Sleaford Mods
I’m lucky enough to be seeing them live again tonight here in Edinburgh. Last December when we caught them they were in a tiny ass venue and there were around 10 people MAX there…how the times have changed for the Mods. Sold Out this time around along with virtually ALL their UK/Euro dates over the last 10 months and support slots with The Pop Group and The Specials.
I actually read that Jason is about to leave his job to concentrate full-time on the Mods. He is a Social Security Jobs Advisor I believe so gets first hand experience of UK austerity and hardship…hence the brilliant on point lyrics.
I have been listening to a ton of CV313 and just got the vinyl only 2x12" 180gram 45rpm audiophile version of the new Paul “Groucho” Smykle produced Sly & Robbie Dubrising LP!!! The first time Groucho has been on the controls for a Sly & Robbie outing for over 20yrs and it’s incredible!!! Below is a link for where you get it and also check out the KILLER sleeve!!!
http://taxi.bigcartel.com/product/sly-robbie-dubrising
"At long last, Sly & Robbie are reunited with mixing legend Paul “Groucho” Smykle to produce another Dub masterpiece.
Groucho was the one responsible for Black Uhuru’s “Dub Factor” or Sly & Robbie’s “Dub experience” in the 80’s…
He is back with a vengeance on 8 tracks produced in recent years by the Riddim Twins for Horace Andy, Chezidek, Khalifa and the late Bunny Rugs…
“Dubrising” is available only on vinyl in two editions:
- either as an old school 33RPM LP pressed on virgin 150g vinyl
or - as a limited audiophile edition pressed on a double 12" 45 RPM pressed on virgin 180g vinyl.
We spared no expense and went for Optimal in Germany, ranked as one of the three best pressing plants in the World."
http://fdrmx.com/sly-and-robbie-dubrising-album-review/
Courtesy of tabou1records.wordpress.com
On December 5, 2014, Tabou1 Records will release Sly and Robbie’s Dubrising LP, which reunites the riddim killers with dub maestro extraordinaire Paul “Groucho” Smykle for the first time in more than twenty years. The album, which will be released only on collector’s grade vinyl, is the finest dub reggae album of 2014 and my pick for best reggae album of the year.
Anyone unfamiliar with the work of former Island Records in-house mixing engineer Paul “Groucho” Smykle need only drop the needle on any one of several landmark dub reggae recordings he mixed in the 1980s and 1990s. Have a listen to the afro-militant thump of “Kunte Kinte” (the version to Creole’s “Beware of Your Enemies”); Black Uhuru‘s “The Monkey Is A Spy” (“Sinsemilla”), “Fire & Brimstone” (“Journey”) and The Viceroys’ “Dub of Gold” (“Heart of Stone”), all from the 1981 concept dub venture Raiders of the Lost Dub. Check his formidable skills as mixologist on “Ion Storm” and “Android Rebellion” from Black Uhuru’s The Dub Factor. Smykle is the chupacabra of the mixing board, a semi-mythical maestro mixologist of dub who quickly made a name for himself in the post-Marley era with the best rhythm section to emerge from “the Rock” since the brothers Barrett.
Smykle is back in the mix with Sly and Robbie, this time mixing a set of largely unknown recordings by the likes of Bunny Rugs (“Rumours”), Horace Andy (“Zion Gate,” “Rastafari Prophecy,” “King of Kings”), Khalifa (“Accused”) and Chezidek (“Devil You Can’t Bully Me Out”, “Surrender”). The instrumentals were recorded live at Harry J’s and Anchor studios in Kingston, Jamaica. Don Donovan (Big Audio Dynamite) was brought in by Smykle to lay down synthesizer overdubs and Bunny McKenzie to add harmonica. The overdubs bring a cohesion to the mix that can be heard throughout the entire album.
Dubrising is a whimsical Taxi ride back to Channel One Studios on Maxfield Avenue, West Kingston, 1980 where Sly and Robbie lay down riddims during sessions for Black Uhuru’s Showcase album. On to 1981 when we first hear the “new sound of reggae” – the driving drums and thumping bass behind tunes like “Sponji Reggae” and “Puff She Puff” and 1982 when the voice of Uhuru pleads “Chill out, chill out, chill out New York.” The only thing heavier than the heat on the street is the haze that fills the air from that “stalk of Sinsemilla growing in my back yard.”
Yes, I tell you bredren and sistren, it is all here again in 2014 on tracks like “Drone Snipers,” “Bully Tactics,” “Flamethrower,” and “Double Agent,” titles eerily reminiscent of the apocalyptic dub mixes from The Dub Factor. Smykle takes on the modern roots of Chezidek with a vengeance on “Bully Tactics” and “No Surrender,” two of the strongest tracks on the album. He stamps the end of the album by paying homage to the great Bunny Rugs of Third World who passed back in February. The brilliant and bittersweet “Double Agent” is the dub mix of the previously unreleased “Rumours,” the Carlton “Tetrack” Hines-penned mega-hit for Gregory Isaacs that Rugs voiced shortly before his passing.
Sly and Robbie’s Dubrising is not only the best reggae album of 2014, it is a testament to the sound and vibe that the duo created in the uncertain yet transformative post-Marley era of the early 1980s. It is an album which will lock the jaws of dub-mixologists everywhere as they ponder their future in a world inhabited once again by Sly Dunbar, Robbie Shakespeare and Paul “Groucho” Smykle.
And if that Groucho slab of pristine wax wasn’t awesome enough the 3x12" 180gram vinyl version of CV313’s mystical Space Dimensional has just landed! Artwork by Edinburgh’s legendary Firecracker Recordings man House of Traps…only 300 of these!
http://boomkat.com/vinyl/1137450-cv313-dimensional-space-deluxe-vinyl-edition
cv313 - Dimensional Space (Deluxe Vinyl Edition)
Deluxe 3LP Edition housed inside a metallic-print sleeve “At last cv313’s magnum opus comes to life on wax. The album is engineered and mixed down from 1/4” analog tape, and mastered by the talented fellas at Alchemy Mastering in London; focusing and enriching every finite detail. This LP edition features never before heard songs emitted from the CD and made exclusively for the LP edition. With the vinyl edition of “Dimensional Space,” we embark on a new project for higher understanding into anomalous familiarity. The flow journey in space, through time, combines unconstrained consciousness and uninhibited feeling for evolutionary experiences. The beginning…(Luna Petra") offers a glimpse into the origin of organic nature somewhere in the cosmos. Furthermore, “Clouds Beyond (remastered),” consists of unstoppable energy met by “Beyond the Clouds (reprise),” for a descent into the abyss. One can venture further towards the seduction of “Isis,” breaking through rules and boundaries; sonic art without limits. As we drift closer “Beyond Starlit Skies (re-imagined),” the exploration ceases upon discovery of tropical rhythms and dub-orient mysticism discovered, and once seen before via L’Astrolabe vessel with “Sella Bay.” Provocative, enthralling of life form, may this meditative masterpiece bring comfort to all those who believe."
![http://images.junostatic.com/full/CS532417-01A-BIG.jpg[/image]](http://images.junostatic.com/full/CS532417-01A-BIG.jpg%5B/image%5D){kind=link}