Head Up High

Let's track back to the mid-seventies with Jacob 'Killer' Miller, and the famed sessions he did with melodica-master Augustus Pablo. Cool roots, mon. And in case this magical tune sounds familiar but you don't know just why, that's probably because Pablo used it on his dub masterpiece King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown as well.

Jacob Miller - Each One Teach One

Unitone Skank

Skanking easy today with a genuine Jamaican ten pack, so turn up that bass if you please. Gotta keep on moving, y'all. This one's massive.

Augustus Pablo - Skanking Easy
Ray I - Weatherman Skank
Joe Gibbs & The Professionals - Ghetto Skank
Shorty The President - Yamaha Skank
Erroll Brown - Sky Nation Skank
The Silvertones - Rejoicing Skank
Little Joe - Tradition Skank
The  Upsetters - Kentucky Skank
Dr. Alimantado - Unitone Skank
The Revolutionaries - Rema Skank

Take Me Home

"River, you keep flowing, like you know just where you're going..." Presenting a Sunday six pack about them always magical waterways. "But river, will you ever take me home..."

David Allan Coe - River

Meg Baird - River Song

Cell - Cross The River

Fear Itself - Underground River

Versus - River

Augustus Pablo - East Of The River Nile (original version)

Pablo Say So

Two prime examples of Augustus Pablo working his magic. The melodica king transforms a pair of already mighty fine roots reggae tunes, respectively by Paul Whiteman and Bongo Pat, into the ethereal stuff of legend that is King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown from 1976. Finest dub album ever, hands down.

Paul Whiteman - Say So MP3

Augustus Pablo - Corner Crew Dub MP3

Bongo Pat - Young Generation MP3

Augustus Pablo - Young Generation Dub MP3

Wild Weekend Vol. 43

It´s cold cold cold all of a sudden, with snow and ice and windchill factors all in the mix, so we´ll try make this 43rd edition of Wild Weekend as heartwarming as we possibly can. So put another log on the fire, pour a stiff drink and enjoy this six pack of fine fine tunes, while virtually travelling from Japan to Jamaica, from the deep south to the far north, and back again. Have a hot one.

We´ll start off in the land of the rising sun with a hot psych track from Love Live Life +1, a shortlived soulful super session group based around organist Hiro Yanagida and guitar wizard Kimio Mizutani. Did these guys listen to Sly´s Family Stone a lot? You bet. From Love Will Make A Better You (´71), one of the best trips in the Japrock canon. Next we take a plane to Jamaica, where Freddie McKay meets us at Kingston airport. He recorded this beauty for Leonard Chin´s mighty Santic label in the early seventies. And is that Augustus Pablo perhaps, leading it all in on melodica? Sure is.

Love Live Life +1 - Facts About It All MP3

Freddie McKay - I´m A Free Man MP3

Two weeks ago we featured a Swamp Dogg produced soul scorcher by ZZ Hill here, and now it´s Doris Duke´s turn. I just can´t get enough of I´m A Loser, an exemplary collection of her recording sessions with Jerry Williams Jr, better known as the Dogg. Take an earful of If She´s Your Wife (Who Am I) and you´ll definitely understand why. Onward to the freaky part of Montreal now, where we encounter Poney P, Mingo L´Indien and Bobo Boutin, better known as Les Georges Leningrad. Their Track Georges Five is, to say the least, quite a confrontational piece of dissonant post postpunk. Love it or hate it, but do try it out I beg you. You´ve probably never heard anything like it.

Doris Duke - If She´s Your Wife (Who Am I) MP3

Les Georges Leningrad - Track Georges Five MP3

"Arithmetic arithmetock, turn the hands back on the clock..." That can only be Tom Waits of course, with the jazzy title track from Alice (´02). Hot news: early next year will see the release of a book called Hard Ground, documenting the plight of the homeless in poems by Waits and photo´s by Michael O´Brien. Better start saving up. And we´ll call it a day with an intense piece of blues recorded back in ´59 in Angola State Prison, Louisiana. Robert ´Guitar´ Welch, who was behind bars there together with legendary bluesman Robert Pete Williams, fears they´ll send him straight to the hot seat. "Wonder why they´ll execute a man at the one o´clock hour at night? The current is much stronger, people turn off all the lights..."

