WOEBOT

I've searched my soul about posting this so I'm going to phrase it quite openly and see what people think.

I just picked up the new Lethal Bizzle/Dexplicit track "Backwards" (heard on the Sama show about 6 months ago). Its a diss tune based on what is for the most part the Forward rhythm playing backwards. That tactic of playing the riddim backwards is musically identical to Creation Rebel's "Starship Africa" (the final track of which Sherwood reverses) or perhaps semiotically something like 4Hero's "Journey from the Light". Furthermore in terms of 'moving backwards' the track (with its endless micro-political attacks on Riko, Wiley and Gods Gift) seems graphic evidence that More Fire are unable to move any further "Forward", that they are mired in the grassroots scene in the worst way possible like the characters Dizzy criticised in "Trapped".

"Journey from The Light"!!! What the fuck is he talking about? I dunno, its crazy, but it seems like everyones estimation of the commercial potential of Grime is not so much putting it on the par of the heady commercial heights of UK Garage a few years back (don't laugh!) but, maybe absurdly, more in the territory of Eminem or Jay-Z. I'm up for this boundless enthusiasm, i fully endorse it in fact, but it does worry me a bit.

"Forward" stands along with "Oi" (feels like a century ago) as the absolute limit of the genres commercial potential singles-wise to date, and I'd be very surpised if they charted outside of the UK. (I havent seen the figures but "Boy in Da Corner" must pretty much be the largest-selling LP, and maybe if the scene is to grow it will be as an LP-based phenomenon) Looked at like this wouldn't Grime's international potential be more closely compared with Roots Reggae's circa Althea and Donna's "Uptown Top Ranking", though even that strikes me as a generous comparison at the moment.

Obviously this is no criticism of the energy or talent on offer, but I cant help but feel that alot of people's expectations are going to be crushed. As to whether the usual pattern we've seen over the fifteen years will come into play, whereby the currently vibrant scene becomes severed from the underground (vis a vis Drum and Bass floating in a cultural bubble), well thats a whole other question.

Original Thread Here

Posted by WOEBOT at 11:37 AM | Permalink

Kane Robinson on this sure-to-be-massive tune. Kano has been running red since his break-through collaboration Jammer "Boys Love Girls", a tune which made it clear he was the star MC of N.A.S.T.Y crew. Since then he's had a string of underground hits with MC Demon on the pugilistic "Gansta Toys", with former Roll Deep producer Wonder on the post-Nightmares on Wax orgasmic-oddyssey "What Have You Done?" and has taken the "Ludacris" role to Sadies "Ashanti" on Terrah Danjahs idyllytronic R'n'G flickerscape "So Sure."

On the underground Kano's smooth-talking ultra-efficent rhyming and boyish good looks have marked him out as a ladies man par excellence, however both "P's and Q's" and "Mic Fight", slightly lower-key releases at his new home 679 records, have suggested he's willing to keep the bpms up and his fangs intact. "Typical Me", with its snappy noir-ish club-story video, will surely be the track to bring him to an even wider audience. Riding a slack-metal riff at an unforbidding Hip-Hop tempo, Kano shows yet more breadth to his vision, gives his weary and nimble rhymes more room to snake around, and opens his arms to the fans of Dylan Mills and Mike Skinner.

-

If you like this, you might also like:
> Sharkie Major: This Ain't A Game (White) 2003
> D Double: Birds In The Sky (White) 2003
> Wonder and Plan B: Cap Black (679) 2005
> The Surgery Feat. Mr. Big Shott: Shott the Weed (Social Circles) 2003
> The Streets: Get Out of My House Remix (XL) 2004

Posted by WOEBOT at 11:53 AM | Permalink

A mate asked me for some advice about starting off in the biz, and rather than just email him back i though i'd post my thoughts here:

a) Forget CD-Rs.

Pool all your resources, select your best material and put out a record.

b) Make an EP.

Be they 7" or 10" or 12" put out 4 track EPs.

c) Make limited runs.

Press 1,000 copies and leave it at that. Never, ever, ever reissue your three first EPs. Work up a sequence of at least 6 before talking to a major.

d) Put out a constant flow of records.

Try for at least 4 a year. Keep this up for as many years as you can.

e) Get great cover art.

Have a friend who is a hot budding designer? Let him do you an awesome cover. Stick with the same guy. Don't let a major touch your artwork.

f) Group together with like-minded musicians

With mates or within a "scene" you stand a MUCH MUCH better chance. Who really cares about the lone genius musician?

g) Make the majors beg.

I promise you, you're better languishing in obscurity. Forget the cash advance, you're in this for life. Your time will come.

h) Gig hard

Get out and about, and play/DJ as many gigs as you can. Meet'n'greet and let your vinyl do the fancy PR!

i) Insist on having your own label

If you do get signed insist on having your own small label under their "umbrella" which you can release your tracks and those of people you admire. Try and keep things collective.

j) Never abandon the scene from which you emerged entirely.

Keep an eye on the grassroots. Do collaborations with your peers. Play local gigs. Keep people coming through under your auspices.

