Nneka: My home
Heard this a couple of times on Dr Strangedub and DJ Baby Swiss’ Echo Chamber on KFAI over the last few weeks. This is an excellent and catchy bit of tuneage. The instrumental is nice too!
Saturday night chilling
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Category Archives: Music to pot plants to
Thursday night chilling
Voices of Jamaica – Heavenly Sweetness
I know I mentioned this last post, but I can’t stop playing this mix as it’s so good. If you love 70’s reggae you’re going to love this. Big up again to DJ Dick from Birmingham for the original mention and big up Blundetto and Heavenly Sweetness for the mix. As Tim Westwood used to say (pre-internet) “now press play and record”!
Saturday night chilling
Blundetto “Warm my soul” (feat. Courtney John)
An excellent piece of chilled out reggae business. I found out about this one through a great mix on Soundcloud called “Voices of Jamaica” by Heavenly Sweetness that DJ Dick from Birmingham (Rockers Hi-Fi) stuck up on his blog. Cheers for Dick for putting us onto this one. Lovely!
John Peel is not enough
Here’s my piece on John Peel that is published in the latest edition of the excellent US shortwave listening and D.I.Y media fanzine Paper Radio. Produced by DJ Frederick, the fanzine covers the US pirate scene, music and lots of other radio related material. For more information on the fanzine go to http://paperradiozine.blogspot.com/ and also check DJ Frederick’s associated blog http://zinereviews.blogspot.com/
Just click on the spreads below to read the article. Big thanks to DJ Frederick.
Nice and easy on a Sunday night (Version 2)
Dub Spencer & Trance Hill vs Umberto Echo –
The World Is Dub Enough
A lovely bit of tripped out wobble-esque dubwise (circa PIL’s “Radio 4” even though Keith Levene claims he played the bass on that track) from the Echo Beach stables. Heard this on Terry C’s WLUW-FM show the other week. Subtle as anything and a bit of a grower. One for examining the contents of your seed tin to. Excellent!
Marquee Moon
A few weeks ago I was looking through a bookshop in the west end to spend a tenner’s worth of book vouchers I got for christmas and came across a very interesting book about gardening by the phases of the Moon. Now this is real bonkers but bonkers that has been used by our gardening ancestors for years and bonkers that works!
I knew nothing about the subject and as the book was over the tenner mark I bought Peter Hook’s “The Hacienda: How not to run a club” instead which was okay, full of mad stories but no suprises and certainly not a book you’d want to pick up and re-read. I now wish I added the extra few pounds and bought the other one as it seemed a bit out there but very interesting.
How mad was it when I found out the other day Scarlett Cannon from the great courses at Walworth Garden Farm wrote a piece about it in her regular I-grow section for I-D last month and has been using the method for four years.
http://i-donline.com/2012/01/i-grow-biodynamic-magic/
I am now “taking steps” (no pun intended Sting) to find out more…
Herbsman shuffle
This morning I found out reggae legend King Stitt passed away the other day. He died from prostate cancer and was only in his early 70’s. Just a couple of weeks ago I was chatting to someone in Dub Vendor about the musical pioneer (he was one of the first DJs to be captured onto vinyl in Jamaica). Stitt’s attitude was classic reggae, where an artist would capitalise on whatever qualities they’ve got, no matter how unusual or obscure. He didn’t have Steve McQueen type looks but that didn’t stop him, he gave himself the nickname of “The ugly one” and the rest is history.
Stitt was a big hero of mine since the early 70’s when I saw the lyrics of his tune “Fire Corner” on the cover of my elder brother’s rough book; “No matter what the people say, these sounds lead the way, it’s the order of the day from your boss DJ, I King Stitt” Brilliant! Throughout the years I would be well chuffed if I came across any of his releases in second-hand shops and when it came to sample something for me and my mate’s first single it seemed King Stitt was a natural choice. When our track “Son of Stitt” by One Deck & Popular was released, I sent a 10” to Studio 1 in Jamaica where he worked with a note saying if he was ever in Camberwell Green and fancied recording a single to get in touch. He never did but it would be nice to think he actually read it. The last few years had seen King Stitt still in demand what with the ever growing interest in vintage reggae and at the end of last year doing gigs in France and Brazil to great acclaim.
I feel sad tonight of his passing and will drink a couple of mini-bottles of Sainsbury’s own brand lager to salute his passing. Big up the King!
(Just like the Four Tops) I can’t help myself
Last weekend, I just couldn’t stop myself going to the garden centre and purchasing a bag of seed compost to start off those vegetables early. It was the first weekend the shop was open after christmas, I haven’t got much self control have I? Alongside the compost I got some seed potatoes (that will need “chitting” but more on that in another post) Desiree was the variety, by the way.
Now how long will it be before there’s endless seed trays on the kitchen windowsill taking up space and leaking water all over the place? Not long I imagine. I told you I was impatient!
Also in the last post I mentioned I was going to redesign my garden so since then I’ve been doing some research, looking through books and listening to garden design podcasts.
A massive mistake people make is that they decide they want to revamp their garden, go to a garden centre and spend a fortune on plants without any research or thought, stick them all around their garden and wonder why in a couple of months they fail.
What I learnt from only a week’s research is you shouldn’t rush into redesigning your garden, take your time.You should take a year out to gather information about the site. Over the varying seasons look at shadow patterns and what parts get sun and at what times of the day and what are the site’s good views and bad views. Also ask others who live with you what shrubs/flowers/trees they fancy, what are your likes and dislikes etc and the design should start to make itself obvious (so it said on a gardening podcast!). Look at old books, go to parks and gardens, take photographs and get inspired. Rip things out of magazines of plants and gardens you like and keep a scrapbook.
I was looking through “Guerrilla Gardening: A Manualfesto” by David Tracey in the library and came across an interview with an activist who echoed the same sentiments when it came down to garden design and added “in the meantime when you are information gathering, utilise the space and sow some edibles”. Brilliant. So it’s back growing to veg this year then!
Nice and easy on a sunday night
Heard this on this week’s Echo Chamber on KFAI. Another excellent tune from Holly Cook. Shout to Dr Strangedub and DJ Baby Swiss!
A cover to be proud of
An album sleeve from the late 70’s/early 80’s and I do love this cover! The badly cut out orange overprint at the top makes it looks like Sly Dunbar is wearing a poorly made cardboard pirate hat or something from a cheap xmas cracker. If you can beat this, please send us your reggae (or any music genre) design classic.
Weeds up to me knees 