bone conduction.

eight hype.

2011-06-26T05:35:00.000-07:00

Hype Williams - "The New Jersey House Sound Vol. 1"

This short & sweet mixtape from a few years ago features a bunch of old 8-bit theme tunes from the 1980s/early nineties world of arcade machines and the Nintendo Entertainment System. Growing up, it was a world I endlessly mythologised in my own head - and it is a world that my imagination will forever be indelibly imprinted with.

Less about nostalgia as it is about psychotherapy

Hype Williams overdub the tunes with off-key, woozy & disorientating sound design - trademark sonics that will be no stranger to anyone who is a fan of their albums. Hype Williams make drugged-up music - weed, xanax and codeine milkshakes - and as such it provides a crucial antidote to the pristine, straight-laced sterility of electronic music in 2011. I bloody love them.

shizuo vs shizor.

2011-06-16T14:49:00.000-07:00

"Have you ever been kissed by a girl like this ? ..." That's more than just one of the lines from the SHIZUO's hit single recording of "SWEAT" (that took off like a bird across the nation)... It's a slogan that's blossomed everywhere - on school bulletin boards, as a chant at dances, as a teen greeting - in the SHIZUO's home territory, the twin cities of Berlin. One of the most exciting artists to hit the modern-music recording scene, the SHIZUO comes on like a combination of Gangbusters, a guided missile and a runaway train... and the young dancing set digs his sound the most.

Explore his grooves and you'll find the reason for his success, best branded "instant popularity". Not only does the SHIZUO know what the dancing set wants, but he gives it to them with just the right amount of sound excitement. "ANARCHY" was born at one of the few of teen dances he has performed: the SHIZUO was playing at a crammed, jammed squad in London, when he decided to try something new, his own concept of the teenage dance craze! The crowd listened, but only for a moment. Then they were dancing and raving as never before. Everything has flown high since. Now meet this talented and dynamic new man! Put the tone arm down... and the volume up! Ladies and Gentleman, the SHIZUO!!!!!!!!

the SHIZUO - "Sweat"

David Hammer aka Shizuo

14 August 1973 - 15 May 2011

cpr.

2011-04-27T06:03:00.000-07:00

Bringing my forgotten corner of the internet back to life.

DJ /rupture, Matt Shadetek and Chief Boima - 'Elegy For Mr Peach' (rupture mix)

where yo ghost post at?

2010-11-02T16:52:00.000-07:00

Totally meant to do another bumper pack for Halloween this year, the post I did last year is still one of the most popular things i have put up on this blog. It turned out that I had other more important shit to do over the weekend though, including dancing (but not footworking) to DJ Spinn in Camden, which was epiphanic as fuck.

DJ Elmoe - 'Whea Yo Ghost At, Whea Yo Dead Man'

flock fresco.

2010-10-24T05:31:00.000-07:00

Tory Lanez - 'Hollywood Life'

Canadian teenager Tory Lanez is the best new voice in rap. His mixtape 'Just Landed' is an enthusiastic and accomplished collection of jams that frequently recall Drake, except with that artist's stoned introversion replaced by a slap-you-in-your-face youthful exuberance. It is fitting then that Drake himself has already experienced a little of Mr Lanez' youthful exuberance close up.

The versatility on show here means that he will likely rise above my lazy comparisons though. TL has the street thing down and the pop thing down and something extra too - there is something genuinely likeable about him. It occurs to me that being likeable was once an important thing in rap that kind of got forgotten. For all his slick contemporary pop appeal, Tory Lanez frequently sounds like an early nineties throwback.

And you best believe he can rap. Currently the best way to experience Tory's hard-as-nails, punchline packed verses is by checking his freestyles out on YouTube. He may well get to be a big rap star, but the most exciting thing about hearing this guy for the first time is the realisation that despite the undoubted mainstream appeal he is, in the classic sense, an emcee.

when you were young...

2010-09-28T14:02:00.000-07:00

So there has much mention lately of THE Justin Bieber remix.

You know, the one in which he gets slowed down 800%, so his song ends up 35 minutes long and sounding like Sigur Ros. I really like it and no doubt the revolutionary time-stretching software used to create it has a bright future in the right hands.

But if that remix was the sound of J-Beebz getting spiked with some extremely strong sedatives, then this one (from NYC hip hop genius El-Producto) neutralises its prey with a straight up (bitch) slap. El-P has been back to his best recently and both remixes are notable for taking a Bieber vocal and turning it into something genuinely emotionally affecting.

So anyway, check it, a deeply unholy 3-way between Justin Bieber, El-P and Wings. This is what music blogs are supposed to do right, post mash ups?

El-P - 'New Bieber Mix'

... and i guess i may as well post the other one too, to calm you down afterwards and for all the Bieber dilettantes that may have missed it:

J. BIEBZ - U SMILE 800% SLOWER by Shamantis

the buzz is back.

2010-09-05T06:58:00.000-07:00

Captain Cadillac aka Leatherface - 'The Juke Chainsaw Massacre Vol.2'

I've posted a lot of single tracks lately, so I thought it was time that I threw up a mixtape again. Nothing mega-exclusive or even that new or anything - but this is one that I have been playing and loving all summer long. Volume 1 is certified awesome as well.

Nightmare Juke Squad are a French crew that mix up straight up juke party music but don't sleep on the more out-there 'footwork' type stuff either - and they are very, very good at what they do. They are also notable for being one of the few crews from outside Chicago to be pushing a 100% juke-based musical manifesto, a fact that gets them plenty love from those operating from within the scene's Chi-Town epicentre.

Tracklisting:

Intro

Leatherface - The Buzz is Back

Gantman - Footworkin Orchestra

DJ Roc - Bitch Im Raw

DJ D-Block - Killah

DJ Slugo - Gone Juke

DJ D-Block - Pop Dat Thang

DJ Spinn & DJ Rashad - Halloween

DJ Remi - Get Down On The Ground

Traxman - Pacman

DJ Pierre - Pump Them Things

Leaterface - Who Da Boss

Leatherface - Make Crack Like This

DJ Solo - Girl Bend That Back

DJ Rashad - Maniak

DJ T-Why - 5 4 3 2

DJ Diamond - Gang Bangz

Leatheface - Pow Wow

Mister Ries - Psycho

DJ Rashad - Back Dat Azz Up (XXXclusiv Track)

DJ MC - Crazy Shit

DJ Clent - Bounce To The Beat

DJ Hilti - Like A Fuckin Supastar

DJ Slugo - Where The Rats 3

DJ Roc - Lets Get It Started

DJ Amaris - All That Noise

DJ Solo - Let Me See Ya Bounce

Candyman - South Central

Regulators - Casse Toi La Nuque (Leatherface Juke Remix)

Grems - Jamais Amoureux (Leatherface Juke Remix)

DJ Solo - Havoc In This Thang Hoe

DJ Speed (Rest In Peace) - Smack Yo Azz Down Boi

The Juke Chainsaw Massacre Vol.2 (2009) by Kaptain Cadillac on Mixcloud

woolworths.

2010-08-15T14:41:00.000-07:00

Die Antwoord - 'Rich Bitch'

I'm not going to write a soliloquy about Die Antwood because nuff people fe chat bout dem already but I just want to say that Yo-Landi rules, she is fucking amazing. She has been my favourite member of Die Antwoord ever since I saw the video of her drinking cider and getting her bum out in a taxi. Also she is hot. I would marry Yo-Landi tomorrow.

floored by footwork.

2010-08-14T14:00:00.000-07:00

Some truly mindmelting avant-garde electronic dance music just got upped to SoundCloud by the god-like Ghettophiles (aka Neema Nazem). Footwork out of Chicago is where it is at right now/next week/next year. The key to getting a handle on this initially strange-sounding stuff lies in the magic of the YouTube videos - but here Ghettophiles give us a chance to concentrate closely on the music in a way YouTube forbids.

Music without rules, DJs such as Rashad, Spinn and Jody Breeze are making utterly raw, inspirational works of art at around a hundred and sixty beats per minute; bass weight, ethereal beauty and a dense urban futurism that many artists aspire to nowadays but few acheive.

The fact that this is music borne of teenage danceoffs makes it feel like the second coming of rock n' roll.

DJ Rashad & DJ Spinn - Space Juke by Ghettophiles

DJ Spinn - Kush Pak Loud LF by Ghettophiles

JODY BREEZE - THE WAY I MOVE by Ghettophiles

DJ RASHAD-SOMETHIN by Ghettophiles

DJ HEAVY D - NINTENDO WARS by Ghettophiles

DJ EARL -VALENTRA by Ghettophiles

DJ MANNY - HYPER LIFE by Ghettophiles

Spinn - 2020 by Ghettophiles

DJ Rashad - Flashing Lights (Remix) by Ghettophiles

DJ Spinn - YYYY by Ghettophiles

cave art.

