LDN EVENT: Noise/Cult Films matinee, 14th July

John Eden and Limazulu present a cult matinee double bill: A NOISY DELIVERY: A film by GX Jupitter-Larsen (London Premiere) WITCHES: The Psychotronic Voodoo Sound of Hacker Farm & Libbe Matz Gang (World Premiere) 3pm, Sunday 14th July 2013 Limazulu Project Space: Unit 3J, Omega Works, 167 Hermitage Road, London N4 1LZ Free/Donation Two cult …

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LIBBE MATZ GANG SELL OUT

Who says the music biz is dieing? Give the kids what they want and you can’t go wrong! All my copies of Libbe Matz Gang’s soon to be legendary “The First LMG EP” sold out within 24 hours. Please order direct from the good people at Libertatia Overseas Trading to avoid disappointment. Soon! Yesterday’s post …

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London Bashment 2011 – an old git writes

Madd Raff was a blast the other night. It was an absolute pleasure to play an eighties revival set with Cool Hand Luke, alongside Benjamin Heatwave on mic duties. The venue was a little basement bar off Great Portland Street, very close to my first ever DJ gigs at the students’ union of the Polytechnic …

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AGIT DISCO MIX AND LAUNCH PARTY

Agit Disco has just been published by Mute Books, compiled by Stefan Szczelkun, edited by Anthony Iles  The launch takes place on 8th December 2011, 6.30pm – 9.00pm at The Showroom, 63 Penfold Street, London, NW8 8PQ. ‘Agit Disco collects the playlists of its 23 writers to tell the story of how music has politically influenced and inspired …

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2011 London Riot Songs (Reggae roundup)

UK reggae has seemed increasingly detached from current affairs in recent years, but anyone who’s checked my eighties mixes will know it hasn’t always been this way. I guess the focus has moved to a more international market which means the particularities of life in specific areas of London or Birmingham don’t get a look …

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Tottenham notes

There’s too much happening to make much sense of it all right now.  I’ll try to write about Hackney soon. I mentioned the death of Mark Duggan, shot by police in Tottenham, in my last post. Thursday There have been mixed reports about the circumstances of his death. Rumours circulated that Duggan was shot whilst …

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Bars For Change: who polices the police?

I wrote quite a lot about UK policing earlier in the year in relation to the failure of policing (at best) that lead to the death of Smiley Culture. News about that case was always going to ebb and flow, not least because it is now in the bureaucratic hands of the Independent Police Complaints …

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Pauline Black and “2-Tone London” at Housmans

This just in from Nik at Housmans – sounds good, but I’m not too sure about the claim that Pauline was “the only woman in a movement dominated by men”. What about The Bodysnatchers, an all-girl band on the Two Tone label? The group included Rhoda Dakar, whose harrowing solo-single “The Boiler” I’ve written about …

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Ty on Smiley Culture’s significance

A great interview with UK hip hop artist Ty on what Smiley Culture and soundsystems like Saxon and Coxsone Outernational meant to him when growing up in South London: Ty and Roots Manuva (featured on Soul Jazz and The Heatwave’s essential “An England Story” compilation):