Achtung!

One of London’s best bashment nights is stepping it up a gear: Hot Wuk, run by The Heatwave empire. This Thursday (tomorrow) is an extra special dance with Rinse FM’s Oneman and longtime selector Irish Mash longside the reggae-lars. Are u gunna pay doe? Nah, free entry brothers and sisters. Are u gunna  bubble doe? Well Oneman’s on a ragga tip. Are u gunna keep wanting to read this post if I carry on with this funky Q&A ting doe? It’s unlikely.

So here’s a likkle Oneman taster to download: Bish bash bosh

Or listen over at our friends Mixcloud.

But trust me, The Heatwave kartel has X amount of special guests lined up for the new year as well. Hot Wuk is not one to watch, it’s one to reach!

Posted by Mosca

Dem A Shellfish

So far at Bruk we’ve been fairly neutral over the Gully/Gaza debate/all out war. Faced with Mavado or Vybz Kartel we just choose Busy Signal. But levels are high this month in the land of bashment, and we’re calling it a one-all draw here.

First up Vado’s War Is In The Air (topical see), another Gully God chilling intro into a choppy Jeep banger, some Godfather melodies with Mr Brooks’ “rifle singing sweeter than Akon.” Out to DJ Frass pon buttons.

Kartel comes correct with Mi Lovin It on DJ Karim’s Duffle Bag Riddim. This one a laser shoot out with some sweet dub-techno synth washes, 808 snare rolls and string stabs. Download both full riddim packs at JamWorld876.

And to settle things, this weeks contribution from Busy. Not even going to start to describe this one, but trust me it’s one part bashy to two parts hiphop and all parts future classic.

Move to di sister, twit her
WO
Wuk her hard, twist her like a twister
OH
Saturday di end a di week, gyal gimme a threesome
Mi whup dem til dem cyaan even speak
YO

Bottled it

Mosca posted the instrumental from Vic D’s Drink it Out the Bottle a while back and i decided to use a sick day to chuck  a likkle vocal megamix over it with vocals from Sizzla, Vybz Kartel, Demarco, Baby Cham and Natasha. Cop it below.

Unknown Soulja – Drink it out the Bottle Refix

Foundations

Renowned Bristol vinyl collector,  label  owner and producer Peverelist has launched a new record label called Unearthed to release remastered tunes from the Bristol sound-system scene of the early 90s. The first release comes from foundational Bristol headz Smith & Mighty with the rerelease of U Dub and Bass is Maternal.

While it’s interesting to see the early interplay between the digi-dub sound pallette and hardcore breaks the tunes themselves are a bit of a let down; U Dub has quite a nice rolling vibe to it but the release still serves as more of a history lesson than a vital opportunity to get hold of a tune I’ve been gagging to play out.

Speaking of the early connection between dub and techno and sound system  re-releases this seems like an opportune time to ask what’s happened to Basic Replay? Run by Ernestus and Moritz from Basic Channel the label was always scarily on point with its selection and beautiful remastering of early digi-dancehall releases from established names such as Gregory Isaacs and lesser known artists such as White Mice and Tenastelin. It hasnt had a release now since 2006 but I still hope (in vain?) that there are more to come.

Here’s a couple of favourites from the label’s back catalogue – most of which can still be grabbed on vinyl or CD here.

Finally a little gift from me, 320 vinyl rips of two of my favourite steppers tunes from Mafia & Fluxy and The Dubateers.

Yard Dub – The Dubateers ft Creation Stepper

Johnny Clarke – Every Knee Shall Bow (Mafia & Fluxy 4-4 High Steppers Version)

Put Your Ass on My Face…

It took us some time to find out that the dancefloor banger which we had been caning on our white label copy of Funky Must Haves 2 was in fact Klambu by the Bassjackers. But a little research following this discovery revealed that the the Dutch boys had come correct again with an upful remix of ghetto house favourite Wiggle Wiggle. Whilst it lacks the same sparse, infectious groove which made Klumbu so exciting it makes nice use of slightly dubbed out rave chords and chops the vocal to good effect. Its not one for those reflective night bus moments but you know its gonna help you tear down a dance so use it wisely.

