I’ve got the side bed blues…

Augustus Pablo – Thunder Clap/ Ken Boothe – Ain’t No Sunshine

In the video above there’s a scene from a pub called The Enterprise which I’m convinced was the one in Camberwell where in the 1980’s I had my first “sunday afternoon stop back” to a soundtrack of old reggae, classic soul and clinking beer glasses plus a free plate of chicken, rice and peas from the generous landlord Louis when everyone else was going home to their sunday roast. In the good old days London pubs used to close at 2.30 then reopen at 7, bonkers!

Talking of which, the weather’s also been bonkers today, while I’m writing this, it’s tipping it down with added thunder and lightning. Yet at just gone 9 this morning the sun was blazing, so a bit of early “tipping about” was in order so I tidied up the beds down the left hand side of the garden. This can you believe was once where a couple of greenhouses stood before one of the previous owners smashed them up. Criminal isn’t it? I’d love a greenhouse (with heating, hi-fi and disco lighting of course!)side bed blues_2The beds nearest the house contain peas, one solitary cabbage, onions, rhubarb, parsnips, beetroot and carrots. There’s not much rhyme or reason to the beds, (I mean just one solitary cabbage!) some rows go north to south and some go east to west. The raised bed to the side of them (made from a couple of scaffolding boards found in a skip) contain runner beans and raspberries (I was given a bag of roots with shoots that a friend of mine was going to chuck out when he was thinning out his raspberry patch on his allotment.) The bed furthest away has a dwarf plum tree, three tomato plants, a couple of courgettes, a pumpkin which is now starting to wander, some borage for the bees to the side and a couple of houseplants that are having a “summer break” in the terrarium/fishbowl thing in the middle. Pick and mix jazz-gardening or what?Side bed blues_3 Talking of tomatoes, I heard a great tip on last week’s episode of The Dirt, don’t forget to give your tomato flowers a light shake to help the pollen on it’s way. Good eh?

Boards Of Canada – Saturday Sun – Warp

A tomato called shabba

Reggae RomaI found out the other day there was a tomato with the great name of Reggae Roma (aka the humble italian plum tomato that you get in tins in the supermarket.) I mean with a name like that, we had to grow one here! There was only one place that would know about getting them and that’s Dig This Nursery in New Cross (a garden centre, an organic food shop with a second-hand record shop in the back, what more do you want!) It’s my nearest tomato specialist and has over 90 odd varieties of tomatoes! Yes, 90+ varieties!

Tonight I popped in after work and a big thanks goes to Mihaly for sorting us out with a couple of roma plants. He’s one person who knows a thing or two about tomatoes if anyone does and knows a bit about growing them (some info here.)

The plants will be put in the ground first thing in the morning, in a hole filled with with a couple of ripped up comfrey leaves and then well watered to give the roots a healthy start.

We love the name here (it’s supposedly because the hanging fruits look like dreadlocks, huh?), what next, a cabbage named “trap”, a strain of dub-step carrots and a variety of onions that are “balearic”? Get on one matey!

DJ Algoriddim – Leaving Rome Version Excursion

Beat dis

tim-sweeney

A big shout (again) to Tim Sweeney for bringing us this great mix via his radio show Beats in Space from the Italian DJ Bottin from Venice. A mix and a half full of surprises on a diverse disco tip featuring some great edits from 70’s Germanic rockers Can and Faust and even includes some clucking hens (well, humans impersonating them!) If this don’t make you feel uplifted, nowt will.

One for blasting out loud into the back garden an hour to midnight on a friday while standing outside with a glass of bevy in your hand staring up aimlessly into the night sky looking for the International Space Station (even though it’s cloudy.) Mad stuff!

Tracklistings:
Redbone – Cycles (Bottin edit)
Can – Don’t Turn The Light On (Zopelar edit)
Faust – It’s A Rainy Day Sunshine Girl (DiMovi edit)
Franco Battiato – Up Patriots To Arms (DMV edit)
FK Club – Unsane
La Nuova Fattoria – Disco Pollo (Bottin edit)
Bottin – Poison Within (feat. Steve Strange/Visage)
Bottin & Rodion – Progresso
Leyo & Special Mike – Don’t Stop The Tape
Elitechnique – Love Triangle (Bottin remix)
Artifact 5 – 15 Minutes (Love Supreme edit)
Carmen Villain – Obedience (Bjørn Torske mix)
Bottin – Parody
Bottin – Lies reprise (feat. Lavinia Claws)

Download it here!

Dub it Doctor Strangedub, dub it!

