Marley

Film – Marley

Event - New Zealand International Film Festival 2012
Venue - The Embassy Theatre, Wellington
Date – Saturday 28^th July 2012

On Saturday night, I attended a showing of the new Marley documentary (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marley_(film) as part of the annual Film Festival.

I'm a huge reggae fan (and sometime reggae DJ) whom has sometimes confounded people whom request that I play them Bob Marley material by admitting that I actually (until very recently) didn't own any.

Whilst Bob Marley's 1970's European album orientated material for Island Records (the "Catch A Fire" and "Exodus" LP's and the "Legend" compilation) seems to have been a route into reggae fandom for a lot of people, I went in via ragga and dancehall through jungle, so sort of missed Bob Marley out of the equation.

The documentary was directed by Kevin MacDonald (best known for the acclaimed "Last King Of Scotland", but has previous 'rockumentary' form for making, "Being Mick" - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Being_Mick) and is incredibly well put together.

Whilst there's clear ups and downs to the story - there's nothing too controversial in the narrative (understandable when the executive producers include Bunny Wailer, Island Records' Chris Blackwell and Ziggy Marley). Much like The Wailers later line-ups, the film features a cast of thousands, sharing reminiscences and experiences of Bob.

The film's soundtrack was released the day before it hit cinemas and is notable for being the first time that the audio recording of "Jamming" from the One Love Peace Concert in Kingston has been commercially available. The version provided the audio backdrop to Marley (whom had been shot during an assassination attempt just days previously) inviting Prime Ministerial candidates Michael Manley (PNP) and Edward Seaga (JLP) onto the stage to shake hands. (In the weeks running up to the event, followers of each party had put the country onto the verge of civil war, with gun battles raging on the streets of Trenchtown). The incident provides a similar crescendo to the documentary.

I've seen photo's of the event before and understood some of the background but can comfortably say that it was a tear jerking moment to watch in its entirety.

Similarly emotional is the sad decline in Marley's health and the horrible pathos around his girlfriend, Cindy Breakspeare (Damian Marley's mother) talking about how she and Rita (Marley - Bob's wife) shaved off his dreadlocks (which had largely fallen out due to his chemotherapy) whilst he was in Hospital. (Early in the film, footage of a mid-seventies interview with Marley is shown where he describes his dreadlocks as "me (my) identity".

Regarding his later recorded material, a comment is made by one of his Kingston contemporaries  that The Wailers greatest material is a small number of sides made (after their departure from the tutelage of Coxsone Dodd's Studio1 organisation) with Lee 'Scratch' Perry.

I realised that I'd actually bought a 7" boxset of those sides about a year ago, but hadn't ever got round to listening to them.

Original versions of "Simmer Down", "Duppy Conqueror" and "Small Axe" are featured in the documentary and have graced my turntables today.

It appears from the strength of them that I've much to learn.

Charity Shop Haul (28/07/2012)

Back in the UK, over the years I made some great vinyl purchases from your bog standard high street charity shop.

As I’ve mentioned before, charity shops (aka thrift stores/op shops) in New Zealand have extremely slim pickings for decent quality records, to the point that I’ve basically stopped even looking outside specialist second hand record shops.

However, I was out yesterday having a rummage in the Opportunities For Animals shop in Kilbirnie (originally having gone in there to look for glasses/decanters for a recently acquired art deco liquor cabinet) and contradicted my previous negativity about the state of NZ Charity Shops by coming across a couple of interesting releases:

Man 2 Man Meet Man Parrish “Male Stripper” Polydor 12” Single.

This is now quite simply the gayest record cover I own (and I’ve got a few other Hi-NRG tunes in my collection). The reverse is also pretty full on, with a dedication for, “All the men who strip for a living”.

I don’t know that much about Man (short for Manuel) Parrish other than he’s a bit of a post-disco/pre-house/electro pioneer and dance music legend. It’s an interesting record and one that my girlfriend reckons that she’s heard in clubs much later.

Cosmetic with Jamaaladeen Tacuma “So Tranquilizin’” 3^RD Degree 12” Single.

I hadn’t ever heard of Jamaaladeen Tacuma before but have subsequently learnt that he’s a free jazz bass player whom has worked with a variety of artists including Ornette Coleman. I was originally attracted by his outfit (I thought for some reason that it might be go-go music, which I know absolutely nothing about) but quickly noticed that the tune has been remixed by Francois Kevorkian, whom is a major favourite of mine for his deep, dark dubbed out disco mixes.

Two pretty interesting acquisitions for a morning’s charity shopping.

The less said about the 12" version of Amazulu's cover of "Wonderfull World (Beautiful People)" by Jimmy Cliff that I picked up, the better - yours for $3.00 on Trade Me shortly.

(2/3 ain't bad).

Logistics

Artist – Logistics
Event - Fear Not LP Tour
Venue - Sandwiches, Wellington
Date – Saturday 14^th July 2012

I’m not really much of a clubber these days. I think that I left myself so totally sleep deprived through my twenties that my body is desperately trying to catch up. If I ever go out, it takes me about a week to recover and as such, my nights out are few and far between.

