Category Archives: Dub Gardeners of the world unite

The Blue Peter Garden at the grass roots of dub

Posted on by
Reply

Here’s a new mix from One Deck Pete called “An introduction to Dub Gardening” and goes out to all dub gardeners everywhere and we welcome contact from (dub and non dub) gardeners wherever they may be. Dedicated to the late Percy Thrower.
The mix features:
Augustus Pablo – Melody Dub
Soulware – Augmented Seed (Dub Version)
Biggabush – Beat Dem in Dub
Jasmine Tutum & Madtone – Return to the Branches (no hams mix)
Vassell Meka – Flowers Dub
Madtone – Compost your mind

We’re not completely sure where the Dub Gardening phrase originates from but it may (or may not and we apologise if it was somebody else) have something to our good friend across the pond Dr Strangedub (alongside DJ baby Swiss) who brings you the The Echo Chamber which is broadcast on KFAI every Wednesday morning from 8 am-Noon UK time here.

A good few ago the good doctor put together a gardening related mix called In The Garden of dub which is below and has also been featured up on Weeds a few times but well worth posting up again! Features lots of artists inluding Singers & Players (ft. Prince Far I), Earlyworm, Madtone, Finn The Giant, Juno Gad Allstars meet Earlyworm, Leroy Sibbles, Jah Wobble, Lee “Scratch” Perry, Bakshish, DubXanne (ft. Ranking Roger) and lots lots more. Big shout to all dub gardeners.

A journey through the cosmos

Posted on by
Reply
Big thanks to Debby H in north London who has sent us another great photograph of her cosmos patch that is looking brilliant even at the end of October. As Debby wrote “My cosmos plants are still producing an unbelievable amount of flowers for the time of year, and there’s more buds still coming! This is very similar to one that I sent to you previously but I have attached it just to show you the amount of flowers that are still blooming.” They certainly are blooming. Cheers Debby.

Dub Solidarity in south London

Posted on by
2

AUDIOTOPIA

THE SOLIDARITY SOUND SYSTEM

26 OCT 19:00-23:00

TACO! 2 Cygnet Square, THAMESMEAD SE2 9FA

To coincide with Gusty Ferro‘s Hello Neighbours, The Solidarity Sound System presents an evening of dub sounds and sonic experimentation.

From reverbs, echoes, and classic dub tunes, to low-frequency bass and experimental electronic aural affects, dub’s vast musical influence includes Hip Hop, Techno, D&B, Jungle, Drill and more.  But Dub’s wider social legacy is its construction of sonic and social free spaces, that parallel its emphasis on the modification, reuse and alteration of sound. DJs and performers include: Gusty Ferro, members of the Electronic Audio Club, Jesse Yuen, Florent Caillibotte, One Deck Pete, Diet Cola Sounds with more tbc.

The Solidarity Sound System is a community sound system built by members of RTM and the wider community in 2021 with the support of artist Clara Smith and funded by Three Rivers Bexley.

And in the afternoon of the 26th, Jesse Yeun will be presenting his excellent North Of The River Swan show live from TACO! from 4-6 pm with One Deck Pete playing a few records and having a bit of a natter. Tune in next Saturday at 4ish on the listen live link on this page here. This tune below may be played or may not.

We were going to post up an episode of North Of The River Swan but here’s another programme presented by Jesse called Golden Apples in Dub which features a great version excursion of “Baby I Love you so”/”King Tubby meets the rockers uptown” featuring a few different tunes we’d never heard of before including this one which is excellent!

Then after that feature ends is this wonderful tune from Bandulu which we still have on a John Peel show cassette somewhere. We forgotten how good it is and it was nice to hear it again. Tune in to RTM FM next week at 4pm.

From the lakes to across the pond

Posted on by
Reply

A big shout to our good friend across the pond Justin Patrick Moore for sending us pictures of his indoor plants that are now being transferred back into the house after a summer outside in the garden. That’s a great load of plants there.

As we’ve mentioned before, we’re not the best at keeping houseplants here but are getting better with the watering/non-watering days. Great pictures Justin!

Also here’s a great video with Justin giving an interesting talk about his excellent book The Radio Phonics Laboratory, more about that here. If you love radio and electronic music do give it a watch and get the book as it’s a great read.

Big up the Echo Chamber on KFAI

Posted on by
Reply

A big shout out to our good friends across the pond Dr Strangedub and DJ Baby Swiss of the excellent radio show The Echo Chamber on KFAI. As we’ve said before, if you want to hear reggae, dub, downbeat and beyond, tune in from 8 – 12 UK time on a Wednesday morning here for a cracking good show. At around 37 minutes into the 24th of July show you’ll hear Madtone‘s “Who’d be a pirate” just before a lovely garden related tune from Sister Julie called Garden Binghi.

