Mavado's I'm On The Rock, Mykal/Michael Rose's Shoot Out and Busy Signal's Nah Go Jail Again respectively. Their uncle Trevor can still kick it though: he was also responsible for Show Off, the 2006 relick of Dave Kelly's classic riddim Showtime, which provided a platform for Beenie Man and Bounty Killer to continue their long-running war as well as giving hits to Mavado and Mr Easy. His other recent riddims include Bill Back and Skandal Bag plus one-away productions for Vybz Kartel and Autotune-king Munga, but Wine Gal is by far his best tune of late in my eyes and ears.

Posted by Gabriel Heatwave | Thursday 06 March 2008 | 2 comments

Mavado & Jay-Z - I’m On The Rock (Remix)

Mavado's single on Baby G's The Mission riddim, I'm On The Rock aka Never Stop Me, has been hotting it up for a minute now:

MP3: Mavado - I'm On The Rock

The riddim takes its name from an incredible vocal by Damian and Stephen Marley and there's also a good cut by Elephant Man featuring - unusually for him - a conscious/reality lyric. Now Jay-Z's jumped on Mavado's version, keeping the hooks and adding verses of his own:

MP3: Mavado & Jay-Z - I'm On The Rock (Remix)

I'm not really into Mavado's graphic and gruesome descriptions of violence but he's got an incredible voice and an ear for wicked hooks, plus his lyrics here are a lot more interesting than the usual marrow-flying and brains-spilling fare. The anti-authority message is given extra weight by the fact he's referring to the Jamaican security forces' raid on his birthday bash last December, which I mentioned in the Heatwave column for Shook magazine. As Mavado puts it:

"Helicopter inna di air, bright light a shine a ground. Them say 'nobody move, nobody run - from the river to the bank locked down."

"Tell them nah stop the fun. Cos if them stop the fun them must prepare fi stop the gun. The youts dem blood a run down there in di slum. Them mek a bag a promise and nah fulfil none."

The Jay-Z remix got its world premiere on New York's Hot 97 radio station only last Friday but the hype around it's already massive. Moving with a speed remiscent of Wiley's Wearing My Rolex, which seemed to get signed to Atlantic like a week after it was made, Mavado's management have already got plans to shoot a video for the remix and include it on his second album, due on VP Records in May.

Presumably a track with the massive crossover potential that this has will be a perfect lead single and could ensure Mavado's position as one of the dancehall elite. I don't know though, the original is a great tune and the addition of verses by Jay-Z is rarely a bad thing, but this sounds a bit unfinished still. Especially the way Jay-Z burbles over the intro and first chorus and how Mavado's hook abruptly cuts off as the verse drops in. I like the way Jay-Z plays up the Rock/Roc and Jehovah/Hova links though.

Posted by Gabriel Heatwave | Tuesday 04 March 2008 | 5 comments