Stinky Grooves 29.12.09 & some Frikstailer related fine folly

Image Kangol flip to the luvverly Belts.

Hold The Line (Frikstailers Rmx) - Major Lazer (Mad Decent)

Government Gone Luuu - Busy Signal (Jukeboxx)

Dem Nuh Care - Busy Signal (Jukeboxx)

Dat Me Love - Busy Signal (Jukeboxx)

Fashion Attack - Konshens (Jukeboxx)

Yu Looking Hot - Lutan Fyah (Jukeboxx)

Nowadays Boopsie - Assassin (Jukeboxx)

History Book - Assassin (Jukeboxx)

Live Mi Life - Romain Virgo (Jukeboxx)

Children A Pree Wee - Tarrus Riley (Jukeboxx)

Whine - Elephant Man (Jukeboxx)

Freelancer Dub - Mikey Dread (Auralux)

Lost In The Supermarket - Wrongtom meets Rockers (Mojo Brand Records)

Piano's On The Beach - Jaques Renault (Hole In The Sky)

Don't You Feel Me - Damon (Now Again)

Dandelion - Charlotte Gainsbourg (Because/Elektra)

Heaven Can Wait (Nosaj Thing) - Charlotte Gainsbourg (Because/Elektra)

Evil Man (Flying Lotus Rmx) - Shafiq Husayn (Ubiquity)

Sounclash Pt 2 (Junglist Rise) - Naptha (The Fear)

Ba Ba Boom (oOgun Rmx) - Dub Asylum (Loopy Fruits)

Kingston Town - Radikal Guru (Dubbed Out)

Lost In 3s (DJG Rmx) - Dhyan Moller (Blipswitch Digital)

Blip - Gatekeeper (If Symptoms Persist)

4 - Aardvarck (Bloom 4)

5 - Aardvarck (Bloom 4)

Rust - Peter Pozerek

Viejas Locas vs Benga - Villa Diamante

Jerk Pork - Cardopusher (Lo Dubs)

La Rata - Lido Pimienta

Mueve - Lido Pimienta

La Subienda - Sonidero Cordobestia (Cabeza!)

Juego De Shabba - Joelito

Baile Remix - Ricardo Villalobos/Doma Tornadoes

Palo Borracho (Palo Choborra Iszen Rmx) - Iszen (Cabeza!)

C20 Riddim - Tapes (Jahtari)

Duck Butter - Randy Barracuda (Flogsta Dancehall)

Winter Beat - DJ Raff

Wizard Swing Warrior - Benny Blonco (Error Broadcast)

Major Spillage - White Rainbow (Kranky)

Eyen - Plaid (Warp)

Wolf - Blue Daisy (Black Acre)

Cathedral With No Eyes (White Rainbow Rmx) - Railcars (Aria Jalali)

Antillas (Bass Clef Rmx) - El Guinicho (Young Turks)

Skylarking (Instr) - Jefferson Belt (Round Trip Mars)

Tropical Disease - Air (Virgin)

Lucky last of the year and luck, luck lucky I was, as I barely had my head screwed on at the start of the show, and it took a good half hour plus for the resumption of normal service. I blame the muggy weather and the unique AK city atmosphere at this time of year when most have shipped out to the beaches and the relis, and the city is in soft-focus, swing easy mode... well I always find something to blame!

Tonight may I point you towards a couple of cumbia crucialities that won't cost you a cent but will leave you decidedly, pleasantly bent. First up please make the most appropriate mouse moves towards the Hipi Duki stable where they have flung up Soundamerica #8 which is less cumboid, but no less excellente, than their standard fare. You can find it hear or via the wonderful Generation Bass blog which is an RSS habit I simply couldn't live without.

I have requested that you avert your internatty gaze towards the stupendously solid Cabeza! netlabel before and dang if I'm not going to do it again. To entice you further I'm posting a Sonidero Cordobestia track (not posted! bloodclaaaaaat Vodafone netnotservice) from their completerley and utterly free and easy, swinging in the wind like nature intended - EP Cumbias Momificadas. Sonidero Cordobestia is actually the frequently wonderful Frikstailers on the quiet, their remix of Hold The Line from the 2009s most overhyped and underperforming album (Mad Decent's dancehall diabollocks) has finally returned some dignity to a decent (and completely over-remixed) vocal from (Mr) Lexx. Since we started the show with it tonight, might as well fling the frankly foolish video up too so eyes down for that at the finishing flag.

In case anyone's headed up that way my sets for Music Mountain Matakana are at 4.30 and 9.30 on New Years Eve. I'll be joined by the his Mightyness The Asterix and that alone is worth a trek in my book, cant wait and am amassing some fresh versions for his perusal and lungulation, there'll be some cumbia sneaked in there for sure!

This may well be the last post for this year so if it is.... then please accept the sincerest thanks for your patronage, time, indulgence, patience, responses and all the rest through 2009. Who knows I may be more organised and blogging like a man possessed next year, but once again I wouldn't trouble the bookies with that waft of potential life-changery.

Soundamerica 8 listen on Soundcloud and then download from the mighty Generation Bass

Frikstailerspace

Cabeza! Check all their 'tapes' and releases, this is a treasure chest and they seem like nice and decent people too.

LA SUBIENDA - SONIDERO CORDOBESTIA (I'll get this up when I'm not at dial-up speed, you can download the whole 4 track EP for free from the links above anyway, you wont be disappointed!!)

HOLD THE LINE (FRIKSTAILERS RMX) - MAJOR LAZER FT MR LEXX & SANTIGOLD

listening to this Augustus Pablo bootleg as I type, some utter scorchers (and not) on this, has been a bit of a Xmas lazy playlist hogger round our festive gates! check heem.

Stinky Grooves 22.12.09 & some Transformarizing

Cumbia Villera -Yerba Brava
Palante Mi Gente - Sonido de La Frontera
Nadividad Negra - Sonidero Cordobestia (Cabeza!)
La 3ra De Los Toqesitos - Sonido Kumbala
Watch Me Transform Ya - Mr Lex
Nothing From Dem - Gappy Ranks
System - Terry Lynn (Phree)
Must Come A Light - Busy Signal
Soon You Will Find Out - Busy Signal (Big Ship)
Hot It Up - Keida aka Maqueda (Keep Left)
Beautiful Complication - Guido (Punch Drunk)
2 - Aardvarck (Bloom 4)
I Suppose I Should Say Thanks Or Some Shit - Gold Panda (Gold Panda)
Blen - Africa HiTech (Warp)
Miracles (Jamie Vex'd Rmx) - Starkey (Planet Mu)
Cathedral With No Eyes (White Rainbow Mix) - Railcars
Strings Detached - Blue Daisy (Black Acre)
Antillas (Bass Clef Rmx) - El Guinicho (Young Turks)
No Charisma - Martin Kemp (Blunted Robots)
Spectral Source - Millie & Andrea (Daphne)
Lost In The Supermarket - Wrongtom Meets Rockers (Mojo Brand Records)
Cash Machine (Roots Manuva Rmx) - Hard-Fi (Atlantic)
The Seed - Bad Energy (Bad Energy)
I'm Rich - Bad Energy (Bad Energy)
Win-san Western - Gold Panda (Gold Panda)
Sleepwalker - wAgAwAgA (Acroplane)
Forge Your Own Chains - D.R.Hooker (Now Again)
Time Of The Assassin - Charlotte Gainsbourg (Because/Elektra)
Instrumental 1 - Arthur Russell
This Is How We Walk On The Moon (Bogdan Edit) - Johanna Billings vs Arthur Russell
Skylarking (Instr) - Jefferson Belt (Round Trip Mars)
Fantasm - Black Devil Disco Club (Lo Recordings)
Goodbye Girl - King Midas Sound (Hyperdub)
Alpha - Jazzsteppa (Police In Helicopter)
Lost In 3's (DGG Rmx) - Dyhan Moller (Blipswitch Digital)
Blip - Gatekeeper (If Symptoms Persist)
Mueve - Lido Pimiento
Himno al Cucumelo (Luisao Edit) - Lucas Luisao ft Princessa (Cabeza!)
La Magdalena - Afrosound (Fuentes)
Bus Ride To The zoo - Fred Cherry (Hole In The Sky)
Hands Of Love (Harvey Rmx) - Rocha (International Feel)
Turn The Page -Pablo (Soma)

