DALE FARM
I’m not going to get into the whole ethics of the Dale Farm situation as I feel its a bit beyond my understanding what with them owning half the land and the eviction being illegal and several other facts all mumbled jumbled up in the middle. What I don’t get though is that surely to be a ‘traveller’ you have to travel? Why would you want to stay in exactly the same place year in year out and say you’re a ‘traveller’? Surely that’s as damaging to tradition as anything else? It’d be like me saying I am a jet setter by sitting on my sofa for a week? I’m sure there’s some clever loop hole I’m missing here like perhaps because they walk places that’s still travelling or perhaps they abide by Jamiroquai’s ‘Travelling Without Moving’ ideals. I just don’t know. Either way I hope its all resolved so someone is happy. There. That’s my diplomatic view on that.
NO TRAIN
My brother who makes the music has released his new single today. Its bloody good and I say that as an older brother who used to relish telling him how shit he was before hitting him with things. It’s genuinely ace. Have a download legally here:
SCRATCH
I forced L to watch the film Scratch yesterday and had forgotten just how much I’d enjoyed it first time I’d seen it. My love for scratch DJing has resurfaced recently after a small lull, mostly after seeing JFB at Bestival scratch some amazing DnB and I forgot just how fast it makes my legs want to move when that happens. Dancewise that is, not quickly somewhere else to avoid the sounds. If you haven’t seen Scratch its a brilliant docufilm about the beginnings of turntabalism and how it is just as valid a mark of musicianship as playing a guitar or piano. And other interments. I wasn’t saying that a kazoo is miles ahead, though it does require a special skill. Not to look like a knob when you play one. It really is incredible when you watch someone who is a master at scratchin’ take to the decks. I mean, watch this for example:
I mean, that’s nothing less than incredible right? And when you see the X-cutioners, Beat Junkies and people like Q-Bert djiung you really can’t say its anything else but incredible skill and talent. More than all of this, what I kept harping on at L about for hours was how the history of hip hop all stems from a very different place to what the media would have to believe. Scratch shows a fair bit of Afrika Bambaataa and the Zulu Nation, explaining how he brought peace to his estate by getting the kids into djing, MCing and breakin’ rather than violence and fighting. Yes. It came from creating calm in a deprived area. Not the guns and violence horror that its always represented at. I think we should take this example to the streets of the UK now, but with something new. I personally aim to head to the estates in Tottenham and Dale Farm and places like that and get them all to invent a new type of music. Perhaps we’ll use just 10 second samples of old folk records, then sing quick rhyming opera over the top while some people dance as crazy as possible with their hands tied to their feet. It can only be a win right? Right? I’ll call it Spaz-Bop. Any takers? No? Oh ok.
Well either way, despite it being a tad outdated now, watch Scratch if you can, even if you hate hip-hop and you may find you gain a new found love for it sharpish.
