Tuesday 29 December 2009

Christmas Poem

Farce by Roger Robinson

(an ode to stuffing)

The year we used cheap shiny wrapping
and our paper crowns, were thin and torn
The year our bird, was a few pounds lighter
and dangling pockets, were frayed and worn.
The year each nephew, godson and niece
got gifts we made, with our bare hands
the rest received things, from the pound shop
some cake tins, beads, and no name brands.
But what was Christmas, without the stuffing
cheap, tasty and plentiful to eat
Stuffed into our too small turkey
till plump and full, with width and meat
as if that thin bird whose life was gone
lived only on best bred seeds and corn.

Sunday 27 December 2009

Did you have a good Christmas?!

Yes I had a good one. Hope you all had a good one too !
And Have a Happy Dancehall new year!

Monday 21 December 2009

Prisoner of the lab

A list i was invited to compile for 'Dusted'  http://www.dustedmagazine.com

10 productions/producers that inspired me to produce :

Public Image Ltd. - 'Metal Box'
An incredible mixture of anti-social, punk spite, avant-garde obtuseness, kosmiche repetition and fearsome dub exploration, this self produced odyssey, confused the hell out of me upon release, and still enthralls me today. Like a head on collision between Can and The Stooges, as mixed by King Tubby. Truly  a death disco.

Public Enemy - 'Fear of a black planet'
The Bomb Squad had already hooked me on to hip hop with 'Yo Bum..', but the sheer desnsity and the sonic avalanche represented by this faultless funk assault took my head off.

Joy Division - 'Closer'
Martin Hannett wasn't content to just capture an incredible band, he had the audacity to make them sound even better with his exploration of deep space and his love of dub techniques. Beautifully addictive, highly emotional, yet highly polished, deceptively simple and simply brilliant.

Miles Davis - 'Bitches Brew'
Macero boiled up this bewitching psychedelic jazz potion, as the incredible musicians set their controls for outer space, and Teo re-assembled an audacious electric-jazz jigsaw fearlessly.

23 Skidoo - 'Seven Songs'
Feverish mutant funk pioneeringly produced by the band themselves with the aid of Genesis P and Throbbing Gristle in the early eighties. Still ahead of its time.

Scientist - 'Scientist Wins the World Cup'
Splicing and dicing the voice of reggae crooner Johnny Osbourne(amongst many others), Scientist gleefully tears up the logic rulebook and sets up a dub masterclass. Scientist knew how to deconstruct classics yet better the originals. Taught by King Tubby, how could he fail ?

Brian Eno - 'Music For Airports'
Vast air, endless space, and beautiful melodies, Eno taught me the value of slow motion stillness. Less is still more. Overwhelmingly seductive.

Godflesh - 'Streetcleaner'
Justin Broadrick stripped metal of the cheese and pumped it full of sonically perverted hate, and was responsible for me believing i could get behind a mixing desk. He was actually instrumental in teaching me how to produce music during our years working together as Techno Animal. Respect JKB.

African Headcharge- 'My Life In a hole in the ground'
Adrian Sherwood amplifying Headcharge's Babylonian voodoo spells, as he turned reggae inside out, and torched Lee Perry's blueprint with the aid of sampled chainsaws and ghosts in his machinery. Tribal and magical, experimental with the emphasis on mental.

Method Man - 'Tical'
I was a total Rza fiend, hot for every one of his first wave of productions. Unbelievably raw and dirty,this martial arts fuelled hip hop tour of hell , soundtracked the producer's heart of darkness on a diet of insanely hallucinatory chronic.

Sunday 20 December 2009

PANSORI meets reggae

This is traditional Korean pansori singing.


Here is live footage of I & I Djangdan in Seoul. The lead singer is actually a traditional pansori singer. 

Saturday 19 December 2009

Video Shoot for 'Lost'

























































Sub zero temperatures in Elephant & Castle and Hackney.
Directed/shot - Niall o'Brien.
Gratitude - Adrian Corsica & Lisa Blanning.

Best of 2009 consumed :

Recorded :
Demdike Stare- Symbiosis
Om - God is good
Clint Mansell - 'Moon' soundtrack
Ras G - Brotha From Anotha Planet
William Basinski - 92982
Mulatu Astatke - New York/Addis/London
Sunn O - Monoliths & Dimensions
Variant - The Setting Sun/Intrusion - The seduction of silence
Simon Scott - Navigare
Oneohtrix Point Never - Rifts

Live :
The Necks - Union Chapel
Corrupted - Scala
Ras G - Macbeth
My Bloody Valentine - Coachella
Mulatu/Heliocentrics - Athens
Flying Lotus - San Francisco
Sunn O))/Om - Koko
Joker - Brainfeeder
Anthony & the Johnsons - Coachella
Kode 9 - Uttrecht