Don't think I've posted anything by Gappy Ranks which is strange because he has been this years bolter. Took me a while to get over the autotune addiction, and his duff tunes are as duff as they come but on the right rhythm.. well forget about it. Man needs an album, and some downloadable legit high quality files - you would have imagined Peckings would be up with the play on the hempeetree tip..but not yet.
This is the best cut thus far on the crazy rhythm that Swizz Beats concocted for Chris Brown & Lil Wayne, there's a bunch around but I'm going to chuck in Mr Lexx's cut which pretty much owns it too.
You can't buy these so they're as hi-qual as I have 'em, Xmas and all that.





NOTHING FROM DEM - GAPPY RANKS


WATCH ME TRANSFORM YA - MR LEXX




and seasons best and all that malarkey

Stinky Grooves 15.12.09 Gold Pandering to the Cabeza!

Hard Times - Buju Banton (40/40 Productions)
Not Goin Crazy - Buju Banton (40/40 Productions)
Nuh Fraid Of Them - Busy Signal
Must Come A Light - Busy Signal (Head Concussion)
System - terry Lynn (Phree)
Real Ghetto Gyal - Gappy Ranks (Necessary Mayhem)
Come Down (Instrumental) - The Grinch (Necessary Mayhem)
Pinchers - Bandelero (Necessary Mayhem)
Real General - Mr Williamz (Necessary Mayhem)
Hot It Up - Keida ft Maqueda (Keep Left)
Good Life - Mr Chop (Stones Throw)
Inside Pikachu's Cunt - Rustie (Warp)
Punta De Gente - Le Freak Selector (Cabeza!)
No Dicen Na - Los Rakas
Bremen OST (SDP Edit) - Stephan Bodzin
Prototype (Modeselektor Rmx) - Headhunter (Tempa)
Internal Clock - Monolake (Imbalance)
Output 1-2 - Joker (Tectonic)
No Security (Rustie Instr.) - Crookers ft Kelis (Southern Fried)
Fear & Loathing - Central Spillz
Slow Flow - Lady Leshur
Changes (J.Period Rmx ft M1 & General Steele) - J.Period & Nneka
Happy New Years! - Raekwon
Cumbia Mundial - Sonido De La Frontera
Himno Al Cucumelo - Elchavez (Cabeza!)
Yo Me Lllamo Cumbia - Sonidero Cordobestia (Cabeza)
SDP vs Moodyman - Sonido Del Principe
Outer Space - King Midas Sound (Hyperdub)
The Seed - Bad Energy (Bad Energy)
Equator Jam - Ghosts On Tape (Wireblock)
Outbreak - Subway (Soul Jazz)
H.A.L. (Andrew Weatherall Rmx) - Detachments (This Is Not An Exit)
Space Mountain - Fuck Buttons (ATP)
You Are The One - The Time & Space Machine (Tirk)
La Rata - Lido Pimineto
Himno al Cucumelo - Lucas Luisao ft Princesa (Cabeza)
Lamento En La Norte (Todo Sigue Igual) - Joel & Rebenga
Win-san Western - Gold Panda (Gold Panda)
Soundclash Pt 1 (Long Time Burning Mix) - Naptha (The Fear)
Soundclash Pt 1 (Grevious Angel Rmx) - Naptha (Keysound)
I Suppose I Should Say Thanks Or Some Shit - Gold Panda (Gold Panda)

Once again its been a straight week of non-posteration, and thats not about to change. For thems thats around I'm hoping for a bit of 'going post-al' over the Xmas break, but I can't see too much changing before then. I have another scorching interview on the way, fingers crossed that goes alright with no un-necessary Jamaican intrigue tomorrow morning. Part two of the Jahdan Blakkamoore interview should be appearing soonish, though Mulatu Pt 2 is more likely to be recieving a print welcome before it graces these environs. man's got to eat and all that.

Hanyways first a hot tip, head over to the mighty Cabeza! net label and check out their stupendous range of freely downloadable cumbia-mash gems. I've been running their gear on the show since release one, and they just keep getting better. The latest couple from Sonidero Cordobestia (Frikstailers on the hush) and a whole bunch of remixing folk on 'Tributo a Agrupacion Mamanis' are excess essential, this isn't a request...it's an order.. for your own good!

To complement here's a track from the hotly tipped for 2010 - UK geez Gold Panda. Amongst so much wonky weirdbeard dubious beat science this feller's gear has a certain timelessness that feels like a precious commodity across any style borderline right now. There's plenty about him all over the net so let your fingers do the walking. This track from very, very limited Before CDR is absolutely superb and for my money this is by far his best material yet, easily justifying the growing hype.

Consume then curate, test then tip..just buy the bloody thing, alright!

Buy

GoldPandaspace

WIN-SAN WESTERN - GOLD PANDA

And don't forget 'b Street' this Saturday with The Naked And Famous, Kidz In Space and a whoooole heap more, all for free, taking over the Britmart and surrounds. I'll be playing from 10-1am at the A&M, I've been told it's a well pleasant spot and can't wait. Poster (couldn't find a bigger size so apologies for blurry blowupage) below. Tapes, International Observer and Pitch Black at Galatos (playing at 10,11 and 12 respectively) on Friday with the Turnaround Xmas bash downstairs where it all started in the Basement...dangerous times!

Stinky Grooves 8.12.09 - Imminent Club Sandwich & a dollop of Norris

Yes shameless self-promotion again.... but it's a double whammy/no-excuses evening at the Ginger Minx this Saturday, and it should be a ripper and a roarer, in a fact a riproarer. I'll be starting off The Tune Up on me tod from 5-8, and then shall be joined by Cian and Geezer Guy as we slip out the seasoning and bring forth the musical mayonnaise at CLUB SANDWICH till 1am. I've been well enjoying the Ginger Minx vibes, the previous two Club Sandwich gigs have been the mostest fun, and a proper divergent trek into tonal terrorism betwixt the 3 of us iffy-ex-pats. If you're of the Auckland persuasion it would be a reet delight to see you on Saturday night (or hearly hevening if you just need your sonic spark plugs buffed and bit of ill timing).. On with the show after this short eyefull of flyer (flick of the Kangol to Eddiewardo & Cherry Sprinkles for that.)