2010-08-01T10:59:00.000-07:00

I just heard this; a remix by Prurient (aka Dominic Fernow) of his other band, the very good and the very serious Cold Cave.

The original version can be found on their album Love Comes Close and is one of the standout tracks there. Fernow takes the original's 80s-indebted electropop sound and bathes it in layers of thick distortion and neon-flavoured noise that all makes for a pretty darn nourishing slice of what I am not going to call shoe-wave.

It is the poppiest thing Prurient has ever done but to be fair that wouldn't be hard.

Cold Cave - 'Life Magazine' (Prurient Remix)

fela's cock

2010-06-20T13:24:00.000-07:00

One of my favourite musicians ever, probably my favourite African person ever and definitely my favourite Nigerian ever is Fela Kuti. I can't believe this is the first time I posted a Fela Kuti song on BONE CONDUCTION.

"Trouble Sleep Yanga Wake Am" is song all about trouble - but then all Fela's music was about trouble because Fela was a pissed off troublemaker. This could have been a Nessun Dorma for 2010.

Fela Kuti & The Africa '70 - 'Trouble Sleep Yanga Wake Am'

sunshine series #4.

2010-06-02T07:11:00.000-07:00

This song is fully amazing but pretty much anything with Astrud Gilberto on it is going to do the job on a sunny day.

Cut Chemist - 'The Garden'

sunshine series #3.

2010-05-23T05:57:00.000-07:00

This song is a gorgeous thing in which dozens of gloopy modulated synth drones slowly unfold in a crowded, disorientating but harmonically lush way. The pitch-bent lead melodies exit your speakers like rays of light piercing clouds; the beat that underpins it all is gloriously lazy.

From Kid 606's least insane and prettiest album, Resilience, an all-round great summer record.

Kid 606 - 'Sugarcoated'

sunshine series #2.

2010-05-22T02:26:00.000-07:00

Today's pick is way too obvious, but I am going to watch Cardiff City play in (and hopefully win) the playoff final this afternoon and I need to be at Wembley real soon so I don't have time to dig out obscurities or wow you with the sophistication of my choices.

No matter, this is just about as good a tune as you could ever hope to hear on a hot day.

Roy Ayers - 'Everybody Loves The Sunshine'

sunshine series #1.

2010-05-21T02:27:00.000-07:00

What says sunshine?

To celebrate the positive influence of reverse seasonal affective disorder in music, every day that it remains sunny I will post a song that sounds like sunshine.

I apologise to all the people who access this page from overseas, for you this exercise is kind of irrelevant. Just take heart in the fact it is sunny in London this weekend and it isn't always.

This is one of the greatest, most perfect house tunes ever and is exactly the kind of thing I am talking about.

Pepe Bradock - 'Deep Burnt'

fact mix 93: jam city.

2010-05-06T12:59:00.000-07:00

Fact Mix 93: Jam City (October '09)

I recommended this mix to a friend a few days ago after she mentioned she enjoyed the Jam City that I linked to a few posts back. Unfortunately it appears that the original hosts of the mix in question, FACT Magazine, have deleted it, which is just a big fat joke as far as I am concerned.

There are too many free mixes available online. I know this. Many of them are very tedious. The sheer amount of them is in itself very tedious. This site contributes modestly to so much crossfaded detritus - but luckily the stuff from here is across the board FUCKING WICKED

Not all FACT mixes are fucking wicked, but then they do post mixes from a different DJ twice a week, so quality control is pretty much impossible - if you apply too much pressure to music it snaps. Ask Axl Rose if you don't believe me.

It follows though, that in the midst of such a deluge of DJs, FACT score occasional, colossal money shots - as is the case here. Jam City is a dude, make no mistake, and this is one of my favourite mixes of last year; ironically one of the select few that deserves posterity.

Tracklisting:

1. B.Calloway - Swimming

2. L-Vis1990 - United Groove (kingdom remix)
3. DJ Gazzeto - Gazzeto Eskhaleni Zone 1
4. Bookworms - African Rhythms
5. DJ Gukwa - Terminator Returns (Jam City whirlpool edit)
6. Jam City - What I Think About You dub
7. Gremino - Shining
8. Jam City - Runnin Yr Mouth
9. DJ Quest - Devils Bay
10. Endgames - Ecstacy (Jam City Refix)
11. Respite - Hundreds and Millions (Jam City edit feat. Natasha)
12. Jam City - Underpass Limiter
13. Surface - Falling in Love (Jam City Edit)

rude awakening.

2010-04-29T13:54:00.000-07:00

If you had told me that the song 'Sleeping Satellite' by Tasmin Archer was going to make such a dramatic return to the forefront of my musical consciousness in 2010 I reckon I would have been shocked and surprised.

Enduser absolutely fucking nails this one with a typically epic slab of gothic breakcore a million miles removed from the song I used to hate when I was 12 - yet this gorgeous six minutes of musical violence is inescapably tied to it, indebted even. Weird huh?

Enduser - '2 3'

I know I have gone back on the promise I made in my last post of more summertime flavas on this blog but there is plenty of time for all that shit once it actually gets HOT outside. In the meantime here is some art by Tasmin Archer that I just found on her website:

It is called 'Orange'. Good to know she has kept herself busy the last two decades.

banton's sound: live on kiss.

2010-04-26T05:34:00.000-07:00

HardHouse Banton - Kiss Chosen Ones: The Future of UK Funky

Another showcase mix from the same show the Champion one was ripped from, I can't not post this as well, it is way too banging. HardHouse Banton was one of the first producers that grabbed my attention a while back and made me realise that the underground house scene in London wasn't just on some pseudo l'american garage bullshit, which is what i'd always assumed up until that point. It was weird to see him showcased on a show a few weeks ago called 'The Future of UK Funky' - wasn't he that two years ago as well??

I guess he has been a bit quieter since then than you would have expected... but maybe now is his time, based on the new productions showcased here he can back up any hype that people want to send his way and then some.

Featuring MC Spidey G on the m-i-c this set is another banger. Summer vibes starting to infiltrate the BC musical program!!!

Tracklisting:

HardHouse Banton – Sirens
The Kills – Cheap and Cheerful (HardHouse Banton Remix)
Hardhouse Banton – Colonel
M I Raw – Blackberry Hype (HardHouse Banton Instrumental)
HardHouse Banton – Reign (Roska’s ‘ard Food Mix)
HardHouse Banton FEAT Tiger S – I See Ya
HardHouse Banton – The Comedown
Riddim Box – NB Funky (HardHouse Banton Remix)
HardHouse Banton – Cheese on Bread
HardHouse Banton – PG Tips
HardHouse Banton feat A.L Bennett – In You
Sidney Samson – Riverside (HardHouse Banton Bootleg Mix)

champion's sound - live on kiss.

2010-04-26T03:44:00.000-07:00

DJ Champion - Kiss Chosen Ones: The Future of UK Funky

As promised last night, here is the radio rip of DJ Champion's showcase set on Kiss FM's Chosen Ones: Future of UK Funky show from a few weeks ago. It is a 30 minute mix of Champion's own productions and provides ample evidence of a major new talent in the shape of this 19 year old from Hackney.

Like the Funkystepz tune I posted yesterday you can also hear the influence of dubstep, bassline and grime in there - although he sidesteps the obvious reference points and instead arrives at his own individual CHAMPION sound, neatly balancing the poppy, vocal songs with the harder stuff - something all the best funky DJs do well.

He has a heavy, stripped down production style that is reminiscent of more established names such as Roska, Cooly G or DVA - which means he should probably watch out or he might get hyperdubbed sometime soon. At the moment though this sound is a very fresh one for the summer - his debut release "8 Round Knockout" will be dropping next month.

Also featured on this show was a seriously good set from Hard House Banton which I will probably post up later on or tomorrow, so if you like this stay tuned for that.

Tracklisting:

Champion – Tribal Affair

Addictive – Bad Girl (Champion Remix)
Champion – Expensive
Champion – Lighter
Champion – Tribal Affair vs Hyperjack
Addictive – Heartache
Champion – Untitled
Champion – Untitled
Jaya – DJ Do It Again (Champion Remix)
Champion – Motherboard
Champion – Untitled
Craig David – Shadows of Love (Champion Remix)
Champion – Untitled
Champion – Untitled
Undisputed – Sunglasses (Champion Remix)
Slick Don – Not My Type (Instrumental)
Champion – Low Pass
Champion – Untitled
Champion – Tribal Affair (VIP)

the descent into twitter-related repost hell.

2010-04-25T15:08:00.000-07:00

Rihanna - Rude Boy (Funkystepz Remix)

Funkystepz just threw this up on their Twitter about half and hour ago and I thought I should link it on here too, even though this really isn't the kind of blog that rushes to repost exclusives. (...and if I wanted to be on Hypemachine I wouldn't really be posting uk funky anyway, i would be wetting myself about some bull$hit electro-dubstep remix instead - well fuck that)

Alongside Champion, Funkystepz are my new favourite producers on the 'uk' (soon to be global) funky scene and this remix is them bringing the bassline influence to the table, channelling it into a sound that is totally original and fully awesome. It has kind of got a junglist vibe to it too, even though it doesn't really sound like jungle; it is hard to explain but in the midst of all that bass and percussion it just has a certain vibe that I recognise and like very very much.

