Montreal Does It

Monsiuer Poirier has been having some illegal fun with Khiasma from Masala and Sixtoo throwing a rave out the back of a van under a bridge somewhere in Montreal. Video here. If you did that in London, everyone would be shot by the police. Probably.

Ghislain also sent me this bhangra soca beauty. Like Matterhorn on holiday in Goa. I know its been on a few blogs already so this is for the snoozers. Carnival Banger.

Bunji Garlin & JMC Triveni - Doi Festival (Ghislain Poirier remix)(Zshare)

Bashy Bonanza

Big up to Ray at my old work for pointing me in the direction of somwhere very special. Quite literally a 'Bashment Market' ! Picked up some hot new JA mixtapes. Let me share the FYA with you.

Firstly from Mavado's Amazing Grace mixtape. Don't know who the rapper is but its downright gold. A synth overload souldrenched anthem. If you're not feeling this it, you're wierd.

Mavado - Nah waan fi see me rise (Zshare)

On the addictive Spanish Town riddim from a few months ago, Cecile. A new flow and all round party starter of a tune. The beat on this just stomps along riding some hardassed flamenco strumming. Its always when I'm bored of dancehall something like this comes along. DJs - If you play this out and people don't dance, I want my money back.

Cecile - Party (zshare)


And finally an old classic for my girl simply because she loves it.

Eric Donaldson - Cherry Oh! Baby (Zshare)

Buraka Som Sistema Vivem @ Fabric

If they are as good live as they look in this clip, then I need to catch them this summer. LDNners - They are playing on Sunday at the Lovebox festival in Victoria park.

Feeling a bit starved of Kuduro action. Can anyone point me in the right direction for some new stuff ?

H-Town Swangin'

Like last year, summertime means I can't get enough H-Town goodness. Houston for Dummies by the untouchable DJ Ayres contains bomb after bomb. Natch for DJ Eleven's Houston Rocks it.


Houstonsoreal blog

Re-Re-wind

Ahhh 97. I remember it like it was yesterday. I was working in the neon lit multiscreen nightmare of HMV, whiling away the hours flicking through import Hip Hop cds that I couldn't afford..Out of the blue speed garage mixes started flying off the racks. The saturday shoppers got hammered with it. I thought the majority of tunes were pretty bit dull but some of them like Double 99's Ripgroove & Todd Edwards bumping edits were UKG bassline classics that still sound fresh. Back then Wiley was a mere garage MC with the glint of grime in his eye - going from this to this.

So who'd a thought Sinden & Count of Monte Cristal's new stuff is going more and more down the champagne/No trainers route ? Good thing is they've taken the choppy London beats, carnival sized basslines and timestretch vocals instead of the shiney shirt slickness. Nice work bolly crew.

Mr Hudson - Ask The DJ (Sinden and the Count of Monte Cristal Remix) (Zshare)

A Higher Plaine

On holiday once me and my mates spent day in a mini bus crossing southern Thailand while the driver played a tape on repeat continuously for the whole jouney. All I can describe it is was Thai Turbo Hard House. Horrendous. At first its was like Party bus ! But after exactly 1.2 minutes it was like a relentless psychotic hell on earth in the Thai midday heat. After seven hours I kind of liked it. Got me thinking about bad stuff that grows on you whether you like it or not.

I'm bored of all this cool stuff, its way time for some absolute REALNESS. In all of these specialist regional scenes from around the world its easy to ignore the mounds of properly bizarre shit that goes with it. Think the opposite of Dubstep. Its not cool. Its not clever. BUT IT IS PARTY PARTY TIME ( in a slightly hysterical scary way ).

I can't remember where I picked this up, some place in central America tucked away on the end of a Reggaeton mix cd like a dirty secret. I've listened to this a few times now and found myself singing along. Whats happening to me ?

Crack open some beers and the crystal meth. This is the sound of SWINGY BOOM !!!

Swingy Boom Mix (Zshare)


Normal service will resume presently.

Carioca Kings

Man Recordings are doing BIG tings for Baile funk. They are one of the few labels, if any, actively putting out funk internationally and giving it a platform for a woldwide market. This is a good thing, especially as the artists are getting PAID from these record sales and subsequent European tours. Label bossman Daniel Haaksman compiled the essential Rio Baile Funk and More Favela Booty Beats compilations, showcasing a handpicked selection of prime funk - get his new mix here. So now everyone can dip their toe into the yellow and green carioca waters without quickly popping over to Rio or sifting through mounds of MP3s on funk websites.

They are currently running two consecutive releases. Funk Mundial, genre bending funk inflected dance 12s by blog worshipped producers like Crookers and Sinden. The Funk Masters series focuses on exclusive cuts from some of the best and heaviest of Rio's funk producers like Ghetto Bassquake favourite DJ Sandrinho (spinback) and all round funk legend Sany Pitbull, the undisputed king of the MPC.

The third release will be from DJ Edgar. He started out playing for the enormo Rio soundsystem, Furacão 2000, and has gone on to become Catra's DJ, destroying dancefloors around the world. His new EP, Baile Funk Masters No.3 is a banging collection of filthy Tamborzão battleweapons. Samples of... Groove is in the Heart, Satisfaction, Atoladinha, Your Love...... Its out July 2nd. Here's a taster.

DJ Edgar - Samuel Mix (Zshare)

Booty from the South

The photocopy sleeves of Reggaeton bootlegs can be amazing. Literally ART. Damien Hirst needs to pick up some of these babies next time he wants to blow £12m for some South American 'inspiration' and they cost about 5 pesos a go.

Generally the obligitory pics of Don Omar looking moody and a bikini clad maiden are the standard. But sometimes you gotta go the distance to get the tills ringin. My mate Andy just brought me back a sack of gems from South America. For this he gets a really loud Air horn and welcome home dude.



Yes thats 2008. You won't have heard these yet.



The Best of Regueton. Oh.



Demi Moore in Striptease and some bloke sticking his fingers up at me. Nice.




Thundercats wins. If its good enough for Wiley then its good enough for me. Its '100preForever' as well.