Dub dot dash

Book launch tomorrow!

2013-05-24T09:01:00.000+12:00

Me and my book. Photo: Grant Apiata

My book launch is on tomorrow, if you're in Auckland, come on by! Here's some info....

'I believe you are a star' is the book debut for local musician/DJ Peter McLennan (Dub Asylum/Hallelujah Picassos/BaseFM). Come and help him celebrate the launch!

The book is a collection of magazine interviews written between 1992 and 2003. McLennan talked to locals just starting their recording careers (P-Money, Stellar, SJD, Black Seeds), through to established artists (Salmonella Dub, Shayne Carter, DLT, Bailter Space) and more.

Books will be available for sale on the day (only $20!), the author will be signing copies, and DJ Dylan C will be playing a special all-NZ vinyl set. The first 25 copies sold at the launch come with a free mix CD of recordings mentioned in the book. We also have complimentary beer thanks to the good folk at Hallertau. Swing by!

You can buy the book at Conch Records, Real Groovy (Akl), Slowboat Records, RPM Music (Wgtn) and online from Amazon.com, and also on Kindle here.

Iron Will Meets Israel Starr

2013-05-23T08:35:00.000+12:00

Auckland reggae producer Iron Will teams up with singer Israel Starr for the Mentally Militant EP, just released. Starr is the son of legendary reggae singer Mighty Asterix - his pops makes a guest appearance on the last song. Up now for free DL. Not so keen on the autotune on a couple of tracks but the other songs are pretty tasty.

<a href="http://riddimcentral.bandcamp.com/album/iron-will-meets-israel-starr-mentally-militant-ep">Iron Will Meets Israel Starr - Mentally Militant EP by RIDDIM CENTRAL</a>

Che Fu - 2 B Spacific revisited

2013-05-23T08:30:00.000+12:00

Che Fu revisits his 1998 debut album 2 B S.Pacific (produced by Andy Morton aka Submariner), later this month at Tyler St Garage, playing it in full on May 30. The album was his first major statement after getting fired from Supergroove - Che: "I didn't leave the band, I was thrown out."

Che talked about the events surrounding the creation of his debut album in an extensive interview in Back2Basics magazine with the mag's editor DJ Sir-Vere, back in 2005. The following comes from that interview.

Che had a meeting with his label about his solo album and was asked to bring along examples of what he wanted it to sound like. He took along Mad Lion's tune Take It Easy, a heavy ragga hiphop track produced by KRS One. Che is in the BMG boardroom, he's smiling and saying "Do you like it?'" and they freaked out. "They didn't know how to pigeonhole me and didn't like the reggaeness of my [demo] tracks. They thought they'd send me to New York to take the reggae out of me! That's the worst place to send someone if you don't went them to get into Jamaican styles. Brooklyn dancehall, boh! ... I was also sent there to look for some producers but it didn't really work out."

Che came back and started recording his debut album with DLT, following on from their collaboration on the hit single Chains (more on that song's creation in a minute), but Che decided against pursing this.

"I wasn't really happy with the way things were going [with DLT]. It was like people didn't trust me to do my shit, my way. I could understand because I hadn't done it before but I felt in my own head I knew what I wanted to do. I called Andy Morton and finished it off with him."

Che also revealed how he wrote the lyrics and the distinctive chorus for Chains. "DLT was doing his own album and asked me to do a track. So I turn up at the studio to do this track. As far as I knew I was just going to bust a rhyme on one of his songs. I go in the booth and he says 'You got your chorus ready?' I was like 'Chorus?' I didn't want to look like I didn't know what the fuck I was doing, so I said 'I just have to go to the toilet.'

"I go in to the toilet and am like 'oh my god, oh my god! He thinks I'm doing a whole track.'So I stand there, in the toilet, and came up with 'Come break my chains come help me out...' I went straight back to the booth and sung it even though I had made it up 30 seconds before!"

Che had never told anyone that story (apart from his manager and his lady) before that 2005 interview with Sir-Vere.