Since dubstep's creativity has been flatlining in the last twelve months or so funky has done the exact opposite and seems to keep getting more and more adventurous and unpredictable; i've got a mix by the aforementioned DJ Champion that I am going to post up tomorrow as well and that is just going to underline what I am saying here - between them they are looking like they will be owning this scene in six months' time.

You can hear Funkystepz spinning Friday lunchtimes on Rinse FM, where they sometimes do two-hour sets completely made up of their own productions. They are still only in their late teens/early twenties and have probably been making beats since they were in the infants or something ridiculous like that. They have silly amounts of good tunes and this is just one.

Shout also though, to the original, my favourite Rihanna song ever. The video is really cool but then that's to be expected ainnit:

ragga jungle rewinds #8.

2010-03-24T13:59:00.001-07:00

An early track here from the fearsomely creative mind of one Alec Empire, founder of Digital Hardcore Recordings and frontman of one of the leading riot grrl bands of all time, Atari Teenage Riot.

There is little in music's history alongside which we can adequately compare or contextualise Mr Empire, who for many years now has been engaged in a very personal form of sonic warfare with both the world and himself. He is perhaps the most authentically emo musician to have ever found inclusion in a Ragga Jungle Rewinds post, yet his thrilling experiments with the amen break since the early days of hardcore rave nevertheless make his inclusion mandatory.

'Bass Terror' predates the cross-genre experimentation on which his formidable reputation is built, and is instead a proto breakcore, hardcore-jungle-techno battering ram from early 1993. It is a bit older than the tunes I have posted up in the previous 7 installments of the RJR series, and dare I say it, a bit less of an obvious choice than some of the others too...

It isn't one I especially remember from my younger days, although the EP from which it is taken is nonetheless a well regarded classic that was reportedly hammered by the one and only DJ Easygroove, whose 'Retrodread' and 'Cybertechnohappydread' tape packs my teenage self played to their death, and I mean death. Damn I wish I still had those tape packs.

'Bass Terror' unmistakably bears the stamp of intense sonic-headfuckery that Digital Hardcore Recordings would go on to exemplify, with breakbeats amplified to levels that still would have been considered boundary-pushing if this tune had come out ten years after it did.

Alec Empire - 'Bass Terror'

Atari Teenage Riot have just reformed and will be playing a show in London next month.

re-up time.

2010-03-23T11:38:00.000-07:00

The music-downloading archive of this blog has unfortunately become neglected in recent times and right now the history of BONE CONDUCTION is pretty much just a graveyard for dead Z-Share links.

At one time these pages housed many different kinds of awesome music. I know a lot of people come to BC off the back of google searches looking for music that isn't here anymore, and that sucks. It has happened to me on searches through blogs and it sucks.

RE-UP time; every dead link gets resurrected one by one and given a new home in the more user-friendly environs of Mediafire, where I hope they shall remain forever, until they become cyberspace's version of fossilised relics - cave paintings of forgotten musics drawn in binary code. So fuck Z-Share and their deletion-crazed ways, I only liked Z-Share cause you could stream anyway but fuck it, if you want to hear the music then I'm afraid you gots to break out your hard drive.

Gonna start with the first song I ever posted last year and work my way back. Here it is again:

Boogie Down Productions - 'Sex & Violence'

jam city ten-minute mixtape.

2010-03-22T12:46:00.000-07:00

fucking hell.

Faux Mixtape #002 // Jam City by Faux Magazine

oneohtrix point thursday night.

2010-03-20T09:13:00.000-07:00

Caught a dope show by Daniel Lopatin aka Oneohtrix Point Never at The Grosvenor in Stockwell this week - his album "Rifts" was a highlight of last year that I neglected to mention my love for in the last post I wrote dedicated to such matters.

Melodically it can sound a bit like Boards of Canada, another group whose music has been a big deal for me in the past. That is not the whole story though, as Oneoh rejects the sequenced precision and techno boffinry of their arrangements for a liver, more freeform sound, characteristics that betray his roots in the USA's contemporary noise/power-electronics underground. It made for a transformative Thursday night experience in the dank back room of a south-west London pub and I left dazed and happy.

As is often the case with shows promoted by Upset The Rhythm it was utterly impossible to see what what going on onstage unless you were one of the people stood right at the front - luckily one of those people took a photo and then posted it on Twitter, so I now know all those enveloping drones, rumbling ambience and field recordings of seagulls were in-part facilitated by a Roland Juno-60. I want one.

He is apparently playing another London show later in the year and when he does I will make sure I stand closer to properly observe this totally unique megadude at work.

Anyway, check out the song "Betrayed in the Octagon" and go grab the album it is taken from: "Rifts".

Oneohtrix Point Never - 'Betrayed in the Octagon'

by the way, yes, i am back.

six from nine.

2009-12-31T02:46:00.001-08:00

Falty DL – 'Made Me Feel So Right'

Stand back y'all, it's list time. Not exhaustive by any means, this is simply some stuff that I liked this year, in no particular order, starting with...

(1) ...the music of FaltyDL, a versatile and prolific NYC-based producer who cut his teeth making jungle and breakcore before finding creative salvation in the slower & sexier drum patterns of 2-step, releasing on UK labels Planet Mu and Ramp.

Frequently compared to critic’s crush Burial, this song actually sees him out-burial Burial with an impossibly beautiful sounding slice of post-rave sonic hauntology that strikes a perfect balance between experimental rhythmic dirge and dark, yearning melody.

Burial – 'Fostercare'

(2) Burial is still fire though. This one was his only new tune this year and was released as part of Hyperdub’s outstanding five-year retrospective compilation, '5' - it was every bit the stark statement you would expect from the celebrated producer / celebrity recluse.

Higamos Hogamos – 'Major Blitzkrieg'

(3) Out on DC Recordings, an imprint that have been releasing awesomely esoteric, left-of-centre electronic beat music for tiiime, this one is basically just on some filthy mutant-disco krautrock stompage that clearly should have gotten more recognition. What rock n’ roll sounds like in the 21^st century.

(Doing their bit to keep vinyl alive, when you bought the 12” version of this release DC Recordings included a coupon on the inside for you to grab a free 320kbps download of the songs from their website. A pretty good idea i think, but here it is for free anyway...)

Health - 'Severin'

(4) Melding the vocal stylings of a pre-pubescent choirboy with his older brother’s adolescent electric guitar tantrum, Health have a sound that is all their own.

This year they released their second album ‘Get Color’ - a record brimming with noisy confidence. This tune is probably my favourite from that set, and a damn good example of the stop-start dynamics and flourishes of ethereal melody that made this distinctive album an ’09 highlight. Steer well clear of the lead single ‘Die Slow’ though, it unwittingly sounds like Placebo gone Madchester and is fucking horrifying.

Wolf Eyes – 'Pretending Alive '

(5) Wolf Eyes got ignored this year. After single-handedly bringing noise music’s most unforgiving excesses to an unfeasibly large audience earlier in the decade with their two albums for Sub Pop, 2009 saw them dropping back beneath the radar with ‘Always Wrong’ for Dominic Fernow’s Hospital Records. I reckon it is the best thing they have done so far.

Black Eyed Peas - ‘I Gotta Feeling’

(6) This still sounds amazing. It feels like Black Eyed Peas are becoming a Fleetwood Mac for our generation with Fergie as Stevie Nicks. 'Boom Boom Pow' was a big tune but this is the one. They played to a half-empty field in Glastonbury.

There is loads more stuff that I enjoyed this year, some of which I have already mentioned in the archives of this blog. I might add a few more tracks to this post when I have time, but right now I have to get up and get organised 'cause it is NYE and later on I plan to have the kind of night described in this song.

the christmas post.

2009-12-21T07:54:00.000-08:00

I am toying with the idea of doing an end of year retrospective of some songs and stuff that I liked this year and I probably will do at some point pretty soon but first is the Christmas song - far more appropriate than Rage Against The Machine and every bit as funky. Merry Christmas!

The Waitresses - 'Christmas Wrapping'

essential mix 8th february 1998 - the freestylers.

2009-12-04T08:58:00.000-08:00

So here I welcome you to part two of my Essential Mix series. Months back when I posted the Daft Punk mix the intention was to post up these vintage mixes reasonably frequently, but somehow it has taken until now to get this thing going again.

That Daft Punk mix was probably the most google-friendly thing I have ever put on this blog, and far and away the most popular download. I don't know whether this will attract the same amount of anonymous traffic to my otherwise secret enterprise of music and words - but it deserves to cause it is fantastic.

