Yellowman: Alive and Kicking

Yellowman at The Globe, Cardiff, photo by Paul Seligman.

Last Thursday I went to see Yellowman. King Yellowman that is. Dancehall legend. His appearance is what you could call remarkable: he's tall, skinny, athletic and albino. In 1986 he was diagnosed with cancer of the jaw and was told he had only 3 weeks to 6 months to live. Thanks to surgery he is still among us, but it left his face disfigured. Being raised by nuns at the Alpha Boys School orphanage in Kingston, Jamaica (it fostered many famous musicians, like Desmond Dekker and four members of the Skatalites), you could say his life hasn't been all beer and skittles, cakes and ale or a bed of roses.

But all these misfortunes didn't stop Yellowman. On the contrary! He rose to fame after winning a toasting competition and had some big hits in the 80s. He became one of Jamaica's biggest stars and was the first dancehall artist to be signed to an American major label.

So you can understand I was very excited that this living legend was coming to my humble town. As with all artists whose heydays were decades ago the show could either be a hit or miss. Well it was no miss. Yellowman is 54 years old, but he is very much alive and kicking, literally! And no DAT or backing track, no he had a full live band, his Sagittarius Band. There was a nice mixed crowd of old balding, slightly overweight men, who obviously have adored Yellowman since 1982 (they went nuts), and younger folks, notably from Cardiff's hip hop scene. Yellowman has been a great influence on American hip hop artists from the 80s (and later), as prove these tracks that sample two of Yellowman's greatest hits: Zungguzungguguzungguzeng and Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt:


Masters of Ceremony - Keep On Moving. Get it here (YSI).


Eazy-E (of N.W.A. fame) feat MC Ren - Nobody Move. Get it here (YSI).


BlackStar (Mos Def and Talib Kweli) - Definition. Get it here (YSI).

I'll let you go with the wise words Yellowman sent us home with and which have been my motto ever since:

"Be nice. And if you can't be nice be good. And if you can't be good be careful. And if you can't be careful.. you're on your own."

Off-white

I've been sitting in the sun all day so now I'm finally off-white and IT MAKES ME WANNA DOUGIE!




Cali Swag District - Teach Me How To Dougie. Get it here (YSI).

Cali Swag District - Teach Me How To Dougie (Urban Mix feat. JD, B.o.B., Bow Wow & Red Cafe - Radio Edit). Get it here (YSI).

Euphoric Loops

Recently I discovered that I'm a sucker for pitched-up friendly loops of guitar, piano and violin. This revelation happened after I heard the Fuck the Money song of B.o.B. that I posted below. Of course I was sceptic at first due to that horrible song with the Paramore girl. But perhaps Kanye West's magic wand did the trick? Anyway, it made me think of some other songs that I love that have the same high-pitch loop in combination with the smooth rhymes of a male rapper... Love love love these tracks by Subtitle (currently on tour in Europe, check his myspace for dates), Lil B, B.o.B. and Taz-Man!

Subtitle - Pub Chick (txt msg follow-up). get it here (YSI)


Lil B - Real Life (Eras rmx). get it here (YSI)


B.o.B (feat. Asher Roth) - Fuck The Money. get it here (YSI)


Taz-Man - Know Dis. get it here (YSI)

Cool. And not just by association.

DELS or Kieren Dickins as his folks named him, is really starting to make some waves here in the UK. And I must say, I love what I've heard from him so far. I guess you'd file his music under hip hop, but then outside the box of hip hop. If that makes any sense..

He has been working with some interesting people, like Micachu and Joe Goddard from Hot Chip. The latter produced his current single Trumpalump and also made a remix of it, on which another great UK rapper named Ghostpoet joins in. Who happened to appear together with DELS before on a mixtape that Michacu made with Kwes back in 2009. You can still get this Kwesacu mixtape here! ANYWAYS (sorry about all the namedropping) his debut album, set to be released in April, surely is going to be cooler than cool. And not just by association.


DELS - Shapeshift. Get it here (YSI).


