Next Dance July 11 Dub Blood @ One Blood

All night roots, new roots, steppers and dubs just ¥1500! Ladies free before midnight!
All star selector lineup: Sister Korin, Tom, Downpressor, Itak Shaggy Tojo
One Blood is at Ikebukuro 2-12-11 close to the west exit of Ikebukuro station.

Downpressor picked for Japanzine Top 10 Foreign artists

Big respect to the staff at Japanzine for featuring me in the 2009 selection of foreign artists in Japan. If you live here, check the June issue, its free. In Japan or not check seekjapan.jp and grab up a free copy of my track "Cold War 2 Dub"

See you saturday night for Dub Blood @ One Blood in Ikebukuro

New Civilization Dub Blood @ One Blood now monthly!

Like the title says, Shaggy Tojo and Downpressor are happy to say that New Civilization is now a monthly event. We come out every second saturday at One Blood with guest selectors and live artists for a full night of fun! As always, 1,500 Yen gets you in and gets you one drink and a night of roots, rockers, dubs and steppers.

One Blood is at 2-12-11 Ikebukuro

If not now when?

If this isnt the greatest time to learn to produce dub I dont know when is. There is just so much new stuff out there in the way of hardware controllers to simulate a mixing desk on your PC, 

(see http://www.korgnano.com)

so many decent free or affordable good sounding delays and reverbs 

(see Audio Damage Dub Station)

and digital audio workstation software is either free or cheaper than its ever been. The market for selling music may be dieing thanks to all the freeloaders and thieves, but the chances to make music are better than ever!

Also, I'm now regularly selecting with Itak Shaggy Tojo at the New Civilization event at Tokyo's One Blood in Ikebukuro every 5th Saturday. Next event is January 31

One Blood is at Ikebukuro 2-12-11 (Google Map)

long overdue

6 months or so but I've been busy. Here's some news from the Eastern Front

• Shaggy Itak Tojo put out three records on the Pirka Atuy label. Good luck finding them.
• Jacques Golub of Kingston Connexion started up a new venture Tokyo Connexion and release a fine 7" by Riddim Conference. Well worth you money. Nuff respect to Jaques and all the European bredren and sistren keeping the true fires burning!

I been selecting sometimes with Shaggy Tojo at a monthly event in Ikebukuro. Next one is end of January as my overstanding. I dont play the secrets game, you want to know the records I play, ask and knowledge will be yours.

Whether in the studio or in the booth, the Kaoss tools from Korg are a blessing! Love my Kaoss Pad 3, mini KP and Kaossilator. Wish I had more of em and more hands to tweak the sounds.

More tool talk: when I was a youth my drum machine was a Roland TR-707 bought from a pawn shop for whatever money I had. Large LCD for step programming, individual outs for each sound, built in mixer and many options for time control. Back in those days, many things still didnt have MIDI so the 707 offered control voltage out synced to the rims shot. As a youth I used this to drive the built in 16 step sequencer of my Pro One synth.

Over the years and before I moved to Japan I sold off all my gear. Good bye to all the old mixers, effects, synths and riddim boxes. Fast forward to the 21st century and I got a big bag of regret for doing that. So a few years ago I picked up a 707 on auction. Now thats my master clock for other drum boxes and once again the analog features come to the rescue. I got lucky enough to find an old Boss PC-2 and once again having Control Voltage clocking comes in Handy!

One of these days I'll figure out a way to diagram my rig of hardware and post it up here.

Tagged: Seven Songs

responding to John Eden's Tagged: Seven Songs 

1 Matisyahu - Jerusalem

So I'm a little late to this party, when I first heard Matisyahu a year or two back all I could say was "meh". Now I come to check his sound and find some enjoyable bits. Pure reggae its not but its something a bit different and Jerusalem is some nice reggae influenced pop with good work from Sly & Robbie and Bill Laswell producing. 

2 Glen Adams - Jordan River

Just acquired this 7". Heavy heavy rockers sound versioning a track we all know and love. B side riddim keeps the woofer moving.

