Dropping the Stinkbombs - A brand new Stinkmix for nix

Well... the original idea was to be getting some podcastery action up here, with some of my radio honed, inane mumbling atop the musical malarkey, however a more prudent consideration suggests it would be far better and quicker to fling up the latest Stinkbombs, the first since November '08. It's a shade over a 100 MB's all up, so I've split it into two and they are available from a choice of folks via Sharebee below, just follow them links and pick your download receptacle. Pretty much every track is very deliberately tagged with stings and diabolical dialogueical nonsense, so as ever if you want them tunes there's easy links to buy 'em, please support the artists and labels.... serious biz, nearly all of them are actively available and just a click away!

Also took this opportunity to include a few of Jason Burgess' cracking JA shots (Barrington, Lady Saw, Roof Intl van etc) from our visitation in 1993 (and a couple from a previous trip of Jason's), that's re-energised me on getting some more of these posted, so look out.

STINKBOMBS 808 - HEAVWEIGHT HONKING

Download link Part 1 (Tracks 1-11) (55.16MB) Zip

Download link Part 2 (Tracks 12-23 & cover PDF) (50.48 MB) Zip

1. The General - Jahdan Blakkamoore (Liondub International)

Matt Shadetek and Lion Dub lay down an impossibly heavy, minimal rhythm at a dubstempo while Jahdan drops one of his best vocals yet, it's fire and frikkin ice business. Enormous things to come methinks from the Jahdan, Dutty Artz camp and related breadrun.

Buy (I copped it local from Samurai)

Jahdanspace

Liondubspace

DuttyArtzspace check their blog on the panel right over there

2. Murderation - Unknown/RSD (Love Is The Key)

Big, big, big tune that I slept on when it was initially released, one of those that a 30 second online sample can just sound like 'meh another blend'. Oh no it's not, anything but that.... this is exceptional. A copy, pretty literally, fell into my hands, which is well handy as it appears pretty hard to find these days. Best place to start looking would be here, if you want to be relieved of upwards of 25 Euros.

Love the photo of Barrington out the back of Bobby Digital's, that waistcoat and the decidedly un-macho white Jeep that he was driving at the time with his Lipstick label logo made for quite an ..ahem interesting spectacle!

RSDspace

More Rob Smith here

Beenie

Rob Smith

Barrington Levy in the yard at Digital B, Kingston '93. Courtesy Jason Burgess.

Barrington at Sunsplash, Kingston '93. Courtesy Jason Burgess.

'Murderation' is an unadorned white label, this is the original classic.

3. One - Aardvarck (Bloom/White)

Don't know much about Dutch dude Aardvarck (Mike Kivits) apart from I haven't really been too down with the little gear I've heard of his before this mighty, mysterious, untitled white label 'Bloom 1' EP. A bit of further investigation reveals he's got some interesting gear bubbling, so what do I know? Not much... except this is a killer, very hard to find now and the follow up 'Bloom 2' sold out in a week. Heavy!

Buy digital-lee

Aardvarckspace

4. Gold Dust - Earl Sixteen (Roots Garden)

5. Herb Dust - Nick Mansseh/Roots Garden Crew (Roots Garden)

Have ranted about these, previously... here, so check that for links, stinks, shits and giggles. This is a little foundation stone breather after the subsonic attackment of the intro trio.

Earl Sixteen & Nick Manasseh

6. Vampire - Chezidek (Massive B)

7. What U Fighting For - Burro Banton (Massive B)

A brace of boomshots on Massive B, the NYC label that should be due for some sort of civic recognition for their phenomenal strike rate and staying power, over many years. Mr Konders rarely mis-fires, and this lick of 'Declaration Of Rights' is teflon tough and frill free. Chezidek's 'Inna Di Road' album, handled by Bobby for Greensleeves is one of the best reggae/dancehall albums of recent times in my estimation, and 'Vampire' is one of the highlights. Burro does what Burro does, admirably, just ramping up the anticipation for his recording session with The Bug to be unleashed upon us.

Buy Chezi from NYC

or Burro from Japan

Chezidekspace

Burrospace

Chezidek

Burro

Chezideks album is still available and it's beyond fire, like molten or something....

The Rt Hon Bobby Konders

8. Bad Man Gon Cry - Lady Saw (Big Yard)

Rattled on about this here.

Still available, Beat Merchants have it for the local yokels.

