Tuesday 16 September 2008

Classical Music Meets Hip Hop DJ

The title pretty much says it all.
They pull this off because each guy is very good in their field. Neither gets in the other's way which makes the whole performance really professional.

Coming soon, a dj and a guy with a kazoo.


Thursday 11 September 2008

9/11 Anniversary

I had the great fortune to visit New York City in February, 1998. The weather wasn't brilliant but that didn't matter because the experience far outweighed a bit of rain. It was like being on a gigantic movie set; busy, bustling, energising. Everywhere I looked it seemed I'd seen it before in some film - and I probably had.
One day I visited Wall Street. I went by subway and was very disappointed in the state of the trains - they were so clean!
I remember looking up at the Twin Towers and just feeling the awesomeness of these huge iconic buildings, the power was just immense.



Listen to Steinski's 9/11 tribute track.



Immense....




View from the Ferry





Outside Madison Square Garden - feel the energy

And that's me.....



The sound of da police

Wednesday 10 September 2008

The Brits Are Coming!

I was sent this email today.


Sent: Wednesday, September 10, 2008 1:34 PM
Subject: Message from the Queen of England

To the citizens of the United States of America from Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

In light of your failure in recent years to nominate competent candidates for President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately. Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths, and territories (except Kansas , which she does not fancy).

Your new Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, will appoint a Governor for America without the need for further elections. Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire may be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed.

To aid in the transition to a British Crown dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:
(You should look up "revocation" in the Oxford English Dictionary.)

1. Then look up aluminium, and check the pronunciation guide. You will be amazed at just how wrongly you have been pronouncing it.
2. The letter 'U' will be reinstated in words such as "colour", "favour", "labour" and "neighbour." Likewise, you will learn to spell "doughnut" without skipping half the letters, and the suffix '-ize' will be replaced by the suffix '-ise'. Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. (Look up "vocabulary").
3. July 4th will no longer be celebrated as a holiday.
4. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers, or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you're not quite ready to be independent. Guns should only be used for shooting grouse. If you can't sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist then you're not ready to shoot grouse.
5. All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will start driving on the left side with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables. Both roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.
6. The former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have been calling gasoline) of roughly $10/US gallon. Get used to it.
7. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips, and those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called crisps. Real chips are thick cut and fried in animal fat.
8. The cold tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all. Henceforth, only proper British Bitter will be referred to as beer, and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as lager. South African beer is also acceptable as they are pound for pound the greatest sporting nation on earth and it can only be due to the beer. They are also part of British Commonwealth - see what it did for them. American brands will be referred to as Near-Frozen Gnat's Urine, so that all can be sold without risk of further confusion.
9. You will cease playing American football. There is only one kind of proper football; you call it soccer. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which has some similarities to American football, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full Kevlar body armour like a bunch of nancies).
10. Further, you will stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the World Series for a game which is not played outside of America. Since only 2.1% of you are aware there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable.
11. An internal revenue agent (i.e. tax collector) from Her Majesty's Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all monies due (backdated to 1776). Tea Time begins promptly at 4 pm with proper cups, with saucers, and never mugs, with high quality biscuits (cookies) and cakes; plus strawberries (with cream) when in season.

God Save the Queen!


n.b. Before I get any anti-British emails, please take the above with a pinch of salt. View it in the same way as you view Monty Python and Benny Hill.

Sunday 7 September 2008

Streetsounds Electro 3 (1984)




So here we go at last with Electro 3!

Divine Sounds' Dollar Bill kicks off the album and is cut up by Mastermind just a little in the intro. In fact the refrain, "what people do for money" is what I've always known this song as rather than its other title. It's a cautionary tale of what a little cash can make ordinary citizens do with such stories as Hollywood, hard times and robbery, Green Card issues.
A sampler was used for the 'fresh' scratch which is quite impressive as this is still 1984 and it must've cost about half a million quid. Or something.

A synth line comes in just before the 8-minute mark to denote the start of The Imperial Brothers. Now this is electro. I love this track with its classic 808 beats and those handclaps. There's some nice scratching using many of the hooks and bits that were around at the time. And Herbie gets into the mix, too with some brilliant editing introducing Jam On It. The production on Newcleus' track is so good that you can't dismiss it with its use of the 'chipmunk' voices that may have had a detrimental effect in the hands of anyone other than the founder of Jam-On Productions, Cozmo D.
Cozmo is still around and can be heard on Global Funk Radio on a Friday Night.

Side 2 begins with an ode to the Zodiac signs courtesy of the Boogie Boys. I personally would have been happier with Break Dancer which was also on the Zodiac 12" as this is a real b-boy jam.
Soon enough we hear the intro of King Of The Beat from Pumpkin which is actually a really simple song; drum, scratch, minimal vocals and snatches of synth. Not to detract at all from it but its a real testament to Pumpkin that he was able to create such a great record with it's simplicity.

Davy DMX's One For The Treble (Fresh) is the sort of song that doesn't ever get old. There's a lot of good ideas here from the nice, moving bassline to the filtered scratches and clever drum programming. The Rap Mix I was never a fan of as the track didn't need anything other what Davy had already done.

Herbie cuts in the Fresh 3 MC's Fresh just as Davy is cutting up Fab 5 Freddy and further proves his prowess on the GLI. The Fresh 3 MC's; whatever happened to them? We need more backwards rap!

And so ends Streetsounds Electro Volume 3. The Electro age is still young but growing more confident. The names still suggest a dawning, more futuristic space age with Newcleus and Zodiac that will always be ever-present with the Electro tag. Drum machines and synths still punctuate the air with only slight touches of 'real' sounds from Davy DMX's snatches of Bob James.

Electro 4 will soon come with yet more forays into space. Watch this.......space


Download Electro 3

Friday 5 September 2008

Phat Friday 05/09/2008

It's back!
Apologies for the lack of Phat Fridays (and posts in general) but my PC is not the fastest and my connection is beyond bad (128 kbps at the time of writing).



CLASSIC


1988
- JVC Force - 'Strong Island (Blue Mix)' - A classic song but in a slightly different mix.

SLEPT ON


1992
- K-Solo-'Letterman' - Kevin Madison was always tucked away within Erick & Parrish's Hit Squad crew but real heads knew what time it was.



BREAK TO THE BEAT; THE VERSION EXCURSION


1974
- Bob James - 'Nautilus' -

One of the greatest breaks of all time is this. Originally on the album, One this is one song that can be heard as the source of many famous hip hop tracks as well as being just a classic break in itself. Pure class.
This one's for Waxer....




SeeqPod - Playable Search

p.s. Any suggestions for future entries or advice on how to get a faster internet connection email me!

Tuesday 2 September 2008

Steinski Dance Invite #2




Here's another special and unique club night audio flyer from the king of the cut-up, Steinski. This is around 1991/92 as originally broadcasted on London's KissFM.


Download mp3 (roughly 3mb)

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