The Freestylers had only released a handful of 12"s when they recorded this for the BBC, although both members - Aston Harvey and Matt Cantor - had been around on the scene for years. A sizable chunk of the tunes in this mix were made by them under a variety of pre-Freestylers aliases dating all the way back to the acid house days - the inclusion here of names such as Blapps Posse!, Bowser, Cut & Paste and Damage Control ensuring the two men scored a fat and well deserved royalties cheque after this went out. They had paid their dues for sure - Aston in particular engineered a pile of old acid house and hardcore records and also used to be in the group 'DJ Rap and Aston' with one of the stars of my ragga jungle post last week.

As well as taking it the fuck back to the old school, the latter half of this session also documents their involvement with the nascent breaks scene that subsequently swallowed them up. I never really got into 'breaks' as a genre, it always seemed to me to be little more than underground dance music for Fatboy Slim fans on E - musicians and listeners alike operating with a way too limited outlook. Don't get me wrong, there are perhaps one or two worthwhile acts involved in the genre - but they are undoubtedly sailing in a sea of shit.

It is lucky then that this mix, like all the best Essential Mixes, is massively eclectic, traversing a spectrum of music that references everything from 80s hip hop to electro, ragga, house, ska and disco - all laid down with passionate abandon. Teeming with their own tunes and a variety of classics encompassing two decades of music, the mixing is faultless all the way through and the entire thing is plastered with delirious scratching.

There are too many high points to list, but I will say I am pretty sure this mix is the first place I ever heard the peerless classic 'Who Am I?' by Beenie Man, a song that ignited my love for modern-day dancehall. It also features Eric B & Rakim's 'Juice (Know The Ledge)', one of hip hop's crowning glories and producer Hank Shocklee's greatest non-Public Enemy moment.

Their debut album 'We Rock Hard' was released a few months after this show aired and although it was an entertaining enough blend of ragga, rave and electro, it sounded tame and sterile next to this two-hour master class. Their post-nineties output is poor by comparison; their Fabriclive mix CD from 2005 focused solely on the by-then very yawnsome breaks scene and completely lacks the rawness and anything-goes excitement they conjure up here.

That was the strength of this radio show at its best - DJs could literally spin anything they wanted for two hours - a far-cry from the creative shackles licensing restrictions can place on so-called 'official' mix CDs. Freestylers play to this strength magnificently and throw down a block shakin' classic - enjoy.

The Freestylers - BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix, 8th February 1998 - part one

The Freestylers - BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix, 8th February 1998 - part two

Part One:

Bleaden - "Hitchhikers Guide" (Original)
Beenie Man - "Who Am I" (Greensleeves)
Danny Reo - "Room Wize" (Columbia)
Ninja Man/Flourgen - "Zip It Up" (Sure Delight)
Freestylers - "B-Boy Stance" (Freskanova)
Budbrothers - "Do You Wanna" (white Label)
Funkzm - "Boogie Butt Sounds" (Reel Vybe)
Eric B And Rakim - "Juice" (Soul/MCA)
Bowser - "I Need More Time" (Freskanova)
Whodini - "Magic's Wand" (white Label)
Cut And Paste - "Let's Go Disco" (white Label)
Artist Unknown - "Funky 4 U" (white Label)
Artist Unknown - "Petal" (Indolent)
Bowser - "Operation Hardheat" (Freskanova)
Damage Control - "Da Pumped Up Phunk" (Afro Wax)
Double G - Untitled (white Label)
Pick 'N' Mixed - "Twisted Ska" (white Label)
Artist Unknown - "El Magnfioo" (white Label)

Part Two:

Artist Unknown - "El Magnfioo" (white Label)
Soul Hooligan - "Sweet Pea" (Freskanova)
Wil Shaker - "Made Up Of This And That" (Sophisticuts)
Star And Garter - "Blimey" (Easy DB)
Freestylers - "Drop Tha Boom" (Scratch City)
Freestylers - "Don't Stop The Rock" (Music Specialists)
Freestylers - "Don't Stop" (Scratch City)
Information Society - "Running" (Tommy Boy)
Bowser - "Let Ya Body Funk" (Freskanova)
DJ Funk Roc - "My Beat Box" (white Label)
Isunamioe - "Number 43 With" (Fuel)
Freestylers - "Spaced Invader" (Freskanova)
Freestylers - "Check Da Ski" (Freskanova)
The Fall - "Masquerade" (white Label)
DJ Poout - "Let The Bass Mix" (white Label)
Dance Conspiracy - "Dub War" (Matamorhasis)
Genuwn - "Holler" (white Label)
John Williams - "Throne Room From Star Wars" (20th Century)
Public Enemy - "Bring The Noise" (Def Jam)
Chemical Brothers - "Leave Home" (Virgin)
Blapps - "Don't Hold Back" (Tribal Bass)
Godeoo - "Birth Of The Odessy" (BBC)

ragga jungle rewinds #7.

2009-12-02T16:54:00.000-08:00

Shy FX & Gunsmoke - 'Gangsta II'

Scroll down to watch a totally sick BBC2 jungle documentary I just found on YouTube, uploaded a few weeks ago. It was first aired on the telly in 1994 and is an engrossing snapshot of London's underground scene in its heyday.

It captures the ripples of suspicion and excitement felt within the scene during the fallout from M-Beat & General Levy's chart success with 'Incredible' - depicting a tight-knit community fiercely protecting the ruffneck sound they had created in the face of cold hard cash offered by strangers eager for a piece of their action.

The documentary itself is symptomatic of some of the pressures jungle music was under at the time - a year earlier a film like this would've been unthinkable.

Amazing footage of Shy FX live and in his bedroom studio - and featuring eloquent cameos from the likes of Fabio, Bukem, DJ Rap and DJ Trace - you just have to say thank you to the person who uploaded this to YouTube, presumably after keeping the video for 15 years without taping over it. Respect.

"weegie baby" rustie vs. keyshia "hotter than cheryl" cole.

2009-12-01T13:51:00.000-08:00

This might be my favourite thing I have heard from Rustie - a refix of the UNBELIEVABLY DELECTABLE Keyshia Cole that is a prime example of just how brutally, futuristically BIG he gets on the buttons.

His sound retrieves the roid-rage synths that US crunk producers borrowed from euro rave music in the '00s and sends them hurtling back to the UK dances where they were first conceived. He also kidnaps one of North America's hottest R&B starlets in the process and takes her along as collateral.

Rustie is still only about 20 or something and is going to be someone to keep your eyes on.

Keyshia Cole - 'I Shoulda Let You Go' (Rustie Resmack)

special secret song inside

2009-11-23T15:31:00.000-08:00

ragga jungle rewinds #6.

2009-11-22T10:32:00.001-08:00

First up, a MASSIVE shout out to RATPACK for just being THE COOLEST. ^^^^^^

Now today's slice of ragga-jungle is not Ratpack's most famous tune 'Searching For My Rizla', which would have been the most obvious nostalgia-fostering move by me.

'Searching For My Rizla' was one of the first rave songs that I was ever aware of - other kids used to sing the lyrics at me in the playground while I was trying to listen to Alice In Chains on my £7.50 walkman:

"...so I went into the corner with my rizla and my ganja,

build another spliff until I'm totally out of my head!!!"

"Fuck off you gay! You don't have any ganja! That song is gay."

I didn't even know 'Tom's Diner', the Suzanne Vega song on which the ridiculously infectious and child-friendly rhyme scheme of 'Searching For My Rizla" was based - but I suppose on some level I must've found the whole thing pretty intriguing, because as time has wore on it is now Ratpack and not Alice In Chains that I feel deserve coverage on my blog.

(note to self: must do post on Alice In Chains)

Anyway, I fall into the nostalgia trap too often when I chuck stuff on this blog, so instead I am posting this slightly less obvious, lovers-rock sampling gem. It is still a total hands-in-the-air anthem that will no doubt provoke feelings of extreme nostalgia amongst those who know it. Plus 'Searching' isn't even Ragga Jungle.

Anyway:

Ratpack - 'Tra La La Boom' (Jungle Edit)

I ♥ Ratpack

just a little prudence.

2009-11-10T13:58:00.000-08:00

There is not a huge amount of clear information about the musical act known as Patience and Prudence to be found online. For example Discogs states: Patience & Prudence (Members: Prudence) - quite clearly Patience is a member of the group as well.

This seldom-heard ditty was the first of four songs that they recorded and released. It came out in 1956, when Patience was aged 14 and her little sister Prudence was only 11. The world was supposedly a much more innocent place back then and this song is a perfect piece of nostalgia/propaganda for people (like John Waters) who like to believe that. I prefer to get my information about this era from the TV show Mad Men, but this song is still the bomb.

"I am John Waters and I'm looking for a date - with you. Come on over, let's listen to some tunes. Wow - you look great, come on in! Would you like a drink? Have a seat on my sofa and let me play for you the first record I ever got - "Tonight You Belong To Me" by Patience and Prudence. So pure, so good."