Or Buy ponline

Lady Saw at Sunsplash '93 shots c/o Jason Burgess.

9. Hustle - Collie Buddz (Massive B)

Huuuuge tune chopping up Barrington's timeless 'Prison Oval Rock', once again from New York's finest, Massive B. Everything about Collie Buddz just seems so incredibly wrong, and he looks ultra-irritating... but then he just keeps coming up with fire, the kind of feu that overcomes all obstacles and hinderances. I'm well partial to the flip of this 'Herb Tree' which is yet more lyrical license about vegetable matter - boasted, toasted and darkly roasted.

Buy

CollieBuddzspace

10. Smell Good - Captain Barkey (Roof International)

Couldn't resist sliding in this olfactory 90's gem from Barkey, 'put up yu hands if you know yu smell good!!!', indeed. Wouldn't do if the smell bad posse were putting up their hands/arms and other odious appendages now would it! All pungent punning aside this is a killer tune, produced by Courtney Cole, and it very nearly sent the mix off on an unexpected 90's tangent but I managed to hold back...this time.

Buy re-issue

CaptainBarkeyspace

More photographic funda from Jason Burgess below with the Roof International mobile record shop, guess these are a thing of the past now, too. However Truck Back productions who came up with Erup's 'Click Mi Finger' (and the Dashboard & Gearbox rhythms etc) do all their recording in the back of a container truck in Kingston, so the extra ordinary vehicular vibes live on in JA culture.

11. Hussling - Busy Signal (Birch Hill)

12. Tek Back Yard - Beenie Man (Birch Hill)

13. Selassie Love We - Vybz Kartel (Birch Hill)

14. Baddaz Rhythm - Birch Hill Crew (Birch Hill)

Ok it may not be much more than a slight (but skillfully done) embellishment on Dave Kelly's monstrously mighty Joyride rhythm but who cares? This is stencherific, and then some. Christopher Birch updates with aplomb and Busy, Beenie and Vybz all represent proper and correct in the voicing booth. Things get a little over-ethusiastic with the Kaos pad around these parts... such is life.

Buy 'em

Busyspace

Beeniespace

Vybzpace

Busy getting his Bubbles on, as a paperboy for the day

Vybz looking lairy.

15. Bolivia - El Remolon (ZZK)

16. Aqui Princesa (Marcelo Fabian Rmx) - Princesa (Soot)

17. Calzada Rhythm - Chancha Via Circuito (ZZK)

18. Elsa (Sonido Martines Rmx ft Fefe) Los Destellos (Soot)

This little portion threatened to take over the mix, it's so good to have an injection of fresh cumbionic vinyl. Basically there's three indispensable 12"s that anyone with a penchant for nuevo-cumbia hoo-ha should peruse and pursue with great rapdity...they are..

El Remolon's storming 6 tracker 'Pibe Cosmo'

Soot's all-star magnificent remixery.

The Chancha Via Circuito EP, that goes a treat with his Rodante album

Buy El Remolon

Buy Nueva Cumbia Argentina

Buy Chancha Via Circuito 12"

Sootspace

SonidoMartinespace

ElRemolonspace

ZZKspace

More wibbling about Chancha Via Circuito here

El Remolon

Marcelo Fabian

Chancha Via Circuito

Los Destellos

Sonido Martines (this fellers mixdiscs are beyond crucial)

19. Guajira Sicodelica - Los Destellos (Vampi Soul)

From the superbly named 'This LP Crashes Hard Drives', which was put together by the fine people at Vampi Soul, Finders Keepers, Sublime Frequencies, Honest Jons, Numero Group, Jazzman, Daptone, Now Again, Light In The Attic and Timmion... phew. For my money this has got be the best, gregariously genre-free compilation thus far this year, and it's encased in a meaty gatefold sleeve, as befits a release specifically designed to celebrate Record Store Day.

This cut from the 'Cumbia Beats Collection' is Peruvian mellow psych chicha fever, holy hell!

Buy it from Conch or here

VampiSoulspace

Vampi Soul site

Couldn't resist another Los Destellos shot, they're giving Barrington a run for his money!

20. Psychedelic Circus - The Time & Space Machine (5D)

Read all about it here.