That notwithstanding, the potential for a Hospital Records artist playing in Wellington on a weekend was enough to get me off my sofa earlier this month. (If drum & bass artists come through Wellington, it’s often on a Thursday, because they can play larger clubs, in larger cities such as Auckland, Sydney or Melbourne, with significantly larger paycheques, at the weekend). 

I only joined the iPod generation in 2008 when I left the UK and have intermittently listened to the Hospital Podcast since then – getting my monthly fix of soulful D&B from the label MD, Tony Colman (aka London Elektricity). I bought a lot of Hospital’s early/mid period releases but find a fair bit of their recent stuff a bit too dayglo (i.e. trancey pads and wailing diva's) for my liking.

We equipped ourselves for Logistics 1am set by going to a late showing at the Cinema and arrived at the venue at 12.45 after stopping for a couple of drinks at the quietest bar that we could find round the corner. (Rock & roll, eh?)

Frustratingly, considering our efforts to coincide our arrival with his set starting, the man Grisham actually came on about 45 minutes late. However, the warm up DJ was actually much better than most NZ Residents that I’ve seen. (A trip to NZ’s Phat Drum & Bass Festival for NYE 2010 totally put me off the entire genre in this country: one dimensional, aggro heavy metal-esque D&B is des rigeur).

Logistics played a great set, lots of teases, lots of familiar tunes and a fair bit of drumstep.

Seeing him DJ also happened to coincide with a sale in the Hospital Records web store.

Even though it’s brand new out, Logistics “Fear Not” LP pack was on special at a tenner, so I was keen to pick it up and see what we’d heard at Sandwiches. The somewhat bright cover art is carried over to the CD version and a sticker pack. It’s cut as four 1 track per side 12”s, which might not be the most environmentally friendly or cost effective way of making a record, but means that you can use the pressings alongside 12” singles for DJ’ing purposes. After the first listen, I’m actually just as interested in the non-D&B tracks on here.

I also picked up a copy of Danny Byrd’s “Supersized” LP, which is a 2 x 12” version. I didn’t like Byrd’s most recent “Rave Digger” LP, but bought this largely off the strength of “Gold Rush” which is a collaboration with The Brookes Brothers. “Gold Rush” works around several heavily processed vocal samples and owes a large debt to Todd Edwards work. (Byrd is apparently a big house and garage fan and his work certainly echoes that).

As more of a ‘listening’ based LP, I also picked up a copy of Zed Bias’ & Injekta’s “Phuturistix” project from 2003. A former girlfriend of my then housemate worked at Hospital and sent him this on CD when it came out. I remember liking it (and a lot of other UK Garage) at the time, so thought that five quid was a bit of bargain for the LP.

I heard a track of this recently on the Hospital podcast (it was re-released as part of their “Sub-150” MP3 Compilation) and was taken aback at how current it sounds. The whole LP is amazingly executed and walks the fine line between jazzy broken beat and proper bassline orientated Garage. (Zed Bias is seen as pioneer and major influence on the dubstep sound).

Lastly, I’ve also picked up Total Science legend Q-Project’s solo LP, “Renaissance Man”. The LP cover’s one of the strangest drum & bass LP covers I’ve seen, but hey – at least it’s not a skull or a spaceship, as someone once said. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vCRKRopfMU).

Branding and design is clearly of huge importance to Hospital and whilst I didn’t actually buy it alongside these recent acquisitions, I also actually have the limited edition, “Visual Compendium of Hospital Records” book, released to celebrate Hospital’s 200^th release (NHS200).

Discogs Binge

I arrived back at home from a conference in Tauranga a couple of weekends ago and found that a whole shedload of awesomeness had arrived in the post from the US of A.

Around 2002/3 (at the peak of my vinyl habit) I used to be a regular contributor of reviews to Discogs (http://www.discogs.com/), which was then the “the online electronic music database” but have found that in my absence (about five years off seriously collecting) that the remit for the site has shifted to include rock/country and other genres.

Whilst I’m not totally convinced that the site hasn’t lost some of its electronic niche appeal in doing so, it has now also (like Amazon) got a buoyant online marketplace.

I’ve been getting regular email offers since setting up a ‘wantlist’ so decided to take the plunge and test the service out by ordering some items that I’ve wanted for ages from a seller in the US.

As such, I’ve acquired a copy of The Unabombers first 'Electric Chair' compilation LP (http://www.discogs.com/Various-Basement-Soul-Music/release/22279), which I have to say is in pretty disappointing nick (considering it was advertised as “good condition”).

I first saw the Unabombers DJ at a club in Bristol that I used to work at, what must be six or seven years ago (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thekla). The room was about half full (I’m possibly being kind in saying that), but they absolutely rocked it – their style is (or was as I’ve latterly learned) a new interpretation and presentation of soul music in all its colours and flavours. (The LP set here is subtitled as “Basement Soul”).

