Dub Solidarity in south London

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.

In an international instrumental style

Here’s the audio of yesterday’s Shortwave Gold broadcast of Skybird Radio International on 3975/6160 kHz.

The show is all about grooves from around this world of ours but this time it’s about the instrumental. There’s some wonderful eclectic music in a true worldwide style as usual from all of the Imaginary Stations DJ’s including DJ Frederick and Justin Patrick Moore.

At 29 seconds in is a mix from One Deck Pete, here’s the tracklistings:
Madtone – Diamonds in the sky (excerpt)
Hermanos Gutiérrez – Cumbia Lunar
Mouth – Ooh, Ahh, Yeah
BackYard Riddims/Tommy Khosla (Sitar) – SchaantiDub
Bob Keene Orchestra – Comin’ on Again
The Supersonics – Second Fiddle

Have a listen to the show as it’s brilliant and you’re welcome to add the singing bits yourself!

Who said electronica was boring

A big shout to our good friend actoss the pondJustin Patrick Moore (of the excellent The Radio Phonics Laboratory Book here) for passing on this great piece of electronica. It’s from GLOK / Timothy Clerkin with a lovely track called Empyrean. Starts pretty bonkers and gets even better, it’s a catchy bit of electronic malarkey. No idea what it reminds us of but it is great. Cheers Justin!

The sky’s the limit, the limit’s the sky’s

Here’s the audio of yesterday’s Skybird Radio International which was broadcast via the services of Shortwave Gold. It’s all about grooves from around this world of ours and there’s some wonderful eclectic music in a true worldwide style from all of the Imaginary Stations including DJ Frederick and Justin Patrick Moore.

At 03.28 there’s a mix from One Deck Pete and here’s the tracklistings:
Madtone – Diamonds in the sky (excerpt)
Entjar Tjarmedi, Enip Sukanda, et al – Berber Lajar
Narcy – Bedaya
Leik – Toy Center at night
Los Zheros – Para Chachita
Dr Charty – Falling in Dub

So tune in and enjoy the show with just under an hour of worldwide tunes!

A drive-in Sunday

Next Sunday Imaginary Stations will be bringing a cinematic treat to those shortwaves. On Sunday 1st September 2024 at 0900/1300 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and then at 2000 UTC on 6160 kHz and 3975 kHz they’ll be presenting Skybird Drive-in Radio via Shortwave Gold. They’ve got the matinee and evening spots booked for you so there’s no need to arrive early in the motor. Make yourself a tasty snack (hot dogs, tacos, ice cream, a burger or perhaps some popcorn?) and turn on the shortwave radio, it’s as easy as that. Then imagine you’re in a cadillac or whatever car you fancy, tilt your seat back and enjoy all sorts of cinema related tunes as you would in an outdoor experience.

There’s all sort of cinema related tunes and at 38.39 there’s a mix by One Deck Pete called Crash course for the ravers featuring tunes by Trío Noctámbulo, Count Lasher, Charlie Binger & his calypsonians, 3kuad and The Fall. Enjoy the evening’s programme but before you leave please could give the management back the in-car speakers as they are expensive.

The programme will be repeated Wednesday 4th September 2024 at 0200 UTC on 9395 kHz via WRMI.

In the beginning there was rhythm

Weeds up to me knees give a big shout to Chris The Rhythm Doctor who was interviewed on this week’s Gilles Peterson’s breakfast show on Worldwide FM. After a while of waiting for the show to go up online yesterday, the show is now finally up in all its glory on Mixcloud.

At 1.37.00 on the show is the interview featuring Chris chatting about his early days in Birmingham and Coventry, a good bit about the Jazz Funk days and bit on his involvement in the early days of House music. Trouble is, there’s loads more that can go in there! Any chance of a part two or three, Gilles?

At 2.33.00 in there’s an exclusive mix from Chris. Cheers to him for playing two Jasmine Tutum & Madtone tracks alongside lots of great eclectic stuff including the brilliant Don Cavalli “Fire Fire”, Arina Singh and the crazy dub of The Detonators “Lift Off” (which as the legend goes, after hearing it, Jerry Dammers contacted the tune’s producer John Collins and got him to produce The Specials’ Ghost Town).

Do check RD’s label Almost Unknown on Bandcamp here and expect more releases on the label. And as we keep mentioning, do check out his Monday morning show here on IDA Radio (Tallin) which has a fine mix of tunes for the start of the week.