Tom Waits - Alice MP3

Guitar Welch - Electric Chair Blues MP3

Jonkanoo Ten Pack

Thought it was about time for a new dub ten pack, so here goes. All strictly roots, all killer no filler. Mixing board wizardry guaranteed. Don´t forget to turn up that bass, my brethren.

Jack Ruby & The Black Disciples - Slavery Days Dub MP3

Skin, Flesh & Bones - Boxer Dub MP3

Lee Perry - Fisher Man Dub MP3

Glen Brown & King Tubby - Termination Dub MP3

Augustus Pablo - Up Warrika Hill MP3

Impact All Stars - Jaro MP3

Tappa Zukie - Dub MPLA MP3

Revolutionaries - Jonkanoo Dub MP3

Ossie All Stars - Dub Down Babylon MP3

Techniques - Ghetto MP3

One More Cup

Coffee... drink of the gods. I endorse Saula. Try it if you can find it. An excellent coffee, made in Barcelona.

Recommended reading: Black Coffee Blues by Henry Rollins. "She pours it. There it sits, black and ominous, a slight oil slick at the top. I drink, smooth, like Death."

Recommended viewing: Coffee And Cigarettes by Jim Jarmusch. A classy brew featuring messieurs Waits and Pop amongst others. Tom: "You wanna join me, man?" Iggy: "Well, yeah... since I´ve quit..."

Recommended listening to maximize that caffeine buzz: the following sixpack. "Drinkin´ black coffee, black coffee, drinkin´ black coffee, staring at the wall..."

Black Flag - Black Coffee MP3

Otis Redding - Cigarettes And Coffee MP3

Augustus Pablo - Java Original MP3

Bob Dylan - One More Cup Of Coffee (Valley Below) (live ´75) MP3

Sonny Criss - Black Coffee MP3

Tom T. Hall - Don´t Forget The Coffee Billy Joe MP3

Keep On Dubbing

Dread at the controls taking over... High time to dub it to the top here a bit. One of my fave musical genres, dub basically means stripped-down, instrumental versions of regular reggae songs. Featuring heavy, heavy bass, snippets of vocals, and tons of added sound effects. From echo, tape delay and reverb to animal sounds, ringing telephones, crying babies, gunfire and blaring sirens... Everything goes really, just as long as it pleases Jah.

The legendary Osbourne Ruddock alias King Tubby remains the undisputed master of dub, but other producers such as Lee "Scratch" Perry, Joe Gibbs, Erroll Brown, Herman Chin Loy and Keith Hudson - to name but a few - mixed some mean ones too in their time. And the realization that all these amazing tracks were made with rather limited means, as Jamaican studios didn´t exactly feature state of the art equipment, makes their soundboard wizardry all the more impressive.

The players vary, but often feature reggae revolutionaries Sly Dunbar on drums and Robbie Shakespeare on bass. Without further ado, here´s a well charged dub ten pack for all you brethren out there. No recent stuff here mind, all strickly roots, ´cause that´s the way I like it. Seen?

Herman Chin Loy - Jah Jah Dub MP3

King Tubby - Satta Dread Dub MP3

Augustus Pablo - Keep On Dubbing MP3

Aggrovators - Rockers Almighty Dub MP3

Upsetters - Black Panta MP3

The Revolutionaries - M.P.L.A. MP3

Joe Gibbs & The Professionals - Freedom Call MP3

Vital Dub - Roof Top Dub MP3

Keith Hudson - Black Right MP3

Scientist - Babylon Fight Dub MP3

The Same Song?

My fave music of summer has always been roots reggae. And as it´s gotten kinda hot here over the last couple of weeks - joder, que calor! - I find myself skanking the time away more and more often. Here´s a tenpack selection of boss sounds from the Island I´ve been enjoying lately.

Abyssinians - Satta Massagana MP3

Wailing Souls - Bredda Gravalicious MP3

Ras Ibuna - Diverse Doctrine MP3

Augustus Pablo - Stop Them Jah MP3

Jacob Miller - Tenement Yard MP3

Burning Spear - Door Peeper MP3

Little Roy - Don´t Cross The Nation MP3

Israel Vibration - The Same Song MP3

Mighty Diamonds - Right Time MP3

Leo Graham - Black Candle MP3