Have a listen to the whole show here as it’s wonderful stuff! Thanks again the good Doctor!

Shortwave’s not hip? Who told you that?

Posted on by
1

On Sunday 7th July 2024 at 0900/1300 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and then at 2000 UTC on 6160 kHz and 3975 kHz the Imaginary Stations crew will be bringing you COOL 2 via the services of Shortwave Gold.

Expect entertainment of the summer vacation kind via the ionosphere. They’ll be a live BBQ in the studio with running commentary (plus amateur firefighter), a specialist towel folder to give you tips on how to place your towel on the sunlounger when reserving premier poolside seats, alongside some summer tunes. There’s a mix from our very own galloping gardener One Deck Pete with “A 7 inch single summer special” at 4 mins in featuring Earl Brown, Stereolab, Freda Payne, Anthony Johnson and Martel Robinson. So roll out the beach blanket, blow up that beach ball and get yourself comfy and tune into COOL 2.

Then via WRMI on Wednesday 10th July 2024 at 0200 UTC on 9395 kHz there’ll be the debut show of COOL which was broadcast to Europe the other week which we posted about here. Tune in and enjoy the “summer of shortwave” vibes.

Serving up the subsonic stew

Posted on by
Reply

A big shout to Dr Strangedub who alongside DJ Baby Swiss hosts the great Echo Chamber on KFAI. If you love Reggae, Dub and Downbeat you must tune in live here or to their archive show here. The programme goes out in Minneapolis + St. Paul on a Wednesday from 2 to 6am and that translates from 8 to noon here in the UK. It’s a wonderful show and one to listen to live if you’re an early starter. Tune in for some serious good tunes from the reggae spectrum and associated genres. We also thank our good mate Will J for originally informing us about the show many many years ago.

A big thanks goes out to Dr Strangedub for playing at 18.13 minutes in on this week’s show here for an early mix of Madtone‘s “Replace the soundcard” (though “Replace the hard drive” is a good title too Dr Strangedub!) amongst some great tunes over the four hours including this one from Dry & Heavy and that one from The Frightnrs. There’s also some tunes which were left over from last week’s Dread Western show here as well. A show to tune into. Big ta to our mates from across the pond!

Spring has spung?

Posted on by
1

We’re supposed going to be seeing highs of 19°C today in SE23 with a bit of a high wind and drizzle, madness! Looking around the garden this morning (to the beautiful audio background of swearing scaffolders working on the estate behind the bottom of our garden), it looks like sprung may have really sprung this time. Those seed spuds we put under the bin bags the other week (above) are starting to sprout (we had to lift the plastic to find the sprouts at first and give them some guidance) and there’s progress in the ones under the window frame even from a couple of days ago (below).

And meanwhile in Portland, Maine …

Thanks to our good radio/music friend Justin Patrick Moore for passing on a photo from his cousin Joseph taken in Portland on Thursday. Crazy weather indeed!

And here’s another in our series of Maunsell Seafort influenced music, a tune from Magic Panda out of Norfolk.

Spring is here (or just around the corner)

Posted on by
Reply

Cheers for Debby H for getting in touch with us today. She sent us a pic of daffodils in full bloom in a council maintained bed near her home in North London (above) and they look great!

Debby has recently started off some tomato and cosmos seeds. The cosmos seeds were straight off the flower heads of the plants they grew last year. After being left in a box all winter they were sown a couple of days ago. As she said: “We just scattered the whole dead heads on earth/compost and covered them over. We didn’t bother to try to separate out the seeds first. Within two days the little things were germinating madly!”  (Photo above). That is crazy! The seeds must have had exactly the right conditions that they loved as two days is good going for germination.

Debby told us a great tip that she used with the cosmos seedlings (pic above): “I re-planted some of them in an egg box as they were growing too densely. The idea Is that, when they are ready to go outside, I will cut the egg box into individual sections, then plant each section separately. As the egg box is made of cardboard it should bio-degrade so I won’t need to remove the seedlings from the box partitions before planting them.” That is a top idea, we have been using some biodegradable pots from B&Q but this idea is better. What we usually do with our egg boxes is chuck them on the compost heap but we reckon we’ll be putting seeds in them!

Cheers Debby, thanks again and look forward for more pics soon!

The Bedworth musical connection

Posted on by
2

The other week we had a bit of nostalgia for second-hand shops that smelt of damp and mould (Post here). Recently whilst going through records for a shortwave mix we found an ace LP called “Step Forward Youth” featuring Prince Jazzbo, I-Roy and The Aggrovators with a stamp from one of the shops we visited that day.

 

We checked on google to see what the shop is now and of course we weren’t expecting it to be Westminsters New and Used Furniture as we’re talking 1978/79. It was worth tapping it in though as what a nice suprise we had to see it now as Keith Richard’s Hairdressing. Great stuff, we love it!