Like Sir-Vere says, "consider the genius of this man. Chains would go on to hold the number one spot in NZ for six weeks ... off DLT's hot track and a hook written by Che Fu, in 30 seconds, in a toilet."

Perhaps one of the most surprising admissions in the interview is about Che's singing voice. I'd always thought he'd had a natural singing talent. Turns out it took some work...

Che: "I'd played guitar for four years [in Low Down Dirty Blues Band/Supergroove] and didn't do any singing ... after one gig [where I did some singing] parents came up and started hassling, saying 'you should get Che to sing more.' This is when I was 16. That's when I thought if I'm gonna sing, man, I've gotta come out phat ... so I started practising, training. Asterix, he's my favourite in the 12 Tribes Band. When he first came to the house he couldn't sing for s**t. Then one year he was bad [good], so I asked him 'how did you lift up the level?' And he said 'I just listened to a lot of Earth Wind and Fire.'

"So I tried to copy that. People always say 'You could always sing', but I was like no, I learnt it." Che says he spent a year singing along to Stevie Wonder, Donnie Hathaway and others.

Much respect to Sir-Vere for pulling such a great interview out of Che.

The album 2 B S.Pacific features contributions from Chip Matthews on bass, Ned Ngatae on guitar, and production from Andy 'Submariner' Morton, all of whom worked alongside Che in the hiphop collective Token Village. Chong Nee played keys and produced two tracks; Juse produced one also.

Scratches on the album were covered by Manuel Bundy, with DJ Sub Zero also making an appearance, and Che scratches on a few tracks too. Guest vocals for King Kapisi, Ras Daan, Phatmosphere, all Token Village MCs (TVMCs). Album art by Otis and Dick Frizzell, photos by Greg Semu and Glenn Jowitt.

The performance happens May 30th, as part of a series of shows at Tyler St Garage for NZ Music Month (incl @Peace, Julien Dyne and more). Limited free entry, GeorgeFM has vip tickets to giveaway. Doors open 730pm.

Audioculture is coming...

2013-05-22T08:30:00.001+12:00

I've been doing a bunch of writing for Audioculture, an exciting web project launching at the end of this month, aiming to collect stories about NZ music and musicians as an ongoing project. When it launches it will have a range of content, as a starting point, with more content planned. I got to write a lengthy piece on the mighty Manuel Bundy for it, that was a thrill.

Chris Bourke has written more about Audioculture, read on...

"There is already a buzz about Audioculture, the “noisy library” of New Zealand music, which will launch on May 31. It’s like an online encyclopaedia of local music – spanning almost a century, ie the genre didn’t just start with Opshop, or Straitjacket Fits or Auckland Walk for those with long memories.

"A wide variety of writers is contributing, and it’s being run by music media veterans Simon Grigg and Murray Cammick. Besides biographies, it will have feature stories on scenes, record labels, and many links to music and video.

"Plus, from the sample shown to the contributors and other interested parties, the graphics are fantastic: photographs, album covers, posters, many of them from the Grigg and Cammick archives. Funded by NZ On Air, it is being given the space to really offer something substantial and informative, while also being lively and fun just as the best music magazines should be.

"The sample has an article written by Andrew Dubber called “Lorne Street, High Street and the jazz explosion in the inner city”. It details the live jazz scene in Auckland during the 1990s, much of it centred around the club Cause Celebre, which Grigg ran with Tom Sampson. There’s a link to a wonderful web resource: the audio archives of the mid-1990s radio programme produced by Dubber, Off the Record.

"This show was hosted by veteran drummer Tony Hopkins and featured him interviewing the top players in Auckland jazz, who then performed several items. The many episodes of Off the Record can be heard here, and among the guests are Nathan, Joel and Kevin Haines, Murray Tanner, Brian Smith, Beaver, Tim Hopkins, Billy Kristian, Rodger Fox, Murray McNabb (pictured top left), Bart Stokes (pictured at left, with Bernie Allen in Gisborne, 1957) and many others. Dive in..."

Flashback #4: DLT

2013-05-21T08:30:00.000+12:00

Real Groove, Sept 96. DLT holds the cards.