Nadividad Negra - Pedro Laza Y Sus Pelayeros (Crammed)

Nadividad Negra - Sonidero Cordobestia (Cabeza)

La Subienda - Sonidero Cordobestia (Cabeza)

Cumbia Rockers 1 - El Sonidero Quilombo

Mundial Dub - Sonido de la Frontera

Incoming - Cumbianauts

Watch Me Transform Ya - Mr Lexx (Federation Sound)

Too Dutty - Burro Banton (Weedy G Soundforce/African Beat)

Fraud From Yard - Top Cat (Weedy G Soundforce/African Beat)

New World Order - Cutty Ranks (Weedy G Soundforce/African Beat)

Bubbler Riddim - Bandito & Squishem (Weedy G Soundforce/African Beat)

Celebrate - Cham (Board House)

Fi Di Pepa - Kari Jess (High Stakes)

Fi Di Pepa Version - High Stakes Crew (High Stakes)

Creator Riddim Version - Fat Eyes Crew (Fat Eyes)

Predator Mode - Ghosts On Tape (Wireblock)

Ba Ba Boom (Oogun Rmx) - Dub Asylum (Loopy Fruits)

Gold Or Soul - Hyetal (Soul Motive)

More Cowbell - The Time & Space Machine (Tirk)

U Know U Jack (Weatherall Rmx) - Tim Fairplay (Rotters Golf Club)

Microscopic Contents (Elliot Lipp Rmx) - Kelpe (DC Recordings)

Early Morning Robot - I Monster/Skywatchers (Platipus)

The American Dream - Guilty Simpson (Stones Throw)

Transformations - Jay Electronica

Fogged Spacesuit - The Clonious (Ubiquity)

Wheatabix Ling - Lady Leshur

Earth A Run Red - Flow Dan ft Brazen (Eskibeat)

Mueve - Lido Pimiento

Stop What You're Doing (James Blake Rmx) - Untold (Hemlock)

Twitch (Jamie Vex'd Rmx) - Scuba (Hot Flush)

Midnight Feast (Lone Rmx) - Bibio (Warp)

Revenge Of The Fillet O Fish - Lord Newborn & The Magic Skulls (Ubiquity)

Far Red - Monolake (Imbalance)

Think (Tzara Rmx) - Ballistics (Dustbin)

Jarvik Mindstate - Peverelist (Punch Drunk)

Strings Detached - Blue Daisy (Black Acre)

Shallow Vicinity - Blue Daisy (Black Acre)

Robo Tussin (Instr) - Flying Lotus

The Seed - Bad Energy (Coco Solid/Bad Energy)

Villa Donde - King Coya (ZZK)

Nights - El Hijo De La Cumbia (Soot)

Caracol - Tremor (ZZK)

Co-Lateral - Bernard Fevre (Lo)

Mushroom Family - The Time & Space Machine (Tirk)

There was some right pickled and potent messed up sounds tonight, and in all honesty I had to hold back as I could have gone off on a big old wonky one quite easily, but I decided to keep all our nerves reasonably unshredded, and apply a bit of balance, with some sweeeeet early summer evening cumbia and whatnot. The new Blue Daisy EP only reached me this arvo, and I am already in serious swoon with at least two of them tracks, and for every single track I played tonight there were at least three or four that went begging. It appears the days of the December drought followed by the New Year note negligibility are long gone.. hurrah to that.

This week may I proffer a portion of The Time & Space Machine for a little psychedelic stroll. Plenty of the gear tonight (Jay Electronica, a good chunk of the nu cumbia, Flying Lotus etc) is readily and kosherly available free on the net, with just a modicum of searcheration but The Time & Space Machine's 'You Are The One EP' is something you should have to shake out some shekels for. TT&SM is Richard Norris, ex-Grid, Joe Strummer collaborator, former Tranquility Bass/Stinky Grooves guest and an all around delightful feller. There's nothing big and clever about edits..... except when they're this good! Have a nibble on this lo-fi foreword and get stuck into the full chapter and verse at the links below. And just in case there's any doubt, this is a mundanely mid-fi 192 voishun up for 1 week, you need the scrumptiously hifi-files or wondrous wax for the real deal, especially the utterly stupendous, aptly named 'More Cowbell'.

Buy the 12" or digital packagio

Time&Spacespace

MUSHROOM FAMILY - THE TIME AND SPACE MACHINE

Stinky Grooves 01.12.09 - the raising of the Larma & the Ba Ba-ing of the Boom

Yes... you are not experiencing deja vu (yellow wall this time), Tuning Up again at the Ginger Minx (and again followed by Club Sandwich on the 12th) this Saturday evening from 5-8 (no cover), a few bloggerising local peeperations would be most welcome, it's a good slot at a good spot!! Do read on......

Jah Run Things - Supercat (Wild Apache)

Love In The Streets - Beres Hammond ft. Assassin, Buju Banton & I Octane (Penthouse)

Cool Out Son/Nice It Up - Junior Murvin & Welton Irie (VP)

Cuss Fix Version - Upsetta Crew (Upsetta Sound)

Ticker Tape - Tapes (Jahtari)

People Rhythm - Nick Manasseh (Roots Garden)

Villa Donde - King Coya (ZZK)

Arab Trip For Cumbia - Gianko y su Sonido la Limpia

Champion Sound - Guachin (El Empuje vs Buju Banton) - Cherman

El General Drone (Un Mono Azul Mash Up) - Un Mono Azul

Cumbia Por Todos Las Chicas - SDP vs Neil Landstrumm

Bremen OST (SDP Edit) - Stephan Bodzin

149 Dalston Airline - Debruit (Civil)

Equator Jam - Ghosts On Tape (Wireblock)

More Cowbell - The Time & Space Machine (5D)

H.A.L. (Andrew Weatherall Rmx) - Detachments (This Is Not An Exit)

Predator Mode - Ghosts On Tape (Wireblock)

9 Pad - Blue Daisy

Stop What You're Doing (James Blake Rmx) - Untold (Hemlock)

Chakra - Guido (Punch Drunk)

Sunflower (Eero Johannes Rmx) - Reason Or Romanza (Civil Music)

Mueve - Lido Pimienta

Ave Pa 'Ve' - Gabriel Romero (Discos Fuentes)

Cumbia Sampuesana - Conjunto Tipico Vallenato (Discos Fuentes)

El Burrito (King Coya Rmx) - Cucu Diamante y Los Tucanes De Tijuana /King Coya (ZZK)

Incredulous (Frank Booker Edit) - Julien Dyne (BBE)

Fish - Ikonika (Hyperdub)

Ba Ba Boom (Oogun Rmx) - Dub Asylum (Loopy Fruit)

Soundclash 1 (Grevious Angel Rmx) - Naptha (Keysound)

Dub Ting - Tes La Rok (Noppa)

Fat Bird Dub - Ealzee

Rise The Larma - Flow Dan (Eskibeat)

Dirty Money - Soom T (Jahtari)

Di Letter - Merciless (Not Nice)

Warlord's Daughter - Lexie Lee (Manslave Records)

The Gal Time Now - Assassin (AMG Productions)

We Having Fun - Bugle (AMG Productions)

European Swing Riddim - Kurt Riley & Christopher Birch (AMG Productions)

You Are The One - The Time & Space Machine (Tirk)

Onsta La Yerbita - Enrique Delgado Con Los Destellos (Vampisoul)

You Monopolise Me - The Ogyatanaa Show Band (Soundway)

Beeg Spenda - wAgAwAgA (Acroplane)

Little Drummer Boy (Edit) - Lindstrom (Smalltown Supersound)

Wizards In Dub (Part 1) - Invasion vs Shackleton (This Is Less Music)

Well that one almost got out of hand with some strangeness, added to some weirdness and mixed up with a little cacophonic culture, at times it felt like driving down the motorway with your eyes shut! Not that I'm complaining mind, there's far worse musical misadventures going on every single minute.

Of articular and particular note this evening was Oogun giving Dub Asylum a right smack-up remix for the debut 7" on Loopy Fruit Records. Props are properly dispensed to Messrs Mclenners and Oogoid for their work on this, it's a scorcher. The 45 will be hitting shops on Monday the 7th but Conch will be copping 'em from Friday, so NZers, show some love and support quality local tackle (internationalists not excluded neither...), check it out in the house of youtubular below), I've got absolutely no truck with music being bigged and upped on purely geographical stakes, but this would be getting a run or three on SG wherever it came from, top notch!

