Cue It Up

GIGS, CHARTS ETC...

DJ Tomas gigs:

Saturday Apr. 8
Medjool Resturant 2522 Mission St./21st. global beats, dancehall, house, Arabic, bhangra 10:30 p.m. -1:30 a.m. free.

Thursday Apr 20
Misturada at The Dark Room, 60 Sixth Street, w/DJ Vanka (Worldwide), Afro-Latin, Brazilian and Caribbean, 10 p.m.-2a.m. $5,

Friday Apr. 28
Stateless at Amnesia, 853 Valencia St. at 20th St. global grooves w/ DJs D. Wurkur, Special Agent K. 10 p.m. $5,

Friday May 19
The Culprits present XLR8R Magazine 13th Anniversary with Domu (UK) , DJ Tomas and more at Duplex - 1525 Mission St. @ 11th.

Music:
Out now: Double Identity “Can’t Explain” + Titonton Duvante remix on Voltage Music, Order at www.groovedis.com
Coming soon: Double Identity “Left Coast Skank” (on Bastard Jazz Comp EP)

VOLTAGE MUSIC FUTURE JAZZ TOP 10
Daz-I-Cue/Bembe Segue–Spoiled (Ubiquity)
Elemental–Sparkle (Hot Flush)
Faze Action Presents Orto–Waiting Is Over (Papa)
Some Water & Sun–Snowbreaker–Dabyre Remix (Hefty)
Delgui feat. Colonel Red–Let That Sound Out (4Lux)
DJ Spinna Feat. Heavy–We Can Change (Papa)
Phuturistix–Fly Away (Phuture Lounge)
Dubloner–A Loner’s Way (Heading Home)
D.P.–Krakow EP (Echochord)
Taster EP (Cookshop)

UMOJA SOUNDSYSTEM REGGAE 10
Mr. Easy–Strangest Thing (white)
Chrisinti–Runnings Run (Eight76)
Vybz Cartel–Society (Purple Skunk) Istanbul riddim
U-Roy–Fisherman Style (Blood & Fire) Row Fisherman riddim
Assassin–She Want A Life (Studio 2000) Twice Again riddim
Jah Mason–Needs To Be Cared For (Militant Muzik) Youths & Youths riddim
Rod Taylor/Capleton–His Imperial Majesty (Reggae Fever) HIM riddim
Turbulence–Ital Stew (Tads) Cuss Cuss riddim
Cobra–From A Distance (Arrows) Cornerstone riddim
Bounty Killer–Mam’s Love (Lowe Chin) 9-5 riddim

Driving Into The PM Seat

(Hon.Portia Simpson Miller)

Jamaica inaugurates its first female prime minister, Portia Simpson Miller.

In addition to being Jamaica's fifth person to hold the Prime Minstership (following Bustamante, Manley, Seaga and Patterson) she joins the emerging ranks of 21st century women in high office, including PM's and Presidents in the Philippines, Liberia, Chile and Finland.

Loefah In Spring War

West Coast ites--booked your flight to NYC for the next installment of Dub War? Gonna be murdah, trust!

Have You Done 100 Yet?

Maybe after you've completed your 100th marathon like San Francisco's Marian Lyons (above) you can be cool enough to be included in this great new portal of SF running superstars!. In addition, learn about the best clubs, places to train and myriad other useful facts about leggin' it in Fog City all at the new Run SF, powered by ANA Cable Car Chase race director Steve Woo.

Sound Galaxies 2: Singles Selection

The second installment of our selector series, Sound Galaxies 2.

Click the link above and use the password: dubsound

These are all from recent singles, some released some forthcoming, some vinyl, most from CDr or digital files. You'll hear dub, downtempo, broken beat and other leftfield electronic genres. Some notes: this is a selection, not a mix, so don't expect fancy blends; its 65 minutes, all one file. Thanks to all the labels for providing the music, please support these labels, most of them and the artists are independent and trying to make a living just like you. D.P. is Deadbeat and Pole in collaboration. Email me if you have trouble downloading the mix, also try different browsers including Firefox.

ARTIST--TRACK--LABEL
Sound Galaxies intro
Mr. Easy–Strangest Things (white)
Chronic Sonata–Every Day (Bastard Jazz)
Chrisinti–Runnings Run (Eight76)
Mark de-Clive Lowe–High Priestess (Antipodean)
Spanova–Absentminded (Hefty)
E.Moss–Your Life Right Here (Consumer Research)
Gotan Project–Different (XL)
Antibalas & Doctor L–Family Affair (Mind)
Scarf Face–Persian Shadows (Cook Shop)
Daz-I-Cue/Bembe Segue–Spoiled (Ubiquity)
Ananda Project–Secret--King Britt Mix (NiteGrooves)
D.P.–In Red (Echochord)
Boxcutter–Bad You Do (Planet µ)

Enjoy the selection!