As I mentioned at the start of the month, DLT's classic album The True School, and his second album Altruism, have finally been reissued, and are available on iTunes. Hooray! Read more about that here.

Real Groove's editor at the time was Russell Baillie (now at NZ Herald), he tells me the cover shoot for this issue took place the day Chains went number one. He also paid for the cigar used out of his own wages. Whatta guy.

New Fat Freddys single, video

2013-05-20T19:44:00.004+12:00

If you preorder the new Fat Freddys Album Blackbird (out June) off iTunes now, you get their new single straight away...

My book, out today!

2013-05-20T08:35:00.000+12:00

Cover photo of Pitch Black - Tony Nyberg. Design - Peter McLennan

I BELIEVE YOU ARE A STAR

(202 pages, official publication date May 20, RRP $19.95 from Slowboat Records, RPM Music (Wgtn), Conch Records, Real Groovy (Akl), and amazon.com. More outlets soon. Also available on Kindle.

I BELIEVE YOU ARE A STAR is a collection of magazine interviews written between 1992 and 2003 by Peter McLennan. He talked to locals just starting their recording careers (P-Money, Stellar, SJD, Black Seeds), through to established artists (Salmonella Dub, Shayne Carter, Bailter Space). They are fascinating insights of where these artists were at, and provide a look into their creative process.

The book launch will be held at Conch Records, 115a Ponsonby Rd from 3pm, Saturday May 25th, with special all-NZ vinyl DJ set from Dylan C. And we have tasty complimentary beer from the good folk at Hallertau. Books on sale on the day - first 25 copies come with a free mix CD of recordings mentioned in the book. Read about the artists and listen to them at the same time!

Before starting his blog Dubdotdash in 2003, Peter was a freelance magazine journalist for a handful of magazines, including Real Groove, North and South, NZ Musician, Rip It Up, Pavement, Selector, Planet, Lava and Stamp. This collection of interviews draws together some of the articles he wrote and is focussed on local musicians, DJs and artists.

There's some interesting threads in these interviews, like Stellar discussing their sizeable album budget and comparing it to what Straitjacket Fits or JPSE got, then Fiona McDonald having a similar conversation round her album budget, citing JPSE and Stellar.

There's Tigilau Ness (Che Fu’s dad) talking about how he got sent to prison after the 1981 Springbok tour protests, which is a pretty heavy story. Tigilau got chucked out of school for refusing to cut his afro, how staunch is that?

Or Shayne Carter, explaining why he didn’t want to send out advance copies of his debut album as Dimmer (after making me sit with him in the Sony boardroom and listen to the album in its entirety), and me suggesting that if I’d had the album before the interview, I could've written some pertinent questions. To which Shayne replied with words to the effect of “Oh, I didn’t think of that.”

Peter says “I got to meet some fascinating people writing these pieces. I feel very lucky to have met them - that’s part of the reason why I got into magazine writing. I wanted to meet these creative people and find out their process, and they turned out to be people I’d want to meet anyway.”

Other interviews include... SJD, Pitch Black, Sola Rosa, HDU, Darcy Clay, Graffiti art in Aotearoa: DLT, Otis Frizzell & Dan Tippett, Roger Perry, Dawn Raid, Kog Transmissions, Subliminals, Solid Gold Hell, Weta, Hinewehi Mohi, Mark de Clive-Lowe, Phase 5, Jakob, DJ Sir-Vere and the ITF DJ champs PLUS: articles on the Aotearoa Hiphop Summit 2001 (and a NZ hiphop timeline), and the state of NZ music videos in 1992, and 1999.

The book is published independently by Dunbar Noon Publishing, thru the print on demand service, Createspace. Book and cover design by Peter McLennan.