This weeks burnt offering and ripped receptacle is from that baddest of bad man of the Roll Deep camp, Flow Dan (actually that may not be factual, I wouldn't want to weigh in on the relative badness of them gents hindividually). The 'Original Dan' disc is somewhat predictably patchy but three tunes give off the impression of standing up and standing out like the proverbial canine seedbags. Obviously the curiously titled and available below, 'Rise The Larma' is a highlight, though whether Mr Dan has got a thing for spelling-challenged Safari Parks is a matter best dealt with elsewhere. it's such a sweet rhythm I can even forgive the weak Obama line in the chorus. 'Earth A Run Red' also ignites the reggaematical fuego, and even though the sound quality is utter tosh and it's muffled, foggy and sonically undesirable - 'Vurderas' with its Barrington biting is hard not to love.

There hasn't been a great deal of grime that has been hitting my olfactory nerve with the requisite slammeration this year, a few MC's have got their head above the average parapet but it generally feels even more inward looking, snarly and surly than it has ever done (and let's face it, that's saying something). Most times in '09 I've listened, and absorbed, and decided life's too short for too much of that. I guess listening to something so irrevocably Londonised and with even more grim in the grime it's always going to be a stretch in our seemingly somewhat more convivial locale on the other side of the world.

The divide between the dance-pop frippery that seems to be de-rigeur, and the ruthlessly low-rent and often well bent beats that transport you to an Estate of mind, has become a chasm. So predictably I just go for the JA tinged bangers and this is a serious and deadly one. Been out for a minute, but it's not a race is it?

Buy as a compact-discoid type artefact or in file style & fashion

FlowDanspace

RollDeepspace

RISE THE LARMA - FLOW DAN FT BADNESS

Listening to the Tremor record on ZZK again as I type, what an outstanding album it is, can't wait for the remix 12". The King Coya is awful good too, especially if you don't seem to have half the tracks already as I seem to. Enough of the mindless mitheration, done already.

The Tune Up - This Saturday at Ginger Minx, free with me

In time honoured tradition a tad tardy with this one, bit of date confusion (it's the new black) at my end, meant that I didn't get the chance to hoot this out on the radio as I should have done last night. Starting this Saturday, and running for the next four weeks until they close for Christmas, is a brand new'un The Tune Up. In laymans terms that means I'll be fiddling with files in order to make a joyful noise and righteous racket from 5-8pm at the Ginger Minx, and it's no cover bruvva/free as a bird.

I've done this slot once before and even through a slightly enjoyable jetlagged haze it struck me as a nice and decent time to be playing some quality music of a mixed up and most edifying nature. I've steered clear of anything like a residency for the last five years, but the vibes and enthusiasm of the bar, the fact that it's close enough to home to feel like playing at the local, and the curious timeslot which allows for some musical meanderation (in the nation, on the station, keep on adding to this list to you own degradation etc etc) all appeal.

So Aucklandites it would be simply splendid and most copacetic if any of you fancied a tip top tune or two (in fact I pledge many more than that), a beverage etc in a decent spot with easy-access smoking and all the trimmings. Following my stereophonic spanneration Andy Beck will be bring his Mixed Crate of liquid d'n'b, and for thems that don't know The Ginger Minx is part of The Dominion, corner of Dominion Road and Valley Rd, as such it's a hood hop for all Mount Edeneers, Kinkslanderators, Sandringhamalamadingdongs and Newtonbombs..etc etc, OK I'll stop now, a monstrous ta to Cherry Sprinkles for whipping up the flyer on the ..erm fly.

Stinky Grooves 24.11.09 and Taperating Tornadoes

Blue - King Midas Sound (Hyperdub)
Wizards In Dub Pt 2 - Invasion vs Shackleton (This Is Less Music)
People Riddim - Nick Manasseh (Roots Garden)
C20 Riddim - Tapes (Jahtari)
Nuh Fraid Of Them - Busy Signal
Question - Busy Signal (Stainless)
Duffle Bag Riddim - DJ Karim (Stainless)
Done Wid War (09 Rmx) - Busy Signal
Lactic & Coil - Cutty Ranks Brain Storm (Skicron)
Roll Out - Red Fox (Skicron)
Nuh Fit Mi - Christopher Martin (Skicron)
Picantie - Busy Signal
Belly Off - Peter Pozorek
Rede (Doma Tornadoes Rmx) - Daniel Jeffs (Pueblo Nuevo)
Incredulous (Frank Booker Edit) - Julien Dyne (BBE)
Black Glory - Scalper (Like Water)
Burn - Thavius Beck (Big Dada)
Mixing Up The Medicine - Juelz Sanatana ft Yelawolf
Do Over - Ghostface Killer ft Raheem "Radio' (Def Jam)
Stay Off The Fucking Flowers - Blakroc ft Raekwon (V2)
Arab Trip For Cumbia Allah - Gianko y Su Sonido La Limpia
2Pac vs SG Colombia - Black Mandingo
Cumbia Bichera (Tremor Rmx) - El Remolon (Pueblo Nuevo)
Viajante - Tremor (ZZK)
Baile (Doma Tornadoes Remix) - Ricardo Villalobos
Soundclash 1 (Grevious Angel Rmx) - Naptha (Blackdown)
The loot (Sully Rmx) - J-Treole (Keysound)
Reminder - Sully (Frisjo Beats)
Chakra - Guido (Punch Drunk)
Roadz - Hostile
Waiting For You - King Midas Sound (Hyperdub)
Bluez - Peverelist (Punch Drunk)
You Monopolize Me -The Ogyatanaa Show Band (Soundways)
Them Go Talk Of You - The Cutlass Dance Band (Soundway)
Carmen - The Silvertones (Soundway)
Mulatu - Mulatu Astatke (Strut)
The Plague Village - I Monster/Skywatchers (Platipus)
JB Dubs - John Baker (Trunk)
Stay On Grey - Bernard Fevre (Lo)
Mirrors - Dam Funk (Stones Throw)
Hands Of Love (Fingers Of Sand) - Rocha (International Feel)
Naomi - John Talabot (Permanent Vacation)
Bitter Wind - Rene Hall (Essential)
Shipbuilding - Orchestre National De Jazz (Bee Jazz)
Multiplication - Jonny Trunk (Trunk)
Assault On Precinct 13 - John Carpenter (Record Makers)
Sandobu - Bernard Fevre (Lo)
Umbral feat Tremolo Audio - Tremor (ZZK)

'Don't make plans' is arguably some of the best advice you can ever be given, if only I could follow it. I made plans for a bit of a birthdaystravaganza with StinkInc turning one, just as the noughties have almost done their dash... and my rashly promised plans have been dashed. The Mulatu round two interview languishes on my hard drive, untranscribed and forlorn - hopefully this weekend. 100 to 90 of the years renkingest tunes have been mustered and semi-prepped and prodded, and I was hoping to have that to post today. But alas, I am full of shit. This was compounded by the realisation that I had got the date wrong for the 1st post as I had checked when I re-edited it, not posted it. I believe in the current parlance this is a FAIL.

I got excuses, plenty, ranging from the generally worthy to vague mumbles about how Friday night's excellent, opulent Curious Films party and an impossibly timed semi-convincing drubbing of the visionless Twickenhamites the following night mashed my weekend and senses up proper.. but you don't need to hear it. Instead ..something you should here.