DELS - Trumpalump (Joe Goddard Quiet Remix feat. Ghostpoet). Get it here (YSI).

p.s. Did you know he is not only a very gifted musician, but also a talented designer? He went to art school, he can draw (he made some pretty cute drawings for his first 7") and even knows how to use a sewing machine (proof here). His background as a graphic designer might explain the awesomeness of his video's. Like the one for Trumpalump. Watch closely, the 'color adjustments' weren't done in Aftereffects or whatever, but with paint!

Kinda newsworthy

For some reason I lately enjoy listening to the Dutch radio's news channel while working. I think it's the voices of the people chattering away that make me feel like I have company (uhm this sounds pretty pathetic..). They play only one song per hour or so, and usually it's pretty middle of the road. With a startle I realized that now that I'm completely up to date with what's going on in the real world, I might be losing touch with what's happening in the world of music! So I hurried myself online and put up a search for new musical input. I hereby present you some of my findings. Not all tunes are "fresh from the press", but in my opinion they're still newsworthy.



Aloe Blacc - I Need A Dollar (Ft. Wu-Tang Clan)(Chrome Remix) . Get it here (YSI).
Love love love this song and love it even more now.




Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx - NY is Killing Me. Get it here (YSI).
An album is on its way!



Bon Iver and St. Vincent - Roslyn. Get it here (YSI).
Definitely not a current affair (2009), but what the heck, this song is beautiful.

You're too Görli Görli

Yesterday was a very special day. Because, despite of our first Becks-and-Hefeweizen-hangover, we decided to get up 'early' and take our lovely lady Blanche for a short stroll through Görlitzer Park in Berlin. Just to see how loud she can get. We were so hung over that we forgot half the equipment (we even forgot the music!). We went back twice and we still didn't have everything... But nevertheless Blanche's first walk in the park was a delight. We made one enemy but lots of friends. The local drug dealers were a fan. They want to book us at their next "party"!


We also met a musician called Wynton Kelly Stevenson. It turns out he has a very original way of playing the harmonica. Check it out on his MySpace!! It's a nice blend of dub, blues and hip hop. "That's the shit right there!", to speak in the man's own words.


Sometimes Blanche gets stuck in the cobbled stones. As we were jerking her we ran into another awesome musician. Yarah Bravo is MC/singer/beat maker and apparently she has a weak spot for sound systems. Her voice reminds us a bit of Lisa „Left Eye“ Lopes, and she's opening up for Freeway tomorrow. Who is very scary looking, like a black version of Matisyahu, but with less hair on top. So we might go and check her out live! You can watch her in this video...



Here's our ode to yesterday. A song we didn't play because we forgot to bring it.


Sophia George - Girlie Girlie. Get it here (YSI).

let's get physical.. critical...

I've been ranting about cycling in the UK before on this blog, and today I'm going to do it again. I'm afraid I became a bit of a bike fanatic since I moved here. A classic case of 'you don't know what you've got until it's gone', I guess... Cycling is so good, in so many ways and I can't stand it that I get ridiculed for riding my bike!

So last weekend the time had come to put words into action: I joined the Critical Mass bike ride here in Cardiff. Now I might need to explain the phenomenon of the Critical Mass to our Dutch readers here, since in Holland there is no such thing.

The first Critical Mass ride took place in San Francisco in 1992 with the idea of drawing attention to how unfriendly the city was to cyclists. Cyclists will be wearing signs and banners and make lots of noise by ringing their bells. The rides can take on truly massive proportions, with thousands of people taking part in the London and New York rides for example. Unfortunately things can get aggressive. Car drivers get impatient. As it's important that the group stays together roads might get blocked off and traffic lights ignored. (But I always found it's fascinating what happens once people step into their motorized cookie jar on wheels. They suddenly think they're invincible (and invisible - ever noticed how many people are picking their nose while waiting for a traffic light?!).

But in Cardiff things weren't that extreme. I thought it was good fun. It was so nice to be riding together. I felt even more like being in that Smiths video! So I gathered some more music videos featuring people cycling in herds (them being decent songs was another criterion). Enjoy the ride hehe..

The Cardiff Critical Mass takes place every first Saturday of the month. They meet at 11.00 in front of the museum on Park Place. Join their Facebook group!

