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

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i found a reggaeton cd at work the other day! i'm a bit scared to buy it though. it seems a bit...shady.

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Monday, 3 May 2004 00:31 (nineteen years ago) link

Hahha, Jess, is it Reggaeton Jamz?

― C0L1N B3CK3TT (Colin Beckett), Monday, 3 May 2004 01:41 (nineteen years ago) link

And Tim, don't wanna tempt you further, but there are usually good Greensleeves deals on Ebay ( http://search.ebay.com.au/ws/search/GetResult?button=Search&ht=1&saavailabletocountry=15&satitle=Greensleeves&sbrexp=WD2S&sosortproperty=1&ssPageName=WD2S )

― C0L1N B3CK3TT (Colin Beckett), Monday, 3 May 2004 01:43 (nineteen years ago) link

What do I have to do to get a copy of that hella awesome lookin' mix up thurr? I can be a really cool e-friend.

― djdee2005, Monday, 3 May 2004 01:43 (nineteen years ago) link

Don't know if anyone else has already mentioned it, but Thriller Riddim is more great Tunda Klap-ish business.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Monday, 3 May 2004 06:08 (nineteen years ago) link

Dave was so right about the Trample riddim btw

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Monday, 3 May 2004 06:20 (nineteen years ago) link

and has anyone heard this Nina Sky track "Move Ya Body Gal", apparently Lumidee part 2 on Coolie Dance?

― OCP (OCP), Monday, 3 May 2004 06:26 (nineteen years ago) link

(oh, this was meant to come before my last message. Posting issues, whatever.)

is it just me or is dancehall in a bit of a slump right now? Aside from Chrome and Blackout I can't think of any riddim in the last six months that lives up to any of the best stuff from the last year or so (Egyptian, Diwali, Coolie Dance, Fiesta.... almost anything mentioned upthread)... maybe some of the newer stuff is just taking a while to grow on me, but I've not come across any voicings of...anything, really, that have the kind of immediate appeal of Egyptian Dance (or Get With It Girls, Sweet To The Belly, I Will Love The Girls....), Get Busy (or almost ANYTHING on Diwali! the Wayne Marshall, TOK, etc. etc.) or Feel Alright (etc. etc.)

― ocp (OCP), Monday, 3 May 2004 06:27 (nineteen years ago) link

(oh, and I guess Trifecta should get an honourable mention as a good recent-ish riddim, but even then it's pretty old....)

― OCP (OCP), Monday, 3 May 2004 06:28 (nineteen years ago) link

Heh, if that's true it'd be great cuz I'd get a chance to try and catch up.

― djdee2005, Monday, 3 May 2004 08:24 (nineteen years ago) link

i think you're more or less completely wrong, ocp.

― Dave Stelfox (Dave Stelfox), Monday, 3 May 2004 11:14 (nineteen years ago) link

not being rude or anything, but there's been a lot of good stuff out recently. just look at all the stuff myself tim and mr fassy have posted above. surely that's enough to keep you going!

― Dave Stelfox (Dave Stelfox), Monday, 3 May 2004 11:15 (nineteen years ago) link

i think we have to be careful with our proximity to this music sometimes, esp what with how much more of our attention we have to put in. (sorry, not to say ocp is a casual new jack or anything btw!) i would sympathise with ocp's position tho, for me it's been much more of a picking off great singles year than albums(=riddims), and the singles ive come to love are on a par with 03 definitely. but the riddims don't evoke that hungry dizzy swirl so much. part of this is the stopstart release schedule this year, like ive grown resentful of french vanilla and marmalade sitting there stagnant for weeks where before they'd be part of the torrent, and you could take them as you please. it makes them feel more like statements rather than sketches and personally i wouldnt try and convince anyone of ragga supremacy with these really

― prima fassy (mwah), Monday, 3 May 2004 11:58 (nineteen years ago) link

i know its always a singles year for me tho, but this year they just feel like amazing singles and not 03's fond dancefloor synecdoches