It's always a rare delight when two local (or local once removed), tracks rub up against one another, solely on merit not any enforced NZ Muzak Weak palaver. Tonight it was Julien Dyne, whose Pins & Digits album has been picked up by BBE which has already resulted in an EP with a cracking edit and a sturdy instrumental. Points, prizes, props and pats on the back to him. Next was Scalper, a feller who made a big impression on me when he first came over as a relative newbie with long time muckers Fun-Da-Mental many years ago. These days he's a scalping out on the West Coast, and his album 'Flesh & Bones' which is due next year is some proper potent business you'll be hearing more of round these parts. The track I played tonight 'Black Glory' is available from iTunes (follow the link for some Scalperation) etc along with another ripper that I haven't got around to running yet 'Zero'.

Hanyways like a shaggy dog story I'm not chucking either of them up, instead it's another local (almost.... well he used to be). Jackson Bailey has been gently blowing up with his digital explorations and it's great to see his Tapes 12" finally oot and aboot through the genial gentlefolk of Jahatari. I got a sneak on a few of these cuts when I caught up with him in London and they have a unique charm that unravels with with cumulative replays.

Check the EP out because it's a wee gem, replete with tape hiss and enough attitude and humour to lift it well above the 8-bit-stepper standard. Here's a low qual entree but please do slip yer shopping shoes on and get in touch with a copy, those Jahtari folk are awful generous with the free tunage so patronise for eternal karmic reward.

Check the other link to a scorching track from tonight below, for them with a further inclination for some tune satiation.....

Buy the 12" direct from Jahtari here also supreme quality files at Boomkat who are positively raving about the release, bless em....

Tapespace

C20 RIDDIM - TAPES

Had a ramble about the excellent net label Pueblo Nuevo here a couple of weeks back and don't you know it they're at it again. This time they've hauled in the fast ascending Doma Tornadoes to remix Daniel Jeffs 'Rede' and he's done a potently percussive job unclenching the electronics. Check it here at Pueblo Nuevo or alternatively hit Doma Tornadoes bandcamp where it's legit and free, as well as his (I think unauthorised) remix of Ricardo Villalobos's excellent 'Baile'.

DomaTornadoespace

Stinky Grooves 17.11.09 avec I Monster.. no, I really do

Record Shop - Pablo (Soma)
Ene Alantchie Alantchie Ainoren - Mulatu Astatke (Strut)
Asiyo Belema feat Frank Holder - Mulatu Astatke (Strut)
Uptight - The Silvertones (Soundway)
Bilongo - Papi Brandao Y Sus Ejectuyivos (Soundway)
Cumbia De Colombia - Pedro Jairo Garces y Su Guitar (Discos Fuentes)
You Never Knew - Busy Signal (Jukeboxx)
Unfair - Peetah Morgan ft Busy Signal (No Doubt)
Who Dat - Richie Spice (No Doubt)
Welcome - Nitty Kutchie (No Doubt)
Lucky Man - Courtney John (Peckings)
You're Gonna Need Me - Jovi Rockwell (Psycho Therapy Mixtape)
Rizzla - Jovi Rockwell (Psycho Therapy Mixtape)
Run Red - Flow Dan ft Brazen (Eskibeat)
Guest House - Ghostface Killah feat Fabolous (Def Jam)
Mixing Up The Medicine - Juelz Santana
4th Time Around (Messengers Rmx) - J.Period & K'naan
Tapando El Sol Con Un Dedo - Chico Sonido (Kin Kon)
Bluez - Peverlist (Punch Drunk)
Reminder - Sully (Frijso Beats)
The Loot (Sully Rmx) - J-treole (Blackdown)
Stop What You're Doing - Untold (Hemlock)
Never Went Away - Untold (Hemlock)
The Plague Village - I Monster/Skywatchers (Platipus)
Sunflower (Eero Johannes Rmx) - Reason Or Romanza (Black Acre)
Au Printemps -John Baker (Trunk)
Stay On Grey - Bernard Fevre(Lo Recordings)
Boomeran - Rune Lindbaek presents Kanakas (Lunaflicks)
The Outer Skin - Sean Donnelley
Make Me Stronger (Instrumental) - Bei Bei & Shawn Lee (Ubiquity)
The Grinder - The Slew (Ninja Tune)
JB Dubs - John Baker (Trunk)
Hands Of Love (Harveys Downstairs Mix)- Rocha (International Feel)
Crosby - Rune Lindbaek presents Kanakas (Lunaflicks)
Bootie Beat - Shawn Lee And Clutchy Hopkins (Ubiquity)
People Rhythm - Manasseh (Roots Garden)
Gold Love Rhythm - Tapes (Jahtari)
IMF - Terry Lynn (Phree Music)
Magadishu Night Life - Ghosts On Tape (Wireblock)
O Dela - Kidid
El Guacho - El Remolon (Pueblo Nuevo)
Cumbia Frikera - Frikstailers (Soot)
La Cumbia Del Moonra - Moonrra y su Batallon (Crammed)
Detroit Falls - Pariah (R&S)
Speed Check - Pablo (Soma)
East - Bei Bei & Shawn Lee (Ubiquity)
Speed Check - Pablo (Soma)
Stress On Pluton - Bernard Fevre (Lo Recordings)

A tad fatigued right nowest and a shade under the weather so please excuse the relative brevity, scanty info and whatnot. The good news is, Part 2 of the Mulatu interview went down this morning and when I have the audio and time to transcribe it, here is where it shall be. I've got mass writing and plenty other kerffuffle up the ying yang right now, so I'm aiming for around next Tuesday, however that could mean February 2010 (and how futuristic does twentyten sound? very in my book).

Presented for your limited-time delectation at a modest 192 krillobites-per-nostril is a slice of newness from I Monster/Skywatchers on Platipus (not the trance label I'm sure, by the way is there anything less genuinely psychedelic than psi-trance?)

Is it something they put in the water in Sheffield? Is it something they don't put in the water?... Who knows, but it truly does box above its weight musically. Have loved bits and pieces of I Monster malarkey for an awful long time, alongside their interlinked bread run All Seeing I and other related rascals from the city of Seven Hills and very little bullshit. So when I clapped my peepers on the 'Art Of Chill' EP (which sounds like something Kirk and I would have played on Tranquillity Bass in 1996) while pounding my web-wallet into oblivion at Juno Downloads last night, well I had to have it. In the course of writing this and sorting links etc I've discovered these are all taken from a rather exquisite looking comp of the same name, wish I'd have sussed that 24 hours ago!

To business... there's a proper shaggy haired mellow psych vocal number ('Soul Baptist'), an Air-esque (in a thoroughly good, drawing from similar stinkfluences, kind of way), a vocodourised Flaming Stainless Lips kind of deal ('A New Robot'), a scary and possibly brilliant Speak'n'Spell cover of Tina Turner's cringe-inducing 'The Best' (all bets are off on that one) and this gem.

Skywatchers album early 2010 they say, watch the ..... err skies.

Buy the four hi-quality files of delight, the full comp is here

IMonsterspace

Skywatcherspace

Find out more, or just get more confused at I Monster web portalizer

PLAGUE VILLAGE - I MONSTER/SKYWATCHERS

Mulatu Astatke Interview - Exclusively for StinkInc

“Lets talk fast because it can disconnect with these phones.”

The first words from Mulatu Astatke, the 66 year old don of Ethiojazz, prove to be sadly prophetic. Perhaps a bit of prophecy is appropriate for a man who is talking, on some very iffy phone lines, from the cradle of civilization, Ethiopia. The last few years have seen a massive jump in greater public awareness of Mulatu’s music with Jim Jarmusch’s extensive use in the ‘Broken Flowers’ OST, readily available vinyl and the continued celebration of his 'Volume 4' of the Ethiopiques CD series getting long overdue credit and sales. However 2009 has been a veritable bonanza for Astatke - a show with Malcolm Catto’s frequently stunning outfit The Heliocentrics last year evolved into a 10 day recording session that yielded the ‘Inspiration Information’ album, and Strut finally managed to do what Soundway had attempted a couple of years ago, and released a quality retrospective - ‘New York- London- Addis The Story Of Ethiojazz 1965-75’ (though Soundway gaffer Miles Cleret did write the sleevnotes).