3 Bush Chemists - Rain and Thunder

Found this riddim on the b side of some recent 7"s out of France, nice work by Dougie & crew, looking forward to running this one inna dance.

4 Dr. Israel - Armageddon Time

One of my favorite riddims done up jungle/DnB style. Sure its almost a golden oldie by now but I like it on headphones while I navigate the crowds.

5 Little Roy - Piece of The Earth

Coming from the out of print "Longtime" album, not the Adrian Sherwood DnB version by the same name/source. Bassline of this one keeps me moving but the mix sounds really dated, the intro synths just make me imagine some flock of seagulls hairdo keytard. Still how can you argue with the lyric "Every man wants a piece of the earth but no man wants peace on the earth"!

6 Sister Beloved - Freedom of the Land

As I understand, first record produced by Jah Shaka's son Young Warrior. Bought it cuz its a good UK digital cut, not for the famed bloodline, tho its nice to see Young Warrior and Joe Ariwa carrying on through the generations.

7 Agony Column - Rain Comes Down

One of my all time favorite tracks from a band I saw more times than I can count. Agony Colum was Texas's own Hellbilly Deathmetal Onslaught and boy howdy did they rock! This wasnt their fastest or most popular track but I always enjoyed hearing it live. Big ol howdy goin out to Richie, Crow, Stuart & Charlie wherever you guys are now!

passing the baton to:

Chris Randall

Heshman

Joi Ito

It aint seven and none of em are in the reggae space, lets see how that goes.

Mute Beat One Night Live

On April 2, 2008, Mute Beat performed a one night only reunion gig at Liquid Room in Tokyo. Even though the show was sold out the minute tickets went on sale, I managed to get in to see the show.

The first time I heard Mute Beat was in 1990. I was in Tower Records at 4th & Broadway and saw a cassette with a trumpet over a red circle called "Mute Beat in Dub". The sign said something about that this was a Japanese dub reggae band. I couldnt believe the idea. All we knew about Japanese music was YMO. I still remember walking up Broadway with that tape in my Walkman and being blown away by the sounds I heard.

Who were these guys? I didnt know how to say the names except for Dub Master X (what a cool name that was) and I couldnt find any information about the band except what was written in the tape insert. I wore out three copies of that cassette listening to it over the years. The year before I came to Japan the album was released on CD. Of course since I came here I've found all their releases but I still listen to "Mute Beat in Dub" regularly.

Of course I dreamed of seeing this band, but by the time I moved to Japan they had broken up. Tonight one of my dreams became reality (big up to the man who made that happen, you know who you are). The band was in great form! Matsunaga-san's bass shook the ground, Gota-san's drumming was tight, Kodama-san & Masui-san's horns blew down the walls of Jericho, Asamoto-san's keyboards kept the skank and DMX's mix glued it all together.

I waited 18 years for this show. It was worth the wait. Thank you Mute Beat!

Setlist:

(intro) DMX BEAT〜DAY SHOULD TURN TO NIGHT
01. AFTER THE RAIN
02. METRO
03. LANDSCAPE
04. ORGAN'S MELODY
05. TAKE 5 (DUB NO.5)
06. BUTTERFLY〜MIXED UP
07. WHISKY BAR
08. SUNNY SIDE WALK
09. FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE
10. COFFIA

ENCORE 1
11. STILL ECHO
12. BEAT AWAY

ENCORE 2
13. JENKA
14. SUMMERTIME〜FROZEN SUN

ENCORE 3
15. WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD


intro and part of Metro

On-U Sound in Japanese magazine 1992

Remix is one of the longest running Japanese non mainstream music magazines, this issue is from April of 92 (issue #12) and had a 5 page feature on On-U Sound as part of tour support promotion. I'm pretty sure Spin Records (later Alpha Records, no longer in business) only got this much coverage because they bought a full color back cover ad. Thats how media coverage goes here.

Two things about these scans, the magazine is read right to left, I've scanned the pages individually but for Western readers the alighment and page numbers may look off. Also most Japanese magazines are not printed full color. Most inside pages are black and white. Only 7 of 128 pages are printed in color in this issue. Unfortunately they chose to make one of those a picture of Courtney Love rather than any of the On-U pages. Oh well.

