ashley beedle - 1998 essential mix (part 1) (mp3)

ashley beedle - 1998 essential mix (part 2) (mp3)

last january i bought a house and began renovating it. this old house was built in 1947, and had (apologies for the cliché) one lady owner, with no work having been done on the house for almost 60 years. it was a total wreck. at one point all that was left were four windowless walls - we ripped out the electric heaters, the floral wallpaper, the faulty wiring and the decrepit kitchen. what i was gifted with was a blank canvas, a carte blanche to do whatever the hell i wanted with what was to become my future home.

i think one of my finest moments (alongside putting dimmer switches in every room - can't recommend that enough) was putting a speaker in the ceiling of the bathroom. i've always found the bathroom a sanctuary from the constant insatiable hubbub of the working day, and can often think of nothing better than running a bath and crashing out for an hour of lackadaisical bliss.

what i've found to be one of the greatest soundtracks for getting all wrinkled up to is this, ashley beedle's 1998 essential mix. taking in all parts of the reggae spectrum, i can quite confidently say this is 2 hours of the most perfectly sequenced dub, roots, ska, calypso and rocksteady that you're ever likely to come across. i've played this to immediate family, inseparable friends, and fucked-up all-back-to-mine randomers, and probably made about 20 copies for new devotees through the years. and i've now i'm sitting here, still wet from the bath with a towel around my waist, wondering why i haven't let this secret out earlier than tonight

force-filled with understandable hits, inexplicable misses, rewinds, versions on versions, echoed overdubs, skanked-up covers, king tubby delays and scientist bleeps, this is reggae 101, a perfect intoduction for beginners and dewy-eyed nostalgia for the stalwarts. i defy you to listen to this without a smile erupting on your face.

what's that - a tracklisting? ah go on then ...


part 1
buju banton - "hills and valleys" (penthouse)
the abbyssinians - "forward on to zion" (blue moon)
bob marley - "natty dread" (tuff gong)
dennis brown/trinity - "funny feeling" (hawkeye)
fred locks - "true rastaman" (vulcan)
delroy wilson - "i'm still waiting" (joe gibbs)
mighty diamonds - "ghetto living" (joe gibbs)
barry brown - "far east" (channel 1)
buju banton - "murderer" (penthouse)
barrington levy - "murderer" (jah life)
culture - "two sevens clash" (joe gibbs)
bojangles - "prophesy reveal" (errol t)
max romeo - "war inna babylon" (upsetter)

part 2
the wailers - "keep on moving" (upsetter)
bob marley - "rainbow country" (disco)
the royals - "pick up the pieces" (studio 1)
nicolette - "beautiful day" (talkin' loud)
trinity - "starsky and hutch" (belmont)
randys allstars - "batman" (impact)
randys allstars - "mission impossible" (impact)
the skatalites - "guns of navarone" (island)
ballistic brothers - "peckings" (junior boys own)
ras michael/the sons of negus - "on boadway" (grounation)
winston francis - "mr. fix it" (studio 1)
u-boy - "jah jah call you" (ras)
tappa zukie - "pick up the rockers" (virgin)
i-roy - "sister maggie breast" (v2)
frankie paul - "pass the tu-sheng peng" (greensleeves)
burning spear - "jah no dead" (mango)

i can only hope that this brings you as much joy as it has to me through the years. download it, savour it, and then blow your friends away at your next late night bbq ...

b52s - rock lobster (mp3)

another best foot forward favourite, and what must be one of the greatest pop singles of all time (wow, even rolling stone agrees!). shame on me, but i first stumbled on this whilst collecting tracks mentioned in simon reynold's gripping rip it up and start again and was blown away by these 7 minutes of random rambling, love-shacking, post-punking new-wave perfection.

dabrye feat. wildchild - the stand (mp3)

antonio adolfo - cascavel (mp3)

tyrone washington - submission (mp3)

umod - tromboline (mp3)

john martyn - i don't want to know (mp3)

it's official, after two and a half years, september 6th will be the last ever hear no evil at common. the monkey will be no more, as he has decided to pack his bags and move back to south america to hunt for a mate. it is a shame, however, all good things (and some rubbish things) must come to an end. so, i thought i would mark the occasion with a mammoth style blog featuring some hear no evil classic spins.