The Outhere Brothers – Wiggle Wiggle (Bassjackers Remix)

Best Served Cosmically

Mr Bok Bok introduced us to Cosmic Revenge a few months back during our Carnival special for Sub FM (download here) when he played the woozy, saccharine, chopped and screwed madness that is Late Nights. The tune has since had a release (cop here) and with another release scheduled for Rivers of Diamonds (pon the myspace), Cosmic Revenge certainly seems to be one to watch.

He sent Bruk this exclusive a little while back so go ahead and grab it while you’re still ahead of the curve.

Cosmic Revenge – Rude

 

Gun To Your ‘Ead Like a Mobile Phone

Shizzle always had a special place in my heart back in dem days.

I liked his version of  Straight best, loved his bars on Pull up Dat and would happily sing along with his version of the Pum Pum riddim on the tube.  But then in 2006 he kinda went missing and I stopped hearing vocals from him…

All due to the wonder of  Twitter I recently found out Shizzle is working with Dexplicit again for tunes on Dex’s forthcoming album, Digikinesis (which drops next monday).

He’s blessed us with a few new tracks on a grime and dancehall tip. Download and batter accordingly.

Shizzle – Bed Spread

Shizzle – The Greatest

King of the Lizards

XLR8R seriously aren’t ramping with their podcast series at the moment with mixes from Wireblock, Roska, The Heatwave and Untold all dropping in recent weeks. Last week saw them post up a new mix from man like Douster a producer and DJ from Bruk’s Lyon fam-lee that has been making serious moves of late.

Tropical is a word that is being bandied around a lot at the moment but, syncopated soca-esque rhythyms aside, it often seems to bare little relevance to the music it is used to describe. That said this mix seems to genuinely capture a taste of the tropics with Douster blending rolling Cumbia and frenetic Dancehall remixes, mashing up sticky synths and hypnotic tribal drums – Punani even has some woozy Egyptian ting going on.

But Douster’s ahead of the game and has already moved away from this tropical label preferring to go with ‘prehistoric’, an aesthetic carried through in the title of his new ep – Triassic Genesis on ZZK (cop here) and the (Busy Signal sampling) title track’s accompanying video. Whatever he wants to call it the groove he manages to create from such sparse elements is definitely effective. Gwaan son.

Anyway grab his version of the remixers’ favourite Da Style Deh below and use it to kill dances dead.

Busy Signal – Da style deh (Douster Dagga remix)

Ego (Minus Beyonce)

Mixed reviews on this one: Kanye West as himself in a short film directed by Spike Jonze. They teamed up for Kanye’s Flashing Lights video (on a shovel tip), but this is a full 11 minutes long and perhaps a likkle more typically Jonze than a ’simple’ music video. Sit back and prepare yourselves for mini swords, leopardskin pillows and pissing off the bouncers.

Six Feet Deep

Too much daftness recently. I’m feeling some deepness – first up from Demdike Stare, probably Manchester’s finest purveyors of occult  dub-Turkno. Miles Whittaker (aka MLZ aka half of Pendle Coven) and Sean Canty have brewed up a strange broth here – it’s hugely contrived on paper/screen but their mixture of drone, golden age dub, horror soundtracks, steamy jungle drums, middle-eastern strings and all dem ting deh is actually saying quite alot. Parts 1&2 on vinyl sold out muy rápido but you can catch the digital release here still. For a taster I’m gunna drop Trapped Dervish, a short but sweet section of swirling gas, strings and choppy, plucked, perfectly distorted strings. This is gagging for a deep house remix so watch this space…

Demdike Stare – Trapped Dervish

Next tune: some stripped grooves from Quantec off his second full one, Cauldron Subsidence.  I can’t get enough of the twisted synths on this one, starting off dry as a bone then going for a swim in dub lake only to come back and shake off, splashing reverb all over your new creps.

Quantec – Deep Rooted

And for some real nasty deepness, who else am I gunna recommend but Clairvoyants? If u don’t know, well you’re probably too late, but it can’t hurt to check them out still. Shax, Jason H aka Calenda and SBR (Spectral Band Replication) repping the good stuff on their regular 1 while 5 slot Saturday nights/Sunday mornings on big bad Rinse FM. SBR has released a mix of straight techno for October, so listen with your ears, and download with your finger.