Song(s) of the Day # 3,954 Saint Etienne
25 minutes ago
MOⒶNARCHISM
'Black Wax Attack is a testament to the boom boom crack of my favourite bashy riddims. Its a journey through my treasured 7” vinyl collection as a self-confessed bashment worshipper.- The Bug
I got magnetised by dancehall’s swagger and daggering, and converted to reggae’s post “Sleng Teng” mechanoid mutations by Steely & Clevie’s truly outstanding “Streetsweeper Riddim”. Prior to that Greensleeves label purchase, I had been a foolishly arrogant dub snob, and former post punk casualty/hip hop nerd/free jazz space cadet, who had stupidly dismissed ragga as a cheesy, plastic, bastard offspring of reggae. But once smitten by Burro Banton’s “Boom Wha Dis” and Capleton’s “Final Assassin”, there was no turning back. I fell heavily for the ghetto punk attitude, and rabid studio experimentation. I became a regular buyer/addict at Stonebridge Park and Harlesden’ s various hole in the wall reggae vinyl stores, and money/time waster at Notting Hill’s, now sadly, deceased “Dub Vendor” reggae record haven. I would run weekly to these stores to check the zillions of vocals dropped on the multitude of riddims in an attempt to locate the freshest shizzle. And it was def thru that dancehall conversion, that I begged to link up with Daddy Freddy via The Rootsman, and released my first filthy bash-collision “Politicians & Paedophiles” (subsequently released by AFX in 2002), and then quickly formed my own Killing Sound imprint, to atomise parties, Razor X Productions. So herein resides 2 hours of my chosen dancehall drugs. A tunnel visioned tribute mix to Jamaican bionics. A relentless selection of frenzied mechanical gyrations, mind-blowing vocal detonations, electronic rhythm deviations and addictive hip juice injections. An attempt to keep faith in the future of a genre which has felt stale since the vinyl market collapse and the pop-lite takeover by the autotune generation. But a genre I still follow avidly, and await the next generation of freakbeat visionaries and motormouth specialists.'
Here I am while back thinking deep thoughts. pic.twitter.com/xrZpNUnuXc— thor harris (@thorharris666) October 26, 2016
Earlier this year, my friend Thor sent me the results of his latest creative endeavor - a record from a band he was calling Thor and Friends. At the time, I was still knee-deep in my own record-making process, and was exhausted by the sound of my own voice. The record that Thor sent me became a constant presence in my life after that. I became so attached to it that I asked Thor if he and his aforementioned friends might be willing to spend some time with me, reimagining some of the songs on my forthcoming record. And so-lucky me-I got to spend a few days in Austin with these talented, kind, creative people, breathing new life into a group of songs that I had already lived with for years- Jenn Wasner