kicking things off is the probably the most-played dabrye record at common ever! "the stand" is the opening to dabrye's seminal second album "two/three", highlighting how much hip-hop had starting regurgatating itself, as well as acting as a wake-up call for hip-hop producers that it could still evolve. i remember when i bought the album, there was a sticker on the front with a quote that read: "when dabrye is this far ahead of the game, he can afford to take his time..."
how true this is.

the second nugget is a brazilian jazz dance classic from antonio adolfo. taken from the lp "vira lata" and recently featured on gilles peterson's second brazil compilation, this tune is pure magic.

the third in this little selection is another one of those 'ryan tunes' that people either love, or completely hate (i.e. jonny volume). tyrone washington's much sampled "submission" is taken from the "roots" lp and is in my all time favourites list, without a doubt. i played this last year at d-percussion. seeing so many people going mental over a tune like this late at night under a railway arch was one of the best moments of my life.

following that is by bedford main man, dominic stanton, under his umod guise. domu (as he is most commonly known) knocked this project together in next to no time, with the whole album (entitled "enter the umod") allegedly being completed in a week! top stuff from one of the uk's finest electronic music producers and a real treat for the club too!

coming in last, but by no means least, is a stone cold classic from surrey-born blues/folk/blue-eyed soul singer-songwriter john martyn. this is such a beautiful record that it is hard to describe in words, starting off soft and sweet and ended up stomping and heartfelt. i have a feeling this may be the final track played at hear no evil.

the monkey is dead. long live the monkey.

francine mcgee - feelin' good (mp3)

due to a move abroad, i am currently in the process of burning all my records to mp3. to say this is a pain in the arse, would be somewhat of an understatement, so if anyone can thing of a way of magically changing all my records into mp3's, it would be very, very much appreciated...

anyway, to keep things ticking over, here's a classic disco track from 1978 by francine mcgee. total dancefloor dynamite that i am pretty sure has been re-edited of late - no idea why though, it's good enough as it is...

the ting tings - that's not my name (mp3)

whilst foraging through your rss feeds or rummaging through your well worn bookmarks you may well have seen this on other mp3 blogs of late. however, i felt compelled to let the unbridled joy of this little ditty into our summer of rain and despair. the sun has been picked on and blamed for all this global warming business, and if it would only stop hiding away in it's cantankerous mood and get down and dirty to this five minutes of pop brilliance we could all be a little less pale and an awful lot happier. some may (in fact i might as well go ahead and do it myself) christen this tony basil's 'hey mickey' getting lyrical tips from the beautiful south's 'song for whoever' ... hmmm, yeah, i guess that works!

check out more brilliance from the lovely manchester label switchflicker or feel free to drool over more pictures of the lovely katie over at the ting tings' myspace.

onion display - norzin wangdu (mp3)

was just digging through some old records this morning and i stumbled across a sunday best compilation album from 1998. one of my favourite tracks on the album has always been 'norzin wangdu' by onion display. i hadn't listened to this in absolutely ages, so as i whacked it on this morning, i was intrigued to who wrote it. on closer inspection, it turns out it was wrote by two of our previous guests, mr leo elstob (a mountain of one) and mr phil mison (cantoma)...

you learn something new every day...

breakwater - release the beast (mp3)

the yellow moon band - chimney (mp3)

well thanks to all who came down to saturday's rock special, props are due to mr christopher "stevo" stephenson stevenson for the original guitar-led concept and mr daniel "danny" webb for keeping the place rocking whilst myself and mark got a little worse for wear. of course, we're consummate professionals and take our saturday night responsibilities very seriously, but had become a little salubrious after partaking in a few afternoon tipples whilst out on our dpercussion expedition ...

anyways, back to the matter at hand, which i believe was rocking out - here's two tracks that seemed to go down in a quite perfect storm - first up was breakwater's 'release the beast', or more popularly known as "oh, it's that robot rock with different words innit?". next is one of my current favourites, from tunng labelmates the yellow moon band - harmonising guitars, tingling chorus lines, air-punching fills and a full-on outro solo that screams louder than a back-combed mullet.

i think i recall someone playing a record called 'me fans are stupid pigs', but that may well be a figment of my imagination. oh and in the haze, i lost my wallet over the weekend, please get in touch if you see it, it's the one that says "bad motherfucker" on it ...

edwin birdsong - cola bottle baby (mp3)

so it's the day after, d-percussion is no more, and i can look forward to a good night's sleep.

