What are people's favourite dancehall rhythms of the year or so...

"addled maunderer's madeleine"

Yes! This is exactly what I love.

I like how Don Corleon's Trifecta (or Triflecta?) riddim is both quite obviously "Egyptian Part 2" and a deliberate attempt to out-mentalist the Sign riddim. Each time I think dancehall producers have taken these perverse counter-intuitive eastern vibes to their logical conclusion they rise the bar AGAIN.

Check out the Sean Paul cut "Head Fi Toe" - astonishing!

To whomever posted about the Ching Chong riddim where did you find it?

whomever, you dun know. ching chong's a funny one actually; i heard it on chris goldfinger's radio 1 show, which is usually a nice recap wash the dishes thing ut no one else anywhere is on it. dancehall's so desultory it's fascinating to see what sticks where, i can be a right ingram about it

trifector's ok, i quickly get bored of the er throbby riddims (why pf why? i dunno) but there's some inspired xtra stuff on this one! the sparse sizzla one's ACE SKILL BRILL, haha ele spends about 5 seconds listening to the riddim and sez "right, horses please", tanto metro and dev is totally daft punk vocoder drama, daville's meltingly affectionate... i havent heard the vybz but it's totally predictable no?

beenie/miss thing- dude is in the rap shops after def jamaica, i think it might blow!

I think the Vybz one was pretty much what you'd expect, from memory. "Head Fi Toe" stands out like "Close To Me" stands out like "Feel Alright" stands out like "Get Busy" stands out. Something about Sean's singjay style manages to take the typical flow of the groove and stand it on its head.

If you mean "throbby" the way i think I don't think i could ever get sick of it! That's why I love Wanted riddim so much.

Apparently "Dude" is gonna be the first single off the new Beenie album. If so I'm really pleased - Tropical Storm was pretty disappointing and if Sean's success is anything to go by then straight dancehall is a better option than pasty-faced urban crossover stylings. Not to mention that "Dude" has one of the best chorus's ever, even if it's not actually Beenie's (for my money Baby Cham's performance on "Vitamin S" is better).

Riddim id please: Sizzla's "All Is Well". Which is another one of those "Sizzla as the Jamaican David Bryne" inspired moments.

to qualify my tossed-off remark re throb trubs: obv to disown the throb would be arch mentalism, i dont know if its valid to even make the distinction really... but with dancehall i guess i cleave towards singles-in-a-perfect-world or at least def versions or yeah usually just the anomalous; with throb riddims i guess i was thinking of when a riddim sounds especially amazing in series and flow and where the vocals are subbed and desirable in a sort of generic 'add 2tsp jamaican' way. here it's harder to find personalised memorable versions where they might well disrupt the lovely tyrrany of the beat. yeah i know viral hardcore continuum etc everyone hops and feeds, voracious carnival, thats fun in theory and er dancing and all, but...

sometimes of course it's a virtue when a mc brings the very best out of a throb, say kiprich's one on, oh was it salsa? i mentioned it above. vybz is interesting cos he is v v good at riding in, becoming percussive, and has managed to conflate this into (into, not with) a darting low-slung character. for inst look what he does to panty raid riddim on 'bad man'. but yeah me and throb riddims: 'sweet to the belly' vs egyptian

yeah, i'll stick to chapped ellipsis

oh i heard sars in the end, as sean said ages ago wayne wonder's spare version is really bewitching but what i like most is it's the only one where you can make out that faint murmuring on the normal dub, if it was called anything else i might take it for crowd noise, hubbub, idle chatter but on a SARS RIDDIM! oh it's ghastly! and behind w wonder's love forever swoons and the piercing emergency-respiration-beep chorus, oh! you see him alone in a leper ward serenading his dying love, unrecognisable only to him by now but she's beautiful, and he's not wearing a mask and he knows he will also die soon but no he'll be home soon. driven home in a somnambulance

*speechless*

"with throb riddims i guess i was thinking of when a riddim sounds especially amazing in series and flow and where the vocals are subbed and desirable in a sort of generic 'add 2tsp jamaican' way. here it's harder to find personalised memorable versions where they might well disrupt the lovely tyrrany of the beat."

I suspect I'm much more enamoured of hearing multiple versions of riddims mixed together because that's pretty much the only way I hear new tracks so it's now the primary way I *experience* dancehall. And I think that's why something like Dreamweaver appeals to me more than maybe it does you - hearing the new element of the tailored riddim come in at the same time as the new DJ (bouncy piano for "Visa", strings for "Hot Like Fire", screams for "Blessed") makes the contrast within the "changing same" much more marked, and allows the mood of the set to shift while using the same riddim. Whereas it tends to prevent a definitive version from emerging.

That said I can totally sympathise with your preference. As I said just upthread I really like the fact that all of Sean Paul's tracks sound like one-offs.