P25-29 (click for larger view)

Back Cover

Notes on the back cover: Three of the four albums shown here were Japan only releases with the exception of Stoned Immaculate, but as was common at the time the Japanese release of that got a bonus track. "Pay It All Back Live" (top left) is the live recordings from Town & Country in the UK. Acording to skysaw.org this really was a Japan only release. "Snakeman Show in the 90's" was Adrian Sherwood mixing 3 tracks for a Japanese radio show. "S.E.T. in the 90s" is more Sherwood remixology.

The door prices for the tour were 5,500 advance, 6,000 at door. Oddly enough thats about what it costs to see any one of these acts now when they come here 16 years later. Shibuya On Air is still around, dont know about W'ohol in Osaka.

Sorry but I just dont have the energy to translate the 5 page article.

Club Yellow of Tokyo is closing

After 16 years of hosting local and overseas DJs, live acts and more, Spacelab Yellow is closing its doors on June 21. Though I'm not a fan of the club itself, its a loss for Tokyo since thats one less venue for reggae, dub, D&B, techno, etc. Clubs come and go, few stay around for this long though.

For the most part, I only go to smaller bars and clubs because entry prices for events at Yellow or Liquid Room tend to be over 4,000 Yen. Double that so I can take the wife, add in some drinks and transportation and a night out to see a band becomes an expense item. Only went to Yellow once to see Adrian Sherwood, planning to go once more to see Zion Train in April. Not really fond of the place because they oversell tickets and it gets too crowded to dance or have fun. Liquid Room is a better space and Unit is more fun anyways. For a good local night theres Open or Garam or One Blood. Even with plenty of choices left, its too bad when one is removed.

new record "Jah Fire" Trinity & Downpressor

Hot biscuits from the oven, fresh from the presses, "Jah Fire" voiced by the one and only Trinity AKA Junior Brammer, dub by Tokyo's own Downpressor!

Its a bass heavy outing in a Satta style, Trinity puts in a sing-jay performance on the A side, the B side is a smooth echotronic voyage.

Now available in Japan, soon in UK and US, worldwide when they get there.

Populous Cast

Man here in Tokyo, kind enough to feature me in his podcast, check it at http://www.populuscast.libsyn.com/

Have a taste of Step By Steppers, my dub mix of Tear Drop and an unreleased track The Call on the ever popular Stalag riddim.

Next record coming soon

Master data for next downpressor production on its way to the pressing plant. more traditional thing with a roots vocalist you know and dub mix. iTunes will get an extra version extended mix which was actually the original version.

Downpressor "Sevens Dub Four" & "Step By Steppers" now on iTunes worldwide, vinyl still avilable

Finally, iTunes has gone outernational for me

Sevens Dub Four on iTunes
Step By Steppers on iTunes

Vinyl still available at
Tanty Dub Shop
Jah Warrior
Ernie B's Reggae

as well as other fine stores

Big up Shaggy Tojo

Word has it that the Shaggy Tojo produced Earl 16 track "Jah Messenger" (see Sudden Destruction post below) was recently played by the man Jah Shaka himself. Nice that Japanese reggae can be known a foreign for something more than Junko the dancehall queen.

Dubsensemania -> Dubsentimental?

I heard a little story. Dubsensemania, a Japanese reggae band started out indie, played lots of gigs, built a local following and eventually got signed to Sony Records for a two year contract. Sometime recently that contract ran out. The band is no more, but some members still play together as Dubsentimental.

Nothing exciting there. Theres a bit more to it though. The CDs released by Dubsensemania while signed to Sony were all Copy Control CDs, meaning they wouldnt play in anyone's computer and possibly their car stereo, etc. I dont have numbers to back it up, but no one I know bought those CDs, even fans of the band. The other thing about those CDs is the music did not sound like what the band sounded like live or like their previous studio work. DSM was a very fun live band, but these CDs were .... popish? mainstream j-rock sounding? boring? Talk is also that Sony wanted them to cover some old popular j-pop songs "inna reggae style".

