http://soundcloud.com/r_co/david-mancuso-live-the-loft-nyc-shibuya-fm-09-10-2005
Here’s a great mix from David Mancuso live at the loft from 2005. Some excellent tunes (with gaps between the records too) and one to stick on while in the garden. Seven hours of excellent tunage and it’s downloadable too!
Also available on this site: http://paradox2paradox.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/david-mancuso-loft-nyc-7-hours-mix.html
Earl Brown – Get Together – Jericho
A lovely bit of Curtis Mayfield tinged Jamaican soul, tucked away on a B side to a reggae version of Leonard Cohen’s “Suzanne”. Produced by Herman Chin Loy at Aquarius in the early 70’s, this was found while trawling a bunch of seven inch singles in a House/Techno record shop in Brighton about five years ago. When I asked the owner did he stock second hand records, he replied “We don’t usually do second hand but I do have a box of old scratched soul and reggae I was using to sample for a house tune last week and now finished with. Are you interested?” Am I interested? Not half!
http://soundcloud.com/weedsuptomeknees/earl-brown-get-together
U Brown – Blackstarliner Version – Hit Sound
A nice simple dub of U Brown’s Blackstarliner (sic) bought nearly new in Coventry in the early eighties for a couple of quid. It’s pressed very much off-centre and there’s a lovely 1cm crack at the start but with a bit of manipulation it does play and it’s a nice tune when it does! A late seventies or early eighties version of “death in the arena” for all rhythm fans.
Who needs all that 320kps MP3 business when you have an off centre, cracked, held together with sellotape classic like this!
http://soundcloud.com/weedsuptomeknees/u-brown-version-hit-sound
Ewan and Jerry – Get on the right track (Blank) 1969 (?)
A nice slow-mo rock steady number from the late 1960’s. I honestly haven’t got a clue what second hand/charity shop this was bought from but this has been around the house for years and is in not the best of nick to say the least. The artist(s) were only recently discovered through the web as the label (and the vinyl!) is in a right old state. A great old tune smothered in scratches by Ewan and Jerry, not a household name here but a lovely old tune all the same. Any more info on this one do let us know.
http://soundcloud.com/weedsuptomeknees/ewan-and-jerry-get-on-the
Big up to our very good friend from across the pond, Doctor Strangedub for his new reggaewise gardening mix first aired on this week’s “Echo Beach” show on WLUW-FM Chicago. It’s an excellent mix of dubwise in a horticultural stylee (he’s a keen gardener as well as a music lover) featuring Prince Far I, Leroy Sibbles, Jah Wobble. Lee Perry, DubXanne (ft. Ranking Roger) amongst other great stuff and includes Madtone’s “Compost your mind”. Dr Strangedub and DJ Baby Swiss’ excellent “Echo Chamber” show is on every Wednesday morning on KFAI and archived on the KFAI Website (http://kfai.org/echochamber). Big up all dub gardeners in the (green) house! A big cheers to Dr Strangedub for including the Madtone track.
Bells Group – Kingston 13 (Blank) 1962
A lovely little number from the Bells group on a blank 7″ later to be released on the Prince Buster label in 1962. This excellent bit of Jamaican Shuffle/ RnB was found at the bottom of a box of extremely scratched singles in the back room of a Peckham nail bar for 50 pence. The same day I also picked up a copy of an early Wailers single on the Island label which in good nick would have been worth about thirty odd quid. The one I procured was so knackered, it looks like it’s been stood on a few times and even has a phone number scratched into the grooves. Not one to stick on the Bang & Olufsen!
http://soundcloud.com/weedsuptomeknees/bells-group-kingston-13-blank
I heard this on a strongroom alive podcast this week and it’s been going around my head since. A nice atmospheric tune with a warped vocal which builds into a bit of a bonkers monster! One to play while watching Jamaica taking all top three positions in the 200 metres on replay on the telly (with the sound turned down) again and again. Big up to the Jamaican runners for loving the people of Birmingham!
There’s some great stuff on strongroom alive including a child of the jago and ross allen shows, well worth a listen! http://www.strongroomalive.com/listen/listen-again/
Jimmy James – My request (WIRL) 1962/63
Here’s another seven inch that breaks the “if it ain’t got a middle and has Jamaica on the label, it’s reggae” rule. This was bought in the late 80’s from a second hand record stall in a damp smelling arch in Brixton Market for Fifty pence. I had no idea when I bought it that the singer was Jimmy James of Jimmy James and the Vagabonds “I’ll go where the music takes me” fame. This one is in remarkably good nick and has a lovely cover too! Months later off the same stall I picked up a Jamaican pressing of a Stylistics single which was covered in red dust which I was told was authentic garden soil from Jamaica, yeah right! This a ballad of the loving kind. Love the slow trumpet solo!
http://soundcloud.com/weedsuptomeknees/jimmy-james-my-request-wirl
Leroy Sibbles – Ain’t no love (Rock Jam)
I got this gem of a tune last weekend for a quid at the nine elms sunday market in vauxhall. I only found out about the market by accident while queueing for the cashpoint when I noticed loads of people walking past carrying blue plastic bags full of dubious food content.
It’s a massive market selling all sorts from trainers, power tools with bits missing, gardening tools, unrefrigerated meat products, the odd stall selling records and one selling big boxes of very ripe beetroot for “two pounds, a bargain mate!” The market is also as rough as, and the only one I’ve been to that has security guards and ones who roam around in twos. God forbid what would happen if you were caught shoplifting!
This twelve inch from 1978 was wedged between some king jammy’s digital business and as the label was printed so off centre and also that I knew of mr sibbles from the great heptones I decided to take a chance for a quid. It was only when I got it home I recognised the tune from a brilliant mikey dread “dread at the controls” C90 recorded off the great man’s radio shows in jamaica from the late 70’s. Tune!
A market to go to have a butchers at but one to keep your head down in. Be warned, unrefrigerated meat products can kill!
The Realms – Happiness is your middle name/Happiness version (Summertime)
Here’s another tune found in Coventry (possibly from John’s in Hillfields) many moons ago, a lighter slice of UK reggae produced in 1975 by Clement “Clem” Bushay (he of Louisa Mark’s Six Sixth Street production fame).
I only found out while trying to find the single on youtube recently that this is a version of a Stylistics original and also sounds like it owes a debt to Edwin Starr’s “Stop her on sight (S.O.S)” at the beginning. A fine tune with a mellow dub that has a touch of the UB40 sax about it but nice all the same.
http://soundcloud.com/weedsuptomeknees/the-realms-happiness-is-your
Weeds up to me knees 