This week has thrown up two great riddims that seem to have taken their names from the PC World catalogue: Jump Drive and Fyah Wyah. The Jump Drive riddim, from Kirkledove, features 3 songs from Busy. Yes 3. And ain't none of them bad (are you surprised?...as if). It's a real brass-filled uplifter, another killer throwback sound. Fyah Wyah is a rougher, synth-driven Ward 21 production and features all 3 of the TNT crew (above) on their own versions. It made me think back to when Ward 21 released the ladies only, Dem Gal Sitt'n riddim [...]
The windrush pickney, MC Serocee, after having provided vocals on some huge tunes of late, from MJ Cole and Toddla T to the South Rakkas Crew, finally steps out on his own. As expected, it's some serious cross-over madness, combining electro, dancehall and funky. Bring in the xylophone for me now please... Serocee - Badeng
New Riddims/tunes are coming thick and fast this month, with big Riddims like Bad People (see below) and The Dream struggling for space on my Ipod, no power ballad synths or cheesy cod-Oriental instrumentation? NO LIKEY. But of all of the new Riddims this month The Shaolin Temple Riddim is my ichiban (number one). Unfortunately not a remake of the classic Barrington Levy original of the same name but a whole new bouncy, Shamisen sampling banger. Beenie Man - Drama (Shaolin Temple Riddim) Further shocking vibes can be [...]
For a minute I thought I might be going off Mavado. I thought maybe his wailing was too much for me; 'Don't Worry' was making me have emotional epiphanies in the street. Then, shortly after hearing his newest offers, a little voice in my head screamed AS IF. His addition to the Roof Top riddim, 'House top', is a mid-tempo cracker. (FYI Flippa Mafia's 'Nah lef him again' on the riddim is also great.) But it's when Mr. Brooks gets together with Stephen McGregor that you get the pure fire winners, from the guilty pleasures of [...]
Yes it's Trinidad Carnival time, and I've been filling my days with Soca. If I close my eyes and listen to a bit of Machel or Bunji, it's almost like it's not pissing it down with rain and cold as a witch's nipple outside. So I made a rough mix of stuff I'm digging for you to be able to do the same. Palance! Tracklist: Fay Ann Lyons & Macka Diamond - Still Spend (Picture Frame) Ms Alysha - Click Click (Picture Frame) Benjai feat. Scarface - Tanty Say (La Douma) Busy Signal - Gal need [...]
Hot Wuk have been doing it so large this year (might have something to do with booking us a few weeks back, hah!) and are continuing this proud new tradition next week (the 25th) with garage don Mighty Moe from London's infamous Heartless Crew dropping in to bless the masses with an exclusive Bashment set. To get you in the mood, check out this old school set HC recorded for Rinse FM, total nostalgia trip! SHOCKING VIBES. Heartless Crew Live on Rinse FM In other, slightly more sombre news [...]
2010 is really pulling in the goods. And the frogs it would seem. Steely and Clevie's mid-90s amphibian anthem - the Frog riddim - has been re-licked for the now thanks to Truck Back records. There's nothing but toppa top artists on the new Steel Frog riddim : Capleton, Macka Diamond, Mr. Vegas, Elephant Man, Mr Lexx. It's riddims like these that make it hard to rebuke the argument that dancehall has gone a little downhill since the golden Steely era. Capleton - Lip lip lip (Steel Frog riddim) [...]
Merciless returns this month, still smarting from his rather unsuccessful performance at Sting last year where he left the stage unfulfilled after calling out pretty much every other artist appearing at the festival to clash with.. unfortunately these challenges were met with silence from both sides of the stage. I find this hard to believe, as Merciless is a badman of the highest order. Check the slackness on 'Hand Gun' (don't know the riddim, can anyone help me there?) gun talk is seldom witty and never inventive but Merciless manages both here. The lyrics come off like an [...]
What do you get when you cross Dancehall's biggest joker with RnB's most notorious nutter?... Elephant Man covering R Kelly's 'World's Greatest'! Boy, it's good. 'The World's Greatest', a tribute to the world's greatest boxer, Muhammed Ali, is an epic, gospel-filled, hand-lifting sing-a-long. It's supposed to be an emotional number, (but then so is Trapped in the Closet so...). Of course, Elephant Man thinks this is totally translatable to his relationship with guns (to be honest everything is for him). Balls to those silly metaphors that Kelly uses - being a 'mountain', or a 'tall tree', Ele goes [...]