My first encounter with Mulatu was on a tape from 80's (possibly emanating from the Small Town Thunderers/Jackdaw With Crowbar axis) though at the time I didn’t know who it was because it was simply called ‘Ethiopian track’, or something similarly generic. It was a solitary clue that there was something different there to all the African music I had heard. That was followed by a few, probably slurred, enquiries on late night taxi rides over the years and locales with Ethiopian drivers about what on earth they were playing, leaving hazy memories of some great tunes but not many names the next morning, that problem remains.

The next proper connection was made when I guested on the Hotpot Radio show with my pal, the venerable Trevor Whatevea, and his co-pilot Mnsr Scruff in Manchester in 2003. Scruff had the Worthy Records, 'Mulatu Of Ethiopia' album (surprise, surprise…he has just about everything) and played a track, on one of the several shows they were recording that day. My interest was severely piqued, thinking this sounds like that track I used to have on tape, and sure enough there was ‘Netsanet’, the very song that had hooked and absorbed me a decade or two previous.

That day looked a bit like this.

A fruitless and frustrating search for the vinyl in the record shops of Manchester, Birmingham and London followed, before I discovered it in the unlikeliest of locales on my way back to NZ at the house mecca, Dancetracks in the glorious old L.E.S. of Manhattan. I'm pretty sure it's the re-issue, but even they were scarce on the ground then. One of only a fistful of doof-free discs in that entire legendary shop, I was made up, and naturally it lit a fire underneath my proverbial record searching ass - for Mulatu and more music and knowledge about Ethiopia, which continues to this day.

I had tried to make contact for an interview with Mulatu a few years ago, and put my hand up when the Heliocentrics album dropped (even though I was initially a tad disappointed by that one, possibly down to unreachable expectations of that pairing) but this time the circuits connected, and a time and date was set. I’ve been on the interviewing game for some time now, and like DJing, it takes something fairly monumental to get me clammy handed. Talking to Mulatu ranked up there.

With a monstrous delay, and sufficient crackle to make the next Burial album, as an obstacle to free conversation, plus enough failed connections to require a bionic dialing finger, the Ethiopian telephone service did its' level best to not let this happen. We both persevered and got very frustrated by that along the way, but there was actually a lot more salvageable dialogue than I first thought. Below is the un-edited conversation, his words are exactly as he said 'em, and I understood 'em, only minus a couple of bits that were impossible to decipher above the tele-noise. There may well be a part 2 to this, and soon, but for the meantime read on.

I began by thanking him for his music, like the groveling fanboy I truly am.

“You get the last one, the compilation records?”

Indeed I have and I think it may be the one to introduce a lot more people to your music

“I think so too, I’m very happy. Which music are you thanking me for ”

Well all of it really, though I can’t go beyond the Golden Era classic Ethiojazz stuff, like the the Budha comp and L’Arome Productions vinyl albums, and of course the re-issued Worthy album. (I think I may have struck a nerve here by not simply bigging up the recent releases, not an ideal start, he sounded kind of understandably potentially grumpy at this point)

“Well I don’t follow that very much seriously. I have only recordings on the Ethiopiques, number 4, that’s my collection but the rest I don’t know very much about that. Budha records are producing those music, and I don’t follow the other ones”

Righto. Having lived through the Emperor Selassie’s reign and a brace of successive dictatorships with martial law and all the rest, I wonder how much of a presence his music currently has in Ethiopia media?

“I’m a prominent composer, arranger and I had radio programmes I also had before, a television programme, I wrote for a play, I’m in different... you know bands, I release CDs and I travel.”

Why is Ethiojazz, and in fact most Ethio music, so different to other African forms, is it just the isolation?

“Well now with Ethiojazz it has been 40 years I have been creating it you know. Why its different, why we are different to most is we have one mode which is called Anche Hoye, which is not found in any other part of the world at all. And also we use five tones to compose our music, five tone scales. What I did was I use also twelve tone music, so this is five tone against twelve, that’s how Ethiojazz is. The area I’m talking about is when you have three or four cultures, trying to put them together you really have to be very careful that one doesn’t dominate another one, and you must have a feel. My feel is Ethiopian mode, Ethiopian scales. So what I did was, I combined with twelve tone but I have to collect my own progressions, I sort of like have to create my own voicings, so that it doesn’t really disappear the Ethiopian modes at all. So you know it’s been very interesting but hard work, but now it's very big in the world.”

How was working with the Heliocentrics, obviously you have been working with Either/Orchestra in Boston for some time, was this a considerably different bag?

“Well you know it’s just what I've been doing, that’s actually just Ethiojazz music, what we’ve been doing now together but its only the orchestration is a bit different. We use more electronic now, I use a lot of acoustic before, but it sounded really nice. I think it’s a beautiful combination, and actually when am I doing the arrangement for different bands I do it different ways. When I do the Heliocentrics now we are really very much together. I write so it could suit the Heliocentrics.”

Is your project adapting traditional, pentatonic Ethiopian instruments to play the twelve tone scale ongoing?

“Yes that’s a very interesting project, which I’ve actually got about 70% now, because you know, I’ve been touring, I’ve been doing something else so I just let it go for awhile. We managed to play ‘Mercy Mercy’, ‘Never On A Sunday’, you know ‘Summertime’, those kinds of things, playing with a krar, which is so interesting I tell you. It was on the television and the people loved it and it was really great.”

A krar

You really are changing music by doing this.

“I’m trying my best my friend. And also there is one very interesting thing, actually its going to come out on my new CD (Mulatu Steps Ahead). I'm going to London next week, to complete my new CD you know. You see there is this tribe in the south of Ethiopia we call them Dirashe . This tribe they play a diminished scale, my friend. So they’ve been there for centuries and centuries. What I did was I bought them up to the city, to Addis, and I filled it with jazz and made a beautiful programme on television. So this has been so interesting, its going to come out on my new CD you know, and I’ve been doing that, and also I have done an opera. Very interesting opera , written when I was at Harvard. Its about the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, the whole story is about a conducting stick. We used to conduct music in 380AD, it's centuries ago, when there was no symphony orchestra in the world. So the whole idea is Ethiopian contribution to the development of the whole of music. So I used this stick, I took about forty or fifty minutes from the part where we used the conducting stick, with violins and cellos and everything, and the choirs as well, and that has been conducted with that stick which makes it so interesting. So I’m trying to finish my opera as well now.”

There was more here, but the Ethio telco was doing me no favours, I understand there is also an electronic component to the opera, and he has already presented a portion of it at Harvard. I did know enough to offer another slightly informed question when we had stopped yelling ‘Hellooooo’ at each other (I think I may have some Ethiopian cussing on tape, there was certainly a bit of blue from yours truly, as I ran through the best part of ten calls getting connected, and then having one side go down immediately… somewhat frustrating)

Is this the Yared Opera that you plan to perform in the Lalibela churches (said with some very hesitant, but apparently correct pronounciation, just don’t start me on some on the names of some of those singers!)

“Yeeeeesss, exactly, that’s what I’m really working to put it on at a Lalibela church. You know about them?”

(As seen above the churches in the sacred city of Lalibela are literally hewn from the rock, rather than rock being broken down for construction, the rock is removed to reveal the structure. This is some architecturally awesome, devotional digging and stonemasonry on a stupefying level.)

A little, with buildings made entirely of stone the acoustics would be unlike anywhere else it would be incredible?