Ring The Alarm playlist, BaseFM, May 18

2013-05-18T11:51:00.000+12:00

P-bass expressway - Ride on - Downtown Brown remix
King Errisson - Disco congo
The Jets - Crush on you - extended version
Isaac Hayes - Music to make love by
MAW - Zoe (tribute to Fela)
Tony Allen - Kilode - Carl Craig remix
Upper Hutt Posse - No worries in the party tonight
Jay Epae - Putti Putti
Fat Freddys Drop - Clean the house (brand new single, pre-order the album on iTunes and get it free)
Sound foundation - Ram dancehall - shout out to DJ Dubhead, celebrating 30 years on the decks, much respect!
Rhombus - Tour of outer space - Submariner remix
Mo kolours - Banana wine
Phyllis Nelson - I like you - extended version
Snap - Sidewalk city (1984 kiwi electro styles)
Bobby Womack - I can understand it, Find me somebody, Communication
Stylistics - What's your name?
Butch Cassidy Sound System Echo tone defeat
Hulamen - Working for a living
General Echo - Drunken master

Bunny Walters

2013-05-17T21:04:00.001+12:00

Just watched a fascinating documentary on Maori TV about kiwi singer Bunny Walters - part of their series Unsung Heroes of Maori Music.

He arrived in Auckland at the age of 15 on his own, from Kati Kati, and ended up auditioning for Benny Levin. Apparently a mate had given him Benny's number and told him to call for an audition, and he kept calling til he got a slot.

Then he called the taxi company from the YMCA where he was staying, and asked how much was it to go from there to Herne Bay, for the audition. He was told 60c, and he had a dollar, so pff he went. As soon as Benny Levin heard Bunny sing, he sent everyone else waiting to audition home, and signed Bunny up.

One thing Bunny said in the doco was that he got bored with being pigeonholed as a ballad singer, and kept getting given ballads to record (trivia - he had a huge hit here with Brandy BEFORE Barry Manilow recorded it as Mandy). One of the Yandall Sisters mentions how much he loved soul, and Motown.

There's a great clip in the doco of Bunny slaying a Ray Charles number, Night and Day. So, off I got to youtube to find it, and come up with Bunny doing The Funky Chicken....

....and then I found this. It's called Rangimarie - as one of the commenters notes " Bunny is singing a tribute to Rangimarie Hetet (Ngati Maniapoto). She was an expert weaver and passed her traditional craft and skills onto her daughter Digger Te Kanawa." The production has a definite 80s/Dalvanius vibe to it, I'm picking.

Myron and E

2013-05-16T11:00:00.000+12:00

Myron and E are a couple of cool cats from Oakland, California A few years back they dropped a fantastic single called Cold Game, one of the greatest slices of modern soul you ever gonna hear, collaborating with Finland's The Soul Investigators.

They've got an album - Broadway - coming mid-year on Stonesthrow, again working with The Soul Investigators - this video is a taster. The clip is set in California's soul scene, inhabited by avid Chicano/low rider soul fans - Wax Poetics covered this a while back (issue 49) -I'd link to it but Wax Poetics keep that ish strictly ink. Oh, and if you like the song in the video, download it below...

So good at being in trouble

2013-05-16T09:35:00.001+12:00

Ms Tyra Hammond (ex Open Souls) gives a soulful take of 'So good at being in trouble' by Unknown Mortal Orchestra. Mister Jeremy Toy (She's So Rad, ex Open Souls) on guitar, session recorded for KiwFM's Short Sets. UMO have just announced NZ tour dates for July this year.

Celebration flow

2013-05-16T09:18:00.005+12:00

P-Money's brand new album Gratitude drops tomorrow, there's a stellar cast of guests on it, but the track I've been hanging out to hear is a collab featuring Talib Kweli and our own Aaradhna, who is currently in the US, promoting her album Treble and Reverb, getting a release over there thru Republic/Universal.

Via Ayebro: "Sam Wicks of Radio New Zealand caught up with P-Money in New York on the eve of the release of his new album ‘Gratitude’." Check it here

How bizarre chatter

2013-05-16T08:58:00.000+12:00

As part of NZ Music Month Radio Ponsonby has a special series of 'Classic Albums' on the Long Black from 9-10am Mondays. "This week Simon Grigg of Huh! Records popped by and hung out with Murry, and chatted about the iconic Pauly Fuemana & Alan Jansson release from 1996."