The other bit that may come as a surprise is that being signed to a Japanese major label means the band goes on salary. Contracts here are not built around "X albums in Y" years, but "Band members recieve a monthly salary of Z Yen per month and will damn well do as they are told." Knowing what I know about Sony Music, the company probably owned the band name, merchandising rights and promotional rights as well. As weird as this may sound, for some musicians this can be a good deal. I know a few studio musicians who work for Sony Music as musical salarymen. Everyday they go in and play what they are told to and get enough of a paycheck to feed their families. Lots of studio guys I knew back home would have given their eye teeth for a reliable job like that and for most factory style cookie cutter j-pop the system works. Sell just enough CDs, do the promotional events, commercials and promotion events you are told to and you get a salary.

Evidently this wasnt quite the case with DSM. Some band members supposedly didnt want to keep on without Sony's monthly check, possibly the band no longer owned its name, so as I understand things, most members are working on solo careers or playing together sometimes as Dubsentimental. Have not seen them play lately, cant say how they sound now.

Somewhere I have some video of DSM recording at Ariwa Studio with the Mad Professor himself.

Anyways, wherever the band members are now, I wish them the best. Japan needs live reggae not more children screaming on a mic over backing tapes and calling themselves a soundsystem.

FWIW, all of the above is based on hearsay, take it all with a grain of salt, it might all be wrong.

Updates

Did a dub mix for Pole Pole Taxi Soundsystem, might come out on CD next year

Someone asked me to contribute to a compilation CD sponsored by a hamburger place down Yokohama way. The theme is "hamburgers and dub". Never heard of such a thing, but I'm all for promoting the local scene so I'll do that. With any luck it will be available outside Japan as well.

Have not mentioned it yet, but Ras Itak AKA Shaggy Tojo has produced an outernational CD collection "Sudden Destruction" with contributions from Japan's own Mighty Massa and vocalists from UK & JA and work from NYC also.

See list of artists etc here Page in Japanese, but artist list in english. There are a couple of 7"s to go with it, but they are VERY limited.

some japanese music

El Riddim Conference

One mand act recording some nice demos. Not much information to say other than I got the demo CD at Drum Song in Shimokitazawa.

Check the sounds at http://elriddimconference.hp.infoseek.co.jp

bumbaclaaaat

The word is really popular with j-reggae fans. Most of the kids I've talked to dont really know what it means but they know its a curse word. Thank kind of explains why its popular, there really are no curse words in japanese beyond "poop" and "stupid". It feels good to curse sometimes!

big up Revolution Reggae Podcast

Thanks for playing my tune "step by steppers"
http://reggaerevolution.podomatic.com/entry/2007-05-07T18_38_58-07_00

Clancy Eccles & Michael Manley

"POWER FOR THE PEOPLE"
1972 release by Clancy Eccles & Michael Manley
on Clandisc.

The A & B sides are a speech by Manley dubbed over Eccles "Power For The People" riddim. As far as I can tell, this was done and released by Eccles on his own just to show his support for Manley and the PNP in the 1972 election.

Eccles was known as a lifelong socialist and Manley's unofficial adviser on reggae music as well as being the organizer of the 1972 "super groups" tour in support of Manley's election bid.

The friend who gave me this record told me that he remembers it being played by his teacher during class in elementary school in Jamaica. Of course everyone is exposed to political propaganda in school under the guise of history or civics classes, but I cant recall any occasion where one particular candidate's propaganda was favored over another.

Nice review from Hi Fashion Records

Hi Fashion Records down in Machida (Southern Tokyo) found my 7" from Ernie B's in the US and reverse imported it (yes I am lazy about promotion). They gave it 4 out of 5 stars and compared the B side to a Lee Perry production. I'm flattered!

I went down and checked out the store, nice place, good people. The store manager Masa lived in London for a few years and is a big Shaka fan. Definitely a store to support.

"Jamaica One Love Festival" in Tokyo

They do this in may for the last few years. The irony is there is not a single Jamaican performer or business listed on the web site. 100% Japanese performance and profit.

Not like there are no Jamaicans here either...

