Only the poor man feel it

Our house is in a bit of a state at the moment, but nothing like what the people of the pueblo Cho Vito have had to go through.  Cho Vito is a little town, part of Candelaria, 20km from Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

There is a Spanish law that states that buildings are not allowed to inhibit access to the beach/coast.

Many houses have been built in contradiction of this edict, and now the demolition crews are moving in. The thing is, in many cases permits for construction where given by councils, and also many houses on the coast belong to fishermen....which makes sense. There are also many hotels on the seafront that contradict the law....however it seems that it only the houses of the poor man that gets marked for demolition, as witnessed in this link.  Big respect to some of the the police that reportedly didn't turn up for work that day, even 'monos' (monkey's, have a heart at times.  Mono's are the Canarian equiv' of 'pigs', so ya know.) 

There is a huge house not too far from where we live....sitting right there on the beach, the owner is a business man, well respected and all....the chances of his house being subject to bulldozers and police carrying him out are.....uh, zero.

Speaking of being Uprooted, this month sees the release of the freshest dj mix from the one called DJ/rupture.  The tempo stays around 70/140bpm hence in the dubstep / atmospheric zone, giving lots of room for space and subtle movements where necessary, balanced with caustic bottom end and shards of metallic plug-ins.  Clouds from Finland have a couple contributions, and they are treating my ears nicely.  Also new to me are Atki2, Baby Kites & Nokea.  Ekkehard Ehlers bring a super gorgeous piece of string-led melancholy to the arena, with a track called Plays John Cassavettes pt.2.  Maga Bo and Filastine are included too.

I'll have some more of this compilation to come over the next few weeks, stay tuned. The video is from Baby Kites & Nokea 'Reef', which /rupture initiates the mix with....

A few years back, my good mate Tony Thorpe called me to assist on a track for an album he was producing for a singer from South Africa called Lulu.  After the project was completed I was told that it was shelved as Lulu had got married and her husband did not want her to continue doing music.  So I thought that was that, luckily I had a test pressing of the vinyl (although I lost one of the two vinyls).  I did a net search at found out that the album did eventually come out under the name Lungiiswa Plaatjies.  I really hope Lungiiswa is still doing her thing.

Ear Conditioning
October 7 2008

Asha Bosle - Jhunka Jhulade (Super)
Bap's Three Bips & A Bop - Oop-Pop-A-Da (Blue Note)
Overtone - Give It Again (Redbud)
Trouble Funk - Drop the Bomb (Sugarhill)
Fear+APC+Pulsinger+Koas - Title unknown (!K7)
Root Down - Title Unknown (White Label)
G.A.F. - Two More Things I Need to Tell You (Ruin)
Panda Bear - Comfy in Nautica (UUAR)
African Head Charge - Dervish Chant (On-U Sound)
Lungiswa Plaatjies - Title Unknown (Melt2000)
Diplo - Diplo Rhythm feat Sandra Melody, Vybz Cartel & Pantera Os Danadinhos (Big Dada)
Atki 2 - WinterBuds (The Architecture)
Clouds - Too Much (The Architecture)
DJ Food - The Sky at Night (Ninja Tune)

Ear Conditioning is broadcast Tuesday at 20h30 (Canary Islands/London Time)
Repeated Saturday night 22h00 (Canary Islands/London Time)
www.radionorte.com 89.4FM

Thanks to Tally at the architecture, and all singers and players.

Return to the Airwaves

So, do you still think it's worthwhile putting your life savings in the hands of those on Wall Street?

Nevermind, as usual we had a mixed bag for the first program after the extended holiday break. As I mentioned in the previous post, Pedro, the man behind Txola, asked me if I heard of The Bug. Pedro, Pedro....you musta been too busy keeping the Txola clientele happy with the cervezas if you hadn't realized I play that shit every week!  Kevin, if your reading this, he wants to come back to Tenerife in December, and do a session.  Pedro knows he has to get  get bass-bins, and we know who to speak to about it.

While in Costa Rica for a couple weeks, I was able to get one CD. Actually that is a mistruth....that's what politicians call it innit?  When they say something that ain't correct?! 