PLUS Simon Grigg posted up audio of an interview with Pauly, done by Jock Lawrie for Pavement magazine in mid 1996, before his star blew up internationally. Simon says that it is "perhaps the best interview Pauly did, before the mayhem."

Mokoomba

2013-05-16T08:30:00.001+12:00

Hat tip to my mate Trevor for this awesome tune, straight outta Zimbabwe. Mokoomba just won Songlines Best new group 2013. Seriously funky stuff.

Home Brew go gold, sell out

2013-05-15T20:01:00.002+12:00

Frequency Media Group posted this message on Twitter earlier today... "So Home Brew went gold last week... We gave them a plaque today and this is what they do with it..." The auction closes next saturday, May 25, check it here...

From @homebrewcrew: "scribe got way more for his ones… maybe u gotta go triple platinum."

These moments

2013-05-15T09:30:00.000+12:00

<a href="http://aleos.bandcamp.com/album/moments-ep">Moments EP by Aleos</a>
This young cat Aleos (aka 21-year old Leo Shulman) is originally from the UK and is now studying jazz guitar in New York. This is his debut EP, and it's delightfully fruity. One of the tags he's put on it is 'wonky wonky hiphop' which is close. This EP is up as pay what you want.

Reapeatbutton described it as "A language of electronic colloquialisms, soft accents and harmonious tones so soothing I want them to read me bedtime stories ... With no loose ends to tie, Moments is every bit the product of a producer with focussed determination and total control over his tools. Although you can hear his influences (this EP would sit nicely in theBrainfeeder catalogue), at no point do Shulman’s ideas sound recycled or borrowed."

RIP Teina Winau

2013-05-14T11:54:00.001+12:00

Very sad news, Teina Winau played bass with Unity Pacific, led by Tigi Ness - they had played together for many years, going back to the 12 Tribes of Israel band in the 1980s. Later that decade he was in Mana, alongside ex-Herbs members Carl Perkins and Spencer Fusimalohi, and John Chong-Nee on keys.

I saw DJ Dubhead mention on FB that "I have just received confirmation this morning that Teina Winau AKA Tuba Dan has passed away. Not only one of the best bassies in Aotearoa, but a truly honourable and gentle soul. Sometimes you just click with certain people and there is no need to say much or talk often. This man is going to be greatly missed by a whole lot of people. Rest In Peace Brother Teina."

ADDED I hear via FB a family service for Teina is on Thursday 16 May at Mangere Polynesia Centre, Bader Drive at 7pm. ~~The funeral is at 11am on Friday 17 May at the Presbyterian Church in Mangere~~. The funeral service has now been moved to the church on the corner of Grey's Ave and Onehunga Mall Rd, Onehunga , Friday 17 May at 11am

photo: Unity Pacific's Myspace

Flashback #3: School daze

2013-05-14T08:30:00.000+12:00

Real Groove, April 1996. Back to school for Bic Runga, Teremoana Rapley, Second Child, Garageland, Maree Sheehan and Pauly Fuemana (OMC). Photo by Frances Oliver, shot at Ponsonby Intermediate.

Bobby talks

2013-05-13T13:22:00.001+12:00

Murray Cammick pulled together this cool ad for (from yesterday's SST) the upcoming Bobby Womack show this Saturday at the mighty Civic Theatre.

He also landed an interview with Womack, broadcast on BFM last Friday, listen to it - Part one, Part two. Womack talks about driving Janis Joplin home from the studio one time, and she asked him what sort of car he had, and he told her - a Mercedes Benz. She starts saying "Wow, I wish I had Mercedezs Benz..." and got an idea for a song off that and made Womack drive her back to the studio, and dragged him inside to play guitar - he thought she was crazy, but went along and she wrote her song Mercedes Benz.

He also talks about his friend Sly Stone, and how he hooked up with the Gorillaz, after his daughter kept telling him how cool they were.

LCD/DFA

2013-05-13T10:17:00.000+12:00

Very cool mini-doco on DFA REcords.... "With unprecedented access to the label’s NYC headquarters, the bands and James Murphy himself, “Too Old To Be New, Too New To Be Classic” tells the story of how the imprint went from fledgling indie imprint to respected institution.