MC Laren

My trip to London last week was kind of a last minute decision. And as you need to book your train tickets three months in advance in this country to get an affordable fare, I was forced to take the bus.. Which sucks because by train London is just 2 hours away, by bus it takes over 3 hours. But then again I kept £45 in my pocket (which I could spend in London on 2nd hand records, books (bought at a gem of a bookstore, Bookmongers in Brixton), the most delicious sourdough pizza at Franco Manca, several pints of ale, and on seeing Mats Gustafsson. Plus I was able to put a good dent in the 600-page book I'm currently reading: Last Night a DJ Saved My Life - The History of the Disc Jockey. It's very entertaining, very informative and I can highly recommend the book to anyone who is interested in dance music, whether it's soul, disco, hip hop or techno.

I'm half way through the book and so, as the bus made its way onto the M4 on Thursday morning, I continued reading the chapter Hip Hop Roots. I read about the pioneering work of DJ Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash and Afrika Bambaataa in the Bronx in the '70s. I read about the relationship between disco and hip hop and the links between punk and hip hop, in which Malcolm McLaren played a big role. I chuckled over this part where McLaren goes to some block party in the South Bronx in the early days of hip hop:

"In August 1981 McLaren had been introduced to Afrika Bambaataa by Michael Holman, a black video artist who had taken him up to the Bronx to witness this amazing new music scene. The Sex Pistol's ex-manager was then steering the fortunes of pop band Bow Wow Wow, and formulating an ambitious album project based on smelting together the world's folk-dance music (this would become this Duck Rock LP). Despite a harrowing night during which he was, by most accounts, completely petrified, McLaren was mesmerised. 'It was like Heart of Darkness,' laughs Holman. 'I go to the hotel and I'm about to take them up to the Bronx on a summer evening - McLaren and Rory Johnston from RCA - and they're dressed like fucking pirates, in all that Vivienne Westwood gear. I thought we were gonna get stuck up or shot at any second. We finally get there and we go from a place that's completely deserted to masses and masses of kids, nothing but teenagers running from one corner to another, watching fights break out in the crowd. It's insane. Bottles flying everywhere. Malcom's dressed like a pirate - and nobody noticed us.'"

Watch and listen to McLaren's own account of this event in the 1984 BBC documentary Beat This! A Hip Hop History. Hehe I love it...

Back at my hotel I learned Malcom McLaren had died that morning.

He might have been a bit of a tosser, but credit where credit's due, his influence on pop culture is undeniable. So here's some ancient hip hop for you, including McLaren's go at rapping (from 1983) and Afrika Bambaataa biggest hit Planet Rock (from 1982). I'm also putting up Takin’ All that Jazz by Stetsasonic from 1988 because it nicely reflects on the state of hip hop at the time and the criticism it received (that it wasn’t creative because of the sampling and that it was a fad(!)). And look where we are today. In part thanks to that fucking pirate.

Malcom McLaren - Buffalo Gals. Get it here (YSI).


Afrika Bambaataa & Soulsonic Force - Planet Rock. Get it here (YSI).


Stetsasonic - Talkin' All That Jazz. Get it here (YSI).

easy jet set

Tomorrow, right after our students presented us their zines, we graded them and gulped down a drink at the closing reception, we need to hurry ourselves to Schiphol Airport to fly across the Channel. We'll be heading straight to the club to DJ at the Word Virus Essay's EP release party in Cardiff!! We're feeling very rock 'n roll..

After playing together for little over a year it's now time for this triphop-drum-'n-bass-four-piece to release its first mini album Fields Apart. It's going to be such an amazing night at the always bumping 'n grinding Toucan club, with support of one of Cardiff's finest MCs Skunkadelic and us playing till the wee hours.

Have a listen to the teaser on their MySpace (and while you're there check out the artwork :-)! For all of you who won't be able to pick up the physical thing, the tracks will be available through iTunes, Amazon and Nokia as well.

Toucan, Womanby Street Cardiff. Doors 9pm. Free before 11pm, £3 after.

hark!

I realized it has been TWO MONTHS since I last posted some music here! Not good. But I've got loads of good tunes I want to force upon you after my recent session of what we call "harken" (= Dutch for raking) on the Hype Machine. On this website you'll find all the MP3s that are posted on music blogs, it's a goldmine!! Now HARK!