Russian Appeal

All who hate "techno" (pronounced "tekneh" by my Belfast mates) don't stop reading this post. You will love SCSI-9. The Russian duo's new album for Kompakt, The Line of Nine is out soon, and genius. Sure, their personal website is a tad bland–put simply, they spend their time creating music to make your brainspace reconfigure, sans las drogas.

The Line of Nine winds through twelve songs in about 75 minutes and is alternately chromatic and cool, like the reflection of a thousand Dallas bank building office windows, and also subtly romantic. How's that–romantic Russians? Take "Endlich," which clicks and flutters percussively as complimentary synthesizer tones are elegantly painted over the mix like a bronze and maroon colormatched San Franciscan Victorian flat. Mysterious female vocal elements dart in and out as fast as hares disappearing into a scrub thicket.

"Albali" is for listeners who appreciate songs that transform slowly from cocoons to glitter-winged moths by way of oscillating melodic waves and generous blue green swamp sounds. Dub fans will find parallels in the stripped down arrangements and swirling, clipped music fragments that punctuate most tracks.

Look for The Line of Nine on connoisseur playlists shortly.

Ali, Farewell and Respect

Ali Farka Toure, 1939-2006.

You can perhaps hear the wailing and mourning emanating from deep in the heart of Mali, West Africa, where the news has traveled of the death of African blues musician Ali Farka Toure.

Toure was considered both Africa's Muddy Waters and a Malian cultural abassador who shunned the spotlight and returned to his native village to farm on the edge of the Sahara. While many were introduced to his music via his 1990 breakout album The River, others discovered him via soundtrack writer and guitar improvisor Ry Cooder's collaboration with Toure, 1994's Talking Timbuktu, hyped to no end on Los Angeles's KCRW.


However, Toure's music shone most where it originated; hence the pristinely produced, near field-recording-expansiveness of 1999's Niafunke, recorded on his farm in his home town, remains of his greatest recorded works.

Hear clips from Niafunke.

Read a BBC writer's enounter with Toure in Africa.

All Music discography link.

News & Ting

Will she bus'?


Will Macka Diamond, whose debut album Money O! drops on Greensleeves next month, break the international monotony of male DJs (like Sean Paul) on the charts? I, for one, hope so. The erstwhile Ms. Lady Mackerel tun' dollar-dress wearing diva is currently slicing the charts up with "Ugly Man" on the Don Corleon-built uptempo "Sweat" riddim.

Also coming in hat is Buju Banton's EP sampler for his next album on his own Gargalmel Music."Pressure Dem" rides the original "Cuss Cuss" riddim to great effect. Run-a-come-come-come! Pressure dem, Cho!

Dubstep Forum is still the best spot to d-l truly ill Rinse-FM sets and other dubstep mixes. We're talking wigs blown–especially by the N-Type + Hatcha & Benga set featuring MC Crazy D. On that tip, don't sleep on the new double-12" from this man:

Skream's "Skreamizm Vol. 1" is as loaded as dubstep gets and then some. Lets call it the genre's first perfect EP. I still rate Horsepower Productions In Fine Style as the genre's guttiest long player. Lookout though as Dubstep All-Stars Volume 4 mixed by Kode 9 is almost upon us! Ee-woy!

If you're needing a reggae update or three--get Gmail, and join the Google reggae groups daily digest. All kindsa links in deh, such as the Jamaican Top 30 singles chart, and how to get all the reggae news in RSS. If that's not enough, check Jamaican Observer's bi-weekly Record Rack column, then you fi know!

For now--hold tight good people. I'll have to regal you with reflections on subbingclasses in a preppy SF city high school school (its good and bad), volunteering as an English TA in struggling public school (rewarding beyond belief). Kids is loosing y'all, and this time the government and the people are to blame.

That, and how I'm soaking up page after page of Nelson George's masterful early '90s tome Buppies, B-Boys, Baps and Bohos. Hell yes its required reading for all ForwardEver acolytes, dig? From Magic Johnson, to Harlem druglords, a telling history of East New York, Queens and Brooklyn in the 90s, George got you covered. He's even down with Eazy.