― prima fassy (mwah), Monday, 3 May 2004 12:02 (nineteen years ago) link

yeah i can see your point - i said this back in february, that i was finding stuff a bit patchy both in terms ofquality and most importantly in the way things were being released. still, i'm happy with the good dtuf i've heard this year and alos think that rather than dancehall being in a slump per se, we should maybe think that last year was just an idiotically good one, with everything arriving at the right time, major label interest/confidence at an all-time high, dancehall really fucking swaggering with bomb tune after bomb tune... it was never going to be able to keep that up. also it's worth considering that dancehall having been such a success story lately, whether major-label interest/transatlantic uk-us commercial potential has actualy slowed things up a bit...

― Dave Stelfox (Dave Stelfox), Monday, 3 May 2004 12:05 (nineteen years ago) link

what i' kinda meant to ocp's statement is that what's good is as good as ever and that i'm still finding this music way better than anything else out ther

― Dave Stelfox (Dave Stelfox), Monday, 3 May 2004 12:07 (nineteen years ago) link

yeah the blacker dread grinch did grumble that it was all the big labels' fault. i'm not sure i can imagine how true this might be tho, unless it was rather the little labels deciding to be more business minded and trying to play the hype game after last year instead of just flinging stuff out?

i thought nina sky was lumidee at first! but anyway it's not a millionth as good! it sucks for making me remember 03

― prima fassy (mwah), Monday, 3 May 2004 12:10 (nineteen years ago) link

god, sack my typist - put it down to a bank-holiday hangover... hope the above makes sense. yeah, i think that might be the case re the smaller labels. it certainly appears they're sitting on stuff more and longer

― Dave Stelfox (Dave Stelfox), Monday, 3 May 2004 12:11 (nineteen years ago) link

i hope its something enchanting like the pressing plants used up all the plastic in jamaica

― prima fassy (mwah), Monday, 3 May 2004 12:13 (nineteen years ago) link

or dave kelly lost his favourite bouncy ball

― prima fassy (mwah), Monday, 3 May 2004 12:15 (nineteen years ago) link

or or tamagotchis finally caught on and no one cares about music now

― prima fassy (mwah), Monday, 3 May 2004 12:17 (nineteen years ago) link

re plastic i don't think that would matter too much, to be honest. mate of mine that i work with is an old don reggae writer and was telling me the other day about them using tyres in pressing plants there. reckons he has a totally unplayable old 7 with grooves and then a big lump of tread on it! there was a story about them doing the same at trax records back in the early, early house days, too. not seen any evidence of either, but don't really care. its a nice story all the same.

― Dave Stelfox (Dave Stelfox), Monday, 3 May 2004 12:18 (nineteen years ago) link

has to be the tamagotchis

― Dave Stelfox (Dave Stelfox), Monday, 3 May 2004 12:18 (nineteen years ago) link

pitch it to the times! you'd be a celebrity by the time anyone in jamaica found out

― prima fassy (mwah), Monday, 3 May 2004 12:23 (nineteen years ago) link

you know, on past record of trying to get broadsheets to take dancehall seriously, i reckon i'd have more chance of that going in than something proper, so i'd rather not try - they'd probably go for it.

― Dave Stelfox (Dave Stelfox), Monday, 3 May 2004 12:35 (nineteen years ago) link

i think you're more or less completely wrong, ocp.

Dave I don't think it's a matter of being right or wrong! I never claimed to make any kind of absolute statement as much as I was just saying that I haven't really been feeling the newer stuff (and I think I'm fairly up to date...)

― OCP (OCP), Monday, 3 May 2004 14:54 (nineteen years ago) link

i did clarify it... i think there's a lot to be happy about and the quality of music is as good as ever, just coming more in dribs and drabs now, that all. but if it's just opinion, then hey, you think what you think

― Dave Stelfox (Dave Stelfox), Monday, 3 May 2004 15:16 (nineteen years ago) link

this thread isn't even about
dance music (dancehall is kinda like a Jamaican fusion of reggae and rap).