I start off with this sweet indie tune coming from musicwise-the-hottest-place-on-earth: Brooklyn NY.

The Drums - Let's Go Surfing. Get it here (YSI).
I came across loads of tunes with this fuzzy shoegazy late 80's/early 90's sound. If you like it have a listen to Liechtenstein, Dum Dum Girls, The Mayfair Set, Pomegranates and of course Vivian Girls and The Pains of Being Pure At Heart. Is this going to be the sound of 2010?? Hmmm...

Now a cross-over project that actually works! Blues rockers The Black Keys do it with some of the best rappers around, among which Raekwon, Mos Def, Pharoahe Monch and Ludacris. They even brought Ol'Dirty Bastard back from the dead!

Blakroc - Coochie Coo (feat. Mos Def and Jim Jones).
Get it here (YSI).

More great hip hop from Kidz in the Hall. This a track from their new album, which will be released in March. Via Squeegie.

Kidz In The Hall - Jukebox. Get it here (YSI).



South Rakkas Crew feat. Serocee - So It Go.
There is more where this came from! The nice fellows at Mad Decent are giving away South Rakkas Crew's new album The Stimulus Package for FREE! Get it here!

My dearest Schlachthofbronx teaming up with Playdoe's Spoek... this must be good. And it is. Love that drum band sound! May be not everybody's cup of tea, but definitely mine!!

Schlachthofbronx - Ayoba (feat. Spoek and Gnucci Banana).

Get it here (YSI).

The one and only Uffie's back, now f*ck off Ke$ha!!!!
Via Rutger, thanks!

Uffie - MCs Can Kiss (Original). Get it here (YSI).

Usually dubstep is a serious matter, dark and grim. But this spoof of Caspa's remix of TC's Where's My Money? is a good laugh. Via You Can Call Me Pelski.

Parker - Where's my monkey? Get it here (YSI).

R'n'Balkan

I still have to thank my friend Peter *. Thank him for introducing me to Miss Platnum!

Miss Platnum was born in Romania, but moved with her parents to Berlin when she was a kid. She used to work as a background singer until she started working on her own music for her debut album Chefa. I think her style is truly unique: Balkan-flavoured R'n'B. So lots of brass, rolling R's and songs about food and Mercedes Benz. She takes the piss out of the (Western) ideal beauty and the stereotypes of Eastern Europeans in a very funny and clever way. To be honest the R'n'B songs are a bit too mushy for my taste, but I absolutely LOVE her uptempo work.

For some strange reason I just assumed that for her latest album she had tipped over to the R'n'B side, maybe because a sophomore album is usually more 'mature'. So even though The Sweetest Hangover had been released in September I didn't give it a listen until yesterday. Silly me! The songs might not be as catchy as some of her older ones, but it is a great record with plenty of uptempo songs and still heavily Balkan influenced. Have a listen to Come Marry Me, a duet with German hip hop superstar Peter Fox, from her first album and She Moved in!, taken off her latest release.

Miss Platnum - Come Marry Me (feat. Peter Fox). Get it here.

Miss Platnum - She Moved In! Get it here.

* If you can read Dutch, do check out Peter 'Teps' de Koning's blog!! He wittily writes about all sorts of interesting stuff, like music from around the globe, politics, soccer and personal memories. I think he is one of the best storytellers in the Lowlands!

the Berliner Skank a la Dutch Dolls

So after a little over five weeks I'm back in Cardiff. Except for the rain, it feels nice to be at HOME again. Surrounded by all my stuff, having a closet full of clothes to choose from, being called 'love' by the cashier at Tesco's, a PROPER INTERNET CONNECTION... The latter, plus the fact that we worked/partied/relaxed a lot, were the reasons for the infrequent postings the last couple of weeks. But I'll make up for it now by giving you some of Berlin's highlights according to Dutch Dolls...

Like this tiny Greek restaurant called Thalassa (Körtestrasse 8) in Kreuzberg. No live music, no tacky decor, no colums. This family run restaurant serves finger licking yummy food, prepared by a big mama. Highly, highly recommended!