Patience & Prudence - 'Tonight You Belong To Me"

bc mix series 3: gulag suitcase.

2009-11-03T07:49:00.000-08:00

With virtually no concessions to home listening whatsoever, this is just str8 up booty-shaking dancefloor party action start to finish.

Of late - as the winter nights have started to draw in - BC has gotten, musically speaking, a little dark and experimental (boring?), so this mix should be seen as a welcome return to everything that is fun, eclectic and disposable.

it is by me and it is awwsumm ;p

Bonesy - 'Gulag Suitcase Mixtape'

Tracklisting:

Spank Rock - 'Put That Pussy On Me' (Diplo Tonite Mix) Money Studies Records

Chromeo - ‘Bonafied Lovin’ (DJ Eli Remix featuring Pase Rock) No Label

DJ Class - ‘I’m The Ish ‘ Unruly Records

Bart Bmore - ‘Bingo Players Get Up’ (Diplo Remix) Secure Recordings

Starkey - ‘Frontin’ No Label

AC Slater - ‘Jack Got Jacked’ (Jack Beats Remix) Palms Out Sounds

Rye Rye - ‘Bang’ (featuring M.I.A.) Mad Decent

Amadou & Mariam - ‘Sabali’ (Uproot Andy Remix) No Label

Emvee - ‘Glitch Dub’ Wireblock

L-Vis 1990 - ‘Stay Together’ Coin-Operated

South Rakkas Crew - ‘Mad Again’ (Boy 8-Bit Remix) Mad Decent

Idiotproof - ‘The Deacon’ (Duke Dumont ‘live from Brooklyn ‘Remix) Made To Play

Blackfinger - ‘UMF’ (Supra1 Remix) Trouble & Bass

Mathhead - ‘Turn The Music Up’ (AC Slater Remix) Trouble & Bass

DJ Technic - ‘Gabryelle’ (D-Malice Refix) No Label

Bart B More - ‘Make Some Noise’ Secure Recordings

Blaqstarr - ‘Hands Up Thumbs Down’ (High Powered Boys Remix) No Label

halloween special: doom.

2009-10-30T00:00:00.000-07:00

I am by no means an expert on doom metal, but I definitely know a few records that might help us to celebrate Halloween this year.

Thorr's Hammer - 'Norge'

Probably one of the heaviest, darkest, and most spiritually threatening songs that you could ever hope to listen to is 'Norge' by Thorr's Hammer. In Norse mythology, Thor's Hammer is frequently depicted as 'one of the most fearsome weapons, capable of leveling mountains' - a fitting description of this band's music.

Fronted by one of the most fascinating rock chicks ever, Runhild Gammelsæter, Thorr's Hammer were reportedly only together for six weeks in 1995 while 17-year-old exchange student Runhild was in Seattle. During this time they recorded a demo and a cassette-only EP entitled ‘Dommedagsnatt’, from which this song is taken, before disbanding.

It is difficult to know where to start when describing Runhild. When you listen to ‘Norge’, just try to comprehend that the devastating, guttural holler you are listening to is in fact the voice of a 17-year-old girl. She is soooo badass.

The fact she is über-hot too is revelatory – the beast you are hearing is 100% a beast within.

And the sheer unlikeliness doesn't end there; after recording the ‘Dommedagsnatt’ EP Runhild quit music and returned to her studies in Oslo - she is a Fulbright scholar - and is now President of Norwegian biotechnology company Regenics AS. It is probably safe to say she has never burned down any churches.

Sunn O)) - 'Hunting & Gathering (Cydonia)'

Thorr's Hammer also comprised Greg Anderson and Stephen O'Malley, who went on to play in a plethora of different projects on the experimental fringes of metal, including Burning Witch (essentially Thorr's Hammer minus Runhild), Khanate, and the avant-garde doom-drone act Sunn O)).

Earlier this year Sunn O)) released their latest album 'Monoliths & Dimensions', a record that is likely to figure heavily in best-of-the-year (best-of-the-decade?) lists that will start appearing next month. It is certainly one of my favourite things I have heard in the o-nine, tracks such as 'Hunting & Gathering (Cydonia)' introducing new layers of instrumentation to the doom-drone template of thick, detuned guitar sludge and crawling tempos.

Earth - 'German Dental Work'

Named after their amplifiers, Sunn O)) were initially conceived as a tribute to the proto-doom-drone act, Earth, whose frontman Dylan Carlson first conceptualised a new set of parameters for what metal could be on the beatless, crushingly heavy ambience of their debut album, 1993's "Earth 2: Special Low Frequency Version". I would recommend that album to anyone with the slightest modicum of interest in anything I have posted today; Earth wrote the book on this stuff and are justly celebrated for it.

Dylan Carlson's influence in music does not stop there either, as he also has the dubious honour of being the man who unwittingly bought Kurt Cobain the gun that he shot himself with - they were apparently big time bum chums. Earth's music is used to score Nick Broomfield's entertaining hatchet job on Courtney Love entitled 'Kurt & Courtney' and the film also features several interviews with Carlson discussing Kurt's final weeks. You get the impression him and Courtney don't get on.

'German Dental Work' is one of their shorter pieces (Earth songs often run to around half an hour) and is taken from 'Sunn Amps and Smashed Guitars', a collection of early works and demo versions. Like all the music I have posted today, it is thoroughly evil.

Sunn O)) & Boris - 'Her Lips Were Wet With Venom'

To round things off, "Her Lips Were Wet With Venom" is a collaboration between Sunn O)) and Japanese avant-metallers Boris, also featuring Earth's Dylan Carlson on guitar. It is 28.14 long and whilst it will certainly pulverise your skull if turned up loud enough, there is a cathartic, womblike place at the centre of all the doom-laden heaviosity that is a joyous thing to behold. Happy Halloween indeed.

"Thank you!"

china.

2009-10-29T07:13:00.000-07:00

He means China.

Plastician - 'Japan'

bok bok vintage grime set.

2009-10-29T07:09:00.000-07:00

Let's Mix VOLUME 1 from bok bok at Letsmix.com.

Bok Bok's instrumental grime sets are legendary - this one is brand new, 100% vinyl and was recorded for Pacemaker.net.

Grime fans it's time to hit PLAY

ragga jungle rewinds #5.

2009-10-22T03:00:00.000-07:00

"Between 1993-1996, thousands upon thousands of jungle tunes were built around 'Amen'. And some of the absolute best were made by a young man who went by the name of Remarc. When it comes to the 'Amen' break, Remarc is the King of the Beat. If the 'Amen' is the genetic drumcode of the junglist generation, Remarc is one of the supreme genetic engineers, dicing and re-splicing that primal riddimatic DNA, and creating mutant monsters that stampeded the dancefloors of mid-90s Britain"

Remarc is my favourite jungle producer, period. Simon Reynolds pretty much nails it in the quote above, leaves me with little to add.

'Menace' is a huuuge tune that doesn't get a mention as often as it could do. When people discuss Remarc's remarkable contribution to the ragga-jungle canon, it is always 'RIP' or 'Soundmurderer' that get cited, not this one. 'Menace' might lack some of the subtleties (yes, I said subtleties) of those other tunes, but it is still a tearout classic.

Remarc - 'Menace'

In this cool video interview from a few years back Remarc explains why he decided to drop off the scene around '96, when the music he loved became 'all bouncy'. A few quotes from this random YouTube clip got sampled by Burial for his track 'Near Dark' - gotta love Burial.

postscript: i can't hear the music.

2009-10-22T02:17:00.000-07:00

Pete Tong, smug cunt that he is, talks all over this track during his rubbish introduction to Daft Punk's amazing Essential Mix that I posted last week.

Here is the uninterrupted original, too good to let Tong ruin.

Paul Johnson - 'Hear The Music'

essential mix 2nd march 1997 - daft punk live at bunker.

2009-10-15T05:18:00.001-07:00

My pal Dominic recently brought to my attention this amazing site, which has made available for free download - for the first time ever as far as I am aware - every single BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix ever broadcast, dating right back to the first show ever, a studio session by Pete Tong in 1993.

For a few years in my mid-to-late teens the C90 cassettes that I recorded of this weekly two-hour show (always missed out on that last half hour – C120s were too prone to snap or get munched by the tape deck) became cherished objects that would rank over and above many of the ‘official’ releases I owned by the same artists.

This was also facilitated by the monthly edition of Mixmag, which would include the tracklistings for the previous four week's mixes in their magazine, shaped so you could cut out the page and make a little cover to insert in the cassette box – pure DIY fanboy antics, it was a process I repeated many times.

One of the most legendary sets of that era (an era when dance music ruled the airwaves and club culture was both restlessly eclectic and inescapably mainstream) was this one, a session of raw ghetto house and jackin’ techno by Daft Punk. It is basically a two-hour tour through the music that inspired the duo, featuring many of the producers namechecked on their roll call track 'Teachers'. It was crowned the best Essential Mix of 1997 and repeated that Christmas.

