October 29, 2003
Dancehall Rejection.
Every few weeks since, I dunno, March, I've been down to Silvertone Records in Brixton. It's quite a hike but I like the store. The owner is pretty relaxed and he'll play me all the latest 7"s so I can pick a few. It's a nice ritual. One has to be considerate however as the process is largely dependent on his patience. You won't get such a treatment at Red Records or any of the Dub Vendor Stores (Clapham, Ladbroke Grove). A couple of times I've trekked down there and it's been busy (usually over the weekend) and I've had to go away and come back in the week. I think they're a great shop, and they have a top selection of tunes. Turnover is pretty rapid too.
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Jiggsy King: Modelling
Magelling! What the hell is that! I've always wondered. Betcha Pete "Dr.Smile" Maplestone veteran of Afflicted Yard will straighten me out. That's it with patois, it comes over like a cipher, gets lost in your eardrum, opens the wrong door, barges in, steals a mountain bike. This track on Big Jeans records. I have one by Vybez Cartel on the same excellent squidgy bleepy riddim. Jiggsy King runs the Kingston Municipal Aquarium, his preferred hobby is table-tennis and his favourite artist is Bob Marley and The Wailers. OK I'll admit I know nothing whatsoever about him.
Assasin: Roll In
This got into the select ten by the film of plaque on his gold teeth. Not an outstanding performance but Lenky's Riddim does indeedy roll along nicely.
Sizzla: Mama Africa
I heard occult bad bwoy dub marxist Jon Eden giving Sizzla a fileting round at Uncarved the other day. I know he's rootically partial so probably prefers "Black Woman and Child"-era Sizzla. Though I love that track I have BIG problems with Roots Ragga. It seems like it must float on a huge tourist board grant. I followed Buju right up to his conversion to Rastafari, I bought "Batty Rider" the day it came out at a record store at Halfway Tree in Kingston (so tough!), and while he didn't die creatively overnight ("Oh God of my Salvation", "Murderer" both on Penthouse), it had to be a slightly cynical change of tack. A way out of the mess he'd made with the homophobic nastiness AND a rather canny marketing move. I've heard those Mercury LPs and I'm of the distinct opinion that they're clinkers. Anyone who doesn't think so hasn't been following the script closely enough.
As for Sizzla, well I'm rather intrigued by him. I bought both of these Sizzla 7"s entirely on their own merits and it's only now that I've connected the two performances. I think he's a fascinating character. Part of the intrigue I'll admit is of the most desperately cynical kind. Here is a guy who sounds like he's been broken, like he's tossed aside his ideals for crack and nasty sex. But is he emotionally bankrupt now he's turned Gangsta? Is this too some cleverly concocted act like Buju's Rastafarianism? All that writing round Robert Johnson was so 'orrible because it treated Johnson like some kind of mono-dimensional naif. I saw Buju in interview once and he was the most scarily intelligent dude I'd ever witnessed. Sizzla will be no fool.
Also Vbyz Kartel's take on this Riddim "Please" is wicked. You get some nice African chanting left on the riddim which is stripped out on the Sizzla version.
Sizzla: Oh Yes Baby
Oh yeeeeahhss baaaby. Sounding here like a drunken wretch.
Ward 21/Vybz Kartel: Nah Climb
"...like Michael Jackson's curls jheri, inna de Pepsi Ad." This rhyme is as inwardly revolving as the riddim. A flamenco guitar and Basic Channel pulse tango-ing together backwards down a spiral staircase. At the bottom, revelation...
Ward 21: Hey Gal
The radio edit of this is amazing. The dirty lyrics have been "cleaned up" with a whole mash-up soundscape of weird effects. This reminds me so strongly of the sonix on Mark Stewart's "Learning to cope with Cowardice." It's not as if the delivery itself isn't enough to welcome one's attention. The bloke with the deep voice in Ward 21 has a totally original flavour. I can't think of another voice plumbing such depths in Reggae. It almost makes me flash on The Specials it's so "off-island", quite what the relevance to Coventry's finest I dunno.
Fact fans! Ward 21 is the name of the high-security wing of Jamaica's mental hospital. Mad.....and a danger to society.
Wayne Marshall: I will love the girls
Egyptian blew up this year almost as big as Diwali. It was a delight to pick this up weeks before the Greensleeves comp hit the shelves. I can't be doing with 15 versions of the same track. I did adore Vybz Kartel's "Sweet to the Belly" on it too, the way the voice transmutated into that seesawing Indian violin line, that was bewitching. However I prefer Wayne's take, if only for the totally wunderbar intro. Wayne wails like the temple's pet dog. Oh and Blaxxx records have this great label logo (see above). A lady in a wheelchair, I think that's really genuine.
Vibes Kartel: Nobody No Dead
Everybody dead. Amazing bleeptastic riddim with ultra-logical delivery by this years hottest MC.
Ward 21/Bounty Killer: Badda than that
Bagpipes! Bounty Killer back from a de opera. Like a car with square tyres. Like a lightbulb hanging from a tree. Like a boat with one oar. Like a fish flapping on a pier. Like a goat tethered to a powerstation railing. Like a naked rasta in a drainage ditch. Like a policeman with a leather glove. Like a mud-encrusted crack-pipe. Like a bus which waits longer than it drives.
Mr.Lex: Face It
Nice!
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There were a load of other tracks I got on labels like High Society, Raggedy Joe, South Rakkas Crew, 360 degrees, Big Yard, Baby G, Hot-A-Tac and Purple but these 10 really stand out. I've also heard this years "hits" on the VP comps. I like the hits, but for the real flava you're best hewing out gems at the coalface.
Posted by Woebot at October 29, 2003 11:05 PM