Does fermented cabbage sound appealing to you?! To me it never did! But in Korea they love the stuff: kimchi. I've never been a great fan. So when I made a bet (trying not to drink alcohol for one day..) my challenge would be to eat kimchi. Of course I failed... So off we went to Kimchi Princess, a new, stylish Korean restaurant in Kreuzberg 36 (almost too stylish for its surroundings). I had a kimchi crêpe and it was de-li-cious! I'm converted :-)

One of my best nights out ever was probably at Kiki Blofeld: dancing to obscure soul & funk music in a boathouse, chilling outside by a campfire and playing foosball under the stars. Brilliant!! This picture of the (then empty) boathouse doesn't do it justice at all!


Dutch Dolls had another memorable night out at Cassiopeia in Friedrichshain. The ruins of an old factory house two concert venues, a beergarten (check out the pic), an open air cinema and skate hall. Very raw, but the atmosphere is very gemütlich. We shaked our booty to some live R'n B (!), hip hop and dancehall till dawn!


Two nice dives in the neighbourhood of the Falkensteinstrasse in Xberg are Madame Claude and Konrad Tönz. In Madame Claude you can play ping pong or play your musical instrument at one of their open mic nights. Sometimes they have bands playing in their tiny and very damp basement. Oh I just love Konrad Tönz! The bartender is superfriendly and he blends in neatly with the retro interior of the bar... The DJs spin their records (boogaloo, schlager, (ost-)beat, soul and jazz) on two mono record players. Dutch Dolls recommends buying a bottle of sekt (German sparkling wine) there. The bartender will keep it chilled for you in the fridge and he'll fluff you up every now and then.

They say "When in Rome, do as the Romans do". So when in Berlin, go to the fleamarket! The one on Arkonaplatz has a very nice selection of old junk (I should say vintage - go to Mauerpark for a massive amount of just junk). Once a month the legendary punk club SO36 has a Nachtflomarkt. The quality of the goods isn't that great, but it's cheap. So at least you still have a chance of finding a real treasure here. Another big plus is that you can 'trödel' here with a beer in your hand and excellent soul music in the background!

More legendary punk is to be found at the Ramones museum in Mitte. On display are Ramones memorabilia from some obsessive fan. Which is great! There's a framed pair of Johnny's pants, old report cards and of course lots of pictures and posters (there are actually some pretty cool photobooth photo's and contact sheets). Every punk-ish band that visits Berlin drops by at the museum and they often do an acoustic live show. For FREE!! I went there to see the Riverboat Gamblers! I enjoyed it a lot, even though they couldn't rock out as much since they didn't want to trash the museum. On YouTube I found the video that the guy in front of me made. He was clearly into it as well; the camera is bouncing to the rhythm...



Bye bye Berlin, until next year!!

legends of rap

At last it's mine, mine o'mine: LEGENDS OF RAP - A TRADING CARD DECK! 32 cards brilliantly illustrate the early years of New York hip hop. The drawings are done by Tobias Krafczyk, published by Superclub, Berlin. www.legendsofrap.com.
But no way I'm gonna trade them with anyone!!

it’s a DEAD END

I am HEARTBROKEN. Today Master Shortie was supposed to be playing here in Cardiff (along with Dan Black en Boy Crisis – not too bad either), but for some reason or another the show has been canceled!! I was so looking forward to this as I am SO IN LOVE with Master Shortie *sigh* This boi is cute! And his tracks are frrresh! God how I wish I was that girl he was flirting with in his song Dead End. Oh well our love is hopeless anyhow, because he’s got a wifieeee at hohome (not to mention the fact that he’s only 19)(and that he’s a superstar in the making)…

Master Shortie – Dead End. Download it here (YSI).

And while I’m at it, I would like to mention another up and coming star on the UK hip hop scene: Speech Debelle. I don’t know a lot about this young lady, besides the facts that she’s from London, she’s on the same label as Roots Manuva and her debut album will be released in May. Check her out on MySpace and when you do make sure to listen to the track Searching, a beautiful hip hop balad (!).

Speech Debelle – The Key. Download it here (YSI).