I adored this band back when this was broadcast and it still sounds utterly vital and totally relevant today, nearly 13 years after it was first aired. A good deal of the music they play through the course of the set is considerably older than that even, but it still possesses this edgy, street-smart energy that couldn't be more contemporary.

Too many highlights; listen out for the unbelievably tight Billie Jean beat-jack on Parris Mitchell's 'Ghetto Shout Out' - one of several Dancemania cuts included here; or the two Studio 54 re-edits: Oliver Cheatham 'Get Down Saturday Night' and Whispers 'And The Beat Goes On' - renamed 'Git Down Saturday' and 'And Da Beat Goes On' respectively - these tracks are long out-of-print.

House music is notoriously open-ended and prone to interpretation, but at its root, this is what it was, and is; deep soul, cheap glamour and 110% funky.

The only annoying thing is Pete Tong's sporadic interjections, talking all over the beat - but that is unfortunately part of the deal with the Essential Mix.

Daft Punk Live @ Bunker - BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix, 2nd March 1997

Tracklisting:

Daft Punk - "Wdpk Essential Intro" (Daft Trax)

Paul Johnson - "Hear The Music" (Peacefrog)

Armand Van Helden - "Funk Phenomena [JOHNNICkennydopeMastermix]" (Henry Street)

CZR - "Chicago Southside" (IHR)

Studio 54 - "Git Down Saturday" (Dance 6)

Red-X Presents When Worlds Collide - "Dee's Knots" (Remix Delux)

Parris Mitchell - "Ghetto Shout Out" (Dance Mania)

Daft Punk - "Teachers" (Daft Trax/Virgin)

Martin Luther King - "I Have A Dream" (20th Century)

Rick Wilhite - "Drum Patterns & Memories [M.M. Mix]" (K.D.J)

Jammin Gerald - "Get The Ho'94" (Dance Mania)

DJ Attack - "Da Way U Work" (U.C)

Thomas Bangalter - "Spinal Beats" (Roulé)

Tha West Siders - "Waxscratch Trax" (Dance Mania)

Thomas Bangalter - "Spinal Scratch" (Roulé)

Fantom - "Faithful [Prassay Mix]" (Source)

Fantom - "Faithful [Original]" (Source)

Fantom - "Faithful [Da Cracy Mix]" (Source)

I:Cube - "Disco Cubizm [Daft Punk Mix]" (Versatile)

Daft Punk - "Rock 'n' Roll" (Daft Trax/Virgin)

DJ Hyperactive - "Chicago" (Contact)

Daft Punk - "Oh Yeah" (Daft Trax/Virgin)

Cajmere - "Only 4 U" (Cajual)

Trankilou - "Champagne" (Kif S.A)

Studio 54 - "And da Beat Goes On" (Dance 6)

DJ Funk & Gerald - "Hold Up" (Universal Funk)

Ween - "Freedom Of '76" (Flying Nun)

Cassius - "Foxy Lady" (Cassius)

Gusto - "Disco's Revenge" (Bumble Beats)

DJ Deeon - "2 B Free" (Dance Mania)

Sweet - "Somebody's Watching" (white label)

Da Mongoloids - "Spark Da Meth" (Strictly Rhythm)

Ron Maney & L.A. Williams - "Shining" (Kumba)

Roy Davis Jr - "Gabrielle" (Large)

Robert J. Hairston - "Preacher Man" (white label)

Daft Punk - "Around The World [Motorbass Mix]" (Daft Trax/Virgin)

Kenny Dixon Jr - "U Can Dance If You Want 2" (K.D.J)

back in the room.

2009-10-11T06:51:00.000-07:00

My internet connection is back up finally thank god

And I have loads of stuff to post here in the very near future - including Episode 3 of the BC Mix Series - my 80 minute party mix of baltimore club, heavy bass music and rudeboy UK house riddims entitled GULAG SUITCASE

Watch this space also for a retrospective of the Radio 1 Essential Mix - I will be posting some of my favourite sessions that got broadcast back in the day.

Until then, this badman tune right here:

P-Money - "Left The Room" (Prod. Sukh Knight)

Music as an act of violence...

chaos rains.

2009-10-07T10:40:00.000-07:00

Fuck Buttons - 'Surf Solar'

Endlessly psychedelic, the Fuck Buttons sound is a kaleidoscope in flux - overdriven organs, Fisher Price tape recorders and musically-inclined Nintendo Gameboys all pile up on top of each other in a violent haze of distortion whilst colossal, cinematic melodies are wrestled forth from serially abused midi controllers and small, brightly coloured toy instruments.

The whole thing reeks of colour in fact – chaotic & powerful, yet still defiantly pretty.

The chaos vs. beauty struggle being fought at the heart of the FB sound is really evocative of nature too, albeit something closer to the LSD-fried Cambodian rainforest of Apocalypse Now! than anything that my man David Attenborough would recognise.

This is noise music, but it is noise music that you can dance to – 'Surf Solar', the first track on their new record ‘Tarot Sport’, employs a stark lone kickdrum underneath gigantic ambient rave textures in a manner that is way reminiscent of early Moby.

‘Surf Solar’ has just been released as a 7” single in a severely hacked down edit; posted here is the full 10:35 version as it appears on the album. Posting one (admittedly long) track doesn’t really do justice to the awesomeness of their new album though, which kind of needs to be heard in its hour-long entirety to get the full effect of how unbelievably good each individual song on it is – it does illustrate how the whole ‘Tarot Sport’ journey begins though - just be aware there is a whole lot more that comes after it that is every bit as good/better.

The video below is a predictably epic performance of 'Sweet Love For Planet Earth', the opening track from their first album, last year's 'Street Horrrsing', reminding me that I still haven't seen this band live; I suck.

introspection section.

2009-10-07T01:50:00.000-07:00

My internet connection has been down the last few weeks, which has left me feeling a bit peeved. Other things have come to a head recently too, the whole 'never rains but it pours' scenario.

Pissed Jeans - "False Jesii Part 2"

"i guess it was a phase"

2009-09-22T05:58:00.000-07:00

DIZZEE RASCAL & DJ SLIMZEE LIVE ON RINSE FM - 60 Minute Set from 2002

Just a short post to mark the release of Dizzee Rascal's latest record, which comes out this week, and highlight the fact that there is unlikely to be any music on it as good as this, a pirate radio broadcast from when he was 17.

I haven't actually listened to 'Tongue N' Cheek', but then I didn't listen to his last album either. There are only so many hours in the day.

He did play 'Stop Dat' on the main stage at Glastonbury this year though, so it isn't all bad news. Fuck Calvin Harris!

For the full before and after experience:

ragga jungle rewinds #4.

2009-09-01T05:05:00.000-07:00

Nothing remotely 'ragga' about this track, Sub Nation's 'Scottie' is instead quintessential darkcore jungle, evoking a very different kind of dread.

Released in 1993, this tune samples the first Evil Dead flick - in the process borrowing that movie's kinetic humour and relentless physicality. Jungle is reanimation science applied to breakbeats...

Sub Nation - "Scottie"

bc mix series 3: redbulls & coffee.

2009-08-27T01:29:00.000-07:00

For the 2nd installment of the Bone Conduction Mix Series we are welcoming special guest selector Dai (Version) over from 'I Fucking Hate RnB' to bless us with an hour-and-a-half long dub mix.

'Redbulls & Coffee' traces the dub virus from its beginnings in Kingston, Jamaica and takes in mutations as far afield as Japan, France and the USA; homegrown UK dubheads figure heavily too. To further explain how this mix came about, a word from the Insomniac Redbull Demon Postman that put the whole thing together:

Greetings... Here's my first mix recorded on the fly after a night at work. I was gonna go to bed nice and early, arise in the afternoon and then record a dub mix. Not the case, after 8 hours on Twitter 'IranElection' i'd given up all hope of going to bed long ago and drunk 3 cans of redbull. Damn, if I go to bed now i'll never get round to recording... Time was around 4pm (24 hours awake at this point), but thankfully a saturday, so here it is...

Following in the footsteps of other famous insomniacs such as Sylvia Plath and Maxi Jazz, Dai (Version) has turned an inability to sleep to his advantage - by tapping into a deep well of creativity, the results of which can be heard below.

Dai (Version) - 'Redbulls & Coffee'

tracklisting...