I've yet to hear anything on Sars! There's never anything on Limewire.

my experience of dancehall is much the same tho, haha oh if i go on like i'm a shophed it's cos i'm too boasy = envious at slsk etc or simply to give a diff perspective. i'm a rap luva disgruntled at vinyl kulcha at its lowest ebb, and grime is hardly the black plastic whirlwind one would like it to be, frankly, so dancehall provides a certain solace. "i can be a right ingram about it". but i wouldnt want to give the impression i dont love the things you love, far from it; what's key here is the word that stuck most in my craw later once i posted, 'memorable', and how i might use a def version as a glyph for remembering that experiential rush. but before we fall down this tangent let us remind ourselves how much lenky looks like ned raggett, and back away slowly

funny u should mention dreamweaver cos as much as i felt blessed's intro chico's 'thick and thin' is by far my favourite now. more on that elsewhere

"the concept of the definitive text corresponds only to religion or exhaustion" yep aaaand yep!

I'm gonna say stuff on all that later but can I interrupt proceedings to say: Elephant Man "Can't Stop We Now"!!

hm. counterruption!

my fave customisation of dreamweaver right now is assasin's "girls alone," just because of that squelchy 303 or whatever it is under the verses. it's very timbaland.

that "one tump" rhythm is bonkers. it's like 2-step dancehall. wait! no, it's totally ska. haha, everyone seems to want to put laser sounds on it, appropriately. it makes my heart rate go up involuntarily.

Mad Instruments Riddim = the new Coolie Dance surely (only with handclaps)? I mean that in the best possible sense.

Elephant Man's "Nah" in particular is great. I have a soft-spot again for T.O.K. ("Hotter Fire") though because they increasingly sound like some sort of South American marching band.

Fuck me I cannot BELIEVE the torrent of amazing stuff!!!

Prima that site is invaluable! Serenade Riddim! And you were right about Ngozi too.

Greensleeves should sell subscriptions to the riddim comps.

it is IMPOSSIBLE to find any dancehall comps from this year around these parts. though i found the bollywood riddim album mixed with the metal comps.

Is the Vybz Kartel album supposed to be in stores? I've found other GS stuff, but none of the stores around here are carrying VK.

Hot Girl Riddim! Wireless Riddim! etc. etc.

BTW the riddim on Sizzla's "All Is Well" is apparently the Cool Face riddim.

is now when i just admit i gave up in september?

tim is that sizzla tune kind of slow with an effect on his voice on the chorus?

ah, no i'm thinking of something else, sorry

Ice riddim is awesome.

Jess - don't give up! It just keeps getting better!

I just heard someone (was it Paul Sci-Fi?) big up myself, Zemko, Ingram and some others on the Robbo Ranx show! ROXOR!

haha!

usually I check the archives, but since this was live thought it high time

i've lost my mix cd. :,,(

Tim: But hasn't there always been a torrent of amazing stuff?

tsk zzzz cybele! you can't honestly say dancehall doesnt have a totally giddy larval carnival vibe right now that it didn't have b4. but yeah secretly i do pine for some old dark boomy 94 gullyness... which is when sopranos or new brain riddims come along and cater

ooh anyway i dunno about babycham stealing fiesta but he totally wins on d kelly's nu 'pretty pretty' fake fiesta riddim!

(can be heard early on in goldfinger's resurgent bbc radio 1 show last week btw)

also wireless riddim has harry toddler doing 'donkey kick' again

tim otm re: em - "ycswn"

wireless riddim is unbelievable! it works great with creeper on that paradisevibes sampler too.

Cybele - Prima's post pretty much captures it. I didn't follow dancehall pre about 2000 and even then my knowledge up until '02 was sketchy, but in retrospect while I enjoyed it I don't think I really clicked with the dark electro-minimalism and gangsta-menace that seemed to dominate circa 99/00 (think "bellyas" - this may also be why I'm not so keen on "surprise").

The shift over 01/02 into this technicolour world of ALL PARTY ALL THE TIME mentalism is what has allowed me to embrace it so utterly - this is seriously and absolutely my favourite music right now. It plays to pretty much every one of my weaknesses, combining the energy and showmanship of hip hop with the anthemic accessibility of pop with the brazen and menacing sexuality of 2-step with the rhythmic danger of jungle with the hypnotic repetition of house or techno with (and maybe this is the most important part in terms of why dancehall *right now* seems so vital) a sort of unabashed and untempered joyfulness whose vehemence exceeds anything since the glory days of rave.

I love how any time any of the 1xtra DJs play Bling Dawg's "Propoganda" (on Dreamweaver) they have to replay the mental wail in the first few seconds over and over again.

is robbery this year? recommend me some versions if poss.

father i will avenge you with x amount of hot tunes

man i have sorely underrated bare nose coolie riddim! bit like mad instr or coolie dance but better imo. please check the beenie man one, it's deranged, like a 50s african doowop ghost train! also tell me its name thnx

and butter riddim, the throbdrop is crazy

Thunderclap riddim - search Vybz, Bounty and Elephant versions. It's a bit like a sequel to 20 Cent, though I've yet to find a version as good as Mad Cobra's "Lazy Gal". Elephant Man's is as crazy as you'd expect, mind - the fastest I've heard him rap, I think.

OH MY GOD AMAZING RIDDIM ALERT: go listen to Seani B's set on 1xtra (www.bbc.co.uk/1xtra/) - the first riddim he plays is awesome! Particularly Spragga Benz's "Guns & Girls" and Elephant Man's "Cant Gwaan a JA". Will try to find out what it's called - it sounds like hi-speed gamelan with rave whistles!

Oh so this is the Ching-Chong riddim which has been mentioned before. It's still amazing though!