"Along the way you’ll get to see label manager Jonathan Galkin’s championship juggling, Gavin Russom and Matt Thornley’s jam-packed studios and James Murphy being... James Murphy. Narrated by Marc Maron, it features music and appearances by LCD Soundsystem, The Rapture, Holy Ghost!, The Juan MacLean, Shit Robot, Sinkane, YACHT and many more." Via Red Bull Music Academy

Oh, and here's the Brian Eno lecture from the Red Bull Music Academy, currently running in NYC.

or maybe their interview with Rakim... more lectures to watch here, including Tom Moulton, Bernie Worrall, El-P, Masters At Work...

Ring The Alarm playlist, BaseFM, May 11

2013-05-11T12:02:00.002+12:00

Risco connection - Aint no stopping us now
Loopless - Pink blue hotel
3 generations walking - Midnight bustling
Cedric IM Brooks - Salt lake rock, Africa
Concept neuf - The path - Sofrito edit
Patea Maori Club - Ngoi Ngoi
Antibalas - Che che cole makossa
Bobby Womack - Find me somebody
Joanie Sommers - Don't pity me
Esther Phillips - Just say goodbye
Mary Wells - Keep me in suspense
Barbara Lynn - This is the thanks I get
Pointer sisters - Send him back
The Ambassadors - Good love gone bad
Carl Hall - Mean it baby
Carleen and the groovers -Right on
Ella Fitzgerald - Get ready
Chakachas - Jungle fever - Greg Wilson edit
Dee Dee Sharp Gamble - Easy Money - Todd Terje re-edit
Eddie Kendricks - Son of Sagittarius
Luis Bonfa - Jacaranda
Patato and Totico - Mas que nada
Sergio Mendes and Brasil 66- Aqua de beber
Monguito Santamaria - Groovetime
Joint force - AK2000
Jonzun crew - Space is the place - vocal

Let's go back

2013-05-10T09:10:00.001+12:00

Couple of cool gigs on this saturday...

"NZ Soul All Dayer returns THIS Saturday from 2pm! Get down to Golden Dawn for the resurrection of the niceness in Auckland City! Bring your gladrags, dancing shoes, talcum powder & staying power. We can't wait to see you there..." Free entry from 2pm, $5 after 6pm....

Here's the lineup & set times:
2pm J Bluevibe
3pm KXVGXN
4pm Kris Holmes
5pm Selecta Sam
6pm Jubt
7pm Scott 'Doughboy' Towers
8pm Gene Rivers
9pm Tyra Hammond with Si Res
9.40pm Campbell Ngata (in for Netti Page)
10.40pm Jay Jeffrey
Midnightish Nyntee
1amish AWDJ

RIU, photo: Muray Cammick

Over at The Kings Arms, Danse Macabre and Penknife Glides, a couple of Akld early 80soutfits, do a joint reunion show,. It's 32 years since they played together, on the Positive Reaction tour (which didn't go so well apparently, and got renamed the Positive Fiasco tour). They were label mates, recording on Mandrill Studios' inhouse label Reaction Records (discography here).

Danse Macabre did a great reunion show in 2005, to celebrate their two vinyl releases finally getting reissued on CD. Daniel Barnes kindly wrote a review of that gig for my blog, read it here.

More info on Danse Macabre/Penkinfe Glides gig here.

BaseFM: Digital liberators

2013-05-10T08:11:00.000+12:00

My crew at BaseFM are getting the word out about digital liberation - watch the video above and learn a bit about the station's history. They've also cooked up a cool 2-CD set of great NZ tunes for NZ Music Month....

"Turn it Up is out now! Brought to you by NZ On Air, this free double CD brings together the artists that have showcased on ‘Turn It Up!’ (on-air feature) since its launch in July 2012. It unites all tracks in a seamless mix consisting of 36 songs across 2 CDs, sequenced and mixed by Base FM Program Director Dylan C at Auckland’s Red Bull Studios.