21. Major Blitzkreig - Higamos Hogamos (DC Recordings)

On the strength of what I've heard so far, the self titled Higamos Hogamos album is very much at the top of my shopping list. This single kinda out-Depth Charges, Depth Charge - which is major points and prizes round my gates. That delightful situation is enhanced by the a storming J Saul Kane mix that takes up the whole of the flipside. There's also a surprisingly superb bonus, a percusso-pressure-cooker from Ed Banger artiste Mickey Moonlight, an alliterated gent I need to investigate further. It's an embarrassment of riches really, as most DC Recordings 12"s are, I opted for the brief and blistering original version at the last minute when I was whacking this mix together, it's very very hard to argue with.

Buy

More Higamos Hogamos here

22. Driving This Road Until Death Sets You Free - Zombie Zombie (Versatile)

I'm startled, nay shocked, by the fact that I haven't posted about this mercurial French duo who come on like a modern day Silver Apples tussling it out kraut-fu style with John Carpenter on the soundtrack to a psychedelic, slightly sick, dimly lit, autoroute thriller movie... or something like that. It was their right renking remix for Kelpe last year that motivated chasing their album 'A Land For Renegades' up, and it's subsequently become a real favourite. These decidedly un-mindless, synth and basheria merchants are definitely a pair to keep les yeux on, I reckon.

Buy from Piccadilly on all formats or CD is cheap here

ZombieZombiespace

23. 2080 - Subeena (Imminent)

I read an intriguing review about this 12" from Subeena on Imminent by the venerable John Eden on his Uncarved blog, and didn't connect that it was the same disc when I ordered it. He was right, it's an untypical wee gem and from a little synchronous investigatory behaviour it turns out that Subeena is hooked up with the mighty Coco Solid from their linkage at the RBMA in Barcelona. Small world and all that, but it takes a large tune to finish off a little mix and this does the biz.

Buy

Subeenaspace

Messed-up mix-up, no blend.

With that pesky Top 100 tunes finally over, and a lesson learnt for this novice blogger, it feels like time for a few little low-stress posts, for a bit of balance. Well.... that's what I imagined, though typically it has got more complicated, divergent and long winded in the process.

There's been a few fresh gems touching down on wonderful wax this week, that have had me hanging around the decks like a man entranced. We spoke of 'Roots Garden Showcase 2' a week or two back, with the impossibly up-full Earl Sixteen cut 'Gold Dust' leaving purchase inevitable, well that and Nick Manasseh's veritably vital dub. None of the other vocals (Freddie McGregor, Danny Red etc) have really reached me in the same way, though somewhat predictably there's absolutely no complaint with any of the versions. With dub becoming an even more mis-used and overly bandied-about term (especially round these parts), it's refreshing to hear some proper modern tackle, from a man who knows his way around a mixing board, and has classical music training to boot.

That arrived with a bunch of cuts on Shane 'Jukeboxx' Brown's 'Dubwise' rhythm, which is a timeless treasure that is thankfully done justice with the quality of the vocal cuts. True to form it's Busy Signal's 'Spliff Tail' that has been getting the rub of the stinky green, but Assassin's 'Priority' is also a very tough contender, with Peetah's 'Warzone' and Beenie's 'Love Is Lovely' rounding out a package that is even stronger than the 'Nylon'. Particularly loving the little extended outro on 'Spliff Tail', and the version is sublime, but I aint posting that ... so buy a 7" or the series purlease.

(buy) or Beat Merchants would be the spot for local yokels

(Assassinspace)

(Assassinweb)

Signor Signal ponders...hmmm...find his myspace and web details all over this blog

Assassin looking windswept and interesting

 

SPLIFF TAIL - BUSY SIGNAL

PRIORITY - ASSASSIN

Picking up that handsome little stack from the fresh shipment of Ernie B-age at Beat Merchants,  it looked like I'm far from alone in rating this one, with Jukeboxx 7"s in almost every lucky customers pile. 

Another popular selection will surely be Lady Saw's 'Bad Man Goin Cry' which comes with a choice pairing up of the veteran outlaw Josey Wales and that man Assassin again on the flip. The rhythm is of course little more than a whopping great chunk of 'La La Means I Love You' by the Delfonics, as used by Ghostface to stunning effect on 'Holla'. It's a long time personal favourite in the utterly sodden soppy songs department round at Stinky Mansions, and potty mouthed Mz Saw is just the lass to give its some estrogenic sass. For good measure have a slurp on the sumptuous original and the late Alton Ellis's sweet version for Treasure Isle. I have a few more versions up my sleeve, quite a few more, but let's try and employ some moderation for once.