I know why Tim is saying what he is here...and yet I like the odd juxtaposition of these two assertions.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 3 May 2004 15:54 (nineteen years ago) link

mully - e-mail me at davestelfox@yahoo.co.uk and we'll try to work something out... maybe try to find a way to ftp it or something

― Dave Stelfox (Dave Stelfox), Monday, 3 May 2004 16:20 (nineteen years ago) link

Dying Fetus, "Born in Sodom".

WHUT? NOT DANCEHALL?

― uh (eetface), Monday, 3 May 2004 16:21 (nineteen years ago) link

uh, what? anyway mully, just thought, you'd better head it up so as i know it's you or i'll delete it without opening it

― Dave Stelfox (Dave Stelfox), Monday, 3 May 2004 16:24 (nineteen years ago) link

just a joke.

now I realize the confusion on the whole Aguilera thread, as when I mentioned dancehall music, I was referring to music that gets played in dance halls or aka clubs...unaware that a genre of the same name (dancehall) already existed.

― uh (eetface), Monday, 3 May 2004 16:26 (nineteen years ago) link

Thanks Dave! message sent.

― mullygrubber (gaz), Monday, 3 May 2004 21:17 (nineteen years ago) link

The other thing about '03 was that it was the point when a lot of former dilettantes (like myself) started to pay a lot closer attention to dancehall than they had previously, such that you could enjoy, say, Diwali, Egyptian, Fiesta, Coolie Dance and Mad Instruments as if they all came out at roughly the same time, when in fact you're talking about an expanse of maybe two years between Diwali blowing up and Mad Instruments dying down.

From a riddimatic perspective, I think the biggest problem at the moment is that two many of the tunes are slotting into that vague patch between Egyptian and 20 Cent - Tunda Klap, Marmalade, French Vanilla, Thriller etc. these are all really good riddims but their interconnectness takes away something of the out-of-leftfield bizarroness of last year where stuff like Wanted, Mudslide, Coolie Dance, Fiesta, Ching Chong etc. would suddenly appear and take things in a different direction; certainly it was the radical inconsistency (in a positive sense) of dancehall which distinguished it from the other forward thinking groove scenes (crunk, grime). Whereas now I think the scene has almost settled into a post-Don Corleon quasi-Eastern consensus. What makes Chrome and Blackout so memorable is the way they deviate from that, the former with its rusty pipe shoddiness and the latter with those glorious Partytime-style staccato hits.

Like Dave I don't think this is indicative of a falling off though: a huge chunk of the big '01/early '02 tunes fall into a similar patch between Liquid and Martial Arts. Perhaps it was just that late '02 and '03 was a period where the scene was unusually fragmented in terms of knowing where to go next.

(also, as much as I've always applauded it, the DJ-as-fitness-instructor meme seems a bit limited now, which is I suspect why people are getting annoyed at Elephant Man a bit)

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Monday, 3 May 2004 21:37 (nineteen years ago) link

Wow this thread has been the most amazing resource! Thanks to everyone who contributed, this is bookmarked foreva. I keep going back and forth between it and soulseek...wonderful.

― djdee2005, Monday, 3 May 2004 22:09 (nineteen years ago) link

Oh you stepped in it now, dee. Stelfox is gonna get mad. ;)

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Monday, 3 May 2004 22:14 (nineteen years ago) link

Haha don't worry! On my 21st birthday next week I return home to Chicago and will spend all my hard earned cash on every bit of this shit I can snatch up! I'm doing preliminary research.