A big shout to our good pal across the pond Dr Strangedub for sending us a couple of charts of reggae tunage in a summer style. As you know the good Doctor with DJ Baby Swiss presents the excellent Echo Chamber on KFAI every Wednesday morning (available on archive too) featuring the best in reggae, dub and downbeat. Here’s a selection of summer 2014 listening (in no particular order):

Top 7 Reggae songs 
1. Sunshine Music – Island Time – Shandy, Will, & Grruff (Kudos)
2. Watch How You Walk – Inspiration – Jah Wobble & PJ Higgins (Sonar Kollectiv)

3. Hope – Dubcatcher – DJ Vadim (ft. Rio Hemopo & Sabira Jade) (Sonar Kollectiv)
4. Caruru – Magnetica – Quantic (ft. Lara Renno)  (Tru Thoughts)
5. Never Give Up – Knowledge Shine Bright – See-I (Fort Knox)

6. Postman – Twice – Hollie Cook (Mr. Bongo) 
7. In This World – FutureWorld – Thomas Blondet (ft. Leyla Chatti) (Rhythm & Culture)

Top 10 Summer Reggae Albums 
01. Island Time – Shandy, Will, & Grruff (Kudos)
02. Twice – Hollie Cook  (Mr. Bongo)
03. Dubcatcher (Mr. Bongo) – DJ Vadim (Mr. Bongo)
04. Send ’em to Outta Space – Yabass & Friends (Atomic Sounds)
05. Inspiration  – Jah Wobble presents PJ Higgins (Sonar Kollectiv)

06. Serious Time – Mungos Hi-Fi  (Scotch Bonnet)
07. Knowledge Shine Bright  – See-I (Fort Knox)
08. Dubmatix In Dub – Dubmatix (Renegade/Echo Beach)
09. World Citizen – Black Slate (Unit 8)
10. Destiny – Raging Fyah (Soulbeats Records)

Two in an end of term style

Thanks to Steve Barker and the On The Wire Crew for these two half term specials played on last week’s show:

Prince Buster’s All-Stars – Idi Amin – Prince Buster
A tough horns led 1970’s instrumental with a nice dub to boot!

Vivian Jackson & The Prophets – Sipping I & I Chalice – Prophets
Going back in time with the Jesus Dread and a tune in parts reminiscent of Carl Malcolm’s classic “No Jestering.” 

Two tunes to play loud on the i-pod while walking around the back garden in the dark with a torch looking for those pesky slugs and snails.

Tuesday afternoon special

Dionne Reid – She can’t dub – Tuff Scout

Another tune from the Tuff Scout Camp, this time from Dionne Reid with “She Can’t Dub” the B side of the “She can’t” single. Loosely based on the classic Bob Andy “Unchained” rhythm (a corker of a track too), this has “summer tune” written all over it. Big shout to all at Tuff Scout for releasing it and to the Rt Hon David Rodigan for playing it on his show.

Another onion in a different kitchen

Eau de cologne_1It didn’t half get cold later on last night but I did manage to enjoy a bit of “tipping around” in the back garden in the sunshine after I got in from work yesterday.

Up near the house in a interesting concrete pot  that I found when I cleaned out the then neglected garden pond years ago, I have some Eau de Cologne Mint and an Egyptian Walking Onion aka Tree, Top or Walking Onion. I noticed that a bulb is starting to form on it’s stem (close up below.) It’s a very strange plant indeed and If you like “odd” like I do, there’s some great pics of mad walking onions here.Eau de close up

One for the weekend, sir/madam?

Mr Benn “Stars” featuring Eva Lazarus, Blackout JA & Champian – Nice Up! Records
An excellent version of the Studio 1 classic “Stars” by Mr Benn as played on David Rodigan’s show this week (well, the instrumental was) and this version features the vocal talent of Eva Lazarus and two great toasts by Blackout and Champian (I take it, it’s the same Champian from the excellent Tighten Up posse, big up Mistah Brown and Tim P.) A top tune that’ll lure the sun back out into action again!

I’m no weather prophet (nor’s Pete Astor)

The Treetops “It’s Raining” Trojan (1967)

How bad is this weather of late in the UK? It’s cold and wet which don’t really motive you to get out in the garden or even make you think about gardening. Don’t worry, it won’t be long until spring is here, so get out those seed catalogues, have a trip to the local garden centre and see what you need to buy for the forthcoming season.

If you’re still feeling sad, just tap “David Rodigan” into youtube and watch some of his mad sound clashes, now there’s a chap with a great sense of humour. Have a look here and fast forward to 23 minutes with Roddy giving it some real good comedy action (he does all the talkover intro’s himself, we love this cricket themed one against Ricky Trooper from KIllimanjaro). Big up the great Rodigan! I listened to a recent Resident Advisor interview with him this week and he mentioned he was in an old episode of Dr Who. How brilliant is that!

From Jamaica (where it probably isn’t raining!)

The Pentateuch Band – Kingston 

David Rodigan’s been playing this tune to death which was released last year by Jamaican roots band Pentateuch. This one’s also featured on Roddy’s show this week, recorded during the recent BBC trip to Jamaica where he visits Tuff Gong Studios, Alpha Boys School and talks to the newer roots exponents including PentateuchKeida Ranking and Jah 9 . Well worth a listen!