kind of a big deal

most amazing mix by Kingdom promoting his appearance at some club somewhere ;)

Kingdom FABRICLIVE / Fool's Gold Promo Mix by fabric

so good


1. Choice – Acid Eiffel
02. Cooly G – Weekend Fly
03. Roska – The Sheppard
04. Mosca – Square One (Kingdom Edit ft. Willie Carter)
05. Kingdom – Bust Broke
06. Shaun-D – Spanish Fly (Kingdom Remix)
07. Mike Q – I Am Legend
08. Kanji Kinetic – Thrill Seeker (Kingdom Remix)
09. Dj Toño – Nanue
10. Bok Bok – Citizens Dub ft. Bubbz
11. Untold – Don't Know. Don't Care.
12. Bionics vs. Slimzee – The Capsule
13. Kingdom – You
14. Kingdom – Mind Reader ft. Shyvonne (Todd Edwards Remix)
15. Kingdom – Mind Reader ft. Shyvonne (Todd Edwards Dub)

Baobinga

Baobinga's new material, both solo and alongside DJ ID, is bangin. It's got both the subtlety and dancefloor payload needed to withstand the current hybrid-bass climate. In fact Baobinga and ID's version of United Groove is my current choice to drop!

In this mix Binga lays out his vision for the perfect contemporary rave hybrid sound, bangers alongside the mash ! Lets go & gt;


BAOBINGA - Quick Lil Promo Mix October 09


1. Zero 7 - Medicine Man (Cooly G RMX) - Atlantic
2. Bubblez - Loser - Devotional Dubz
3. Baobinga - Ride It - Build DUB
4. MJ Cole ft Serocee - AO (Zed Bias RMX) - Prolific
5. TRG - Tribal Flex - DUB
6. Noob & amp; Brodinski - Peanuts Club (Bok Bok & amp; Greena RMX) - DUB
7. Baobinga ft Rubi Dan - Raggipahop - Monkey Steak DUB
8. DJ Sneak - Get Da Ho (DJ Mes RMX) - House Guest
9. Major Lazer - Pon De Floor - Mad Decent
10. Andrea Lai & amp; Madox - Smoke King (Baobinga RMX) - DUB
11. Redlight - Kid Soldier - DUB
12. Baobinga - Make It Drop - Trouble & amp; Bass DUB
13. Skepta - Sweet Mother - Boy Better Know
14. Jamson & amp; Viper - Urban Hero - Relentless
15. L-Vis 1990 - United Groove (Baobinga & amp; I.D RMX) - Mad Decent DUB
16. TRG - Strobe Lick - DUB
17. Killa P & amp; Rossi B - Police A Come - DUB
18. DJ Znobia - Me Batem (Baobinga & amp; I.D. RMX) - Enchufada
19. Dexplicit - Shut It Down - DXP
20. Taz Buckfaster - Half Man, Half Trout - Rwina DUB
21. Baobinga & amp; I.D. - Tongue Riddim - Build DUB
22. Wedge & amp; Shadz - Running Away (Guido RMX) - If Symptoms Persist DUB
23. Dorian Concept- Trilingual Dance Sexperience - Affine Records
24. Moving Fusion - Atlantis (Bad Company RMX) - Ram
25. Baobinga & amp; I.D. - Jah - DUB
26. The Dream - Hit It On The Road - Def Jam
27. Busy Signal - Up In Her Belly - VP Records

BRAIDEN - Journey Home

As well as close Night Slugs fam, Braiden is also one of our favourite London DJs.
For his contribution to our podcast series, Braiden has put together a specially themed mix that showcases some of his key influences - synth-heavy old-skool electro, boogie-funk and technicolor-saturated techno.
For many of the current crop of UK producers and DJs, Drexciya has been just as important as Tuff Jam, So Solid or DMZ - their music resonates with the vibes of Detroit as much as those of London. Braiden's mixtape is peppered with a few modern-day synth-n-bass bangers too, neatly setting up a nuum-friendly context for some of the older styles to be revisited.

A few words from the man himself:
"My approach to the mix was to put together a mixture of electro tracks, both old and more recent, along with some other favourite tracks which fit into this aesthetic.

