Last Ghetto Palms I shouted at the devil of prefab dancehall, and this week the universe did shout me back in the form of veteran sessions player and producer Colin “Bulby” York, who released the polyrhythmic spree called the Creator riddim on his Fat Eyes label. Irrational rhythms may be replacing auto-tune as the new trend in JA, at least judging from the Weapon riddim and the new Spragga joint included below, which flips the clicky polyriddim of “Sweet Georgia Brown” (Cf. Brother Bones, Harlem Globetrotters, R. Kelly). This last should not be too surprising, since it’s produced by Salaam Remi whose previous collabos with Spragga include the Acid Hall riddim, a pre-millenium high point in dancehall creativity.
All of which raises the point: what does it say when two old dudes are making the most innovative beats out there? When I first heard the weird break come in, the Creator actually reminded me of some early '90s “Bug in the Bassbin” proto-jungle, or maybe some 4Hero late '90s thinking about Y2K post-jungle. I thought to myself, I’m gonna use that as a reference in the column. Then I dug up the 4 Hero remix of Brazilian intellidisco pioneers Azymuth to make sure I was thinking of the right record. Then I did something a little crazy and switched the single-pole, double-throw switch at top of channel 1 from "Serato line" to "phono" and used it as an intro.
GP78 Polyriddims Blend:
Azymuth, “Prefacio” (4 Hero remix)
Beenie Man, “Whine Eeh” (Creator riddim / Bulby / Fat Eyes label)
Mad Cobra, “Pretty Pink” (Creator riddim / Bulby / Fat Eyes label)
Sizzla, “Whine Up” (Creator riddim / Bulby / Fat Eyes label)
Yanique, “Got Some Love” (Creator riddim / Bulby / Fat Eyes label)
Alaine & Chino, “Me & You- Secret” (Stephen “Di Genius” McGregor)
Spragga Benz, “Who in the Middle” (Salaam Remi)
Download: Ghetto Palms Polyriddims Blend
Anyway, beaucoups respect to old dudes. And on that note I am gonna take a second to address some old business:
First off, proper attributions for the Favela riddim remix I posted last week. Turns out the track that sounds like it was inspired by/pirating Tim Turbo was in fact Tim Turbo. Nats’ manager Dylan Powe aka Prodigal hit me back to say: “That’s me an Tim Turbo outta Berlin. Global ting, you zeet? I'm voicing like three more songs on it an tossing it out in a minute. It's called the Favela. Brazillian electro dancehall flava. You know my shit.” Tim weighed in with the rest of the backstory: “Dylan emailed me with the idea of making it a riddim selection with Nats on it. Then I customized the riddim a likkle and added some drums and then he came up with this thing he mailed you.” Now you know.
Second off, me-from-three weeks ago called to remind me-now that Truckback’s Erup remix EP went up on iTunes this week. You should get it. And just so the idea sticks in your head, go ahead and pre-stream the evil, Baltimore-driving towards Jersey Ghetto House remix from FADER vet Nick Catchdubs:
Erup, “Click Mi Finger” (Nick Catchdubs remix / Truckback records)