1. SCIENTIST "Dangerous Match 1" (Greensleeves)
2. JUNIOR CONY "Keus Keus" (P.I.A.S)
3. MAD PROFESSOR "Freedom Chant" (ARIWA)
4. VICTOR RICE "Drum Thief" (Megalith Records)
5. YABBY YU "Anti-Christ Dub" (Blood & Fire)
6. CHARLIE 'ESKIMO' FOX "Changes" (On-U Sound)
7. MAD PROFESSOR & PATO BANTON "Gwarn (Go On)" (ARIWA)
8. PAMA INTERNATIONAL "Come As You Are" (Rockers Revolt)
9. MASSILLA SOUND SYSTEM "Ma Ville Est Malade" (Eve)
10. URBAN DUB "Colorblind" (Urban Dub)
11. LOVE GROCER "Blossom" (Universal Egg)
12. MICHAEL ROSE "Throw Some Stone (Megadub Mix)" (M Records)
13. RANKING JOE "Don't Try To Use Me PT1 & 2" (M Records)
14. ADRIAN SHERWOOD "Stepping Crowd" (Real World)
15. TINO "Loch Ness Monster Dub" (Tino Corp)
16. RANKING JOE "Nowhere To Hide" (M Records)
17. HENRY & LOUIS "Revalation Time" (2 Kings)
18. IMPROVISATORS DUB meets IRATION STEPPAS "Ghetto Dub (Chopz Raw Cut)" (Hammerbass)
19. DJ KENTARO "Beware (DJ Kentaro Tuff Cuts Mix) (Pressure Sounds)
20. CHARLIE 'ESKIMO' FOX "Sweet Memories" (On-U Sound)

like a version.

2009-08-22T04:37:00.000-07:00

My old butty Rhinoceroslip Bumcrack aka Dai (Version) has just set up an awesome new online dubhub over at http://ifuckinghaternb.blogspot.com where you can find a vast selection of mixes by the man himself - mixes that mine a rich history of reverberation. I will be hosting some of his deeply unhinged journeys by DJ here at Bone Conduction soon too - including an early eighties On-U Sound retrospective that I have been playing nonstop lately - so stay locked.

I fucking like R&B - so I am posting some Latimore, at a low bitrate, and I am dedicating it to the one like the Bumcrack.

Latimore - 'Let's Straighten It Out'

bc mix series 3: krakatoa dubs.

2009-08-08T15:13:00.000-07:00

For the first in a new series of mixes exclusive to this page, you're invited to direct your ears towards KRAKATOA DUBS, a 69 minute selection of dubstep, grime and heavy bass music orchestrated by Hell for Leisure - this mix throbs.

Tracklisting:

'Bassnectar's Superstylin Smashup' (No Label)

AC Slater - 'Calm Down' (Trouble & Bass)

Ikonika - 'Please' (Hyperdub)

Mark Pritchard & Om'mas Keith - 'Wind It Up' (Hyperdub)

Starkey - 'Gutter Music' (feat. Durrty Goodz) (Keysound)

Drop The Lime - 'Hear Me' (Monster 4x4 Dub) (Trouble & Bass)

Zomby - 'Spliff Dub' (Rustie Remix) (Hyperdub)

Pearson Sound - 'Plsn' (Hessle Audio)

Untold - 'I Can't Stop This Feeling' (Hessle Audio)

Zomby - 'Godzilla' (Ramp)

Meat Beat Manifesto - 'Children of Earth' (Planet Mu)

Goth Trad - 'Flags' (Deep Medi Musik)

Jakes - 'Rock The Bells' (Hench)

6blocc - 'Legalize It' (East Coast Mix) (No Label)

Joker - 'Psychedelic Runway' (Kapsize)

Kryptic Minds - 'Six Degrees' (Swamp'81)

Fragile - 'Into The Night' (Creative Space)

SPL - 'Lust' (Hollow Point)

Nasty Jack 'One Spliff a Day' (Gold Seal)

Matty G - 'West Coast Rocks' (Caspa Mix) (Argon)

Silkie & Mizz Beats - 'Test' (Deep Medi Musik)

Hell for Leisure - 'Krakatoa Dubs'

ragga jungle rewinds #3.

2009-08-03T17:27:00.000-07:00

For this episode of 'rewinds I reckon it is time to doff a cap in the direction of one of the longest serving amen choppas in the game, Bizzy B. Recently honoured with a release on Planet Mu that collected some of the best of his early work, B's productions from '92 onwards were a vital bridge between hardcore rave and the faster, darker, and more experimental styles of early jungle, and as such his influence on what came after cannot be underestimated.

The tune below was surprisingly not included on the recent retrospective - it should have been there. The copy I have here is from a Brain Records CDR compilation of unreleased Bizzy B dubplates - and although the fidelity is not exactly pristine, that is exactly what we want - there is something so right in the contrast between the technical intricacies of all those sharp focus drum edits working together and creating this intense, lo-fi wall of sound. The sonic kinship between the modern day breakcore scene and noise music has it's roots here - at a time when first-generation home studio technology was being pushed to its limits and it really didn't matter if the sampled funk breaks and reggae basslines occasionally ran red.

This tune rejects the shouty-badman patois ubiquitous to most ragga-jungle in favour of a rave diva's melancholic call to the floor. It still more than qualifies as prime fodder for an RJR post however, thanks to a half-time reggae bassline that is pure JA woofer wreckage. This track is not available anywhere else online that I know of, and is marvellous.

Bizzy B - 'Don't Hole Back'

goats love to play with it.

2009-07-24T07:21:00.000-07:00

Although this track is nearly two years old now, I don't believe it ever got a proper release, and maybe didn't get heard as widely as it could have - so here it is once again...

In this re-rub of the Peter Tosh classic, the charismatically named 'Dave Q' throws Mr Macintosh's original song through a befittingly ghostly-sounding filter, before lacing the track with some slo-mo 80s digibass and a skunky melodicism that conveys exactly the kind of vibes a tune called 'Legalize It' should do.

Dave Q - "Legalize It" (West Coast Mix)

rotten tropics.

2009-07-09T05:42:00.000-07:00

Sonido del Principe, who runs the Generation Bass blog, is due nuff respect for a forward-looking take on cumbia.

His music is all slow, skanking rhythmic pulse - but with cumbia's melodic and percussive elements looped up and reconfigured alongside pure dystopian bass-weight. dubstep is obviously a reference, but for me the sonics involved are just as reminiscent of darkside jungle producers like Bong-Ra, Jahba or Bizzy B...

The two tracks here are sounding unlike anything else around at the moment and are probably as prime a manifesto as you are likely to hear for the kind of Tropical Rave Music that could yet prove to be the compelling near-future for many a dark & dank dancefloor the world over.

Nuff respect due too to the Bersa Discos label - believe it or not thanks to them it is actually possible to pick up some of Sonido's stuff on the much-missed vinyl format too. Appreciated, I would hate for my 1210s to show up on the Antiques Roadshow any sooner than they need to.

Sonido del Principe - 'Cartagena'

Sonido del Principe - 'Pesebre'

eat brains that is how me survive.

2009-07-03T22:31:00.000-07:00

Some facts about Andy Milonakis.

Andy Milonakis is funny.

Andy Milonakis has bars.

Andy Milonakis is an American, and fat with it.

Andy Milonakis has a congenital growth-hormone condition that gives him the outward appearance and voice of an adolescent boy .

Andy Milonakis is 33.

Andy Milonakis was sexually abused by Larry David .

Andy Milonakis is best friends with Lil' Jon and Snoop Dogg.

Andy Milonakis understands the power of Autotune.

Andy Milonakis is famous in America.

Andy Milonakis - 'Zumbi' (Phonostar Mix)

trouble & bass.

2009-07-03T08:55:00.000-07:00

Two tracks from NYC's peerless Trouble & Bass crew, reminding us that we are all as hungry as ever for bassline(s).

First up Poland's SUPRA1 remix Bassline don Blackfinger in a track that blends modern UK bidniss with a classic US sound - this tune is baaad, it marries the jackin' intensity of early nineties Strictly Rhythm with the low-end pressure of grime - which is all anyone can ever ask for out of music really.

In the other track I am posting, 'Tabac Theme' by Drop The Lime, (who recently removed me as a friend on Facebook after deducing, correctly, that we had never met and were in fact strangers) keeps it more authentically grimey, whilst still finding room for a siiick live drum sound that reminds me of that jazz drumming busker guy from Taxi Driver - someone else who brought the funk to the streets of NYC.

Blackfinger - 'UMC' (Supra 1 Remix)

Drop The Lime - 'Tabac Theme '

the cooly g FACT mix rules.

2009-07-01T11:00:00.000-07:00

Cooly G is one of my favourite DJs in London right now. Her recent FACT MIX rules.

ragga jungle rewinds #2.

2009-07-01T08:45:00.000-07:00

I know virtually nothing about this track other than to say that it is just the ruffest of the ruffneck, it contains an unforgettable mantra, and it was on every mixtape ever back in the day.

Further to that, Soundmurderer reps it on the amen-fest that is Wired For Sound, which makes it almost biblically junglist. The image above bears no relation to the song outside of the intentionally narrow world view of this post. '94 Style, Enjoy.

Hard Ware - "Bad Man"

the post-MJ post.