Downpresor 7" available in US

From Ernie B's Reggae here

Amsterdam

If in Amsterdam, there seems to be one main record shop that has much regage, Boudisque near Amsterdam Central station.

"Get Records" on Utrechsestraat has some as well. They also have some copies of my 7" "Sevens Dub Four" for sale as well. Thanks to Joost for taking some and being a good guy overall!

Becoming a Cliche

Just occurred to me today, "Becoming a Cliche" appeals to me so much because it sounds like Tackhead back when they were worth listening to. Not that its covering the same ground, (well a little bit), but that it challenges me to listen. This is what Tackhead should have been rather than a crap copy of Living Color. Bernard Fowler never did it for me.

Finding a singer

I'm starting to plan my next release, I know which ridim track I want to use. Its 100BPM but sounds slower, minor key, one drop. The dub version uses some samples of Marcus Garvey. Sweet and dandy so far, but see Tokyo is not exactly an easy place to find good roots singers, so I'm kind of asking for advice here. So far my ideas are:

1. Wait and find someone locally. There are a few singers here in Tokyo, I could book studio time (no vocal booth in my studio) or give them a mixdown and have them use their own studio. Problem: finding the right singer half way around the world from where most are.
2. Use the web to find and contact a "name" singer, send a mixdown and have them arrange to record vocals somewhere and send em back to me for final mix & overdubs. Problem: many! First theres the trust issue, its always hard setting up something with someone you dont know (not to mention the money aspects over distance). Next is the fact that if I'm not present at the recording session, its not going to be easy to say what I like or dont like on a vocal take or ask for things like harmony or backing vocals after the fact. The other thing is making sure the vocals are sent back to me in some kind of format I can work with. Not everyone is going to understand if I say "44.1Khz, unprocessed, WAV or AIFF only".
3. Try and work something out with another studio who has contacts with vocalists over the web/email. This takes care of the technical issues in #2 above, but still leaves me with the trust and presence issues tho hopefully if I can work with someone who knows their sound, I can trust them to come up with a good recording and get it to me right. Problem: working out the .biz side of the whole thing. Not unsolvable, perhaps only a minor issue.

So if anyone out there has dealt with this before, please leave your thoughts in the comments.

Downpressor 7" now available in UK

Web orders of Downpressor 7" Sevens Dub Four/Step By Steppers now at these fine shops

Reggae Record Store

Tanty Record Shop

Respect to Steve @ Jah Warrior/Regae Music Store and Kelvin @ Tanty Records!

low volume on repress 7"s?

I been buying alot more 7"s lately, lots of repress issues of old roots. Seems to me that alot of them have very low volume when played on a decent turntable. Anyone know a possible reason for this?

Oh, the why is I'm going to DJ out in April after a 20+ year break from spinning for an audience. You know they didnt even have CDs the last time I did this in public and now thats all most people in Tokyo use. I feel old.

Update: There was a thread on Blood & Fire which related to this. The general consensus was reuse of old stampers as the cause.

Zion Train @ Tokyo Liquid Room 2005

Some trueheart tokyo massive at the start there

under investigation

lyrical similarities between Callman Scott's "Devil In The City" and the Gary Clail/Bim Sherman track "Two Theives And A Liar"

Update: I should have been more clear that "Devil In The City" predates "Two Theives And A liar" by a number of years. Also I do not mean to disrespect either singer with this question.

Now it can be revealed

The "famed" Ari Up/New Age Steppers track "My Whole World" was actually sung by Elmer Fudd loaded up on helium.

On U <-> Mikey Dread

Found these On U riddims on Mikey Dread songs:
African Blood/African Dub (Congo Ashanti Roy / Singers & Players) -> Childhood Days (Mikey Dread)
Breaking Down The Pressure (Congo Ashanti Roy / Singers & Players) -> Autobiography (Mikey Dread)

Update: Of course I'm hardly the first to catch this. David of Skysaw.org documents and explains here http://www.skysaw.org/onu/artists/singersandplayers.html

Dub of NYC

Lately I've managed to chase down some records which involve NYC dub, as far as I can tell the mixer/producer is Victor Rice. Stuff including Version City Sound Clash, Crazy Baldhead and 33HZ/Strikkly Vikkly. Labels are Jammyland and Redbud Records. Chase it down, ts an original sound .