but i must say a huge thank you to kev and mark from this very blog for doing a sterling job during the afternoon, despite their 'bizarre' (ahem) set time! it is a terrible shame, however, that those two missed a set which would've completely blown their socks off. quite literally.

we picked up tadd mullinix (dabrye/ james t. cotton/ sk-1 etc), who as all of you know is a huge hero of mine, from the airport and brought him down to the festival. what he did next was literally astonishing. having just stepped off a plane, having no knowledge of what we do/ are in to or the vibe of the stage, he proceeded to play the best set i've ever seen at d-percussion.

his first tune was the very selection for this post, 'cola bottle baby' by edwin birdsong, which most of you may recognise for being the sample to daft punk's, 'harder, better, stronger, faster'.

the place went nuts.

he then went onto the play almost an hour of the finest disco, boogie, new wave and italo that i've ever heard. he's a lovely guy, and he will be coming back.

finally, i've gotta credit eleanor marechal for the cracking photos she took of everyone at the sketch city stage (including the corker above).

here's to next year. oh..wait...

venus gang - love to fly (mp3)

most of our manchester based readers should know that it's the wonderful d-percussion festival over the weekend - the last one ever apparently...

anyway, our good friend and occasional bff contributor, mr ryan hunn, has invited the bff dj team (me and kev) to play down on the sketch city stage. so from 16.10 - 16.55 (bizarre time slot i know - it's that ryan character, he's a bit zany) we shall be digging deep into into our musical vaults, for what will hopefully be a very sunny and enjoyable saturday...

to give you an indicator of which way i'm going to be going, i have had a rummage this morning and decided that 'love to fly' by venus gang could well be my first record of the day (it's all about sub 5 minute tracks, seeing as though kev has put a strict ruling on me playing no 15 minute cosmic jams). for you more observant readers, you will probably recognise said track from a previous venus gang related post. released on the galactic soul album in 1978, 'come to fly' is a deadly weapon, a total cosmic funk bomb...

hope to see y'all down there...

arthur russell - springfield (mp3)

drunk and with a brew to hand, is there really a better recipe for blog magic?

of late i've been at the mercy of several obsessions. there's every bank manager's wet dream that is gemm, the why-on-earth-hasn't-anyone-forced-me-to-listen-to-these-before stereolab, something super secret and this man.

i know kev's posted a couple of things that arthur russell's been involved in before but i thought it was about time something solely by the man himself was aired on the beef blog.

taken from some of his last sessions before his death in 1992, despite dfa's involvement in the remix and the release of the same name, springfield is simply stunning with mr russell being responsible for everything except the peter zummo supplied trombone and, for me at least, is a really nice way into the likes of his more sedate 'another thought' and 'world of echo': why oh why didn't i take up the cello in the school orchestra?

possibly the best record with a tractor on the cover (although suggestions for other contenders for this particular crown are more than welcome) and also a more than tenuous reference from us here at the beef blog to the less-than-disappointing simpsons movie.

yam yam - bahama mama (mp3)

having toyed with the idea of going to the big chill for the best part of this year, unfortunatley, my lack of cash means i shall be staying put in manchester...

however, with both of my wonderful flat mates pre planning/packing this evening, i have had to deal with the highs and lows of pre festival fever. flatmate #1 has been on the verge of a breakdown due to a severe lack of communication with his local dealer. in contrast, flatmate #2 has been in a high state of euphoria due to the recent purchase of his 'party truck' (a glorified wheel barrow to me and you).so, to say it's been an emotional evening would be an understatement...

as an ode to the big chill (and my sadness of missing it), i'm posting a track that brings back fond memories from the last time i was there. 'bahama mama' by yam yam is a cheerful little jingle which pays tribute to a fruity little summer cocktail, that should be drank (in very large quantities) at somewhere maybe...errmmm...like the big chill...

fingers crossed for some sunshine folks...

valery allington - stop (vocal soul version) (mp3)

after another few days of bandwidth trouble, i thought i would get the ball rolling again with a top notch soul/boogie record from the early 80's...

'stop (vocal soul version)' was released in holland in 1982, and optimises the italo boogie sound of that era. available through the influential high fashion record label, this is a bit of a bugger of a record to pick up. apparently the 12" is more sought after for the 'instrumental electronic version' on the flip side, but in my humble opinion the 'soul' version is the only one worth bothering with. enjoy...