Items of Interest

Just got back last night from a little trip to Rehoboth Beach with some of our B-more crew which was as enjoyable as ever. This time we brought a little portable record player with us and rocked some jazz, soul, dub, and rock LPs while we chilled out and played video games.

I read a pretty good book about dub music entitled Dub: Soundscapes and Shattered Songs in Jamaican Reggae which entertainingly enough features a review by Francois Kevorkian as the top customer review on that Amazon page. Michael Veal did a really excellent job of going into the detail of the people who made dub music and the culture that consumed it. Possibly the best part of the book is that he didn’t have to make any concessions to popular culture’s perceptions of dub, unlike the final chapter of Dan Sicko’s otherwise excellent and similarly hyper-focused Detroit techno book Techno Rebels which covered some artists that were hardly even tangentially related to Detroit’s music. Veal’s examination of dub music outside of Jamaica consists only of relevent serious dub music producers like Bullwackie, Rhythm and Sound, Pole, Mad Professor, Adrian Sherwood, etc., all of whom are at least as underground as the original dub music is if not more. I’m not sure how Veal got the backing to do this as dub music is so far out of the consciousness of mainstream music fans, but this is another good step in the right direction for the documentation of regional underground music scenes that have gone on to influence music far and wide. I do wish he had more directly examined dub’s influenced on hiphop and especially it’s influence on early pre-house in NYC which was pretty damn important, but that is really nitpicking an otherwise superb book.

I just happened upon an interview with Jus-Ed that was posted in mid-December on what appears to be a blog based out of Russia. I’m not sure exactly what their deal is, but they have other interviews up with DJ Pete, 2 Banks of 4, Shed, and more.

Another nice blog appeared out of the ether recently, bass & superstructure. The author appears to be in the “serious critic” vein, which is not exactly my favorite style to read but he does cover soulful dance music that other “serious critics” aren’t which is a step in the right direction. b&ss has already been added to our Essential Links and to my own RSS reader, I hope to see more good things from them in the future!

Marcel Dettman has the newest Resident Advisor podcast up, which I haven’t had a chance to listen to yet. The only reason I’m going to is the presence on the tracklist of a new Shake track which is from his new EP forthcoming on the Morphine Records label. If that isn’t enough to get you excited as hell, you don’t really love techno music. Mr. Dettman also drops some nice soulful techno and electro in the mix from artists like Lab Rat XL, Common Factor, Robert Hood, and more, so hopefully the whole mix will be worth a listen.

I know we’re late with it, but I have to mention the passing of the great jazz trumpet players Freddie Hubbard. Oddly enough, I just purchased the “Red Clay” album on CD for my little sister for Christmas. I bet she still hasn’t listened to it, but it’s still my favorite of his albums and an essential record to own. RIP Freddie.

School starts again tomorrow, but as this is my last semester and I have all my EE stuff sewn up, this one shouldn’t be so bad. I actually get some easy classes like “Socialism vs. Capitalism” and whatnot which should keep me in a good mood without work overloads like the past few semesters. Now that my right hand is usable again, I’m going to order some new styli for my tables and have a mix ready by next Monday. I swear it won’t be 7 months before the next mix after that one, either!