Yamaha DD-11
Aurion Stereo Delay
Zoom RT-234 w/ foot pedal controller
Zoom 1010 multi FX
crap bass amp

The stereo out of the delay goes to the line in of the RT-234, mixed with the RT-234 sound and gets reprocessed through the Zoom 1010. While playing the DD-11 can tweak the direct/stereo switch as well as the delay time knob on the Aurion. The 1010 is set to a big reverb with some distortion and "presence" on one pedal, delay and verb on another.

Playing with this rig reminds me of why I stomp boxes with knobs over the zoom style ones with presets, you just cant tweak the zoom stuff in real time without buying an addon foot pedal and even then you can only tweak one parameter.

Hooray for "junk" bins and used gear

This week was good. Picked up a used Zoom RT-234 cheap on auctions and a working BOSS petal swtich out of the junk bin from Ishibashi.

For musicians/producers wanting old cheap gear in Japan, your options are sadly limited. The biggest auction site here is Yahoo! Auctions and due to the 10 minute clock reset at the end of acutions bargains are pretty darn rare. The idea is to prevent sniping by giving bidders a chance to increase their top bid before the clock runs out by resetting the clock to 10 minutes if a new high bid comes in at the last 10 minutes of an auction. The effect is that closing prices end up much higher because people end up bidding more than they thought their max was at first. The unintended effect is that the prices of used stuff in stores goes up to match auction closing bids. Also if you are new to auctions here, dont forget that you have to pay the bank transfer fee and shipping fees which can add up to 2,000 Yen onto your real costs.

In the US I used to buy used gear at pawnshops, garage sales and flea markets. Japan has pawnshops but they never really have music gear. There are used shops called "recycle shops" but music gear besides accoustic guitars or the occaisional DJ mixer is almost never to be found. Even when you do find something dont expect a bargain, there is a nation wide price guide published for these shops telling them the "correct" prices for things. There is a chain store which sells used stuff called "Hard Off" which often has instruments, FX, mixers, speakers, etc. but prices are again high. Forget flea markets for the most part, I've never seen a piece of music gear at one in the greater Tokyo area.

This basically leaves actual music gear shops. In Tokyo they are concentrated around the hill from Ochanomizu station. Some kind soul created a map here. Or theres some around the south exit of Shibuya station. Ishibashi mentioned above is a chain of music instruments and related stuff. You can check their used pricing here. AFAIK they have stores in many cities of Japan. I've been to their Kobe shop and it was pretty large by local standards. Dont expect great prices or much selection on used guear.

Generally do not expect many shop clerks to speak anything besides Japanese and in Tokyo anyways dont bother trying to haggle. In this part of Japan prices are almost always carved in stone.

Kodama Kazufumi (ex Mute Beat) live

He does get talkative during his shows...

Dry & Heavy Live vid

Cuz this IS dubbing in tokyo after all. Vocalist from ADF pon the mic, and Likkle Mai doing some harmony tings.



Fact is D&H been playing live around and about lately, no news if there will be new record or not. Hope so!

Bonus treat, ificcial "Dawn is Breaking" music vid:



Likkle Mae has dreads there, I never saw a picture of that before.

polish on-u sound documentary

Adrian Sherwood Dub Sessions vol 2 camphone vid

Quality bad, but waddaya want for free moochers?

german name check dub video

Courtesy of some German TV show. Past and present name checks in effect



anyone who knows more, please comment!

"True Rasta Man Don't Suck Cock" - Lee Scratch Perry

Actual quote from the 10/31 show. Almost no one in the crowd got that line, but AMS sure looked surprised when he heard it!

AMS did material from his new CD, LSP did some new and some older material then they came out together and did Fever (the old torch song), War Inna Babylon as well as a couple others. Most of the crowd was there to see LSP, he's "more famous" in Japan than AMS.

Japanese Reggae Flyers

These are from Tokyko & Kobe. Did not go to most of these events. Just presenting for your viewing pleasure.