We took a day trip over the border to Nicaragua, and it was there, in the city of Granada, that I was able to get my hands on some local tuneage, Marimba Tipica Nicaraguense con Los Mismos de Ticuantepe.  The music is very similar to what you find in the Pacific side of Costa Rica anyway.  On the Caribbean side of Costa Rica, Soca and Calypso infused rhythms run things.  

Gotta get back to CR as soon as possible.  It's name is very appropriate, believe.  Never seen so much fauna and flora.  Apparently they have over 2000 species of orchids!  We saw sloths, four species of monkeys, manta rays, turtles laying their eggs by the crate-load, tree-killing trees,tarantulas, pelicans, toucans, river flamingo's, the spectacular sight of lava flowing down the Arenal volcano at night, acres and acres of bananas and palm trees, snakes, crocodiles, caymans...it easily made up for only getting one cd.  Well, to be honest, before heading to Costa Rica, I set up the owners of Rough Trade, Soul Jazz, Honest Jon's and Phonica record shops in London for awhile...they were happy to see me after a year, "Oh, have you heard this?  How about this?"  Sons of bitches!

Ear Conditioning
Program Sept. 23/2008

Intro - The Original Broadcaster, Christopher Stone
Burial - 01 (Hyperdub)
Dub Colossos - Azmari Dub (RealWorld)
Dengue Fever - Oceans of Venus (RealWorld)
Riko Dan & Heatwave - Mind How You Talk (Heatwave)
MC Gringo - Alemao / Toddla T Remix (Man Recordings)
Cavaliers Unlimited - Soul Vein (Mississippi Records)
Marlene Shaw - Liberation Conversation (Cadet)
Los Mismos de Ticuantepe - Dona sapa
Fandango, Puede y Taraf - Granada (Producciones Alebrije)
MHV - Chroumous (Discos Konfort)
Jefferson Belt - Where's He At? (Round Trip Mars)
Cedric IM Brooks - Idleberg (Soul Jazz)
The Bug feat. The Spaceape - Fukkaz (NinjaTune)
The Bug feat. Ricky Ranking - Too Much Pain (Ninja Tune)
Unitone Hi-Fi - Up To Eleven (Round Trip Mars)
Incarnate - Blissed (Post Contemporary)
Burial - Untrue (Hyperdub)

Fandangdo, Puede y Taraf performing Granada

Ear Conditioning is transmitted on Tuesday evenings at Radio Norte, 89.4 at 20h30, and is now available online via www.radionorte.com

  

The Bug / Skeng: The Video

Fresh outta the box, Skeng featuring Killa P and Flow-Dan.
Directed by Anne-Marie Bergeron (Urler.tv)

Rethuglican Party Convention

September 1st, Labor Day in the US, it was also Day One of the Republican National Convention. The following video was released showing an apparent mass arrest of utterly peaceful concert goers at the SEIU Labor Day concert.

Here's the press release that came with the video, from the Glass Bead Collective:

BURIED TAPE REVEALS USE OF FORCE AND AN UNWARRANTED MASS ARREST OF BYSTANDERS DURING THE REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION
ST. PAUL, Minnesota (September 18, 2008) Video released today shows the indiscriminate arrest of a crowd of two hundred at the waterfront across from a concert on Harriet Island Regional Park during this month's Republican National Convention in St. Paul. The video includes multiple angles of the event as well as an interview with the cameraman who buried his footage and was one of almost two hundred people arrested for rioting without probable cause.
More than eight hundred people were arrested in St. Paul during the Republican National Convention. This video shows that at least twenty percent of the eight hundred plus arrested were seized without due cause.




God Bless America, AND FUCK THE REST OF YOU THAT DON'T LIKE IT!

Love is a piece of wax, about 7' inches wide.

Txola, home of my dj residency, closed down for the month of August, so i took the opportunity to get to London, and get some new tunes, and also get some tracks mixed, however a faulty hard drive kicked that idea to the margin, years of work now in limbo!

"But didn't you have your tracks backed up?"
That's what the hard drive was for!

So I've now been told by somebody that knows, Lacie hard drives, they have a good solid metal case, but the power supply unit is shit...so back-up the back-up.