Anyone out there who was a fan of turn of the nineties indie may be interested to learn that, weirdly, one of the Unabombers used to be the bassist in New Fast Atomic Daffodils, (aka New FADs). I have to say, I wouldn’t go out of my way to see many DJ’s, having really grown out of the “six hours of one type of music” thing but really would for Unabombers based on the strength of their set in Bristol and mixes I've heard online.

Alas, looking at their website (which hasn’t been updated since 2009), I fear that they are no longer a going concern.

It’s a 3 x 12” set with a variety of soul flavoured tunes from “Chic Cheer” by Chic, through to modern hip-hop oriented nu-soul. The absolute ‘must have’ tune on here is the 15 minute plus (legendary 70’s synth pioneer) Patrick Cowley remix of “I Feel Love” by Donna Summer. (Complete with a warning not to attempt to listen to it on LSD).

Next up, is a collection from the consistently awesome reissue label Strut. I remember seeing that 'The Wild Bunch - Story of a Soundsystem' (http://www.discogs.com/Various-The-Wild-Bunch/release/100639) had come out and thinking, “I really should buy that” at the time.

Front Cover & Insert Bio

The Wild Bunch were a soundsystem in Bristol in the 1980’s, whom went on to spawn Massive Attack and heavily influence the wide Bristol sound of the mid-late 1990’s (particularly the Full Cycle crew http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_Cycle_Recordings). I first visited Bristol in 1998 for a month at the beginning of a passionate, decade-long exclusive relationship with drum & bass (largely due to Full Cycle) and ended up living there for seven (not always happy, but always interesting) years. 

The LP is a collection of the early eighties electro, hip-hop and soul that the Wild Bunch Soundsystem played at St Pauls Carnival and their early Bristol gigs (such as the Dugout). It’s an amazing release, but (as compiled by DJ Milo and not Daddy G) doesn’t feature any reference to the reggae (and heavily bass led sound) of Massive attack and the wider Bristol sound.

If you’re ever in Bristol, one of the Wild Bunch’s original neon pink sprayed Technics 1200’s is in the old Bristol Industrial Museum (http://mshed.org/) with an exhibit about the on-going musical scene of that city.

The last in my latest Discogs purge was FreQ Nasty’s Y4K “Next Level Breaks” comp on Distinct'ive Breaks (http://www.discogs.com/Various-Y4K-rarr-FreQ-Nasty-Next-Level-Breaks/release/81308).

The Y4K compilations were very hip at the time, but Distinct’ive closed their ‘breaks’ sublabel around 2007. Poignantly, there's actually still a card in here to go on the labels mailing list. I met the former Label Manager (whom was by then working outside the industry) in a pub in Shoreditch a short while later and he seemed rather shell shocked about how wrong things had gone.

Nu Skool breaks is a much maligned genre these days. Like Dubstep, it became a victim of its own success - the pioneers ground breaking releases becoming much copied by a huge of inferior international producers.

It's largely a fairly sedate selection considering some of the tear-out sets I've heard Freq Nasty do and I’ve already got a few of the tunes on here on original 12” releases, but really wanted the Aquasky vs. Master Blaster Remix of the perennial hardcore/jungle classic "Lord Of The Null Lines" by Hyper-On-Experience.

Freq Nasty now releases similarly bass led but more hip-hop tempo material aimed at the Californian booty bass scene. I keep listening to his new releases but am really not sure. He’s recently done a bootleg mix of Avenged Sevenfold. Rock/dance crossovers are very rarely done well. It’s no exception.

Perry & Kingsley 'Kaleidoscopic Vibrations'

My initial thoughts on seeing this LP were that ‘Kaleidoscopic Vibrations’ sounds like a psytrance record. (Whilst my listening taste is diverse, as anyone that knows me will tell you - psytrance remains almost uniquely the one genre of music that I absolutely cannot tolerate).

Despite the LP’s 1967 release date, I’m actually fairly sure that to the uneducated listener, they probably don’t sound too dissimilar either.

Perrey and Kingsley were a duo of composer/keyboardists whom pioneered the use of electronic instruments (primarily the Moog Synthesiser) in popular music.

I picked up ‘Kaleidoscopic Vibrations’ last week (for the princely sum of $10) and was taken aback at how well it’s aged and how contemporary it sounds.

The LP, which was prophetically subtitled as, “Electronic Pop Music Of The future” is a mixture of reinterpretations of popular tunes (often theme tunes), including warbling Moog led versions of “Spanish Flea”, “Third Man Theme” and a surprisingly listenable reimagining of “Moon River”, as well as some more challenging (though still very melodic) originals.


One of the things that caught my eye on the reverse of the LP is the mention of their previous record, “The In Sound From Way Out”,  the title of which was clearly ‘recycled’ by the Beastie Boys for their 1996 instrumental collection of the same name.

I’ve not really had a great deal of time to digest the album, but I’m looking forward to blowing the dust of the old 1200’s and getting some beats behind this – particularly their somewhat jaunty approach to Jorge Ben’s “Mas Que Nada”.

All in all an eye opening purchase.