A new day, a new track

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https://soundcloud.com/weedsuptomeknees/jazzmin-madtone-women-in-warzones

A big shout to our musical collaborator Jazzmin Tutum (dub poet and vocalist of Zion Train) out of Germany. Here’s a quick taster from the forthcoming collection of dub poetry called “Africa Don’t” from Jazzmin & Madtone.

Women in War Zones
She surfaces.
A memory.

News needs
paper clipping
sticking,
swelling,
forming the
word.
Here are the Women
in time parallels…

Past. Future.
Nothing in between
just the micro seconds
knotting the rubber bands
that dry rot and wear away
Thread-bare are the tapestries of life

A woman in a war zone
will crack the silence
because the leaking sickness
she watches trails from her own
open fruit body
And she will never forget
the sharp weapons to be found in
door-less places…

but now it is the night
searching
roundness
in the air
moistness
time watching.
Silence expected

After the virus has gone

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pumpkings-and-juniorIt’s been a fair few weeks since any work’s been done in the weeds garden due to that nasty virus doing the rounds but to help to get us in the mood here’s a pic of a couple of pumpkins.

Thanks to the good folks at Shannon’s where we got the pumpkin plant from and also a big thanks to the rodent who was caught in the darlek compost bin. It was seeing the retreating large back end of the rodent that made us decide to put all the decaying waste into a compost trench (more on that episode here) and buy said plant to plonk on top of it as pumpkins do love a bit of rich soil.

On the left is the fruit of our labours weighing in at a nice 4.8kg and to the left and from an very close associate of weeds (from her gardening club at school) a nice smaller variety at 2kg. It’s great this gardening lark isn’t it? We can’t wait to get back out there!

And while we’re here here’s a tune that’s nothing to do with Pumpkins.

Big up the ‘bonnet!

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Big shout to Craig from Mungo’s Hi Fi/Scotch Bonnet Records who pointed us in the direction of the chart they did for the excellent dubstore records out of Japan earlier this month. And what a chart it is, there’s some brilliant stuff on this selection.

It includes some corkers, from bass bonkers from Von D, some very very nice modern skanking business from Squarewave/Sukh Knight (what a tune!), some goodies from the Scotch Bonnet label themselves (including Prince Fatty’s The Model!), a nice Wailing Souls on Jammy’s and a whole lot more.

This is a mix to be cranked up loud when you’re getting over a nasty virus (and dreaming of being able to go out and tidy that garden) and one to blow those bad germs away to infinity! Cheers to Craig and all at Mungo’s/Scotch Bonnet and keep up the good work with those cracking tunes!

1. Sir Spyro – Topper Top – Deep Medi Musik

2. Parly B, Danny T, Tradesman – Galang Riddim – Scotch Bonnet Records

3. Stalawa – Music with a Message – Foreign Mind Records

4. Von D, Egoless – Analog Sound / Bubble Beat – Scrub a dub

5. Squarewave and Sukh Knight – Way Of Life – Moonshine Recordings

6. Prince Fatty – The Model – Scotch Bonnet Records

7. Cornell Campbell – Nothing Don’t Come Easy – Jammys / Dub Store Records

8. Wailing Souls – Move On – Jammys / Dub Store Records

9. Michael Prophet – The Copa Come – Techniques/Dub Store Records

Big tune

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Big shout to the Mungo’s Hi Fi camp again for this tune by The Hempolics – Love to sing as heard on The Rt Hon David Rodigan’s show last week and are the last few words at the end really “A bad man don’t use ketchup”? We do hope so!

The tune means a lot here as it’s based on possibly one of the first ever reggae tunes we can remember here at weeds, the great Clint Eastwood by Lee Perry. The original has a spoken intro that had us wondering at the time, from which planet does this record originate from?

And thanks again to the great upsetter.smokeyroom.net website a wonderful resource for all things Lee Perry (here) for another tune on the Clint Eastwood rhythm.

File under 781.646

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smiley-and-me-poster

Thanks to our good mate Fliss for letting us know of this great event coming up in Wimbledon in a couple of weeks time. It’s free if you book in advance and it looks a great night. MC Asher Senator is launching his new book “Smiley and Me” and talking over some tunes too. A good night out in a library!

Friday night style

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It was a week of mixed weather and also one of getting an irritating head cold toward the end of it. For the relief of a pounding head and aching limbs the most recent Rt Hon David Rodigan show was replayed a few times.

On the show he mentioned the productions of the great Lloyd ‘The Matador’ Daley which made us search out this little number (above) with a flip that was supposedly the first tune to dip into dub-wise tendencies. Rodigan played an early outing by the great U-Roy called Scandal (below) which is one hell of a tune! And below that is the original vocal from The Uniques. Big up the great Roddy for passing on the musical information as ever!

It’s now coming up to the time to tidy up those veg beds during the day and take it easy indoors in the warm at night. Big up that Autumn equinox!

On the air

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The garden of earthly delightsA big shout to Shane Q from the excellent Garden of Earthly Delights on CRMK Radio for letting us know about Madtone’s session for the show from April 2006 on Mixcloud (it’s downloadable as well here.)

It includes some fine music from Quantic, Daedelus, Boom Bip, RCTJ Vs Quad90, Unity Cresent and more alongside the Madtone session tracks: Radio Is My Friend (16.47), E2 (The Lincolnshire Poacher) (38.04) and Calling Live On Channel (1.00.20.)

The show will be back on the air in the near future, broadcasting from a new improved CRMK radio studio that once was a public convenience. Keep em peeled here for news and links to lots of great mixes.

 

Pumpkin’s progress

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rat_large_resizeIt all started with seeing the back end of a large rodent in one of our dalek compost bins back in April (post here). The contents of said bin was then emptied into a trench in the bed at the bottom of the garden (below).

compost trench

A pumpkin, butternut squash and a courgette plant were purchased from Shannon’s and stuck on the top of the trench as they love that sort of richness.

Everything has gone green

Then there was that big gardening faux-pas, all the potato peelings in the compost trench started to sprout and threatened said plants (post here). It was dealt with by some continuous hoeing, a few times a week!

Then we had some action on the pumpkin, it started small, then a bit bit bigger but still green.

yellow-pumpkin_2

yellow-pumpkin_1

Then the other week it started to change colour. As long as those pesky rodents don’t have it we might be onto having a giant pumpkin!

yellow-pumpkinThe butternut squash is on it’s way too! All’s well that ends well and all that!

yellow-squash