(buy) or BM in NZ

(Sawspace)

BAD MAN GOIN CRY - LADY SAW

(buy) yourself a little OG la la on cee dee

(buy) the brilliant Impalaville mix CD by NYC legend Johnny Paycheck which includes this cut and 27 other crucial portions of musical comfort food (soul, latin, r'n'b and other pertinent late night riding joints) done up as a rocking radio show. This is a  big Sunday favourite round our gaff, seriously.. seriously.. worth checking.

LA LA MEANS I LOVE YOU - DELFONICS

(buy) the Alton Ellis  7" or
(buy) it on this crammed 3 CD Treasure Isle comp for a piffling price 

LA LA MEANS I LOVE YOU - ALTON ELLIS

Right.... before I got off on that tangent, I had another tangent in mind which related to Assassin, an artist who just never seems to get the respect he should. As is witnessed on 'Priority', and his criminally under-rated and enjoyably wide-screen 'Gully Sitt'n' album from a couple of years back, he's often lyrically exceptional and far more flexible than many of his more celebrated contemporaries. I was supposed to interview him around the time of that album, but disappointingly it fell through. However moving further tangentially south I have been giving a bit of thought to the untouchable Madhouse supremo Dave Kelly and his spar Cham following an excellent post and robust discussion (which I chimed in at the end of) on wayneandwax. I had a natter with Cham from his Miami family home (replete with bawling pickneys in the background) prior to the release of the 'Ghetto Story' album, and after getting his diplomatic responses to the plethora of do-overs of the title track, and his less diplomatic but still well reasoned thoughts on Beenie and Bounty and their beef and grief towards him, the subject of Assassin came up. I rated his response, though I don't think it made it into the final piece.

"I've had people in JA say Assassin sound like you, people have wanted me to have beef with him, but yet still I've grown to know the individual and see that this kid has so much potential. We even recorded the man on two of our beats, we even called him on stage so people can see I aint dealing with none of that bad mind, trying to hold down someone. I reached out to Dave and told him, ‘we need to get this kid on a beat, give him some guidance’. I don't understand the beefing, when them talk about personal things in songs, that isn't lyrics, that isn't competition. If you want that lets make crazy, big tunes, see who can do that for 5 years."

Even though Atlantic made a hot mess out of promoting his album, and it suffered a mild case of Kardinalitus with it's overstuffed guest list, he's clearly on another path to those he came up with. His phenomenally successful working partnership with Kelly has resulted in an artist who can come up with something as gully and sincere as Ghetto Story or Conscience that hits like a scud at street level, yet also speak easily and knowledgeably about radio PD's, marketing and reading books to get his mentality on a different level.

He said a lot of smart stuff, and reading back through it, I particularly like his response when I asked him whether it was hard to contain himself to a few releases a year in complete contrast to almost everyone else in the JA industry.

"That’s the thing about it when I just started out because I had so many things to say it was a little hard, because you have so much inside you that you want to say two songs, three songs a day. Until I bought into the system, I saw that the system was really working,  separating me from the pack. At the end of the day what I got to realise was, I went to do a song for this producer and meanwhile I was recording he wasn’t even giving me pointers. Like nothing, he wasn’t even telling me to stop. When I finished recording I said to him ‘are you going to listen to it again to make sure it’s alright?’ And his remark was ‘nah that’s cool you were bought up by the great Dave Kelly’. That means if something gone wrong you’re not even going to hear, you’re just happy that you’ve got a Cham on tape and you can bargain a certain amount of money for that. So from thereon then I never even look at producers, whether they’re going to serve me good or not I just stick to the one because Dave is the type of guy who if I’m in the studio, and it’s not right he will send me home with it. No matter how famous or popular I got, that’s the same from day one. We do it again and again, until it right. Next producer’s not going to bother with that, he just knows it’s Cham, 'I know I can sell a couple of units, I can bargain X amount of money with a distributor for that'. I’m afraid of people hearing stuff out there that’s not up to the par that I’m really capable of doing."

There was a lot more worthwhile stuff and I would consider tidying up the transcript and posting the whole fandangle but I reckon thats more (like several thousand words) than most folks would want to read, let me know if you don't think that's so. So just to be contrary to what Cham just said I'm posting a brand new, non-Kelly, Cham track with him riding the young genius McGregor's 'Adovcate' rhythm. This ones a grower, unlike the clips below which were both instantaneous love at first site biz.

DEM FI KNOW DAT - CHAM