Meanwhile i'm waiting for the postman to deliver the records that I bought at Rough Trade, Honest Jon's, Soul Jazz and Phonica record shops, I had way too much in the excess baggage department.   For the moment I am content with the 7"s that i managed to bring back....Cutty Ranks, Wareika Hill Sounds, J*Star, Junior Reid, MC Gringo/Toddla T remix, The Beatles on a Nyabinghi tip, Burro Banton, Cavaliers Unlimited and more,  all due for a lashing tonight at Txola, action kicks off at midnight.  

Ear Conditioning, as in the radio program, should also be returning next tuesday, so if your in the Tenerife area, tune in Radio Norte, 89.4FM at 20h00 (www.radionorte.com)

More as it happens.

Womad Las Palmas 2008

Here´s the initial line-up /Cartel artístico for this years Womad in Gran Canaria 6,7,8,9 de Noviembre.

Ba Cissoko (Guinea-Conakry)
Babylon Circus (Francia)
D.WattsRiot (Reino Unido)
Darga (Marruecos)
DJ Mr Benn (Reino Unido)
DJ Yoda (Reino Unido)
El Guincho (España)
El Tío Carlos (España)
Femi Kuti (Nigeria)
Mariem Hassan (Sáhara Occidental)
Siyaya (Zimbabue)
Speed Caravan (Francia)
The F.E.O.S. (España)
Tony Allen (Nigeria)
Tulsa (España)

Mmmm.....Tony Allen, Femi Kuti, El Guincho, DJ Yoda....I know of the rest are new to me, that´s what we love about Womad, always bringing something fresh to the scenario.

The festival is free, and if you are travelling within the Canary Islands, you can get ferry tickets at a reduced fare due as the days of the festival will be considered "C-days" as in Culture, hence they got some special deal going on with the airlines and ferry companies.

DJ Yoda

I´m an everliving gobstopper, suck me forever

El-P was on tour recently and his We Are All Going To Burn In Hell Megga Mixx2 was initially only available to those who attended the gigs. Now it´s up on the DefJux site, available as a free download, well, part of it has, in all fairness to those that shelled out ca$h for the original item.
The shit is hot as hell, no pun intended, dropped about 30minutes of it in last week´s program.
A friend recently played me a demo of something he´d put together. After a couple listens, I said, "check this, and you will get an idea of where you could go (in production terms) with your track."

Actually I only said the first part, then I don´t know what the fuck happened, but his CD got seriously stuck in the player, and I could not get it out so he could hear where I was coming from.

What El-P has does with a steel pan sample, turning it into something that would sit inside an Harlan Ellison narrative, is beyond me. Great.

I´m an everliving gobstopper, Suck me forever. El-P


Ear Conditioning / 29 July
El-P · We are all going to burn in hell megga mixx 2 (Definitive Jux)
Idris Muhammad · Wander from the Black Rhythm Revolution LP (BGP Records)
Exciting Voices · God´s Chillun
Jazmin Sullivan vs. The Moody Boyz
Roots Manuva · Again and Again / The Moody Boyz Refix
Stacey Pullen · Vertigo (Science)


This past weekend, Charlie Faber (Satelit3) , Isidro (Afrodisia) and myself turned the Txola into a sweatbox as the funk pored out of every available cell. Isidro is a serious collector of rare grooves. His box of 7´s contains the foundations of hip hop....and Charlie´s selection had me salivating too....they gots breaks for days....the kinda shit that would make DJ Premier, Pete Rock or Jay Dilla turn around to have a word or two. Charlie and I did a back to back session which spawned an idea for a Txola compilation. More news on that as it develops, talk is cheap.
Txola will be taking a well-deserved break during August, see you in September/October.

Womad Las Palmas, consistently one of the best festivals in the Canary Islands will be taking place in 6-9 November, and I have had the pleasure of being asked to do a couple sets. Womad´s Spanish producers will be going to press this Friday, so can´t say anymore than that, although this will be the second opportunity this year for people in this area to see the one and only............
More details next week.

A friend in the UK was at the recent Womad in Charlton Park, and reported of a food stall called
'Asian Grub Foundation'. Her "mate suggested 'The Dahl Foundation' and our favourite - 'Fun^Da^Lentil'."