I entitled it "journey home" based on the Drexciya track of the same name, but also because I have sentimental feelings towards this kind of synth-based electro as it was the first kind of dance music i got into when I was about 16. I have always found something very emotive in analog synth lines - maybe it was all the Commodore 64 games I played as a kid."


BRAIDEN - Journey Home Mix




Zackey Force Funk - The Split [2009]
Luke Eargoggle - The Swedish Code [2003]
The Other People Place - Let Me Be Me [2001]
Drexciya - 700 Million Light Years From Earth [2002]
Bangkok Impact - Junge Dame mit Freundliche Telefonstimme [Legowelt rmx] [2003]
Drexciya - Journey Home [1995]
Little Jinder - Youth Blood [Bok Bok remix] [2009]
Egyptian Lover - Freak A Holic [1986]
Underground Resistance - Electronic Warfare [1995]
Legowelt - Disco Bitch [1999]
Ikonika - Space Ugly [2010]
Anthony Rother - Luzifer [2006]
Bass Junkie VS The Dexorcist - Robot Movement [2006]
Nukubus - Second Moon [2003]
Rebound X - Rhythm & amp; Gash [2006]
Underground Resistance - Final Frontier [1991]

London Orient: Kode9 Sinogrime

"Canary Wharf is like our Statue of Liberty," Roll Deep producer Target once said. "It pushes me on. It's like all the money is there and it's an inspiration to get your own."


London


Shanghai

Sinogrime is a sub-genre that barely ever existed, a momentary glitch in the supposedly predictable sonic geography of London dance music. Around 2002-3, with garage crumbling and the cement still drying on grime as a genre, a few producers in E3 suddenly lurched further east than they ever had before.

This is the sound of Shanghai towerblocks and the millennial promise of a new superpower, refracted through the scuffed windows of Crossways Estate in Bow. From the outset grime's sonic palette defined it as the most futurist of genres - a steel sword cutting cleanly through UK hip-hop's wooden edifice - but it rarely sounded as futurist as this.

I went to interview Kode9 for The Guardian recently (link here), and among other things we got talking about sinogrime… Here's what he said:

I've always been fascinated by these little squiggly synths, whether it's been in jazz funk, or gangsta rap, or 80s synth pop… and also grime. That's what I love most about grime actually, that kind of hyper-coloured sound. I was never so into the aggression of grime – I liked it in the MCs and the music, but it was actually how fucking beautiful melodically Target, Wiley, Terror Danjah, Ruff Sqwad and Jammer were – the Chinese style instrumentals.

I did this mix a few years ago that was just Jammer and Wiley and Target - of just half an hour of these Chinese-style plinky-plonk sounds… it was a bit sloppy, but it is fucking amazing music. Those guys were just on taking an aspect of hip-hop and blending it with really quite jarring, brash melodies.

For the first time, here is that mix:

Kode9 – Sinogrime Minimix

No tracklist I'm afraid – "all the tracks are Jammer/Wiley/Wookie/Wonder/Geeneus, but there were no track names on the Jammer whites". We'll stick it on the Lower End Spasm podcast too when Bok Bok gets back from the Night Slugs tour of last century's superpower.

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Further listening/further reading:

Sharky Major – Diss Ain't A Game (sendspace/youtube)

My favourite sinogrime track ever: a superb beat by Jammer, with the riff nicked from an obscure old-school Jet Li film - I know this from watching (whatever it was called) at 3am once.. I pretty much leapt out my chair when the credits rolled and this oh-so-familiar melody started playing. Sharky Major's crushingly poignant - and ironic - lyric, reflecting on the tension between headstrong ambition and harsh reality in the wild east, is one of the most memorable in grime:

I feel like I aint as good as people say I am
I know I can spit ten times better than I've ever done
Watch me rise with the morning sun

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Wiley – Shanghai (sendspace/youtube)

I masochistically agreed to select and write about the ten Essential Wiley tracks for FACT recently. This extraordinary beat was without doubt the missing number 11, very hard to leave out.

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Blackdown on China's near(er) east, with some wonderful Soho pics, as well as commentary from Steve Barker.

