Ghetto Palms 78: Creator Riddim / New Spragga Benz / Polyriddimatical Madness
- story Eddie "Stats" Houghton
- photo Andrew Dosunmu (F34)
Last Ghetto Palms I shouted at the devil of prefab dancehall, and this week the universe did shout me back in the form of veteran sessions player and producer Colin “Bulby” York, who released the polyrhythmic spree called the Creator riddim on his Fat Eyes label. Irrational rhythms may be replacing auto-tune as the new trend in JA, at least judging from the Weapon riddim and the new Spragga joint included below, which flips the clicky polyriddim of “Sweet Georgia Brown” (Cf. Brother Bones, Harlem Globetrotters, R. Kelly). This last should not be too surprising, since it’s produced by Salaam Remi whose previous collabos with Spragga include the Acid Hall riddim, a pre-millenium high point in dancehall creativity.
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posted on Nov 4, 2009 in GHETTO PALMS tags Beenie Man, caribbean, Catchdubs, Sizzla, Spragga Benz, Truck Back
Ghetto Palms 77: Mavado + Natalie Storm / Sizzla + De Tropix / Exclusive Refixes
- story Eddie "Stats" Houghton
- photo Guy Martin (F58 outtake)
I cannot tell a lie, y’all. It was not a particularly good week for dancehall. My ears got so sick of trance synths, auto-tune and trap drums they almost walked off the set before I had anything to palmcast. (sidebar: seriously, music dudes of the world—change it up. I have defended auto-tune and I am not on some DOA type purism but please, pick your spots. Rotate your stock. Let that field lie fallow for a season. Give the next piece of gear a bligh.) There would be no joy in ghettopalmsland at all if not for some fresh remixes injecting new shoots into the landscape. Natalie Storm jumped on some tambarzao drums, De Tropix and Shredah whupped some UK biz on Vybz and Sizzla and coupe decale and kuduro are apparently crossing the streams in France of all places. Before I knew it I had a Ghetto Palms Allstar part 2. Which just underscores the philosophy behind this column—a little cross-pollination is good for the soil.
Ghetto Palms 76: Soca! / Soca! / Soca! / Exclusive Poirier Blend!
- story Eddie "Stats" Houghton
- photo Andrew Dosunmu (F43)
Yes, soca. And with those two little syllables, an oversight bordering on criminal negligence has been rectified. Please find below 25 minutes of road mix madness to compensate for a year and half with barely a Jus Bus refix to show for all my carnival talk. You might not think at first that Montreal would be the place to look for soca redemption, but let me remind you of a dude named Poirier who would beg to differ.
Ghetto Palms 75: Flare Riddim / Giants / Ze Bula remix / Baobab
- story Eddie "Stats" Houghton
- photo Debbie Bragg (F38)
A certain operatic feel connects these two new jump up riddims from ZJ Sparks and Ding Dong’s Ravers Clavers crew, respectively. To be specific, Giants is scored to the opening shots of a suspense thriller, the pulsing cello-and-synth foreshadowing the drama that’s about pop off. Flare on the other hand sounds like the climactic point when the violinists in the orchestra pit look they’re trying to saw the necks off their instruments. Maybe someday, when people from this soundsystem generation are old and rich, the New York Philharmonic will be actually be playing these parts while Ding Dong and Chi Ching yell on the mic and make them pull up every five seconds.
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posted on Oct 15, 2009 in GHETTO PALMS tags Beenie Man, caribbean, Chief Boima, Ding Dong, GHETTO PALMS, Mad Decent, Vybz Kartel
Ghetto Palms 74: Erup vs. Poirier! / Free King Coya Mix! / Exclusives!
- story Eddie "Stats" Houghton
- photo Martei Korley (F61)
When it rains it cold monsoons around here. As it happens, two different exclusives I’ve been scheming on for several weeks—1) a sneak preview of Poirier’s version of “Click Mi Finger” from the forthcoming Truckback remix EP and 2) a full, free download of the unreleased ZZK vol. 7 mixtape from Buenos Aires braincase King Coya—came to fruition simultaneously. In short, pretty much everything I’m running in this week’s blend is a crazy exclusive of some kind so let me just jump into the tracks.
Ghetto Palms 73: Broadcasting Live from Uganda / Firebase Crew / Exclusive Bobi Wine Interview
- story Eddie "Stats" Houghton
Like a lot of Ghetto Palms columns, this one actually started back in 2007 when I was putting in legwork for the FADER Africa Issue. I originally got put up on Ugandan singjay Bobi Wine by South Africa promoter/producer/kingpin Nic Regisford when my dude Anaele sat me down with him at some dimly lit LES spot (could have been Spur Tree—it’s all kind of a blur now) to get his input on what at that point was just supposed to be a summer music feature rounding up the biggest emcees in African rap. A little YouTube ethnomusicology later and I was neck-deep in the homegrown version of dancehall reggae that Bobi steady churns out with contemporaries like Zigi Dee—dancehall drum patterns overlaid with conscious lyrics in English and Luganda and injected with so many layers of hypermelodic afropop that it becomes something totally different. Ultimately, getting a FADER correspondent to Uganda wasn’t in the cards for that issue but when I heard that globetrotting FADER intern and gal about town Cassi Amanda Gibson was passing through Kampala I knew it was time for Afrohall Part 2. Cassi’s exclusive video interview is below, along with her notes and impressions on the meeting.
Ghetto Palms 72: Go-Go Club Riddim / Busy Signal Part 2000
- story Eddie "Stats" Houghton
- photo Andrew Dosunmu (F56)
I try to keep some biodiversity going in this Ghetto Palms ecosystem. If I feature dancehall riddims a few weeks in a row, I know I must come back with a cumbia or a kuduro blend, and I’ve made a conscious effort to shine a light on undocumented scenes and avoid repetition. Inevitably though, there are certain artists and producers who I’ve featured again and again, either because their music so encapsulates the ethos of this palmcast or because they just come with quality shit that consistently.
Ghetto Palms 71: Jahdan / Geko Jones / Exclusives
- story Eddie "Stats" Houghton
- photo Jason Nocito (F61)
I envisioned this week as Ghetto Palms vs. Que Bajo round two, but instead, guest selector Geko Jones put on his Dutty Artz borsalino and dipped into his drives upon hard drives of unreleased Jahdan white labels and dubplates. By the time he brought in Noble Society producer Fuego Campo for another level of exclusive they had assembled a blakk-catalog so thick it left my own recent JD column looking like the church-floor on Palm Monday.
Ghetto Palms 70: Que Bajo vs Ghetto Palms / Exclusive Remixes
- story Eddie "Stats" Houghton
- photo Jason Nocito (F61)
At my invitation, Que Bajo residents Geko Jones and Uproot Andy (see also Dutty Artz, see also NY Tropical, see also Get Familiar) step into the Ghetto Palms control tower this week. The result is a brilliant Pan-American bashment-tape of exclusives and original remixes touching on bullerengue, Latin house, tribal guarachero, dubstep, kuduro, zouk, chutney soca, regular-ass soca, cumbia and reggaespanol.
Ghetto Palms 69: New Serani / Daseca Riddims
- story Eddie "Stats" Houghton
- photo Martei Korley (F57)
No 69 jokes, please. Badman arithmetic only goes up to 68-and-I’ll-owe-you-one. Just by pure coincidence though, this edition of Ghetto Palms does happen to be kind of a ladies night special. But that’s only because after a brief summer hibernation, production trio Daseca are back on the set with a vengeance—and when Serani and co. are not working out their Anger Management issues on a Bounty Killer affiliated project, they can kill a lover’s tune like nobody else.