Here’s the full tracklistings of the mix as it’s a bit sketchy on the Worldwide site at the present moment:

01. Uku Kuut – Visions of Estonia (PPU)
02. Collage – Uni,Tule Silma Peale!/Sleep,Come On The Eye! (Melodiya)
03. Treee vs Hüpnosaurus – Suveöö/Summer Night – Rhythm Doctor Rub (Umblu)
04. N.Ae. – Fatum/Fate (Polskie Nagrania Muza)
05. Arina Singh – Persian Glitter Carpet (Unreleased)
06. Jasmine Tutum & Madtone featuring Lee “Scratch” Perry – Livicate (Unreleased)
07. Maarja Nuut – Kutse Tantsule/A Call To Dance (Self Released)
08. Gunars Rozenbergs – Disko Roze (Melodiya)
09. Konstantin Orbelyan – Vocalese (Melodiya)
10. Medey – The Hunter Suite (pt 1) mix Stanton Davis (Melodiya)
11. The Detonators – Lift Off (Special Request)
12. Jasmine Tutum & Madtone – What Is Man (Unreleased)
13. Don Cavalli – Fire Fire (Rag Records)
14. The Outlaws – Crazy Drums (His Masters Voice)
15. Chyskyyrai – Khara Tüün – Rhythm Doctor radio edit (Indigenous Lifeforms)
16. Vladimir Tarasov – Monotipijos 45 (Melodiya)
17. Skeet – Meathouse (Almost Unknown)
18. Mad Musician – Jazz In (Tribe Recordings)
19. Ajukaja & Ats – Signal (Mida)

On the radio

On Sunday 4th August 2024 at 0900/1300 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and then at 2000 UTC on 6160 kHz and 3975 kHz Imaginary Stations have another version of COOL, this time COOL 4 via Shortwave Gold. Like the last COOL shows it’s all about those summertime tunes, 1950’s sun tan lotion adverts, deckchairs, long drinks and cool nights. If you’ve loved the last few summer shows you’ll love this one. Shortwave on, sunscreen on and tune into COOL.

You say zuchinni, we also say courgette

It’s going absolutely crazy in the vegetable patch at Justin Patrick Moore‘s back yard in Cincinnati. Our good friend from across the pond and author of the fine book The Radio Phonics Laboratory (out now from the Peckham based Velocity Press here) has sent us some pictures of his vegetable plot. Look at the monster zuchinni plants (above) and the present harvest (below).

And as for the green beans and the corn (and the current harvest in the fridge) look at the below. It’s funny as our zuchinni (AKA courgette or baby marrow over here) and green beans didn’t get past germination stage or if they did, the “no holds barred” Forest Hill slugs had them.

Usually with zuchinni/courgettes we have a glut and there’s only so much you can do with them. There are ways around that glut though, we’ve tried this chocolate courgette cake here and here’s a great idea from Justin’s wife Audrey.

An open sandwich called Yvonne.
Put sauteed mushrooms, tomatoes, zucchini, and spinach, black olives if you like them, seasoned with garlic, pepper, basil and melted swiss cheese on top that you ladle over toasted bread. Add a splash of soy sauce to your taste. Sounds great for those zuchinni gluts and your own gut too.

And (above) look at this for a self-seeding/volunteer zuchinni in his garden too! What went on with our seedlings I wonder and usually our normal plants don’t even get as big as this.

And as for a tune, Justin picked this one from Tim Curry funnily enough called The zucchini song. Cheers again for the pics and recipe idea Justin and here’s more on his great book here:

Popcorn Double Feature later showing

Wow we didn’t even know it was a cover version! We prefer The Fall‘s interpretation but this ain’t bad though. While we’re there, we’re sticking this one below from The Fall as we love the Lee Perry original but this is great too.

Something very special from far far away

A big shout to Jesse Yuen (of RTMFM’s North of The River Swan) for letting us know that he’s moved into a new house in Perth and that in the garden they have a wonderful looking Foxtail Agave (above) that’s actually flowering! As Jesse said “Flowers are rare for the plant and each one only flowers once in their life, after 10-15 years.” and he also said “It’s like ours is welcoming us to the new house.” We agree with you there! What a great housewarming present.

Jesse also said “All over Perth you can see them flowering, and the members of local gardening Facebook groups are speculating that because we had a really dry, long summer, they are in shock which has bought on a mass flowering season.”

He was saying the bees are going bonkers for the flowers and told us “Apparently once it finishes flowering the big head dies off and these smaller “pups” take over” (above and below).

Absolutely wonderful stuff Jesse and best of luck to you and the family for the new house and hope everything goes well with the move and getting settled in! More on the wonderful plant here.