Following Chris Goldfinger's performance last week (Gabriel Heatwave tells me there's audio to come), Shimmy Shimmy will be spinning this Thursday at the Big Chill House. Get yourself there.
This new track from Collie Buddz, 'Phonecall' signals a return to form for the Bermudean singjay. Not sure what the phone call could be about, maybe Collie is asking his manager how many drops he should have on his new album... the answer? ONE Collie Buddz - Phone call
Yes the man with the midas touch, Chris Goldfinger , is gonna be ramming the dancehall at Hot Wuk this Thursday, alongside usual residents, The Heatwave and Sticky. To celebrate his guest appearance, The Heatwave have kindly dusted off an old Goldfinger BBC recording - from 2003, so we're talking cassette conversion here. It's got some classic riddims on there, hot off the press at the time: Diwali, Surprise, Buzz, Renegade. We'll be heating up Hot Wuk the following Thursday, 4th February. Not a hard act to follow or anything! [...]
I'm back from a journey through the wilderness, dear readers. Searching, feeling my way through a plethora of mediocre trax to bring you nothing but the hypest of the hype, the hottest of the hot, the chilliest of the chill. Speaking of the wilderness, it seems AZ has seemingly been lost in it since his prodigious debut Doe or Die in 1995, this looks all set to change this year with Doe or Die 2 out midway through 2010 (AZ is obviously from the Raekwon school of lazy LP naming) and a new working relationship with super [...]
2010 has just brought in the Clock Riddim , featuring Konshens, TOK and Lutan Fyah. It ain't the first time dancehall has focussed on the timepiece. In fact, reggae, like music as a whole, has its obsessions with time. Hard times , Good times , Party time , Armagideon time , need I go on. Simpleton named his brilliant '96 album 1/4 to Twelve, featuring 'Nuh watch nuh clock' (is he watching it, or does he have neither a watch nor a clock? Genius). You think his track 'The Chronic' is [...]
Vivian Jackson, aka Yabby You, 14 August 1946 - 12 January 2010.
This Friday we're heading Souf for a party with 90s kings (and queens) Work It! It's gonna bang, get there: 442 Brixton Road, from 9pm. Seeing as it's Typically Tropical and Trini Carnival is on its way, we'll be cracking out some seriously bumpy numbers, like my current favourite riddim, the Spider Web riddim. Think you can handle Macka Diamond? Shimmy think you can handle the bumper... Macka Diamond - Think you can handle it By the way, if anyone else was disappointed by this year's Sting (I think [...]
Moving into 2010 with some of our top artists from 09 clubbing together. Busy Signal meets Major Lazer's 'Pon de floor'. Gosh, I can't wait for JA getting on the international riddims this year. Before Funky Bashment hits the bigtime, here's some bashy electro vibes, HOT HOT HOT! Busy Signal - Pon Me
Gosh JA produced some riddims extraordinaire this year: England Town , Trippple Bounce , Style & Swagga , Go Go Club , Street Bullies , not to mention Barbados' Crop Over . 09 Bangers Apart from the tunes named below, here are the biggest bangers I can remember : Demarco - She can't wait Busy Signal - Da style deh Mavado - Never believe you Killa [...]
Before I crack out my customary breakdown of the year, here's a couple of new things that are blowing the speakers round our way. Goodbye Gully/Gaza....Hello....Gully/G aza. Yeah, Vybz and Mavado managed to put their differences aside and let bygones be bygones . But now the clash baton seems to have been passed to two young guns, by the names of Stacious (Gully) and Lisa Hype (Gaza). I know, yawn. Lisa Hype (above with Vybz Kartel and Gaza Indu) has had her photo all over the internet of her [...]
This really should have been posted weeks ago, but here it is in all its belated glory - our first podcast for London Fields Radio, a new radio station based in...you guessed it. You can hit their website here. We've made an hour of our latest and greatest, there's not really any particular rhyme or reason to our choices, just the dancehall we love, mostly from the last few months and some older faves. And you get to hear our voices. Lucky you right? SHIMMY SHIMMY PODCAST FOR LONDON FIELDS [...]
Shimmy Shimmy
Bison - Quill
Neutral Milk Hotel- Aeroplane Over the Sea
Shinichi Osawa – Big Beach Mix 2012
Mr Fogg - Eleven
