seen.´s non-hippie reggae and dancehall blog

I haven´t heard it yet but it could be a small little musical treasure island hidden in the ruff sea of Reggae-related webradio casts. The show is called “Reggae Bytes” and is on “air” on Byte FM every Monday from 9-11 p.m. and every Tuesday from 2-4 p.m. (C.E.T.) .

So why do I think this show with a pretty lame name might be worth listening to at a time at which you normally either get drunk with your bredren, watch DVDs/ have sex with your girl or just sleep because you´re getting old faster than Sizzla loses his mind nerves?

Well, it´s hosted by Oliver Schrader, a founding member of the Hamburg-based Silly Walks Soundsystem (for non-German readers and/or for those who don´t know: this is the sound that Gentleman used to perform regularly with besides being a member of the Pow Pow family). Schrader and his crew have always been a guarantee for high quality music since 1991 and I see no reason for him to not follow this tradition doing “Reggae Bytes” - where he will present the best of “40 years of Reggae as well as current trends from the Caribbean and urban Africa”.

P.S. If anyone has listened to the debut show - please share your impressions / opinion.
P.P.S. The rest of Byte FM´s programme is pretty nice, too.

Ross Sheil had a link to these drawing of 3rd to 6th grade students of Jones Town Primary School (Kingston, Jamaica) in the Observations blog a few days ago. Don´t think they need any commentary. More after the jump.

(more…)

After Puma has shown us quite often (last try: teaming up with Riddim-magazine) how shitty Jamaica-”inspired” sneakers can actually look like, this time Adidas tries to be hip doing the Reg-gay together with Tuff Gong Studios. Ok, they´re (of course) better than their German competitors (and the shoes fit Ziggy´s H&M-shirty at least), but hey - couldn´t you come up with something more sophisticated? Or do you really wanna make shoes for this target-group only?

Wonder who´s next putting lions and red-gold-and-green und trainers. Converse maybe? At least that would be a brand that actually is worn in JA nowadays…

Our friends from Yuhzimi just upped this clip from both, Afflicted´s vernissage in Galerie Milieu as well as the following afterparty in the Wasserwerk Club, Bern (CH). (via Freshness)

(via Prancehall)

While we Europeans will have to wait a while do get the torrents DVDs, American citizen can enjoy the start of the 5th and final “Wire”-season tonight. HBO has a preview and Karmaloop TV featured a “The Wire”-special some days ago (see above). Shiit, I can´t wait to see it.