Inna Reggae Style 001

Been listening to A LOT of Reggae recently, and I still find it refreshing how it never grows tiresome, as there is still such a treasure trove of wonders to be discovered from a genre which is soon to be coming close to being 50 years old.

I've been on the search for good Reggae cover versions of Non Reggae songs, and have found some absolute beauties along the way, and its proof to how wonderful a genre Reggae is when you realize that a hell of a lot of the covers sound so much better than their original recordings.

There is something about the Reggae sound, about the vocalists and their style of singing that turns the songs they are singing around, makes them sound like they have more meaning to them and generally just makes the music sound BETTER

So this is the start of a new feature called 'Inna Reggae Style, where from now I'm going to start posting two Reggae covers every couple of weeks, starting this week with two covers of Radiohead and Kraftwerk that on paper you would not expect to work, but seriously do.

BBC Jungle Documentary

This documentary from 1994 is a look at the then burgeoning and still fresh as you like Jungle scene, which was infiltrating the UK from all corners, setting off into a journey which would expand and become what we now call Drum n Bass today, a multi million pound industry which is imprinted in the UK's Dance Music consciousness.

Its a hugely entertaining watch, with some great footage of Shy Fx in the studio with UK Apache at the time of 'Original Nuttah', DJ Rap record shopping, Fabio and Bukem discussing the scene and a whole lot more. Anyone with a passing interest in Drum n Bass/Jungle needs to check this right now.

Drumstep

If theres one style of music currently dividing opinion like never before, its the emergence of what is now being labeled as 'Drumstep', a mutated hybrid of Drum n Bass and Dubstep which seems to be spreading throughout the country at a rapid pace.

Half time Drum n Bass is nothing new and certainly no big new invention and has been around for quite some time, and one of my favorite producers of the early millennium was Amit, who was a pioneer of a completely different form of 170bpm nastiness to the 'Clownstep' that was so prevalent in the middle of the decade.



The difference with the half time stuff that is getting bandied around now is the huge and obvious influence from the 'Brostep' side of Dubstep, concentrating on mid range face melting and bass face inducing torridness, and it really is proving to be a marmite style of music, with people either absolutely despising it, or DJ's such as Grooverider (who is showing it major support on Radio One) calling it the next big thing.

Personally, I really like some of it, and I think it can certainly add a new dimension to both scenes, and some of you can't doubt will send gurning kids absolutely apeshit on the dancefloor. The recent Kanji Kinetic E.P on Tigerbeat6 is a fine example of how this style can be employed to devastating effect, and below you can find a video of the full track, and below it, how it went down when I dropped it a couple of weeks back when I went on to do an extra hour after Caspa at Thursday Club at The Masque (wait for the drop). I'll try and post a few mixes soon.

The Electro Wars

Looks like this could be a pretty interesting watch...


The Electro Wars Final Trailer from Stephen Alex Vasquez on Vimeo.

Redlight

 
Had a little scout of the net this morning looking for a few new mixes to please my ears with, and was most pleased to find that the latest Fact Mag podcast has been mixed by one of Bristols finest, Redlight, the producer formerly known as Clipz.

I was fan of Clipz way back in 2003 when he released the amazing 'Showtime' Ep on Emcee Recordings which contained the amazing 'Cuban Links', and then on from his early releases on Full Cycle where throughout 2003 and 2004 he released some of the biggest Drum n Bass tunes of the time.

 I always thought in the years that followed Clipz got a lot of over the top criticism from some camps. Granted, I wasn't too big a fan at some of his later productions under the Clipz moniker, but some of the level of abuse on forums aimed at him was absurd, especially when considering some of the bona fida classics he had made in the genre, including the much overlooked and forgotten 'Saigon Killa' (no clips up on Youtube unfortunately!), and the tune I have posted below he released under his Humanoid guise entitled 'Tibetan Mist', which was a huge huge anthem a few years back in the North West of the UK (although strangely never really got played much round the rest of the country) after being released on New Line Recordings back in 2004.

Back to 2010 though, and the Clipz name is gone to be replaced by the new name Redlight, and with the name change came a huge change in genres too. Like DJ Zinc before him, Redlight has had no problem in settling in with the Dubstep/UK Funky/Whatever its called this week fraternity, and is already starting to amass a nice collection of bangers under his name, including the quite literally stupid 'Stupid', released a couple of weeks back on Digital Soundboy, a tune which has provoked confused but elated bass faces every time I have dropped it.

Redlights mix for Fact Mag is chock full of exclusives, unreleased bits and exclusive Redlight specials of some major tunes from the past few months, and also includes the ridiculously big 'MDMA', which I am sure is well on its way to becoming something of an anthem. If you have been a fan of Clipz in the past, or even a hater, and you don't know what he is up to now, get onto this right away, as in short, he is fucking KILLING IT.

Redlight - Fact Mag Podcast (Mediafire)

1. Redlight – Wat

2. Breakage ft. Newham Generals – Hard (Redlight Special)

3. Doc Daneeka – Deadly Rhythm

4. Redlight – Stupid

5. Redlight ft. Roses Gabor – Stupid Vox Special

6. Rude Kid – Jack Daniels

7. Zinc ft. Ms Dynamite – Wile Out (Redlight Special)

8. Benga – 1 & Only 1

9. D1 – Pitcher

10. Tempa T – Boy Off The Ting (Redlight Peace & Love Mix)

11. Redlight – MDMA

12. Rusko ft. Redlight – Scarewear

13. J2K ft Roses Gabor – Don’t Let Go

14. Redlight ft. Dynamite MC

15. Redlight ft. Dread MC, Omi & Serocee – Stay With U (Redlight V.I.P)

16. Roska – Squark

17. Redlight – Dubplate Slosher

18. Ramadanman – Glut

19. Redlight – Roller Xpress

20. Roses Gabor – Love Sick

21. Champion – Lighter

22. Redlight – Vibe Ride

23. MJ Cole – Thekla Riddim

24. Musha Man – Keep Up