After Paul Beats made it on FM4 Soundsystem´s show already a few days ago, this afternoon seen. team´s young gun Tim Turbo will be taking over Austrian airwaves and the respective stream. Listen to his 20-min. mix from 3.30 pm CET and feel the heat. The tracklist should be available on this page pretty soon and will let you know what´s up, seen?

seen. we nice things up
get your piece of non-hippie reggae and dancehall wear at www.seen-site.com

In its current issue entitled “150 Jahre Pop” (150 years of pop music), German music magazine Spex features a 16-page special on reggae, dancehall and dubstep which explores the history of Caribbean music and how it influenced club music on a global scale.

Should be a nice weekend read even though Paul-Philip Hanske from another German (online) magazine called Jetzt argues that Spex´s special doesn´t look at the dark side of dancehall (=homophobic and violent lyrics) enough while he, too, praises the innovativity and intensity of reggae and dancehall productions.

Der Sound von Dancehall ist innovativ und fordernd - die Texte aber versteht man meist lieber nicht. Das eigentlich Erstaunliche aber ist, dass so gut wie niemand bereit ist, sich diesem Widerspruch auszusetzen. 

Read his article (which is pretty good in my opinion) here.

seen. we nice things up
get your piece of non-hippie reggae and dancehall wear at www.seen-site.com

With trade shows like B&B and Bright happening in Europe, of course, some reggae related tees pop up on the scene, too. The ones above are three I recently stumbled upon and like quite a bit. From left to right (ignore the super-ugly sneakers): one of the “Bad Brains collection” shirts from Vans (via Artschoolvets),  PAM´s “Riddims” tee (via Haven) and Gabrielle Smith´s nice and simple “R is for Rice and Peas” piece.

In addition, I came across a Hobnox feature on Jaybo a.k.a. Monk, the art director of Irie Daily (a heavily punk and reggae-inspired, established German streetwear brand which is really cool despite its name) and the man behind Style & The Family Tunes magazine. Watch it. This guy´s a genius.

seen. we nice things up
get your piece of non-hippie reggae and dancehall wear at www.seen-site.com

Even though I´m kind of surprised about the frequency in which Rodney 2.0 (he even has a Twitter account and on his website pics are automatically pulled from Flickr) is dropping videos for his upcoming LP, I like how his Jamaican roots shine through in “Again & Again”. (However, I don´t know anything about cricket besides that the game even makes white British people go to Kingston, Jamaica, sometimes.)

via Nialler9

seen. we nice things up
get your piece of non-hippie reggae and dancehall wear at www.seen-site.com

Puh. Back from Melt I want to huge up Daniel Haaksman and his Man Recordings team for setting up what was probably the best stage line-up at a festival I´ve seen in the past 10 years.

DJ Beware turned out to be the very right choice to open things up at 7pm on Saturday, filling the backyard he was playing in no time. From 25 to I guess 1250 people in about 1 hour. You know this means skills…

Unfortunately, heavy rain muffled the excitement a little so Gabe and me chose to get dry again watching Ms Platnum´s gig inside. Not a bad choice - she delivered a perfect live show backed by an amazing brass section and illustrated by wicked dancing routines.

Back at the Man Rec. stage, Edu K could then heat up things again, before Bonde Do Role had an ok appearance and Crookers totally tore things apart.

See some pictures over at flickr.

seen. we nice things up
get your piece of non-hippie reggae and dancehall wear at www.seen-site.com

I´m on the jump to Melt! festival. That´s why I only copy Tim Turbo´s post about the new single and video to what could be the best German album released at least this year:

Two drummer in a three weeks lasting mega-session in a studio in France, because no drum sounds should be sampled, but a unique sound should arise.

Also syntheziser were a no-go. Orchestra was the word. They created new string melodies and riffs, but DJ Illvibe also digged deep in the crates for some hidden samples, strings and woodwind or brass groups, which a arranger used as template to write a score for the Babelsberg Film Orchestra.

That´s how Seeed mastermind Peter Fox made his upcoming solo debut. The single above will be released at 15.08.2008 and is called “Alles Neu” (meaning “All New”). Orchestral German Dancehall. Imagine they would use synthies.

seen. we nice things up
get your piece of non-hippie reggae and dancehall wear at www.seen-site.com

Remember when we posted FM4´s Soundsystem initiative a few weeks ago? Well, one of the readers of this blog, Paul Beats, got the message and submitted a 20 minute soundbombing. Just a few days ago, his all-exclusives mix got aired. Here´s the tracklist:

tony cottura ft. eggnog and danny english partyboom (paul beats remix)

t.o.k defense it (paul beats remix)

blacker tek off sum (paul beats remix)

t.o.k ft. tamy chin hyper monday (paul beats remix)

munga ft. french affair shake ladida (paul beats remix)

voice mail red bull & guiness (vinylshotz remix)

elephant man pon di river (paul beats remix)

cassie me and u (paul beats remix)

ciara get up (paul beats remix)

busy signal step out (paul beats remix)

twista celebrity overnight - (paul beats remix)

bunji garlin fire - (paul beats remix)

bunji garlin fire man

And here´s the download link. Nice one, Paul!

seen. we nice things up
get your piece of non-hippie reggae and dancehall wear at www.seen-site.com

Just a quick one for tonight: check

- Don Letts´ second Fabric podcast,

- Diplo´s Santogold mix CD,

- Imeem´s “Key to the City” on Philly,

- an insight into the life of a Woofah contributor  &

- an Rahul Verma´s article on “UK MCs, the Caribbean and rave culture” (feat. quotes from Gabriel Heatwave, Roots Manuva & the Ragga Twins)

seen. we nice things up
get your piece of non-hippie reggae and dancehall wear at www.seen-site.com

Currently, the remixes of our man in Berlin, Tim Turbo, seem to be even more popular on the web than some of the content of this blog.

Just one day after his mental baile funk mashup of the German rave anthem “3 Tage wach” from Luetzenkirchen (which made it e.g. on the Man Recorder blog and on Palms Out Sounds), another one of his tunes popped up in the new Heatwave mix which promotes Gabriel Heatwave´s, Rubi Dan´s, Ben Dubstar´s, DJ Rebel´s and Frenzy Don´s new night of “Caribbean jump up music” called “Immediate” at The Others in London.

And I also heard TT will be one of the residents of some new club night somewhere in Germany… More details soon.

seen. we nice things up
get your piece of non-hippie reggae and dancehall wear at www.seen-site.com

seen. we nice things up
get your piece of non-hippie reggae and dancehall wear at www.seen-site.com