“I know, I know it will be something beautiful because the architects work on that is so interesting, and if we also show the mekwamia there – what you call this, the conducting mekwemia, that’s really an Ethiopian contribution to the world. The architects of the conducting.”

Saint Yared's foot stabbing incident (hit the Yared link below for the scoop on that!)

I’m not entirely sure whether he means, the architects of the incredible churches in the sacred city of Lalibela, or as the architects as in modern music (in particular Saint Yared, who is believed to have been the first to write musical notes, centuries ahead of Western civilisation, and a great deal more. Don't start me on the rasta/reggae links here, I'm stopping myself from rambling on about everything from Bob's 'Three Little Birds' to Prince Fari's chants), as he references at the end. Never mind, he’s on a roll.

"Especially the Dirashe is so interesting. When we studied jazz at Berkeley, they were telling us how Charlie Parker created the diminished key to create modern jazz, and the great composers Debussy, Bach and all this, been using a diminished scale for composing you know. So what is really very interesting is this tribe have been there for centuries and centuries, so what I wanted to know is, is it Charlie Parker? or is it these tribes, or who? what? Creating the diminished scale, so that is one thing I am working on in the future, answering that.”

And then the line went dead, time was well past done, boohoo sob sob.

You can buy the new Strut compilation and much more Mulatu from Conch

Mulatuspace

Mulatuweb

NETSANET - MULATU ASTATKE

I hope I haven't taken liberties in writing this up, the line was wack and the connection was weak, the delay was insufferable.. transcribing was no barrel of laughs. The name of the tribe he refers to, and the YouTube clips are of, is an informed guess, as I cannot find a direct reference to them and their diminished chords online. I'm no expert on this stuff but I have learnt a little about Ethiopia over time, researching for the interview and this post has increased that and led me down some interesting web wormholes (it's also prepped me for round 2). Hope you enjoy it, and buy that crucial compile etc.

Big thanks to Marty @ Border.

Stinky Grooves 10.11.09 and rollin with all the Rrrrrrrrs

Big Big Pollution - Barry Brown (Kingston Sounds)

Unfair - Peetah Morgan & Busy Signal (No Doubt)

Garrison - Alborosie ft The Tamlins (No Doubt)

Welcome - Nitty Kutchie (No Doubt)

Who Dat - Richie Spice (No Doubt)

Ghetto Riddim - Kemar McGregor (No Doubt)

Vurderas - Flow Dan ft Killa P (Eskibeat)

Rise The Larma - Flow Dan ft Badness (Eskibeat)

Just Being Me - Skream (Southside All Stars)

Coalition - Tricky/South Rakkas Crew (Domino)

Air & Lack Thereof - James Blake (Hemlock)

Sunflower (Eero Johannes Rmx) - Reason Or Romanza (Civil Music)

Hardcore - Thavius Beck (Big Dada)

Iodine Poison - Freddie Gibbs

And The Beat Goes On - Thavius Beck (Big Dada)

Black Glory - Scalper

Grown Simba - J Cole

Fogged Spacesuit - The Clonious (Ubiquity)

Turn Me Ill (Marcwithasee Remix) - Micachu (Rough Trade)

My New Flumes (Instr) - James Duncan (Round Trip Mars)

Simple Headphone Mind - Stereolab & Nurse With Wound (United Dairies)

Blackwell - Beak> (Invada)

Heavy - Jonny Trunk (Trunk)

Decompression Introduction - Kelpe (DC Recordings)

7 Inch - Shawn Lee & Clutchy Hopkins (Ubiquity)

Cumbia Bichera (Tremor Rmx) - El Remolon (Pueblo Nuevo)

Kuff Cumbia - Sabo & Casady (Bersa Discos)

Soundboy Cumbia - Sabo (Bersa Discos)

So Krispy (Kinky Electric Noise Cumbia Nativo Rmx) - Kinfolk Kiashine

Gotta Be Fresh (GRC Electro Cumbia Rmx) - Kidkanevil (First Word)

Sniper Sniper - A Cutty Ranks Tale (Markus Kienzl Rmx) - Talen (Mouthwatering Records)

Streetlife - Terry Lynn (Phree)

Wow (Modeselektor Rmx) - Siriusmo (Exploited)

O Dela - Kidid

Sweet - Unitone HiFi (incoming!)

Dub Appeal - Force Quit (Zungzeng)

Sometimes In Autumn (Shackleton Rmx) - Harmonia & Eno 76 (Gronland Records)

Aidy's Girl's A Computer - Darkstar (Hyperdub)

Purple Smoke - Black Chow (Hyperdub)

Megadrive Generation - Martyn (Hyperdub)

All Of This (James Duncan Remix) - The Naked And Famous (Round Trip Mars)

The Beach Era (Djef Rmx) - El Remolon (Pueblo Nuevo)

IK+ - Disrupt (Jahtari)

Bootie Beat - Shawn Lee & Clutchy Hopkins (Ubiquity)

Mascaram Setaba - Mulatu Astatke with Ethiopian Quintet (Strut)

I had hoped to have my 100th post excitement up by now but it has been a week of it, and then some. I can however reveal that, while it may end up being post 101 or 102, it will be worth the wait and it's an interview with his mightyness Mulata Astatke, the father of Ethiojazz. It's actually all transcribed and just needs a little bit of work to be ready for your consumption and hopefully enjoyment (well it blew me away, man is dealing in concepts, big fucking concepts!). All being well it's only Part 1, with another bash at talking to the man coming up, there were some very testing circumstances with this one but I actually ended up with more than I suspected at the time, and it's downright fascinating.

Hanyways, a mixed grill as ever tonight, good to have some quality hip hop to play that isn't from the same old faces or rapildy familiar more recent ones, and great to have the right atmos to chuck in a track from Scalper, his album is going to blow some circuits next year, expect to hear more.

Tonight I'm going to slang you a couple without too much palaveration.

First up from Argentina and the much stinkrinsed ZZK camp El Remolon. I copped on this free digi-EP of his on Sunday when I was theoretically working but was actually too tired from the magnificent RTM trifecta of live gigs last week, and a stupidly early start on whopping the whinging Welsh (respect to their players, Prattland & the rest deserve to lose for another 50 years... and just might). So tooling around the internets instead of writing up a frothing review of the ridonkulously wide-screen and supremely selected '5 Years Of Hyperdub' for a leading national magazine, I ended up at the Pueblo Nuevo site. Mainly dealing in Chilean electronic gear I have to confess I sniffed around, skipped all that, and headed straight for the digital cumbia goodness. This EP is a good couple of years old and a bit patchy but the gooduns are awful good.

Listen & DL free and legit here

ElRemolonspace

CUMBIA BICHERA - EL REMOLON

Eero Johannes Pitkanen is a ferociously talented feller from Finland. His 'We Could Be Skweeroes' track is one of my favourites of this year, even though it came out in late '08. I foolishly slept on it, because I hadn't heard a single skwee track that had provoked much more than mild amusent. Well thank the JoeFish's say I, for it is that elongaterated squire of Kingsland who tipped me in Eero's direction, and what a nod that was. Can't believe I haven't written about this wondrous sinewave-waif from Helsinki before, but I will undoubtedly be addressing that in the Top 100 tracks of the year, which is imminent and a tad scary, frankly. His 'We Could Be Skweeroes' album for Planet Mu is a riot, and positively ivy-like in it's growability.... it has slowly enveloped me, from the title track in.

I thought I would be swooping on the Blue Daisy remix from this release on Civil Music, but that wasn't really crisping my bacon. This however was musical marination that landed right at my station. As ever it's 192 biz and a week only, don't be a bore - you know the score, there's links below crying out for a little mouse movement to initiate some action of the buying and supporting kind....