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A post on Dissensus discussing various sinogrime vinyl, some released, some just dubs, from Simon78. Wait... Dizzee had an instrumental called 'Chinky Ting'?? If anyone can sort me out with an mp3 of Jammer and Mr Wong's 'Chinkrasta' I'd be very grateful for that, too.

***********

PS - I've been writing some less-musically-specific things on my personal blog recently (on mobile phones and treble cultcha, here), so keep that RSS-ed.

4 classic Geeneus riddims

This ain't Sinogrime, but it comes from the same place. Rinse FM have just quietly given away four fantastic Geeneus/Wizzbit instrumentals from grime's golden era - lost treasures unearthed from the irresistible late-garage/early-grime bleed period. Gee and Wizzbit are the same person of course - I never was clear what the pseudonym was about, since the sound is interchangable. The tracks are:

Geeneus - Raggo
Geeneus - Poltergeist Remix
Geeneus - Midnite Remix
Wizzbit - Aquarius Remix

Download the pack here. (or here)

It's exactly the unimpeachable DJ-led rollage we brought you in Alex's brilliant '69 Allstars' mix-slash-history lesson a couple of years ago. Midnite Remix in particular is devastating - rarely has a grime producer been able to make a synth STAB so aggressively, while still having the drums push you to move so hard at the same time. It helps, of course, that we're getting these tunes in high quality for the first time.

On this subject, beyond Grimetapes I feel there's a fairly urgent need for a salvage operation to rescue, archive and release more of these 2002/3 instrumentals. I've heard some terrible, heartbreaking things recently about crashed hard-drives belonging to Ruff Sqwad producers – if some of these unreleased classics really are lost to the ages, it would represent grime's elemental transience being brought to its natural conclusion… some of those dubs might NEVER see the light of day.

JAM CITY Fact mix

Kiran Fact wants Jam City all to himself here.

JAM CITY - Fact Mix 93

1. B.Calloway - Swimming

2. L-Vis1990 - United Groove (kingdom remix)

3. DJ Gazzeto - Gazzeto Eskhaleni Zone 1

4. Bookworms - African Rhythm

5. DJ Gukwa - Terminator Returns (Jam City whirlpool edit)

6. Jam City - What I Think About You dub

7. Gremino - Shining

8. Jam City - Runnin Yr Mouth9. DJ Quest - Devils Bay

10. Endgames - Ecstacy (Jam City Refix)

11. Respite - Hundreds and Millions (Jam City edit feat. Natasha)

12. Jam City - Underpass Limiter

13. Surface - Falling in Love (Jam City Edit)

NIGHT SLUGS Dubplates 2009

NIGHT SLUGS Dubplates 2009 mix

01 - BOK BOK - Ripe Banana [Dress 2 Sweat]
02 - Buraka Som SIstema - Generale (L-VIS 1990 remix) [Fabric]
03 - Royal T - Beat Fighter (BOK BOK remix) [No Hats No Hoods]
04 - Hardhead - Toothbrush Country (L-VIS 1990 edit)
05 - BOK BOK - Citizens Of The City Dub
06 - L-VIS 1990 - Zahonda [Sound Pelegrino]
07 - Little Jinder - Youth Blood (BOK BOK remix) [Trouble & amp; Bass]
08 - L-VIS 1990 - Compass [Sound Pelegrino]
09 - Untold - Stop What You're Doing (BOK BOK edit)
10 - BOK BOK & amp; L-VIS 1990 - Wake Up Early [White]
11 - L-VIS 1990 - Hide [Dress 2 Sweat]
12 - Riton & amp; Primary 1 - Who's There (L-VIS 1990 remix) [Phantasy]
13 - Egyptrixx- Just Say Really (BOK BOK remix) [Idiot House]
14 - Kingdom ft Shyvonne - Mind Reader (L-VIS 1990 remix) [Fools Gold]
15 - L-VIS 1990 - Changes
16 - Secret Agent Gel - Crew (BOK BOK dub) [Bass Tourist]
17 - Gucci Vump - Sha, Shtil! (L-VIS 1990 remix) [Sound Pelegrino]