― djdee2005, Monday, 3 May 2004 22:16 (nineteen years ago) link

phew, i've resurrected the blog and have reviewed every track and rhythm on the 1st cd there. djdee if you cut and paste ir here i will chop your fucking arms off - the link is worldofstelfox.blogspot.com

― Dave Stelfox (Dave Stelfox), Monday, 3 May 2004 23:49 (nineteen years ago) link

i am pleased to hear the blog is back

― mullygrubber (gaz), Monday, 3 May 2004 23:50 (nineteen years ago) link

just kidding re the cutting and pasting thing, btw, but please don't . also re the soulseek thing, to hell with it.... i've downloaded a ton of soca over the past month and will be doing more in the not too distant as i'm broke.

― Dave Stelfox (Dave Stelfox), Monday, 3 May 2004 23:52 (nineteen years ago) link

I think the biggest problem at the moment is that two many of the tunes are slotting into that vague patch between Egyptian and 20 Cent

yeah, nice one Tim. Worried riddim is case in point.
(although I've gotta say I like it. TOK's "Miss Hypie Hypie" in particular.)

― OCP (OCP), Tuesday, 4 May 2004 00:04 (nineteen years ago) link

worried is just dull - it's not an interesting rhythm in any way shape or form. some of the voicings are okay, but it was never going to be that big, because it just lacks something.

― Dave Stelfox (Dave Stelfox), Tuesday, 4 May 2004 00:13 (nineteen years ago) link

Well that's the problem innit - they're often great riddims, but they're not as stunning as they would be if we hadn't heard so many familiar riddims beforehand. It's like dancehall producers have absolutely nailed this particular microstyle and are now waiting until a new paradigm arrives to bust it again. But I'm expecting a lot of the next batch of riddims to fall somewhere between Mad Instruments and Coolie Dance.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Tuesday, 4 May 2004 00:13 (nineteen years ago) link

x-post there btw. I've momentarily forgotten whether I've heard/have Worried - which might be telling!

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Tuesday, 4 May 2004 00:14 (nineteen years ago) link

BTW there's a list of '04 riddims and versions here - can people in the know (or with slsk) please check out and report back??

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Tuesday, 4 May 2004 00:16 (nineteen years ago) link

Are there any good soca publications/websites? Socanews seems to fairly worthless and the only way I'm even remotely keeping up is slsk.

― C0L1N B3CK3TT (Colin Beckett), Tuesday, 4 May 2004 00:36 (nineteen years ago) link

I'm expecting a lot of the next batch of riddims to fall somewhere between Mad Instruments and Coolie Dance.

well, we can live in hope... anyway stop talking about this stuff i need sleep!

― Dave Stelfox (Dave Stelfox), Tuesday, 4 May 2004 00:40 (nineteen years ago) link

Well it strikes me that making riddims is a bit like speculating. I imagine that a lot of these post-Egyptian/20 Cent riddims are the result of producers gambling on the success and longevity of those riddims to apply to their own similar subsequent productions. If I wanted to make a hot riddim right now the huge success of Coolie Dance and Mad Instruments, not to mention the increasing soca crossover, would loom large in my mind.

Plus soca-fusionism generally constitutes the absurd decadent peak of the dancehall=uptempo party music equation that has increasingly defined its last few years. After that there would *have* to be an elastic snap back in another direction.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Tuesday, 4 May 2004 00:53 (nineteen years ago) link

There's quite a lot on realplayer here http://www.paradisevibes.com/Music%20Part%202/Music%20Part%202.htm

you'll also be pleased to know that there afre a few tracks on about three-quarters of the rhythms in that your on limewire, tim

― Dave Stelfox (Dave Stelfox), Tuesday, 4 May 2004 00:59 (nineteen years ago) link

Yeah Limewire has improved dramatically wrt dancehall lately - suddenly riddims I couldn't find at all last year (Voom Voom, Hindu Storm) are present in abundance, and the new riddims eg. Red Alert, Perilous etc. appear quick smartish as well. It's just a bloody shame I have to visit my parents to download anything.

Now if it can only pick up wrt grime I will be a v. happy man.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Tuesday, 4 May 2004 01:07 (nineteen years ago) link

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