Both mixes - Native Tongues & Indigenous Dubs - feature the likes of Scratch 22, Home Brew, Raiza Biza, @Peace, Harbour City Electric, Coco Solid, Oakley Grenell, Israel Starr, Silva MC, Dub Asylum, Benny Tones and so, so much more.

Turn It Up! is a compilation exclusive to Base and is obtained by listening to Base or saying the code word ‘Digital Liberation’ at key outlets around NZ, namely Conch in Auckland City, and RPM in Wellington with more to be announced.

Base FM featured on TV3’s ‘Media3’. You can watch On Demand here (about 20 mins in)

Signs & Wonders in Dub

2013-05-09T11:00:00.002+12:00

Brand new from Stonesthrow: " Signs & Wonders in Dub: 10 tracks "mixed in a dubwise fashion", pressed on single vinyl at Capsule Labs here in Los Angeles, covered in one-of-a-kind, hand-printed sleeve.

Download MP3: Dub Club "Beware Dub"

"Stones Throw and Dub Club have teamed up to release a collection of new recordings by Jamaican sound system legends. The album Dub Club: Foundation Come Again was recorded in Jamaica and Los Angeles by Jamaican artist Tippa Lee and Dub Club's Tom Chasteen. Release date: July 16, 2013.

Prior to the release of Foundation Come Again, we'll have two limited-edition dub albums mixed from the Foundation sessions. The first, Signs and Wonders in Dub, is available now.

Since 2000, Dub Club has carved out an indelible presence in the worldwide reggae scene – drawing huge crowds each week to check out the best artists from Jamaica perform alongside the venerable Dub Club DJs. The man behind the night and Foundation Come Again is Tom Chasteen, who over the last twenty years has been making waves not only as a club promoter, but also as a DJ and producer.

It was a revelation for Chasteen when he discovered that the artists who made the classic reggae 45s he was playing each week were still out there and ready to perform. He started tracking them down and flying them in to Los Angeles to play at the Dub Club.

Chasteen, along with Jamaican artist Tippa Lee, jointly produced Foundation Come Again. Each track is a new recording featuring dancehall icons that have be graced the stage of the celebrated Dub Club. The tracks were recorded over several years in both LA and Jamaica.

A hand picked band of LA-based reggae musicians tracked a long list of thumping instrumentals under Chasteen’s direction before the vocal contributions were added in Jamaica. Tippa Lee recorded many of the vocals during one trip to Kingston where he rounded up the “who’s who” of rarely heard sound system legends for some marathon sessions at Mixing Lab studios. Well-known in Kingston, Lee made his first recording at King Tubby’s studio at the age of 12, and had a Jamaican #1 hit in the ‘80s with “No Trouble We”. He contributes the standout “Hey Mr. Big Man” here."

NZ album cover art

2013-05-09T09:37:00.000+12:00

I got asked to choose my fave cover art from a NZ artist by Design Assembly's Carol Green - she's pulled together a great post on local cover art, here. There's selections from Russell Brown, Jonathan Ganley, Robyn Gallagher, Silke Hartung, Martyn Pepperell, and more. Despite the over-abundance of Flying Nun on that list, there's some good stuff in there...

Here's the three album covers I managed to narrow it down to, plus one that didn't make it in... What's your fave NZ album cover?

Whats’ Be Happen? by Herbs. “Their 1981 debut album, with a dramatic cover photo of the police evicting protestors off Bastion Point, in 1978… made a bold statement about where Herbs were at politically, at a time when Māori land rights were only just coming to wider attention.”

Pot Pourri by the Howard Morrison Quartet (1960). “I first saw this on the back cover of the book Stranded in Paradise: New Zealand rock’n'roll, 1955-1988 by John Dix. It’s such a great set up for a photo shoot.”

Poi E by the Patea Māori Club (1987). “The album apparently took so long to come out because they were waiting on the cover art, drawings by Joe Wylie, from the animated movie Maui.”

Here's a few extra photos - the inner gatefold for Poi-e, - spot Linda Evans (Dynasty) and Rolf Harris with Dalvanius (click photo to enlarge)... and Haka And Song, such a beautifully arranged combo of image and typography. The bottom pic is the original record label for Patea Maori Club's releases.