Original Thread Here

Posted by WOEBOT at 10:08 AM | Permalink

has anyone else come across this magazine?

i've been picking it up but feel pretty ambivalently about it.

ok so it has a pretty clear remit, and one shouldnt necessarily attack things that have a clear remit. its sort of like attacking the wire innit? however so tightly conflated are a love of soul/funk/hiphop/brazilian_music/ smattering_of_reggae (the "warm canon") equated with obsessive record collecting that i half want stick my hand up and be counted as dissenter and half want to scream with irritation. all these fucking anecdotes about going back to old black dudes houses, and finding "mint condition" funk seven inches in boxes buried beneath superceded household goods. they're entertaining first time round but......

i am guilty of finding the whole "crate-digging" ethos as inscribed in templates of wax so horrifically tedious. maybe more than that the encoded charicactural stereotype is just not one i'll buy into namely: the sturdily masculine, distinctly gruesome, detente foundered on "respect for hip-hop" that unites black and white in sycophancy. and what are they not celebrating? they're not celebrating anything made after 1980 unless its Hip-Hop and then after the mid-nineties theyre not going to root for anything unless its "post-Premier" so Madlib gets ridiculous props (can we not all agree that the MF Doom LP is EXTREMELY MEDIOCRE?) you'll never find even the most grudging thing about modern HipHop, or modern Dancehall etc. its a very silly position. the least "wax poetical" thing i've seen in there was Phil Sherbernes oddball Turntabalist piece (big up yerself Phil)

however, griping aside, and complaining about it is so screamingly obvious, perhaps better to just submit grudgingly, there is some cool stuff in there. the depths of obscurity plumbed (often leading up to a tableau of meeting "said underground legend" in a cafe, ok i couldnt resist one more jab) are pretty impressive. and the mingering mike thing was cool wunnit. google "mingering mike"

Original Thread Here

Posted by WOEBOT at 10:09 AM | Permalink

It reminds me alot in spirit of Marcello's break-out of 1983 (which I couldn't find a link to) and which surely must have inspired it.

In terms of historical technique it what's called "potholing" quite akin to that method whereby a master cheese maker will plunge a narrow instrument into the centre of gigantic truckle of parmesan to evaluate the curd's maturity. This mysterious bloke has done that with 1981 and the early eighties. A very deep and, it has to be conceded, incredibly rich picture of a musical epoch emerges.

I did think it was kind of limited in the way that it's almost exclusively white rock with actually only the slightest concessions to music which isnt American or British. I mean, in 1981 there were whole universes of music happening beyond this axis and as we've remarked in the past, this era's porosity to the other was what in part made it so rich. So for example, no Jamaican music, no German music, no Italian music, no African music, no Funk, no stirrings of HipHop......

Notwithstanding this, or rather what is illuminated by this, is the mindfuck fecundity of the era. I couldnt begin to imagine trying to do this with todays "White Rock scene". I don't know whether he's still making them, but get hold of him here: soundslike1981@gmail.com and hastle him to make you one. Its a truly beautiful piece of design and conception at the very least, beyond being a thoroughly entertaining listen.

Original Thread Here

Track listing available here:

Posted by WOEBOT at 09:43 AM | Permalink

This may not be extremely rare, but I've never seen a copy of it myself before yesterday. On honeymoon in the South of France in 1998 a record store owner told me he had "a Pierre Henry LP with a mirror ball on the cover", that he'd bring it in tomorrow. However I never made it back to the shop, though I do remember sending him a copy of a book of Mati Klarwein pictures because he said he loved his art, inna guerilla love-bombing stylee.

It didnt cost me a huge amount either, 30 quid! Thats pretty reasonable. You'll find the Henry/Spooky Tooth one everwhere, but this (from 1973) must be extremely auspicious in terms of what it suggests as a musical lineage. Its almost as if just the cover itself its what is semiotically important. Its a great record though. First track is the commercial entry, sloppy disco rock with eno-in-roxy-style synthesiser skronking from Henry, the rest is pleasantly metronomic and much more electronic.

Original Thread Here

Posted by WOEBOT at 10:12 AM | Permalink

It occurred to me the other night that the Library records i've been interested in largely are not ones made by complete unknowns but ones made by known musicians.

So for example:

• Guy Warren on KPM (the drummer from Ghana)
• Rogerio Duprat on KPM (the brazilian tropicalia producer)
• Basil Kirchin
• Anne Dudley
• Delia Derbyshire and John Baker together under a pseudonym (anyone?) on KPM
• Bernard Parmegiani
• Armando Sciascia

etc?

Theres an implicit tension between fame and anonymity, "art" and "service" which gives the records a bit of juj. I suppose there is a (maybe cheap) guarantee of "quality" as well. The record is something made by someone with a creative rep, someone whos managed successfully to pimp their vision to a broader public without immediately resorting to the patronage of a company like Chappell etc. Theres an added fascination at hearing what these people do when freed from some commercial constraints, and how they respond to other creative dictats. Fun to to imagine that as the owner of such a record that their work is at your disposal, copyright free!!!

Been quite taken with the unstoppable fascination with library, feel kind of like Canute with regards to it. I shouldnt go into it too much here cos I've just written something for a jazz rag on the subject and i'll get my wrists smacked if i spill to many beans, but isn't the "mode" which digging into/sampling old library records interesting? Its almost as if the creative tactic of exploring the most dead kind of music possible, is a method of producing the most vivacious music.

Original Thread Here

Posted by WOEBOT at 10:10 AM | Permalink