seen.´s non-hippie reggae and dancehall blog

Sentinel Sound presents a nice little webmix with some brandnew as well as classic tunes from Mavado. There´s some decent dubplates in there as well. Get it here or directly from Sendspace.

Well, another John Eden rip-off post - but I gotta break the silence on this blog somehow …

On his Uncarved-blog, Eden today curses fashionistas - spellt F.e.r.g.i.e. - for making Dancehall-flyer tees unwearable. The not so bad shirt you see on the pic above, comes from a NYC-based downtowngoesuptownbrand called Clarendon which kinda seems to like Jamaican graphics. However,

they have loads of stuff on their site about which celebrities have worn their gear. And it’s not entirely clear whether or not they actually pay the original designers of the images for their work. (Uncarved)

I doubt that they actually pay any of the original designers - but in whose nose do those 55 bucks per piece end up then?

Friday´s issue of the Guardian featured an article on the impact of the “elimination” of vinyl on Jamaican popular music.

Amongst other, author Dave Stelfox interviewed European veteran DJ David Rodigan on the current situation of the Jamaican music economy. Here´s some quotes that I think are worth being shared:

“[…] vinyl has been eliminated by the people who play the music to the public. The key players - and by that I mean the sound system selectors that people go to see every weekend, who can make or break a song - are no longer dealing with it in any shape or form and have all switched to CD. […]. This process has been gradual, but it’s now absolute.”

“The domestic Jamaican market for singles has been negligible for quite some time. Turntables are no longer available there and the home audience buys sound system mixtapes and DVDs of live shows and dances instead.”

“It’s a reflection of the economic realities in Jamaica that the emotional motivations of overseas collectors have for years propped up vinyl manufacture.”

With this changing, too, Dan Kuster, A&R of Greenseleeves Records, sees the whole process of promoting and distributing reggae music revolutionised:
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Palms Out Sounds, one of my favourite online resources for remixes, has a nice post on dope Danish artists and producers:

I had heard the name Natasja Saad before - she was killed in a car accident on Jamaica´s roads while visiting legendary producers Sly & Robbie mid of last year - but I can´t really remember having heard one of her tunes. According to POS, she was Denmark´s rising star and had a massive hit called “Calabria” the same summer she died.

Originally released by Rune Reilly Kølsch (aka RuneRK) and his half brother Johannes Torpe in 2003 as an instrumental house song, that signature saxophone line slowly but surely began invading dance floors from Ibiza to Paris and eventually to us isolated Americans. As the song grew and grew in popularity, a variety of remixes and mashes were made which allowed the synth sax to reach the ears of all different sorts of music fans. In early 2007, Rune (now calling himself Enur) spared down the original, preserving the best parts, and added a ragga beat. He called on one of the brightest stars in Denmark, Natasja Saad, to provide those whoopwhoop vocals. At the time, Natasja was primed to become the biggest international success out of Denmark since Aqua.

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… and I can clearly see the red, ye. But green and gold?

Jokes aside. This is freaking serious. Check the photographic documentation of that incident in the Afflicted Yard blog.

via BBC Icecream