We’ve woken up to a bright and sunny day here in London and just before a day of pottering about in the garden (or more likely, before the clouds go in!) here’s a wonderful bit of music to get you going.
It’s Chronixx doing a live set over some classic Studio 1 rhythms from his first appearance at Miss Lilys in New York City in 2012. Miss Lily’s looks a brilliant place, a restaurant, record shop and radio station, all they need now is a little garden centre at the back and it would be an ideal place for us here at weeds! Also, here’s a set Chronixx did there from back in 2014.
Some tunes to get you in mood for weeding, watering and taking off that horticultural fleece from the cold night just has gone (which you’ll more than likely be putting back on come this evening!).
A big shout to Jochen of Splintercell Sound out of Germany for getting in touch and for letting us use some great pics of his veg cultivation. He’s been growing veg for a good few years in a limited space using minimalist techniques but still gets some great results (as these images show!) with the aid of his greenhouse and some tricks learnt along the way!
Alongside growing other plants, he got fascinated with cultivating Bonsai. He read a lot about horticulture, studying books, blogs and online forums and did his first ‘experiments’ in the small yard of his parents house.
After school he completed an apprenticeship with a breeder of agricultural seeds, studied horticulture for one year, worked at the Federal Research Institute of Nutrition and Food and now is studying Urban Planning. Sounds like a good grounding for this veg growing lark!
Most of the plants are grown in pots as he only has limited space and has a small greenhouse on top of his carport (above). As he says “it’s urban gardening!” Brilliant!
He grows a lot of different vegetables and plants and always tries to use special strains and varieties. He told us one year nearly every plant was blue; blue potatoes, blue kohlrabies, blue carrots etc. Brilliant, well up my street as blue is one of my favourite colours but I am not sure what I think if it was served up on my dinner plate!
He also tries to grow something interesting like melons or special tomato or chili strains because of his limited space and he tells me that this years cucumber-harvest was amazing! I’ve only tried growing them outdoors twice and haven’t had much success but these below in his greenhouse look brilliant!
Even more up our street, he’s part of Splintercell Sound and also promote a regular party called “Feel like Jumping” in Münster where they play (rocksteady, early reggae and dancehall and conscious Rap.) Here’s a mix on their great soundcloud site (with lots of modern “roots” tunes!) which is well up our street :
It’s started to get a bit nippy out there now, so it will soon be out with the fleece, cloches and the like.
I’ve already stuck some pots that I reckon won’t make it outside in the plastic greenhouse for the time being and will be sticking some bubble wrap around them this weekend too for extra protection.
If it looks like it’s going to be a hard winter I might even stick the whole thing in the garage!
Dubmatix – Celebrate my love (featuring Jay Douglas) – Victor Rice Dub
Here’s a brilliant dub by Victor Rice of a track by Dubmatix I had no idea about until I heard it on the brilliant Addis Pablo live at Kingston’s Dub Club 3hr mix on youtube which we featured in a post a few weeks ago here.
And below is the vocal version which is great too, the both of them from a few years ago but still sounding very fresh! Two tunes that will blast any stubborn mould clinging onto the inside of your greenhouse windows!
Dubmatix – Celebrate my love (featuring Jay Douglas)
Found a couple of links to Kingston’s great Dub Club. Firstly a great 3hr youtube live mix including Addis Pablo and the suns of dub at the controls from last year. Brilliant is not the word. Tune after tune!
Also a great soundcloud page full of dub club mixes and related roots recordings.
Don’t call this a “roots revival” as it’s never been away!
A big thanks to Simon, Ricky and Paul at The Dirt (“a gardening show like no other“) on Fab Radio International for having our “sounds from the south” feature on the show. The Dirt is now available as a podcast on their web page here and also on i-tunes. Great stuff!
Have a listen tomorrow night live on Radio Fab International from 6-8pm if you fancy listening to a great gardening show with a difference, and if all goes well the second offering of “sounds from the south” will be aired around 6.20-6.30pm.
And don’t be fooled by the picture of the “cuddly bird” above, that’s no cuddly bird, that’s the Peckham Parakeet, and it could have your arm off if it wanted to. All will be revealed on tomorrow night’s “sounds from the south.”
The Impressions – Minstrel and Queen – ABC Paramount
A big shout to Phil Harmony for putting us in touch with Jackie and Robert from the Prince Valley Guesthouse (and the adjoining coffee farm there too) in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica and thanks to them for getting back to us.We’ll be featuring a piece on the guest house in the very near future and tonight looking at the pictures we have of it, this plant has really knocked us out. The two pictures taken by them show a plant called a Night Blooming Cereus, and what a plant! The flower only blooms at night, very fragrant and is only a very short lived affair. More on the guest house and their coffee farm very soon!
King Tubby’s – King At The Controls – Black & White
A big thanks to Si Diamond and all at The Dirt “a gardening show like no other” on Radio Fab International for having us on the show as from tomorrow night as a weekly feature. Listen out for “Sounds from the South” as part of the new format. The show’s going to be good, “something is coming” indeed!
We at weeds will be definitely cracking open a bottle of a major supermarket’s finest and tuning in tomorrow night from 6-8pm, I mean what’s the alternative, Deal or No Deal or Antiques Roadshow? Best of luck to The Dirt!
Big shout to our good friends Dr Strangedub and DJ Baby Swiss for the rebroadcast of “In The Garden Of Dub” part 1 of a mix for all dub gardeners, on this week’s Echo Chamber on KFAI. Before the mix is a rerub of my appearance on The Dirt the other week. Cheers for airing that!
Also on the show there’s some great new music from Phil Harmony, Nate Wize, Alpha Steppa, and more… Download it here.
Matumbi – Man Sized Rocker (Instrumental) – Matumbi Music Corp
A couple of good things to look forward to if you’re down the big smoke over the next few weeks. The great Dennis “Blackbeard” Bovell will be playing some tunes upstairs at The Ritzy Cinema, Brixton for nothing (how good is that!) as part of David Katz’ Dub Me Always on Wednesday 9th July. More details here at their Facebook page.
Before then as part of James Lavelle’s Meltdown on Sunday 22nd June there’s a free event down the Southbank called “Sunday Come Down” featuring Don Letts (Not Monty Don), James Lavelle and other top stuff as the day goes on. Let’s hope the weather keeps up. Here’s the line up cribbed from here. I’m sure it’ll change but it gives you clue what to expect. 12 noon – 1.30pm Don Letts 1.30pm – 2.30pm James Lavelle 2.30pm – 3pm Voicelab 3pm – 3.30pm JP Duncan 3.30pm – 4.15pm Jeremy Deller Acid Brass 4.15pm – 5.45pm Horsemeat Disco 5.45pm – 6.45pm James Priestley (Secretsundaze) 6.45pm – 7.15pm James Lavelle
Johnny Clarke – Hold on/King Tubby’s – The Baddest Version – Attack
This Saturday coming (June 14th) there’s a special screening of the Bunny Lee Film “I am the Gorgon” at the BFI, Southbank plus after a Q and A session with the director Diggory Kenrick and the narrator of the film and the legend that is Dennis Alcapone. There’s still a couple of tickets left for £6.50 here. I’m going and if I get a chance I’ll ask Dennis if he’s into gardening!
Weeds up to me knees 