Buy digitally ici and waxitally acqui

Eerospace

This is the Planet Mu album...buy heem and revel in it.

SUNFLOWER (EERO JOHANNES RMX) - REASON OR ROMANZA

Hudson Mohawke Interview - Jock Shocking Beats

The business of phone interviews is fraught at the best of the times. It’s a disconnected affair, invariably at odd times when you’re not in work mode/or alarmingly just awake - and then there’s shitty lines and mobiles, interviewees wandering the noisy streets, total no shows and all the rest. For the second time in a month since my trusty, old school, cabled 70’s beige phone passed on, I’ve had to write notes rather than record, as the flimsy and frankly fecal, gleaming white modern phone I bought to replace it, has played up. Naturally it didn’t when I dutifully tested it hours earlier, nope, fine then, however… just before I’m about to hit record - on comes the mother of all earth hums. So if any of the local readers know where to get their hands on one of these

or even these

or something similar (ie not brand new) please hail me up, because not being able to get a decent recording from home base is causing some severe frustration.

It nearly did my nut in when talking Rowland S. Howard (Boys Next Door, Birthday Party, Crime & The City Solution and These Immortal Souls etc) a few weeks ago too, fortunately Mr Howard (who transported me to instant idiot teenage Birthday Party fanboy status, not an easy task on a curmudgeonly veteran!) is a slow speaker, suiting my hesitant note takery. Even more fortunately so was Ross Birchard, the Glaswegian from the Lucky Me camp, better known as Hudson Mohawke, who dropped his debut LP ‘Butter’ for Warp in the UK last week. Stress was then subsequently increased by watching the slim timeframe of 15 minutes erode, only to find out that he’d been in the shower, for the first few times I’d called his number, bang on schedule. Bah! Below is what I could accurately salvage from my decidedly shabby note taking, and getting that written up and remembered as soon as I put the phone down.

I see you’re going to Australia and not coming to NZ, that’s a bit rude isnt it?

“Well it would be, but actually I am coming to New Zealand, it’s just not confirmed yet. I’m coming to Wellington and maybe another city, maybe Auckland. I have been to Auckland before, but that was an odd one." (A private Serato party where there were apparently, rather embarrassingly one might suggest, major problems with the decks!)

You mentioned a lot to live up to with Warp, how do you feel you've done?

“I’m not checking in everyday to see how it’s going, but I think it’s doing alright, had some good reviews and that.”

I actually meant within yourself rather than sales, it is quite a legacy to become part of.

“Well as I always say in interviews when people ask me this question (uh oh) I don’t think it’s like any of the Warp artists sat back and said I’ve just made a classic album. You just try and do as good a job as you can, and so I wouldn’t say I’m totally happy with it but I wouldn’t say I’m unhappy either. But it is a big legacy, you’re right about that.”

What is it with the two and a half minute songs? I’m not being funny, but everyone making abstract/wonky/whatever you want to call it hip hop tempo instrumental gear, seems incapable of writing anything longer? (he can and occasionally does btw)

“(Laughs) Well I don’t think it’s the length of the songs... or not just the length of the songs, (laughs)! There is a lot of very similar sounding stuff around, and I don’t really see myself as part of that..... hopefully. I think you can do a lot, and say enough, in two and a half minutes. It doesn’t have to be five or six minutes to justify itself as a song. I don’t believe that. I get bored listening to long records that just loop, so I guess I just try and avoid that.”

Which is fair enough if you can come up with svelte shock-outs like 'ZOo00OOm', 'Polkadot Blues' and 'Spotted', which all tell a full tale, and feel in fine physical fettle, without taking more than 180 seconds. Regrettably, as I was rambling on round these parts last week, there’s an awful lot of derivative drivel, that is merely aping the templates and palletes of the clutch of genuinely unique maneuverers and shakerators, like Mr Mohawke, his pal Rustie, Flying Lotus and a few others. I wonder if his background in the turntabilism game (a former Scottish DMC champ as a youthful DJ Itchy) has contributed to his musical short attention span and A.D.D. cut-up dynamics.

“Oh definitely yes. When you’re thinking in terms of 90 second sets or doing a whole routine in six minutes it definitely has influenced me, and that’s definitely also affected how I make my music.”

Another touchstone of what has rapidly become the Hudson Mohawke aesthetic, that has had the likes of Rihanna, Bloc Party’s Kele and Erykah Badu getting their people in touch with his for some deep-fried Scottish beat heat, is a definite ravey influence. Right down to the use of some sounds that otherwise might have been left in the dusty cupboard alongside Vicks vapourub, smiley faces, Altern-8 records and mobs of white boys with whistles.

“Well growing up there was always tapes of rave stuff, hardcore and jungle and I think that’s obviously rubbed off in the music that I make. But I agree a lot of it is in sounds and feels, rather than actually trying to make music that is influenced by that. That’s not really what I’m about.”

I find your music very animated, as if you can almost see the parts moving.

“Yeah that’s exactly it. When I’m writing it is almost as if I can see what I want the drums to do, not actually visually, but if I close my eyes. I definitely do have an image in my head of where everything should sit in a song. I try to do that, not to get sucked into staring at the computer screen for too long, because it’s not really conducive to creativity. I’ll sit in the dark listening with headphones on over and over again, to try and achieve the point of view of a listener, or I’ll take a pen and paper and write things down, just to get away from being stuck in front of the computer and having that affect how you make music. So animated is probably a good description.”

With Fruity Loops you’re using a relatively simple program that should help that process then?

“It does, definitely. Because if you don’t think of music as just being moving blocks of sound around, then it’s going to be a lot more interesting. I’m not really interested in trying to make records like anyone else but I am interested in making sounds that people might not have heard before.”

And just as it was getting good, and we were beginning to talk about the music in some depth, I had to halt the conversation and let the next interviewer have their shot. Damn your shower Mr Mohawke, don’t you know you can do a phone interview without being clean and pristine (and sounding like you’re still half way through your morning ablutions for the first couple of parries). I mean I never even reached the really big questions - like Rangers or Celtic? Whether he grew up reading Oor Wullie and The Broons? Or an in-depth discussion of the majesty of Scottish baking. etc etc. Where’s the justice?

As it goes I’ve been pleasantly and gently stunned by 'Butter' (I suspect that gentle is a word that wouldn't come up too often around HM's gear). It’s time and a place music for me, not something I want to stick on every day, but whenever I do, I repeatedly find new layers of complexity emerging, and am constantly struck by the fact that for all the noise and tricky editing, the Glaswegian geez has got a really strong melodic sensibility. I know he's got a bit of a prog thing going on in his listening habits, but I had been keen to find out how far he'd delved into Steve Reich/Philip Glass/John Adams kind of axis, as I can definitely detect similarities with some of his treatments, though of course his are tiny shards in relatively truncated pieces, the kind of things that ambient trio could work into an hour long piece, at the very least.

I look forward to seeing how his music develops, and there’s plenty to suggest that he’ll be still standing when the wonky-wagon has trundled out of focus to be replaced by whatever journalistic conceit (nueva cumbient…anyone? thought not) comes next.

'Butter' is spreaderizing in a store near you right now, or next week if you’re of the Southern Hemispherical persuasion, I don’t think I need to clarify that this is some gregariously grove-laden ghee. Hey come on, I got through the whole thing with nary a slightly past its sell-by date buttery reference, so I'm entitled to at least three at the end!

It’s on Warp so it’s incredibly easily accessible hence no buy link needed this time around

HudsonMohawkespace

Up till next weekend Hudson Mohawke on Benji B’s show Some cracking gear on this.

You expect some music here right? Follow this link to XLR8R and a 192 of the stunning 'Rising 5' which has been terrorizing the b-Nets of late.