2009-07-01T06:25:00.001-07:00

I was at the Glastonbury Festival over the weekend, which is why i'm a few days late paying my respects to the KING OF POP. I found out during the revelries on Thursday night that MJ was gone, and no word of a lie as soon as I woke up Friday morning people were walking around at the festival wearing T-shirts that read stuff like 'Jackson 4' and 'I was at Glastonbury '09 when Michael Jackson died'.

It was both tragic and thrilling to see the machine that killed him - a machine that he helped to both create and maintain - feasting on his corpse with such a brutal efficiency. It won't stop anytime soon.

In this mix from last year, DJ Ayres takes a tour through some of the less obvious highlights of a musical career without parallel. Particularly cool is the fact that the mix travels chronologically through his life - from his childhood at Motown right through to just before it all started to unravel BIGTIME.

It seems unlikely right now that music will ever produce someone as famous as him again, and perhaps that is a good thing - but whatever the rights and wrongs 0f his conduct as a human being, the music will always stand as something very special.

RIP.

DJ Ayres - Michael Jackson Mix

Tracklisting:

Maybe Tomorrow

Never Can Say Goodbye

I Wanna Be Where You Are

The Love You Save

Dancing Machine

Everybody's Somebody's Fool

Up Again

We're Almost There

I Can't Help It

Don't Stop Til You Get Enough

Workin Day and Night

Get On The Floor

Lovely One

Baby Be Mine

Say, Say, Say

Human Nature

The Lady In My Life

Dirty Diana

Another Part of Me

Remember the Time

In The Closet

Who Is It

You Rock My World (Remix)

Butterflies

why they rate durrty goodz.

2009-06-23T05:25:00.000-07:00

It feels as though 'Ultrasound' was slept on a bit. Grime is such a contested subject I reckon people should probably be shouting a bit louder when the real thing comes along sounding this good.

Durrty Goodz - 'Who You Talking To?' (Produced by Nocturnal)

dj /rupture cumbia mix for radio one

2009-06-22T02:03:00.000-07:00

DJ /RUPTURE - CUMBIA MIX FOR RADIO 1, 10th Jan 2009

Originally broadcast on Rob Da Bank's Radio 1 show back in the winter, the tropical vibes in this mix make waaaay more sense when the sun is shining like it is today.

The mix is mostly made up of cumbia - slow, psychedelic folk music from Latin America, a clash of traditional instrumentation, electronic rhythms and dubbed-out soundsystem vibes. One of the best things about this sound is it is so hard to pin down.

An edited version of this mix was released on a CDR entitled 'K-K-Kumbia', and although this version does have an extra El Hijo de la Cumbia track tacked onto the beginning and a few other minor differences it will cause deja-vu for anyone familiar with the CDR release.

In this video Rupture gives a nice introduction to the frustratingly complex and head-spinningly colossal world of cumbia, with some cool footage of a San-Fran piracy den he frequents when sourcing out these kinds of beats. He also learns how to recognise Kung-Fu Panda.

Tracklisting:

El Hijo de la Cumbia - 'Pista Para La Contra'
Pesadilla - 'La Pava Congona' (Discos El Papi)
Unknown - 'Cumbia de la Selva'
DJ Panik - 'Like This Like That' (Bersa Discos)
Crunk Cumbia Bootleg
El Hijo de la Cumbia - 'Para Bailiar Alika RMX' (Soot Records)
La Yegros - 'Trocitos de Madera:original mix' (Dutty Artz)
Armando Hernandez - 'Cumbia Doris'
Petrona Martinez - 'La Vida Vale La Pena: Uproot Andy Remix)'
Pitbull - 'Ya Se Acabo'
Noble Society - 'The Swarm: Zuzuka Cumbia Klash remix' (Klash City)
Los Destellos - 'Elsa: Sonido Martines remix' (Soot Records)
El Hijo de la Cumbia - 'Cumbia Regional' (Soot Records)
Los Daddy's - 'Cumbia Sampuesana'
J-Kwon - 'Tipsy: instrumental' (So So Def)
Julieta Venegas - 'Eres Para Mi: Sonidero Nacional remix'
Ñejo feat Arcangel y Dalmata - 'Algo Musical remix'
Crunk cumbia bootleg
Calle 13 - 'Atrevetetete remix'
Crunk cumbia bootleg
Celso Piña - 'Cumbia Poder'
DJ Rupture featuring Sister Nancy - 'A Little More Oil: reggaeton remix feat. Pe Ere' (Soul Jazz)
Uproot Andy vs. ODB - 'Brooklyn Cumbia'
Maga Bo - 'Earthshaking Riddim' (Dutty Artz)
Jahdan Blakkamoore - 'Earthshaking' (Dutty Artz)
Matt Shadetek - 'Pure Riddim' (Dutty Artz )
Jahdan Blakkamoore feat Durrty Goodz - 'Mesmerized' (Dutty Artz)
Modeselektor and Matt Shadetek - 'Dem A Idiot Riddim' (Dutty Artz)
El Hijo de la Cumbia - 'Conciencia de Barrio' (Soot Records)
Grupo La Cumbia - 'La Mulata'
Unknown - 'Poco a Poco 'Yes Yes' (Discos Bones)
Celso Piña - 'Cumbia de la Paz'

ragga jungle rewinds #1.

2009-06-18T11:33:00.000-07:00

Released in 1995 - and immortalised soon afterwards in an episode of Father Ted entitled 'New Jack City' - DJ SS's remix of 'Limb By Limb' first appeared on a Suburban Base 12" along with a just-as-dope Marvellous Cain version entitled 'Hitman'. Also present was Cutty Ranks' awesome original, undeniably one of the most jump-up dancehall tunes ever recorded.

Unfortunately, soon after the 12" was released, the Jamaican influence that had previously called the shots in drum n' bass started to lose favour. Instead, a restless scene got too easily led down a series of yawnsome creative cul-de-sacs unconnected with the soundsystem culture the music was borne out of - plenty of great music was still released in spite of this, but some things would never be the same again.

For one, Sub Base's licensing of the original Cutty Ranks track on their release was a hallmark of the pre-95 jungle scene - while UK jungle DJs wantonly plundered reggae's back catalogue for inspiration, link-ups with the music industry in Jamaica also occasionally moved down more official channels, not least through the support of companies like Greensleeves and their catalogue of Jamaican artists hungry for both collaboration and remuneration.

Recently, some JA bashment artists have started making positive noises in the direction of London's funky house scene and there are signs that the UK underground may be in the process of re-forging some of the creative dialogues that existed back then - probably a worthwhile venture when you consider how good this tune is.

It destroyed it 'pon Craggy Island and it still destroys it now.

Cutty Ranks - 'Limb By Limb' (DJ SS Mix)

lazer daze.

2009-06-18T11:19:00.000-07:00

Turntablism?!?!?? Call Q-Bert next time haters!

Major Lazer - 'Pon de Floor' (feat. Vybz Kartel)

this is a tune coming in...

2009-06-12T09:41:00.000-07:00

Pretty much the only thing on 'A Grand Don't Come For Free' that was up to the standard of the first Streets album was Blinded by the Lights.

In this remix Nero re-imagines it as heavyweight dubstep, turning the track into the peak-time rave anthem that was only referenced in Skinner's original.

Blinded by the Lights (Nero Remix)

still # 1.

2009-06-12T08:51:00.000-07:00

Start it off with a song.

Boogie Down Productions - 'Sex & Violence'

bone conduction.

eight hype.

shizuo vs shizor.

cpr.

where yo ghost post at?

flock fresco.

when you were young...

the buzz is back.

woolworths.

floored by footwork.

cave art.

fela's cock

sunshine series #4.

sunshine series #3.

sunshine series #2.

sunshine series #1.

fact mix 93: jam city.

rude awakening.

banton's sound: live on kiss.

champion's sound - live on kiss.

the descent into twitter-related repost hell.

ragga jungle rewinds #8.

re-up time.

jam city ten-minute mixtape.

oneohtrix point thursday night.

six from nine.

the christmas post.

essential mix 8th february 1998 - the freestylers.

ragga jungle rewinds #7.

"weegie baby" rustie vs. keyshia "hotter than cheryl" cole.

***special secret song inside***

ragga jungle rewinds #6.

just a little prudence.

bc mix series 3: gulag suitcase.

halloween special: doom.

china.

bok bok vintage grime set.

ragga jungle rewinds #5.

postscript: i can't hear the music.

essential mix 2nd march 1997 - daft punk live at bunker.

back in the room.

chaos rains.

introspection section.

"i guess it was a phase"

ragga jungle rewinds #4.

bc mix series 3: redbulls & coffee.

like a version.

bc mix series 3: krakatoa dubs.

ragga jungle rewinds #3.

goats love to play with it.

rotten tropics.

eat brains that is how me survive.

trouble & bass.

the cooly g FACT mix rules.

ragga jungle rewinds #2.

the post-MJ post.

why they rate durrty goodz.

dj /rupture cumbia mix for radio one

ragga jungle rewinds #1.

lazer daze.

this is a tune coming in...

still # 1.

special secret song inside